Different people have different ideas of what dog makes the perfect hunter’s companion. For some it’s the hyper-active Springer, a dog that just doesn’t let up and leaves no bush unturned. For others it’s the new world Labrador, a true gunner’s dog and a specialist retriever and if given a chance can be a good all-round hunter too. Many breeds that have been excellent hunters, finders and retrievers of game have sadly disappeared or become so rare in the field that they no more get a mention in working dog tales; Poodles come to mind, once thought to be the smartest of all working breeds, and the King Charles Spaniel, a small French breed, probably (and this is only my opinion) used in French falconry as the sparrow-hawkers companion. The reason I believe this is not only was this breed, (like so many so called gundogs) in existence long before the invention of the shotgun, but why else have such a small falconry spaniel in the field unless it was for use with sparrow-hawks or maybe with Hobbies or Merlins. Sussex and Clumber spaniels too have slipped by the way-side in the popularity steaks of the hunters four legged pal. Both these spaniel breeds were bred, I believe, to be purposely slow and ponderous for the simple reason that a man can keep up with them in the field, not just any man, but a man with a goshawk on his fist. If you have ever seen a team of Goshawk and fast spaniel work together you will understand the problems involved in keeping up when the brakes just don’t work!

Anyway, other folk prefer the Pointer or Setter, or English Pointer or Setters as they are know both in Ireland and in the UK, but these dogs are originally of French and Spanish origin and should still be in what has come to be known as the Hunt, Point and Retrieve group of dogs. But these two have been bred as total specialists as breeders have concentrated on only the Point aspect of their skills which is a shame. The Europeans though have what is (in my opinion again) the right idea. Most dogs in this group are what it says on the tin; Hunters, Pointers and Retrievers; from German Shorthaired Pointers to Munsterlanders, beautiful Hungarian Vizlas to ghost-like Weimeraners, the bulky Italian Spinones to the strong and elegant pointing Griffons.

Yes, I purposely left the little guy ‘til last; the small hardworking French Brittany Spaniel, or Brittany as it is called now. (the Spaniel was dropped as it is such a good pointer.)

When I was growing up I had my heart set on two things; a good dog and a good hawk. The hawk, as far as I can remember was going to be the old traditional Goshawk, filler of pots and slayer of all things edible. The dog though was either a Hungarian Vizla or a Brittany. Now as I write this, and after flying different Goshawks and owning a Brittany for twelve good years, I reckon it will be the Brittany all the way for me. Never in my life of owning different types of dogs have I had or seen such an easy-going and hard-working dog to spend time with. As a pointer (and I am no expert) I have had my dog on point for three quarters of an hour on pheasant, while my buddy searched and retrieved his Goshawk and returned for a second flight. After flying different hawks and falcons over the year’s at all different types of quarry, I can honestly put my hand on what’s left of my heart and say that there were many, many days that would have been a total blank if it were not for my old Brittany, he found game in the unlikeliest of places and at the least likeliest of times. He made the good days good and if there were really bad days (thankfully these don’t stick in the memory like the good ones) he was never to blame.

Brittanies are small for a pointing breed and will not cover the heather moors like an elegant Pointer or Setter, but for a dog to throw in the car when you are out with a Harris hawk one day, a Spar the next and a companion for that week away with the falcons, a dog that absolutely suits the Irish falconer or rough-shooter, a dog to lie in the garden and keep out of the way until he is needed, my money is on the Brittany.

As I said earlier, every man has his own choice of canine hunting companion and that’s the way it should be. It leads to a life of variety which is always a good thing. Once the sun shines occasionally and we can head for the fields with a dog at our heels life will never be too bad.

Tom

Ps. above photos are my six week old litter, all little characters and all trouble!

“Lamping!”
“You don’t do that, do you?’’

I once sat at a table with some well known British falconers, purists from ‘Ye Olde Scool of Fauconrie’- you know the type, when I happened to mention that my female Redtail was catching rabbits both day and night. I couldn’t believe the reaction it got, ‘It’s unnatural’, ‘hawks shouldn’t fly at night’, ‘that’s not cricket’. Luckily for me nobody was armed, the fact we had just finished a conversation about another traditional past time; adultery, didn’t seem to bother them at all.

