Some of my current and former hawks

Killer

This is Killer, out of the Coulsons's Lola, hatched in 1999.  Killer is the best Harris's hawk I've ever had, or ever seen.  She has caught everything from pygmy rabbits (Brachylagus idahoensis) to white-tailed jackrabbits (Lepus townsendii).  Her persistence in the chase is incredible.  She will chase a jackrabbit for half a mile, stooping and rebounding until the catch is made.  In September 2003 she was nearly killed when she hit a fast-moving jackrabbit just as it raced through a hole in the sagebrush.  After almost 400 kills in her first 4 seasons, Killer is now retired from hunting, and is paired with Milo for breeding.  I gave her and Milo to Tom and Jennifer Coulson after the hawks in the Coulsons's breeding program, including Killer's parents, were wiped out by Hurricane Katrina.

Milo

Milo is a 2001 male from the White Wing line, bred by Tom and Jennifer Coulson.  He hopped to the fist the second day out of the chamber and flew free 10 days later, catching a mountain cottontail the same day.  In his first season he loved to chase cottontails and quail, but didn't show much interest in jackrabbits.  He did catch a jack on his first trip to California, but it was the tiniest jackrabbit I've ever seen (300 grams)!  At the tender age of two years he became a father, siring offspring out of Killer.  In the 2003-4 hawking season he became quite a jack hawk, taking many black-tailed jackrabbits and even catching a white-tailed jack in a solo shot in Wyoming.  Milo is the most laid-back male I've ever had, and is a joy to fly and breed.  He's paired with Killer (and, sometimes, Prima) at the Coulsons's now.

Neon

Neon is a 1999 male out of Foxtrot and WD-40.  For his first two seasons he was flown by my daughter Bridget and me.  He is the hardest-hitting male I have ever seen.  Several times he has literally knocked himself out on impact with cottontails and jackrabbits.  He has had many misadventures, including being pulled out of a rabbit burrow with a piece of barbed wire, breaking a toe, and getting hit by a truck.  He is on breeding loan to me from Cory Rhea.  I've paired Neon with Q.

Q

Q is Killer's younger sister, hatched in 2003 by Tom and Jenn Coulson.  Typical of the best offspring out of Lola, Q hopped to the glove the same day she arrived after being pulled from the breeding chamber and air freighted across the country.  Ten days later she made her first kill, and on her first jackrabbit hunt she caught three black-tailed jacks.  She has a wonderful personality and an unbelievably strong hunting desire.  Due to the loss of the Coulson's breeding program to Hurricane Katrina, Q has been retired (at least temporarily) for breeding, paired with Neon.

Shadow

Shadow was bred by Tom and Jenn Coulson in 2004, out of Jenn's hunting hawk Ten (who is herself out of Lola).  Shadow is a sister and clutchmate of Bob Armbruster's Isis.  On jackrabbits, Shadow employs one attack style almost exclusively, uncomplicated but effective – a full-afterburner, deep-wingbeat pursuit ending with a crunch into the sagebrush sounding like an anvil thrown into a tub of corn flakes.  She has a bone-crushing grip and almost never loses a jack once she touches it, even if she can only get one foot on it.  Perhaps her greatest asset is a hyperactive blast-furnace metabolism that enables her to eat a big crop of jackrabbit and still produce a casting, as predictable as Old Faithful, before sunrise every morning.  Her appetite is insatiable.  She comes off kills easily, greedy for even a small food reward.  Shadow hunts with intensity almost regardless of weight.  She is physically tough.  Because of these traits, Shadow is like Lou Gehrig – ready to play every game.  Thanks to a jackrabbit population explosion in 2005, Shadow caught 94 jacks in 44 days.  In her first 4 seasons she made over 400 kills, including more than 300 jackrabbits.  Twice she has caught over 100 jackrabbits in seasons that were only 6 weeks long.  For three years she was paired with Chaco to produce linebred offspring descended from White Wing and Malcolm.  I am flying two of their offspring -- Una and Vici.

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Last revised: 21-Jul-09