Three Times the Fun!

The day after Festavis, all our grievances have been aired and it was time for fun.  Scott Dillon invited Daniel and I out to his family's ranch for a couple of flights on Christmas Eve.  I was a nice cold morning with temperatures in the low 20's coupled with a fairly stiff north breeze.  

The Mighty Falconer

Scott's 6 year old hybrid was first up.  We had a pond full of Gadwalls and a falcon ready to hunt.  No one was overly serious this morning except for the birds.  After Scott cast his bird off, coupled with some minor theatrics, we were treated to an excellent flight.  Bullseye mounted over the pond then proceeded to climb to well over 1000' feet while holding the same position in the sky.  Flap, flap, flap, flap, glide, flap, flap, flap, flap, glide and so on and so forth.  Making his way higher and higher in the strong breeze blowing up top.  Once Bullseye was just a dot we were treated to a nearly 90 degree vertical stoop. The chosen Gadwall didn't stand a chance as the tiercel cut it down in a flash, just 40 yards from the pond. 

Bullseye with his Gadwall

Next up was Osprey.  She was wound up from the second I took her out of the truck.  Immediately upon striking the hood she was off and flying .

She started out well, making a run out to the west and climbing in the crosswind.  I should have controlled myself a little better and stayed near the truck giving her more time to mindlessly eat up some sky before giving her the hint of where where we were heading.

The second we started the 70 yard trek to the pond she quickly made her way over the water and happened upon the single drake Ringneck nervously paddling around the tiny pond.  This was almost too much to bear for her.  She couldn't seem to decide whether to fly or drop down and attempt to grab it on the water.  

Ringnecks have been her nemesis for much of this year.  Osprey will commit fully to them when they are flying away from the water, only to have them turn back when she is coming full speed causing her to overfly them.  After a few minutes of indecisiveness she finally started to fly upwind of the pond and was pumping her wings again so I decided to flush.  

Instead of making a direct stoop this time, she effortlessly dropped in behind the fleeing duck and easily overtook the drake; plucking him right out of the air.  Seems like this time she realized what was going to happen and altered her plan of attack.  Unfortunately in all the excitement of getting three birds flown we forgot to get a picture of her on the duck.  The Hybrids were two for two and now the pressure was on for the Dan and his wonder Prairie to finish the triple...

After some recent injury related set backs lately, Daniel's Prairie Falcon is back in business and has been cleaning up on ducks.  But a triple doesn't happen all that often.  We found a group of several Gadwalls and a couple of Ringnecks on the south side of the ranch.  Daniel made his way through the crowd of cattle gawkers and lifted the Prairie in preparation for her flight.  She took off in a downwind direction, quickly turning upwind and gaining altitude.  

As she came over the pond at a decent pitch she showed us that a Prairie can hang with the Hybrids.  Not a second after the ducks took to the air she was hot on their tails.  The Prairie closed in on the ducks a little too quickly though, causing then to dump in the water up in the neck of the teardrop shaped pond.  

She quickly remounted and with Scott and myself in a prime position to flush downwind, things where looking promising for the reflush.  Only the ducks outsmarted us.  They flushed on there own into the wind when the falcon was slightly downwind and climbing.  She did make a solid attempt at them but the Ringnecks used the wind to their advantage and beat her to a pond a 1/4 mile away.

The Gadwalls were not quite as smart as the crafty Ringnecks, however, and they put in to a much smaller pond just 20 yards to the west of the initial pond.  We patiently waited for the Prairie Falcon to make her way back to us and as she was just upwind of the little pond, Scott got the Gadwalls up into the air.

This time it was game over and the Prairie Falcon laid on a hit like only a Prairie Falcon can.  The duck was dead on arrival and the triple was complete.  

Daniel with his slightly defiant Falcon.

We finished off the morning by bagging the Merlin on a starling, which also went off without a hitch.  So the Merlin stories should be on the near horizon as well.  Great morning with a great couple of guys.  Looks like we are gonna get blown out with high winds over Christmas and the following day or two.  I'm definitely chomping at the bit to keep things going though.  Osprey has caught two in her past two flights now and things in general seem to be coming together.

-RVZ

Best Pics of 2011-2012 in No Particular Order....

-RVZ & -D-

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

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'

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!

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-

Well its Official

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-

Quick Session

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-  

Lowe's Field

Went to one of my "oldie but goodie" fields on Wednesday.  I call it the "Lowes" field, and it has a lot of Johnson grass in it.  It doesn't REALLY start poppin until later on in the year (at least that's what I'm assuming...I hawked it for the first time last year on Thanksgiving day, so it's another one of my "new" fields that I don't have early season experience with....), and because of this, I hadn't flown it yet this year, and I was pretty psyched to see how the conditions were going to be.  Construction had been done near the east side of the field, so I had high hopes that it had concentrated the bunnies into a smaller area.  Parked at my normal spot, and the woods were still THICK!  That is where we get the majority of our slips, but I wasn't ready to dive into something like that yet, so we headed over to the east side, where it's more open, to check and see how the johnson grass was looking.  Still super high, but I kicked a rabbit within a minute or two of getting there, so I decided to keep at it.  CJ crashed for it HARD....something he has been reluctant to do recently, so I hopped him up for a tid bit reward, and we continued on.....he was sitting at 910 grams like normal, and I was liking his intensity.

