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-