Club member for? One year.

Years in falconry? Two years and currently working full time on bird control on land fill sites.

Birds kept? Male Harris Hawk, male Gyr/saker, female Pere/Barbery/Gyr.

Dogs used? No dog as yet.

Ferrets, love them or hate them? Love them, I have two gills!

Other field sports involved in? No other field sports.

Vehicle used for falconry. Honda CRV.

Next club meeting 15th December

The club will be holding the annual Christmas auction to raise funds for the club. Please bring along any items that you would like to sell to raise funds.

For those items which you wish to keep a certain amount of money for, you can, by placing a reserve and donating everything the item makes above the reserve price that you have set.

Don’t forget that the items for sale can be falconry related or any item that you think will sell.

How are member’s birds going this season?

Ashley Barnes male Goshawk is going well, taking Mallard. Pheasant, Partridge and Rabbit. This bird is putting in some strong and lengthy chases.

Steve Forrest’s female Goshawk is taking Pheasants this year and has also taken hare and is going from strength to strength.

Paul Grays female Harris Hawk is now taking rabbits consistently as is Richard Murdoch’s female Harris.

Chris Grays male Redtail is now taking multiple kills on rabbits and if you haven’t heard already has taken the biggest hare ever.

Sheryl Bunjaku is now flying her female Harris hawk free and is hoping to enter her soon.

My own female Harris hawk  is improving each season. This season she has learnt lamping and has taken a large number of rabbits, moorhen and Pheasant.

Club Meeting dates for 2010

January 19^th,February 16^th, March 16^th, April 20^th, May18th, June 15^th, July20th, August 17^th, September 21^st, October19th, November 16^th, December 21^st.

Easy way to remember is, it is the Third Tuesday of every month.

Meet 4th November

On the 4th November, Steve Forrest and I had a meet on club land at Chievely. We were both flying Goshawks.

This piece of land which is split in the middle by the A34 had previously held pheasants, rabbits and the last time I went two years ago plenty of hares.

For our day game was very thin on the ground. We did see a handful of pheasants but due to lack of cover on the ground they were unapproachable.

Likewise hares were noticeable in their absence. Apparently there had been some illegal hare coursing in recent months.

So rabbits it was. We started by a walk around on two fields on the other side of the road when my GWP pointed a rabbit in the hedge. It flushed and went through the hedge, the footpath and the next hedge with Steve’s hawk in hot pursuit. Steve was off and called me to say his hawk had caught 250 yards away in the next field. A fantastic flight considering it had battled through two hedges to get it.

I flew a rabbit next flushed from a hedgerow but was unlucky not to catch (the story of my day).

We the moved back over the road to do some ferreting. We had some excellent sport from the hedgerows again with Steve’s bird having another rabbit and mine hitting two but failing to hold.

Total bag two rabbits

Meet 21st November

Paul Gray had arranged a meet on a new piece of club ground at Chilworth near Guildford. This consisted of 20 acres. Two fields of pasture put out to horses.

Present were Paul, Richard Murdoch, Chris Gray, Dave Murray and myself plus three Harris Hawks, a Redtail and three ferrets.

There were plenty of rabbits there. One big bank consisting of a huge warren which required three ferrets to get rabbits to flush.

We had plenty of flights but they were quite awkward. If you stood at the top of the bank they flushed at the bottom, and if you stood at the bottom they flushed over the top. With trees in the middle it was difficult for the birds to see the rabbits bolt.

How ever Richards Harris had an excellent catch after a lengthy flight from this bank. My own bird managed to catch two from this bank as well.

Chris and Paul were unlucky not to catch despite some excellent chases.