Two from the Commonplace Book

I can't die yet. There are many men I must kill first!
-Yojimbo

On the door it says what to do to survive
But we were not born to survive
Only to live
-W S Merwin, The River of Bees

For the record, I think the first at least is hilarious...

ID Query

Tom McIntyre sent this photo his friend Keith Benoist snapped in Mississippi last weekend. Suggestions include Swainson's and broadwing which I doubt-- slighter and migratory-- and Harlan's which is possible though ours tend to be more "speckly". I call darkish (for the east) redtail. What say you?

"Horned Rifles"

Central Asia is full of archaic survivals, which include old technologies (should that be "technologies" with quotes, to include animal memes like hawking and various "old ways"-- thanks Liz Thomas!-- with dogs and other animals as well as actual "tech"?)

China controls guns but Tibetans actually still hunt with matchlocks (and tazi- like dogs though the pix have vanished).

17th century snaphaunce patent flintlocks were common in Siberia in 1865 when Cherkassov wrote his "Notes of a Siberian Hunter"-- he called them "primitive" and gave these illustrations.



But they are still in use in Mongolia today! Here is Kent Madin of Boojum Expeditions shooting one of Cherkassov's designs ca 1996 (photo by A Jackson Frishman-- Peculiar); and one I brought back that looks like his other drawing.



Cat saw this nice one for sale in the shop at the Natural History Museum in Ulan Bataar. I would have bought it-- must go back... (Not just for flintlock scholarship of course). Enlarge and you will see it is the same design as mine but finished much better.


And horn-style bipods go on everything from matchlocks to Mosin Nagants. Here are some from explorer Leonard Clark. Maybe I should also retrofit an old Mosin.


Incidentally I should add re costs: my flintlock, shootable but for missing trigger, cost me only $50 in 2000, with all tools (below)-- this in a touristy shop in Ulan Bataar. Such guns are still made by village blacksmiths using forges that burn dung for fuel.

Links

Got so many I may split them!

Peculiar links (scroll down) to a wonderful little film on Black Sea sparrow hawks in falconry-- for Turkish TV? High point is as he says throwing them overhand like baseballs at quail, but the "pubs" and characters are amazing-- must get there! Thanks to Paul for pointing me at the plethora of Turkish hawking YouTubes-- there are many more...

Lewis and Clark's air rifle video. I had known it was a big game gun, but I had not known it was an effective and deadly REPEATER-- the only one in North America at the time, perhaps? No wonder it impressed the tribes!

Friend and Wisconsin Poet Laureate Marilyn Taylor had a poem read and presented on Ted Kooser's American Life in Poetry Monday-- make sure you select the 28th for what I told her was her "hilarious and unnerving" poem. And check her out at Amazon-- I may also have to blog her poem about an old midwestern gal in Paris who takes no prisoners...

Reid sent this good piece on Mike Tyson and pigeons. Considering things like anti- pigeon legislation in Albuquerque perhaps Tyson's new pigeon TV series will give us a shot in the arm...

From emeritus scientist and modern day paleo- hunter Val Geist: bushmen run off a pride of lions from their kill--!! .

Karen Myers sends a link to National Geographic's excellent article and update on fox domestication in Siberia, a subject dear to my heart.

But domestication can become perverted. Micaela Lehtonen in Finland (from our Asia Group) found this horrifying photo: the noble Arabian horse twisted into My Little Pony by a disgusting application of selective breeding--! I suspect Darwin, an English countryman, would have been fascinated but not pleased. Chantal, another member, added: "...the Arabian horse is a barbie horse now days all about glitz and glamour. I was at a horse show recently and noticed they now wax or shave bald above the eyes so the gloss stands out more."

From Annie Davidson: meat- eating furniture. Really.

Kazakh eagle music. Libby and I have hunted that very hill with the late hunter Manai, and chased a fox down the left (south) side. The valley ahead is the "highway" to Ulan Bataar 600 plus miles away to the east, full of camel bones and old mufflers. I'll add a few nostalgic photos.

Both landscapes show a view west over the highway though the snowy one is from high in the hills. As I said, nostalgia-- I can only hope I will still return...

