A very unusual request.

Being in front of the bass pond i get a few requests every year from hunters wishing to hunt the ponds. I do not hunt , and actually signed a lease stating no hunting on the property. I graciously break the bad news to them when they show and tell them the fact is I am just a very lucky, gracious renter / caretaker who gets to C&R fish them and help keep the trespassing and vandalism down. I do not have anything against hunting either especially when the entire animal is used . Today another one of the google cats found the pond and stopped by with a hunting request........a very different hunting request. Turns out this gentleman hunts with falcons. I was " being a huge bird of prey lover" immediatly like **** ya I want to see a falcon get busy first hand ! Come to find out he has two , the one is already trained for rabbit "TR we need to get him your way if you are down" the other he wants to train for ducks and birds and wants permission to use the ponds to train them . Once again it is totally not up to me but i will pass this request on in hopes the no hunting was only based on the assumed use of fire arms , if so the video cameras gettin the ol dust off! Must admit had to do a search and make sure you could hunt with birds here , looks like its all good with the proper tags.

Yep it is legal although I have never known anyone to do it. That would be very cool to see.

mikeredding said:

Yep it is legal although I have never known anyone to do it. That would be very cool to see.

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Can totally see team polebender and I completely taken in very cool stuff!

give him my number if the owner turns him down, he can come up here and teach him to kill all the coots and rabbits

tomriker said:

give him my number if the owner turns him down, he can come up here and teach him to kill all the coots and rabbits

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I am sure he will be very excited to hear this , the owner here is gone for a few days yet so will have to wait to check on here . He seems like a straight shooter.

If I could train an osprey to hunt carp I'd become a full-fledged falconer in a heartbeat!

There is someone who has posted on this forum that does the falcon hunt deal.... can't thing of there moniker though.

That's cool! I'd love to see a video of a falcon in action.

Just got off the horn with him , he hunts a goshawk for rabbits and is wanting to train a falcon for the ducks he currently hunts some property across from us for the rabbits . Sounds like he would love to make a bunny trip to your place TR but said the duck thing would have to start at least with a much smaller pond . Something about an attack cone, maximum angle ,and gettin the birds to take flight without being able to go forever horizontally to build up speed first . Will defintely have to figure out how to post vids if it works out!

OnTheFly said:

If I could train an osprey to hunt carp I'd become a full-fledged falconer in a heartbeat!

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You ought to get with Keith Stone on that one seems like he had him one of them there ospreys trained to do that! Smoooooooooooooth

Finneus Polebender said:

You ought to get with Keith Stone on that one seems like he had him one of them there ospreys trained to do that! Smoooooooooooooth

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Yeah but that is 'cause he's so smooth!
And it's name is Brian.
Ha love that one.

Would be so cool to see a hunting bird in action I remember when I see this video I had to watched it like 3 times just amazing!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Re644qgnCtw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Wow way cool will watch it at least 3 them eagles are bad ***!

onthefly said:

if i could train an osprey to hunt carp i'd become a full-fledged falconer in a heartbeat!

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x 2! Rotfl!

P.S. It's really cool, to watch a bird of prey's head as they dive bomb. It is completely fixed on the target below--and stays stationary--while it's body does all of the flight manuevers to hit the target.

I think Jim, that this is something you should think about doing someday, perhaps a retirement hobby.

OnTheFly said:

If I could train an osprey to hunt carp I'd become a full-fledged falconer in a heartbeat!

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oh i see, my dad said he doesn't care if he wants to play here, tell him there's coots all over and they are slow/dont fly far/fast idk if that means they would work or not. also my dad was telling me he should train it to chase geese, he thinks farmers would LOVE to have someone come chase the geese off their fields in the winter/spring! those damn geese can really mess up a field

AWesome!!.........I am going to have to go on a Youtube trip and watch birds of prey take care of business. Wonder if thie falcon will skim the pond water for some Sushi? Never a dull moment down there in your neck of the woods FP. Hope your able to get some good video sometime.

tomriker said:

oh i see, my dad said he doesn't care if he wants to play here, tell him there's coots all over and they are slow/dont fly far/fast idk if that means they would work or not. also my dad was telling me he should train it to chase geese, he thinks farmers would LOVE to have someone come chase the geese off their fields in the winter/spring! those damn geese can really mess up a field

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Once the bird learns I told him your place would be heaven . He was just lookin to start small . The gosshawk is already a rabbit machine ..... with just a few bunnies at your place he sounded very excited about that prospect, said rabbits have been a bit thin down here this year. I would think that once the falcon learned as long as it worked them into the smaller coves or arms it could pin them down.

Hendo30 said:

AWesome!!.........I am going to have to go on a Youtube trip and watch birds of prey take care of business. Wonder if thie falcon will skim the pond water for some Sushi? Never a dull moment down there in your neck of the woods FP. Hope your able to get some good video sometime.

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No boredom problems this way!