Bunny #4

There is just something about this spot!  I hawked the Urban Dumpsite a lot last year.  See, I wasn't planning on kicking my falconry career off with a Redtail, so when fate (or was it Ryan pushing?????) took me in that direction, I hadn't found any rabbit fields yet.  Being that I only had a couple by the time we started flying, I over hawked the crap out of them.  The dumpsite was one of them and I had pretty much figured out exactly where all the rabbits liked to "have their little parties," as Jonathan likes to say :).  By winter last year, I had over done it, and the rabbits just weren't poppin anymore.  By that time though, I had found a lot of other fields that were WAY better, so I didn't go back at all. That must have given the dumpsite enough time to rest, and since we are having a banner year for bunnies, it has recovered nicely!  


Well, as I have indicated previously, I had a hell of a time getting slips early on, so I reverted back to what I knew.  I KNEW there were rabbits at the Dumpsite, and I KNEW where they would be in the summer/early fall (unlike my new fields, where I only knew their "winter" hang outs).  Oddly enough though, most of my slips are in different areas than last year.  Don't get me wrong, they are still in their "usual" spots, but I guess the greater number of bunnies (compared to last year), has made them spread out a little bit.  Rabbit number 3 was near a spot that consistently held rabbits last year, but it was back inside one of the "wooded" sections bordering it (which for some reason, was about five times thicker last year, compared to this year, which made me not hawk it...which in and of itself is odd.  Everywhere else, the brush is thicker this year, except for this area....weird huh??).  Anyways, I believe that was the first rabbit I have moved out of there, and he caught it.  Well, we caught rabbit number 4 yesterday IN THE SAME SPOT!  I don't mean same general area....I LITERALLY mean the same spot.  I didn't have to crush the brush down around him or anything, cause he was sitting right in the middle of the area I had already trampled down. 

Not much of a story behind it.....I only managed 3 slips yesterday, which compared to lately, was pretty weak.  We had one part of the session, when he started soar hawking, and now that I have pigs, was able to enforce that behavior FINALLY.  He was looking down pretty focused, but was just a little bit out of position.  I tossed a strong flier, with the hopes of him getting burned (but still be enforced for his soaring behavior), and hopefully teaching him to stay in better position......if it brought him back over where I wanted, then i was going to toss a hindered one, and end the session on that positive note.  Well, my big plan sounded good to me, but he wasn't having any of that.  I tossed out the pig, and he came in HOT.  He just barely missed snatching it out of the air, so I'm not sure he learned anything about "position" if you will....but at least he put in a good effort on it.  Going to have to make sure I don't do too many of those though (without a confidence booster...), b/c he will either A) start thinking he can't catch them out of the air, and start refusing the ones that don't start from coming off the ground, or B) He will start catching them, and I will be teaching him that position isn't really that important (instead of staying directly over me).  I'll tell you one thing though....his rabbit flights are pretty unexciting (compared to the crazy brush crashing of the females).....his chases on birds though, make him pull out the moves!  Twists and turns, little mini wingovers, etc.....the good stuff!!!!!!  He may pull out the goodness when we start hawking squirrels, but our brush just needs a heavy bodied crasher (at least this time of year....), when chasing those rabbits.  Who knows though....as his confidence gets higher, he may just turn it on after all.  We shall see!


-D-