Meticulously crafted "across the pond," A Clarke lined squirrel chaps from England are the ONLY anklets we fly on our red-tails. You can't put a price on a good squirrel hawk. These birds aren't a dime a dozen, especially a seasoned one. When you get a hold of one and spend several seasons with her, she's darn near irreplaceable.
We know squirrel chaps are a divisive subject among falconers, but here at Mountain State Falconry Supply, we use them. These aren't the rigid "boot"-design squirrel chap, and we want to make that clear. This is one of the main reasons we use them, but we're getting ahead of ourselves. Let's start from the beginning.
A Clarke squirrel chaps are one of the most crucial pieces of equipment we run on our squirrel birds. We've been using Ashley's squirrel chaps since his first design release several years ago and have stuck with them as they've grown. There are so many reasons for this, but the holes from squirrel bites in the fringes at the end of each season speak for themselves. Now, allow us to tell you exactly why we love them.
First, the anklet is lined. This extra layer of protection on the tarsus has saved more than one of our red-tails from season-ending squirrel bites on multiple occassions. Second, the protective fringes are not stiff and hindering. Instead, they're super-soft , allowing the bird's toes to move freely. At the end of each season, the fringes on our chaps are filled with holes from squirrel bites that could have easily been our birds' toes. The anklets are also pull-through and easy to remove and replace. No grommet setter is needed. Lastly, the extra grommet allows you to run both bells and telemetry easily.
The version A Clarke Falconry makes for us is studless at our request. While studded chaps are thought to aid in diverting bites from the toes, we've found the risk of scale damage from the studs outweighs the benefit of diverting the bite. The fringes themselves do that part well. We're now very proud to offer this modified design to you. It's our opinion that these are the very best squirrel chaps on the market. We trust our birds' legs and toes to no other chap!
We offer these anklets in Size 6 for male red-tails and small female red-tails and Size 7 for medium to large female red-tails.
