Little Mews on the Prairie

Pretty...Stinking...AWESOME!!!!

2012-01-16T18:21:00.010-06:00

My good buddy Perry bought a new pup for his wife, and the little guy was being flown to the Tulsa airport on Saturday. Since he was planning on coming to town anyways, we decided to take advantage of the situation (of course), and made plans for a little hawkin! Sunrise found him and I on the search for quackers, and old faithful came through for me yet again. I peeked over the dam wall, and was not surprised, when I found a mixed bag of ducks, casually floating around the pond. The usual gadwalls were there of course, but there were ring necks as well, and then a few that I couldn't really tell what they were......I snuck back to the car, and we flipped back up wind, to go park the subi.

Perry is flying a this years model chamber tiercel, and the two of them have been having some good times this season for sure! They scored a drake hoodie a couple weeks ago, but due to the lack of ducks in his area, have not been able to follow it up with number two. Perry was wanting another one pretty badly, and I was psyched to see how Morris was going to fly. Long story short, the little stinker went and stooped on a red tail a couple times, and they ended up getting locked up for a little bit. They were tumbling to the ground when we took off running toward them (not caring about the ducks by that point), and we ended up flushing them all in the process. His bird ended up being alright though luckily, so we loaded him back up in the car, and continued on down the road.

A short time later, Morris was back in the air, and Perry and I were sneaking quietly toward a pond full of divers :-). Morris had his nose pointed into the wind and he was pumping for all he was worth, so Perry and I took off over the dam wall! Ducks scattered in all directions, and Morris just kept on pumping. I'm watching him, just waiting for something to happen, but nothing. About the time that those ducks cleared the pond though.......he saw them :-). The little dude tucked up like a mummy, and came down with the intention of putting the hurts to something! He keyed in on a ring neck that was trying to turn back toward the water, and just smashed it into the ground!!!!! It was just pretty stinking awesome :-)!!!

My buddy Judah met up with us later in the afternoon, and we took the Prairie out to a spot I like to call the double ponds. We got two pretty darn nice remounts out of her, and though we didn't score a duck on that session (I don't even want to talk about it, I'm so stinking mad.......................ok yeah, we didn't walk all the way to the end of the pond, because we thought the duck had blown out......yeah, it was hiding in the reeds, and took off after I had called her down........yes, I was pissed!!!!! I already told you, I don't want to talk about it!), we ended up catching a gadwall later on.

Yesterday though........oh man.....yesterday was GREAT!!!!!! She went up crazy high (which was cool), but then she drifted off down wind a bit. She kept half tucking like she was about to stoop, and then would just stop. I knew she was over there watching black birds, so I pulled the lure out for a second. That brought her back over of course, but she lost a lot of pitch in the process (maybe came back over at 500 or so?), so I waited her out. Once she saw I wasn't moving, she turned on her tail, and started heading back up. I let her make a few circles, and when she hit the magic spot, I ran in for the flush. The ducks took off the length of the pond, and most didn't even clear the water. The lead duck did though (by maybe two yards...), and that's when she hit it! To be honest, I thought she had completely missed it.......but then the duck just started spiraling toward the ground :-). It happened only 20 yards or so in front of me tops, and I got to her before she had had time to pluck a single feather. I was bending down to help her out with it, when I realized it wasn't moving.....and noticed the caved in portion of it's skull :-).......FIRST HEAD SHOT!!!!!!!!! It was pretty sick.......
-D-

Good day!

2012-01-13T17:59:00.004-06:00

Finally convinced a few of the guys to come along for some hawking, and we ended up having a pretty darn good time! On her first flight, she went REALLY high! Unfortunately, she went out SUPER far, and we all ended up loosing sight of her. I knew she was up there somewhere, but I just didn't know where. Maybe five minutes later, Baggles is like "There she is," and sure enough, she was heading up wind of the pond. Her wings were set, but she was stinkin high up there, so we ran in and flushed. She came down and just hammered one! She knocked it back into the water though, took off chasing a "late leaver," and went out of sight again. The other ducks busted when they saw her heading toward the horizon, so I called her down for a quail leg. We went and checked a different pond, and I was super psyched to see three mallards on it. I have been wanting one BAD, so you can imagine how pissed I was, when I told everyone about them too loudly, and they headed for the hills. I was sitting there crying and moaning, when a single duck appears out of no where, and puts in on the pond next to us :-). Put her up again, and this time she stayed in much, much tighter. She went up pretty darn well again too, and when she got into position, I flushed. The duck took off straight toward Chris, and he had a nice front row seat, as she came down and thumped the ring neck to the ground! I decided we have had a lot of normal hero shots lately, so I played with this one a little bit, as you can tell :-)
-D-

Double Digits!

2012-01-12T16:29:00.008-06:00

I was fortunate enough to have the company of my good buddy Tommy for Tuesday's session, and we were treated with a really nice flight on a group of ring necks. Though she wasn't NEAR as high as she have been flying, she did pretty stinking well, and I honestly think her lower pitch was mainly weight related. I have been flying her really fat to begin with, but Tuesday was just plain excessive! Her behavior after the kill was stinking embarrassing, and she fought the hood for a good bit.....all things I see from her when she is fat :-). She definitely still brought the hammer down with her usual intensity though, so that was good I guess.

Yesterday was too windy to fly, and today is even worse. The weather has gotten nice and cold though, and the wind is supposed to die down tomorrow afternoon, so hopefully we will have a really good session.
You all be well!
-D-

A few good ones

2012-01-09T21:49:00.011-06:00

She has been flying stinking great! She has found her groove for sure, and pretty much every flight has been better than the last. I'm really excited to see how the rest of the season unfolds!
-D-

Gone

2012-01-03T19:00:00.000-06:00

The downside about blogging about falconry is that one is expected to post about all events both good and bad. I would say that falconry has a similar hold a falconer as drugs to an addict in that that highs are so high that they make you come back for more and more, despite the ever present chance that something bad can happen at any given time. Unfortunately some of the bad struck for me last week when I lost the Gyrkin. A beautiful cold morning held the promise of an extraordinary flight but it was not meant to be.

Mongo started his run out and began to climb a good distance off, which is not uncommon for him. I watched him climb up several hundred feet and then right on cue he started to make his way back toward me and the ducks. Halfway back, however, he turned away and quickened his wing beat back where he had started his climb. I was bummed that this was gonna ruin the intended duck flight, but wasn't too worried. I had a strong signal and being an imprint he never goes to far without checking back in.

Several minutes pass and the signal suggests that the bird has landed. So I pack up my gear and head that way to find him. Judging by the signal strength and direction I'm confident that the bird is about a 1/2 mile away on the other side of the highway. I head on over there and can't seem to pick up the signal again. This still doesn't worry me because he often lands on the ground next to ponds and with the low water there is a bit of a lip that he'll often sit up against, effectively blocking the signal. This has happened a couple of times this year and by readjusting my position I can pick it back up. So I went back to the nearest hill and again had a nice strong signal in the area I expected him to be in. I lay the receiver in my car on the front seat and start to head back to where I'm sure that he is hiding. I left the receiver on when I was driving but didn't have it up and only the static was coming through, when instantly I got a powerful BEEP with the antenna pointing to the front of the truck. I quickly stop the truck and jump out with two more booming BEEPS as I turn down the gain, and then nothing.....

I never heard the signal again. A number of falconers from the area helped in the search, whom I cannot thank enough for giving up their time and gas help scour the county. After a very through sweep of greater surrounding area, and putting the kite up with my wife and kids watching over it, I finally called a local work contact who has a plane and went for a search from the sky that yielded no results. Eventually evening and darkness came.

The field we were flying in is also my training field so the next morning and evening I was out there again with the kite, hoping that it was just a transmitter failure and the bird was around but it was not meant to be. From the hill where I had my last signal to location I got the booming beep in the truck was north to south, the same direction of the highway and my gut tells me he was hit by a truck or the like and carried off to the south. There is also the possibility of electrocution, I did check every pole and transformer for a mile each way but found nothing. Being that he was an imprint and we were flying in my training field, probably 90% of all his flights were at this location, I feel that if he was alive he would have returned to this spot, at the very least he would with the kite in the air. Regardless of what happened I am pretty bummed, it was a very long time coming to get this bird to the point he was at, not to mention that he was an imprint and a lot of fun to have around. I suppose there is still a chance for him to pop up but given the circumstances I am not to hopeful for that outcome.

As a good friend of mine often points out, "falconry is a consumptive sport." There are always life and death situations for prey and the predator and it consumes money, time, energy, and emotion from the falconer on a daily basis; all we get in return are the really high highs and the really low lows.

-RVZ

2 for 2 in 2012!

2012-01-03T15:58:00.000-06:00

I have been told I can't judge pitch worth crap......it is what it is, so I'm just going to stop trying :-). ANYWAYS......

we have had a good last few days. She knocked a ring neck back into a pond on Saturday, and then remounted SUPER nicely. I was able to move the rest of the ducks that hadn't flushed initially, and she came down and just barely missed one. Saturday I went hawking with my dad, and she went up pretty darn high again! She came down and did a power bind to a ringneck, and I was a pretty happy camper the rest of the night. Headed up to Bartlesville to watch some of my buddies fly on Monday, and then ended up hanging out most of the day. Ryan and I put the prairie up around four, and she went up high again. Unfortunately, she drifted off way down wind (and out of position), so she didn't have a chance on them. She tail chased for probably a half a mile or so into the wind, but eventually broke off and came back. Flew her again around five, and though she didn't go near as high that time, she had great position, and we ended up catching our first gadwall. I ended up feeding her 150 grams since I knew the wind was going to be a bummer today, so hopefully she will make it back to weight by tomorrow. That gadwall was the first duck we have caught that I could eat, and it was home, grilled, and in my stomach, all within 3 hours of being caught. It was my first time to cook duck, and it turned out delicious! Good times my friends, good times!

-D-

Duck #4

2011-12-27T19:20:00.000-06:00

I had the opportunity to get out with my good buddy Mark again today. He was kind enough to put me on a great pond with 20 or so hoodies, and we ended up catching a drake. We have been having some focus issues over the past week or so, and I was REALLY itching for a duck today. Though she was only four hundred feet or so, I was psyched that she came back over, and was happy that I got to enforce the behavior. I gave her a little extra time on the kill today than I usually do, and I was rewarded with a really crappy trade off. Serves me right though, and I'll stick with the routine next time :-) .

-D-

A Great Day In a Wet Way

2011-12-22T12:56:00.000-06:00

Had to brave the cold and go for a minor swim, twice. The things I'll do to help these falcons.....

Best Prairie Flight EVER!!!!!

2011-12-20T11:36:00.000-06:00

I hear it quite a bit........."Prairies are slow." I generally respond with something like "Your mom's slow," but up until recently, I sort of had to agree. When one has been sitting around watching hybrids, or some of the other speed demons fly around, prairies do come off looking a bit sluggish. Maybe it's the wing beat, maybe it's their overall shape....whatever it is, it's pretty darn deceiving. After this weekend though, I have come to find out that it's all just an illusion :-)! This new found epiphany didn't come from my bird though (unfortunately), but from a beautiful little haggard prairie, and a drake mallard, that almost got away!

This past weekend was my sister in law's birthday. Edmund Oklahoma was the weekend destination, and we had a little family get together planned for her. As is my usual custom, I headed down there early in the morning, to meet up with my good hawkin buddy Mitch, and we were out on the road by sun up. We were out looking for ducks, and had just found the perfect pond, for a bird that is still in the process of getting started. We knew that there was at least one diver on it, but I hadn't stuck around long enough, to see what else was there. The peregrine was ready to role, and he blasted off the fist pretty quickly, and started mounting up nicely. We crouched down below the damn wall until he came back over, and then we went in for the flush. The pond erupted with duck wings, and a group of seven or eight ducks tore out of there, followed very quickly by a hungry falcon. His bird keyed in on the lead duck, and you can imagine our surprise, when he comes down and power binds to a drake mallard! I'm the closest to the bird, so I'm running as fast as I can to get to them, but I see the duck kick the falcon off, and start scrambling toward the water. That peregrine wasn't detoured in the least bit though, because he instantly got back up, and bound to it again right on the water's edge. I was still running like crazy, and my heart just sunk, when I saw the little guy get kicked off again! The duck sliped into the water, and Mitch and I dropped to our bellies.

While we are sitting their waiting for his bird to get back up in the air, a haggard prairie came cruising over the pond, and I signal to Mitch, to make sure that he saw it. About the time that the prairie got out of sight, Mitch's bird left the pond bank, and started heading back up. He was climbing strong again, and around the time he hit a couple hundred feet, that prairie came cruising back in, to do a little crabbing. None of it was too intense though, and eventually, it looked like the prairie had lost interest, and was heading on out again. It wasn't but a few moments after that, that Mitch gave the signal to flush, and we ran in on the duck. That mallard was still tucked up in the reeds on the ponds edge, and it wasn't but a few wing beats before he had cleared the pond's edge, and was flying off over a wide open pasture. Since the peregrine wasn't up that high this time, he didn't have the angle to come down and pound it, but he quickly pulled in right on the ducks rear, and was mirroring the ducks every move. They were hauling butt, and we could see the gap between the birds slowly getting smaller!

All of a sudden out of no where, that prairie was back, and was just hauling balls!!!! She came in from way behind, but caught up to the peregrine and duck within two or three hundred yards almost effortlessly. Instead of pulling in right behind the birds though, she started angling up a little bit (the tail chase was going on maybe 25 feet off the ground at this point in time....). The peregrine had been closing the gap during this whole process, and had finally gotten close enough to make a slash at the duck. He gave it all he had, and the duck pulled a crazy sideways move, in order to miss getting hammered. The last thing Mitch wanted, was for his bird to grab that duck, and then get smashed on by the prairie, so he started twisting the lure, and the peregrine broke off the chase. This though, is when it got REALLY good! When the peregrine made his slash at the duck, and it had to make his move to escape, I guess it lost a lot of speed. The prairie went from angling up, to pretty much standing on her tail, and started gaining height like she was pulling out of a stoop. She pumped like this for maybe 50 yards, and then tipped her wings, and folded into a stoop! She brought down the whole darn sky on that green head, and she took it straight to the ground! So ya....prairies are slow? I don't stinkin think so!!!!!!!!!! :-)

As far as my bird goes, the weather worked out last Thursday, and I was able to get a flight in with some buddies......she ended up setting her wings like a dork!!! She started pumping for a moment at one point though, so we flushed, and the gadwalls bailed back into the water. Saturday I flew her in Edmund pretty late in the morning, and after pumping up well over a thousand feet, she set her wings, hit a thermal, and went up to where she was fading in and out of binocular view. She came back over, and though her wings were set, I flushed anyways, and she almost snagged a duck about four hundred yards from the pond. She missed, whipped back up, and almost sealed the deal, but the duck made it over to the next pond. She remounted over a thousand feet, which was incredible(and I REALLY wanted to enforce it!), but right as I was turning to go flush the ducks, she set her wings, started dropping pitch at a crazy rate, and once she saw that I wasn't going to flush, took off chasing black birds. I would have flushed way before she set her wings, simply because it was the first time she had really remounted, but she was so stinking wide, that I kept waiting for her to come back over......I tried to fly her later in the evening after we had met up with a few other buddies, and she ended up sucking, and almost got killed by a red tail. We went out Sunday evening though, and put duck #3 in the bag. She was WAY wide and down wind, so I didn't really think she had a chance when I flushed, but she turned on the after burners, and ended up snagging another ring neck.

The weather was lame yesterday, and chances are, it won't work out for a flight tonight either, but the next couple of days are looking really nice......we will see how it goes I guess :-)

-D-

And Boom Goes the Dynamite

2011-12-18T20:44:00.000-06:00

After my last post about the Gyr, I was sliding into acceptance that this falcon was just "being a Gyr" as some of the old timers have implied about them. However, my brain finally put together something that I was missing. Pulling off of ducks while stooping, raking feathers off their backs, not stooping....All signs of too fat. After a miss one morning last week where he should have easily knocked a Ringbill out but instead just knocked a few feathers loose. I called him down to the lure for nothing, took him home and put him on the block. Something I would do for most falcons that I assumed were overweight but somehow I had convinced myself that this bird was at the "perfect" weight. Later that afternoon the bird was nearly an ounce lower than I had ever had him before and I went out in search of another slip.

Located the ducks, put him up, and lo and behold he blasted off the fist with a ton of energy, ate up the sky, and at about 800' I flushed for him.

No screwing around this time! Teardrop stoop, fell in a little behind an unlucky Gadwall and without loosing an ounce of speed, cut through the ducks wing, smashing the bone inside. There wasn't much of a wingover, more like a quick pit stop on the ground just past his target, followed by the falcon springing back in the other direction to get to eating.

I had this bird's weight today at nearly 100 grams lower than I started flying him last year and he didn't loose an ounce of energy. In fact having a little more edge on him seem to motivate him more to really show what he is capable of doing.

Two days later he was back to weight and ready for more. I found a pond with 3 Mallards on it, he had blinked these larger ducks in the past but being that he was at his new better weight my confidence that he would take a shot at these was much higher.

Again he took off with a new-found determination and began to mount. And mount he did, after a brief check over the pond, he turned into the wind and took a long run out. When he returned he was well over 1000' in the air. Just a dot to the naked eye. I allowed him to make one more run over the pond and as he turned and made his way up wind, I flushed.

I could hear the "sizzzzzzzzzzzzwhouuuu" from way up and I knew that the velocity he was bringing was going to end violently. After several long seconds, the end came, and I instantly got that sick to my stomach feeling that one gets when seeing a football player get hit and go instantly limp. The Gyr hit the duck hard and literally bounced off and to the side. The duck never moved after hitting the ground. I gathered myself and ran over to the point of impact where I found the duck laying on its side with a compound fracture to the wing and saw Mongo sitting about 20 feet away, leaning back on his tail staring into the sky.

This instantly brought back memories of my black hybrid, Rhythm, and one of my first few blog posts. Rhythm hit his last duck hard, killing it instantly, but in the process caused himself terminal damage and he died several hours later. The necropsy showed that he had ruptured his pancreas in the impact.

I picked up the duck and tossed it in front of Mongo. The falcon just looked at it for a couple of minutes while still acting dazed but eventually did snap out of it and began to pluck feathers from his prey. After another flew minutes he was back to his old imprint self. I set him up for a picture and then took him home to put over his crop and relax. I think I'm gonna give him a couple of days off just to be sure. The amount of force these falcons can endure and survive (most of the time) is simply amazing.

I'm definitely more excited about the future with this bird. And to think a little over 20 grams made all this difference...

-RVZ

2 for 2!!!

