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This past year, I didn't have the time to go fly my jets, I had one day of jets this year, that's it. For my to fly, it was a 3 hour drive, a hotel, and all the associated pains in the butt that went along with it. I put the jets aside this year and took up something I've always wanted to do.
So, although not quite as fast as a Firebird, I got involved in some over 200mph fun
I recently took the leap and now own two falcons, no, not F16's, but Falcons.

So first let me introduce you to my 5 month old Female Peregrine Falcon. She is nameless as of now, as I train her and get to find her personality I will come up with a name, unless you guys can come up with something cool for a female Peregrine Falcon!

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And here is the second falcon, this is Ceylon, an 18 month old Gyr/Saker/Peregrine Hyrbrid. She is trained already and flying free. She is a big powerful bird, she weighs in at 1150ish grams, or around 2.5pounds and has about a 52" wingspan. She is all attitude and will foot you and bite you if you aren't paying attention, trust me, I know, she separated a couple joints in my middle finger already, but she flies well, I'm having a ball with this bird and will take her out for ducks in another month or so.

invertmast

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Jeremy,
That is to cool! When i'm not busy working, or messing with the RC stuff. I've busy playing with my 8mo old son. He's also getting an early start at learning to work on jets

Eddie P

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It's a Ying and a Yang sort of thing, these RC jets. It's nice to have a counter balance, something else to do. It makes me appreciate the RC jets even more when I come back to them after a break, and realize what brought me into it in the first place.

Those Falcons are beautiful. I'm not much or a bird watcher in general but I do really appreciate birds of prey. Especially Hawks, Eagles and Falcons. My daughter really likes birds, we even built an RC Eagle and attract all sorts of local birds of prey that will come out to fly with or at the model. I launch the model out of the front yard and within a few minutes we either scare all the targets away (pigeons, etc) or we attract a few predators to fly with us. I also fly full scale gliders for a past time and the area I fly at is loaded with Golden Eagles and Buzzards. I've flown in close quarters with them, we share thermals and seek each other out to find lift. At one time I witnessed one form up on my canopy at about 12000 feet and look me over several times with his head cocking and straining to look me over for about a minute, while we were in a thermal together. It was one of the coolest things I've ever experienced with birds.

With your drive requirement to fly jets I can't blame you for wanting something to do locally! All you have to do to keep sharp on your turbines is to have a Habu 32 to fly locally. Or similar, even a foamie to fly at the parks low and fast. My kids fly foamies with me at the park behind our house and we do inverted figure 8's a few feet off the grass with Parkzone foamies. It's a lot of fun, we all enjoy the heck out of it and it keeps me ready and willing to take the turbine out when the moment presents itself occasionally.

DrScoles

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Wow Jeremy. I gotta ask, how much and do you need a permit? What's to keep them from flying away during training? Did someone else semi-domesticate them?

Very cool!

jzuniga

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Very cool! Beautiful birds...

Z

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Hi Mike,
It's very different owning a bird of Prey in Canada vs the USA. In Canada, in order to have the birds, you first have to build a Mews (pen) which needs to be inspected. Once the inspection is passed, then you can be issued a permit for the birds. As for cost, the best way I can put it, is birds are worth whatever the seller and buyer deem them to be worth. Yes, there is a market value, but there are many things per bird that can change the cost. So, as such, let's put it this way, depending on the bird, you can spend much less than a turbine jet, or far more than a turbine jet.
As for what's to keep them from flying away during training, while they are in the early stages of training they are always tied to you, or a perch. They have leather straps around their legs (anklets) with leather straps that go through a grommet in those anklets called Jesses. The Jesses then can be hooked either to a leash or for later stages in training a "creance" (a long line to fly the bird on). During the training, you aren't teaching the bird how to fly specifically, they know how to do that, you are teaching them to come to you for food. The Gyr hybrid was already trained when I started flying her, there is really nothing to keep her from flying away when I do fly her. It is very important to weight the birds every day. Their condition must be known at all times before you fly them. All birds of prey need a reason to fly, that reason is food, so they know that when they fly, and come back to you, they get food. Ironically, for something that is natures supreme athlete, birds of prey are actually lazy, so if they can get food easily from you, they will come back.
The Peregrine just jumped to my fist for food for the first time today, hopefully that means she will start to progress a little faster. Funny thing for me right now is, I'm learning as much or more than the birds at this point. I think at this stage of training, the bird is still the smarter one between the 2 of us! The birds never really "domesticate". They are always wild birds, they simply learn to tolerate you and learn that you will give them food.
The interesting thing with the birds of prey, is that, with very rare exceptions I've found), they never really care who you are. They won't be your "friend" like a dog or other pet, in fact, calling a bird of prey a "pet" is completely wrong. They won't show you compassion, they won't respond specifically to any form of emotion, they don't have remorse. If the bird does something you don't want it to, there is no point in getting angry, all you'll do is further anger the bird. It doesn't matter what the bird does, they are always correct LOL. I can't imagine the anxiety I will feel when I fly the Peregrine free for the first time and hope that she comes back to me. I'll let you know how it goes when that time comes!
Jeremy

KC36330

Pandora

Eddie P

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Wow, very fascinating explanation of what it's like to care for one of these wild birds of prey. Also - "Pandora" is a cool name.

