For a long time we have all believed that Astroturf is the 'bees knees' as a perching surface for most species. Whilst it is excellent from the point of view of weight dispersal, recent research has indicated that although bacteria on a wood surface die rapidly, those on Astroturf survive for very long periods. More detailed results of this research project will be available shortly (watch the falconry press). In the meantime, do not throw out your Astroturf, it still has a lot to recommend it, but simply soak it well at least twice a week in an effective disinfectant (e.g. virkon) in order to control any bacteria which is happy living on it.

As falconers we should be constantly making every effort to improve the quality of the birds which we are breeding and flying. Moreover we should be making increasing efforts to look after our birds better and reduce the risk of them becoming ill, and improving the care they receive if they become ill.

Stress - what is it and why is it bad for our birds

When a bird is frightened, the brain reacts by telling the adrenal gland to release adrenaline and cortisol (ie. steroid). Cortisol travels to the liver and mobilises glucose, to provide energy to fly away from the frightening situation. As many people will be aware, steroid although useful on occasions, can have unpleasant side effects, even when it is steroid of a natural origin (ie. from within the bird's own body).

Our concern in this situation is that steroid reduces the birds 'immune system' i.e. the bird's ability to react against and fight off infection.

In a natural situation, a bird meets a frightening situation, it's body reacts to that, it flies away and everything returns to normal. The short peak in cortisol has no significant effect on the bird's immune system. However when a bird is in training, typically the bird cannot fly away from the frightening situation, so the fear continues. The bodies response is to continue to produce cortisol, the outcome is a prolonged depressive effect on the bird's ability to fight against disease.

Every day we and our birds are surrounded by potential infection, and all the time we are defending ourselves against it, and fighting it off. If our bird's immune system is compromised, it cannot fight off infection, and the bird may well succumb to a common, perhaps ubiquitous organism such as Aspergillus fumigatus, the fungus which comes from rotting vegetable matter, and is in the environment all the time.

So what can we do about this. The simple answer is to minimise stress to our birds. It is true for most birds, in particular the Accipiters, that the most stressful event in a falconers bird's life is training. Other potential stressful times may arise during the moult, breeding, transport, or if they get lost whilst out flying, and spend a few days out loose.

So what makes training stressful. Untamed birds are not accustomed to being close to humans, and perceive us as a threat. Reduction in weight is in itself a stressor, the more the weight is reduced the worse it is.

So during training the key improvements can be:

¨               Allow the bird to become accustomed to your presence, prior to starting training.

¨               Train the bird very gradually, do not force yourself on it too quickly.

¨               Reduce weight only slowly, and minimise the total weight loss required as much as possible.

 

 

 

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Such advice is easily applied to a Falcon or Harris Hawk, but not so easy with an Accipiter.

There is of course another option. Why not fly an imprint. Imprinting a bird correctly is not necessarily easy, it is very time consuming, and can go wrong. But if you get it right, that Gos wants to be close to you, on your fist. It is not frightened out of it's skin and trying to bait away from you all the time. As the bird is responsive, you do not need to reduce the weight to any significant extent.

So to conclude. End result, a healthy bird, which is less stressed in training, is less likely to get ill as it is not stressed. It will fly at a higher weight, fly stronger and catch more quarry.

Side effect - it is less stressful for the falconer to train and keep the bird. You will be happy, more relaxed and less likely to end up with a divorce, coronary or depression during the training, illness and subsequent death of your over stressed immune compromised Goshawk.

Durante largo tiempo hemos considerado que el Astroturf o césped artificial es la “octava maravilla” como superficie de percha para la mayor parte de las especies. Mientras que es excelente desde el punto de vista de dispersión de peso, investigaciones recientes señalan que aunque las bacterias mueren rápidamente sobre una superficie de madera, sobre el astroturf sobreviven durante muy largos períodos. Pronto serán disponibles resultados más detallados de este proyecto de investigación (consulte las publicaciones sobre cetrería). Mientras tanto, no tire a la basura su astroturf, sigue resultando muy recomendable. Simplemente remójelo al menos dos veces a la semana en un desinfectante efectivo (por ejemplo Virkon), para controlar cualquier bacteria que se desarrolle sobre su superficie.

Fijian Peregrine