1st Pigeon!?

Well, we are still crawling along at a snails pace.  I got spoiled with Dee Dee apparently, and compared to her, this little guy is pretty sucky.  He was pretty thin when trapped, so that may have been a pretty good indication of what his fate would have been, had he not been trapped.....we are pushing forward anyways, and I still have high hopes that he will turn into a semi decent hawk.  


Thursday, the day after our last rabbit, he was at 960 grams, and it was WINDY!  I had the afternoon free, and being that I hate wasting days, we went and flew anyways.  Surprisingly, he did great (for him....).  We got seven or eight slips, and he chased them hard, but just didn't seem to connect....probably weight related (too high...only giving part of it to the game), but at the same time....I can have him "at weight", and he will chase really hard, and still won't connect....he just needs to get better at catching rabbits!  Friday found us at weight though, and he sucked.  I had Judah and Paul along for the hunt, and he just wanted to fly off.  I realized early on when I got this bird, that he doesn't fly well with other people in the field......I would have thought that he would be over that by now....but he isn't.  There isn't really anyway to get him better, other than him sucking, and us continue to give him slips.  Eventually, he will pick up on the fact that having a bunch of people out there is advantageous, but until then, he is lame.  


Saturday was good though.  I had the whole day free, no previous hawking engagements, so it was all about the hunting!  Sunrise found me leaving the house, with the bird sitting nice at 900 grams.  We swing by the pigeon spot, and it was like someone was pulling the strings, b/c the setup was PERFECT!  I have described the setup on my blog, but since I'm over here now, I will give a little refresh.  There is a company who has a parking lot that is inset into the side of a hill.  Three of the four sides, are lined with retention walls, and the one on the east side, has a small road running along the top of it.  The pigeons like to get down on the ground, and eat down in this parking lot, which creates the IDEAL setup.  When I got there Saturday morning, they where all in "feeding mode."  because of the walls, you can't actually see the pigeons on the ground, until you are right on top of them, but there was a steady stream of birds going up and down from the powerlines, to the parking lot.  I crept up near the edge of the wall (but back about 10 feet or so), and unhood Cleveland Jr.  The pigs where going up and down, and we sat there and watched for about a minute.  Once he started head bobbing, it was on.  I got as low as I could, and started sneaking up to the edge of the wall.  Freakin ninja style, we crested the wall without the pigeons breaking, and I was yelling HO HO HO when they saw us coming.  CJ was off the fist like a bullet, and was pumping for all he was worth toward the pigs.  The mad scramble occured, and he made a pretty decent attempt, but just couldn't close the gap in time.  Called him down, and we headed toward the otherside of town.  


The falconry gods were smiling on us and I found five or six GREAT pigeon slips out of the car window on my way.  Though he has been bagged out of the window before (and has made some pretty decent attempts at crows early on), we have not tried any car slips for a few weeks, and he refused them all.  Ended up getting four or so PERFECT crow slips too, and he refused them all also!  He doesn't like the car as of right now, and it's going to take some work to get him back into the groove of things (work that I'm not going to put too much energy into right now, because we are working on other stuff.....).  So, we continued on.  The pig slip ealier (and the attempts from the car) were just because I couldn't resist, but we had a goal this morning.....we were looking for ducks!  