2011-12-12T00:19:00.001-06:00

As soon as she started eating on her first ducks head, Mark suggested I trade her off pretty quick.....apparently those ducks taste about as good as they smell, so not well i'm guessing :-). I took his advice, and when it was all said and done, she ended up getting about her normal ration of food. The next morning I glanced at her weight, and I thought maybe, just maybe, we are going to get to have another flight! I pushed that idea to the back of my mind though (didn't want to get too excited), and headed off to the Bartlesville area, for some early morning hawking. Good friends, and good times were on the agenda, and we definitely accomplished both of those things.....I even got to round it all out with a GOOD meal too, so I was sitting about as happy as a person could be. That's when the bird went back on the scale, and I darn near had a heart attack........it was time to go hunting :-) :-)!!!

715 grams, and though that's the highest she has been in a long time, I am now an addict, and just can't help myself. Got everybody loaded up in the Subi (dog, parker, bird, pigeons, etc), and it was down the highway we went. Glanced at a couple ponds on my way out of town, but it wasn't till I hit one of my training fields, that I pulled over to do some serious glassing. This field rocks, in that you can drive in from the backside which is a pretty tall hill, and you can look down on the whole field from there. There are two kill me ponds on one end, and a long skinny one on the other. I glassed both of the ponds, but didn't see a thing. Turned the radio back up, went bouncing down the two track through the field, and drove out the exit that goes RIGHT between the two kill me ponds (maybe, a cars length from the edge of the pond!) Right as I am exiting the field, I glance back at my rear view mirror, and I see a single, small, black duck, swimming away from the side. It had been tucked up against the bank that was nearest to where I was glassing from, and I just didn't see her I guess. Anyways, I'm not sure why, but it didn't bust, so I drove a little ways past, and pulled the car over. Got the bird beeped up, Parker took his sweet little time selecting the perfect duck flushing rocks (he apparently didn't realize that I was about to go crazy with excitement!), and we were finally ready to role.

She left the fist quite a bit quicker this time.......she didn't turn and start coming back either! I'm sitting there straining my eyes as she takes off to the east, and her silhouette kept coming in and out of view. I have played this game before, and any second I expected the stoop, and the cloud of black birds to come erupting into the air. I'm freakin out, so I pull my glove off, and just start waving it. You wanna know what stink in happened?!?!?!?! She started heading back my direction!!!! I couldn't believe it. She was climbing the whole way back too, and by the time she got back over the pond, she was at least 500 feet or so. She was a good two or three hundred yards upwind and pumping like crazy, so as soon as she hit the money spot, Parker and I went for the flush. The ring neck blasted off of the water, and cleared the edge almost instantly! The prairie just poured on the speed, and at the last minute, put this inverted angle to the stoop and just creamed the duck!!!!! It went straight to the ground, and I didn't see it move once :-). She did THE SLOWEST wing over I have ever seen......almost as if she knew that duck wasn't' going anywhere!!! Other than car hawking, this is the first time Parker and I have really "hit the field" if you will, and we ended up scoring a duck! That's probably the best part of the whole thing, and as you can imagine, that stupid grin has come back to my face. Next flush I hope to be at around 8 hundred, and then after that, the fun begins!!!!!!!!
-D-

YES!!!!!!!

2011-12-10T13:00:00.001-06:00

So here is a long over due update on the prairie. Kiting was our main goal up until this last weekend. I got her to the point where she was going a thousand plus feet to the kite, but realized pretty quickly, that she didn't really have any focus on me. We were pretty inconsistent on the kite there for a while.....she would go up a couple days in a row, then take off chasing black birds.....another perfect day to the kite, then back to chasing birds. There were a few days where she actually connected with the black birds too, and as a result, stayed out over night a few times....it definitely took a few years off of my life by the way :-). I had to bring that focus in on me, so I brought her pitch down quite a bit, and started tossing her bags. I failed pretty miserably at this to begin with, and it took tossing out a pigeon on a line to get her looking down, which I pulled back in quickly, and tossed her a homer. Once we got the "game call=birds flying" concept down, I slowly started working her pitch back up on the kite, and tossed her some baggie homers periodically, to keep her keyed in on me. I am the luckiest guy in the world also, in that I have quite a few buddies that are out there flying long wings as well, and I was fortunate enough to be able to mix some good bagged ducks in there too (which I think were pretty clutch....).

So that's sorta where we stood last week. Duck season had closed for a few weeks around here, so I used that time to get her pitch back up nice and high, and ended up pushing her weight up a tiny bit too in the process (we had been flying between 685 and 700 grams, but we were now flying between 700 and 710 grams......). The weather decided to stop being retarded, and I was able to send her up a thousand plus feet five days in a row (which was a record....I think the most I had been able to pull off by that point was one time, when I got three kite days in a row....). Her focus was perfect, her behavior was spot on, and she was flying super strong (AND staying in super tight!). I started to get really confident that we had had a "light bulb" moment, and I started relaxing and enjoying myself a lot more. I was thinking we may be over this black bird chasing deal, and all I had eyes for, was December 10th.......the day duck season re-opened back up!

So mid week rolled around, and I found myself back out in the kite field. She was down to 697 grams (which was slightly lower than we had been flying recently), and she was about ready to tear the car apart, to get out and fly! The kite was hanging up in the air nice and high, the wind was only blowing ten or so out of the north, and the bird took off climbing to the bait at record speed. She kept in super tight while circling up to the kite, and had made it to just barely below the bait. At that moment, a group of ten or so black birds decided it would be wise to fly DIRECTLY under the kite, and apparently, it was just too much for her. She tucked into her mummy stoop, and came down and smashed one out of the group, set her wings instantly (since she caught it pretty high off the ground), and glided over to a tree. A red tail came cruising in to try and rob her, and the next thing I know, I'm was watching her heading off for the hills. I jumped in the car, and started chasing her down, and I finally got to the point where I was getting a good signal, on near and narrow. There was a turn off going to a huge open field about 30 yards down from me, so I hopped back in the car with plans of going there to twist the lure, when guess what? Yep............car wouldn't start! ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME!!!!!! I call my buddy to come give me a jump, but by the time he got there, it was well past dark. She stayed out over night, and I ended up getting her back at sunrise the next day. Ryan was coming to town that afternoon, and since I wanted to fly her with him there (ya know, let him watch her fly, and maybe get some tips on what I should be working on....), I ended up only giving her a little bit of food when I called her down. She must have gotten cold during the night, because even though I had fed her to put her exactly at weight for our flight that evening, she ended up burning forty or so grams during the day, and was all the way down to 676 grams (the lowest she had ever been.....), when I went to pick her up that afternoon. I had no idea how she was going to act, but we put the kite in the air, and she took off chasing black birds :-). Luckily she didn't score that time, but as you can imaging, my new found confidence was all shot to heck.

We had poor flying conditions the next day, so I fed her on the lure at home, and re-opening day of duck season found us sitting with two pretty darn bad sessions in a row under our belts. I was nervous, had no idea what she was going to do, and to top it off, it was going to be the first day without the kite (and she was at 708 grams....usually, I like to have them a little bit hungrier for the first hunt....). Would she fly around daisy clipping? Would she just blast off the fist to go chase some black birds? I literally had no idea! Brand new batteries in the transmitter, new batteries in the receiver, a "good luck" from the wife, and out the door I went. I met up with a good buddy of mine, who had generously offered to take me around to some of his spots to look for that "perfect" slip, and to be honest, I wasn't my usual talkative self :-). I was about to pee my pants I was so nervous, and all I could think about was "please don't fly off!" To be honest, I'm not really even sure that I wanted to find a slip! By that point, I was thinking maybe we needed some more work on the kite, and maybe cutting her loose without anything in the sky to keep her focus was just a really stinkin bad idea. I casually had mentioned a few times "ah, no worries..........if we don't find a slip, we can always just stick the kite in the air," but Mark was on a mission :-). Next thing I know, we are glassing a kill me pond with a single drake hoodie on it, and he is looking at me saying "it doesn't get much more perfect than that!" What could I do? The slip was right there, the bird was in the car, Mark took the time to come help me out..........I had to take it!

So I grabbed the bird with shaky hands right, beeped her up, we hopped the fence, and I found myself in the middle of a field, striking the braces on her hood. Her head went up instantly looking for the kite, and you could tell she was a bit confused. Looked around, looked back up.....looked around again, then looked back up......She started raising her tail to mute, and I start thinking "$hit, $hit, $HIT!!!!!" Off she goes, and I am staring in disbelief, when she starts to turn, and come back over head :-). She just started climbing! Like a wave, the tension just melted off of me, and I darn near start doing the happy dance right there in the middle of the field. I was vibrating with excitement, and I kept looking over at Mark, and he just kept shaking his head, giving me the "hold your darn horses" look! When she hit about 200 hundred feet or so, her wing beat sped up, she sat back on her tail, and just started climbing. She seemed to be getting after it now, and that was when I looked at Mark................and I got the nod!!!!!

Now I'm not one to talk about myself, and surely anyone who knows me would say I'm probably not the most athletic of persons, but I kid you not when I say I ran over that dam wall at well over a thousand miles per hour.....I would have put the whole darn USA track team to shame, and I wasn't even in my sneakers :-)!!!!! Somehow though, Mark was able to keep up with my very impressive speed, and we both crested the top yelling "ho" at about the same time. "HO HO HO..................HO?" I'm looking around frantically, and I see nothing! That tension that I had said went away......yeah....it was back :-). Where the heck did that duck go?!?!?!?!?!? My hand was on it's way to the hawking bag about as fast as my legs brought me to that pond, when all of a sudden, from the bank DIRECTLY below my feet, the duck busts!!!! My head snaps back like a yo yo, and I see my little girl haulin @$$! I flip my eyes back to the duck, and i'm screamin "make it to land, make it to land!!!!" in my mind. As you can see, the fates were smiling on us that day, and the hoodie cleared the water by about 10 or 15 yards, before my little girl brought the hammer down! She did a nice wing over, and quickly secured the duck, before it had a chance to scramble back to the water. The only thing that I could mange to fumble out of my mouth was "I can't believe that just happened.". Sitting here thinking back on it......I still can't believe it happened :-)! First duck flight, first score! Whoop Whoop! That was fun as heck from a nothing pitch...........I can't wait to see how big my smile gets, when she comes hauling out of the heavens!!!! Good times my friends.....good times!
-D-

Soaring To New Heights

2011-12-02T16:09:00.000-06:00

I've had and seen some high flights in the past week or so. Wednesday, I was in T-town running some errands and found a few minutes to meet up with Jonathan and his Red-tail of the year. He was already out in the field when I arrived and was working some cover. Shortly after we exchanged pleasantries the hawk took off from his perch and kinda half-heatedly chased something for a few seconds. Instead of landing, the bird found himself in a thermal and since it was a calm, warm day, decided to ride that thermal up several hundred feet. Jonathan and I causally watched the bird circle higher and higher for several minutes. As the bird reached what I would call 500' or so, I mentioned, "aren't ya gonna get him focused a little more this way?" Jonathan agreed that maybe it was time and as he reached for the lure in his bag a cottontail flushed from grass in between us. The hawk saw this right way and turned his attention back in front of us. He glided on over into position, keeping up at his same height, and when the moment seemed right, did his best falcon impression stooping toward the ground while gaining a ton of speed. After the silent rush of the bird shooting past us we heard crashing of cover and the the squeal of success. One amazing bunny catch. I've had Red-tails that soared in the past but, 100'-200' tops. This flight would have been respectable for a falcon! Jonathan does it again....there is no such thing as a dud Red-tail in his hands! The proof is in his continued success from year to year and from bird to bird.

This morning I got out with the Gyrkin for a little training flight, being that the duck season is closed until the 10th. He took off from the fist as he normally would, took his run out, and started to climb. And climb he did. After just a couple of minutes he was touching the clouds. Conservatively I would guess 1500' but experience and by my gut feeling he was pushing 2000' easily. I could really only see him through binoculars. When he came over heard I served him, but instead of coming down he started to drift off to the west and began a monster stoop to what I knew was a lake full of geese.....

This bird will just not leave geese alone. He's taken a few to the ground, raked a few, and chased a bunch, but has never been rewarded for these efforts. I figured he would grow out of it with time but that is not the case. Ended up being a 40 minute telemetry hunt. He really wasn't that far away, but was on the ground on the edge of a pond, which is a pretty common place for him to sit after missing on a stoop. As I walked up to get him the geese flushed again and again he chased but only for a few minutes this time before he made his way back to me for the lure.

This bird still acts like a first year Hybrid in a lot of ways. Very impulsive. I'll hang on to hope that the more we hawk the more he'll keep an eye on me but being that this is his 3rd season of hunting with me I'm not gonna hold my breath. Good thing I'm good with telemetry....Knock on wood.

Just to round things out I added a picture of my hybrid with a Coot he caught the last day before duck season took a rest. Nothing spectacular about the flight. Flushed a bunch of Gadwalls and this stupid Coot decided that he would make a break for it too. Legs dangling, this pseudo-waterfowl stumbled into the air and off the water. Feeling the wind beneath his wings for a second or two before those wings were nearly knocked clean off! Normally Coots are about impossible to get to leave the water around here, I don't know what got into this one.

I've been told by some falconry buddies that this is a -1 on the head count. I tend to agree, but in respect to the "quarry" I enacted my own let it lay law and let the hybrid eat his fill. An act that I have grown to regret since he was too fat for the next 3 days.

-RVZ

Sometimes......you just get a beautiful kite day!!!!

2011-11-30T19:30:00.000-06:00

Rubbin' Brakes Ryan in Kansas

2011-11-28T16:08:00.001-06:00

Rubbin brakes Ryan.....What does it mean????? I have no idea. We pulled over to watch a potential Prairie Chicken field and as the sun came up I noticed my name on the road. Weird....thought it might be fate but it was not.

I got into western Kansas on Tuesday afternoon and spent a couple of days looking for what looked like good chicken habitat. Beautiful countryside was seen from the get go but it took some time to home in on where those elusive prairie grouse were hiding.

On Thursday afternoon Daniel rolled into town and we took in some dirt hawking with Randy, a Kansas falconer who apprenticed under a friend of ours a number of years ago. Randy's 2nd year passage Harris' Hawk and first year chamber bird were really with it. They chased hard everything we flushed; pheasants, Bob-whites, dickey birds, bunnies and even a Great Horned Owl. The younger of the two birds managed to nab a cottontail that was just inches from the impenetrable fortress of a rock pile, and the older bird connected with a bunny as well in some very thick cover. Quite the showing considering the wind was easily blowing 30 mph!

Friday morning we finally struck gold. While screwing around trying to trap a prairie falcon, we met an old timer by the name of Francis. As he slowly crept up behind my truck in his late model Chevy pickup, Daniel and I prepared ourselves for what was surely going to be him coming up to bitch us out for acting weird near his property. However, as we rolled down our window to acknowledge him, he cheerfully asked, "you boys pheasant hunting?" We told him that we had guns in the truck and were interested in pheasants but what we were really looking for was Chickens. Upon hearing this, the old farmer's eyes twinkled and he got a slight smile to his face. He then informed us that he had just flushed about 40 Prairie Chickens about a 1/2 mile back from where we were sitting and he would take us there! No one had asked him about Prairie Chickens in years he later informed us. So we followed Francis on down the road to the cut wheat field where he claimed to have seen them. Not fulling trusting this old guy yet, we opted to pick up the shotguns and walk the field with my pointer, Lulu.

We walked for about 10 minutes without seeing anything too promising when a single bird exploded from just upwind of Lulu! She quickly snapped around and locked on point. As we approached the dog, another 12 Chickens flushed well out of gun range but we had found what we came for!

We watched the birds put in into the CRP about 400 yards way and marked the spot using a house on the horizon as a reference. We emptied the shells from our guns and hurriedly made it back to the truck to pick up my hybrid. We instantly got the bird in the air and set out to get another flush. With the falcon above and the dog and Daniel below, we made our way out to where we had marked the Chickens down but unfortunately they had snuck off to elude us for another day.

Another day was not meant to be though with the wind blowing up in the 40 mph range for the next few days so I took a couple of nice photos of the sky and we bid western Kansas fairwell. Where are the pictures of the Prairie Chickens? In all the excitement of course I left it in my bag so the only pictures I've got are in my head.

As luck would have it and with some help from a friend I also found a flock of 41 Greater Prairie Chickens on the way home and about an hour from my house. So looks like I've still got a chance before the end of the year...

Now that I am back and settled I got the birds in the air again yesterday and this morning. Yesterday there was a very strong north wind and neither of the birds flew all that well, although the Gyr flew markedly better than the hybrid.

Today, both birds flew much better. Mongo, the gyrkin, took a commanding pitch and when the ducks were flushed he put in a great stoop just missing a hen Gadwall, sending her hightailing it back to the pond quacking in her boots. Tulsa flew better too, but still not taking a very good pitch. He was pumping and away from the pond so I went ahead and flushed. For some reason he chose a duck that was dead center over the water and guess where they both ended up...... The duck pulled loose and flew away, leaving the the falcon to do his best Olympic breast stroke to the shore. At 22 degrees this morning, his feathers froze instantly and he sounded a bit like a rattlesnake as he shivered on our way back to the truck.

The frozen feathers also revealed some feather damage on his primaries that I had not noticed. Looks like I'll be imping in a few feathers later this week.

-RVZ

Gyr's are just different...

2011-11-17T18:25:00.001-06:00

...or at least mine is. Mongo has been flying great. Aside from a passing goose that he just couldn't convince himself to let pass unharrassed, he has been a model bird so far this year.

His first flight on ducks this year was a good one but he seems to always like to choose the ducks to the rear of the group. He had a great pitch and I flushed but rather then taking on one of the lead ducks, he chose one of the rear ones that hadn't quite cleared the edge of the pond and knocked it back to the safety of the water. After a single pass to make sure he couldn't juuuust maybe grab the duck off the water, Mongo leisurely flew over and landed at my feet. Casually looking up at me, like a confused puppy with his head slightly cocked to the side, waiting for his lure.

This falcon has always been a one shot wonder since I started flying him. One of the most frustrating parts of flying him has been that he absolutely will not remount after a miss. After talking with several who have flown imprint Gyrs in the past, I've been told that is kinda par for the course and many do the same thing.

Duck flight 2 for him this year, started out much the same. The falcon was mounting in a very gusty north wind and with a good amount of effort made his way up into the sky. Once in position I flushed around 50 mixed species of ducks downwind off the water. Mongo instantly folded into his drawn out stoop and picked out a couple of Gadwalls that turned away from the group and back towards the water. The Gyr matched their move and fell in below and slightly behind them. Then he put on move that I can best describe as a wobble back and forth. This caused the ducks to feint each way matching his "wobble" and seemed to make them nervous about bailing into the water. They made another move away from the pond, went about 50 yards out, and then turned to come back and Mongo struck down the leading bird with a monster hit at a crossing angle.

I've never seen a move like that out of a falcon and it looked too deliberate to not have been intentional. One of the best flights I've seen in a while if for no other reason than it was different from the standard smash and grab of the hybrids I've flown for the past 5 years or so.

