Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end

[lizblackdog]

So I was talking to deathwokclan, and I go to Youtube to show her the Spike tuggy video. And while I'm there, I'm distracted by a National Geographic video of an eagle hunting a chevrotain, and then it occurs to me that I could do a Youtube search for "falconry", and I wonder why I never thought of it before. I'm not usually so slow to find new ways to torture myself.

Edited to add:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34SO5LbZx3s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_M2OLYG694Q - includes working ferrets.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnWeN02DLmU

These killed me. They're English. I might even have met the guy, though I can't tell. Don't click the first two if you have a problem with furry mammal death. This isn't a display at a fair, it's the real thing. That was my life. Third one is a redtail, which is what mine was.

Comments

WOW.

[saltwaterscream.livejournal.com]

That's freaking *amazing*.

Birds of prey are so beautiful, and so smart. I was at a field test recently, for pointing dogs. It was actually the most ridiculous set-up I've ever seen - basically just a big, bare pasture with trees around the outside. The dogs were taken through a specific route completely devoid of birds before reaching the actual (tiny) bird field, which was more bare pasture, about half an acre in size, and loaded with planted birds. Stupid as hell for these sorts of dogs, but excellent for the eagles and hawks, who would lazily swoop in at the planted birds every once in a while for an easy meal while the dog and its handler and the judge wandered around uselessly in the course before the bird field. It was quite cool to see. The hawks were better at it than the eagles, though. Even though the prey was pretty much stationary, the eagles had more unsuccessful dives than the hawks.

Anyway, end ridiculousy random rambling. :) Thanks for sharing, those are videos are cool.

Re: WOW.

[lizblackdog.livejournal.com]

That description reminds me of a spot we used to hunt - there was a small shallow pond in the middle of a big bare field, with a few trees and bushes round it. We didn't have a dog, but if we put the hawk up in one of the trees and beat the bushes something nearly always ran out. That was where Camilla caught her only pheasant.

We'd have caught a lot more if we'd been working with a dog, only I couldn't have one then. I should have looked for some dog work in the videos - most falconers have GSPs or something along those lines.