Lamping with a hawk does seem to be a controversial subject, it is unnatural, it is definitely not cricket, but it can be very fruitful. The only argument against lamping with hawks that I do agree with is that the flights are not as spectacular as daytime flights. You lose a lot of the excitement of the hunt; the hawk will either catch its prey or return to you for the next try. If you do it for pest control reasons, though, the purists don’t seem to mind as much. So I suppose it’s all right to do it – once you don’t have any fun!

There is a lot to be said in favour of lamping. Most ordinary people have ordinary jobs, so when winter arrives and they have no daylight hours at home, what happens to the birds? You could do as the purists above do and let the birds sit on their perch until the days grow longer, or you could fly them in the evenings with the lamp – which would the bird prefer? When winter arrives, rabbits can be very hard to find, with nights being so long, the few that have survived have no reason to be out and about during the day, they naturally prefer the comfort of darkness. So, unless you use ferrets or have a good hawking dog to flush them from cover, you will be buying a lot of your hawk food. I lamp to feed my motley carnivorous menagerie (that includes the kids) and to keep neighbouring landowners happy, after all they don’t begrudge me the odd pheasant.

A farmer next to me had a visit from another neighbour to overlook his crops, apparently (and I have only discovered this recently) they view each other’s cattle and crops in the same way as pigeon fanciers or falconers like to show off their birds. Anyway, while they were sizing up the crops, the visitor asked why there was so little crop damage and so few rabbits on the farm. He was then told about my nocturnal activities with hawks, dogs and lamp, and how I, on the wettest, wildest winter nights, venture out under cover of darkness to save his crops from the ravaging hoards, arriving home with bags full of rabbits and pigeons and other crop eating vermin. Slight exaggeration on his part, but I didn’t let on. Now the interesting bit, the second farmer asked, if it wasn’t too much trouble, would I come and lamp on his land too!

Weather conditions are very important. Traditionally the lamper was accompanied by a dog and carried out his activities on the blackest, windiest nights, while sane folk barricade themselves indoors in front of the television and a warm fire. There is no point venturing out when there is a large moon as the rabbits will be watching your approach and act accordingly, the same goes for a windless night as you will be heard even before you enter the field. Conditions are only slightly different when using a hawk. Rain, which doesn’t matter to the dog enthusiast, will have your hawk feeling miserable in no time and you will find yourself trudging home through the mud, reaching for the hair dryer to save your bird from pneumonia. If the wind is too high it can be a nuisance to the hawker. A hawk cannot be expected to fly up-wind anywhere near the speed of a running rabbit and as you should not approach directly down wind for obvious reasons, something less than a gale is preferable. One friend, that regularly lamps his goshawk, reckons that when the wind is too strong, if she doesn’t hit the rabbit by the first turn, that’s it, the rabbit is away home.

Redtails, both males and females are commonly flown at rabbits; one particular male was known locally as the ‘stealth bomber’ because all his missions were at night! Goshawks have successfully been flown at rabbit and pigeon, I regularly use my female sparrowhawk to catch feral pigeons in sheep houses and grain stores and the little musket has been used in the same buildings after sparrows. Ferruginous hawks, ignored and underrated by many could easily be put to good use, particularly the males, which are usually overlooked by most people when choosing a hunting bird. As far as I know they are as yet untried at night.

By far the commonest bird used for lamping is the Harris hawk. They take to it so naturally, a couple of nights of additional training, throwing food into the beam and recalling to the fist and you should be ready to go. The female is the better choice for rabbits, not as fast as the smaller male over a short distance, but strong enough to hold every rabbit. Goshawks and redtails will catch rabbits at night and do it with more style and flair than a Harris, but their ‘give it all you got’ attitude, which works so well in the daytime, could lead them into trouble at night. The easy going style of the Harris suits night flying, where the Goshawk or Redtail fly directly at the rabbit, negotiating fencing and barbed wire on the way, the Harris will usually float up, follow the rabbit from above and wait its chance to strike. This is a very effective technique and much safer. The mother of my female is a master at this style of flying. If a rabbit is spotted, she will leave her owner’s fist, disappear from view and won’t enter the beam of light until she hits the rabbit, striking it from above. The only thing the Harris hawk has going against it is those perfect, unbreakable feathers tend to soak up water like a sponge. After a couple of hits or misses when the ground is wet, her tail and wing tips will be soaked and she will tire more quickly.

