# Evening Hunt.



## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Peregrine and Redhead.

Regards, Mike


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## clowers (Feb 11, 2011)

Really cool pic. Duck hunting was not good her in East Texas this year. Too much water.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Nor was it here clowers....too much water in the Northern hinterlands and so most of the ducks never made it this far South. Falconry duck season is open here a couple of more weeks. Getting a few Canvasbacks in the area now.

Regards, Mike


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## clowers (Feb 11, 2011)

Mike,
Questions? Does the falcon Kill the duck? Or, does he herd the ducks to you? Never seen or heard of this kind of duck hunting.
Trying my hand at an Argentina duck hunt this June. Should be a lot of fun.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Typically what happens is the ducks will be flushed off a body of water while the falcon is circling overhead about 700-800 feet above. When he sees the ducks leave the water, he folds his wings and dives reaching speeds of 125+mph....it can be more. He will strike(graze) the duck with his back talons(1 on each foot) which cause the duck to catapult and fall to the ground. The falcon quickly circles and grabs the duck on the ground.....holding it down.

Quite often the falconer will sprint to the duck, throw a piece of raw meat beside the duck and the falcon will then loosen his grip on the duck and the duck can be released if so desired. My son typically releases all the females(except when training a young bird) and only keeps the males, but sometimes he even releases them. I will add a pic of a female Canvasback that we caught and released about 10 days ago.

My son has a really exceptional bird that has had great success. But the average raptor having a successful hunt is about one in five attempts....or a little over 20% success. It is a thrill to see the falcon go into the dive(called a stoop) and reach those speeds and be successful.

He has been very successful training his birds and had some falconers from three different states down this past weekend showing his bird off in demos.

Regards, Mike


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

This first pic is a female Canvasback that was captured about 10 days ago and released.










This pic is a very rare occurrence of the falcon capturing two ducks during one hunt. The falcon dove and knocked the large male Canvasback down and while circling around to pounce on the downed Canvasback a male Redhead duck flew by and he nailed it too. Pretty cool actually.










This last pic is of his falconer acquaintances that visited him last weekend. The guy in the middle is a teaching professor at the University of Tennessee Veterinarian College.










Regards, Mike


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

This is interesting, I only knew it was a current sport as it’s popular in wealthy Arab countries. There was a semi high profile kidnapping a few years ago of some folks travelling to Iraq for a falcon hunt.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

slowzuki said:


> This is interesting, I only knew it was a current sport as it's popular in wealthy Arab countries. There was a semi high profile kidnapping a few years ago of some folks travelling to Iraq for a falcon hunt.


It is also very popular in England....but yes, it is wildly popular in the UAE.

Regards, Mike


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## clowers (Feb 11, 2011)

Thanks Mike for the pictures and information. Beautiful birds, both hunter and prey. I have gotten where I almost enjoy watching ducks work the decoys and land as much as I like shooting them. I bet the falcon in full dive/stoop is a sight to watch. Thanks again Mike.

Scott


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

clowers said:


> Thanks Mike for the pictures and information. Beautiful birds, both hunter and prey. I have gotten where I almost enjoy watching ducks work the decoys and land as much as I like shooting them. I bet the falcon in full dive/stoop is a sight to watch. Thanks again Mike.
> 
> Scott


Agree....that is the really thrilling part of decoying....convincing the birds to circle the decoys.

Regards, Mike


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