Tulsa continues to catch ducks as well but he has been more of a pain than anything this year. He just doesn't have the excitement in his flight that he has had in the past. Ducks have just gotten to easy for him and aside from his first couple of duck flights this year, he hasn't missed since. He's got another thing coming to him next week when he meets a Prairie Chicken for the first time.....

-RVZ

Come on weather!

2011-11-13T10:00:00.000-06:00

The wind just keeps messing with us.....we either have too much, or too little. On the few days a week that we do have nice weather though, she has been doing pretty well, and we are starting to get some nice height under us. We had a fly off the other day, because I decided that using my brain was over rated (got to know when to say no on the flight.....), but other than that, not too bad. Her focus is starting to get better, and I'm still having a stinkin' blast this this girl! We are supposed to drop down to a 9 or 10 mile per hour wind this evening, and I'm hoping to get a good session in.
-D-

Week One of Duck Season

2011-11-11T11:09:00.001-06:00

Here we are a week into the 2011-2012 duck season and Tulsa finally scored his first duck. It's been hard to convince him that he needs to go up so far this year. I suppose having a few dozen ducks under your belt, combined with warm weather makes a bird a bit lazy. Oddly enough he had decided on his last two slips to try stooping the ducks on the water. Just as in his first two seasons, all he caught were splashes to the face, and he ended up landing next to me in field soaking wet. Nothing spectacular in his flight today but considering his goofy start this year I'll take it.

One week til we head out to find some grouse....

-RVZ

Kiting!

2011-10-28T18:10:00.000-05:00

Got her going to the kite, and we are just trying to solidify the "hood off, head up" behavior. Once that's down solid, we will be able to start getting some serious height under this gal....I hope :-)! She has a really pleasant temperament so far, and I am really enjoying myself!!!

While I was finding pictures for this post, I came across the last picture of Parker and the hybrid. I had just gotten back from putting the kite in the air, and Parker was standing there with his arm out, telling the bird "up!" It made me smile.... -D-

Dog Transmitter From an Old Marshall RT

2011-10-26T16:58:00.000-05:00

I have several old Marshall RT transmitters lying around not being used. Transmitters seem to be like computers in that they are outdated as soon as you use it the first time. There is nothing wrong with the older Marshall RT's, however they do not have the power of the newer RT+ or Powermax, no magnetic on/off switch, and they have a very long antenna compared to newer models. Rather than have these collecting dust I decided to make a pouch that goes on my dog's collar so I can at least use these to track my dog when I hit the grouse fields next month.

Lulu above sporting her new tracking device on the side of her SportDog e-collar. (click pictures to enlarge)

No set pattern was used, just made some rough measurements and cut out the parts I thought I would need. I didn't post the measurements because they will change depending on the transmitter used and the collar that you would put it on.

A couple of pieces of self stick velcro to keep the transmitter in the pouch.

The picture above is the basic shape with the transmitter inside.

Using a leather stitcher I sewed the velco, sides, and collar loop together.

Not the most pretty stitch job but I'm looking for function more than form in this case. If I wanted more even stitches I could have used a stitch marker.

Only need to stitch down the top flap's velcro.

Open finished product.

Closed, everything fits snugly inside.

On the collar and ready to go.

-RVZ

Still busy, but Back

2011-10-12T11:50:00.000-05:00

It's been a busy year leading up to this falconry season, but I've managed to squeeze in a few things....

Spent some time in the blind with my youngest daughter.

I think she saw one, "wait one more minute dad."

Turns out it was a dead cow....

If ya click on this picture you maybe able to see the Columbarius Merlin perched on a snag near the middle. She had a large crop on her and unfortunately had little interest in bait we were offering.

My girls and I imprinted a Gyrkin this summer, as previously blogged about.

He liked watching his dinosaur ancestor.

Sorry cell phone picture, but here we are saying goodbye before he went back to the breeder.

And I've finally gotten my birds outta the chamber this past week. Mongo, the Gyrfalcon, looks and acts about the same as he always has.

Tulsa, the Hybrid, is still a jerk and has lightened up in color some more. I expect him to continue to get the job done this year. Time to dust off the ol' kite, put new batteries in the transmitters, and whip these two into shape.

-RVZ

Well.....it's official!

2011-10-04T16:16:00.000-05:00

It's hawking season people!!!!!! We finally made it! The weather is starting to cool off, friends are pulling birds, and I'm starting to get that kid on Christmas morning feeling :-). To top it all off, the prairie is doing unbelievably well, and I couldn't be happier with her right now! I have had the pleasure of hitting the field twice already this season, and I can already tell, this is going to end up being one of those epic years for sure. On the way back from my trapping weekend, I swung through Edmund and met up with Rob and the crew. Rob is now flying rainbow, and and she is looking all sorts of good in her big girl feathers. We took her out to go chase some rabbits, and were treated to some really nice flights. She ended up snagging a rabbit, as you can see from the photo, but the flight that sticks out in my mind the most, was the miss just before she scored. We were out hawking one of those guys favorite spots, and it's a nice open field, with a huge hill right in the middle. We were all kicking brush, heading up the side of that big hill, when a rabbit busted, and scooted off toward some mounds of dirt/rock/concrete, off to the side. The coop blasted off the fist, and coursed it for a good fifteen or twenty yards, before whipping down to try and seal the deal. The rabbit put on a nice move though, and she ended up with feet full of dirt. She got right back up after it though, and she kicked on the afterburners. She didn't end up putting that one in the bag, but being that we were all up on that hill looking down when the slip happened, we had perfect views of the flight! It must have gotten her amped up too, because like I said, the next rabbit kicked up, ended up going home in the game bag. We went and grabbed some food afterwards, and good times were had by all.

This past weekend, I met up with a gentleman named Dave, who is interested in falconry, and went went hawking with Jonathan. He trapped a new tail this season, and the little guy is doing really well! He has already put four or so rabbits in the bag, and we were hoping to add anther one to the head count that day. As you can tell from the first picture (smiles), he still wasn't quite ready to rock when we started out the session, but once we got going, it didn't take him long to get his head in the game. The rabbits were popping pretty well considering how early in the season it is (and how thick the brush still is....), and we were treated to some pretty nice flights. The bird didn't end up scoring unfortunately (other than a big fat wood rat), but it's pretty apparent that this bird is going to do REALLY well this season! Score, or no score, it was still just nice getting out to the field.

After the tail had gotten his exercise, it was time to fly the coop. Jonathan has been focusing on car hawking to get this bird going, and now that he is doing well, he is in the process of transitioning him to the field. They had hit the field for the first time the day before, but from what he was saying, you could tell the bird was still trying to figure out exactly what was expected of him, in this new situation. We went to a field that neither of us had flown before, and it was a pretty good one. There were quite a few birds in it, and we were able to consistently produce slips for him, with only minimal down time between. We kept the session short and sweet, and made sure that it ended on a good note. Hopefully that flipped the light on for him, and the two of them will be racking up the field score count in no time.

So ya, pretty darn good start to the season if you ask me :-). I have been flying the Prairie outside on the creance for the last few days at my house, and we have been having perfect response. We went to one of my training fields for the first time yesterday, and she made me proud.
I just have to tighten her up a little bit more, and we will be ready to start kiting! I can't stink in wait!!
So that's about it for me right now. Be well friends, and I will talk at you soon.
-D-

Oklahoma Passage Peregrine Take

2011-10-03T10:24:00.000-05:00

I'm happy to report that Oklahoma has filled both of its passage Peregrine permits this year! It has been a lot of work. First to get passage take allowed and then even more work to retain our permits in Oklahoma due to a lot of pressure to give ours up to Texas by those who didn't think that it could be done away from a beach.

The falcons have to move across the country before they can hit those Texas beaches and lucky for us there are several locations in Oklahoma where fair numbers of Peregrines stop over on their trips south. I'll be the first to admit though, that it is nowhere near as easy or glamorous trapping up here as would be on a coastal beach, but definitely can be done and we feel it can be done year after year as long as someone has the desire!

Photos courtesy of Mitch Wishson. This bird couldn't have been trapped by a nicer guy or better falconer.

-RVZ

A Picture=1000 Words

2011-09-28T18:19:00.000-05:00

Tale of Two Transmitters

2011-09-09T10:34:00.000-05:00

Unfortunately, as posted in the last post, Daniel's Hybrid got hit by a car after a fly-off. Very unfortunate; that bird was coming along nicely. What Dan didn't write about was the search leading up to our calamitous find.

About 9:00am I got a call from Dan that his bird had flown off from the kite, he had a good signal but the bird had gone pretty far and he "wouldn't mind" a little help. So I grabbed my receiver and jumped in the truck. I headed down the highway until I saw Dan on the side of the road with Yagi in hand. We both had a strong signal coming from his Marshall Powermax transmitter, on the far setting, but it was a strong signal. Just as we were about to get into the truck and continue the chase, the signal disappeared. Very strange..... In my experience this can often mean the bird went to the ground behind a large hill or in a valley. To play it safe though, Daniel took off in the direction we last had signal and I started circling the section roads to see if one of us could regain audio connection to the bird. After about 1 hour of searching, Dan had made it pretty far away and I had checked about every square inch of the nearby hills and valleys finding nothing. I had to head back up to work and get a few things done so I had to check out, leaving Dan to continue the search on his own for a while.

It still was bugging me that we had such a good signal and then it was gone in an instant. Sure maybe the battery died, but it was a new battery, or maybe the antenna fell off, but it was glued on. My suggestion to Dan was to go back to where we had our last signal, walk out to the biggest hill and try his backup transmitter, a Merlin Systems Mini-FMV, that was tail-mounted on the bird.

About an hour later I get a call back from Dan, that he did indeed get a signal from the tallest hill in the area, but it was faint on the furthest setting on his receiver. So I headed back his way and the chase was back on.

We found the going down the hill only half way caused the signal to disappear. So the bird was nearby and behind the terrain or he was still quite far away. After exhausting our ground search in the proximity we decided to get back in a vehicle and head toward the signal again.

For several miles we got nothing. As we were driving down the road I saw a tall feed hopper with a ladder down the side. Last year when my friend Jay lost his bird, the only place we could get a signal initially was on top of a feed hopper such as this. Couldn't hurt to try it again. So I hauled my receiver to the top and tried my luck again. Sure enough, there was the signal, but still weak. Again we tried to get a better reception on foot but the bird was still pretty far away.

About this time our friend Scott also met up with us to help with the chase. Encouraged that we still had a signal we kept moving in the direction that we had a beep. More miles ticked off the odometer before we finally got a faint signal from the side of the road, a big improvement from the weak signals from high places. As we followed the beep it was getting stronger and stronger until, BOOM. Our hopes of finding the bird alive were squelched. There in the road was the bird, a faint trail of feathers blowing across the road....

Upon closer inspection the Marshall Powermax transmitter was still functioning, but the antenna was broken inside the sheath. We figure that we lost our initial strong signal when the bird was struck by the vehicle, breaking the antenna. Luckily (term used strangely here) the Merlin Systems Mini-FMV was still intact and it lead us on a path that was well over 5 miles, with far less than ideal conditions for tracking. I was thoroughly impressed that we could track a signal that far on a Mini-FMV, especially considering it was laying in the road, many miles and many hills away from where we started.

This is not an advertisement for either of these companies since it was a bit of an extreme set of circumstances. I will continue to use a Powermax on my big longwings, but I definitely have a new found respect for the little guy.

Mini-FMV: Miniature Falconry Transmitter

Weight	-	4.0 grams with batteries
Size	-	1" (26mm) X 0.30" (8mm)
Battery Size	-	Two #377 silver oxide
Operating Life	-	7 days
Range	-	Field tested at 15 miles direct-line-of-sight under ideal conditions

www.merlin-systems.com

PowerMax Transmitter

HIGH POWER
The PowerMax has about double the range and distance of the RT+. Like any transmitter, the range

varies with terrain, but tests have given distances of 10 to 80 miles in the open deserts of the

western United States.
This makes it the right choice for your primary transmitter used to track down a bird in adverse

situations.

Our engineers also implemented a unique design into the circuit that maintains high power

levels even

as the battery drains, or as the temperature drops and the battery current follows suit.

You can count on the PowerMax signal all the way through the life of the battery.
Signal range will depend on the height of the transmitter, the height of the receiver as

well as the type of terrain and obstructions.

www.marshall-radio.com

-RVZ

Dang it

2011-08-30T19:02:00.000-05:00

Elmo has been rocking it! The kite has been up every day since the last post (except for one), and we have been flying HIGH! The only day we didn't have the kite up, I just let him fly around......just like the last time, he went up just as high as he had been going to the kite, and he didn't show any indication that the climbing was going to stop anytime soon after. His behavior after the hop to the fist is back to perfect, and I we have been having a freakin blast!

but Elmo was hit by a car yesterday morning, and he died. He was the nicest, most enjoyable bird I have ever had, and I'm sure going to miss the little guy. RIP buddy.........
-D-

Where did all the wind go?

2011-08-24T11:50:00.000-05:00

That's pretty much been the story for the past week......I was able to get the kite off the ground for the last few days, but other than that, we have just been flying around since my last update. Surprisingly though, he has been doing remarkably well! On Saturday when I took him out, he ended up flying the highest he has ever gone (including to the kite), and was pumping like a mad man the whole time. I have still been pushing his weight up too, and unlike earlier when he acted like a tard when heavy, his behavior is actually improving as it goes up now. Who knows....maybe he isn't such a dink after all?!?!?!

The one thing I do know for a fact though, is that this kiting deal is not as easy as everyone around here makes it look........................I have spent a bit of time in kite fields over the past few years, and it's always been a really straight forward process. Put the kite up, attach the bait, send it to the heavens, bird flies up and grabs it, and then comes scooting down the line......piece of cake right? WRONG!!!!!! So Monday, I'm sending the bait on up, and the line is just flying off the real. Once I decide the quail is where it needs to be, I slow the reel down, lock it off, and head off down wind. I make it maybe 50 yards or so, when I see the quail coming on down the line...................dang it! So I go back, re-clip the bait (a LITTLE bit tighter this time), and let out more line. Lock it off, head down to the other end of the field, and away he went. He performed beautifully, and once he made it up there, latched on to the quail and started flapping toward the ground...........................................................................................and didn't go anywhere! I ran the line down as quickly as I could, and once on the ground, he didn't seem the least bit phased (big sigh of relief....). So this puts us at yesterday. Wind is whipping out of the South at around 10 mph or so, and I'm feeling greedy! Elmo is ready to rock, and the lack of wind is what's been holding us back, so today I sent that kite about twice as high as we have gone so far. I walk my happy butt down to the other end of the field, unhook him from his gear, strike the braces, and I'm about to pull the hood when.............stupid quail comes sailing down the line! Dang it.....again!!!!! I look at my watch, and I'm going to be late for work either way, so I trudge back to the kite, and clip up the quail again. I'm still greedy of course, so I put out a ton of line again, and off we went. Elmo did his job, but guess what? The darn release didn't let go again! Second day in a row, and then I had to sit there and wind up all that stupid line. It's one thing if you put that much out, and the bird flies on up there and gets all stupid strong, but when half of it's a waste, it just puts you in a bad mood! Today though, everything worked like a dream. We had a nice wind out of the southeast (8 or 9 mph), the bait released properly, and Elmo received a nice work out. Hopefully, I can start replicating today's successful bait release more consistently, and we can continue making good progress.

So that's where we stand right now. I was blessed this week by a good buddy of mine, who invited me to use one of his training fields. See, this is the deal.....most of the days with "no wind" actually do have wind......it's just really high up, and the trick is getting the kite high enough to get into it. His suggestion was to let out five hundred feet or so of line, hook it to the subi, and drive it on up..........that was a great call of course, except that I can't drive through any of my training fields. When I told him that, he offered me the use of one of his field, which was pretty freakin nice of him!!!!!!!! It got me thinking about my falconry so far, and about how much fun I have had. I have caught quite a bit of game, and when it comes down to it.....it has had absolutely nothing to do with me. I have been surrounded by some of the best falconers out there, and for some reason, they all really want me to do well [I think it's my charming personality, but my wife says everyone just feels sorry for me..:-)]. I am given the best advice, I'm set up for success in every way/shape/form, and through different hawking sessions with different people, have had the opportunity to see some really incredible falconry. When I first started out, I just thought that that caliber or hawkin was "standard." If you have had the time to look through a lot of the falconry forums/blogs/etc/etc out there right now, it is a little disheartening to realize how many falconers never reach their full potential (or get it out of their birds) simply because they don't know any better. All the falconry they have ever seen was sub standard at best, and in their minds, that's how it's supposed to be done (so to them, they are doing really well). I thank my lucky stars every single day, for the fact that I was not in that situation, and ended up where I am today. Am I a good falconer? No. Do I feel like I have at least somewhat of a grasp on what I'm doing? No. But do you know what..............at least I know that :-). So this is my shout out to all of my falconry brothers out there (you all know who you are). Thank you so much! You hawk your balls off, catch tons of game in great style, and take great care of your birds........you all have set a standard that someday, I hope to attain. Well, that's about it for now. Until next time my friends, you all be well!
-D-

Back Into The Swing Of Things

2011-08-15T19:41:00.000-05:00

Elmo is pretty much back to his old self again. Granted, he is still a tiny bit heavy, and his behavior is indicative of such, but overall, it’s not too bad. His lure response is instant, and he trades off to the lure just fine still…….he is just doing fat bird stuff after he has finished his portion on the fist. This should be cleared up with another five gram adjustment or so, and we will still be a good ten grams or so higher, than when I went on vacation. Saturday we didn’t have any wind, so I just let him fly around for a little bit. He kept pretty close in, and just did numerous SUPER tight circles, as he climbed up above me. He was pumping strong, and I liked what I saw, so when he hit 75 feet or so, I called him down to the lure. Made him do a couple passes, and then I let him have a nice reward on the lure.

We finally had some wind on Sunday, so I sent him up to a quail hanging from the kite a hundred or so feet off the ground. He pumped straight up like he has been doing, and he had already dispatched the quail, by the time I got to him. Up until that point, we were having a hard time getting the light to come on as far as neck bites were concerned, and it had been taking him a second to get the job done. He seemed to figure it all out on Sunday though, so I’m pretty pleased about that. This morning we had wind again, so I sent him up to the kite even higher. For the first time since we started kiting, he wasn’t able to just power straight up to the kite. Instead, he had to ring up to it, and it was pretty obvious that he was working for it today! About ten yards or so below the bait, he hit a nice head wind, and he stalled out for a moment. He was pumping for all he was worth though, and he forced his way through after a few moments. Finally, we are back to making some progress, and hopefully we can get some serious height on him in the not too distant future.
-D-

Go Away Hot Weather !!!!!

2011-08-08T20:09:00.000-05:00

Just a little update.....The first flight to the kite went pretty darn well. He left the fist immediately after the hood came off, and he hit the quail with zero hesitation. The day after that, we flew free for the first time, and he went up 50 feet or so....again, did perfect! I cropped him up nicely on that quail, and he only looked up a few times, as he grubbed down on his meal. Trade off was good too!