Tree Dogs # 2

I have TONS of content overdue-- bear with me, I'll begin tomorrow. Meanwhile here are more of Teddy's amazing tree dachsies, this time in hot pursuit of a feral cat...

Tree Dogs!

Meanwhile Teddy Moritz's dogs are climbing tall trees in pursuit of squirrels with their avian partners-- that is a dachshund up there, not a Harris hawk! And she tells me he had gotten all the way to the end and was returning...

Falconry: News & Pix

Paul has suggested I take back and fly my sweet Barb Taita female, the mini- shahin Cheetah (formerly Chicken as in Chicken Little), while he takes up Ms Mean Girl and attempts duck. We are both happy, as our respective quarry better fits the recent switch.

One "trouble" with red shahin types is that they are very fast but have very heavy wing loading--- look at the thin wings in photo two as well as the huge chest. Paul has found it hard to keep her fit without constant work. A new book on modern Arab technique cites stooping a Barb to the lure 250 times or more--! That kind of workout should keep us BOTH fit.

Pix: first set is Cheetah-- car, field, lure. Second is Monday's unsuccessful rabbit hunt near Socorro-- suddenly 75 degrees! Paul & gos, Paul & gos & Lib, heavy cover, gos on Paul's back being impatient.

Spiked collars

We're going to experiment with a variety of spiked collars on our livestock protection dogs, but these leather collars we had made locally are a good start in protecting dogs during a wolf attack. We saw various versions of the leather collars used in Spain. For livestock producers who want to give them a try, saddlemaker Clark Weber of Rock Springs, Wyoming is the man to talk to. His cell number is 307-350-5408 and his email is mudtwo at hotmail dot com.

Clark made these two collars for our dogs based on the measurements we specified. They are 2 1/2 inches wide, and adjust from 22 to 26 inches.

Facsimile

Found items from hawking trips this year, both apropos of their settings: the first, a mesquite limb from a desert pasture north of Amarillo TX and the second a cypress knee from a bayou in the heart of Cajun Louisiana. Can you guess what spirits they possess?













- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

How to make (this) bird happy...

The peregrine (who I sometimes call Bella II after an older bird of the same breeding I once had, who moved to Utah ended up killing five- pound sage grouse though she only weighed about what this one does, 23 ounces) is pretty well trained now. She even has good manners. She never screams or "mantles" over her lure, which she responds to quickly. She happily steps off it for a tidbit.

What she is not is particularly friendly. She rarely 'tips' or tilts her head in a hawk's gesture of friendship to me (sometimes to the dogs especially Taik, sometimes to Lib; THEY don't ask her to do anything!) She hoods well but with her peculiarities; I tell people after she eats: "She'll bate [jump] once, then squawk at the sight of the hood, then accept it, though she'll bite my finger before I tighten it". She amuses all but me by never disappointing.

The one thing she absolutely loves, though, is her shower. I started soaking her with a spray bottle when she was in her first training to cool her down, still hooded-- a common enough ploy. But when she got the ease to stand around without wearing her hood for a while (she still 'needs' it more than I like because, unfed, she is more restless than most hawks who have lived with us in her situation) she fell completely in love with the experience.

Look at these photos-- ecstasy! She spreads her wings, bows, trembles, covers her eyes with her clear eyelids, drinks, rubs her beak on the perch, repeats, soliciting again and again until she is drenched. In an hour she would do it again,and even a third time if there were enough hours in a winter's day.




Eventually she should probably move on, as we have no proper game close by and cannot afford to feed "pets". She is the potential duck hawk her anatum half (the other is Barbary) implies, if ever there was one, needing only consistent pigeon work. But hunting ducks would mean a 40 mile drive each way; with three narcoleptic periods a day from meds plus an arthritic hip driving that much is not high on my list right now.

I need close- to- home birds that neeed little or no driving-- a gos or Harris male, a little tiercel longwing brought up to our quirks and with our dogs (our Barb- Teita, now in capable hands, had the right size and upbringing, but when I gave her away I couldn't walk 100 yards and thought I might never; now I can hunt hard for two consecutive days without hurting more than my back!) Nor is she entirely happy living in the intimacy our 'lifestyle' demands, though most US falconers wouldn't even notice (newer readers see last two older pix for why).

