Lovin' the Cold

Between family, work, and hawking its been hard to find a few minutes to update the blog.  I guess it's time for a little catch up.....

A week or so ago, as Daniel posted about earlier, we took a weekend hunting trip out west to do some trapping, shooting, and hawking.  And amazingly we accomplished all three things.  Our first priority was to get some shooting done over Jay and I's bird dogs.  It didn't take long before we had both Lulu, my pointer, and Mack, Jay's setter, locking up on Scaled Quail and Pheasants.  Jay managed to hit a quail and a pheasant and I, being the poor shot that I am, got a piece of a pheasant that Jay finished knocking down.  Somewhere in there Jay got also got a Jackrabbit that made its move at precisely the wrong time.

Lulu, me, Jay, and Mack

We also were around so see birds trapped that we just don't regularly have on our side of the state.  There was a nice Praire Falcon or two, a huge female Ferruginous Hawk, and a beautiful jack Richardson's Merlin that a Tulsa falconer is now having a ball with.

Daniel holding the passage Merlin

To top the trip off we hoped to get a chance at Daniel putting a Jackrabbit in the bag.  Finding the Jacks was not a problem (click on the pick below to enlarge)

Bunny Party

After a handful of serious slips over two days Daniel's bird managed to connect and hang on.  Click here for Daniel's account.

Daniel and his first Jackrabbit

Jay and I did fly our falcons out there on ducks, but the result was less than desirable.  It appeared that the trip had taken a lot out of Jay's hybrid and my bird pretty much just flew off.  He still was not back to weight and from being fed up over the Thanksgiving holiday and I decided to push my luck anyway.  It could have easily been a disaster when he decided that he really had no interest in the ducks, the lure, or me.  Tulsa chased around a large blackbird flock for close to 10 minutes before landing.  I had to flash a pigeon to get him to eventually come down and very carefully put his equipment on while he was on the ground eating from a quail carcass that I had thrown down there.  But all's well that ends well I guess.

Since returning from the trip my falcons are back in form.  Tulsa, whose neck I've wanted to wring more than once this season, has really turned on since the weather has gotten cold.  He has caught a duck in each of his last four flights and each of those was better than the last.  Throughout much of the early season he was testing my patience by only climbing 200-300 feet then setting his wings and coasting around.  We went back to the kite multiple times to get him up there and now that we have more optimal weather he's really starting to put out and take a far more respectable pitch.  Mongo, the Gyrkin, is also flying well but has a vice in that he cannot leave geese alone.  Even if they are flying on the horizon he buggers off after them.  He has taken several to the ground but luckily gives up before giving to much of a fight.  I do not want him grabbing geese as that is an easy path to a broken wing or possibly death.  Aside from the geese grabbing he has been flying well, taking good pitches and staying over me as I approach the ponds.  A few days ago we had one of those rare times when everything comes together and both birds came home sporting full crops.

Today, Tulsa took a good pitch over dozen or so mixed ducks that were working hard to keep open the last 6 foot hole in the ice on the pond.  When the falcon was climbing and starting to work away from the pond, I flushed.  The falcon folded up into a mummy tuck and hammered a hen Gadwall over the ice.  She fell and hit so hard she broke through the frozen sheet and didn't come up.  I had this happen once last year as well.  After a few seconds she popped up in the open water hole about 50 feet from were she smashed through.  The rest of the ducks had bailed back onto the ice and the tiercel remounted to a solid 700'.  I again flushed and a clear look at the whole situation.  Things just clicked in one of those surreal ways.  I looked up and the falcon was right there pumping away, he was very visible against the overcast sky.  He waited for a few seconds this time as the ducks oddly flew directly toward me while leaving the pond.  I could hear the beating of their wings as they passed over me about 30 feet up.  Looking through the flock I see the falcon close his wings and begin his stoop.  He poured on the speed as he came down at the intended target.  The impact made the duck bounce off the frozen ground like a stuffed animal tumbling down the highway from being casually thrown out a car window by a child.  The this happened so uneventfully for falcon that I assumed he had hit one of the small divers I saw in the flock.  As I made my way over I was shocked to find Tulsa munching the vertebrae of a drake Mallard! It is amazing how easy it seems for this falcon to tackle and subdue prey that nearly twice its size.  

The cold weather really brings out the best from these falcons.  Kind of a catch 22 when your main quarry is ducks and the ponds begin to freeze.  Looks like it will be warming up a bit this week though.  Here's hoping......or not........

