This cold, damp and misty morning saw us gathering together for our first proper field meet of the season, with several birds in attendance on a new estate with a lot of promise.

It was decided to split into two groups for obvious reasons, with four Harris Hawks and four Goshawks, it made good sense to work opposite ends of the estate from each other.

The Goshawk group drove on to their start point, and we trekked up over a grassy hill to start, our group being the four Harris Hawks.

We checked a hedgerow as we approached a wood, but came up empty. We entered the wood, and within five minutes, quarry had been flushed, with two of the Harris', Martyn Holland's "Little Man" and Mick Smith's "Buddy",  taking it  in good style, so the day was well and truly underway!

There was a fair area of woodlands and cover available to walk up, and the hawks were having a great time following on and chasing when quarry was flushed.

Before too much longer, more  quarry was flushed, this time with Gary Wilson's "Kim" and Martyn's "Little Man" combining to bring it down.

Shortly after, the group broke for lunch, and we re-located to another part of the estate to continue the rest of the day.

Shortly after entering yet another woodland,a flush was made, and Gary's hawk Kim took it in good style, taking the bag up to three  for the day.

The group then walked what cover and woodland we hadn't yet picked up on in the area, and though we had several more flushes and slips, there was nothing more to add to the bag for the day.

We walked one last woodland, and headed for the vehicles. The group dispersed away home, and I went to hook up with the Gos group to hear about their day, which was equally good, several slips for all the birds, with some quarry being taken.

All in all, an excellent day's hawking all round, and we're looking forward to another next week.

John Tyas

February 2010