So if you think you might have ducks for a water- loving bird: you know where to find us.

Dear dog: Please break the rule

This cold and blustery day started with me letting Hud the herding dog puppy outside to find a dirty-headed bald eagle sitting on the power pole, watching the goings-on in the yard. Okay, so I put the big dog out with the little dog as a precaution.

Morning proceeded, and I noticed Rena the guardian wasn't staying close enough to the house to entertain the pup. How come? These two tricksters (click on photo for larger image) had come through, attempting to lure Rena out the back fence and onto the Mesa big game winter range. Rena is a lovely dog, but how I wish she'd grab at least one of these two coyotes. Now we've got a game where the Mesa fence is "safe." Grrr says me. Maybe I'll try to pop one with something more than a camera.

Our sheep herd will be moved here to the house in a few more weeks, and with them come the guardians with less tolerance.

Quote of the Day

"I call it dogwatching, just like birdwatching for some. We all are dogwatchers, no matter, hunting, or not."

(Vladimir Beregovoy, emeritus dogwatcher, in our Asia Group)

Team

From Teddy Moritz: Garmin, a young longhair dachs, working rabbits with an experienced Harris on crusted snow. Good birds make good dogs and vice versa. And: I need a Harris, at last.

MANY links

Unseasonal cold weather (down to nearly - 30 or as people are suddenly all saying "NEGATIVE" 30 F at night) has curtailed outdoor activity but there have been everything from house emergencies to deadlines to unexpected trips to Santa Fe, all taking their toll on the blog. I hope regular service can resume-- I have a ridiculous amount of linkage saved and will never catch up soon. Onward!

A video of the galgo hare coursing championship, from a Spanish hunting and fishing show (see opening clips), courtesy of Gail Goodman. Can you imagine such a show in the US?

Cultivation of the bird's- nest soup bird, courtesy of Arthur Wilderson, who writes: "I wonder what might be done to further enhance the productivity of such sites. A ban on the use of pesticides in the immediate area might increase insect densities and so support more birds. I could see some sort of anti-predator campaign too, if the native birds of prey haven't been long since wiped out... Then you'd start selectively breeding the swiftlets for maximum nest production, and the cycle of domestication would begin anew."

Maybe such efforts are the reason you can get authentic "nest" as an ingredient in soft drinks-- in Albuquerque!


Nabokov was right! 65 years ago, working solely by close observation of morphology, he predicted we would find that New World "blue" butterflies invaded in five successive waves from Siberia and radiated out, evolving into many new species, all the way down the Andes...

DNA has just proved him 100% correct, in both theory and detail. The story is both a triumphant vindication of Nabokov, who was often sniffed at by entomologists as a dilettante, and a classic demonstration of close observation and traditional taxonomic methods-- one that shows that, done right, they still work.

NOT the Onion: "food" recall; HT John McLoughlin.

$200,000 racing pigeons going to China, where they seem to want to exceed our excesses. My father and his business partner, a banker, spent what then seemed like a literal fortune to bring a winning strain from Europe in the early 60's, but this seems crazy. As Betsy Huntington used to say (adjust for inflation): "Never pay more than one thousand dollars for anything that can DIE."

It appears that bacon is a gateway drug for vegetarians.

Screw the political correctitude of the moment: as Carl Zimmer says, Pere David and his ilk were heroes. (And sorry, science as we know it is western. As Pat Hemingway says, Islamists use jets, not flying carpets).

They have made a movie out of The Long Walk. I don't really care if the story is 100% true or not.

Tom Russell sings Tonight we Ride on Letterman, and even that smug bastard likes it. Bonus: Paul Schaeffer plays Mexican accordion!

Coyote- hunting longdogs from Kansas, from a good blog new to me. I'll be checking it more.

Medieval falconry video: somewhere in eastern Europe, a gyr (gyr hybrid?) kills a heron dead in the air with one blow. There is rumored to be more including cheetahs...

Next, dog & bird; tomorrow, more birds among other things...?

Dog wrestling

No the man is not about to be eaten by the dog! That's our Aziat Rant, giving husband Jim a love tap while they were wrestling around on the ground after we fed the sheep today. A look at the muscling in his front legs demonstrates why these dogs are famous as wolf wrestlers. Rant had already done the scratch-my-belly submissive play with both Jim and I, and was thrilled when Jim hit the ground too. Rant is such a serious guardian, and it's great to watch him engage in pure puppy play.