-RVZ

The wife HAS to be getting irritated.....

I really did plan on putting up decorations yesterday.....Christmas is approaching fast, and i'm going to miss the whole darn holiday, if I don't get my rear in gear.  I left my favorite hawking stick at "The Dumpsite" on Tuesday though, so i HAD to get it back.  Short-bus had the biggest casting I had ever seen come out of a bird (including owls), and he somehow made it back to 950 grams on the dot.  I thought "what the heck," so we loaded up, and headed on out there.  Being that I wasn't planning on flying (and hadn't adjusted my schedule to accomodate it), we only had time for a super short session.  About 30 minutes or so was all we had, and as luck would have it.......the rabbits were not poppin. :(

We made our way back to where we had caught the rabbit on Tuesday, and my glorious brush stick was waiting where I had left it.  Once that was back in my possesion, we continued along the train tracks, but didn't manage a single slip.  Worked along the frence row, but again, no one wanted to come out and play.  We kicked through the "open section," that has patchs of sumac/bushes scattered around in clumps, and again....no one was home!  Pretty lame, so we headed toward the woods, that run along the east side of the field (as opposed to the woods where he has caught a couple rabbits this year already....).  Slips can ALWAYS be found deep in the woods, but the cover is nice and thick, and up until recently, it just wasn't possible to get back in there.....well....I couldn't get back in there, and I didn't really have the desire to hack my way in there, to find a bird hiding with a rabbit, so we have stayed clear most of the season.   The last few sessions out there though, the cover had lessened enough to make it possible, and we have chased quite a few rabbits around in there.  He hasn't connected with any of them yet, but the sun was on it's way down, and I just needed a slip PERIOD. 

So I started forcing my way in through the sumac, and Short-Bus took a perch right above my head.  He sleeked down, and started looking pretty intently right in front of me, so I knew right then, that there was a rabbit moving infront of me.  I kept pushing through the cover, when I heard the jingle of bells, and CJ shot over my head, moving pretty quickly toward an area just to the right of me.  He tucked into a mini stoop, and disappeared in the brush beside me.  SQUEEL!!!!!!  The fact that I didn't really get to see the flight was sort of lame, but I was more worried about listening for bells, than anything else at that point.  I could hear the rabbit, and I could hear CJ, but I had no idea where they were.  Luckily though, the area i was in was pretty much all Sumac, and the vines that wove it all together, were around the tops of the bushes.  I got down on my hands and knees, and started army crawling (I looked just like Parker!!!!!) in the direction of all the comotion.  Eventually, I spied them up ahead, and as I crawled up on them, I discovered he had done the "rabbit wrap" (or whatever you want to call it....).  Dee Dee used to do this all the time....one foot on the head, and the other foot holding both of the back legs AND the head......keeps the rabbit in a nice little ball, and eliminates pretty much all movement, from the rabbit.  Not really THAT cool, but he just hadn't ever done it before, so it was neat to me.  Anyways, gave Peter the stretch, and after i weaved my way out of that tangled mess, it was back to the car we went (With brush stick in hand this time!).  Sorry for the fuzzy picture....the light was fading fast, and this ended up being the best one I got (if that tells you anything about the rest of the shots!!!!).

Take it easy friends

-D-

Lazy Hawkin'

I wasn't really planning on hawking yesterday.  I had Christmas decorations that I STILL hadn't put up, all the gear was still laying in the garage, I had been feeling like crap all day, and Short-bus was at 950 grams.....Sometimes though, I just can't seem to help myself.  We flew high the day before, and he did really well, and being that this was only the second day of being "high," I knew that he wasn't ACTUALLY that heavy. Sooooo, we loaded up the car, and headed over to Rosa east.  This is only my second time to fly this part of the field (this year), and I think I'm going to keep avoiding it.  This will be my "lazy" field from now on, and I will probably refrain from hawking it, unless I need a super quick, very "easy" session.  Sometimes, you just need a field like that....one where you can guarantee a LOT of slips, in a tiny amount of time.  There arn't any briars here, and the hawking tends to be more of a strole, than any type of work.  Sometimes, it's just nice to get out and watch the bird fly, and not have to beat brush like a mad man!

