Happy 3rd Gotcha Day, Kaya!

Three years ago today we drove to Hessen and picked up our girl - Kaya, our Harris's hawk - from her breeder. Since then our daily lives have largely revolved around her, hawking, and falconry. And we're loving every minute!

All photos are from Sandra Bäder of Pfotodog, unless otherwise captioned.

We've completed three successful crow-hawking seasons with Kaya, making a lifetime total of 164 Beutestücke (successful kills) so far and an uncountable number of misses.

During the hawking season (August 1 to February 15) I or we are out with her every 2-4 days depending on weather, and every outing is an adventure. Hawking can be dangerous and we've had a few close calls, including the worst which ended with me standing in a road trying to stop traffic while she flew back to me. From one of the photos above you can see how low to the ground she flies - using the ground effect to conserve energy. But roads are not avoidable and so we have to consider a whole lot of factors in the few seconds between spotting a crow and releasing her.

Hawk acrobatics: catching a tidbit in mid-air during training

We are often asking if we would want to fly a different bird at some point, and our answer is no. We absolutely adore her and hope she will live healthily and injury-free for the 20 years or so a Harris's hawk can live with a falconer, and by then we'll be in our 70s. We might be ready to hang up our leather gloves by then, although to be honest I cannot imagine not hawking when autumn rolls around.

I'll cut off my words here and finish with more photos from Sandra.

Here's to another safe and successful season!

Until next time - and I'll try to write again before her next Gotcha Day! LOL

Falknersheil!

Happy Gotcha Day, Kaya!

Two years ago today we picked up our darling from her breeder in Hessen, and our lives were changed forever.

I still think back to those first days of sitting quietly in her mews as she was secured to a bow perch near her bathing pool and a few toys, letting her get used to me and earning her trust. Once or twice a day I’d try to entice her to stand on my glove to eat a thawed and tasty chick.We succeeded on Day 4.

She’s not just a darling, of course. She’s a fierce hunter! During her second hunting season she expanded her prey spectrum to include beyond crows (her main prey), pigeons, magpies, a duck and 2 Egyptian geese! We’re looking forward to seeing what prey presents itself this season.

Kaya is now two years old and in her third flight, as we say in German (zwei Jahre alt und im dritten Flug). “In her third flight” means that she’s in her 3^rd hunting season. To be fair, the season has started but we haven’t yet because Kaya hasn’t finished her molt yet. She’s still growing new feathers but we’ll start her with some light training on the creance (Langfessel, a long light leash) this week. I am really looking forward to getting started again. I like to think she will enjoy more action again as well and the chance to refill her freezer with new meals.

I'll finish this Gotcha Day post with a photo dump from the past year with Kaya and what we've been up to.

Sitting on her favorite bench

Upside down head, trying to understand what she sees

First hawking success of the season

Manteling over her kill to guard it

Vacation accommodations

Another success

On her favorite bench in the setting sun

During a falconry meet near Freiburg

Floofed up on a cold day standing on her pillar

Winter crow

Time for a poo sample

This is called a "warble" - a double wing stretch

First visit to the veterinarian, in the waiting room

At an expo - some of the PR work we do

With saker falcon Smilla at our favorite local restaurant's
Mittelalterliches Bierfest.

Playing in her mews with pine cones

Bad hair day after a rain shower, which she loves

Riding in June

More PR work at a Jägerfest in Böblingen

Another Jägerfest, this time in Freudenstadt

Our adventure continues! We look forward to each new day with Kaya and hope for another successful and healthy, injury-less hawking season. 

Until next time...

Falknersheil!!

Kaya is TWO!!

 Happy Hatchday, Kaya! Alles Gute zum Schlüpftag!

our current favorite photo of Kaya

Today for Kaya is like any other cold, crappy April day. She doesn’t know it’s her hatchday, but we do!

What present would I like to give her? A knitted sweater vest to keep her warm in her mews during this cold snap! If I’m cold, she’s cold. Isn’t that how it works?

AI image created by stability.ai

What she’s actually getting is a nice big quail (Wachtel) for her hatchday lunch.

