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