So we popped the hood off, and Short-Bus headed straight up to the top of a power pole.  There is a long stretch of mowed grass that you have to walk through, before you get to where the "field" starts, and as I made my way through it, CJ sleeked down, and started doing his little head bob thing.  If you all remember correctly, there is a long stretch of Johnson grass, that runs parallel with the road, and is only about 10 yards wide (It runs for about a quarter mile, but it's just pretty narrow....).  As I enter the Johnson grass, a rabbit bails out the back side, and starts hauling through the woods.  Like I said, there isn't much cover in this area, and I saw the whole flight as CJ burned it down, and crashed right behind it.  He missed, but that's not what made the flight cool......what made it SWEET, was that out of no where, this Harlans comes roaring in from behind, and continued the chase!  He crashed, got back up, and crashed again like FOUR TIMES after that rabbit!!!!!!!  It was pretty freakin sweet.  This is only the second time I have had this happen with one of my birds.  Interestingly enough, the first time it happened was last weekend.......that first Jack that CJ bound to (but got kicked off) went down the same way.......another bird came in, and continued that chase as well.  Anyways, I waited for Cleveland to fly back up to his power pole, and we continued on.

I went another 10 steps or so, and he folded into a bullet, and smashed the ground right in front of me.......DARN VOLES!  Now, Short-Bus catchs a mouse/vole/rat/misc something almost every session we go out.....it's never a big deal, and I just let him eat it, and then we continue on (unless it's a HUGE rat, then I trade him off and keep going.....).  Well, being that he was already at 950 grams, I second guessed myself, on what I should do.  I knew he would fly well while it was still in his crop, but it was just a matter of if i wanted to hawk the next day or not.  950 grams, plus a big vole,  (and assuming we catch a bunny) plus his trade off lure piece, plus his rabbit leg, equates to no flying the next day.......since I still had Christmas duties to perform, I decided that was cool, and let him eat it all, before we continued on.  When he finished, I hopped him to the fist, and he then flew over, and landed in a short tree.  I started walking through the Johnson again, and a rabbit takes off, running the edge of the grass.  Cleveland sprints from his tree, and BARELY misses snagging it on his first crash.  He got right back up immediately, and snagged it's rump, as it was going through the fork of a small bush.  Of course, that bush stopped Short-bus right in his tracks, and he was left with just a patch of fur in his talons.  Took his sweet time about getting back up after that one, and when he did, he took a perch in a tree across the street.  I reached a part of the johnson grass section that was a lot shorter than the rest, and as I made my way out of the head high stuff, a rabbit got up at my feet.  I could see the rabbit running as plain as day, and I'm yelling HO, but Short-bus just watched it go.  Once it disappeared from sight (into the woods), CJ slowly meandered back to my side of the road, and took a perch on the power pole right above me.

I continued kicking through the short grass, and instead of "perching up" like he normally does, he let me get about two poles down from him.  Normally, he is right on my head, or else one pole behind me (so that when I walk past the hiding rabbits and they shoot out from behind, he is right there to snatch them up), so I'm thinking that he may have started putting his crop over.  Well, I JUST made my way past the second pole, when a rabbit gets up right by my feet, but instead of bailing toward the woods, it headed toward the road, and started cutting back in the direction I had just come from.  BIG mistake!!!!!!  Cleveland was already on his way, when he left the cover of the grass, and started running through the mowed grass, running along the road.  He went about 10 yards, before he noticed the hawk screaming toward him, and cut back into the Johnson grass.  CJ whiped to the side though, and snaged him just a few feet into the cover.  That's about the time I hear the cars honking :).  I look up, and some dude had COMPLETELY stopped his car (in the MIDDLE of the road), had his door open, and yelled out "That was the coolest damn thing I have ever seen, in my whole *ucking life!"  Apparently the people behind him didn't feel the same way though, because the chorus of honking just got louder and louder.  He finally came to his senses, pulled off to the side of the road, and made his way over to where we were at.  I did a little Q&A session with him, while Short-bus ate on his rabbit, and then I let him snap off a couple pictures.  We finally made our way back to the car, and he was a FAT 1074 grams, when I stuck him on the scale at home.  Christmas decorations will be on the agenda for this evening, and hopefully, I will be able to get a good session in on Friday.

-D-

Unbelievable!

I'm not sure if you all have any of "those" fields, but I sure don't.  You know the ones I'm talking about......you hear stories about them all the time.  Everywhere you look, there is game in abundance, you can't walk anywhere without getting a slip, and the presentations just happen to be PERFECT!  Well, not only do I not have any spots like that, but I had never even seen one.......that is, until this weekend!!!!

