Final Duck of 2012-2013

Had a real nice flight from a good pitch to catch is hen Ringneck Duck.  Turned out to be the last duck for me this season.  

The falconry gods have told me its time to wrap things up with my new hybrid this year.  The final flight for her started with a Prairie Falcon harassing her not 10 seconds after leaving the fist, after screwing around with that little annoyance, Osprey came back over the pond and spent another good 10 mins trying to take a duck off the water.  She finally gave up on that idea and headed off, presumably to get some pitch, but as soon as she was out of sight to the ducks, they decided to make a break for it.  She turned and was hot to chase them.  They easily out distanced her with their head start and made it to the safety of another pond a 1/4 mile away.  Here I watched her vulture around that pond, trying to decide which duck she would take off the water.  I had enough at this point and pulled out the lure to call her down.  Upon getting her back on the fist I realize that one of her transmitters is missing.  I'm not too worried about this at first, figuring that I could just track it down.  Only problem was I got no signal in any direction.  I would say that the bird was never further than 1/2 mile from me at any given time, so I should have had a strong signal.  The only thing that I can figure is that the transmitter got knocked off or torn off, above the pond and sunk to the deepest part.  I've found transmitters under water before (see post from 2010), but this time I go nothing as far as signal goes.  

I'm out $200 bucks, had a worthless flight, but I did get my bird back.  I'd have rather ended on a good note with a great flight this season, but in my experience you push your luck too much and it always ends badly.  So here's to next year's waterfowl season.....

-RVZ