We’ve had a fun and exciting second year with her even though I posted precious little about it. We ended her season of 63 hawking days with 52 crows (Krähen), 3 magpies (Elstern), 2 pigeons (Tauben), 1 duck (Stockente) and, quite impressively, two Egyptian geese (Nilgänse)!

Our successes together are no doubt notable for a young bird, but if I average her hawking days with 5 flights each, that’s about 315 flights and a total of 60 kills. I only mention that to illustrate that her quarry still has the better odds.

in a tree in our training ground between flights

She should be molting now, but several things have stood in the way of a good start. Right before the long Easter weekend, I noticed some wounds on the bottoms of several of her toes, which we had looked at by a veterinarian who specializes in birds and reptiles in Karlsruhe. The first available appointment was 12 days later, and as of then we started 3 different medications. Medications are not good for the molt, so we didn’t expect anything during the 6 days she was on them. The wounds are nearly healed and she's off the meds, but now it’s too cold! This cold spell is supposed to last another week, so here’s hoping for a good Mauser re-start next weekend!

Kaya brightens our every day and she is so much fun during the non-hunting season!

This is her cute & curious pose.

She seems to appreciate her evening playtime, when M goes out to toss pine cones for her to catch. When it’s dry enough, she gets the zoomies as she dashes about her mews throwing and chasing the pine cones. Occasionally she’ll do this alone, but she much prefers a playmate or at least at audience.

holding her emotional support pine cone
while staring sceptically at her new carpet

One of her mew perches had lost all its bark, so M replaced it with a nice new branch ten days ago, which she has found greatly upsetting. It’s a lovely perch with a slight bend in it, so if she ever tries it out she’ll see she can sit even higher than before while she watches the neighbors come and go. Since she likes change about as much as we do, she still won't go near it. 

biiiiiiiggggg stretch!

She's such a sweet bird and we love spending time with her whether we're at an exhibition (Jagdmesse), out for a walk, hawking, or just sitting on the patio. She's got a charming personality, which she shows off when she's feeling safe and comfortable. She also tries to be really scary and hawky when something isn't fittin'. We continue to feel incredibly privileged that this wild animal* has accepted us and trusts us - even at her first visit to the veterinarian - and doesn't hold a grudge against us when we try new things like hooding her in preparation for the vet visit or failing to hide her medicine inside her delicious food. That was the first time we ever saw her pick up a piece of food, think twice, and spit it right back out!

*She came from a breeder and has never been in the wild, but a raptor is never tame or domesticated. She will always remain a wild animal, and we, her falconers, must never forget that.

The Verband Deutscher Falkner stand
at the Forst Live Messe (trade show) in Offenburg

We're looking forward to another year with our girl and all the adventures it brings!

Until next time...

Falknersheil!!

Hawk Diaries: Speaking of Horses!

 This morning we were planning to go crow-hawking with Kaya, but when we weighed her, we discovered that she was "too fat to hunt." She was 1060 grams, and while we'd have taken her out at 1045g, 1025 is better and 1060 is just too high. Plan B was to wait a few hours and go out around noon.

HELLO PLAN C!!

We'd planned a few weeks ago to meet a falconer friend and her Saker falcon Smilla at her friend's stable where we would try horseback riding with the birds, but M and I were struck down with Covid and had to cancel. This morning quite spontaneously the friend (IH) sent a message and asked if we wanted to meet and ride in the season's first snow. 

We are the least spontaneous people you don't know and I really can't stand winter, snow, or being cold*, but after a quick consultation with M, I started scrounging for my riding pants, boots and helmet! Smilla and her human couldn't come, but we will all surely meet next time!

* Blame it on Wisconsin! 44 years of that, and I've had enough!

Seriously, does it get any better than this?

We arrived, met IH and her beautiful Icelandic horse, Kvikur, and got Kaya out of her travel box.

Kaya: "Whoooaaaaaa, WTH?"
Kvikur: "'Sup?"

Kvikur was totally cool, like nothing can rattle him. And he's already met Smilla the falcon, so this was not his first rodeo, as they say. Kaya, on the other hand... As reported earlier, she has been in the presence of horses, but not frequently. And never on top. However, we really do believe she trusts us and has learned that she's safe when she's on my or M's glove.

