Update! (Part 2)

As you all could tell from my last post, my weekend hawking was pretty stinking sweet. Well......you all don't even know the half of it yet!!! Before we met up with Rob, and the gos hawk session got under way on Sunday, Mitch and I had our own little adventure. I had awoken that day, with a full day of hawking on the books, but little did I know, that the course of the rest of my hawking season, was about to turn a 180!
I met up with Mitch when he got out of church, and a duck flight was on the agenda. His hybrid was ready to roll, and we were in route to check all of the duck ponds. We were in the process of pulling into a field, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of white. My interest was peaked, and after a second glance, I noticed a SUPER white tail, just chilling up in a tree. The tree the bird was in, was in a patch of trees, that extended out into the completely open field we were driving into at the time. On the other side of these trees, was an open lot, that had been mowed down sort of like a foot ball field.....it was completely lacking in cover too. I mentioned the bird to Mitch, and commented that it looked a little bit like a Krider's. He stopped the truck, and we proceeded to glass the bird, and she was just plain stunning!!!!!! From our angle, her head looked completely white, and at one point when flying around, it looked as if her tail was almost completely white as well. I'm not sure if I have written about this before, but I have a thing for Krider's hawks....I think they are the best looking tails out there, and I really wanted to fly one this season....I looked around everywhere when trapping, but didn't see a single one that peaked my interest (makes sense....I was trapping early in the season, and they hadn't migrated down yet....). I nonchalantly mentioned how I would release my bird in a heart beat for one like that, and Mitch smiled, because he just happened to have a pigeon/pigeon harness in his car :).
Next came the game plan. The grass in the open field was a little too high, for a pigeon harness to be effective, and the the bird was too deep in the patch of woods, to try and get a toss from the road. We kept mulling over ideas, and the whole time, the bird made numerous long flights out over the field, circled around a few times, and then would always headed back to the trees. At that point, neither of us had very high hopes of getting a toss at the bird, but Mitch came up with our plan "A", so we started putting it in motion. I stayed at the truck glassing the bird, while he walked back to the road, headed to where the clump of trees started, and then began pushing through them, toward the bird. He called me when he thought he was in position, and I confirmed that the bird was still there. He tossed up the pigeon, but it became apparent pretty quickly, that the bird hadn't seen it. We waited a little while, and after it made a few more flights out over the field (and then back to the trees), we decided to give up on that idea. The bird just wasn't really in a trappable situation, and so we decided to call it for the time being, and go look for more ducks. This is when Mitch ended up showing me the field LOADED with RT's, and it got us all excited about crazy colored birds. After doing that, we decided we had to swing back my the field, and just see if she was still there.

It was prime soaring time when we got back to the field, and she couldn't be seen in any of the trees. I thought she had headed on out, and was shocked, when I picked up her form sitting on a fence post, deep in the field. After a moment, she got back up, and soared slowly back to her group of trees. She landed far to the backside of them this time though, and the idea popped into our heads, of trying to toss a pigeon in the mowed area on the other side. We drove on over there, and as we were about to toss for her, she busted for the field, and started circling up into a soar. We did the back and forth thing for a little bit, and whichever part of the field we went, she headed to the other side. This got an idea going in my head, and I asked if tieing the pigeon to a weight, and just sticking it in the middle of the mowed lot, could possibly bring her in. Mitch hadn't ever tried doing that before, but we decided it was really the only option we could think of, so we set it all up. The pigeon was on a pretty long line, and when it did decide to move around, it could get quite a bit of movement going on. We hopped back into the truck, and headed back into the open portion of the field, hoping that we could push her back toward the pigeon.
When we pulled back into the field, we didn't see her at first. We were looking around everywhere, but all the birds we could see, were normal looking. All of a sudden though, we saw her soaring high up in the sky, and she was meandering back and forth, over the open portion of the field. We both got out, and started glassing her, and kept commenting on how she looked like a bald eagle (with a white chest). Unlike the other times though, she didn't really bee line back toward the trees. It had warmed up quite a bit, and I was thinking we had just missed the trapping window. She just kept cruising around in the sky, and didn't seem like she was in hunting mode anymore. Slowly, almost unnoticabley at first, she started drifting back toward the trees though. Her altitude started lessening as well, and she slowly dropped to about 200 feet or so. We were watching her intently, and I said "man, wouldn't it be sweet if she just tucked into a stoop, and just disappeared over those tree!" About that time, she sort of did a little hovering motion, and then just tucked! We both held our breath, and we watched her disappear on the other side of the trees!!! We both just sort of explode with laughter/excitement, jump in the car, and start hauling back in that direction. As we are bouncing along the two track toward the road, Mitch yells out, that there was another RT screaming in from the side, and it looked like it was heading toward the pigeon. We pull onto the main road and slow down, as we are about to pass the mowed lot. As we passed the tree line, and eagerly scanned the spot we left the pigeon, we see both birds, facing off on the ground. We flip the truck around, and park on the edge of the trees, and slowly start creeping toward the birds.
