Words & Pictures
Lee Brindley session on the creance. The distance that she was called was extended each day and as her weight fell, her responses improved and she also began to show interest in quarry. When I went into the mews to take her for her daily training session on 4th February, I noticed a great change in her demeanour. Connie leaned forward as I approached - her crest erect and her eyes alert and trained upon my glove. From my experience with Accipiters I recognised the behaviour... she was in yarak! Without further ado, I removed the leash and swivel and went looking for quarry. It was far from ideal conditions for Connie’s maiden flight, being particularly blustery weather. Despite the high winds, our hunting session was a relative success and although we failed to make a kill, Connie chased a few small birds with gusto and appeared to be fit, healthy and almost ready for release. Over the following days whilst hunting with Connie, I felt an emotion which I had not predicted and came as quite a surprise. Although I was having fun flying her, I was now feeling a sense of guilt. I had a strong feeling that Connie did not belong in my possession and it became increasingly important to me that she was returned to the wild as quickly as possible. Of course, it was also important that I was convinced that she was completely capable of survival in the wild before I released her. For the first four days that I flew her, Connie failed to make
a kill. I was starting to get a little concerned but realistically, the weather was so rough that most sparviters would probably have never ventured out! The strong wind persisted throughout every day and was interspersed with heavy showers. On 8th February the weather finally let up. The conditions were cool, dry and still – perfect sparrow hawking weather for the first time! I walked out from my home and headed across the field behind my house. Within five minutes a small bird flushed and in this, Connie’s first flight of the day, she was successfully entered. Over the next few days, the weather remained favourable and we had a good number of exciting flights, many of which were unsuccessful but she appeared to be flying with great determination and with apparently no lasting negative effects from her once injured leg. Flying a passage spar was not what I had expected. Firstly, Connie was incredibly tame. Some of this could be accredited to the time that she spent with Karl before she came to me but I could see little difference in her docility compared to the imprint spars that I have flown. She happily flew over my dogs and even friends’ dogs which she had previously never seen. She was very comfortable on the fist and would not even bate as I jumped down from on top of gates and fence posts. She was also very responsive to the fist and I never needed a
lure to recall her. My son, Reece took quite a shine to Connie and she would happily sit and feed on his fist. In fact there was very little difference between the nature of Connie and a typical imprint sparrow hawk. She would even foot the glove with a pulsating “sticky footed” grip which I had always thought to be an imprint trait rather than a general sparrow hawk trait. One problem that I always had expected to encounter with a passage spar was the vice of carrying. Sure enough, Connie showed signs of an inclination to carry her prey from the outset. Once she had a couple of kills successfully under her belt, I decided that she was fit enough to fend for herself in the wild and that to fly her any longer would be to risk losing her on a kill with all of her equipment on. On the morning of 13th February (just three weeks after she arrived) I gave Connie a full crop of food and cut off her jesses and bell. I went out into the garden with Reece and handed Connie to him. He gently tossed her from his hands and quicker than a dart, she was gone. The following day from the comfort of my bedroom window, I watched a wild sparrow hawk circling over the fields behind my home. It could well have been any resident wild hawk but I felt a certain sense of contentment that it just might be Connie I hope she lives a long and successful life.
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