The skunk monkey had been hitting pretty darn hard over the past week or so.  It was my fault to an extent, because I didn't even give CJ (A.K.A. Short-Bus) the chance to fly three of the days, but the rest of the hunts, were just so so.  We were getting slips, but we just were not putting anything in the bag.  So when I got the text from my wife around noon on Friday, I pretty much started doing the happy dance.  It went a little like "hey, if you only spend money on food and gas, you can head down to the panhandle with Ryan and Jay this weekend!!!!!!!!!" (maybe the exclamation marks weren't there, but that's how I read it :)!!!!!!).  So I grabbed whatever was in arms reach, jumped in the car, and started hauling down the highway.  Sure, I forgot half of my hawking gear, unimportant things like clean cloths, deoderant, and my tooth brush, and SUPER important things like my game sheers and telemetry, but it didn't matter.......the needle never dropped below a hundred, and I was on my way to what would become one of the best hawkin weekends I've had thus far.

The goal was a Jack rabbit flight....plain and simple.  I had never seen a live one before, and the first one that got up at our feet, had me saying "holy $hit, did you see that?!?!?!?!"  We were gun hunting pheasants at the time, and even though it wasn't being pressed by a hawk or anything, it headed straight for the horizon.  That was my first clue, that these guys act a little bit different than the cotton tails we are used to chasing, and I just didn't know how it would go.  Up until this point in time, Short-bus had gotten his pants juked off of him, every single time he has flown a rabbit in the wide open.  With that in mind, I didn't really think he had a chance at a Jack.  I LITERALLY, just wanted a flight, but in the back of my mind, I pretty much expected him to refuse them all.  So after a great day of shooting pheasants and quail (well.....I watched the dogs run, and Ryan and Jay shot stuff.....), we arrived at "the honey hole" Jack spot, with expectations that were not very high.

Short-bus had been hooded up most of the afternoon, so when he flew up to the gate post where we parked, you could tell he was trying to "center" himself.  If birds thought this way, there was something probably going through his mind along the lines of "WTF?!?!?!  Where are all the trees?  How am I supposed to chase game, with nothing to sit on?  Wait.....you can't really mean for me to fly to those "H" poles.....there are only like two or three that are useful, and there are places to hawk as far as the eye can see......You expect me to cover all of that, from a couple different perchs?  You have lost your damn mind my friend....."  About that time though, we had made our way about 20 yards from him, and the first jack got up infront of us.  My head flipped back like a rocket, and Short-bus just watched it run.  What surprised me though, was after the jack got about a hundred yards away or so, CJ lazily started flying in that direction.  It was almost like he was wanting to "check it out," and see if he had really just seen, what he thought he saw.  Yep....that was a big @$$ rabbit!!!!  He pulled up to a short post, and we only made it a few more yards, before another Jack got up at our feet.  He only hesitated for a moment, and then took off in a half committed chase toward the rabbit.  Of course, he got burned, but that cheesed out grin was starting to spread across my face.  "No way......is he really gonna chase them?!?!?!"  He sat there for a moment, as we made our way toward the line of "H" poles, and after a little coaxing (actually.....a LOT of coaxing!), he flew our way.  He was finally up on a high perch, and I was pretty interested to see what would happen next.

The area we were hawking, was sort of broken up into two sections.  The "main" portion, had cover scattered EVERYWHERE, and the ground had been grazed completely bare.  When you walked around at first,  you thought you were walking on top of a lot of gravel.  It was only when you bent down to inspect it, that one realized that it was ALL jack rabbit crap!  There were literally HUNDREDS of jacks hanging out in this little section, and every row you looked down, would contain at least five to ten rabbits......just looking at you!  Surrounding this section, were endless fields of CRP, and the jacks were split into sort of two different "groups" if you will.  One group, prefered to stay around the cover....they would run from one end to the other, and then back again.  The other "group", bailed for the open fields, and prefered to use their speed to get away.....they would head for the hills, and just keep running, until they were out of sight.  These were the jacks Short-bus ended up prefering, and as we started into this "heavy cover section", the first jack bolted for the CRP!