He was too fat to fly the next day, and we had no wind the day after that. Ended up just calling him to the lure, and I gave him another good feed. The day after that, I dropped him off at my buddy Mark's house, and I went on a Trip to Utah. My cousin got married up in the mountains, and we all had a blast! Picked up Elmo this afternoon, and he started talkin as soon as I walked in the door. I guess he was just saying what's up though, because he hasn't made a peep since then. Gonna get him back to his magic weight, and then it's back to training. There are rumors of a "cold" front coming in, so here is to hoping for some better flying temps.
-D-

Good Boy Elmo!

2011-07-27T18:25:00.000-05:00

Elmo did well today. We tested the live lure, and he only hesitated for a few seconds before he went. I let him eat on it for a little bit, and then we had a PERFECT trade off to the lure. Hopped to to the fist after that, and we called it a perfect session :-)
He is not going to be at weight tomorrow, but I plan on flying him to the kite for the first time on Friday (Still on the creance though.....). Good times, good times!
-D-

NICE!!!

2011-07-23T16:30:00.000-05:00

Update

2011-07-23T12:28:00.000-05:00

Elmo is doing pretty darn well! I added an extra 30 feet or so to the creance this morning, and we headed out to a new training field to see how he would do. We had instant response to the lure, and he hit it out of the air with the most intensity that I have seen so far! He was completely focused, and I left the field very pleased with our morning session.
I'm going to use next week to strengthen his "intensity" toward the lure, and after I check and make sure his reponse to a live lure is there, then I plan to have our first free flight next Saturday. He will be ready to fly free before then I'm sure, but we are in a "clutch" time period at work right now, and I don't want to risk a fly off at any point next week. I'm normally in a rush to get through training, but this 100+ degree weather we have been having for the past month doesn't appear to be going anywhere, so I'm taking my sweet time.

So that's about it right now .....flying Elmo, working crazy amounts of hours at work, and chillin with the family. I have been able to squeeze in a little bit of time to work on equipment though, and I managed to whip up a couple jess sets in the last week or so. I thought I would share them with you all......the blue and green set is normal sized, and it was made for a buddy of mine who is flying a hybrid. The other set was a new one for me......this is my first "micro" parachord set that I have made, and it ended up turning out alright. I had tested out the "idea" to make sure that I could do it, but I had never actually tried to make a whole set. The chord that I used didn't have the tightest of weaves, and being that it's for a kestrel, could end up being an issue (if he/she ends up being a "picker"). Hopefully not, but I will be on the look out for some better stuff......possibly in a color other than white too!!!! It's going to get dirtly lookin quick.......... -D-

Move 'em Out

2011-07-18T20:40:00.000-05:00

I just unloaded a couple of birds. Rainbow, the Cooper's Hawk has moved on to a true austringer. Someone who can really appreciate what that Cooper's Hawk is truly capable of. I liked the bird just fine. I imprinted her my way, and hawked her my way, and really had relatively few problems. Nothing like the imprint horror stories that you hear so often. That bird was only hawked from March through May and ended up catching 136 head. Not too shabby for such a short time. But, in the end, hawks are just not my thing. They don't get me excited to go out and fly each day. Not to say I wouldn't fly another one...but any hawk I fly in the future will be a passage bird.

Now falcons are a different story. Something about the true falcons have had my attention since I was a young teenager. I just don't get tired of them. So I was glad to help out a friend by raising this Gyrkin for him.

He was fully summed a few weeks ago and moved back to his home where hopefully he'll father lots of baby Gyrs and Gyr hybrids in the future. (Don't worry my daughters are used to lovin' 'em and leaving 'em, so there is no emotional harm) Now if we could just get rid of these crazy temperatures, get the ducks migrating, and get this hawking season underway already...

-RVZ

Is It Winter Yet?!?!?!?!?

2011-07-16T13:30:00.000-05:00

This is my new hybrid! He was made by Steve Sherrod this year, and he is freakin awsome!!!! Elmo is his name (thanks to my one and a half year old son), and he is going to be my duck catching buddy. I'm pretty stinking psyched about the upcoming season, and looking forward to the long road of training ahead of us. I'm going to learn a whole lot this season, and I'm excited to FINALLY be flying my first big falcon! He is coming about 10 feet or so to the lure outside, and we will be going for 20 feet tomorrow. Hoping for perfect response, but we will see how it goes.
-D-

Summer Eyas Fun

2011-06-09T12:15:00.000-05:00

I'm raising an eyas male Gyrfalcon for a friend of mine this summer. The bird will eventually go into his breeding project and hopefully help produce "falcons of the future" through artificial insemination. My family and I have been calling him Nanook (or just "Bird" according to my youngest) and he's been a lot of fun so far...

14 days old

~21 days

~26 days old and getting his first taste of the bath pan

~26 days old and already reading

~30 days old

~34 days old

-RVZ

What Ever Happened to the Coops?

2011-04-14T08:05:00.000-05:00

Nothing. Still have her and are up about almost 100 head of game. Manners are pretty good and we have had relatively few problems. I've been out of town much of the past two months and haven't been able to sit down write about her, but the details will come.....

-RVZ

Aging Female Kestrels

2011-03-09T09:47:00.000-06:00

Click on photo to enlarge

I thought I would share my observations of how I age female kestrels, since it seems to be hard for a lot of people. The sub terminal black band being close to equal size to the bands above it can be a good indicator of passage in a lot of birds but some, like the one above, its pretty hard to tell.

I've trapped a bunch over the past couple of years and I only counted passage by stress bars across the tail, then I compared them to known hags. There are a couple of stand out indicators between the two. At least from the birds I've trapped in Oklahoma. One is the overall color. Passage birds are a dull orange compared to hags that are more of a reddish orange. The black markings on hags are much sharper than that of the passage birds. The most distinguishing feature that I have noticed is the color of the primaries and secondaries. On the hags they are almost black and on the passage birds they are more brown. Also the Hags have a distinct white trailing edge to their primaries and secondaries, where the passage birds have a more tan trailing edge.

-RVZ

Wildlife commissioners denounce HB 1249

2011-03-08T09:08:00.000-06:00

Post lifted from Ed Godfrey's "Guide to the Great Outdoors" blog

State wildlife commissioners on Monday criticized a bill that passed the House of Representatives on Thursday which requires hunters to first get permission of a landowner before retrieving a lost hunting dog.
HB 1249 passed the state House of Representatives 80-11 on Thursday and now goes to the state Senate.
Commissioner Ed Abel of Oklahoma City, an avid coon hunter, said the bill threatens honest sportsmen with fines and possible jail sentences.
At the end of the monthly meeting of the Oklahoma Wildlife Commission, Abel asked his fellow commissioners to pass a resolution voicing their opposition to the bill and send it to each lawmaker in the state Legislature.
The commission chose not to vote on a resolution, fearing it might be a violation of the state’s open meeting laws since HB 1249 was not listed on the agenda for Monday’s meeting.
However, most commissioners agreed the bill is bad for Oklahoma sportsmen.
“If the real point (of the bill) is cattle rustling, there is no reason to include hunting dogs,” said Commissioner David Riggs of Sand Springs, who suggested an amendment to HB 1249 that would exclude hunting dogs from the legislation.
Authors of HB 1249 contend the measure is to crack down on cattle rustling, but Commissioner Harland Stonecipher of Centrahoma on Monday called that a lie.
“It’s really about hunting dogs,” said Stonecipher, a longtime houndsman.
Hunters presently have the right to retrieve their dogs when they have wandered on another person’s land. However, it would be considered trespassing under HB 1249.
Coon hunting is a deeply rooted tradition in Oklahoma. National competitions in coon hunting are often held in Oklahoma but that would end if HB 1249 becomes law, Abel said.
State wildlife commissioners discussed the possibility of calling a special meeting to address the legislation.

This could make retrieving one's bird very difficult.....

-RVZ

Best Pics from the 2010-2011 Season in No Particular order

2011-03-01T07:44:00.000-06:00

And that ends another falconry season. Next year Daniel will be a general falconer and his falconry horizons will be open, I'll definitely be flying my falcons, and who knows what new things may come.

-RVZ

Human Planet

2011-02-25T15:18:00.000-06:00

Below I've embedded a couple of video clips from the upcoming BBC series Human Plant that feature falconry. Looks to pretty interesting even without the birds of prey.

-RVZ

Duck Hawking Season Ending.

2011-02-22T08:14:00.000-06:00

Good things must come to an end. I've been feeling the pressures from lack of time and an increase in other commitments lately and decided that I would finish up my season with duck number 30. Tulsa has been nearly lights out on ducks since mid December and I didn't think it would take more than a day to hit the final goal but the crafty late season ducks had other ideas.

Tulsa closing on ducks. He's left of center in the picture.

Saturday, we found a small pond full of Ringnecks, a fairly easy catch. Tulsa rang up and knocked a drake to the ground next to a bush. The duck quickly scrambled up under that bush and the falcon landed on the ground confused as to what happened to his prey. The little duck ended up scooting out the other side and flew away to live another day. Tulsa then took to the air again, rapidly ascending to a nice pitch and I made my way across the field to another pond that was holding ducks. This time a large mixed group of ducks got up off the water and again Tulsa smashed one to the ground 50 yards out in the pasture. I see him wingover and go to the ground, and I figured we had not gotten our 30th duck. As luck would have it though, I see a duck hightailing it out of there when I was around 20 yards away from where I saw the falcon go down. The hybrid must have lost this duck in the tall grass, something that hasn't happen since the beginning of the season. So number 30 would have to come another day.

Sunday Daniel came up and we took another go at the season ender. High winds made conditions less than ideal but we went anyway. Flight one wasn't the best setup and the couple of Gadwalls on the pond flushed into the wind with the falcon out of position. I called him down and we went to look for another flight. Flight two wasn't much better. The falcon appeared to be gassed from first flight and life hardened late season ducks definitely were using the wind to their advantage. Eventually one did make a mistake and got blasted down into the water. The impact also brought the falcon into the pond, empty footed. I picked up the soaking wet Tulsa and watched the duck slip under the water with his head just barely sticking out. After getting the falcon secure I went to look for the injured duck and found him laying in the shallows. As I went to pick him up, the duck came to his senses and flew across the pond. I guess he just had his bell rung and needed a minute to get his senses back.

And thus day 2 of attempting to end the season came to a close empty handed.

Day 3 the windy conditions finally subsided and I met up with Scott and some of his family members for what would hopefully be the last fight of the season. With about a 1/2 hour of daylight left, Tulsa left the fist and mounted over a small pond filled with about a dozen Gadwalls, possibly the perfect falconry duck quarry. Beautifully back lit in the evening sky, the falcon folded up on the flushed ducks, singled out one, and clipped it, sending it toppling end over end into the prairie grass. A quick wingover and it was done. After a slow and frustrating start, this bird really turned the corner about halfway through the season.

I didn't get out to hawk Prairie Chickens as I had hoped this year, but I did get this falcon well on his way to being a consistent gamehawk, something that I wasn't sure would ever happen at the end of last season. This afternoon I'll finish getting the mews cleaned out and he'll be able to settle into his summer digs. Let the molting begin......

Scott's sister, brother, myself, and Tulsa w/duck

-RVZ

Things are Heating Up

2011-02-16T21:30:00.000-06:00

The weather is heating up. Nearly 60 degrees at 8:00 am. Almost 100 degrees difference from one week ago when the thermometer read -28 degrees. The water had deiced enough over the past couple of days to allow the ducks to make it back to the cattle ponds just as the season reopened yesterday.

It took some work but I did manage to find a slip on a pond that I had never flown before. It was filled with hungry Mallards and a few other mixed bag. Between the heat and the bird's weight being lower than I would have liked, pitch suffered but he still had some altitude over the pond. I flushed and instantly knew what duck was going to get it.

One drake left the flock to blaze his own path and was instantly signaled out by my human eye, which means the falcon saw it long before. Tulsa crashed into the duck and held on as the power bind sent them tumbling head heals. They both hit the ground hard and there was no fight in the duck.

It didnt take long for the curious cows to make their way over to see what was going on. So I got the quintessential Oklahoma duck hawking hero shot.

-RVZ

Pics from Gyrfalcon/Ptarmigan Conference

2011-02-14T10:39:00.000-06:00

......Duck season reopens tomorrow and I hope to finish the final two weeks with a bang.

-RVZ

Another Chapter

2011-01-27T21:31:00.000-06:00

has come to a close....I fed the bird up really well on the lure, was hopping her from the lure to the fist, and she bolted. She stayed out over night, and when I went to ge her in the morning, discovered she had pulled her transmitter, and had bailed at some point during the night. I have had everyone and their moms out looking for the past week, but it seems as if my season has come to an end. Pretty bummed, and I don't really have much else to say. Until next time my friends
-D-

He's Finally Done It!

2011-01-26T16:09:00.000-06:00

He's finally done it! Two and a half years in the making.....this Gyr finally hit a duck while stooping. He's caught some ducks, but he has always put in a huge stoop, leveled off and overran them or flew them down. Today it finally clicked that making contact in the stoop in advantageous. It was a heck of a hit too. The duck landed on its back, legs straight up in the air, and never moved. This was also the first time that he caught a duck in back to back days. All this just in time for his season to be winding down. I'll be putting Mongo in the mews this weekend and feeding him up. The next two months I have a lot of travel to do for work and there just will not be the time to fly two birds. I will be keeping the Hybrid going with the hopes of getting away for a chicken flight or two. It may not seem like much but this is a major accomplishment for this bird and a long time coming.

-RVZ

Blue Skies = Big Dives

2011-01-25T18:44:00.000-06:00

Finally we are back to some good duck hawking weather. 40 degrees yesterday afternoon, 18 this morning. Warm enough to melt ice during the day and be cold enough for Gyrs and Hybrids by morning. High pressure days don't hurt either.

My hybrid was fed up the day before and was to high in weight for a morning fight so the Gyr was up. He took a great pitch over around thirty ducks. On the flush, the Gyrkin singled out a Ringneck and made solid contact with the duck from behind which sent the little diver to the ice hard and he continued to slide a good 30' from where he crashed. On the wing over, a gadwall flew a little to close and caught the Gyrkin's eye. Impulsive as he is, his attention turned from his downed prey to the wayward dabbler. He met this duck at a 90 degree angle and sent it cartwheeling out of the sky. Forgetting about the Ringneck he initially hit for the larger Gadwall, Mongo had his meal for the morning.

That evening Tulsa was at weight and he caught a drake Ringneck that decided to make a break from the main flock of 30 or more ducks from a nice stoop. Second double of the year, something that I had hoped to do a lot more of but things haven't quite worked out as well as I would have liked. We're getting there though....

-RVZ

Wind and Ice and A Lot of It

2011-01-23T19:23:00.000-06:00

We've been froze out for much of the past week, but some how we still have been finding a slip or two a day. Tulsa is fully in the groove at this point. We've taken 16 ducks in the last 19 flights. The last three days in a row he has been successful but the cost of which remains to be seen.

Tulsa seems to be learning some bad habits from flying with ice all around. He is the first bird that I've had that will readily drop the hammer on a duck that he has knocked to the ice. Other birds that I've flown will knock them onto the ice and then remount as if the duck is just on the water like normal, but not this guy. He seems to have found that the ice is advantageous and once the ducks are on it they are done for. Lucky for me (so far anyway) he has hauled every duck he's caught in this fashion over toward me on shore and I haven't had to test the ice myself yet.

Today gave me a little insight as to how this may be a problem. I found a 1/2 dozen Gadwalls in the open corner of a larger, but flyable pond. The falcon had a pitch of around 800' and I went in for the flush. The ducks cleanly left the water and went a good 30 yards or so out over the prairie with the falcon stooping fast behind them. When the ducks saw the falcon coming they began their turn toward the water and one should have met his end then, but Tulsa pulled out of the stoop 30 feet above them and seemingly herded them back over to the pond. The ducks passed over the water initially only to be herded back again by the falcon. When the Gadwalls finally decided that they were going to make an attempt to get back to their swimming hole, the falcon chose the straggler and hammered him down into the water. The duck lay in the water with one wing held up, this often happens when a duck takes a big hit, and Tulsa returns skimming the water toward him. Then, like a Bald Eagle grabbing a fish, he throws out his feet and snags the duck in the water, makes it a few more flaps, and then crashes into the water as well still holding the duck in his talons. Luckily I decided to wear my muck boots today and I ran into the knee deep water to grab the two of them and toss them up on shore. The 13 degree temp froze up the falcon's feathers immediately and he sounded like a rattlesnake as his primaries and tail vibrated against one another while he shivered in the process pulling apart his meal.

I suspect that this stemmed from him grabbing ducks off the ice for the past few days and am guessing that this will happen for a time or two after the water opens up again. Hopefully it is something that he will unlearn as fast as he learned it.

In the meantime he's gonna get at least a couple of days off, because he has, once again, bruised his toes and seems to be keeping weight off of that foot. Hopefully it will heal up quick just as the others bruises have. I should add that each time he has bruised them, the injury has been on a different toe, if the same one kept reoccurring I would be giving him much more time off. Also, the blood on his leg is not his.

-RVZ

Falconer's Other Half (no not the birds.....)

2011-01-20T12:00:00.000-06:00

I'm often asked how I can get away with flying birds all day on the weekend and so much during the week with a wife and small kids at home. Well the answer is that my wife is a craft-a-holic. She is always coming up with things to do to keep herself entertained, and the kids busy.

She's decided to start a blog about her projects; sometimes a how-to and sometimes just to show off to family and friends. If you're a falconer who needs to get out and fly and have a family who needs something to do, then maybe her blog will help with some ideas to get them started. A win/win for all.

http://feathersandfingerprints.blogspot.com/

-RVZ

Forced Bath

2011-01-17T19:19:00.000-06:00

Had a low cloud ceiling day but running out of days to fly. The hybrid went up to the clouds I'd say maybe 700'ish. When he started getting hazy I flushed. The ducks started down wind then turned up wind and put back in the pond (The only one open for miles due to them being frozen). I ducked back behind the dam wall and watch the falcon begin his remount. At about 200' a duck must have thought he could make it on his own because I saw the falcon stoop and jumped up to see what was going on. He cold-cocked a drake Gad into the water about 4' from the shore. It was just twitching on the surface. What happened next was crazy; the falcon did a wingover and pile drove the duck and himself down under the water. WTH. I've never had a falcon even try to get a duck in the water after they've gotten past the baby stage. So he then was floating on top of the dead duck in the pond and eventually rowed himself close to shore where I could pick up him and the duck and move them to higher ground. The duck never even stirred. Sucks that he was only 200' up with the duck decided to break but damn, dead on impact from 200'!?!

I don't know whether to love or hate this bird from day to day. If this keeps up its only a matter of time before he does himself in.....

