Slow and Steady

Wins the race.......or so they say :-). So that's exactly what I'm doing! So what's new with the red shoulder right? Not too much really.....a couple days after that last post, I decided that with this consistent 100+ degree weather, we weren't really getting anywhere weight wise. Scooter sort of plateaued at a weight, and in order to get him to drop anything past that, I was having to short feed him pretty good. I decided that I didn't really want to do too much of that at this early stage, so I thought he may as well be out building up some more muscle. Stuck him back out on hack for a few days, and when I called him back in, he was at the exact same weight.......but WAY more muscled up! I was pleased with that, and since his metabolism was kicking pretty nicely at that point (from flying around during the days, instead of just chilling on a perch), I was able to pull a little bit more weight off of him, without having to short feed him as much. That little bit off of him pulled his focus in quite a bit, and we have been having some pretty good mornings out in the field. I know what you are thinking...."what happened to getting him entered through car hawking?" The simple answer is this....I'm still going to. Scooter has just changed up the order of things, for the time being. Going into this, I assumed that he was going to follow a similar course as a lot of other birds, and start out car hawking at a weight that was higher than what I would have him at when out field hawking. In reality though, the opposite was true with him. It seems like I am going to have to bring him down quite a bit more, in order to get him motivated for car hawking. On the other hand, at the weight we are at right now, we are starting to get pretty decent responses out in the field, and are slowly getting down to a more realistic hunting weight that way. He is still too heavy to put in the balls to the wall chases on birds yet, but we have had some pretty darn good ones, and I'm making sure that his confidence stays high, with the use of various different baggers (set up in multiple different fashions, so that he doesn't have the opportunity to key in on any cues). The best flight so far was on a sparrow that went about 50 or so yards. He put it into cover, but didn't end up sealing the deal. All the while, I have been sticking with my routine of "train while you hawk" vs the more common "get your bird trained before you go hawking" route. There are bugs everywhere right now, and being that he is a red shoulder, he likes to catch and eat them from time to time. Typically, we are talking about the large grass hoppers (the ones that are 4 to 6 inches long), dragon flies, and cicadas, and though this would normally piss me off, I decided why fight nature...lets just use them as a training tool. Using this morning as an example, we kicked off the session with a really nice sparrow flight that he ALMOST closed the deal on, and as a reward, I followed it up with a pigeon slip that I had set up prior to starting the day. He put the hardest flight I have seen so far from him on that pigeon, but simply got juked out of his pants. I called him back to the fist, and since I wanted to get some type of food reward into him after that pigeon flight, I went to a group of bushes that ALWAYS contain cicadas, and kicked one out for him. He chased it down, snatched it out of the air, and then flew up to the top of a tree with it (I know what your thinking....that was stupid! You just showed him catching birds was hard, and to just wait, because I will eventually provide an easier slip....just wait :-)). He promptly started getting bombarded by other birds, and he ended up dropping half of it below the tree. Called him down, and I went and kicked the bush again....another cicada popped out, snatched it out of the air, but this time he landed near my feet. He didn't drop this one since he was on the ground, and then I hopped him back to the fist for his first tid bit of the day (presented with a completely open fist).

We continued on, and after another really nice sparrow flight, I decided to make my way over to one of the ponds....on our way, I kicked up a dragon fly, and after a really nice flight on that (well....as nice as a flight on a bug can be :-)), he snatched it out of the air, and this time I whistled to him. He turned around in mid air, and carried it back to the fist, where he commenced to munch it down. Another couple of sparrow flights, a big grass hopper that he carried back to the fist, and an unintentional flight at a meadow lark (which was half @$$ed), I decided to end the day with a planted sparrow I had (It had been trapped a little bit ago, and though still in good condition, hadn't flown much in about 4 days....so it was slow). Popped it when we were about fifteen yards away, and after a 30 or so yard flight, he snatched it out of the air. Just like the dragon fly, I did his whistle, he turned around in mid air, and flew back to the fist with it :-). I let him start plucking on it, and once he started to break in and had gotten a few bites, I tossed his lure with a quail leg to the side. He left the fist for his lure of course, and after he had finished eating, I hopped him back to the fist for a tid bit. So, he now carries stuff to the fist...the behavior will have to be enforced a few more times of course, but I'm pleased with it! Ended the session there, and he is now in the back yard preening on his perch I don't have him tied down though.....huh???? Yep, that's the other part of what I'm doing right now. He goes out on hack after we fly in the morning. Over the last week, when I pulled an extra 10 grams off of him, he started talking a little bit. Not a lot....just right before we go hawking. He has figured out the routine, so I'm switching it up a little bit. Is it going to work? I have no idea....but I have a couple goals. The obvious, of course, is to put some more muscle on him, and to pull the focus back away from me some. Also though, he has hit a plateau weight again, and I want to kick his metabolism back up. Last time I was able to pull ten grams or so off of him by doing this, so I'm hoping it will work out again. We get home from hawking, I spray him down with the hose, and he will chill in the back yard for a few hours preening and what not. Around noon or so, he gets hot, and heads out into the fields. He flies around the rest of the afternoon, sleeps in a tree somewhere, and then in the morning, I go call him down to go fly. So far, we have had nothing but positive results, and I plan on sticking with this routine off and on, until I we get enough weight off of him to put forth 110% in the field. The picture is of him soaking wet, after a really nice session in the field. So that's what we have been doing.....the Prairie STILL, has only lost five feathers... -D-