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‘Floppy’ (named by my 3yr old son) a 12 day old Finnish Tiercel goshawk
was picked up from Mick Kane on the 5th June ’05. He was to
be my first imprint as well as the first Tiercel Gos to be flown myself.
At about seven weeks or
so after a short course on dead magpies he was introduced to the real
thing. Magpies were his primary quarry during these formative weeks,
whilst the young hawk built up muscle and developed his flying skills.
In September he was
introduced to Partridge which had been put down as 14wk poults in the
middle of august. Like most hawks he loves flying these, and was soon
proving exceptionally deadly, luckily we had enough birds to find
suitable points and slips most evenings.
Before long we were
finding pheasants, these were flown and killed with a similar enthusiasm
to the partridge.
At penning he weighed
in at 1lb 14 ounces, during the hot months of July and August this was
reduced to a low of 1lb 11 ˝ ounces a steady rise through out the
season saw him peak at his original penning weight of 1lb 14oz during
the cold spell over the Christmas holidays.
He was at his most
stunning when flying partridge, normally not more than a few feet from
the ground with his wing beats reflecting total commitment as he pursued
the quarry, changing direction slightly to compensate in any change by
his quarry or to overcome the terrain. Both hen and cock pheasant were
taken although on occasions he did refuse cock birds although this was
put down to returning to the fray in November on fit cock birds after a
3week lay off and getting beaten a few times. Come December he flew and
killed both with equal determination.
He was flown at several
field meets in the company often of a large field and strange dogs, his
performance at meets was always faultless never putting in a substandard
performance. In fact he often saved his best flights for such days.
In late October we were
at Brancepeth field meet organized by the NE region of the B.F.C After
an earlier unsuccessful flight at Partridge our turn to slip came again
within an enormous stubble field. Working my young G.S.P in a thin
grassy strip on a back wind she soon locked on point. A Red leg
partridge was flushed which turned into the wind which was blowing close
to gale force and set out across the stubble. The Gos pumped hard not
missing a wing beat before pulling the partridge down after a flight of
some 3 – 400 yards.
During the Xmas break
he was flown on 3 meets at Ragley hall. Over the course of these 3 meets
he had 7 slips at pheasant all in very open ground a long way from
cover, he caught 7 from 7. One flight in particular stands out, with a
point in a field of young rape a hen bird is flushed about 20 yards in
front of the bird the hen pheasant feeling the pressure from the Gos
instead of trying to bale out goes up very high, the Gos though stays
close to the ground tracking the pheasant. After about 600yds the
pheasant goes up and over a large copse whilst the Gos powers straight
through taking the pheasant on the other side as it attempts to swing
back in.
Due to family
circumstances his season was ended prematurely at the beginning of
January, he also missed a 3 week spell in November when he was rested
after striking a fence. His tally for the season was 113 head broken
down as follows.
20 Magpie
23 Partridge
3 Pigeon
1 Teal
1 Mallard
2 Rabbit
1 Moorhen
62 Pheasant
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