Unlike the first couple of slips, this one was instant, and Short-bus came pumping off of the "H" pole, like he was going to die without catching that jack.  The flight took them pretty far out into the field, and I held my breath, as he closed in on the ground, and did the wing flash they do, when they are coursing a rabbit in the open.  Then.....he connected!  I couldn't really believe it, and started running for all I was worth (which apparently, isn't much! LOL).  I only made it a short distance, before I saw the jack shoot out the side, and start heading for the hills.  I'm yellling and jumpin, because as far as right then is concerned, I accomplished my goal for the weekend.  My bird chased a jack, and it just happened to be a good flight.  After that rodeo, and from what I had heard from other people, I was expecting CJ to refuse them from then on out, but in the scheme of things, that was alright by me.  Well, Short-bus got up off the ground, and we continued on, and wouldn't ya know it, he kept chasing!  Not only that, but he kept chasing harder and harder on each slip!  All in all, we probably got 10 or so more flights on jacks (and one pheasant flight!)....two of which he pulled fur on, before he started running out of gas. As we made our way back to the car, we got one last slip which he ALMOST got.....he ended up hammering the ground, and the jack jumped over his head!  Soooooo close!  We had a drag jack set up from the get go, and after that last slip, Ryan took off dragging it.  Short-bus grabbed onto it, and Ryan took him for a ride!  I ran in there just like I would on a real one, and all in all, I think we simulated a jack score FARELY well.  Fed him up quite a bit (because he worked so hard), and though I tried not to get too excited, scoring a jack the next day, was becoming more and more of a possibility!

So Sunday found us back at the same spot, and from the get go, Short-bus was there to score!  I had had him down to 908 for the first session, but now that he knew what was going on, I had pushed him back up to 920 grams.  He seemed to have more "pep in his step," and he chased the first Jack that got up, with the intensity we didn't reach, until mid session the day before.  This got me too excited, and I started BELIEVING that we were going to score!  That was bad, because when my expectations start getting high (and if he doesn't behave perfectly), the bird begins to piss me off!  We had a nice shot on one from the "H" pole, but after that, he started screwing around, and taking REALLY low perchs.  Of course, he got burned everytime, and I was well on my way to the cursing stage.  Another stratagey was taken, and I got CJ up on a T-perch, and started walking the edge of the CRP.  Ryan and Jay continued moving through the junk piles, and the goal was to get one to flush out into the open, with Short-bus and I waiting there for it.  Ryan made the comment "Man, what we really need is for one to get up RIGHT at your feet (when the bird is on the T-perch), and that would help solidify the purpose of riding the T (I hadn't ever really flown with one, before this weekend). So we continue on, and CJ suddenly bails from the T-perch, and takes a stance in a lone tree about 50 yards infront of me.  RIGHT as he leaves the perch, and heads that way, a jack gets up from under my feet (which is what we were trying to get to happen)!!!!!!  I'm pissed!  I start cursing the bird, start cursin my luck, and I go from "irritated," to mad!  I'm muttering under my breath, as I begin to approach the bird, and when i get about 80 yards or so from him, a jack breaks about 15 yards from the tree.  Short-bus just BURNS out of that tree, and closes the gap in no time.  I see him slam the ground, and then the ride was on!!!!!  

Now friends, I don't run......I was sore as hell from the day before, but I took off like a freakin track star, when I saw the cloud of dust errupt from the ground.  I was screaming "hold on to it!!!!  You better freakin hold onto it!!!!!!" and had to have been moving at least a million miles per hour :)!  Of course, I'm putting everything I had into that run, so I lost sight of them, while I was on my way.  I suddenly freeze, and I hear the squeel of a jack!!!!  I discover JC sitting on the ground....one foot on the head, and the other between the shoulders!  The jack was kicking like mad, but he had him completely under control!!!!!!  When it's confirmed that the jack is dead, I just started freakin out.  I'm yellin like an idiot, jumpin around, fist pumping......the whole freakin nine yards.  I never thought you could replicate the look on an apprentices face, when they are holding their freshly trapped, first falconry bird.......but I did it!  I had that rediculously HUGE grin on my face for HOURS afterwards.  I was dumb struck, that my little guy actually did it.  It's funny, I had just started calling him "Short-bus" that week, because I was really getting irritated with him.  I guess he took it personally though, because he sure did prove me wrong!!!!!

Fed him up nicely on that jack, and he was nice and fat for the drive home.  No session on Monday, because he was still overweight, but yesterday found us "close" to weight.  He weighed in at 930 grams, and we went flying at the dumpsite.  He took perchs higher than he ever has, and crashed after bunnies with an intensity I have yet to see from him.  He absolutly CRUSHED rabbit number 13, and I'm thinking we are about to see this little bird turn it on.  He is riding on a confidence high that he has never known before, and who knows, this may just turn into a decent falconry season after all!

Take it easy guys

-D-