Day 65 Sorta a triple

GOOD day today! Got released from the hospital around noon, and I must say, it is GREAT to be home! Parker and Lindz are doing excellent, the temps where nice, and Delicious was at perfect hunting weight! Weighed her in at 1037 grams around 2 PM, and we headed out to the dumpsite for a quick session around 3 or so. Got her beeped up, and she took a nice perch in a pretty large tree above me. I started kicking around in the bushs, and she hops again to the tree above me. We had been in the field for about five minutes, when I hear the brush rustleing far out to my right. She takes off, and leaves the section of trees we are in, cross over an old abandoned two track, and dissappears into the bushs on the other side. I hear the squeel, and take off running in the direction I saw her last. I had no idea where she was, so I start walking around, listening for her bell. Can't find her for a few minutes, and then I kick up a rabbit, that runs off JUST a little bit in the other direction, and then stops. I go back the other way, b/c I didn't think there was any way she could have gone any further, and after another three or four minutes, I decide its time to get the receiver. I get on the old two track, and start running back toward the car, when I hear a little jingle off in the brush. Took another minute, but I found her eventually mantleing on a nice sized rabbbit. I pull her out of the dense stuff, dispatch the rabbit, and we have a really nice trade off to part of a rabbit leg on the lure. Hop her to the fist for a tid bit, and decided that just wasn't long enough. Put her back up in the tree, and I decide to go see if I can find that other rabbit. I head in that direction, and she stays put in the tree she initially went to. I started kicking around, and then she popped up to the tree right above me, and started looking HARD at the brush in front of me. I start banging on it, and then I see it pop off right at my feet. She drops like a rock, and crashs the brush and I hear a load thud. I listen intently, but hear nothing, so I'm thinking she had missed it. I'm still standing in the same spot, waiting for her to pop back up, but nothing happens. No jingle...nothing. I'm thinking hmm.....so I start tromping through the bushs, and find her all tangled up in some vines, with ANOTHER nice sized rabbit in her feet. I dispatch that one quickly, have ANOTHER great trade off, and then I hop her to the fist for another few tid bits. It had just now been 30 minutes, so I'm like "what the heck....lets keep going". Toss her up to a tree, and we take off toward the back part of the field (which was where we were heading in the first place...just hadn't made it there yet)...kicked around for about 15 minutes or so, without a single slip, and I decided we should head to a spot that I knew we could kick something up. SO we leave the field, and head through the woods, toward the front section. She is following along nicely, when she suddenly takes off, pumping pretty darn hard through the trees. I have seen this flight now a couple times, and I'm thinking she sees a squirrel. I start looking ahead of her, and what do I see....I stinking HUGE wood rat running along some branchs. It sees her coming, and jumps from the branch its on to a smaller one below it, and is about to run to the next tree when she slams it off the branch, and prachutes down to the ground. SINCE she didn't catch it in typical "ratting" style, and instead caught it out of a tree, I decided it was alright, and had YET ANOTHER great trade to the lure, and then I hopped her to the fist for a rabbit leg. Called it a day, and we headed back to the car in high spirts....well, I was at least!!! Now, I know a wood rat doesn't really count as game, so it's ACTUALLY a double.....but I'm still going to call it a triple b/c it's my blog, and I DO WHAT I WANT!!!!! Hopefully, I can get the camera back tonight, and I can start taking pictures again.

Day 64 Second Squirrel!

Didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night, but the little I got did wonders! Did daddy stuff for the beginning of the morning, and then Lindz was kind enough to let me head to the house to shower, eat some food, and grab the dog/bird. Stuck her on the scale around 12:15 PM, and she weighed in at 1015 grams. I was pretty surprised she had dropped that much considering she had eatin squirrel, but it had gotten pretty darn cold, so it made sense. Went into the field behind the hospital, and headed to the spot that I thought looked most condusive to hawkin. My good buddy Jeff had joined me for the afternoons hunt, and we both started hitting on the briar patch, hopping to kick up peter, or one of his buddies. About 20 min went by, when Jeff started yelling ho, and SOMETHING took off through the brush. She hopped to a closer tree, but didn't really move that much closer. Jeff said that it didn't go too far, so we headed back in the direction we had heard it last, and started beating around. I hit one side of a dense bushy section, and missed what happenend next, but Jeff had an EXCELLENT view, and so this is his account. He was beating around a tree, and heard the Jingle of the bells behind him...about that time, he sees the squirrel shoot up the tree right next to him, and she starts twisting through the tree tops, on her way HOT. If i understood him correctly, she came in and twisted sideways, and slammed the squirrel off the side of the tree. She flared her wings immediately, and got stuck in the tree, and then she started dancing around. She had a bad grasp on the head, and then a foot on the back.....The squirrel breaks his head free at some point, and starts trying to bite at her. He pulls his head back a little bit too much one time, and she slams his face with her foot, and she has him under control. I get there about this time, to see my bird flared out up in a tree about 15 or 20 feet off the ground....squirrel twisting around in the air, with it's head in her feet. I throw everything down, and start heading up the tree, hoping that it doesn't fall over (did I mention it was a dead tree? If not....it was VERY dead) on the way up. There where a ton of vines all over the trunk, so it took me a minute to get up to them, but once there, I put the squeeze to the squirrel, and it was all over. I untangled her from the branchs, and threw her (and the squirrel) down to the ground, where we had a PERFECT trade off to the lure. She got three bites on one of her feet...two where on each side of the tallon on the back toe, and the other was on the bottom of the foot. None of them where bad at all, but I went ahead and put stuff on them anyways (b/c it's better to be safe, then sorry!). Headed back to the hospital, and chilled with Parker and Lindz for a minute, and then we headed back to the house, and she weighed in at 1107 grams. Getting cold again tonight, so that should put her pretty much spot on. No pictures again, b/c the camera was with Lindz

