A Different Kind of Bird Hunting

The veterinarian my wife works with has a hawk that he and his oldest son are nearly two years into training. As your sons discovered, a lot of brush piles get stomped on and a fair amount of "dirt" scoured to find them game on a hunt. I was surprised at how inefficient they are as hunters. Ed buys frozen rodents,100 to a bag, for supplemental feeding as well as frozen quail. I nearly cried when my wife told me the bag of whole quail in the freezer where the large runs are in the back of the clinic, was for feeding quail to his son's hawk. I miss hunting quail. I miss eating quail more. On hunts, he kills snowshoe hare, with an occasional cottontail rabbit. I have no idea what the exchange rate or equivalency ratio is used in the calculation of quail to rabbits...seems like borderline sacrilege to me. Edward, Jr.has been nailed a couple of times by the bird's talons. He didn't have his safety glasses on when the bird had his hood off, prior one incident and nearly lost an eye. Dad was not happy. He now accompanies him on all hunts.

They had to apprentice under another licensed falconer for "X" amount of time, prior taking the test to secure a registered falconry permit via the MDNR.
 
Tom, how long does the guy you went out with keep his birds prior release?
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Rose the Redtail is new this year. She was caught October 10.

Kit and Z, the Harris hawks, are 6 years old (I believe)

The birds are kept for the duration of their life. They don't release them back into the wild after a certain time period. The Harris Hawks wouldn't survive on their own up in this climate...much too cold during the winter.
 
J.B. keeps his birds roughly two to three years after capture- red tails mainly,although he has trained sharp shins, and rough legs, Hawks are migratory...Whitefish Point and Brockway Mountain are the two principal constriction points for birds crossing Lake Superior.
 
Red tails are super tough and probably the best bird for hunting up here in the north east especially for squirrels. I love them. Someday I'd like to hunt with a coopers or northern goshawk. Duck hunting with a goshawk would be awesome.

On the topic of migration, in another month or so, crazy numbers of birds use a corridor along the south shore of Lake Ontario. It's less than 10 minutes from my house. You can see almost every species of raptor in North America on a good day. Lots of harriers and an occasional kite as well.
 
Goshawks are the principal avian predator of ruffed grouse. So, now the test question... Would you rather eat ducks caught by a goshawk or grouse?

E.B.Jrs' red tail is really starting to get big. Hopefully, you will get a chuckle out of this. I was out stomping brush piles for Edward and his father when the subject of feeding quail came up. I asked dad to help me understand the logic of feeding a bird quail to catch rabbits that you eventually cut-up and feed to him down the road. Ed just stared at me. He has never eaten quail. When I found that out, I knew our conversation was over.

During the spring migration it is not uncommon to see birds kettling in several tiers until the get high enough to make the crossing via gliding. I see more of this at the tip of the Keweenaw peninsula at Brockway Mountain (also the site of a butt kicker of a cross-country ski race) that over to the east at Whitefish Point. We monitor WP's migratory bird count values to gauge the fall waterfowl migration's intensity. My personal maximum count at Brockway is twenty-seven raptors in sight at one time. I suspect I am low in the Heirarchy of Raptor counts on-site.
 
I'll take grouse over duck any day. Don't get me wrong I like eating duck but there is no comparison to ruffed grouse. So to answer your question goshawk and grouse. Unfortunately I have to travel at least an hour to get into decent grouse country.

That is funny about the quail. If he doesn't catch enough to sustain his bird over the year there has to be a less expensive way to get supplemental game. A .22 rifle and a few days in a squirrel infested woods comes immediately to mind.
 
The last two winters were brutal, extended below zero air temps. and deep snow. These conditions made it very hard to get into game, even on snowshoes. Dr. B. employs a different calculus than you or I. He is not a hunter-quail are an bird food, not a prized dinner item.
 
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