Air Force

Snapped this shot on the fly today. It's a hard winter in western Wyoming with deep crusted snow, and mule deer and pronghorn are starting to winterkill. Carcasses of big game animals are immediately targeted by avian predators. A weak rough-legged hawk landed at Jim's gravel pit yesterday, so he called state wildlife officials. Poor bugger was so weak it didn't take much to catch, with the biologist walking right up to the hawk and picking him up. There's a herd of about 400 elk about 25 miles south of our place out in the high sagebrush desert. Hope the rest of the winter is more gentle.

A Vet Bleg

A good blog friend, the pseudonymously named "Max" of Life Beyond Falconry, has a request for a good friend in dire straits. For many reasons Max and I share a lot of info on active people with dire health problems (an instance: Max lost a spouse to Cystic Fibrosis, which I have a heterozygous gene for), so I have been aware of Laura's ongoing health situation for a while. What is more, she is not only a falconer-- she is a writer (on car racing), with all the uncertainties the writer's life brings nowadays plus. Here's Max:

"Laura Culley has flown her red tailed hawk Mariah FOREVER (15 years). If you don't know her -- she is an amazing woman who has fought a crippling arthritis to get out there every day and hunt with the bird she has loved since she was an apprentice.

"Two days ago Mariah was chasing a bunny full speed and crashed through a window. She has head trauma but it looks like she'll live. There is a fair amount of soft tissue damage, which will heal, but it remains to be seen if there is permanent damage to her right eye.

"Laura has not gotten much work in the past year, and her financial situation has forced her to move in with friends (goshawk breeders Richard and Becky Brunotte).

"I'm asking people here on Querencia to consider making a donation to help Laura with vet bills.

"If you wish to help, please make a check out to Richard Brunotte (Laura's bank is in Wyoming, messiness) and send it to:

Laura Culley
7060 Garden Lane
Commerce City, CO 80022

With many thanks,

"Max the Vax"

Steve again--- this is straight stuff, and I will vouch for "Max" & co. I know you have helped me-- dig in a bit for Laura? I sometimes think vet bills will bankrupt us before medical ones...

Check in later for an easier dedicated pay site I hope.

Update: here it is.

Carving history

Kolyo Stayko shows the head of his shepherd’s crook as his sheep and goat herd grazes one morning on the mountainside near Chepelare, Bulgaria. Many herders in Bulgaria carve ornate heads on these ancient tools that are used to ensnare the leg of individual animals for capture and handling. The serpent symbolizes the earth, and the ram’s head and a wolf epitomize the intertwined lives of the animals – predator and prey – found in the wild of the Balkans.

Girlie guns

My comment to an earlier post that "As for me, I herd with a firearm"generated the question of what exactly I carry. The two pistols and two shotguns in these photos are my regular companions, so please ignore how dirty and scratched they may look – these aren't collector's items, but are tools like shovels here on the ranch. Only thing is, these are my personal firearms, so anyone who wants to use or borrow one has to ask permission or there is hell to pay.

The Ruger .22 mag single six was something I inherited from my brother-in-law Mikey many years ago when he moved overseas. It was my first revolver and I fell in love with that pistol. Despite its size, that pistol has been many miles in my purse or camera bag, and I wouldn't dream of checking into a hotel room without the butt sticking outside my overnight bag. (I also have a concealed weapon permit.) Good old friend.

The Smith & Wesson 44 mag (along with two speed reloaders) is a new addition to my arsenal. Mikey didn't like hearing about me stalking around in the dark willows looking for sheep while I had a bear killing them, and presented me with the gift of my new revolver. It's either a real treat to shoot, or a butt-kicker, depending on the shot load. Either of the pistols will fit in my pack that I wear while on my dirt bike in the sheep pastures.


The Stevens Model 9478 20 gauge I inherited from my mother. It was her personal shotgun, and when Mom passed away of cancer about 10 years ago, I was pleased to receive it and her horn-handle hunting knife.

