Relic is a 9 year old male Harris hawk on loan to me from a good friend. He has is a versatile little hawk having spent his life with my friend and amazing falconer James, working in falconry centres providing experiences, hawk walks and demonstration falconry as well working in as pest control and hunting, so a real all rounder and an ideally experienced hawk to join my team.
Relic has been settling in to his new home and in the past week I have been working with him to get him used to me and out flying again.
We are progressing well and we are now working oh his fitness and flying in company.
I will keep you updated on his progress however am hopeful by mid March he will be meeting customers for hawk walks, he's a smaller hawk tipping the scales at around 1lb 6.5 oz so will be a great option for my smaller clients.
Its always interesting working with new birds, it takes some time for us to get to know one another, like all relationships we need to build a bond and trust and that's something you can't rush. He's a lovely natured little fellow and I am looking forward to working with him during the summer and what little adventures we have.
You will notice in one of the pictures Relic is wearing a hood, hoods are widely used in falconry, birds are eyesight driven and hooding them means they cannot see any threats which means they will be calm. Harris hawks are renowned for being very easy going and many are not trained or "made to the hood" during their early training stages, is a very useful tool and while not needed often in the environment my birds are in, its good to keep up the practice. Its good for me too as none of my Harris hawks were made to the hood when I purchased them and its not an easy thing to teach an older hawk, so its not something I do often! I love falconry so much because there's always new skills to learn and master. Hopefully Relic will enable me to improve and master my hooding technique.
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