Attila

I drove to M & J Raptors in August to pick up my Male GosHawk that i named Attila. I was to say the least very happy with his looks,very pale & a good size,just what i wanted for flying Game birds.Training progressed well,I just took my time,entering him on easy kills. The first season wasn't without problems.

The one thing I noticed about him early on was that he would bate at Game birds at silly distances but wouldn't fly then hard,with some hard work & going out almost everyday & flying him almost exclusively at game birds i got his weight up to 1lb 12 1/2 oz. I was out one afternoon when he bated,I noticed a covey of Partridge had got up,but they were over 150 yards away,I held him at first thinking he had no chance & would just bank off,then he bated again so I slipped him,he went powering after them,I went to find him,where i found him on one of the Partridge,I was over the moon. This has remained all through his hunting life so far,when he's fit & has a good weight on him he wouldn't think twice about taking a Cock Pheasant on that has got up at over 200 yards away & fly his heart out,even though with cover his chances were always slim he just wouldn't give up.

This was witnessed on one of his first field meets when he lost a lot of ground on a Cock Pheasant that went over a large open field and it had a massive gap on him but he just kept pumping his wings hard. After this meet I was told by a friend that a Goshawker on the meet said he was the best Parent reared Goshawk they had ever seen. In his third season he was reclaimed quite late,training was a lot more straight forward,when he was loose I fitness trained him for four day's and entered him in October & he took two Pheasants on his first outing. Three weeks later we were in Wales for the annual three day meet,when he was outstanding. He took two Pheasants from two slips on the first day and flew everyday with 100% commitment. The following week he flew on the BFC two day meet,again he flew his heart out on every slip at Pheasant & Partridge not missing a wing beat on every slip.

He really did come into his own,the only down side was that in the third season I had too change shifts at work & after October he could only be flown three day's a week. He had some cracking mid air binds this season & started to peak,I would have loved too see how he would of done if I could fly most day's like the first two seasons. It was hard to get the best out of him flying three day's a week,he also had a break when he hit a fence hard.

He is now in a breeding pen with a Female so fingers crossed he produces some young & most importantly i get him back as he is simply irreplaceable,I look forward to flying him next season.

Attila ended the season at 1lb 15 1/2 oz. His tally from Oct 3rd to Jan 10th,flown three days a week:
54 head,consisting of
37 Pheasant
11 Partridge
4 Rabbit
2 Various.