-RVZ

Moving right along

2011-01-13T13:13:00.000-06:00

We have been having good sessions lately. We are flying the full length of the creance, and am having pretty darn good response to the lure. I'm going to do a couple full length calls to the lure today, and another couple tommorow. If we have instant response the whole time, then we will have our first hunt Saturday. If she hesitates at all, then we will push the first hunt off till Sunday. We are ALMOST there!!!!!!! About darn time right?!?!?!?! Still havn't decided which field to start her in....the BEST fields for rabbit slips don't have very many perchs, but the "ideal" starter fields arn't popping at the same level. Going to have to ponder on this one for a little bit....I will probably go with the most possible slips, and maybe bring a T-perch. Who knows though.....

-D-

It's finally happened!!!!!

2011-01-09T19:08:00.000-06:00

Yep....22 days off the trap, and it happened!!!! No, we didn't catch a rabbit, which is what one would expect after this amount of time......no, I'm talking about getting our first hop :). Yep, that's right....it took her TWENTY TWO DAYS to loose weight, so we have just been twiddling our thumbs, and playing the waiting game. She started "acting" like she was ready to do some work a few days ago, but it took up until this morning, before she made the leap. It was all over after that though, and the light bulb came on! Had another quick session at noon, and I had instant response the whole time. I didn't even give her the opportunity to start hesitating, and put her back out to weather after four leash length hops. Gathered her up for another session around 4:30 this afternoon, and we stayed outside for this round. I only need the bird hopping the distance from the lure to my fist, so I keep the "calling to the fist" portion of training short. We did 15 or so 5 to 8 yard flights on the creance, and she was instant the whole time! Flying to the fist....CHECK! On to the next stage of training!!!! Introduced the lure to her, and she did well! I had to fiddle it around with my fingers a little bit, but she eventually jumped down to it. She got a front leg for her effort, and hopped back to her perch immediately when finished. I left it out there for another hour or so afterwards, just to make sure it was out of mind, and then I took her inside for the night. We will do calls to the lure the rest of the week (hopping from the lure to the fist to end each session), and unless something crazy happens, I'm aiming for our first hunt to be on Saturday. Of course, behavior will have the final say, but I'm thinking it will happen. We are FINALLY moving! :). Now, we just have to hope that she didn't get too out of shape, during her three weeks of rest and relaxation.........I wish I got a three week vacation from life :). You can only look at so many pictures of a bird sitting on a perch, so instead, I added a picture of Ryan's dog (Lu Lu) doing what she does best.......sure is an ugly thing, isn't she ;)!!!!!!
-D-

Surprised

2011-01-05T16:12:00.000-06:00

On the way to work I glassed a two Ringnecks on a small pond. The hybrid took a huge pitch over them and as he was pumping away from the pond, I flushed. The two Ringnecks flushed in a typical Ringneck fashion, straight and away, and I looked up to see the falcon stooping over heard. Only I didn't see a falcon. I had only enough time to think "where in the hell is he" when I heard a powerful *thwack* behind me. I turn around to see a drake Mallard bounce off the ground not 30 feet away, promptly followed by the falcon's wingover that finished the deal. The only thing I can figure is that the Mallard was in the neck of the pond to my left in the cattails and I just never saw him flush. One of the coolest flights I didn't get to see, but it sure sounded great!

-RVZ

Sunday/Monday & Hooding

2011-01-04T20:24:00.000-06:00

I've held off posting lately because I didn't want to interrupt Daniel's story of the new bird, but now that things are in holding position until the bird is flying here's an update.

Things have gone from not ok to really good in the past couple of weeks. After a dosing for coccidia my hybrid has been back to his old self. Better wing beat, not landing and taking nice pitches. I'm not sure why I didn't have him checked before. But he was holding weight and I dismissed the possibility when I shouldn't have. Since being treated he's caught 11 ducks in 13 flights and the two miss days he was ~50+ of his flying weight.

I've also got the Gyrkin flying well, taking solid pitches and putting in monster stoops but still has trouble finishing the deal on ducks, often getting dodged at the last second. He has had some success and this past Sunday was one of those days.

Daniel, Scott and myself found some mixed ducks on a open hole in the ice on a 16 degree morning. This was likely to be the only water open so we decided that we had better fly it. Mongo was unhooded and cast off, immediately eating up the sky. At a pitch of about 700' we flushed and his stoop immediately pushed most of the ducks back into the water. After a minute or two to remount we flushed again and this time he leveled out from his stoop above the water and overtook a hen Gadwall over the ice. Grabbing her out of the air and nonchalantly coasted over to the bank of the pond, much to my relief, I wasn't ready to go ice breaking in the freezing cold. He got a good crop out of the deal and his second duck of the year was in the bag.

Monday was another good day. Mongo was still overweight from the flight the day before, so only Tulsa was ready to go. Another crisp, cold morning a ducks were there to be had. These high pressure, cold, cloudless days are great for these falcons and he effortlessly gained pitch.

Within minutes he was just a speck in the sky and I jumped the ducks from the water. A Gadwall was singled out and took the full impact from the stooping falcon. Upon inspection the duck's wing had be broken cleanly in half with a compound fracture. It is the first "tactical" kill for this falcon, as opposed to the body shots he has delivered until now. I'm sure this will lead to more "wing shots" in the future, since those must have far less physical impact to the falcon.

Hooding....... We'll the way Daniel wrote it made it seem like I have a deep philosophical viewpoint on hooding, but his words were a bit of sarcasm and we just went over the basics. Training a bird to the hood is, or can be, quite a process so in this case I'm only going to give my thoughts on hooding a newly trapped bird or a young one that has just been pulled from the chamber.

The most important thing is having a hood that really fits. People stuff bird's heads into too small of hoods all the time and just as bad is hoods that are too big. Small hoods rub the eyes and squeeze the bird's head. Big hoods rub the eyes because they wiggle back and forth, allow the bird to still see, and the bird learns that it can get the hood off so even if a good fitting hood is eventually used the bird still thinks it can get it off and will constantly try to do so into the future. Nobody wants to have spent $60+ on a hood and have a bird constantly scratch at it.

Next the hood needs to be opened all the way. It can make the hood appear less deep but that allows it to slip over the head easily.

Finally, holding the bird as close to your face as possible is a huge help. Your face distracts the bird a little and having it so close allows for finer tuning of your hand eye coordination. This makes your aim better and quicker adjustments can be made if the bird does try to move to one side or another. It's also important to roll the hood on smoothly, rather than "poking" it onto the bird's face.

Hooding a bird from the get go is a big help. The initial shock they experience when trapped or pulled from the chamber allows them to easily assimilate to the hood. Traditional manning of birds is of little use to me. A fresh bird is hooded and equipped then put on the block/perch. Each day the bird is unhooded and offered food. If the bird is not interested, the hood is put right back on.

Hood = positive because it makes the scary human disappear.

If a bird is not hungry no progress is being made its just learning that it can't get away so it gives up until it thinks it can possibly get escape. That is why a bird will sit calmly and just randomly bate violently in the first couple days of traditional manning. I've found that birds will be trained and manned just as quickly or much more quickly by just not bothering with waking a bird. Plus it allows me to get things done rather then just sitting around with a hawk.

When the bird is hungry enough it will eat when unhooded. After eating a tidbit I'll instantly rehood.

Hood = positive because food is there when the hood comes off. Human not scary because he now has something I want.

Early on I'll do 4-8, five minute sessions in a day and if the bird is motived then the same progress can be made in a day as in 4-8 days of manning. Personally I don't think the birds understand time. There is either stimulus or no stimulus to them. So a whole day of manning is not much different than a 5 minute session of being unhooded to the bird. The biggest advantage to this is that the situation can be controlled much better in a 5 minute window than in a multi hour day and all interactions are more positive than negative.

Many won't agree with how I do things and that is ok with me, but the proof is there and I've trained a lot of birds both for falconry and for work. I bet I've had my hybrid on my fist less than 2 hours total in the three years I've had him, Daniel caught his first rabbit with CJ 14 days off the trap, and not much longer than that with his first bird using his variation of what I do. I guess this is a bit of a tangent off the hooding subject, but it does show how effective of a tool the hood can be other than simply "blinders" for your bird.

Hooded Jack Merlin

-RVZ

Happy New Years (Tonight!!!!)

2010-12-31T17:20:00.000-06:00

Not much of an update. The day after the last one, she really got after eating. She is still super high though, so I only gave her 20 or so grams. She has then gone, and only lost ten grams since then (two days!)......LAME huh! She is not motivated enough to hop, so she has just been weathering a lot. Ryan re-taught me the fine art of hooding, and we are now having zero issues. In fact, if she keeps doing well like she has been, she may end up being the best hooding bird I've had yet! That's pretty much a 180 from where we were, considering I was to the point of wondering if hooding was even worth it with this bird. On another note, we also got her backpacked last night. Obviously, it would have been best to get it on her right off the trap, but I hadn't gotten my backpack refill by that point, so we will just have to see how this works out. She hasn't messed with the backpack at all, but she has been messing with the transmitter some. Right when I put her out this morning to weather, she promptly removed it, and I found it laying on the ground. This is the problem.....I use a micro merlin transmitter, which is sized for the small back pack. Being that I used one of the "normal" sized ones, it may not be in there as tight as one usually is. This, of course, is going to be an issue, and one that I will have to make a decision about pretty much today. I can't let her form the habbit of taking the transmitter off, because then she will mess with it all the time.. It sucks though, because that's one of the main things I like about this setup....I normally just leave the transmitter on (because it has the magnet on/off), and only have to mess with it when I'm changing batteries. I am super forgetful, and if I had to take it off between sessions, I would end up forgetting it most of the time.....It is what it is though, and we will see how it works out. We are getting a cold front tonight, so hopefully it will speed up the rest of this process
Happy New Years Everyone!!!!
-D-

Update

2010-12-28T22:28:00.000-06:00

Well, we are finally making a little bit of progress, though it's not much to write about. She finally bent down and ate yesterday evening at 1080 grams, but she was def hesitant to do so. It took a few tidbits from the fingers to start her off, but once she got going, she made some tears at the piece, before she lost her motivation. When it was all said and done, she got about 30 grams total, and she went up for the night at 1110 grams. Today, she was at 1075, and she ate pretty quickly. She was def more committed with the food today, and she ate about 65 grams, before she remembered I was there, and started balking. Put her up for the night when that started, and she was at a fat 1135 grams, when I shut the lights off on her. Soooooo, we are finally moving...................GOOD TIMES!!!!!!

PS The picture is old....she doesn't still sit with her mouth open. Old picture, is better than no picture though :)

Fatty Mc Fat Fat Fat

2010-12-26T10:31:00.000-06:00

She decided that loosing weight is just not on the agenda! We are averaging only about 10 grams per day, so our progress has been minimal. As of this moring, I am just now starting to feel a keel, and she is still really heavy. She has eatin a few tid bits, but still is not motivated to bend down and eat. Though we havn't made much progression, she is calming down nicely, and we usually don't have any bates during our sessions. I have had her unhooded on the block for the last couple of days, and just like the fist, the first time she hopped off, she hopped right back to the perch. Hooding on the other hand, has been a real challenge. It is a pretty known fact, that my hooding skills are lacking, but this one just sorta takes the cake. I must have REALLY created a bad associaion during those first few hooding times, because I have NEVER had this much trouble. We will push through it though, and it may just come down to me having to actually "train" her to it. With her sweet demenoir and all, I'm thinking that once we get past this eating off the fist stage, training is going to go lightening quick (both for the hood, and the process of getting to the field). We shall see though.

Update! (Part 2)

2010-12-22T00:31:00.000-06:00

As you all could tell from my last post, my weekend hawking was pretty stinking sweet. Well......you all don't even know the half of it yet!!! Before we met up with Rob, and the gos hawk session got under way on Sunday, Mitch and I had our own little adventure. I had awoken that day, with a full day of hawking on the books, but little did I know, that the course of the rest of my hawking season, was about to turn a 180!
I met up with Mitch when he got out of church, and a duck flight was on the agenda. His hybrid was ready to roll, and we were in route to check all of the duck ponds. We were in the process of pulling into a field, when out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of white. My interest was peaked, and after a second glance, I noticed a SUPER white tail, just chilling up in a tree. The tree the bird was in, was in a patch of trees, that extended out into the completely open field we were driving into at the time. On the other side of these trees, was an open lot, that had been mowed down sort of like a foot ball field.....it was completely lacking in cover too. I mentioned the bird to Mitch, and commented that it looked a little bit like a Krider's. He stopped the truck, and we proceeded to glass the bird, and she was just plain stunning!!!!!! From our angle, her head looked completely white, and at one point when flying around, it looked as if her tail was almost completely white as well. I'm not sure if I have written about this before, but I have a thing for Krider's hawks....I think they are the best looking tails out there, and I really wanted to fly one this season....I looked around everywhere when trapping, but didn't see a single one that peaked my interest (makes sense....I was trapping early in the season, and they hadn't migrated down yet....). I nonchalantly mentioned how I would release my bird in a heart beat for one like that, and Mitch smiled, because he just happened to have a pigeon/pigeon harness in his car :).
Next came the game plan. The grass in the open field was a little too high, for a pigeon harness to be effective, and the the bird was too deep in the patch of woods, to try and get a toss from the road. We kept mulling over ideas, and the whole time, the bird made numerous long flights out over the field, circled around a few times, and then would always headed back to the trees. At that point, neither of us had very high hopes of getting a toss at the bird, but Mitch came up with our plan "A", so we started putting it in motion. I stayed at the truck glassing the bird, while he walked back to the road, headed to where the clump of trees started, and then began pushing through them, toward the bird. He called me when he thought he was in position, and I confirmed that the bird was still there. He tossed up the pigeon, but it became apparent pretty quickly, that the bird hadn't seen it. We waited a little while, and after it made a few more flights out over the field (and then back to the trees), we decided to give up on that idea. The bird just wasn't really in a trappable situation, and so we decided to call it for the time being, and go look for more ducks. This is when Mitch ended up showing me the field LOADED with RT's, and it got us all excited about crazy colored birds. After doing that, we decided we had to swing back my the field, and just see if she was still there.

It was prime soaring time when we got back to the field, and she couldn't be seen in any of the trees. I thought she had headed on out, and was shocked, when I picked up her form sitting on a fence post, deep in the field. After a moment, she got back up, and soared slowly back to her group of trees. She landed far to the backside of them this time though, and the idea popped into our heads, of trying to toss a pigeon in the mowed area on the other side. We drove on over there, and as we were about to toss for her, she busted for the field, and started circling up into a soar. We did the back and forth thing for a little bit, and whichever part of the field we went, she headed to the other side. This got an idea going in my head, and I asked if tieing the pigeon to a weight, and just sticking it in the middle of the mowed lot, could possibly bring her in. Mitch hadn't ever tried doing that before, but we decided it was really the only option we could think of, so we set it all up. The pigeon was on a pretty long line, and when it did decide to move around, it could get quite a bit of movement going on. We hopped back into the truck, and headed back into the open portion of the field, hoping that we could push her back toward the pigeon.
When we pulled back into the field, we didn't see her at first. We were looking around everywhere, but all the birds we could see, were normal looking. All of a sudden though, we saw her soaring high up in the sky, and she was meandering back and forth, over the open portion of the field. We both got out, and started glassing her, and kept commenting on how she looked like a bald eagle (with a white chest). Unlike the other times though, she didn't really bee line back toward the trees. It had warmed up quite a bit, and I was thinking we had just missed the trapping window. She just kept cruising around in the sky, and didn't seem like she was in hunting mode anymore. Slowly, almost unnoticabley at first, she started drifting back toward the trees though. Her altitude started lessening as well, and she slowly dropped to about 200 feet or so. We were watching her intently, and I said "man, wouldn't it be sweet if she just tucked into a stoop, and just disappeared over those tree!" About that time, she sort of did a little hovering motion, and then just tucked! We both held our breath, and we watched her disappear on the other side of the trees!!! We both just sort of explode with laughter/excitement, jump in the car, and start hauling back in that direction. As we are bouncing along the two track toward the road, Mitch yells out, that there was another RT screaming in from the side, and it looked like it was heading toward the pigeon. We pull onto the main road and slow down, as we are about to pass the mowed lot. As we passed the tree line, and eagerly scanned the spot we left the pigeon, we see both birds, facing off on the ground. We flip the truck around, and park on the edge of the trees, and slowly start creeping toward the birds.
The amount of time between when the bird started it's stoop, and when we got to the birds, was not long at all. I have never caught a bird on a pigeon harness (I have had many pigeons get snagged, but no birds ended up getting caught on the nooses.....), but Mitch was saying that you need to give them some time on there, to make sure they are caught, before rushing in on them. He said he usually gives them at least 20 minutes or so, but we were in a drastically different situation than "normal." With two birds down on the pigeon, we just didn't know what to expect, so we decided to push the issue, and started creeping along the tree line. We were staying as ninja like as possible, and were able to sneak darn near half way up the lot, to the birds. There was a portion of the woods that jutted out a little bit, and there was a nice thick cedar, right on the corner of this jutted out section. We reached this point, and Mitch cautiosly peered around the edge of the cedar. It was only probably a 5 second pause, but it felt like an eternity to me!!!!! Suddenly, he yells out "We got them!" and I start running like we are in the middle of a freakin Jack flight!!!! Mitch is yelling out "Get the white one!!!," and I didn't even think twice, as I dove in on them. I only had eyes for the light bird, and as I got a solid hold on a leg, the other bird shoot her foot out, and latched down on my wrist. LUCKILY, she had poor aim (or good aim, if you're talking to me.....), and sunk down on the bottom portion of my glove (BIG SIGH OF RELIEF!!!!). Mitch arrived right after, and quickly detached the other bird from my glove. At that point, we both just pretty much died laughing, hollerin, and doing all the things two crazy excited falconers do! That's when we had the chance to flip the bird over, and wouldn't you just stinking know it......it was a passage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I slapped a hood on the light bird, and once I got a secure hold on both of them, Mitch ran back for the truck. He ended up pulling right into the lot, and we then began the task, of untangling the birds. The "normal" bird just absolutely dwarfed the white one, so we were thinking I had gotten a male, but once we got her back and all geared up (hood, anklets, jesses), she weighed in at 1243 grams! Sure, that's not a big female or anything, but the fact that the other bird made her look tiny, sort of tells you just how much of a MONSTER it was (should have gotten a weight on her, but we didn't care at the time.....)!
Soooooooo, CJ is headin on back to the wild. I began feeding him up that evening, and he has since eatin three or four rats, and a WHOLE rabbit!!! He is absolutly stuffed, and it surprised me just how quickly, he started converting all that food to meat! There is barely any trace of a keel left on him, and after a little more food, he will be sent on his way. So over all, my season with CJ isn't anything to write home about, but we did alright, and we had some fun in the process. We caught 17 rabbits, 1 jack, and a Pigeon......he taught me a lot though, and I believe I have improved as a falconer because of him. I am pretty sure, he is going back into the wild a MUCH better hunter than when I trapped him, and I have high hopes that he will do well. I'm going to release him in one of my fields that is just LOADED with game, and who knows....maybe he will stick around for a little bit, and I can go kick through the field for him. I have heard of falconers doing this, and having released birds hunt with them, and I think that would be pretty neat.
The new bird is doing really well....I pulled the hood off for the first time last night, and she only bated a little bit (and regained the fist ever time). She calmed down to the point of ALMOST tucking her wings in completely (just a slight droop), and after sitting nicely for about 10 minutes, I hooded her back up, so we could end on a good note. Total, she had it off for about 15 minutes, and since we had passed the "standing on the fist" stage yesterday, I offered her a little bit of grub tonight on the fist. She is a stinkin butter ball though, and she didn't have any motivation to eat. That's alright....she will have another 10 or 15 minutes tomorow, and if she doesn't take it, we will try again the day after that. I think she will eat sooner, than later, and if her "early trapped" behavior is any indication, I may have ended up with a sweet heart!!!!!! After short bus, that would be a nice change! I'm going to go for a quick train, and I have set the bar SUPER high for this bird. Fingers crossed, we can accomplish our goals!
Take it easy everybody.
-D-

Update!