Another form of lamping I enjoy is catching wood pigeons in the trees. The local farmers usually supply cartridges to shooters to keep pigeons off their crops, so they are delighted. The bird for this job is a male Harris hawk, he is smaller and quicker through the trees and flying up at steep angles, 30 or 40 feet at a time is harder work for the bigger female. When a hawk is used for both rabbits and pigeons they will often refuse rabbits if they hear the easier option noisily leaving the trees, so it is better, if you can, to keep one bird for one job. When in search of pigeons you will need wind, and lots of it, pitch black and gale force are the perfect conditions. When the winds are high the pigeons will roost lower down in the trees. They don’t like to be blown around on the swaying tops and look for a more sheltered spot lower down. The wind will also cover the sound of your approach and if there is light enough to see you, the pigeons will find a safer refuge. When I am planning to fly the male at pigeons I usually put his weight up quite high; this is for a couple of reasons. Unlike day hawking there are no distractions. When he is on the fist all he can see is what is in the beam, and if he misses his quarry all I do is shine the beam on my fist for his return. Another reason for not having him too low is that when he catches a pigeon he could also have a handful of branches as well, if he is too anxious to get a meal he will hang on for dear life. This usually means upside down, 40 foot up a tree, in the middle of a wood, in the middle of the night, in the middle of a gale. Catching pigeons is what he likes to do and during last winter this one bird caught enough food to feed my family and other animals for weeks on end. This is not an exaggeration; I did say lamping could be very fruitful.

The equipment used is fairly simple; it has to be, because if it goes wrong you’re stuck out there in the dark, and if you’ve ever been lost in the countryside without even the lights of a distant house as a landmark you know how dark dark can get. You could do what I once done, and walk for over an hour in the wrong direction! The lamp is a 12v lamp with full and dipped beams, the dip being used for general walking and to recall the bird to the glove. The battery is a small 12v dry cell like a house alarm battery. The dry cell fits into a small bag held on the belt and leaves room to carry a small rucksack for quarry.

Telemetry is a must, but bells can be a hindrance. Pigeons often fly just before a hawk reaches them, but this happens too often if the hawk is wearing bells. Rabbits too can hear them coming and turn at the last second. My Harris’s wear a second, very small anklet above the normal anklet on one leg; the bell is attached to this with a small cable tie and can be clipped off for lamping or replaced for daytime hawking. At night kills are usually made in sight of the falconer so it’s not a big deal to fly without bells. Telemetry is a different story, if a hawk is on a kill at night and you can’t find her, she could be in trouble. A fox won’t miss many fresh kills and if your hawk happens to be standing on it, well you can imagine the rest. Foxes can also be a danger when your hawk catches a rabbit, as they know well the squealing of a rabbit in trouble and usually come running to administer the coup de grace, a spotlight won’t deter a fox about to grab his dinner.

Some people still believe that the beam of light dazzles the rabbits and you can just pick them up. These people always refuse an invitation to see for themselves, I think they are afraid to get their waxed jackets wet. A night out with a hawk and lamp can be very enjoyable – to watch the hawk as he tries to out-manoeuvre a rabbit. They know when to run and when to hide, where they’re heading for and how to use every obstacle and piece of cover on the way.

My favourite lamping story was told by a friend from the midlands, a well-known area for hunting, where wives sit patiently knitting and waiting for their beloved to return from the field. On this particular night our hero left his cottage and braved the freezing elements, fought the bitter winds and made his way to the leeward side of the hill, where the rabbits would be feeding, getting some shelter from the biting winds. After catching two or three rabbits he was returning home past what could only be described as mid-way between a pond and a swamp. A magpie, disturbed either by the cold or the crunching footsteps below, started to chatter and the brave little Harris took off in pursuit. On goes the beam just in time to illuminate the hawk catching the magpie and both falling to the ground, well they never got to the ground because they ended up in the middle of the frozen pond/swamp, on thin ice. What to do? Never one to lose his head this falconer spied a branch lying across the quagmire and decided to tiptoe out far enough to reach the hawk. As you have probably guessed, the branch broke and he found himself up to the knees in frozen water. Undaunted, he spied a much bigger and sturdier branch growing from the opposite bank, if he could belly crawl, with lamp in one hand, out far enough, he just might be able to reach his hawk. This big branch growing out across the pond had given up growing years before, and with an almighty crack deposited our hero, complete with hawking bag, lamp and battery, up to his neck in freezing cold water. This did not have a positive effect on the battery, and as he plunged into the swamp, he was also plunged into complete darkness. He felt around in the water, found his hawk (which was also drenched and frozen but still clinging to the magpie), dragged himself out of the water and trudged the remaining miles home. He told me this story over the phone, and his parting words were -

“and the women think we’re out enjoying ourselves!”