Parker Joel!!!!!!!!! (DAY 63)

I'm about to fall asleep, my head is hurting, and I would normally be in a pretty pissy mood....not today though! Introducing, my newest climbing partner, and the latest addition to my hawkin team! He weighed 6 pounds, and 10 ounces when he got her around 11:30 this morning (we got to the hospital at 3 AM!). Still just soaking it all in, but it was an incredible experience. He is perfect!

Day 62 1st squirrel!!!

Ducked out around 11, and headed to "the dumpster." Got her beeped up, she took a nice perch high in a tree, and I began beating around the brush. This is a relatively new field, and I was heading toward the back section that we hadn't flown yet, with hopes of kicking up a bunny or two. The wetness was keeping them in tight though, and we only kicked up one rabbit in the first 15 or 20 minutes. She chased it hard, but it made it into a patch of thick vines, which she managed to get VERY tangled up in. Kicked around for another 15 or 20 minutes with no luck, before I arrived at a really large briar patch which looked like it may hold a bunny or two. Dee Dee had been ignoring me for a minute or two, and looking pretty intently in the direction of a couple trees, but since I had just finished kicking around all the brush in that area, I decided it was time for her to move on. I call her over to me at the briar patch, and after a reluctant moment or two, she took off in my direction. About half way to me, she veers off toward the trees, and starts pumping really hard. It looked like a rabbit flight to me, but when she crashed the brush at the base of the tree, she was a few feet off the ground. I walk over to her, and am about to hop her to the fist, when I see the squirrel twist toward the top of the tree. This was a pretty small tree in the middle of a field, with the only one nearby being a pretty large cedar. She hops to the ground, and starts walking toward an open spot, so I'm thinkin she is about to fly up to the cedar, and I'm gonna move this squirrel. I start hitting the tree, and she flies up to the top of the tree, and I guess this was just a little too much for the squirrel....it bailed out of the middle, and hit the ground running within beating stick length of me. I try to score one for me, but just barely miss with my beating stick, and then the squirrel does a crazy side step, and dodges the feet of Dee, as she slams into the ground next to it. Dee then decides the best course of action is to try and chase it down on foot, so she takes off at break neak speed (smile), and wadles after the squirrel. SOMEHOW, the squirrel out ran her, and made it safely into the branchs of the cedar tree, so I hop her to the fist for a tib bit, and then get her to fly up to the top of the cedar. I push the lowar branchs of the cedar to the sides, and I crawl inside the tree, to find a HUGE wood rat nest surounding the trunk, on the first level of branchs. I start poking around in that for a while, knowing it's the only possible place it could have gone, but didn't manage to move it. Dee Dee is peering really hard down the tree, so I go to the other side of the trunk, and start poking that section. Dee then hops into the cedar along the top row of branchs, and starts looking around really hard. About that time, i see the squirrel coming back toward the nest, and I start beating around above it. This turns the squirrel, and he starts hauling up the tree. She watchs it till it gets pretty much underneith her, before she drops off the branch, twists once, and snatchs it off the trunk!!!!! She fans out, and stops right there in the top of the tree. She is held up by her wings, and immediately starts switching her feet back and forth on it's head, with the body dangling in thin air. I drop my beating stick as soon as I see her drop, and am already part way up the tree before she snatchs it. I shoot the rest of the way up to them, and grab the squirrel's body, and quickly put "the squeeze" to it. Once I'm satisfied that the squirrel was gone, I break the branchs that she is hung up on, and down climbing the tree, bird in tow. I finally make it to the ground, and set them out in an open spot to calm down. She takes an exceptionally long time (which can be expected), but eventually starts trying to pluck the head. Produce the lure, and we have a nice trade off to part of a bunny leg, and then i hop her to the fist for both front legs, and the organs. I'm pretty darn psyched! The overall session was good. For one, she eventually got the squirrel secured firmly in her grasp, with a back tallon going straight through the jaw into the head, thus sealing its mouth and preventing a bite. Also, because of the situation she caught this squirrel in, she directly associated me with keeping the squirrel moving, the hunt in general, and the eventual kill. That is hard to accomplish with squirrel hawking from what i've been told, and I'm pleased that I had I was able to do that with the first one. Swung by home to change cloths, and I get Lindz to snap off some victory photos. Good session!