Now, directly south of the johnson grass section, there is a peninsula of land, that runs between the parking lot, and the highway......which dead ends into more parking lots (invision a flag and flag pole....the "field" would be the flag, and then the "peninsula" jutting out, would be the flag pole).  This portion of the field is not tall.  Not sure why, but the grass is short, and it is full of little head height trees scattered everywhere.  For some reason, I have never kicked through this section....I guess I just wasn't confident enough last year to hawk in more "visible" (to the public) areas, or maybe it was just that I had a routine in this field that would consistantly give slips, and I never deviated....whatever it was....I hadn't ever kicked around in it.  BUT, part of that peninsula was where the construction was, and the cover was short, so I decided to give it a shot.  Running the length of the bottom of the "flag" is a string of T-poles that (lets say it was a wall), would seperate the field, from the peninsula.  These are pretty much the only perchs for the "peninsula" until you get to the very tip of it, so this is where Cleveland Jr. headed up to.  Long story short, but there were TONS of rabbits in there!!!!!  What's cool, is that so far this year (with the heavy cover), I usually only see the rabbit for about two seconds before it disappears, and then I'm waiting for the squeel.  Since this is so low....I could see the rabbits running for a LONG time, which made for some great flights.....especially since he had to come pumping from those poles everytime, which translated into a ton of 100+ yard flights.  We got probably eight or nine of these long slips, and this is when the red flags started popping up.  The first couple of flights back to the pole were fine.  Pumped up there no problem, and he was ready to go.  After that though, it seemed like he started struggling more and more everytime to get back up there, and he started checking off of rabbits the more tired he got.  Makes sense....I brought him pretty low to get him started, and I guess I just stripped more muscle off of him, than I had realized.  Suffice to say, by the time we finished hawkin, he was breathing hard, and had gotten a really good work out.  He has been eating a lot of rabbit lately (about 70 grams will put him at weight the next day), but since he caught that pig the other day, I had also brought some of that along.  I decided that after that work out, he needed to get some richness in him, so I fed him about 85 grams of pigeon, and we called it a day.

Yesterday found him sitting at 920 grams (which means he got a REALLY good work out, for him to burn that much pigeon between sessions), and he seemed ready to go!  I don't like hitting the same field back to back....esp now that i have so many, but we kicked up SOOOO many rabbits on Wed, I just couldn't resist.  Knew the woods were thick this time, so i parked over by the johnson grass portion of the field, and we started in where we got the first slip the day before.  He looked like a completely different bird.....pumping hard and fast  to every perch he was heading to, and the slightest movement had him teed up, and doing balks, like he was about to go for anything.  Went in search for our little friend, and we found him pretty quickly.  He bailed under a clump of trees, and CJ took a perch up on top of them.  I went inside, but just couldn't seem to get a reflush, so I abandoned that bunny, and started heading toward the peninsula.  I got about 10 yard from the tree or so, and I guess the rabbit bailed.  CJ took off in the other direction, and crashed to the ground HARD!  I didn't hear a squeel, so I started back in that direcion, but couldn't find him anywhere.  Looked around for about five minutes, and then headed toward the car for the receiver.  I'm thinking he was on the ground eating a rat or something, and was in a hurry so that MAYBE I could find him, before he ate the whole thing.  I'm making a lot of noise as I'm heading toward the car, and I guess I just didn't hear his bells as he flew back off the ground.  Got to the car, and glanced up at the T-pole.  There he was, just chillen up top, staring into the peninsula.  Good times, so I locked back up the car, and headed into the peninsula.  The pole he was chillen on was right on the edge of the field, so as soon as I started kicking around, I was pretty much directly under him.  I probably hit brush for about 3 or 4 minutes, when directly next to me I hear a thud that had to have cracked the surface of the earth.  Didn't hear bells or anything.....just a crash about a foot behind me.  I LITERALLY, out loud, said "oh $hit" and jumped in the air....it startled me that much.  I turn around to see the bird mantling on the ground, and I see a rabbit leg sticking out from under him.....no squeel or anything.  So I walk to the front side of the bird to help him with his bunny, but I was not needed in the least bit.  The rabbit was completely dead....blood coming out of it's nose and eyes, and it's mouth was COMPLETELY stuffed full of dirt.  He had hit the head with both feet, and just drilled it into the ground.  Dead on impact!!!!!  Now THAT is what I'm talkin about!  Finally...we are getting some aggression out of this little guy.  Trade off was perfect like always, but then the nonsense began. 

His first rabbit, was caught at 930 grams, and he didn't want to have anything to do with finishing up his meal on the fist.  What I do, is I let him get a little off the rabbit, trade him to his lure, and then hop him to the fist for the remainder of his meal.  That first bunny, he acted like a turd, and all he wanted to do was grab the leg, try and fly, and then hang upside down.  Since his weight was adjusted, we have had pretty good manners on the fist....not the best (which is my fault completely...his first rabbit was caught in the middle of some over head height briars, and I had to carry them out into the open....took me a while to get out of that tangled mess, and as a result I made a REALLY bad first impression with this bird...it is what it is, and I have learned a valuable lesson because of it......).  Anyways, manners have been pretty decent all things considered since then, but not today.  920 grams had him doing that same nonsense again, which was pretty darn irritating.  My new target is going to be 915 grams....hopefully, we will get the good flying like we had yesterday, but get those fist manners back.....we shall see.  Either way though, I won't know for a little bit.  Can't fly today (Friday), so I fed him up really good, and we won't be hawkin again till Saturday morning.  I will have him at 915/920 grams for our session, but with the duration of time between feeds, I could probably have him up to 960, and he would still have good manners....will have to have him at that weight for two or three days, before we will know anything for sure.  Sooooo, still dialing in his weight apparently.  I should be past this point by now, but I'm not.....would have been if temperatures never changed, but of course they do, and I'm having to re-figure stuff out.  Over all though, I liked yesterday's session.  He had a new intensity, he finally came off the bench and performed well from the start, and he was hitting HARD.  Hopefully, we can keep it up.  Saturday gives more time for hawking, so the day will be kicked off with duck slips!!!!!  Fingers crossed everybody!

-D-