Breeding Quality Not Quantity
Murmansk - ¾ Russian/Finish semen donor (910 grams hunting weight):
During the last 20 years I've been hunting many Central European goshawks. But, listening about Buteoides and their abilities I got a chance to import ¾ Russian/Finish from top hunting bloodlines out of Lee Featherstone (UK) best hunting goshawks. Murmansk got name after the progeny which he is carrying from his grandmum who came from Murmansk region in Russia. Murmansk is definitely the best gamehawk I have ever been hunting with in my falconry career. His top weight in the end of the season was 910 grams. In the first two hard hawking seasons he took more than 150 Pheasants, Grey Partridges and Ducks. His persistence in flight and aggression towards game birds was unseen before. His ultimate performance was witnessed by serious falconers. On the opposite side, his temperament on the glove, with dogs and surroundings was extremely calm and relaxed. Once when you see all of these qualities you can freely state that these goshawks are superior in many aspects. Also this was the last chance to get this genetic into the breeding chambers as Lee moved to pure Albidus goshawks breeding. Murmansk is now giving first class youngsters in size with ultimate hunting abilities. You can find Murmansk's hunting photos In the field section.
Charlotte - ¾ Russian/Finish X German female (1170 grams hunting weight):
Charlotte is daughter of Murmansk and Marina. While speaking with Lee Featherstone about Buteoides X Gentilis crosses he told me that these can be ultimate hunting Goshawks. Exactly that we got with Charlotte. She stared her first season with wild coturnix quail, then moved on pheasants and finished with her first hare in the end of the season. Carrying the Buteoides bloodline she got extra size, power and persistance. In her second season she took 14 wild coturnix quail, 38 pheasants and 8 hares. Her hunting abilities on any game, and specially hares, was witnessed by many knowledgeable falconers. They all agreed that she worth her weight in gold. Charlotte is now left for our future breeding hopefully with new coming nice size male and will be hunted during the coming seasons. You can find Charlotte's hunting photos In the field section.
Marina - german female (1040 grams hunting weight):
Marina is Central European female imported from Austria with help of my good friend and Austrian falconer who connected me with the breeder. Origin of her bloodline is coming from the southern slopes of the Alps where seriously tough life and only the very best make it through the first two years. Goshawks there have to specialize on winged prey, red squirrel and the occasional mountain snow shoe hare. In combination with the altitude (up to 9000ft), regular arctic temperatures of up to -25c and 10 ft of snow in winter, the selection process is very tough for the birds. With this kind of progeny I was rewarded with supreme hunting bird. She took over 250 Pheasants, Partridges and Ducks in three seasons of hard core hawking before entered in breeding. She also liked hares very much but didn't have chance to get many slips on them. End of her hunting season was on 1040 grams. Marina is one the best mums I have ever seen and she is laying, incubating and rearing youngsters with easiness.
Marina is Charlotte's mum. You can find Marina's hunting photos In the field section.
King Henry - ¾ Albidus male donor (hunting weight 900 grams)
King Henry was bred by Steven Lambert from England. He is first goshawk with Albidus blood tested on very demanding summer quarry - wild coturnix quail. After quail, he moved on Grey Partridges and Pheasants. In his prime condition he became "Goshawk with Falcon's Wings". His intial speed made him catching game birds so easy that was hard to believe.
He ended his first season of 3 hawking months:
24 wild Coturnix quail
12 Grey Partridges
37 Pheasants.
You can find King Henry's hunting photos and video In the field section.
King Henry's Progeny:
Mother:
Nimue is a 3/4 Albidus Goshawk bred by Glyn Talbot, from a white 3/4 Albidus/Finnish Goshawk bred by Keith Sherry, and my male King Arthur. Glyns female was a very strong flying and determined hawk in flight, and took many head of quarry both fur and feather. Nimue has been a good hawk and I am still flying her. Given I can no longer fly everyday and dont have access to land and quarry like I used to, she does well. She has had some incredible flights over her 3 seasons, and has caught the most varied list of quarry of any hawks I've flown including: Cock and Hen Pheasants, Grey and Redlegged Partridge, Teal and Mallard ducks and drakes, Woodcock, Rabbits, Brown and Blue Hares, and come very close to catching Grouse.