2010-12-19T23:19:00.000-06:00

Life has been just a tad bit crazy lately. I have been trying to get out hawking as much as I can, but I had one of those busy weeks at work that we all love, and I had a lot of family obligations as well. Since my last update, we have flown squirrels twice. He took one to the ground both sessions, but ended up letting them both go. He got some pretty good bites both time, and being that he was flying pretty high (960 grams), he just didn't have enough motivation, to hold on till I got there. Had a good session at the Sonic field the other day though. Got TONS of slips (like.....20 or so!!!), and ended up putting another rabbit in the bag. I hadn't flown this field yet, simply because it's pretty wide open, and the rabbits hadn't ventured into those types of areas yet. I'm not sure if it's a combination of them not being pressure yet this year, or if there are just TON of rabbits in there, but it was pretty good times, to say the least.
This weekend though, was all about the hawkin! It's my sister-in-laws birthday week, so the whole family headed down to Edmund, to crash with my brother, and his wife. I had been planning a hawking weekend for a long time, so I had called a lot of the friends, and we had good times on the agenda. Met up with Mitch, Rob, and Adam early on Saturday morning, and the Gyr/Barbary was up to bat first. Found a big group of ducks on a creek, and we had a nice stoop on some quackers. He made contact with one, but didn't manage to seal the deal. It was great to watch though, and the day was kicked off to a nice start.
Headed out to a field we hawked three or so years ago, and we pulled Adam's tail out for a session. I remember the first time I ever saw this field, I couldn't believe there would be rabbits in it. Up until that point, the only rabbit hawkin I had seen was in thick cover, high briars, and it was a race to the cover. This field is completely wide open, no perchs, and the rabbits just run and run. It blew my mind, that you could hawk rabbits without "working," and I was jealous to say the least :). Anyways, the rabbits were poppin like crazy, and we got some really nice flights out of his bird. His little male has some moves, and does wing overs on most slips. It was great fun to watch, and though we didn't put one in the bag, got to see some goodness. Next up was Mitch and he Gos, and she was ready to go! One slip, one catch, one happy falconer! It was pretty sweet to say the least. She shot off the fist like a feakin bat out of hell, and closed the gap on the rabbit in seconds. Missed on the first attempt, got back up and chased it again. He either snagged it from there, or else he crashed, got back up, and then connect...can't remember which it was. Either way though, it was sweet!
Rob and his Gos were up next, and we were treated to some pretty neat flights. It's pretty rediculous, just how fast those birds are, and if you blinked twice, you can miss the whole flight. Other times though, they extend out for long time, and those are the sweet ones. The rabbit he caught, was sort of in between....it was a pretty decent distance, and it went through a thinner portion of the field, so the whole flight could be seen. Those feet moved so quickly, and wrapped that rabbit up in a heart beat. Pulled CJ out afterwards, but he just wanted to fly over to the telephone poles (which were on the edge of the field.....). We got one slip for him pretty quickly, and he came screaming in from a pretty good distance, but ended up getting evaded by the bunny. We decided to head to a field with some more trees, but didn't manage to get any slips.
Headed back to my brother's house for a bit, and we dined on some BBQ, and did some chillen. Met up with Peter after that, and it was time to fly his Harris hawk. Little is his name, and he knows the rabbit hawkin game. Chased a few bunnies around pretty quickly, and then we dried up on slips for a bit. Decided to head back toward the cars to swap birds, and we got a slip right near the edge of the field. He chased it down, and caught it on the edge of a steep decline. When we got there, there was a Harris hawk tail sticking straight in the air, and Little was on his back, with his head down hill from his body. The rabbit was grasped tightly, and he was holding it up above him. As we approched, the rabbit gave one last kick, and they went rolling down the hill. Little landed on top this time, and held it there, until Peter could arrive for the assist. Pulled CJ out next, and he was flying at 970 grams. His focus wasn't all there, but he stayed around enough, and we got some good slips through some briars. Just as the sun was heading down, we ended up connecting, got to put one in the bag. Interestingly enough, his trade off was pretty bad! All things considered, it was still alright...he grabbed the lure, but then let it go for the rabbit. I presented it again, and he jumped off for the lure...only took about 20 seconds, but he is usually INSTANT, so it was just odd. I could have rushed him a little bit, which would explain the behavior, but I just don't really remember.
Met up with Mitch around 11 today, and we headed out looking for ducks. During the route, we went to a field that was JAM PACKED with red tails! I'm serious....you could look in the sky, and see 20 or 30 birds flying around. Then you could scan the few trees, and you would notice there was a bird in each one of them. Then, as you start looking around at the hills, you would realize that there were birds dotted everywhere, just sitting on the ground. We saw at least 10 harlans, and want to know what else was crazy? The majority of all the birds there, were passage. We are tossing around the idea of setting up a blind, and just pulling in tails all day long. I bet you could trap every color phase of tail there is, just in that one spot (in one day!). Met up with Rob after that, and we headed out to fly the Gos hawks. The wind had picked up today, and though we had some really good flights at bunnies, just didn't manage to put any in the bag. Flew CJ later, but only managed a single slip, and it happened when he was perching up, in the opposite direction. It was cool though, and we headed to a quail field, to give Rob's Gos another shot. Got to see some really neat tail chases, and it was the first time I got to watch a Gos chasing birds, from a really good vantage point. It got me all hot and bothered ;), and my desire to fly a coops, has been kicked up a notch! So that's what I have been up to, in a nut shell. Hope you all have been getting in some good hawkin too, and I will get back with you all later!

-D-

Lovin' the Cold

2010-12-14T19:18:00.000-06:00

Between family, work, and hawking its been hard to find a few minutes to update the blog. I guess it's time for a little catch up.....

A week or so ago, as Daniel posted about earlier, we took a weekend hunting trip out west to do some trapping, shooting, and hawking. And amazingly we accomplished all three things. Our first priority was to get some shooting done over Jay and I's bird dogs. It didn't take long before we had both Lulu, my pointer, and Mack, Jay's setter, locking up on Scaled Quail and Pheasants. Jay managed to hit a quail and a pheasant and I, being the poor shot that I am, got a piece of a pheasant that Jay finished knocking down. Somewhere in there Jay got also got a Jackrabbit that made its move at precisely the wrong time.

Lulu, me, Jay, and Mack

We also were around so see birds trapped that we just don't regularly have on our side of the state. There was a nice Praire Falcon or two, a huge female Ferruginous Hawk, and a beautiful jack Richardson's Merlin that a Tulsa falconer is now having a ball with.

Daniel holding the passage Merlin

To top the trip off we hoped to get a chance at Daniel putting a Jackrabbit in the bag. Finding the Jacks was not a problem (click on the pick below to enlarge)

Bunny Party

After a handful of serious slips over two days Daniel's bird managed to connect and hang on. Click here for Daniel's account.

Daniel and his first Jackrabbit

Jay and I did fly our falcons out there on ducks, but the result was less than desirable. It appeared that the trip had taken a lot out of Jay's hybrid and my bird pretty much just flew off. He still was not back to weight and from being fed up over the Thanksgiving holiday and I decided to push my luck anyway. It could have easily been a disaster when he decided that he really had no interest in the ducks, the lure, or me. Tulsa chased around a large blackbird flock for close to 10 minutes before landing. I had to flash a pigeon to get him to eventually come down and very carefully put his equipment on while he was on the ground eating from a quail carcass that I had thrown down there. But all's well that ends well I guess.

Since returning from the trip my falcons are back in form. Tulsa, whose neck I've wanted to wring more than once this season, has really turned on since the weather has gotten cold. He has caught a duck in each of his last four flights and each of those was better than the last. Throughout much of the early season he was testing my patience by only climbing 200-300 feet then setting his wings and coasting around. We went back to the kite multiple times to get him up there and now that we have more optimal weather he's really starting to put out and take a far more respectable pitch. Mongo, the Gyrkin, is also flying well but has a vice in that he cannot leave geese alone. Even if they are flying on the horizon he buggers off after them. He has taken several to the ground but luckily gives up before giving to much of a fight. I do not want him grabbing geese as that is an easy path to a broken wing or possibly death. Aside from the geese grabbing he has been flying well, taking good pitches and staying over me as I approach the ponds. A few days ago we had one of those rare times when everything comes together and both birds came home sporting full crops.

Today, Tulsa took a good pitch over dozen or so mixed ducks that were working hard to keep open the last 6 foot hole in the ice on the pond. When the falcon was climbing and starting to work away from the pond, I flushed. The falcon folded up into a mummy tuck and hammered a hen Gadwall over the ice. She fell and hit so hard she broke through the frozen sheet and didn't come up. I had this happen once last year as well. After a few seconds she popped up in the open water hole about 50 feet from were she smashed through. The rest of the ducks had bailed back onto the ice and the tiercel remounted to a solid 700'. I again flushed and a clear look at the whole situation. Things just clicked in one of those surreal ways. I looked up and the falcon was right there pumping away, he was very visible against the overcast sky. He waited for a few seconds this time as the ducks oddly flew directly toward me while leaving the pond. I could hear the beating of their wings as they passed over me about 30 feet up. Looking through the flock I see the falcon close his wings and begin his stoop. He poured on the speed as he came down at the intended target. The impact made the duck bounce off the frozen ground like a stuffed animal tumbling down the highway from being casually thrown out a car window by a child. The this happened so uneventfully for falcon that I assumed he had hit one of the small divers I saw in the flock. As I made my way over I was shocked to find Tulsa munching the vertebrae of a drake Mallard! It is amazing how easy it seems for this falcon to tackle and subdue prey that nearly twice its size.

The cold weather really brings out the best from these falcons. Kind of a catch 22 when your main quarry is ducks and the ponds begin to freeze. Looks like it will be warming up a bit this week though. Here's hoping......or not........

-RVZ

The wife HAS to be getting irritated.....

2010-12-10T09:53:00.000-06:00

I really did plan on putting up decorations yesterday.....Christmas is approaching fast, and i'm going to miss the whole darn holiday, if I don't get my rear in gear. I left my favorite hawking stick at "The Dumpsite" on Tuesday though, so i HAD to get it back. Short-bus had the biggest casting I had ever seen come out of a bird (including owls), and he somehow made it back to 950 grams on the dot. I thought "what the heck," so we loaded up, and headed on out there. Being that I wasn't planning on flying (and hadn't adjusted my schedule to accomodate it), we only had time for a super short session. About 30 minutes or so was all we had, and as luck would have it.......the rabbits were not poppin. :(

We made our way back to where we had caught the rabbit on Tuesday, and my glorious brush stick was waiting where I had left it. Once that was back in my possesion, we continued along the train tracks, but didn't manage a single slip. Worked along the frence row, but again, no one wanted to come out and play. We kicked through the "open section," that has patchs of sumac/bushes scattered around in clumps, and again....no one was home! Pretty lame, so we headed toward the woods, that run along the east side of the field (as opposed to the woods where he has caught a couple rabbits this year already....). Slips can ALWAYS be found deep in the woods, but the cover is nice and thick, and up until recently, it just wasn't possible to get back in there.....well....I couldn't get back in there, and I didn't really have the desire to hack my way in there, to find a bird hiding with a rabbit, so we have stayed clear most of the season. The last few sessions out there though, the cover had lessened enough to make it possible, and we have chased quite a few rabbits around in there. He hasn't connected with any of them yet, but the sun was on it's way down, and I just needed a slip PERIOD.

So I started forcing my way in through the sumac, and Short-Bus took a perch right above my head. He sleeked down, and started looking pretty intently right in front of me, so I knew right then, that there was a rabbit moving infront of me. I kept pushing through the cover, when I heard the jingle of bells, and CJ shot over my head, moving pretty quickly toward an area just to the right of me. He tucked into a mini stoop, and disappeared in the brush beside me. SQUEEL!!!!!! The fact that I didn't really get to see the flight was sort of lame, but I was more worried about listening for bells, than anything else at that point. I could hear the rabbit, and I could hear CJ, but I had no idea where they were. Luckily though, the area i was in was pretty much all Sumac, and the vines that wove it all together, were around the tops of the bushes. I got down on my hands and knees, and started army crawling (I looked just like Parker!!!!!) in the direction of all the comotion. Eventually, I spied them up ahead, and as I crawled up on them, I discovered he had done the "rabbit wrap" (or whatever you want to call it....). Dee Dee used to do this all the time....one foot on the head, and the other foot holding both of the back legs AND the head......keeps the rabbit in a nice little ball, and eliminates pretty much all movement, from the rabbit. Not really THAT cool, but he just hadn't ever done it before, so it was neat to me. Anyways, gave Peter the stretch, and after i weaved my way out of that tangled mess, it was back to the car we went (With brush stick in hand this time!). Sorry for the fuzzy picture....the light was fading fast, and this ended up being the best one I got (if that tells you anything about the rest of the shots!!!!).

Take it easy friends

-D-

Lazy Hawkin'

2010-12-09T09:36:00.000-06:00

I wasn't really planning on hawking yesterday. I had Christmas decorations that I STILL hadn't put up, all the gear was still laying in the garage, I had been feeling like crap all day, and Short-bus was at 950 grams.....Sometimes though, I just can't seem to help myself. We flew high the day before, and he did really well, and being that this was only the second day of being "high," I knew that he wasn't ACTUALLY that heavy. Sooooo, we loaded up the car, and headed over to Rosa east. This is only my second time to fly this part of the field (this year), and I think I'm going to keep avoiding it. This will be my "lazy" field from now on, and I will probably refrain from hawking it, unless I need a super quick, very "easy" session. Sometimes, you just need a field like that....one where you can guarantee a LOT of slips, in a tiny amount of time. There arn't any briars here, and the hawking tends to be more of a strole, than any type of work. Sometimes, it's just nice to get out and watch the bird fly, and not have to beat brush like a mad man!

So we popped the hood off, and Short-Bus headed straight up to the top of a power pole. There is a long stretch of mowed grass that you have to walk through, before you get to where the "field" starts, and as I made my way through it, CJ sleeked down, and started doing his little head bob thing. If you all remember correctly, there is a long stretch of Johnson grass, that runs parallel with the road, and is only about 10 yards wide (It runs for about a quarter mile, but it's just pretty narrow....). As I enter the Johnson grass, a rabbit bails out the back side, and starts hauling through the woods. Like I said, there isn't much cover in this area, and I saw the whole flight as CJ burned it down, and crashed right behind it. He missed, but that's not what made the flight cool......what made it SWEET, was that out of no where, this Harlans comes roaring in from behind, and continued the chase! He crashed, got back up, and crashed again like FOUR TIMES after that rabbit!!!!!!! It was pretty freakin sweet. This is only the second time I have had this happen with one of my birds. Interestingly enough, the first time it happened was last weekend.......that first Jack that CJ bound to (but got kicked off) went down the same way.......another bird came in, and continued that chase as well. Anyways, I waited for Cleveland to fly back up to his power pole, and we continued on.

I went another 10 steps or so, and he folded into a bullet, and smashed the ground right in front of me.......DARN VOLES! Now, Short-Bus catchs a mouse/vole/rat/misc something almost every session we go out.....it's never a big deal, and I just let him eat it, and then we continue on (unless it's a HUGE rat, then I trade him off and keep going.....). Well, being that he was already at 950 grams, I second guessed myself, on what I should do. I knew he would fly well while it was still in his crop, but it was just a matter of if i wanted to hawk the next day or not. 950 grams, plus a big vole, (and assuming we catch a bunny) plus his trade off lure piece, plus his rabbit leg, equates to no flying the next day.......since I still had Christmas duties to perform, I decided that was cool, and let him eat it all, before we continued on. When he finished, I hopped him to the fist, and he then flew over, and landed in a short tree. I started walking through the Johnson again, and a rabbit takes off, running the edge of the grass. Cleveland sprints from his tree, and BARELY misses snagging it on his first crash. He got right back up immediately, and snagged it's rump, as it was going through the fork of a small bush. Of course, that bush stopped Short-bus right in his tracks, and he was left with just a patch of fur in his talons. Took his sweet time about getting back up after that one, and when he did, he took a perch in a tree across the street. I reached a part of the johnson grass section that was a lot shorter than the rest, and as I made my way out of the head high stuff, a rabbit got up at my feet. I could see the rabbit running as plain as day, and I'm yelling HO, but Short-bus just watched it go. Once it disappeared from sight (into the woods), CJ slowly meandered back to my side of the road, and took a perch on the power pole right above me.

I continued kicking through the short grass, and instead of "perching up" like he normally does, he let me get about two poles down from him. Normally, he is right on my head, or else one pole behind me (so that when I walk past the hiding rabbits and they shoot out from behind, he is right there to snatch them up), so I'm thinking that he may have started putting his crop over. Well, I JUST made my way past the second pole, when a rabbit gets up right by my feet, but instead of bailing toward the woods, it headed toward the road, and started cutting back in the direction I had just come from. BIG mistake!!!!!! Cleveland was already on his way, when he left the cover of the grass, and started running through the mowed grass, running along the road. He went about 10 yards, before he noticed the hawk screaming toward him, and cut back into the Johnson grass. CJ whiped to the side though, and snaged him just a few feet into the cover. That's about the time I hear the cars honking :). I look up, and some dude had COMPLETELY stopped his car (in the MIDDLE of the road), had his door open, and yelled out "That was the coolest damn thing I have ever seen, in my whole *ucking life!" Apparently the people behind him didn't feel the same way though, because the chorus of honking just got louder and louder. He finally came to his senses, pulled off to the side of the road, and made his way over to where we were at. I did a little Q&A session with him, while Short-bus ate on his rabbit, and then I let him snap off a couple pictures. We finally made our way back to the car, and he was a FAT 1074 grams, when I stuck him on the scale at home. Christmas decorations will be on the agenda for this evening, and hopefully, I will be able to get a good session in on Friday.

