JUNTA

[virdz]

Gathering of Eagles 2006
Garden City, Kansas
November 14-17

Intro
Well it’s time to make plans to attend this years Gathering of Eagles in Garden City, Kansas. Southwest and west central Kansas has long been known for its abundant population of blacktail jacks and pheasants. I am very excited to be planning this meet and through hard work it should be our best meet yet.

Hotel
Our meet hotel will be the Best Western Wheatlands Hotel & Conference Center. The people at the hotel are very nice and have done well to accommodate us. They will allow dogs and birds in the rooms with no extra fee or deposit. They ask that you please let them know if you will have animals in the room when you make reservations. It is a full service hotel with a restaurant and lounge in the hotel. Rooms come with tickets for a free full breakfast each morning. The rate is $60 per night. I have blocked 10 rooms for us. All those rooms are doubles but can be switched to singles if needed. November is a busy month for the hotels so if you plan on attending please reserve a room early. Let the hotel know you are there for the GOE meet so you get the discount.

Weathering yard
The hotel has an area outside where we can weather our birds. Each person will be responsible for there own bird should they decide to weather. There will be no warden or fencing set up.

Licenses
Kansas licenses are not cheap. Kansas only offers a season long license to non-residents for $72.15. The up side is that with a regular hunting license and a little extra paperwork you can trap Kansas raptors.

Speakers
I thought I would try something different this year and get a couple of experienced eagle hunters to give talks at the GOE. I had to beg, plead, grovel and finally bribe but I did get two great speakers for the meet. These speakers are guaranteed to educate and entertain you.

Our first speaker at the meet will be Jack Hubley. Jack has been a falconer for 20 years. During this time he has specialized in flying goshawks. Jack has trained 2 female eagles for fox hunting and since November 2003 he has been working hard with Alpha, his current female eagle, in the pursuit of the red fox. Using the methods of predator calling and drives, Jack has managed to take foxes in both types of setups. Just this last year Jack started working with his local fox hunting club to add fox hounds into his hunting routine. While this is an ongoing project that has not been field tested yet, it is a unique experience which should prove very successful. To my knowledge Jack is the only falconer in North America working towards hunting fox from horseback, over a pack of hounds with a golden eagle. Jack will be educating us about the trials and tribulations of fox hunting with golden eagles. Covering everything from the basic training, to predator calling, to drives, to the delicate balance of hunting with horses and dogs in pursuit of foxes.

Our keynote speaker will be Joe Atkinson. Joe has been a falconer since the age of 13 when he took his first kestrel, and has flown most all types of falconry birds, specializing in longwings and eagles. Joe has not only been a falconer but also a professional bird trainer were he put together a free flight bird show that had a 9 year run at a local zoo using all exotic birds that he personally bred and trained. Joe has also trained birds for TV shows such as Wild America, Audubon films, National Geographic and Nature, as well as TV commercials. He has written articles for all the leading falconry magazines, both in the USA and in Europe. Joe produces the Eagle Journal which follows the training and hunting of his golden eagles. The Eagle Journal is currently read in more than 15 countries. Joe got his first golden eagle in 1974. A female he raised in his kitchen and was a full on imprint. He flew her for 9 years before hacking her back to the wild. Since that time Joe has flown over 20 golden eagles for falconry purposes.
Joe is one of only two falconers allowed to fly and hunt rehab eagles with the approval from the UFWS. Joe is also the first eagle falconer to have a rehab eagle transferred over to his falconry permit. Joe’s current eagle Jack Hammer is beginning his 4th season and has already caught over 300 jackrabbits. Jack Hammer is the second golden eagle that Joe has flown that has surpassed a 300 jackrabbit total.
Joe and his wife Cordi have just produced their first DVD called “Eagle Journal the Movie“. Joe will be showing this DVD during his presentation. Joe will be giving a very informative talk and slideshow based on all of his experience about training and successfully hunting golden eagles.

There is even a scene in the DVD called “the mauling of Joe“. Joe gets stabbed in the hand and shoulder. This should be quite entertaining and I know none of you want to miss seeing that. Having seen the unfinished version of Joe’s DVD at the 2005 GOE I can tell you this DVD alone is worth coming to the meet for. Joe will have copies available of this new DVD at the meet so you can get your own copy immediately. This will also be your chance to see Jackhammer up close and in action as he terrorizes the Kansas blacktail population.

Land/Game
I recently spoke to a landowner in Garden City and gained access to 5000 acres of private land for us to hunt on. Renegade told me that the blacktail population is up this year and he is seeing jacks everywhere. Renegade will be talking to friends and neighbors to gain us more private land to hunt on during the meet. So I guarantee we will have no shortage of private land to hunt, and plenty of jacks for everyone. In addition to this Kansas leases land each fall from farmers to use as public hunting areas. Finney County alone has more than 15,000 acres of private land leased for public hunting. I will be going to Garden City 5 days prior to the meet to do some additional scouting as well as gain more access to hunting areas.

For anyone bringing longwings there are tons of pheasants around Garden City, as well as some ducks and quail. If you want to drive you can find chickens east of garden city. So there will be game for you too.

Raffle
Lauren McGrough will be in charge of donations for the raffle this year. As you may know the raffle is the only fundraising source of the IEAA. Hopefully with the help of all the members we can make this year’s raffle a huge success. I am asking that all IEAA members please donate one item the raffle. If you will be attending the meet you can bring any items with you. If you will not be able to make it you can contact Lauren for information on where to send raffle items.

Lauren McGrough
Berkutchi@aol.com
(405) 740-6081

Summary
This is shaping up to be the best meet yet. We have plenty of land, plenty of game, and great speakers. If you haven’t been to a GOE yet this is the one you don’t want to miss. I hope to see you all there in November.

P.S. Please email me either on or off list and let me know if you plan on attending. I need a fairly accurate head count to plan out some of the finer details.

Thank You,

Chase Delles
2006 GOE Co-Chair

[careme]

que bueno que se ve el viajesito, mucha divercion sin duda, me encantaria poder asistir a uno de esos viajes, y conocer cetreros, pues queda tiempo para noviembre a planearlo, gracias virgilio
Un saludo
Luis Herrera

[parabuteo_unicitus]

eso, eso, siempre viene bien expandir fronteras y conocimientos

[roberto carlos]

VIRGILIO:
GRACIAS POR EL DATO LO UNICO MALO ES QUE ES ENTRE SEMANA.
PERO A VER SI ME LAS ARREGLO Y ME HECHO UNA VUELTA

GRACIAS DE NUEVA CUENTA