I have a few ditchs, that have consistantly been holding quackers recently, and that's where we were heading to.  Arrived, and I glassed the creek, and what do you know.....THREE seperate slips!  Two groups of two, and then a group of about 7 or 8 also.  The setup for these is, again, pretty sweet.  Park high up on the hill....sneak down as low as I can, and then it's on.  Up until today, we hadn't really had a good "chase" on ducks, but Cleveland was geeked this AM (I think the Pigs got him going!), and I was hoping for some goodness.  Anyways....I forgot to pick up rocks....I know, I know....I loose my brain when hawkin is involved.  Make the slip, and i'm yelling ho ho ho.  He takes off heading straight at the ducks, and they imediately bailed back to the water.  He buzzed them, and then did a wing up about fifteen or so feet into the air putting him in PERFECT position for the reflush.  This is where I screwed up....no rocks, bird in the air, and these ducks didn't want to leave the water.  He makes his in-air turn, and is heading back toward the quackers, and this is where I failed as a falconer.  I should have just jumped into the creek and flushed them....with the wind direction, bird location and his speed coming in....he would have had one.  I was dumb founded, doing one of those...."I can't believe he is going for them with so much intensity....wow" sort of things, and just froze.  He comes haulin in, and tries to snatch one off the top of the water.  They both dove, but he got a foot on one of them.  He gets pulled down into the water, and quickly lets go, and flies over to the bank.  Suffice it to say....he doesn't even try on the other two slips.  I'm yellin ho, ducks flush (cause I get rocks for these slips), and he just flies up to a perch.  I blew it.......that's all there is to it.  First slip, he went for them hard, and I failed him.  Had he scored, it would have been all over but the cryin for the ducks the rest of this year.  Now I'm going to have to work on it....just like we are workin on catching rabbits, and everything else we are going for.  It's like, the first go is make it or break it.  


His first few rabbit slips, he was crashing THICK brairs left and right....now he only half asses the briar slips, just waiting for an open one (and he isn't too heavy....if anything, he needs to go up in weight).  Anyways, we head to Rosa South after that, and get between 10 and 15 bunny slips that he tries for.  Misses them all, and we end the day empty handed.  Saturday night, I meet up with my good buddy Mark, and we go pig trapping.  I have tried to do this twice before, but my technique is lacking, and I needed to watch the master!  Had a good time, and Sunday found me with pigs in the loft, and a new game plan going on.  I didn't have much time to hawk, so I was hoping to find a pigeon slip out the window, and if he went for it at all, then I would follow it up with a confidence bagger, and hopefully, that would get him back in the car hawking mood.  Left the house, and OF COURSE, I had to check the pigeon spot.  Again, they where cooperating perfectly (why couldn't I have gotten slips like this with the Red Shouldered Hawk?!?!?!?!?!?).  I have car hawked the "pigeon spot" before, but have since realized that the torn up gravely road (and my car driving down it), is usually what causes the pigs to bust early, so I went for it off the fist again..... My main goal was enforcing car hawking today (and this was another one of those bonus, I just can't resist slips...), I didn't use caution like Saturday, and just parked on the edge of the wall.  Half of the birds busted, but the rest stayed on the ground, so I walked away from the top with the bird, and we watched the pigs, until they started coming down again.  Same thing as the other day....the head bobs told me we were ready, and I started to sneak up to the edge of the wall.  Well, I guess he remembered the slip, because he left the fist WELL before we got to the wall, and came in low kestrel style.  I was running behind him toward the wall, and just as he crested the wall before he disappeared below the edge, I heard the erruption of wings.  I'm yelling and waving, and I get there just in time, to see him snag one about a foot or two off the ground!!!!! 

 I'm pretty psyched about this kill.  It's a pigeon yes....not the most glamorous of hawking, but this is how I look at it......He flew off the fist (we normally hunt from trees, so this is different than he is used to), I made the game call, and he caught feather.  That is exactly what I was wanting.  Will this translate into him going for the ducks again without doing work....maybe..probably not....but who knows.  It definitely didn't do anything negative for his prey image of feather, that's for sure, so we will see.  

Yesterday, the wife had an interview, and I had to get Parker from day care.  Daylight savings time is weak, and I only had about 20 minutes before dark, by the time I got home.  Decided just to bag him out of the window, and he sucked.  Hopped off the fist to the car window.....sat there for a second, and THEN went and grabbed the pigeon....not what I wanted, and I don't think it enforced any of the car hawking concepts at all....the only thing I did was feed him another pigeon pretty much.  So that is were we sit.....came into work early today, and I'm working through lunch, so hawking is happening after work today.  Hopefully, we will get to hear the squeel, but we shall see.....     


-D-