-D-

Unbelievable!

2010-12-08T10:36:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure if you all have any of "those" fields, but I sure don't. You know the ones I'm talking about......you hear stories about them all the time. Everywhere you look, there is game in abundance, you can't walk anywhere without getting a slip, and the presentations just happen to be PERFECT! Well, not only do I not have any spots like that, but I had never even seen one.......that is, until this weekend!!!!

The skunk monkey had been hitting pretty darn hard over the past week or so. It was my fault to an extent, because I didn't even give CJ (A.K.A. Short-Bus) the chance to fly three of the days, but the rest of the hunts, were just so so. We were getting slips, but we just were not putting anything in the bag. So when I got the text from my wife around noon on Friday, I pretty much started doing the happy dance. It went a little like "hey, if you only spend money on food and gas, you can head down to the panhandle with Ryan and Jay this weekend!!!!!!!!!" (maybe the exclamation marks weren't there, but that's how I read it :)!!!!!!). So I grabbed whatever was in arms reach, jumped in the car, and started hauling down the highway. Sure, I forgot half of my hawking gear, unimportant things like clean cloths, deoderant, and my tooth brush, and SUPER important things like my game sheers and telemetry, but it didn't matter.......the needle never dropped below a hundred, and I was on my way to what would become one of the best hawkin weekends I've had thus far.

The goal was a Jack rabbit flight....plain and simple. I had never seen a live one before, and the first one that got up at our feet, had me saying "holy $hit, did you see that?!?!?!?!" We were gun hunting pheasants at the time, and even though it wasn't being pressed by a hawk or anything, it headed straight for the horizon. That was my first clue, that these guys act a little bit different than the cotton tails we are used to chasing, and I just didn't know how it would go. Up until this point in time, Short-bus had gotten his pants juked off of him, every single time he has flown a rabbit in the wide open. With that in mind, I didn't really think he had a chance at a Jack. I LITERALLY, just wanted a flight, but in the back of my mind, I pretty much expected him to refuse them all. So after a great day of shooting pheasants and quail (well.....I watched the dogs run, and Ryan and Jay shot stuff.....), we arrived at "the honey hole" Jack spot, with expectations that were not very high.

Short-bus had been hooded up most of the afternoon, so when he flew up to the gate post where we parked, you could tell he was trying to "center" himself. If birds thought this way, there was something probably going through his mind along the lines of "WTF?!?!?! Where are all the trees? How am I supposed to chase game, with nothing to sit on? Wait.....you can't really mean for me to fly to those "H" poles.....there are only like two or three that are useful, and there are places to hawk as far as the eye can see......You expect me to cover all of that, from a couple different perchs? You have lost your damn mind my friend....." About that time though, we had made our way about 20 yards from him, and the first jack got up infront of us. My head flipped back like a rocket, and Short-bus just watched it run. What surprised me though, was after the jack got about a hundred yards away or so, CJ lazily started flying in that direction. It was almost like he was wanting to "check it out," and see if he had really just seen, what he thought he saw. Yep....that was a big @$$ rabbit!!!! He pulled up to a short post, and we only made it a few more yards, before another Jack got up at our feet. He only hesitated for a moment, and then took off in a half committed chase toward the rabbit. Of course, he got burned, but that cheesed out grin was starting to spread across my face. "No way......is he really gonna chase them?!?!?!" He sat there for a moment, as we made our way toward the line of "H" poles, and after a little coaxing (actually.....a LOT of coaxing!), he flew our way. He was finally up on a high perch, and I was pretty interested to see what would happen next.

The area we were hawking, was sort of broken up into two sections. The "main" portion, had cover scattered EVERYWHERE, and the ground had been grazed completely bare. When you walked around at first, you thought you were walking on top of a lot of gravel. It was only when you bent down to inspect it, that one realized that it was ALL jack rabbit crap! There were literally HUNDREDS of jacks hanging out in this little section, and every row you looked down, would contain at least five to ten rabbits......just looking at you! Surrounding this section, were endless fields of CRP, and the jacks were split into sort of two different "groups" if you will. One group, prefered to stay around the cover....they would run from one end to the other, and then back again. The other "group", bailed for the open fields, and prefered to use their speed to get away.....they would head for the hills, and just keep running, until they were out of sight. These were the jacks Short-bus ended up prefering, and as we started into this "heavy cover section", the first jack bolted for the CRP!

Unlike the first couple of slips, this one was instant, and Short-bus came pumping off of the "H" pole, like he was going to die without catching that jack. The flight took them pretty far out into the field, and I held my breath, as he closed in on the ground, and did the wing flash they do, when they are coursing a rabbit in the open. Then.....he connected! I couldn't really believe it, and started running for all I was worth (which apparently, isn't much! LOL). I only made it a short distance, before I saw the jack shoot out the side, and start heading for the hills. I'm yellling and jumpin, because as far as right then is concerned, I accomplished my goal for the weekend. My bird chased a jack, and it just happened to be a good flight. After that rodeo, and from what I had heard from other people, I was expecting CJ to refuse them from then on out, but in the scheme of things, that was alright by me. Well, Short-bus got up off the ground, and we continued on, and wouldn't ya know it, he kept chasing! Not only that, but he kept chasing harder and harder on each slip! All in all, we probably got 10 or so more flights on jacks (and one pheasant flight!)....two of which he pulled fur on, before he started running out of gas. As we made our way back to the car, we got one last slip which he ALMOST got.....he ended up hammering the ground, and the jack jumped over his head! Soooooo close! We had a drag jack set up from the get go, and after that last slip, Ryan took off dragging it. Short-bus grabbed onto it, and Ryan took him for a ride! I ran in there just like I would on a real one, and all in all, I think we simulated a jack score FARELY well. Fed him up quite a bit (because he worked so hard), and though I tried not to get too excited, scoring a jack the next day, was becoming more and more of a possibility!

So Sunday found us back at the same spot, and from the get go, Short-bus was there to score! I had had him down to 908 for the first session, but now that he knew what was going on, I had pushed him back up to 920 grams. He seemed to have more "pep in his step," and he chased the first Jack that got up, with the intensity we didn't reach, until mid session the day before. This got me too excited, and I started BELIEVING that we were going to score! That was bad, because when my expectations start getting high (and if he doesn't behave perfectly), the bird begins to piss me off! We had a nice shot on one from the "H" pole, but after that, he started screwing around, and taking REALLY low perchs. Of course, he got burned everytime, and I was well on my way to the cursing stage. Another stratagey was taken, and I got CJ up on a T-perch, and started walking the edge of the CRP. Ryan and Jay continued moving through the junk piles, and the goal was to get one to flush out into the open, with Short-bus and I waiting there for it. Ryan made the comment "Man, what we really need is for one to get up RIGHT at your feet (when the bird is on the T-perch), and that would help solidify the purpose of riding the T (I hadn't ever really flown with one, before this weekend). So we continue on, and CJ suddenly bails from the T-perch, and takes a stance in a lone tree about 50 yards infront of me. RIGHT as he leaves the perch, and heads that way, a jack gets up from under my feet (which is what we were trying to get to happen)!!!!!! I'm pissed! I start cursing the bird, start cursin my luck, and I go from "irritated," to mad! I'm muttering under my breath, as I begin to approach the bird, and when i get about 80 yards or so from him, a jack breaks about 15 yards from the tree. Short-bus just BURNS out of that tree, and closes the gap in no time. I see him slam the ground, and then the ride was on!!!!!

Now friends, I don't run......I was sore as hell from the day before, but I took off like a freakin track star, when I saw the cloud of dust errupt from the ground. I was screaming "hold on to it!!!! You better freakin hold onto it!!!!!!" and had to have been moving at least a million miles per hour :)! Of course, I'm putting everything I had into that run, so I lost sight of them, while I was on my way. I suddenly freeze, and I hear the squeel of a jack!!!! I discover JC sitting on the ground....one foot on the head, and the other between the shoulders! The jack was kicking like mad, but he had him completely under control!!!!!! When it's confirmed that the jack is dead, I just started freakin out. I'm yellin like an idiot, jumpin around, fist pumping......the whole freakin nine yards. I never thought you could replicate the look on an apprentices face, when they are holding their freshly trapped, first falconry bird.......but I did it! I had that rediculously HUGE grin on my face for HOURS afterwards. I was dumb struck, that my little guy actually did it. It's funny, I had just started calling him "Short-bus" that week, because I was really getting irritated with him. I guess he took it personally though, because he sure did prove me wrong!!!!!

Fed him up nicely on that jack, and he was nice and fat for the drive home. No session on Monday, because he was still overweight, but yesterday found us "close" to weight. He weighed in at 930 grams, and we went flying at the dumpsite. He took perchs higher than he ever has, and crashed after bunnies with an intensity I have yet to see from him. He absolutly CRUSHED rabbit number 13, and I'm thinking we are about to see this little bird turn it on. He is riding on a confidence high that he has never known before, and who knows, this may just turn into a decent falconry season after all!

Take it easy guys

-D-

Don't Read While Eating

2010-11-29T13:28:00.000-06:00

Came across this sight while checking ponds last week. Not the prettiest of views and nearly every falconry blog has a post similar to this, but it is important to show the dangers of powerlines. Every year a number of falconry birds meet their end by touching uninsulated electrical wires. And being that there is a very small number of falconry raptors in the United States, one could only guess how many wild hawks meet their end this way across this country and around the world.

I've seen several raptors get killed in this way. Sometimes it's a quick zap and they fall and other times the are locked to the wire as the current literally cooks them from the inside out. Unfortunately for this guy it looks like he got the later. On closer inspection you could see charred tissue on back side of his legs. Unfortunate reality for the hawks that use power poles to make their lives easier.

Here is a link to some more raptor electrocution info:

http://www.themodernapprentice.com/electrocution.htm

-RVZ

Happy Thanksgiving Everybody!!!!

2010-11-25T18:38:00.000-06:00

Hope everyone got to spend a lot of quality time with their families, and stuffed themselves to the point of not feeling well! If ya didn't......you missed the whole point of the holiday :)!!!! Last year was my first Thanksgiving as a falconer, and we had a great session. We flew for the first time at the Lowe's field, and we caught a rabbit pretty quickly. I decided that this had to become a yearly tradition, so after stuffing my face this afternoon, I headed out for a quick hawkin session. I only got the kitchen pass for an hour (because after that, it was time for pumpkin pie!!!!!!), so I jumped over to Rosa East, and tried to slip in a quickie. Anyways, I havn't hawked this portion of the field before (and it's actually accross the road, so it's technically a new field....I have ran the dog through it, but that's all....), but since I can pretty much pull my car right into it (and time was of the essence), I decided to give it a go. Cleveland Jr was spot on at 915 grams, and he powered right up to a high pole, to kick start the hunt. The edge of this field is bordered by a ton of head high Johnson grass, but once you pass through that, there are a ton of briars, and a bunch of crap that people have dumped, to kick around in. Well, I made about fifteen or so steps through the Johnson grass, and CJ came hauling off of his perch STRAIGHT at me. He was coming in hot, and his angle was putting him on a direct course for my feet. About five yards infront of me, he suddenly checks off, and lands on the power line running directly above me. I take two steps, and then Cleveland drops off the pole in a perfect bullet shape, and slams the ground right in front of me. SQUEEL!!!!!!!!!!! Whoop, Whoop! Thanksgiving comes through again! New field, and a score quickly....just like last year!!! I think I'm going to like this tradition :). It got super cold last night, and it should be cold again tonight, so I fed him a little bit extra (fed to 1010 grams), so we will be at weight tom, for another afternoon session. This works out well, because Adam is in town for the holidays, and wanted to know if I could put some rabbits under his bird. I told him we would give it a shot, so we are going to have a session with his bird in the morning. Maybe the stars will align, and Shaung will be at weight after that, and we can get in a session with Jonathan as well. Fly CJ after that, and it will all add up to a full day of hawkin. Can't beat that with a stick, and I'm psyched for a good day.
Best Wishes everyone!
-D-

(Not a) Good Day for a Swim

2010-11-24T10:02:00.000-06:00

I knew I shouldn't....The morning was crummy for flying. High humidity, high temps, and few ducks. But it was the last chance I had to get a flight before heading off to visit the families for Thanksgiving. So I pushed my luck. The only ducks I found were four Blue-wing Teal a farm pond. I knew it was a bad idea... Teal are very hard to get off the water and my bird hasn't exactly been flying stellar lately. But I did it anyway and the flight ended as expected. Ducks dumped in the pond, falcon got splashed and the flight was over.

So I called the bird down to the lure, put in his equipment, and went to take his transmitter off when I realized that it wasn't there. I put the bird away in the truck and pull out my trusty receiver to find the missing tracking device.

The first signal I get is across the pond and pretty close. I trek over to the other side of the pond to triangulate, and much to my disappointment the signal was exactly back where I came from. The transmitter was in the pond........

So off came the boots, socks, and pants, and I waded out into the muck bottom pond in nothing but my boxers. Around waist deep water I found that the transmitter was somewhere below me using a trick I learned long ago of detaching the antenna from the receiver. So here I am, water up to my hip, leaning to the right up to my shoulder with my hand fishing around in the muck to feel for the transmitter, left hand in the air trying to keep the receiver dry. As I'm in this compromised position, a local sheriff comes putting along and stops on the road several yards away. Him and I have talked before and he knows what I'm usually doing out there, but looked a little perplexed when he stopped this time. As I explained what I was doing, I brushed my hand across the antenna. The officer had a laugh about my situation and went about his day.

Satisfied that I wouldn't have to buy a new $250 transmitter, I spend the next 30 mins sitting on the dam wall drying off wondering how do I get myself into these situations......

Well its Official

2010-11-23T15:54:00.000-06:00

We are on a streak! Ducked out of work at 4:00 yesterday, and Cleveland was sitting right at 915 grams. We headed over to the Lowe's field, and the wind was blowing pretty good. Started out kicking through the open section (the "flag pole" if you will....see earlier posts, if you don't know what i'm talking about.......), but it seems that the rabbits have bailed on that area. Good to know for future reference.....I can stop wasting my time there! That must be their summer hang out, but now that the cover is lower, they have vacated for more secure areas. Anyways, after kicking through there some, I gave up, and started heading through the head high Johnson grass, that borders that portion of the field. CJ took off after a rabbit that must have scooted out the side, but it made it to the third tree clump, and he was left empty footed on the ground. Hopped him back up, and he took his perch up on the power pole again. Continued on, and I pushed another one out, that promptly made it to the second clump of trees, just as Cleveland arrived. These rabbits are going to have to figure out a new game plan, because it won't be long until the cover dies back more, and I will be able to get into those clumps for reflushes!!! Yesterday though, they were smart moves, and CJ was getting a little bit amped. He took off into the air, and soared up about 70 feet, and followed me around for a good 10 minutes or so. He has started doing this more (when he has had a few misses...), and I would like to think that it's because he has learned that game appears when he does this. It's still too early in the behavior to know if he has that solid connection or not, but I'm hoping the light bulb is at least flickering! I tossed out a couple pigeons to him, and though he made some good attempts at them, wasn't able to snag either one.

After a bit, he landed back on his power pole, and I took off toward the back portion of the field. I was hugging the tree line, and made it about 50 yards from the pole, when CJ took off in a pretty level flight from the power pole. This wasn't his normal 45 degree downward angle that I'm used to, but he was flying with intent, so I knew he wasn't just going to a new perch. I stopped to watch, and he was gradually getting lower and lower. He disappeared from view after a moment, and then guess what.....yep............................SQUEEL!!!!!!!!! I started running over there, but quickly stopped doing that when I realized how far I was going (no jokes Ryan!!!! That run, after the duck flight the other day, almost killed me! I HAVE to start getting into shape!), and since I didn't really have a specific spot I was going to, didnt't want to accidentally step on them! Wandered around for a minute or two, before I found him on the ground. He had made it all the way to the the back corner of the front section (if that makes sense), and was crouched low in some cat tails. I looked back at the power pole, and my best guess, is that the flight was a good 200 yards or so! Pretty psyched, because if he is willing to take a slip that far out, it must means his confidence is going up. Finally starting to like this bird (it's funny how that happens, once we start catching stuff!!!!!), and it seems like I have his weight down now. He has been doing well at 915, so once this 70 degree weather goes away, I'm going to push him up to 920 for a few days, and see how that goes. If he stays consistant, then we will go up another five grams. So that's it for the update....number 11 in the bag, and it's on to number 12!

-D-

Double Digits!!!!

2010-11-21T15:37:00.000-06:00

I'm almost too tired to type! We got number ten today, and I'll tell you what.....we freakin earned it! Cleveland Jr must have caught a mouse when out weathering yesterday, because when I got home four hours after I left, he had gained 25 grams. This ruined our duck chances again, but it is what it is, and we ended up getting into the field around 11:00 AM. Hit the Wilson field first, but it's cover was still really high. That, combined with all the wind, had the rabbits sitting tight....we didn't manage a single slip, and this is my honey hole field! Bailed from there pretty quickly, and we headed over to Rosa South. Like I have said before, I don't like hitting the same field two days in a row, but I wanted number 10 BAD, so we went for it.
The rabbits weren't popping today like usual....probably because they remembered being terrorized yesterday! We managed the same number of slips as usual, but the only difference was, that instead of hawking for 35 to 40 minutes....we hawked for 4 hours!!!! I had given up by this point, and was making my way back to the car, when I kicked up a final bunny, and CJ gave a half hearted chase, and then perched up WAY infont of me. He normally flips back to where I am, so I knew that he had the rabbit marked. When I got there, he was looking down pretty intently, and I managed a reflush farely quickly. CJ came screaming off of his perch, and crashed the brush hard, and I heard that glorious squeel! Normally, it's a "YES!!!!!!" Today though, it was a "FINALLY!!" When I got to them, I found CJ pinned against a bush...one leg on the ground, and the other sticking out the other side of the bush, barely holding onto the screaming rabbit. To be honest, I'm not really sure how he held onto it, so I made my way to the otherside as quickly as I could, and breathed a HUGE sigh of relief, once I got a secure hold on the rabbit. I had to then, cut CJ out of the bush, which he wasn't to thrilled about. I kept snipping more and more briars, but he was STILL stuck in there....Finally, I found a vine going right under his wing (that had been hiding), and was able to get him out. Snapped some hero shots, traded off great, and it was back home I went. Ate a huge bowl of soup, and now it's time for some chillen! GOOD DAY!!!!!
-D-

Jay's on the Board

2010-11-20T15:53:00.000-06:00

Jay Tuttle (he's interning for me this winter at the center) and I met up this morning for a couple of flights. The conditions were not great today, warmer weather and heavy wind up high, but we managed to get out and get the birds up.

Jay's bird took a nice pitch on the first pond that held ducks and seemed to pull up short on a pair of Gadwalls that we had flushed clean off the water. The falcon was called down for little reward with the intention of flying again after a rest.