At first we walked a bit so Kaya could get used to Kvikur and his human, then I handed Kaya to M and hopped on. M handed Kaya back, and she tried to settle in. 

"Mom?!? You sure about this?"

IH took the reins and led Kvikur so I could focus on Kaya until we knew how she'd handle this. M tromped along and snapped pictures the whole time, and although you'd think we would have thought to take ONE photo of the three of us with Kvikur, we did not. Next time!

IH has longer legs than I do!
I could just barely reach the stirrups, but no matter.

It was cold but ok, and then it wasn't. 😂 Schneeregen, Schnee, wind... And still, I was happy as could be, riding with Kaya! It was a lovely ride and I can picture all kinds of horse & hawk adventures for the future!

Look at the pup!
This is how he spent the whole walk! 😍

I don't need to write much more - the photos say it all. What an amazing and fabulous experience this was! We are so grateful to Smilla's human, IH, and Kvikur for this day. 

I've loved horses all my life, and now falconry IS my life. What could be better than combining the two on a snowy day?

Falknersheil!!!

Crow Hawking Diaries: Curious Horses

 OMG, what I would give to have photos or video of today’s hawking experience! 

M and I took a guest and Kaya crow hawking not far from Horb and it was tough going at first. We saw hundreds of Rotmilane and common buzzards, but not so many crows. Those we did see flew out of range too quickly. But twice we passed a horse farm with an occupied pasture where there were a bunch of crows. Each time we drove past, those who were out of the pasture flew into it knowing they were safe there. I won’t launch Kaya into a pasture full of horses, especially with an electric fence. I finally asked M to drive to the farm, and I found the owners outside. I explained what we were doing, they were enthusiastic, told me to go ahead and the horses won’t be bothered, and showed me where to unplug the electricity to the fence. We got back in the car, drove about 150 meters, and I tossed her into the pasture at the unsuspecting crows. 

What can I say? I love horses!

The one she picked out had taken off, and she flew after it in hot pursuit. Once the crow is airborne it’s unlikely she’ll get it, so I got ready to call her back. But she wasn’t going to let that crow go, and she grabbed it out of the air! She pulled it to the ground, I ducked through the fence and raced the 50 meters to her to do my job. I’d asked M to come as quickly as he could, and thank goodness. The horses found the goings-on quite interesting and meandered over to have a look. Kaya was ok with that up to a point, but they kept coming closer. By then M was there and I told him to stand between the horses and me so I could finish things with Kaya. That was probably also when I said, “OMG, you have to get a photo of this!” He stood protectively between us facing the horses, but more and more of them came up and formed a sort-of U-shape around us. Kaya was secured and still had a death grip on the deceased crow but wanted to get the hell away from the horses. Among the steeds there was some commotion and I hoped M wouldn’t get kicked. 

I collected Kaya with her crow and headed back to the fence. M followed.

So did the horses.

And several cows, one that looked rather butch.

Kaya got her reward for a job extremely well done while we and our guest recapped the events on the safe side of the fence. Then we went back to the farm to talk with the owners and tell them we’d been successful! They were happy to hear it. The woman said she sometimes gets dived-bombed by crows when she’s riding, and the man said the farmers around grumble about the crows picking in the fields and destroying young crops.

The Wasserbüffelhof

We stopped at the water buffalo farm vending machine for an ice cream treat and had quite the audience of others shopping there. Then the owner of the buffalo farm also came by and chatted with us – he also said he’s thrilled to hear we’re after crows in the area.

A family-friendly photo of Kaya manteling
a kill from a few days ago)

Kaya got a leg and a wing from her crow in her mews when we returned and is so stuffed she can’t see her feet. But she’s screaming about her adventure to the neighborhood, or perhaps she’s just screaming at our neighbor who is minding his own business and trying to get some yard work done.

Our season officially opened with Kaya's first success on September 3rd, and since then she's grabbed 7 crows and her first-ever Elster (magpie)!

Until next time...

Falknersheil!