Father:
King Arthur, was a 3/4 Albidus Goshawk. His father being a full silver Albidus male, and his mother being 50% Buteoides and 50% Albidus. King Arthur started his first season in early August flying corvids at just under 2lbs in weight. I could tell even then how special this hawk was. He would fly corvids with vigour and take on some incredibly long slips. A couple that stick in my mind are from some days flying in the dales, when he took on a group of 3 or 4 birds, flying just below us in a valley, these birds were a couple of hundred feet up, on passage, he didn't catch one but he took the flight on and had a couple of attempts before coming back. Another time he spotted a couple of rooks below us, he left the fist and had covered several hundred yards, before the lifted, by this time he was closing in and bound to one taking it down. As the weeks went on and the season opened he was soon taking Partridge and Pheasant, and becoming very good at them. He also flew rabbits and would occasionally take on flights at corvids still but was becoming wedded to feathered game. He was, and still is the fastest hawk I've ever flown, he was incredibly fit flying mostly wild game everyday, and caught on most days. I witnessed more mid-air binds in one season with that hawk, that 3-4 seasons flying other goshawks, there really was something special about him. Other austringers commented on this also, that when he closed down the gap on gamebirds a couple of hundred yards into the flights, his wingbeat was visibly different, making the gamebirds look slow as he plucked them from the air. He was excellent on ducks, partridge (both grey and redleg) and his main quarry of pheasants. We had some very long flights on Red Grouse too, but unfortunately he never caught one. His first season was drawn to a close in early January after a flight on partridges resulting in him losing both decks on a fence, he had caught the partridge so was fed his fill. His second season didn't last very long, he started as if he had never been put away to moult, flying strong and determined on gamebirds from the outset. On his last day hunting he was slipped on a mature cock pheasant on a very windy day, after a very lengthy track down I found him unable to stand, close to a fence, his own feathers scattered around from the impact. He took over two weeks to be able to stand and feed for himself again, but unfortunately is still unable to fly.
Eleonore - ¾ Albidus female (1220 grams hunting weight):
Eleonore is bred by Steven Lambert. She is King Henry's sister and having the same progeny.
Her first season of 4 months hawking ended with:
Hares - 7
Eleonore - ¾ Albidus female (1220 grams hunting weight):
Eleonore is bred by Steven Lambert. She is King Henry's sister and having the same progeny.
Her first season of 4 months hawking ended with:
Hares - 7
Pheasants - 23
Wild Coturnix Quail - 16
Ended her 1st season on 1220 grams on all game with instant recall on the fist on the long distance.
She's been seen by many knowledgeable falconers and their comments were: "We have never seen something like that! This is stunning looking goshawk with unbelievable persistence, strength and speed!"
She will be one of the corner stones in the breeding program.
And we continue to hunt with her in the next seasons what you can see In The Field Section.
You can find Eleonore's hunting photos In the field section.
William - ButeoidesXAlbidus male (900 grams hunting weight):
William
is home bred ButeoidesXAlbidus coming out of Murmansk and Eleonore. He
is left in the farm to become new semen donor in our breeding program. It was a very hard and long time waiting to get a goshawk like is William.
Also, as
all our goshawks, Willam is firstly tested in the field. He started his season
on very demanding game bird (migratory wilde coturnix quail) and than
moved forward to the pheasants also showing great intres on hares!
His first season of 4 months hawking ended with:
Wild Coturnix Quail - 29
Pheasants - 7
William is very persistence male goshawk who has great speed
while covering ground fast and aggressive. Since one picture is more than
thousand words and one movie is more than million pictures, you can go In
the Field section and watch his video from day when he was taken from a
mum to become first class game hawk.
You can find William's hunting photos and video In the field section.
Dixie - 3/4 Albidus female bred by Steven Lambert
Dixie is the biggest female I have ever seen in my life and I do believe that is hard to finde such a speciemen in general.
Her hunting weight is 1616 grams from woodcock, over pheasants to hares and perfect recall on the fist. I had great luck to see Dixie in action in her first season when Steve and Ben came over to Croatia for a hawking hollydays. She was an absolute beast in every meaning of the word. Flying everything from wild coturinx quail over pheasants to hares here in Croatia. It was a love on the first sight and my long term dream was to have her in my breeding chambers.
In the meanwhile, what took few years, Dixie was flown hard in England by Ben and Steve and was progressing each year more and more.
Finally, after hard work and many kilometers she is now in our breeding program.