[Treud na Mara]

Does anyone do this ?  How effective is it ?  How difficult ?
Thanks

[Womble]

Which pests?
 
I used to work at a distillery where the local falconry club held a club night once a month for pigeon control. I didn't know about this until one night I met somebody half way down a staircase with a full grown Harris Hawk on his arm!
 
Apparently they were paid in whisky every Christmas  .

[Treud na Mara]

Well the local rabbit population have discovered some of our new trees (we do use tree guards), and the usual mouse and voles.  We have a cat who does his bit and does the occasional rabbit, but we are on a fairly busy road, A99, and have already lost one cat, so it just occurred to me that a feathered hunter might be worth considering and might also be able to work on neighbours problem vermin.

[Treud na Mara]

 
Apparently they were paid in whisky every Christmas  .


We would happily accept this form of payment if we could offer the service to others! Hic!

[Womble]

Could you get in touch with local falconers and invite them to hunt on your land to learn more about it?  It's certainly a fascinating subject. For example, did you know that if birds of prey eat too much, they sit and sulk and won't fly until they've digested it?  This is thought to be the origin of the phrase 'fed up'.
 
Alternatively, what about an air rifle and an owl nesting box or two?
 
 

[Treud na Mara]

Thanks Womble for all the great ideas, and information. BH has the air rifle, not sure about his aim though lol.
And owl nest boxes - is it a case of build it and they will come ?

[Steph Hen]

You'd use ferrets to flush rabbits out, then Falcons to kill bunnies.
You're only as good as your ferrets are.
Purse nets, long nets, dogs (? Legal?) or a shotgun can also be used to catch/kill bolting rabbits.
Purse nets are easy to use. Shot gun is quick. I'd have thought a hawk would be about the hardest method of rabbit control,min terms of time and skill required. Long nets are not easy either!
If you have a fence around your trees, can you install a drop trap? -Google fir pic of one.
Voles and mice, I'd have thought wild predators would be your best bet.

[Treud na Mara]

Thanks for that Steph Hen. We started off tubing all our tree plantings, except holly, when we started 18 months ago. However for over a thousand trees last year it added to the expense. We had some untubed to test the difference and after a year concluded that wind-stop netting was more cost effective for most places. Interestingly holly did not do well and seemed most susceptible to the Caithness wind. This week we found that in the enclosure nearest the area, on neighbouring land where we have seen most rabbits, there was quite a bit of nibbling and bark stripping. We're now going to tube everything in this planting but I thought we might need to be looking at more serious control than just one cat !

[sss]

Two forums I used to find my ferret man was pigeon watch and hunting life.  They also had sections for falconry and shooters.  Loads of amateurs that are looking to fly their birds, run the ferrets or hunt.

[Porterlauren]

Falconry is useless for pest control.

I know a man in Caithness who does a lot of rabbit control.

[Treud na Mara]

Thanks Porterlauren. When we went in to do the tubing we found some small tunnelling holes so we don't think it is a rabbit problem now. This would make sense as it's only a very small patch that's affected. Keeping an eye on things and so far no more damage in a week.

[Loobylou]

I have a neighbour who does falconry, he sometimes flies his birds on my land for rabbits. Seems ok

[devonlady]

Your falcon would kill and eat a rabbit every 3 or 4 days. Whippets will kill rabbits for a pastime!

[Clansman]

I've just come across this thread!

I have a pair of Harris Hawks.

They will catch and kill quite a number of rabbits, hare, crows, squirrels, crows, per day.

they would indeed just catch one and eat it if left to their own devices but removing the kill and giving them a small reward keeps them in hunting mode for the rest of the day.

Mine are too slow for catching pigeons, you'd need one of the faster hawks or falcons for that, Peregrines etc but for rabbits etc they are ideal.

The female as with most birds of prey is significantly larger than the male, in Harris hawks the female is almost half as big again as the male, meaning she is a lot more powerful though slightly less agile and quick off the mark.

The male can catch squirrels, which the female struggles to do, though she is quite capable of taking down a hare which he would struggle with.

Harris hawks are one of the few birds of prey that hunt co-operatively in groups, most birds of prey are solitary hunters.

The males will usually flush out the prey, even if that means walking around on foot to chase a rabbit out of a bush for the rest of them to drop down from above and catch it.

Watching them race to catch up to the prey then work together as a team to bring it down is something well worth experiencing.

The lead bird will fly in hard to take down the rabbit with another one or two hanging just behind like the wingmen in fighter planes waiting on the rabbit coming into their sights.

If the lead bird misses or the rabbit makes a change of direction it finds itself in the flightpath of the second bird arriving just a split second later at full speed.

As a means of pest control falconry is very poor, the kill rate is very low for the time spent.

If my main aim were to harvest rabbits I'd easily get 10 times as many by sitting out with an air rifle.

Despite this many falconers advertise their services for pest control. It does work if you're doing it constantly but to pay someone to do that would cost a fortune!

I have a friend who flies Peregrines at the local airport to keep birds away and again that does work (whilst he's there) but the birds come back as soon as the falcons leave.

Great fun but as an effective means of pest control no.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiuREwkSeS8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai3eVjr0Pzg

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/vulture_king?source=relatedvideo