So as you can see, lamping might not be the ideal way to fly your hawk, but which would you choose? Do as the purists would have us do and leave the bird to stagnate on a perch, waiting for longer days, or charge up your battery?

Tommy Byrne. 2001

‘Hello, my name is …………, I want to get into falconry and I was half thinking of getting a …….

(in this space put anything from a bat falcon to a lammergeyer), but, the only birds available seem to be redtails and harris’s. Are these good beginners birds?’

This type of phone call is getting more common (which is OK by me), but before giving my usual answer of yes and no, I’ll try to explain.

The following is written for those contemplating their first Redtail or Harris Hawk.

These two have become the most popular hunting birds in Ireland today and have largely replaced the more traditional goshawk for a few good reasons:

1. They are easier to breed in captivity than goshawks (eunuchs are probably easier to breed than goshawks and tend not to eat their partner).
2. The quantity and quality of handling at the start, to properly man or tame the bird is not so intense with a Harris or redtail. They are very calm and relaxed compared to goshawks and spars.
3. They suit most people’s modern lifestyle and don’t have to be flown every day, although obviously the more hunting the bird does the better the bird will be.
4. Harris’s and Redtails can be flown and hunted over any type of terrain available in Ireland.
   Like the goshawk and sparrowhawk and unlike the common buzzard (which was the traditional British bird for the beginner) the Harris and Redtail will catch things, edible things, game for the kitchen.
5. Rabbits, pheasants, partridge, grey squirrel, ducks and moorhens are some of the tasty items on the menu for these two hawks.
6. These two species are opportunists, you go hunting but you don’t know what’s going to end up in the bag at the end of the day. (I’ve recently seen my old female Harris dive like an osprey from thirty feet or more into a deep pond after what I presume was a frog).

If you want to fly a sparrowhawk or goshawk don’t get a Harris or Redtail as a stepping stone, a bird to make your mistakes with and then pass on to some poor unfortunate. If you want a Gos, get a Gos, if you want a spar, get a spar, (be very careful here with weight control and diet). The enthusiasm of a serious beginner for his or her first bird should not be wasted on a bird they are not going to keep. Young Harris’s and Redtails are not very fast to mature, lack the size and weight of the adult and so are rarely at their best in the first year. In other words they only get better and better.

Let’s take for granted you are going to choose one of these two species and keep it forever or until one of you expires.

Redtails.

This species is orientated mostly towards ground quarry. The braver females can take hares, but don’t count on it; the Irish hare is no sissy. Both sexes will take squirrel (not everyone’s first choice for main course). Both will take pheasant and other birds if they spot them on the ground, but in Ireland this species really excels at rabbits. The females will usually hold every rabbit they come in contact with, but being bigger won’t be as quick off the mark as the smaller male. The male won’t hold every rabbit it hits, but if you are going ‘rough shooting’ with the chance of the odd rabbit, pheasant, squirrel or moorhen then the male may be the more exciting option.

Redtails are said to have two bad faults, being moody and being footy. The so-called ‘moodiness’ (sitting up a tree and refusing to come down) usually comes after a failed attempt at quarry. A Redtail in the wild may sit for hours on a tree or post waiting for some creature to pass below, it will then dive down and try catch it, and if it fails goes back up on the post to wait for it’s next victim. So you can see where they get the patience. Good initial training and giving large rewards after each failed attempt will keep this problem to a minimum. The other problem is ‘footiness’ or striking out at your ungloved hand. This is something you definitely want to avoid, as the Redtail, so the experts tell us and I agree, has a stronger grip for its size than any other bird. A lot of the time this problem arises from food association, the bird is tit-bitted from the right hand or it sees food being passed to the glove. In other words don’t let the ungloved right hand be associated in the bird’s brain with food.

