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

-RVZ & -D-

The Making of a Big Year

Just a quick mention of our friend, Jonathan.  He is having one heck of a year with his passage male Red-tailed hawk.  I was with him when he trapped this hawk on a very foggy morning in the middle of October.  Not surprisingly, this bird has become another falconry gem in Jonathan's hands.

Jonathan came up to help flush for these goofy Harris' Hawks for a good hour before he got a chance to fly his bird without a complaint, in fact he pushed for me to keep flying 20 minutes longer than I wanted to.  When it was time for his bird to fly, he didn't disappoint.  The second the hood came off, this bird was in the trees and in full-on hunt mode.  Took us a bit to get across the field to an area that we hadn't worked over earlier.  Once there though the action was fast and over quick.  

The bunny in the picture is a milestone rabbit.  I'm not gonna say exactly how many Jonathan and this bird have caught this season.  But you can take what most would consider a good season and double it, then add a few and that is almost where he is at.  Amazing!  The condition of those chaps says it all....

-RVZ

Fun With...*gulp...Harris' Hawks

Now I've gone and done it.  With the loss of one falcon and the minor illness of the other, I had lost all my drive for flying falcons the rest of this season.  But it has been many years since I have not had at least a bird to fly in the winter. So I approached another falconry friend of mine who has two male Harris' Hawks that he has not been flying this season due to a very busy work schedule.  Both birds have caught a few bunnies each as individuals but had not had much success hunting together, as the older bird was injured shortly after acquiring the second a season ago.  Both are healthy now and as much as I swore I had no interest in flying a cast of these social hawks.... I'm doing it now.

I've had them for only a couple of weeks at this point.  I got them down to weight and flying to me on creance as fast as I could and this morning hit the 'ol bunny field that I've neglected for the past 6 or 7 years.   Both birds flew well despite the light rain that was falling.  The bunnies didn't disappoint either as we had 5 slips in just less than 30 minutes.

The birds, although they didn't exactly work together, hunted very well for their first showing.  They even pulled fur from the first bunny that flushed.  They were quickly worn out from the multiple chases and coupled with the rain watering them down we had to keep the session short.  I ended up calling them to a rabbit drag from which they traded off nicely and we called it a day.  Short, sweet and to the point.

A week or two to get them in good shape and the bunnies better beware,  rabbit hawking has returned to Bartlesville.......

-RVZ

Gone

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  

A Great Day In a Wet Way

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

And Boom Goes the Dynamite

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

Soaring To New Heights

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