Opening of the duck season is an exciting time for a longwinger in Oklahoma. Ducks are the main quarry of falcon flying falconers in the Sooner State, and when the season opens and there are actually ducks on the ponds, all the better!
The first duck flight of the year couldn't have been better. Osprey, "Oz" for short, is just beginning her second season, coming off an ok first season for a young bird. The 2nd and 3rd seasons are the time to shine. We found a group of Gadwalls on a small pond and off she went. After a long run out, Oz came back with a good pitch over the water and I flushed. She poured on a stoop over the group of ducks, cutting them off from the pond. They were not going down easy and they turned into the wind with the falcon in hot pursuit. I watched as she chased them over a line of trees and out of sight. Her telemetry signal told me that she was coming back, though, and when I finally saw her she was way up. I headed back to the pond, and sure enough one duck remained. He was flushed and Oz promptly smacked it to the ground 40 yards from the pond. Very good start to the new season.
The next day the season opened in my local waterfowl zone (it was open earlier to the west of us) and went to my local hotspot pond to find another group of Gads. Hoping to start the year two for two, Oz was cast off to start her climb. Today she was not nearly as high as the day before but still a respectable pitch. When the ducks were flushed she put on a half-hearted stoop toward the flock. This was too much for one of the ducks, though, and it separated from the group and high tailed it back to the pond. Oz broke after the loner curving to the right and the duck hooked in from the left, leading to the head on collision right over the middle of the pond. The duck splashed down seeming unharmed as it spend the next few minutes dodging as splashing the falcon as she fruitlessly buzzed it on the water. After several minutes of this the bird was soaked and I called her to the lure on the side of the pond. As she ate on my fist, the duck casually swam to the middle of the pond and suddenly died.
Right square in the middle of the damn pond. Of course there was no wind whatsoever on this day and there is floated, unmoving. Hoping that if I gave it some time it would drift over to the bank; I went off to fly the Prairie Falcon that I've been rehabbing to the lure. About forty minutes later I returned to the pond only to find the duck floating in the exact same place. By this time the air temperature had warmed up to a balmy 46 degrees and I'm not one to waste game so I decided I would "wade" out there and get it. I've never been in this pond before, but I always assumed that it was one of the shallower ponds around. I waded out about 4 or 5 steps then the bottom dropped out and I was swimming. It's amazing how hard it is to breath in cold water.....
Eventually I retrieved the duck, and some how had the forethought to record this stupidity. (At least my family would have known what happened to me if I had froze to death). After the swim I slogged my way back to the truck where my hands and legs promptly cramped up to the point that I could not open them for several minutes. At this point I realized that a cold swim alone was not the best idea I've ever had. Oh and "where was the dog," you ask? First time I had left her home in the month......
Second day of hawking, 2 for 2, but the downward slide had begun.
Upon reviewing my phone pictures I thought I had snagged a picture of a UFO in the sky. But upon closer examination.....
I just had the picture upside down and it was the duck. Clearly shows how calm the wind and water were that day.
46 degrees! Good thing I was wearing my polar bear boxers. (no I dont sag my pants, boxers just riding up from running around the field)
Flight 1, great, flight 2, so-so but everything was ok, flight 3, well, no so great...
The cold, frosty, morning held the promise of a great flight but it was not to be. After meeting up with Daniel, we quickly found a slip and got Oz in the air. She took a quick initial flight over the ducks then turned to the west for an out run. All appeared to be going well and setting up for a great flight. Out in the range of binoculars only we observed her circling and not coming back. It seemed that she had found another group of ducks that she liked better and was not coming back over. After a few minutes we lost sight of her but still had a good telemetry signal. I tried calling her back to the lure and at first this seemed like it was working and the signal got stronger for a time, but then again changed and quickly faded on all but the far setting on the receiver. So we hopped in the truck and after a few minutes had her location narrowed down. I swung the lure and she quickly appeared.
Upon getting her back on the glove I noticed that she had a broken primary. The shaft was crushed about 4" from the tip. I know that she was in perfect feather when she left the fist initially so something had obviously happened to her, and the fact that the feather was crushed was kind of peculiar as well. Upon closer inspection she had a secondary broken in the same fashion on the other side, and a small amount of blood under her wing.
After I got her home got the feathers imped and cleaned up her wound. Oddly it was only about 3/16" long and looked like a perfect cut, almost like it could have been done with a scalpel. Very strange....I had suspected that she has collided with a fence, but when I've seen those injuries before, the skin is generally ripped and jagged, not a clean cut.
My other thought is she may have caught a Cormorant. We saw several of them flying near her when we were watching though the binos. The long neck and fish catching beak on those birds could have easily smashed the feather shafts with a bite and the claws on the end of their webbed toes may have been what caused the small cut under the wing. I've never caught a Cormorant before so I don't fully know what they are capable of, but I have caught a Common Merganser in the past, which are similar to a Cormorant The Merganser flipped on its back when taken to the ground and proceeded to kick like mad in order knock the falcon off of it. I could see this same being true of the much larger Cormorant. Ultimately, only the falcon knows what happened. Luckily it seems that she'll be alright after a few days rest to heal.
Since I'll be out of the field for the next few days I decided it was time to release the Prairie Falcon that I have helped to rehab from a car collision that resulted in a broken furcula. He has made a full recovery and has been flying really well to the kite and lure. Today I cast him off into 25 mph winds and he instantly took a couple of hundred foot pitch above me. I tossed him a farewell quail and off he went to live on his own once again.
-RVZ
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