My other shotgun is a ported Harrington & Richardson 12 gauge Topper Deluxe slug gun. Jim and I stopped at a gas station outside a pawn shop in Jackson Hole, Wyoming a few years ago and when we went in to pay for the gas, I spotted the slug gun. I carried it out with me for $100, and that is one FUN gun.

The ranch owns plenty of other firearms, but these four are what I use on a daily basis, and most of the time they are found in my pickup truck. Jim and Cass both own semi-autos that they use when we have large carnivores in the sheep pastures, and I'll shoot these, but they aren't what I pack around. These four that I've described are what we call the "girlie guns" because they're mine.

The Kazakh Bird Dog

When I got Ataika from Kazakhstan years ago her people insisted that a good tazi would also work as a bird dog to the gun, and wouldn't need much training. Atai has always worked as a hare courser and a falcon's partner (see last weekend's post) and during the one month she was taken out with a shortwing (a Harris) instantly adjusted her range and behavior to that too-- I'll put a photo below, at the end, as a reminder.

But starting in her second year and noticing her instant adaptation to whatever was going on, I began to take her out with the gun, exhorting her only to "hunt close" She like most of her kind was already a natural retriever. I shot a few rabbits and birds, and with no further ado she became as good a bird dog as my spaniels were, and as most of my friends' labs (barring water-- a certain desert fastidiousness still prevails there!) She hunts in shotgun range, checks cover, flash points and flags, usually-- she uses her good judgment whether it is necessary-- only chases birds after the shot.

She will be seven this year and I rather take this all for granted, but I sometimes get the feeling bird dog friends are a shade skeptical. This weekend, pursuing an article, I wanted to take out the four pound English .410 "one- hand" gun that has been hanging around on- spec for months. Photo op!

Unfortunately the Government trapper was in action on our preferred ranch coverts, so I went to a heavily hunted place and came up dry. But I think her style will leave little to doubt.

Heading out:


Closing up as we enter cover:


Checking carefully:


Coming in; no treat even needed:


And the gun-- yeah, this one:


Detail:


And one of Atai with the Harris a couple of seasons back-- something I may now try with my own HH.


I should add: in none of these photos am I giving orders, telling her to heel, saying "hunt close" even. She is far past my commanding her to do anything but come in at the end of the day-- then, she can be a little reluctant IF we haven't caught anything! Otherwise a simple "Good girl Taik" suffices.

Kipling Goshawk

As mentioned below, Rudyard Kipling's father John Lockwood Kipling, artist and museum curator, wrote a book on Indian animals (Man and Beast in India, 1892) which includes a bit on falconry. Here is HIS gos.

Reducing carnivore conflicts

Many Q readers are familiar with my family’s varied efforts to keep large carnivores from preying on our domestic sheep, and of my firm belief that we wouldn’t be in the sheep business without the use of livestock protection dogs.

This time I’m going to share a story of the efforts of family friends, the Thomans, and what their situation is like every summer as they graze three domestic sheep flocks in the Upper Green River region of the Bridger-Teton National Forest north of Pinedale, Wyoming. The late Bill Thoman is the reason I’m in the sheep business – he introduced me to orphan lambs, and my ewe herd originated on his ranch. Bill died in a tragic accident a few years ago, and now it’s the Thoman women who run the ranch full time – a big western range cattle and sheep operation. That’s my friend Mary Thoman riding the range in the Upper Green, with sheep in the background, in the photo above.

At the same time Jim and I received grant funding from the Wyoming Animal Damage Management Board for our international research project on Old World guardian dogs last year, the Thoman ranches received funding to install electric fences as portable night pens on their mountain grazing allotments.

Installation of the night pens last summer allowed for the sheep and sheepherders to be protected, while reducing the number of grizzly bears removed from the area due to conflict.

Mary said the project was a success, letting sheep rest at night. The result was that her family’s four-month old lambs came off the mountain at a record weight of 96 pounds. She reported that the herds were calm after resting all night instead of running from predators as had been the case the last few years with increased grizzly bear and gray wolf populations on the allotments.

The Thoman family has grazed four allotments in the Elk Ridge Complex in the Upper Green for 34 years, and has experienced increased conflicts with large carnivores in recent years. The ranch places three herds of about 1,000-head of sheep, on the allotments for grazing from July through September each year, leaving one allotment to rest annually.