David Searles

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Jeremy,

What ever you do, just DON'T SELL EVERYTHING! It'll just end up costing you twice as much when you come back to jets! And you willlll come back, you know.

We've all gone thru it at sometime or another.

David S

ddlstang

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You know, I wish others that own exotic " pets " had the same reality that you do.

Those really are beautiful creatures.

sskianpour

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LOL! True David, just ask Dom (MajorWoody)

Jeremy, you are our very own "Beastmaster"! Maybe you should name your new falcon "Sharak" after the one in the show...hehehehe

Its all fun and games until you walk into your hobby room and Ceylon or your new falcon have "gutted" your Firebird's servo wires and airlines looking for the "soft entrails" of that beast. Then you will find out how calm you can be!

Sweet animals bro. Wanna trade one for a wife? Maybe the other one for 2 kids? Low mileage! As is.

Shaz

Robrow

Harris hawk.

Rob.

u2fast

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jeremy, are you going to paint your falcon or leave her stock. looks like an arf too. oh well, she hasnt come apart in flight. enjoy. barry

JohnMac

Really amazing birds. A few years ago I was slope soaring a fast Blade DS glider when first one and then another two Peregrine falcons formated on it. Now my glider was ballasted that day as it was pretty windy, and in that configuration it is capable of getting close to 200 mph in a dive. I decided that the potential battle between glider wings and falcons talons could only have one outcome, and it would not be too pretty for me. So I stuck the nose down and the blade took off like a scalded cat. The Pergrines never flinched, holding perfect station around my glider, merely inches from it. But no way could I get away from them by diving. Then only thing that shook them off was looping or rolling, and then they just reformated. They never did any damaged to the model but they followed it right down to the ground when I landed it. Really amazing birds. I was told later that they where three young being reared locally and possibly still with the parents. They where seen several times at that site by others that year, but sadly nothing since.

weasel33

Whatever you do dont try this

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-15554333

KFX450

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lol...this thread makes me think of this commercial.....I should have switched to state farm...I coulda got a falcon...hahaha

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i7ZpWFTUz34

JohnMac

Short sighted Vultures Now I've seen everything.

lopflyers

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hey, cool birds, I used to have parrots and makaws. What do you feed them?
Have fun, looks like a blast

stoneenforcer

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Beautiful birds! I used to spend a lot of time outdoors in northern Colorado and have seen birds if prey in action. Amazing creatures.

My balance when not flying is surfing. Guess we all need our outlets.

Grodus

Great looking birds Jeremy. By now you must be getting an idea of how time consuming falconry is. I hope to fly my jets one more time this coming weekend and then it time to start hunting.
Have you looked into telemetry yet? I know you will be using it with the kinds of bird you will be flying. A bit of advise, practice locating the transmitter before you actually have to find a bird with it. Finding the general direction is easy but finding a bird down on game takes practice. I use it even though i fly buzzards and they dont range nearly as far as falcons but I refuse to fly a bird without it. Have fun dude and congratulations.

Cody

DCM

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I've been spending time restoring my 55 Chevy.

LGM Graphix

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Hi David,
I sold some stuff off, but only the items I didn't really care to much about. I'm keeping my Firebird and my CAI Raptor. Everything else I had is easily replaceable. Those are the 2 jets that I just refuse to sell. I know I'll come back to jets at some point, the birds are down all through the summer to moult anyway, so I still need something to do from about May to September anyway

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The birds are strictly meat eaters. Their diet consists of day old chicks (euthanized, not live) horse meat, they've had some mink, quail etc. Once they are hunting, then I suppose it will be whatever they catch, I will go out for ducks with Ceylon this season I think.

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Hi Cody,
Yes, I need to get a couple transmitters, I have access to a receiver so fortunately I don't have to buy one of those right away. The transmitters for the birds aren't to bad, but the cost of the receivers makes JR equipment seem reasonable LOL.
The time hasn't been to bad, I've spent about 2 hours a day either before or after work with the birds. I am building a new pen at my house, once I have that there then I'll be able to easier spend time in the evenings with them. Fortunately, my wife is even more supportive of the birds than the jets, and she was really supportive of jets!
Jeremy