You Know She's a Little Bit Dangerous

I post this as a warning rather than an accomplishment that I am proud of, actually just thinking about it still kinda makes my stomach turn.

The temperatures at night have been getting down into the teens this past week and has frozen up most of the ponds in Oklahoma.  Several mornings ago we were looking around for a lucky chance of finding some water kept open from the cold.  I cautiously crept over a rise to check on a larger sized pond that had some ducks on it the day before.  As soon as I saw a small section of the pond was loaded with them I immediately backed off and put Osprey in the air.

She was dippity-doing around a bit as we started our approach to the pond, so we when back to the truck and got in to get out of her line of sight.  Not wanting her to see the cue of me walking in, I decided that I would drive to the pond this time.  This did the trick, as I started driving in she got her act together and started to climb.

Just as my truck came over the rise, about 20 geese lifted off from a hidden neck of the pond.  My bird had chased a goose a little too hard once before and I knew this was gonna be a problem.  The falcon began her stoop immediately and hit the rear goose full on.  This knocked the first goose to the ground but Osprey continued on and grabbed the next goose in line, right out of the air.  

I was very lucky that I had decided to drive for the flush.  The falcon and the goose were fighting on the ground a good 200 yards away.  I gunned the truck across the field, hearing a "whoa" from my daughter happily riding over the bumps in the back seat.  Quickly, I jumped out of my truck as I saw my bird hanging onto the base of the goose's neck with one foot and the other awkwardly twisted at the base of the its wing.  The whole time the goose is pummeling the falcon with is free wing.  The slap happy goose was quickly dispatched and I took a deep breath as I stood back to assess what had just happened.

My bird's talons on one foot were lodged under the skin of the goose just behind the wing and was twisted in such a way that I was looking at the bottom of the foot from the top.  I figured my birds leg was likely broken and began the task of prying out her talons.  

Luckily her foot snapped around when it was freed and she began using it again right away.  After I jumped her to the fist, she had a nice tight grip on the glove.  Bullet dodged.

Now I'll be checking ponds much more closely before I flush, as I do not ever want to catch another one.  Oh by the way, my bird weighs a little less than 2.5 pounds, the goose weighed in at 11.5 pounds!

Two days later I flew her again.  She wasn't any worse for wear and climbed up really nice before bouncing a Gadwall off the ground, unfortunately she never looked back and went on chasing off after the larger flock of ducks.  In the process of climbing up for her initial pitch, two geese did fly in from the south and went directly underneath her.  She didn't even dip a wing.  Maybe her beating was enough to get her to leave them alone but I'm not gonna take any chances....

-Ryan