Light bulb moments

We had a pretty stinkin nice car hawking day yesterday! I took Scooter out in the morning, and though we had six or seven REALLY nice slips, we ended up empty handed. He was a little bit heavier than we have been flying at though, so I fed him to have him back to his “proper” weight by the evening, with the hopes of turning the “just barely missed it,” into a “just barely snagged it!” The difference was pretty significant when we jumped in the car for the evening session, and he immediately sleeked down and turned around to face the wind shield (that’s always one of those “bench marks” that I look for, because it lets me know he knows EXACTLY what it is we are doing in that car….). Got a nice slip pretty much instantly, and I thought he was going to chase that bird into the next county! He was so intense, and was instant when I called him back through the window. We continued on, and got a really nice slip on a pigeon walking around on a side road. Though he made contact and feathers flew everywhere, he didn’t connect fully, and the pigeon made a hasty retreat. Continued on, and we got a REALLY long slip at a group of maybe 100 or so starlings feeding out in a pasture. When he slipped out of the car though, he didn’t do his typical cruise in really low tactic, but instead started angling up pretty quickly, and my initial thought was that he just didn’t see them out that far (and was heading up to a tree). He was kicking it pretty hard though, and as the flock busted from the ground, he did a little mini wing over, and tried to crush one out of the middle of the rising flock. He shot his foot out to secure his prize, but his aim just wasn’t quite there, and he ended up missing (he needs some work in the footing department for sure…..).

We ended up with a few slips after that that weren’t too exciting, and that’s about the time we ended up finding the grackles. They were caught depredating on property, which Scooter seems to have a pretty big ethical issue with, because as soon as he saw them, he started bobbing his head like a mad man! He stood up so tall on his tippy toes that I thought he was going to stretch out into a coopers hawk, and as soon as the window got part way down, he was out like a rocket! The slip was pretty much perfect, in that the area that they were in was a good 7 or 8 feet below the level of the car (and not that large), and the only way to escape was up and out. The slip started maybe 15 or 20 yards from the birds, and Scooter shot out heading straight (as opposed to angling down toward the birds…). They saw him as soon as he left the window, and were climbing for all they were worth by the time he met up with them. He singled out an immature bird from the group, and just smashed it out of the air. They went to the ground, and the grackle was not going to give up without a fight!!! Scooter was holding him out at arm’s length (or, legs length I guess!), and that grackle was doing all that it could to peck Scooter’s eyes out. I’m running toward him when I see the grackle make one last go at him, and that’s when Scooter shot his other foot out, and grabbed it by the face. His back talon went straight through, and the bird was dead when I arrived . He caught it right next to a little concrete water run-off deal (I guess that’s what it was????), and he ended up getting all wet. The water was stagnant and nasty, and I could smell him the whole ride home! He got a really nice crop for his efforts, and was 20 or so grams higher than normal this afternoon. He acted ready to roll though, so we jumped in the car, and went looking for birds. We got a couple of nice flights right off the bat, and then I found a group of 50 or so starlings down in front of the school. The slip was nice and long, and he snagged one about five feet off the ground :-)......it was pretty sick! Good times! -D-