Its been a windy week however I have been super impressed with the effort put in by all the hawks and its not even the weekend yet! I have been working on the relationships within the team so I can do more 'cast' flying, a cast is flying more than one hawk at a time and is common in Harris hawk falconry due to that being their natural behaviour in the wild, though it is important to ensure that the hawks get along as often non related hawks will squabble or even kill one another.
Casper being the baby of the group generally gets along with everyone, I ensured I socialized him well from the day he joined my team and I find he has a pretty easy going temperament and he just wants to learn and tag along with a more experienced hawk. This means he is pretty good to fly with most Harris hawks and definitely all of my group. However the other end of the scale is Guinness whom clearly didn't get the social skills he needed when he was young meaning he is generally aggressive towards everyone else and he will bully any other hawk he comes into contact with to show dominance. This wil need working on and he will be paired up with Trinity my alpha dominant female that won't put up with any of his bad behaviour and she will teach him that he has a place in the group and he cant be a bully. These things all take time and work but its very rewarding when you build and develop their skills and they become better hawks because of it.
LONDON AND MOLLY
London and Molly are a natural pairing and London is a great old character and generally likes to get on with everyone and sees himself as the dominant male of the group, this causes trouble with Caffrey who has similar ideas so the old boys squabble, I have decided that its better to keep them apart as they just wont seem to get over their differences, which is frustrating but something I have learned to accept, when we get old we tend to become a bit set in our ways, !! I know I have.
Casper and Molly
I am at my happiest when I am flying hawks and even happier ( if that's possible) when flying 2 or 3 together, working as a team to look for prey, to watch them communicate as only Harris hawks do is just the most amazing thing to be witness too and being part of it is priceless.
Casper and Caffrey
I hope to be able to offer more opportunities to customers to see and be part of flying a cast as I develop the team over the coming months, I also look forward to sharing our progress with you all along the way. the way.
Sherlock and London ( aka Laurel and Hardy)
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