the SCOTTISH countryman

View Original

Hunting with a Goshawk and a Hungarian Vizsla

Hawking with Lewis and Rhu

I first became fascinated by birds of prey when I was in my early teens. In my early twenties, I taught myself falconry with a book and a buzzard.

In the 30+ years that have passed since those early days, I have been lucky enough to have flown peregrines, merlins, a perlin, kestrels, a lanner and a saker; I have hunted with a sparrowhawk and several Harris hawks. But I don’t remember when I last enjoyed hawking as much as I do with the Gos I currently fly.

Rhu, Steve and Lewis

The Goshawk is called Lewis. I have had him for a few months now and been flying him daily, as weather has allowed, for the past 6 weeks or so. I am working him with my pointer puppy, Rhu, a Hungarian Vizsla. Rhu’s from fantastic stock and was bred in Wales just 9 months ago. He’s grown bigger than I expected but is more biddable than I am used to (having mostly trained English and German pointers), and I am delighted with his progress.

This is a photo-blog of a winter afternoon’s hunt in a local wood near to my base in Fife. It was an overcast, damp December day and there was - unusually - no quarry to be found. But it was still a good chance for me to strengthen the all-important working relationship between dog and hawk, and, despite there not being any prey for Lewis, it was a gripping walk watching Rhu work the banks and bushes as Lewis looked on, hoping and waiting...

Enjoy!

Spot the dog?

Lewis the gos watches and waits in the branches above

A wonderful countryside experience

If you have any questions or comments about this post, I’m always happy to hear from you. If you’d like to experience hawking for yourself, I can take you out with a Harris hawk and show you how it all works. Find out more about my hawking experience here.