Hybrid falcons are a bit different from the "normal" native species. They benefit from the cross much the same as the cross between a Jack Ass and a horse. They are stronger, seem to enjoy a bit better resistance to to disease. I personally have had three hybrids and while they were for the most part awesome fliers, I have yet to be able to train one to actually achieve its full potential. There are many reason for that, not the least has been the inability on my part to bring out their full potential.
The Hybrid cross that I am discussing in this message is the cross between a Gyrfalcon, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyrfalcon and a Peregrine Falcon. Peregrines have been the favorite of falconers for generations. They tend to do, naturally, the things that a falconer needs. They for the most part have a "sweet disposition, and really like to kill things. Gyrfalcons on the other hand are a bit harder to handle. They tend to cover great distances, and seem to have a bit of a temper as well. Due to their location it is very difficult or expensive for the average person to ever possess one.
My first hybrid was named Tex. He had a swagger to him that was pronounced. He knew that he was special! One of the basic rules is that you obtain the Raptor that you actually have quarry for. It does you no good to have the finest falcon in existence if you have nothing to fly it on.
Peregrines when released, tend to make their first turn at about 2-3 hundred yards. Tex never made a turn within my line of sight for the first month. I would take him down in the valley where I lived and he would head North. He would come back at dark from the South. In desperation I began tossing Pigeons before he disappeared. That had the result of teaching him to hang around at low level. In those circumstances it was about the only thing that I could do. I eventually lost him in the vicinity of the town of Post in Central Oregon. There was a Golden Eagle that barged in on a Sage Grouse flight, and Tex stayed above him, and I could not get to where he was due to the terrain and lack of roads.
With the addition of drones and kites I now have the ability to give this guy something to do that I can control. With those two items, there is always something to either grab or eat and they have to go high right over the falconer to do it. The hybrids are much more active and tend to wander and actually have the ability to do so. this equipment allows me to control the situation eliminating the boredom and free time.
The above of course is a simplified version. the variables are many.
I am doing what is termed a "tame Hack". Most "Hacks" are done with imprints, that actually like you. Bud was old enough that, that term does not apply to our relationship. He is not afraid of me, he treats me as part of the furniture.
I do have a couple of pluses in my favor. One of which are his parents, which are excellent game hawks of nice temperament, and he himself does not tend toward excitement. He is calm.
I have been rather amazed at the differences between him and the Peregrine female that just left. She, with the same set up, made little trips with the playpen as the center of her world for at least a week before she really went anywhere, and much earlier than Bud. Bud has laid on the window ledge only making one foray right up to yesterday. Yesterday his first flight took him out of range of my telemetry and then all over the place right up to dark, when he eventually took perch in a limb on the dead Juniper in the back yard. He did not want to eat nor to get close enough to me that I could bring him in for the night.
He has been all over the place today, and with the heat wave that we are having, he is sitting on the fence in the shade of the apple trees until it gets cooler. I did walk up to him and gave him a tidbit, but I didn't try to pick him up. The amazing part to me is that to the Say's Phoebe that nests under the back porch, he is a baby and no threat. To me he looked as though he had been flying for a long time. No fear, no hesitation. It is a bit like me getting into a jet plane and flying it well, without training. There was no hesitation on his part, no short steps, just full on!
Today's job was to mow the lawn. He has paid no attention to the riding lawn mower in the past, and today was no different. He sat on the fence and watched me going back and forth without moving. I tried earlier to get him to go to the lure, and he shows no sign of being hungry. He really hasn't had anything to eat since yesterday morning and it wasn't much then.
I just went out and sat on the lawn in front of him, tossed a lure with the main part of a quail tied on it. He has been reluctant to eat anything with bones in it, although that is what he needs the most. There was lots of food on the lure. I tried him on an earlier occasion and he just looked at it. It is now 7:30 P and he should be starving. Apparently I have been feeding him way too much, because he finally jumped down, nibbled at the offering and then walked off in disgust because there was a bone in it. It appears that it is time for an attitude adjustment. I had hoped to keep him pretty chunky as he still has a lot of feathers to grow. Apparently that is not going to happen.