One of the allotments was frequented by 12 grizzly bears and four black bears in 2010, and two black bears were removed by wildlife managers in response to depredations. A second herd was harassed by two grizzly bear sows and their cubs, and two wolves, with one grizzly bear removed by state officials. A third sheep herd had two or three grizzly bears, six wolves, and a mountain lion around it all summer. The sheep were safe at night, but these big predators were successful in preying on the herds in daylight hours.

“The major killing occurred during the daytime when small groups of sheep were run up into the timber or rocks and then killed,” she reported.

Here’s a photo of a trap used to live capture bears, parked outside the night pen.

State and federal wildlife managers and animal damage experts were on the scene to help minimize livestock losses and document problems, but losses to predators were substantial again in 2010. Mary said that the losses would have been “astronomical” without the use of the night pens.

In 2010, predators killed 259 ewes and 186 lambs, with a total value of about $65,000. The Thomans received nearly $54,000 in damage compensation by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department, with the ranch forced to absorb the remaining $11,000 loss on its own.

Livestock losses due to large carnivores on the allotments have increased steadily in recent years, with damage ranging from about $17,000 in 2005, to $40,000 in 2008, and 2010’s $65,000. Mary said that while the ranch had made adjustments to try to control losses, the arrival of female grizzlies with cubs resulted in a doubling of livestock losses.

One night in late September, a female grizzly and her cub attempted to dig underneath the electric fence to get to the sheep inside, but failed. The trench left by the digging bruins was an impressive sight.

“With the nightly use of pens, the herders were able to secure the three herds at night and did not have to jeopardize their lives to check on sheep that may have been attacked by bears or wolves,” Mary said.


One of the Thoman’s sheepherders was mauled by a grizzly bear during the 2009 grazing season when he stepped away from his tent to check on a barking livestock protection dog.

While the night pens were deemed a success, not all deterrents worked as well. Herders on one allotment used a large spotlight on the back of their tent to discourage grizzly bears, while another used a small electric pen around his sleeping tent. Herders using an air horn to scare bears away found it worked to deter black bears, but actually attracted the curiosity of grizzlies. Flashlights had no deterrent effects at all. Herders had to be moved out of their tent and into a sheep wagon until electric pens could be set up around their campsites once a grizzly threatened to enter the herder camp.

Herders stay in these hard-sided camps as much as possible, but when the herds are moved too deep into the backcountry, or into the wilderness, they sleep in tents.


On another occasion, a sow grizzly and her cub became entangled in the electric fence around a herd, gaining entrance and killing about 20 sheep. Thoman fears a repeat performance from this sow: “This bear may acclimate to swatting the pen, as this was the second attempt she made at entering the pen.”

The Thomans use a variety of deterrents, from a half-dozen livestock protection dogs with each herd, to bear-proof containers utilized for storage of food and supplies.

Here’s a photo of one of the storage boxes for dog food, followed by a bear-resistant shed for larger items.


Herders working for the Thoman ranch do not carry firearms, but are supplied with pepper spray. The herders receive training in safety and in food storage requirements.

The Thomans use livestock protection dogs that have proven to be very effective against male grizzlies, but have limited effectiveness with bear family groups, and with wolves. Wolves killed four of the Thoman guardian dogs in 2004.


Mary’s family’s expenses and presence on the allotment has increased four-fold during the last few years due to increased predator presence.

Despite the large carnivore conflicts, the Thomans maintain that these four allotments are some of the best in America, producing fat lambs averaging 90 pounds at 120 days of age, in a manner that maintains a pristine environment. Mary fears that multiple use management is falling by the wayside on the allotments, with the Endangered Species Act driving management, and inflexible U.S. Forest Service regulations and officials putting the squeeze on her family’s future on the allotments.

Mary said her family either needs to see an increase in agency cooperation, or she might end up seeking an allotment buy-out to end her family’s grazing tradition. My community, as well as these mountains the sheep graze, would feel that loss and I hope it doesn't happen. I'd like to see Mary's family continue domestic sheep use on the western range for many years to come.

This is ranch matriarch Mickey Thoman with daughter Mary Thoman.