Testimonials

Terry Spring - lower mainland B.C.

This is my first tame-hacked Canadian Anatum Peregrine from Prairie Sky Falcons, and I am duly impressed! Her transition from tame hack to falconry was seamless and effortless. From the time of fledging to now, following Lynn Oliphant's 4 week window program, her development has been unbroken; mimicking the natural development of falcons in the wild - and it shows! For someone as busy as I am, this falcon was a dream. She came to me already made to the hood and lure; as well as fit and confident in her flight skills. This falcon knew how to FLY. For those worried that tame-hacked falcons will tend to sit, this has certainly NOT been my experience. Fit falcons do not sit. She took to the drone immediately, and three days into the hunting season killed her first duck from a very nice pitch. Since then her hunting skills have only gotten better. There is no comparison between this falcon and the chamber-raised falcons I have flown in the past. As she stands relaxed, wings held tight to her body, eating her meal after a duck kill, I have no regrets. I will never fly another falcon that hasn't had a chance to develop naturally. I can't speak highly enough of the Prairie Sky Falcons project.

**Image is of Spectra (Click for larger view)

Jim Younk - Montana USA

A strong, calm confident hawk. I am extremely impressed at how she handles the wind and uses it to quickly gain a pitch. Growing up in Saskatchewan probably helps with that. The flight experience and physical conditioning of the hack were evident even though she had sat in the mews for almost a year. I was considering that this year would be a sort of transition year to get her back in shape, but that really was not the case as it took very little time to return her to a fit state

**Image is of Dragon on a Sage Grouse (Click for larger view)

Mark Williams

I have never flown a hacked bird before Coal but now I have experienced for myself along with several others that I have seen fly that it has my full attention. I have witnessed three different birds out of Lynn’s project and all have stood out as particularly high-flying birds. Unquestionably their formative training at tame hack has huge benefits in the crucial development period in training a young bird. He flies so high it is difficult to find a set up where huns are far enough from cover to enable Coal a good clean shot before being beaten to cover.

Would I get another hacked bird, unreservedly … yes.

**Image is of Cole (Click for larger view)

Martin Geleynse - current Canadian NAFA director

I have really enjoyed the tame-hacked birds. One of the primary advantages of tame hacking in my opinion is that the birds move very smoothly and naturally through the developmental stages. They go from hacking to hawking seamlessly without the need to delay training to drop the bird’s weight and man it first. This offers some of the advantages of imprinting without the birds actually being imprinted.

In both cases my tame hacked birds were very aerial. They flew high, hard and long. In fact my second bird, Kira didn’t landed once in her entire first year of hunting which included some very long flight! This past season, her second year, she landed 3 times but in each case the weather was very warm and she was significantly over-weight…I probably shouldn’t have flown her at all!

Karl Heinz Gersmann - International Falconer

After my experiences with these two peregrines I can only conclude, all in all, that for game hawking there is nothing better you can fly than one of these tame hacked birds. They are perfect in manners, ready to fly and fly they do! What more can you ask for? It only took me 37 years to learn. My congratulations and, especially, my thanks to Lynn Oliphant and his hacking partner Paddy Thomson; they have opened new paths for anyone serious about game hawking.

W.J.Paddy Thompson: Sec. Saskatchewan Falconry Association

"I have flown a lot of longwings in my day from merlins to Gyrs, but these tame hacked peregrines do it all with no hassle and a lot of style."