Wednesday, we flew at the Lowes field. It was SUPER windy, but that gave me the opportunity to enforce some soaring behavior. Nothing epic transpired, but he flew around a TON, and got a really good work out because of it. Had a few chases, but I just didn't get that many slips (bunnies hold TIGHT in the wind!!!!) Thursday was a fun filled day of hawking. Like Ryan said, we got out for some early longwinging, and I was rewarded with a nice duck flight to kick start the day. Flew a couple tails in the morning at the usual spot (I almost scored a wood cock all by myself....ninja style!!!!!), and after a quick lunch stop, Jonathan and I headed over to a new field. Ryan and I have driven by this one a number of times, and we always comment about how it looks pretty good, but had never taken the time to stop. Well, Ryan had some free time at some point last week, and went and checked out the parking situation. There is a housing developement that is going up in one corner of the property, but the rest of it has been left untouched, and there is a nice pull out in the back of the neighborhood (for parking). A huge water tower sprouts up in the middle of this field (which is blue....so I will probably be refering to this field as Ol' Blue or something), and there are TONS of briars. They are thick, thick, THICK, and sprawl out in HUGE patchs all over this field. I finally got the camera back from Lindz, and would have taken some pictures to show you all just how freakin huges these briars are, but the batteries died right after I got pics of the hybrid, so it just didn't work out. We were kicking up rabbits left and right, but ended up chasing the majority of them from one side of the briars, to the other....and then back again (we need a doxie gang or something!!!) We got a few flushes out in the open, but just couldn't manage to put any in the bag. Busted another wood cock, and a covey of about fifteen or so quail, but other than that, not much else exciting happened.
Today, found the bird at 908 grams. I fed him the usual to put him at 915 today, but it ended up getting a lot colder last night than they had predicted, so he burned too much. He was geeked out when we hit the field though, and he made some nice chases right off the bat. The number of slips at the dumpsite has been gradually decreasing each session (just like last year), so after only a couple of slips, I decided to head toward the back section, and see if the brush had cleared enough to hawk. It was still pretty stinkin thick, but that's where all the rabbits have headed to apparently. I kicked up 7 or 8 REALLY quickly as I walked through the woods, but the thick layer of honey suckle lining the ground provided a lot of escape routes for the bunnies. Continued on, and my goal was an open section tucked back in the back, that has some really short biars sprawled out through the center of it.
There is a big cedar posted up right in the middle of this section, and he went straight to it, as we were making our approach. He started looking HARD right down into the middle of it, and I started to get a little psyched. The cedar he was on, was where I caught my first squirrel last year, and I was thinking there may just be another one chillen inside. He stopped looking into it after awhile, so I started kicking the perimiter of the open section. I pretty much did circles the whole way around his cedar, getting tighter and tighter with each one I made. About half way in, a rabbit busted from my feet, and booked it straight for the tree line. He didn't even make it half way there, before CJ sucked him up. It was not a spectacular flight by any means, but it was in the wide open, so I got to see the whole thing! Trade off was perfect like always, and then the fun began. Hopped him off the lure like normal, but for some reason, he grabbed the fist on the lower portion of the glove. One foot landed fine, but the other one grabbed onto my wrist, and he sunk in DEEP! He latched down, and then proceeded to chow on his rabbit leg. Everytime he tore a piece from the leg, he squeezed harder, which SUCKED! Rotated the fist to try and get him to step up (which was good in theory), and he grabbed the leg in his mouth, and stepped back.....well....with one foot. The foot on my arm was "locked" (you all know what I'm talking about.....), and it took him four or five jerks, before it released. Well, that pretty much brought me to my knees, and I was bleeding pretty stinkin good, by the time he was hooded back up. Darn thing bled for like 30 freakin minutes!!!! Those jerks turned the punctures into long scrapes, and I now look like I attempted suicide or something. Pretty lame, but it is what it is.
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, I had big plans to go slip ducks with Jonathan in the morning, but the bird won't be at weight till later in the day. I'm not sure if I will get the opportunity to fly in the afternoon (the boss (wife) has plans for us, but maybe we can do them in the morning instead....), but if not, then I will feed a little more tonight, and we will be spot on for Sunday (with 36 hours between feeds....). If that doesn't get him going balls out on ducks, then nothing will (other than a bag of course), so this weekends session(s) will tell a lot. Gary gave me the heads up on a perfect slip (that has been holding ducks regularly), so we will check that out this weekend as well. Fingers crossed for some goodness!
-D-
(PS I know!!! Sorry........the camera is on the charger as we speak, so the next post will have pictures, I promise!!!!!!!)
No comments:
Post a Comment