Most Americans choose the Redtail as their first bird, their only other choice is the kestrel (which can be trained to hunt starlings and other small birds, but won’t fill your larder). They have to trap their own ‘passage’ bird – a bird strong on the wing and killing for itself. The bird’s next stage is to be tamed by man, one of its only enemies. These passage birds always carry a slight fear or respect for man, aviary-bred eyasses have never had this initial fear. So the American’s tame their already hunting hawk, whereas we try to teach our tame hawk to hunt.
What you are trying to achieve with your aviary-bred Redtail is:
1.Reduce her (or his) weight as quickly as possible to get her trained and killing for herself and to stop looking to you for food.
2. Reduce her weight as slowly as possible to avoid sudden hunger, sustained hunger can bring on bad habits. So you can see, as with any other hawk, it’s a fine balancing act.

Flying Redtails is an under-rated past-time. They have a bigger heart and crash into cover that would deter most other raptors, when they go for it they really give all they have. Some of my best memories have been with my female, hunting rabbits on the mountains of Wicklow, with the dog working below us on a bright and bitter winter’s morning.
I was once quoted as saying ‘flying Redtails is like puberty, everyone has to go through it’. I don’t believe that anymore.

Harris hawks.

Named by Audubon after one of his cronies, also called the bay-winged hawk, this hawk has picked up a few other names along the way, like ‘Mexican chicken’. The Harris is taking over as Ireland’s most popular falconry bird. It can be the nicest of birds – I have a photograph of my three year old daughter sharing a bow perch and hugging my female Harris (don’t try this at home folks, you’ll get chocolate all over your hawk). It can also be the nastiest of birds – a friend has a nice little scar under his eye after a Harris hawk took a definite dislike to him.

The one thing the Harris has in its favour is the fact that in the wild they hunt in a pack. Now, this is no small thing, it not only means that you can fly two or more Harris’s together, it also means that you are viewed as a member of the pack as is the ferret and dog (be careful here and socialise all together first). It also means that the Harris naturally follows when you’re walking (to keep up with the pack), where the Redtail (usually a solitary hunter) needs a little bit of training to do this.

Most people that put Harris Hawks down (usually those that haven’t flown one), say they only fly half-heartedly at quarry. There are two reasons why it might seem to be so. With a well trained Harris hawk there is a big difference between its actual hunting weight and its top safe flying weight (up to 12% in my two birds). So the Harris that looks as if it’s putting every effort into catching, only to refuse easily taken prey is usually a bit high in weight and doesn’t want the struggle all on it’s own – if this was a pack situation it would have all the help it needed. So weight control needs careful attention if you want to catch dinner. The other reason Harris’s fly half-heartedly is a simple but effective hunting technique, soaring away, minding her own business, (impersonating a vegetarian), then suddenly performing a spectacular wing-over and diving on some unsuspecting prey.

Like most other creatures that hunt in a pack, Harris Hawks are vocal, from near silent to downright noisy, so the age to take your Harris can be a problem. Cut a very young bird’s weight too low too quick and you could have a screamer on your hands, (a noise that can drive you over the edge), leave it in the aviary too long and you will definitely have your work cut out just to tame the beast. Some breeders leave young with parents until November, twenty five to thirty weeks old. No thanks!

Tom and Jennifer Coulson, who hunt a pack of Harris’s say that 15 to 20 weeks old is the perfect age. Martin Hollinshead says very soon after hard penning (all feathers fully grown). My female was taken at this latter stage, was noisy for her first season (which I had to cut short to save my sanity), she is the sweetest bird to handle and quietly vocal only if anything strange is about.

Female Harris hawks are powerful enough to handle any rabbit or pheasant, but in woodland the smaller faster male really shines. Where he might refuse that big fat rabbit sitting in the sunshine, a Harris can’t ignore anything moving about in cover. Some of the best fun I’ve had is in mature woodland with the male and female in the trees waiting for the Brittany to go on point, after the flush it is pure chaotic fun!

Harris hawks at the right weight are lions in lamb’s clothing, my male and female have both taken cats, something to avoid for the birds’ sake. I know of two instances where females have struck large dogs; assault with intent.

So as you can see, Redtails and Harris Hawks are a force to be reckoned with, but are they a good beginner’s bird?
Well…….. … yes and no!

Tommy Byrne 1998.