We've been froze out for much of the past week, but some how we still have been finding a slip or two a day. Tulsa is fully in the groove at this point. We've taken 16 ducks in the last 19 flights. The last three days in a row he has been successful but the cost of which remains to be seen.
Tulsa seems to be learning some bad habits from flying with ice all around. He is the first bird that I've had that will readily drop the hammer on a duck that he has knocked to the ice. Other birds that I've flown will knock them onto the ice and then remount as if the duck is just on the water like normal, but not this guy. He seems to have found that the ice is advantageous and once the ducks are on it they are done for. Lucky for me (so far anyway) he has hauled every duck he's caught in this fashion over toward me on shore and I haven't had to test the ice myself yet.
Today gave me a little insight as to how this may be a problem. I found a 1/2 dozen Gadwalls in the open corner of a larger, but flyable pond. The falcon had a pitch of around 800' and I went in for the flush. The ducks cleanly left the water and went a good 30 yards or so out over the prairie with the falcon stooping fast behind them. When the ducks saw the falcon coming they began their turn toward the water and one should have met his end then, but Tulsa pulled out of the stoop 30 feet above them and seemingly herded them back over to the pond. The ducks passed over the water initially only to be herded back again by the falcon. When the Gadwalls finally decided that they were going to make an attempt to get back to their swimming hole, the falcon chose the straggler and hammered him down into the water. The duck lay in the water with one wing held up, this often happens when a duck takes a big hit, and Tulsa returns skimming the water toward him. Then, like a Bald Eagle grabbing a fish, he throws out his feet and snags the duck in the water, makes it a few more flaps, and then crashes into the water as well still holding the duck in his talons. Luckily I decided to wear my muck boots today and I ran into the knee deep water to grab the two of them and toss them up on shore. The 13 degree temp froze up the falcon's feathers immediately and he sounded like a rattlesnake as his primaries and tail vibrated against one another while he shivered in the process pulling apart his meal.
I suspect that this stemmed from him grabbing ducks off the ice for the past few days and am guessing that this will happen for a time or two after the water opens up again. Hopefully it is something that he will unlearn as fast as he learned it.
In the meantime he's gonna get at least a couple of days off, because he has, once again, bruised his toes and seems to be keeping weight off of that foot. Hopefully it will heal up quick just as the others bruises have. I should add that each time he has bruised them, the injury has been on a different toe, if the same one kept reoccurring I would be giving him much more time off. Also, the blood on his leg is not his.
-RVZ
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