I hear stories from armchair Falconers who say you must only go out when the weather is dry, with a slight wind and not too cold, to fly a Hawk. If that was the case I would only fly 3 weeks a year as I live alongside the beautiful Yorkshire Moors and  fly a cast of Harris Hawks in all weathers with very few exceptions.  As juveniles 1 fly my Hawks off cliffs 300 to 400 feet high on windy days, to teach them to use the wind variations to their advantage and to build up their confidence.   My good friends Terry Large and Roger James have seen these Hawks in action.  We have flown the moors together, but with this terrain and weather conditions my style of Harris Hawking is quite different from the norm (maybe it's a reflection on myself).  I fly my Hawks like Falcons  they wait and follow on at around 400 feet for up to two hours when hunting with my dog and ferrets.    If we don't put any quarry up within 20 minutes or so the female Harris will go self hunting, so 1 would call her in, the male will come down and land by my side.
When it's time for a break and I sit down with the dog, the birds recognise this as titbit time and glide into land.  I have trained my birds to respond to their names and can therefore call them in individually.     However, I call the male first onto the fist and the female lands on the back of the glove but she has to be fed by my right hand. She has longer flying jesses than the male so I can also hold her on the glove.
In the first year my female Harris caught near on 300 mixed head including 7 brown hares and pheasant but mainly rabbit. 1 hunted her through the moult (as she would in the wild). Her flying weight is 21b 3oz and all muscle.

The male Harris is three years younger than the female and has taught himself to soar 50 or 60 foot below the female in the same style, following on and using the wind.  As all hunters with dogs walk into the wind this becomes a normal day out.   When quarry is flushed or bolted the advantage the Hawks have is far greater and more spectacular than flying out of a tree or off the fist, as they stoop in true fashion.  My male Harris has caught 160 mixed kills in his first year, (flying weight 1lb 7oz not flown through the moult) and some of our  Welsh Hawking Club members have witnessed the male catching a cock pheasant during flight.  On

another occasion a cock pheasant was re-flushed with the Hawk on his back and flew 20 yds. before the male Harris finally brought him down, then he was joined by other Harris Hawks in our party.

One very rainy day Roger James and I were flying our Hawks on the Yorkshire Moors. The rain was so intense that we had to call it a day. We decided to take a quick visit to the men's toilet, not to have a leak, but to dry our birds under the hand-dryers.   I am pleased Terry Large was not flying an Eagle that day, as there were only two hand-dryers and not much room! …….end

 

 

 

 

 

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