First Green Head of the Year.

Several minutes later we found another small pond holding a pair of Mallards. We put Tulsa in the air and he started off pulling the same bologna he's been doing off and on the past few weeks. He started climbing strong then set his wings and coasted down to about 200 feet. Since there was two of us, I had Jay stay just under the dam wall and I walked away from the pond. It didn't take long for the falcon to follow me and he quickly regained pitch. I yelled for Jay to flush when Tulsa was wide of the pond and climbing. The drake was struck about 20 feet off the water into a small stand of shrub trees. And my bird quickly secured his 1250g+ meal (nearly 2x his weight), duck #3 on the year

Jay's First Okie Duck of the Year

After getting my bird back in the truck and getting on the road, we found another pond that was loaded with Mallards only minutes away. Time to give Jay's bird a second chance. His falcon quickly gained a good pitch, quite a feat considering he just flew less than an hour before. Jay and I came up over the dam and flushed probably 30 Mallards off of a postage stamp sized pond. The falcon locked on to a hen Mallard that was trailing the group and, with the precision of a surgeon, cut through the duck's wing. I saw the wing break right in front of me and it was obvious that Jay had got his first duck of the year. Not the Gadwall that he's been hoping for but a nice start. And if there is one duck we have in northeastern Oklahoma, its Gadwalls.

Now for a nap....

-RVZ

Back to Back

2010-11-20T11:20:00.000-06:00

I was on daddy duty this morning, since the boss needed to catch up on some sleep, so I kicked it around the house with Parker most of the morning. I finally got around to glancing at my phone, and I had FIVE different hero shots sent to me! Apparently, today was the day for some falconry goodness! Most notable though, was Perry's, whose kestrel caught her first starling this morning! There is nothing like that first kill, and I'm super psyched for him! I was eagerly anticipating my chance to get out and about, and the bird finally hit weight, around 10:00AM.
Rosa South was looking extra nice this morning, and CJ was sitting right at 915 grams (though he hadn't cast yet....). Got some quick flushs right off the bat, and I could tell right from the beginning, that today was going to be good! We kicked around through the front portion of briars first, and got a few reflushes on the same rabbit. He ALMOST snagged it on a flight through the trees, and I saw him shoot his foot out, and just barely missed sealing the deal, about five minutes into the hunt. Had he scored, I probably would have had to go for a double, so it wasn't all that bad that he missed. Continued on, and we quicly approached one of his favorite dead tree perchs. He headed straight there, and we got a couple slips under him, which he chased with enthusiasm. The second flush, he remounted after his intial crash, and just barely missed it, as it made it to the first HUGE patch of briars. There are four of these that run along the tree line....they have grown up around patchs of sumac, so until recently, they had been too thick to get into (not too thick for the bird....too thick for me!). Brush has been getting thinner with every passing day though, and today was the first time I could make it inside for the reflush. I discovered a nice big hole right in the center of it, so I gave up pretty quickly, and began to move on. As I exited the back side of it though, CJ left his favorite perch, and landed in the tree growing right out of the center of the patch. It takes something moving to get him to leave that perch, so I decided to work the backside of it, to see if the rabbit was dumb enough to skip the hole. Well, about 30 seconds later, the rabbit busts from my feet.....and heads straight back into the woods!!!! This was a BIG mistake, because there is hardly any ground cover back there now, and he was completely exposed. He pretty much ran parallel with the tree line, and though there were a couple times it looked like he was going to head back toward the cover, he just kept going! I heard CJ's bells singing over my head, but kept my eyes glued on the fleeing rabbit. About a hundred yards from where the slips started, CJ closed the gap, and I got a PERFECT view, as he slammed into the back of the rabbit! I did my happy dance, and headed over there for the dispatch. Got a little excited, and popped the whole head off when I made in (which I hadn't done with CJ yet), and I was interested to see how he would do with that. One foot on the head, and the other on the body, and I was thinking that he may jump off the rabbit like normal, but bring the head along with him. This would not have been good, because I'm planning on flying in the morning tommorow, and I def didn't want him to over eat on this bunny. My fears were unnecessary though, because as soon as I presented his lure, he jumped right off of both, and latched onto the lure like normal. We had a nice big back leg on the lure, so I only hopped him up to a front leg, to put him at weight.....but this pissed him off! He started doing the irritated chirp noise they make, and after I had him all jessed back up, he actually tried to foot me when I was hooding him! As we all know though....I have ninja reflexes, and he didn't connect, but he was fired up! Hind sight....I didn't really let him calm down on the kill, and these behaviors were because of it. Always, always, ALWAYS let the bird calm down before the trade....this is what I have been taught, and I know this very well. You all know me and my brain though....it goes RIGHT out the window when I get excited, and that's just exactly what happened. It is what it is, and today was a good refresher of that lesson. Got home, and he was at 970 grams, so I fed him the goodies, and he is chillen outside on his block as we speak. Psyched about the session...it's the first time I havn't screwed up my weight management, and we put one in the bag two days in a row. I'm gunning to hit double digits tommorow (unless we catch a duck that is!!!!), and I'm thinking we just may do it!
-D-

#8 in the Bag

2010-11-19T18:18:00.000-06:00

Wednesday, we flew at the Lowes field. It was SUPER windy, but that gave me the opportunity to enforce some soaring behavior. Nothing epic transpired, but he flew around a TON, and got a really good work out because of it. Had a few chases, but I just didn't get that many slips (bunnies hold TIGHT in the wind!!!!) Thursday was a fun filled day of hawking. Like Ryan said, we got out for some early longwinging, and I was rewarded with a nice duck flight to kick start the day. Flew a couple tails in the morning at the usual spot (I almost scored a wood cock all by myself....ninja style!!!!!), and after a quick lunch stop, Jonathan and I headed over to a new field. Ryan and I have driven by this one a number of times, and we always comment about how it looks pretty good, but had never taken the time to stop. Well, Ryan had some free time at some point last week, and went and checked out the parking situation. There is a housing developement that is going up in one corner of the property, but the rest of it has been left untouched, and there is a nice pull out in the back of the neighborhood (for parking). A huge water tower sprouts up in the middle of this field (which is blue....so I will probably be refering to this field as Ol' Blue or something), and there are TONS of briars. They are thick, thick, THICK, and sprawl out in HUGE patchs all over this field. I finally got the camera back from Lindz, and would have taken some pictures to show you all just how freakin huges these briars are, but the batteries died right after I got pics of the hybrid, so it just didn't work out. We were kicking up rabbits left and right, but ended up chasing the majority of them from one side of the briars, to the other....and then back again (we need a doxie gang or something!!!) We got a few flushes out in the open, but just couldn't manage to put any in the bag. Busted another wood cock, and a covey of about fifteen or so quail, but other than that, not much else exciting happened.

Today, found the bird at 908 grams. I fed him the usual to put him at 915 today, but it ended up getting a lot colder last night than they had predicted, so he burned too much. He was geeked out when we hit the field though, and he made some nice chases right off the bat. The number of slips at the dumpsite has been gradually decreasing each session (just like last year), so after only a couple of slips, I decided to head toward the back section, and see if the brush had cleared enough to hawk. It was still pretty stinkin thick, but that's where all the rabbits have headed to apparently. I kicked up 7 or 8 REALLY quickly as I walked through the woods, but the thick layer of honey suckle lining the ground provided a lot of escape routes for the bunnies. Continued on, and my goal was an open section tucked back in the back, that has some really short biars sprawled out through the center of it.

There is a big cedar posted up right in the middle of this section, and he went straight to it, as we were making our approach. He started looking HARD right down into the middle of it, and I started to get a little psyched. The cedar he was on, was where I caught my first squirrel last year, and I was thinking there may just be another one chillen inside. He stopped looking into it after awhile, so I started kicking the perimiter of the open section. I pretty much did circles the whole way around his cedar, getting tighter and tighter with each one I made. About half way in, a rabbit busted from my feet, and booked it straight for the tree line. He didn't even make it half way there, before CJ sucked him up. It was not a spectacular flight by any means, but it was in the wide open, so I got to see the whole thing! Trade off was perfect like always, and then the fun began. Hopped him off the lure like normal, but for some reason, he grabbed the fist on the lower portion of the glove. One foot landed fine, but the other one grabbed onto my wrist, and he sunk in DEEP! He latched down, and then proceeded to chow on his rabbit leg. Everytime he tore a piece from the leg, he squeezed harder, which SUCKED! Rotated the fist to try and get him to step up (which was good in theory), and he grabbed the leg in his mouth, and stepped back.....well....with one foot. The foot on my arm was "locked" (you all know what I'm talking about.....), and it took him four or five jerks, before it released. Well, that pretty much brought me to my knees, and I was bleeding pretty stinkin good, by the time he was hooded back up. Darn thing bled for like 30 freakin minutes!!!! Those jerks turned the punctures into long scrapes, and I now look like I attempted suicide or something. Pretty lame, but it is what it is.

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, I had big plans to go slip ducks with Jonathan in the morning, but the bird won't be at weight till later in the day. I'm not sure if I will get the opportunity to fly in the afternoon (the boss (wife) has plans for us, but maybe we can do them in the morning instead....), but if not, then I will feed a little more tonight, and we will be spot on for Sunday (with 36 hours between feeds....). If that doesn't get him going balls out on ducks, then nothing will (other than a bag of course), so this weekends session(s) will tell a lot. Gary gave me the heads up on a perfect slip (that has been holding ducks regularly), so we will check that out this weekend as well. Fingers crossed for some goodness!

-D-
(PS I know!!! Sorry........the camera is on the charger as we speak, so the next post will have pictures, I promise!!!!!!!)

Little Better

2010-11-19T10:13:00.000-06:00

So things went a little better yesterday. I took the morning off as an apprentice falconer was coming up from Oklahoma City to buy some old telemetry equipment from me. Daniel and Jonathan also took the day off to come and fly, so we were set to have quite the crew here.

Daniel came up a little earlier than the rest to come along for a quick flight at ducks. I've been back to the kite for a few days with my hybrid to try and get him on track as far as pitch is concerned. Looks like the kiting was a good reminder for him. We found a bunch of mixed ducks on what I've named the Bull pond (the rancher keeps about a dozen large bulls in this pasture when they are in between fulfilling their role in life).

I got Tulsa in the air and he instantly went over another pond the other way from our intended target. Not such a bad thing as it turns out.

He wasn't terribly high over the wrong water but as we made our way toward the Bull pond he realized that he was off track and came roaring back gaining pitch the whole way. Just as we reached the pond edge he was coming up right behind us in perfect position. We flushed dozens of Mallards, Gadwalls, and Ring-bills off the water and.......nothing.

Several seconds past as I watch the fleeing ducks waiting for impact. It was probably on 5 seconds or so but it felt like a minute or more. Finally out of the corner of my eye I catch movement and see a hen Ring-bill cartwheeling down into the pasture. The falcon throws a lazy wing over, a sure sign that the duck it down for the count, and lands gently on the duck.

Today he actually let the ducks get a little ways off the water before he really turned on the stoop. Definitely an improvement over the past 3 or 4 flights. Hopefully this will be our turning point.

I just looked over my notes and last year I caught my second duck on today's date. So technically I'm one day ahead of where I was last year. This is the start of year two of hunting with this bird and it's pretty obvious that he still has a lot to learn on his way to be great from just a barely mediocre game hawk.

Afterwards we met up with the others and did some bunny hawkin'. Quite a few were flushed and a couple now have bald spots but in the end nothing was brought to bag. I'm now all cut up by the thorns that made it above my brush pants and worn out. Falconry season must be in full swing.

Quick Session

2010-11-17T16:58:00.001-06:00

Monday, we only had about thirty minutes to fly. He was still fat (925 grams) from the rabbit the day before, and we saw it in his performance for sure! He was chasing, and crashed a little brush, but if the slips were hard at all, he would just check off in the end. It had been raining all day, and was sprinkling a little bit when we got to the field. I took the route that I have been taking, but it seems (which makes sense) the rabbits like to be in heavier cover in that type of weather, and I only got a couple slips in that area. Ended up bailing from that route, and took one of mine from the year before. Headed back south, through an open portion of the field, and we got a nice slip that went up and over a big hill, and ended with the rabbit making it to the clump of briars on the other side about 200 yards from where the chase began. These briars were only a few feet tall last year, but must have gone on steroids or somethings, because they are HUGE this year!!!! Kicked through the back portion of the field's briars, and like I said....got some slips, but he wasn't willing to go balls out. Called him down to the lure to end the session, and he only got a little bit for his lame effort.

Tuesday found him slightly lower than I had wanted. Luckily though, I had gone to work early AND worked through lunch, so I ducked out at 3:00, ran home and got the bird, and was walking into the field by 4:10 or so. He was at 908 grams, which is right around were we caught the original rabbits.....I had just been pushing him up since then, hoping his strength would improve, and we could get a lot more speed, dedication to the chase, intensity, etc, etc out of him. Well, he must have thought he was starving, because he didn't take the far perch like normal, and then move over my head....he instead, just went straight up, and started staring at the ground waiting for something to pop. Kicked the first briar patch, and a rabbit went scooting out the side. The bird took off, but pulled up into a tree pretty quickly. I moved in that direction, and got about half way there, when CJ took off pumping hard, and slammed into the ground about 25 yards from me or so...................SQUEEL! Total hunt time.....45 seconds. Seems like he understands the program now!!! BUT.....he needs to stop doing that, or else I'm not going to get my hawking fix taken care of. I did a few doubles last year, but just don't really have the desire to anymore. Hopefully, he won't do this too many times, or else I may be forced into doubles, just so that he gets enough air time and I get my fix. Going to have another short session tonight, and he will be fat (I need to start making my lure pieces a consistant size....that's where I keep screwing up.....I have figured out what it takes to put him at weight the next day depending on if I put a front, or a back rabbit leg on the lure, but I keep switching it up with spine, pigeon, squirrel, etc, etc (none of which i weigh...just eye ball it).....gonna have to stop doing this, so that we can start becoming consistant in the field....). He will probably be around 930 grams or so, so I'm not expecting much. He will get a work out in the wind today though, and who knows.....maybe he will do some soar hawkin, and I can toss some pigeons for him. Fingers crossed for SOMETHING good to happen today

-D-

Progress!!!!

2010-11-14T20:18:00.001-06:00

Saturday we slipped on some ducks, but he didn't really go for them. Went to Rosa South afterwards, and he chased his butt off.....probably got 15 or so slips! Had we had more time, he probably would have connected, but Saturday was Parkers 1st birthday party, so I had places to be. He did catch a Wood rat, and though miscellaneous nonsense doesn't normally make it into the blog, it gets recognitions because we traded off, and kept going. Up until now, the session ended when he caught something, but Saturday marked the end to that. I stuck a tidbit on the lure, and he jumped off the rat like he does everything else. Once he realized that was all that was on there though, he started talkin a little bit. He got over it quickly, and I hopped him up for another tid bit. Hooded him till he roused, then off we went again. He chased harder after the trade happened, so I'm pretty sure it was a success.

Today was a great one. Went trapping all morning (Sorry!!!!! I left the camera at home.....), and once we called it a day, headed out to do a little rabbit hawkin at the dumpsite. CJ was at 915 grams, and Gary's presence in the field had no effect on him. He flew well, was pretty focused, and we ended up putting another bunny in the bag. Neither of us got to see anything other than the bird leaving the perch, so it wasn't that exciting of a score, but we had good times none the less. His manners on the fist were not perfect, but the five gram adjustment def made a noticeable difference. I think we will stick at this weight for a few days, and if we score a few more rabbits with good manners, then we may give 920 another shot. Posts are not cool without pictures....I know. I will try and do better next time!

-D-

On the Board....

2010-11-13T14:44:00.000-06:00

Well pics are nice but this was not a day to write home about, at least not for my bird. I went out hawking with Scott on Saturday morning trying to scrounge out a duck flight or two. This season has gotten to a slow start quarry-wise. There just have not been many ducks yet and when there are they have been on bigger water.

Scott was up first on a pond that was holding several Mallards and a couple of Ringnecks. As usual Scott's bird rang up to a really nice pitch, we flushed the ducks and a drake Ringneck got his bell rung. A perfect falconry flight by all accounts.

Scott Dillon's Bulleye with drake Ringneck

Then it was my bird's turn and the day went to hell. It has been pretty up and down with my hybrid so far. We had some pretty nice flights early on this season, but none ending in a catch. But between those pretty nice flights we all had a fair share of nonsense. The bird has stooped ducks on the water, knocked them back in the water of number of times, stooped all manner of other hawks, sparrows, larks, possibly a rabbit at one point, etc. None of these are desired quarry and luckily he hasn't caught any of these to reward his wayward efforts.

Saturday was more craziness. We found ducks on a reasonable pond and I got Tulsa into the air. Within seconds Scott and I lost sight of him and couldn't find his silhouette. It turned out that was because he ran out along the ground several hundred yards and decided to land on an old hay barn. So Scott and I sat on the back of the truck to wait him out. A minute or two passed before a Kestrel made her way in to harass the falcon for I assume sitting in her territory. She stooped him over and over again until he finally had enough and took flight, but that didn't stop her onslaught. She kept attacking him for several more minutes until he finally decided to start climbing and leave her behind.

So now I think we are past the nonsense and we can get on to the task at hand but I was wrong. Tulsa climbed to around 400 feet and then saw the ducks at which time he decided he would set his wings and float on down to maybe 100 feet or so. Not acceptable, so I walked away from the pond several hundred yards and call him over to hopefully remind him that a pitch is required before the flush. On the way over, a herd of cows must have flushed some sparrows or something because he turned and stooped hard all the way to the ground. Waited him out for several minutes and he took off again. I thought that maybe now his nonsense was over, but I again was wrong.

Now he is following the cows, I assume hoping that they will flush some more stuff. When the falcon had followed the cows 100 yards north of me, the pigeon that I had in my bag, worked his head out (my fault for not checking my zipper) and made an unexpected escape attempt to the south. Instantly the hybrid was in pursuit and just as he pulled feathers the pigeon flew through the trees and the falcon was blocked.

At this point I have had enough and with the bird a long ways from the pond by me, I radio Scott and tell him to flush the ducks. This would give the falcon no chance of catching up to them and hopefully reinforce that you screw around and you don't have a shot. As soon as he caught a glimpse of the ducks flying he roared back to the pond in his last ditch futile effort to catch one.

Only it didn't work out that way. As the falcon reached the edge of the water, a lone duck that Scott didn't see in the lilies made a break for it. Tulsa changed direction and cut through the hen Ringneck from a dismal 300' pitch.

My Tulsa with hen Ringneck

I just can't be too proud of this one. To much craziness that resulted in a catch, and definitely has resulted in some pretty poor flights the past few days. It looks like I'll be back to kiting for a few weeks. Hopefully this is just early season shenanigans and it will get worked out before it becomes to much of a problem.

Morning's catch

-RVZ