Abstracts taken from our journal "News from the Mews"

Parahawking Eddie - A female Steppe Eagle joins the Parahawking team this year. Rescued and nursed back to full health last season after being poisoned, Scott plans to train him to get him fit enough so he can be returned to the wild where he belongs.

Whilst travelling through Nepal I was fortunate enough to meet people who shared a mutual passion with birds of prey. Adam Hill and Rajesh Bomjam ran Sunrise Paragliding, the only Paragliding school in Nepal, they experienced on a daily basis through their flights, many different species or raptor, it was the interactions with those birds that led to the idea that you could train birds to fly with them.

The idea initially was just to train raptors to fly with the Paragliders, this developed into what we have now termed Parahawking which is essentially a fusion between Falconry and Paragliding except our birds hunt thermals which allow the Paragliders to stay aloft. Once the word was out, there seemed to be a huge amount of interest, and the need for conservation and education became more evident with such birds as the White Back Vulture and the Rufous-Bellied Eagle on the endangered list. By the 2001 monsoon, many sick, injured or orphaned birds were bought to us, fortunatley we managed to succefully rehabilitate most, finding accomadation for the others was a problem, so the idea of a hawk conservancy was born.

The Himalayan Hawk Conservancy is a concept that is in its very early stages of development. The aim is to develop a Raptor center to house and rehabilitate wild raptors and to educate and inform locals and tourists of the conservation issues surrounding Birds of Prey in Nepal. Hopefully in time through breeding programs and research the HHC will be able to contribute to the conservation efforts that others are making in this area.

Find out more by clicking here: http://www.hhc-nepal.org/

The SEFG Christmas 2000 Field Meet

For the past 5 years the Club has held a field meet between Christmas and the New Year at Stock in Essex and December 2000 was no exception. As usual it was an informal affair organised around land owned by a long-standing supporter of the SEFG. The field of 9 people was smaller than in previous years primarily due to the fact that we'd received a last minute invite to a hare hawking meet in Newmarket.

So several members 'volunteered' to make the trip up to Suffolk, which given the unexpected fall of snow was no mean feat! Anyway, sod them, we had a great day in store because the ground at Stock always provides plenty of sport at pheasant, hare and squirrel with the odd rabbit to be found along the river-bank. In addition, the Christmas meet is renowned for its festive atmosphere and to top it all, the legendary food and beer of the Hoop Public House!

This year was no exception. The ground was covered in a blanket of fresh snow and the ground, frozen solid, made for easy walking. What little cover remained was easily beaten for game and all-in-all it was a great day to be out and about in the country. It's was one of those magical crystal days where you can hear the ferret scuttling across the frozen leaf- litter from 50 feet and the fire plume of the cock pheasant catches your eye as it lies half hidden beneath the fallen tree, seemingly as frozen as the ground on which it seeks to hide. We had some excellent sport. Dean's eyass female Harris acquitting herself well with committed flights at both pheasant and hare. The Gos' flown by Roger and Tony showed their usual power, tenacity and the occasional 'Gosness' with the only kill of the day, a cock pheasant, falling to Tony's intermewed female Gos which took the bird from the flush in fine style. After a refreshing few hours hawking we all retired to the Hoop for a bowl of home-made soup, a glass of Happy Santa and sat around the roaring fire recounting the days glorious exploits. Here's raising my glass to next year.

An Alternative way of housing a merlin

At the beginning of April I took my Jack Merlin from the aviary with the intention of re-training him and flying him in the clubs forthcoming flying demonstrations. In previous years I had kept the Jack on a screen perch or left him at liberty in the mews. Both methods worked reasonably satisfactorily but this year I wanted to try some new, something I thought be an improvement over both these methods.

How not to please the boss

I can't resist sharing this amusing tale and if you don't believe it just ask James! James had organised thirty English Partridges and found a gap in his hectic working week to collect them from the game farm. Having picked them up in the firms brand spanking new Renault van he was confidently trucking along the M25. Then a whirr of feathers and bang as a partridge ricochets off the inside windscreen and crashes back on to the floor of the cab, followed by another and another. The entire lots careering round the back of the van. He obviously can't carry on driving and can't stop on the hard shoulder in fear of the 'Old Bill' so he drives on for another ten minutes down the M25 with mayhem and madness all around until he can leave and find some where to pull over. On returning to work his excuse for being late back was accepted by his boss but the Managing Director who always insisted on test driving any new equipment turned up and wanted to take the van for a spin. On entering the van the MD found his latest pride and joy liberally covered in partridge shit and feathers wedged in all the wrong places. You can guess the rest. James has, how does one put it, taken his talents to somewhere more understanding.

So please note the lesson of this story - if you intend to transport game make sure its securely boxed!

Telemetry - What it is and it works

Telemetry is simply a combination of a device which emits a signal - the transmitter and a device which is able to collect the signal - the receiver. By using a directional aerial, one that collects a signal from a single direction only, instead of one that collects signals from all directions at once, it is possible to determine, by moving the aerial through 360 degrees, in which direction the signal is strongest and hence in what direction the bird is to be found.

A quick guide to training a falcon using a balloon or kite training aid

In June 1994/5 and every year since we've balloon trained a caste of falcons for game hawking using a helium filled weather balloon. This was reported in the 1995 club journal and generated a great deal of interest. For our first attempt we used a two year old inter-mewed Peregrine falcon and a eyass falcon. Although the adult bird had been hunted with some success the effect of the balloon training both in terms of pitch, stamina and flying ability was remarkable. On her first day out on the moor she killed a Grouse, accounting for twenty two grouse in a little under four weeks. The eyass falcon took to the balloon exercise extremely well and proved to be the most consistent high flying falcon I have ever seen. She subsequently has proven herself at both pheasant and partridge.

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