• The SH Membership has gone live. Only SH Members have access to post in the classifieds. All members can view the classifieds. Starting in 2020 only SH Members will be admitted to the annual hunting contest. Current members will need to follow these steps to upgrade: 1. Click on your username 2. Click on Account upgrades 3. Choose SH Member and purchase.
  • We've been working hard the past few weeks to come up with some big changes to our vendor policies to meet the changing needs of our community. Please see the new vendor rules here: Vendor Access Area Rules

Animals caught on camera doing amazing things

Crap, now to be a successful hunter I've got to learn to play a darn harp.... That's definitely going to be a pain to pack in. Why couldn't it be a harmonica??
 

I was hunting once and saw a hawk swoop down and snatch a squirrel off the ground right under me. He got the squirrel up about 12 feet and the squirrel wiggled loose and hit the ground. Then scurried up a tree to safety like nothing happened. I wondered what puncture wounds he had. The things you see in the woods while hunting.
 

I love it!

That’s actually one of my female redtails hunting squirrels in that footage.

I’m a licensed falconer, and was contacted to work with the videographers to produce footage for the episode they were working on. I flew her without any equipment so that you wouldn’t see jesses/anklets.

This was her third season with me. I released her back to the wild the following spring.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I love it!

That’s actually one of my female redtails hunting squirrels in that footage.

I’m a licensed falconer, and was contacted to work with the videographers to produce footage for the episode they were working on.

This was her third season with me. I released her back to the wild the following spring.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Wow.....small world. The camera work was amazing...I don't know how u guys got those shots
 
Wow.....small world. The camera work was amazing...I don't know how u guys got those shots

The camera work is pretty awesome, and both of the videographers were awesome to work with. Highly skilled, and using phenomenal equipment.

If you really dissect it, you might notice that there are actually 2 different birds. They’re both adult redtails, but mine was female (larger) and the other was male.

My birds are hunting birds; they’re “tame” enough to work with, and willingly follow me through the woods, but they’re entirely oriented to hunting. The actual hunting footage was all my female. In general, I trap an immature bird (full size, and already hunting on its own, but not colored the same as an adult), train it to accept me and allow me to tag along as a team member on its hunts, and then take it out hunting. It takes a few weeks to get to that stage, and I generally hunt with a bird for a few seasons and then release it back to the wild when it’s ready to breed.

The male bird was trained differently, and was used for the closeup or “story enhancement” footage. The close-ups of the feet, eyes, the shot where the bird flies “under” the camera, on top of the “nest” and the segment of the squirrel and bird at the hole in the tree were all done with the male bird, and there was no squirrel involved.

My female did actually strike the nest, but when the squirrel came out it was 30 feet up the tree (camera was at ground level) and the squirrel only made it about 20 feet before she caught it. The storyline was that the squirrel would escape though, so the squirrels she caught while we were filming weren’t shown.

Basically, my bird and I just hunted our way through the woods (several different locations over several days) and the camera guys followed and filmed what they could. They were looking for certain shots/clips that they could use to tell the story they had outlined, and I did my best to set up situations where those things would happen, but in reality my bird didn’t give a dang about any of that ;) Using those clips and augmenting with closeups of the male, and some staged (and natural) footage of squirrels they were able to put it all together into a “story”.

I was really impressed with the effort taken to stay consistent over the several days we hunted/filmed. It was important that the lighting was consistent, the sky color/clouds, the type of woods and mix/ratio of tree type, underbrush, etc., all were taken into account.

On the one hand, it’s kind of disappointing to know that many/most of the really good wildlife videography is less than what it would seem; on the other, it’s cool to know how much thought, strategy and effort really goes into producing those videos guys like us love to watch, and at the end of the day the value of those efforts is unmeasurable when it comes to being wildlife ambassadors and keeping the public interest in our natural environment high.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I was hunting once and saw a hawk swoop down and snatch a squirrel off the ground right under me. He got the squirrel up about 12 feet and the squirrel wiggled loose and hit the ground. Then scurried up a tree to safety like nothing happened. I wondered what puncture wounds he had. The things you see in the woods while hunting.
I was doing some pig hunting last season with a leaf suit on in the saddle. I had a bit of canopy cover and a clearing by a trail. I took the grunter out to try to call some in and while I was moving my hands to change grunt tones a big hawk swooped down quickly talons forward like maybe my gloved fingers operating the grunter, looked like a squirrel? Last minute as I turned and let out a frightened squeal, (yes I didn’t see him coming until he was a few feet from me, so I was startled), he swooped up to a branch on a nearby tree and kind of looked at me somewhat bewildered. I believe I almost lost a hand that day lol
 
this is nuts, graphic

The part it don’t show is where the pig gets up and walks away...
That was a small pig but I have seen a sound of 4 hogs (2 large, 1 medium and 1 small) run a Florida black bear clean off for attaching the small pig. One on one the bear should win but there are many times when the pigs have the numbers.
 
Back
Top