The amount of time between when the bird started it's stoop, and when we got to the birds, was not long at all. I have never caught a bird on a pigeon harness (I have had many pigeons get snagged, but no birds ended up getting caught on the nooses.....), but Mitch was saying that you need to give them some time on there, to make sure they are caught, before rushing in on them. He said he usually gives them at least 20 minutes or so, but we were in a drastically different situation than "normal." With two birds down on the pigeon, we just didn't know what to expect, so we decided to push the issue, and started creeping along the tree line. We were staying as ninja like as possible, and were able to sneak darn near half way up the lot, to the birds. There was a portion of the woods that jutted out a little bit, and there was a nice thick cedar, right on the corner of this jutted out section. We reached this point, and Mitch cautiosly peered around the edge of the cedar. It was only probably a 5 second pause, but it felt like an eternity to me!!!!! Suddenly, he yells out "We got them!" and I start running like we are in the middle of a freakin Jack flight!!!! Mitch is yelling out "Get the white one!!!," and I didn't even think twice, as I dove in on them. I only had eyes for the light bird, and as I got a solid hold on a leg, the other bird shoot her foot out, and latched down on my wrist. LUCKILY, she had poor aim (or good aim, if you're talking to me.....), and sunk down on the bottom portion of my glove (BIG SIGH OF RELIEF!!!!). Mitch arrived right after, and quickly detached the other bird from my glove. At that point, we both just pretty much died laughing, hollerin, and doing all the things two crazy excited falconers do! That's when we had the chance to flip the bird over, and wouldn't you just stinking know it......it was a passage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I slapped a hood on the light bird, and once I got a secure hold on both of them, Mitch ran back for the truck. He ended up pulling right into the lot, and we then began the task, of untangling the birds. The "normal" bird just absolutely dwarfed the white one, so we were thinking I had gotten a male, but once we got her back and all geared up (hood, anklets, jesses), she weighed in at 1243 grams! Sure, that's not a big female or anything, but the fact that the other bird made her look tiny, sort of tells you just how much of a MONSTER it was (should have gotten a weight on her, but we didn't care at the time.....)!
Soooooooo, CJ is headin on back to the wild. I began feeding him up that evening, and he has since eatin three or four rats, and a WHOLE rabbit!!! He is absolutly stuffed, and it surprised me just how quickly, he started converting all that food to meat! There is barely any trace of a keel left on him, and after a little more food, he will be sent on his way. So over all, my season with CJ isn't anything to write home about, but we did alright, and we had some fun in the process. We caught 17 rabbits, 1 jack, and a Pigeon......he taught me a lot though, and I believe I have improved as a falconer because of him. I am pretty sure, he is going back into the wild a MUCH better hunter than when I trapped him, and I have high hopes that he will do well. I'm going to release him in one of my fields that is just LOADED with game, and who knows....maybe he will stick around for a little bit, and I can go kick through the field for him. I have heard of falconers doing this, and having released birds hunt with them, and I think that would be pretty neat.
The new bird is doing really well....I pulled the hood off for the first time last night, and she only bated a little bit (and regained the fist ever time). She calmed down to the point of ALMOST tucking her wings in completely (just a slight droop), and after sitting nicely for about 10 minutes, I hooded her back up, so we could end on a good note. Total, she had it off for about 15 minutes, and since we had passed the "standing on the fist" stage yesterday, I offered her a little bit of grub tonight on the fist. She is a stinkin butter ball though, and she didn't have any motivation to eat. That's alright....she will have another 10 or 15 minutes tomorow, and if she doesn't take it, we will try again the day after that. I think she will eat sooner, than later, and if her "early trapped" behavior is any indication, I may have ended up with a sweet heart!!!!!! After short bus, that would be a nice change! I'm going to go for a quick train, and I have set the bar SUPER high for this bird. Fingers crossed, we can accomplish our goals!
Take it easy everybody.
-D-