Day 61

I woke up really early to an overcast morning. Temps where great, the wind wasn't blowing that hard, and a big storm was making it's way into town. I stuck Dee in the back yard for most of the morning, hoping I could burn a little more weight off of her, before I went and flew. Grabbed a cup of coffee from down the street, and when I finally stuck her on the scale, she weighed in at 1044 grams. It had rained during the night, which normally makes the rabbits hold tight, so I wasn't expecting much out of the session. Just fly her around for a bit, and then call her down. It was drizzling by this point, and I knew it was going to start coming down really soon, so I rushed out to the feild, to get a quick 15 or 20 min flight session out of her. Apparently, rabbits know more about weather paterns than I do, b/c they knew a storm was coming through. They where EVERYWHERE! I kicked up the first rabbit before I made a single step into the field, and managed 5 or 6 slips before it started pouring down rain (which was about 15 or 20 minutes into the field). I can fly her higher if I'm producing a lot of slips, but if I'm not kicking many up, then she has to be keyed in better.....IF I had known the rabbits where going to be out in force like they where, i would have come way earlier and not worried about her weight as much, and we probably would have scored a rabbit. Since I waited so long, I just didn't give her enough time. Bummer. Called her down to the lure, and she got a squirrel leg, and some rabbit tid bits. This morning, she weighed in at 1033 grams, and is going to be geekin for a kill. Now, I know that the rabbits come out BEFORE storms hit, but they usually don't inbetween (from past experience). That being said, it's not going to start raining again till this afternoon, so I'm going to get in a session at lunch anyways, and I have high hopes. Maybe I shouldn't.....they probably won't be out in force, but I'm going for it anyways, and we shall see what happens.

Day 59/60...1st double, and I got footed!!!!

Headed out to the new spot, which I have lovingly dubbed "the urban dumpsite"....."dumpsite" for short, and I took along my good buddy to help flush. He is in town from Ohio, and was pretty psyched to get to join us on our session. Weighed her around 12:30 PM, and she was at 1036 grams, so after making a few stops, made it to the field around 3 PM or so. We started kicking around the bushs, and after a short scare where Christian thought he was going to get killed by a crazy hawk, we managed to kick up a rabbit, which took off across the two track and into some dense bushs near a fence. We decided to walk all the way down to the beginning of the fence line, and then I would walk through the middle, and he would go along the fence beating the brush. We got a couple nice slips, one of which included a pretty tight wing over, but had yet to connect to anything. We where getting antsy for a kill, and I guess Dee Dee was feeling this way as well, b/c the next rabbit we flushed, she came in HOT and slammed the ground...we heard the noise we where waiting on, and I went running in there pretty psyched. If you have not been keeping up with Dee Dee and our progress, then I must point out that when she catchs stuff, I generally get too excited, and temportarly loose track of pretty much everything going on. I have lost beating sticks, lures, jesses, etc, etc....it's pretty bad. Well, yesterday, it caught up to me. She was all twiseted up beneath a fallen tree, and I needed to break a bunch of branchs, and then pull her out to more open ground. I break the problem branchs off, and it's now time to grab the rabbit. Well, my retarded self decided it was a good day to reach in there with my bare hand, and she shot a foot out and got me good. Had a pretty bad trade off after that, but that was due to me rushing her, and not letting her calm down after the little "altercation." My fault, so we won't hold it against her. We had only been in the field about twenty minutes or so, and hadn't even gone to the "honey spot" yet, so we decided to go for two. Put her back up in the tree, and gave her a moment to collect herself. We then continue along the fence line for about 30 yards or so, and then she flies up into a tree above us, and looks down pretty intently. I beat around in the brush for a little bit, but don't see anything. Since I left my hawkin bag where we made the first kill (she had spilled the guts, and I was using the bag to cover them up.....), I decided this was a good time to go get it (since we had been hunting again for ten minutes or so). I looped back to grab the bag, and then I made my way back toward Christian and the bird (moving along the fence line). As I made my way toward the tree that Dee Dee was sittin in, I heard a rustle in one of the dense sections of bushs, that ran along the fence. She hopped to the branch directly above me, and I started hitting on the fence. I heard a little bit of movement, so I reached over and hit the other side of it. This must have been too much for the rabbit, b/c he bolted from there in the direction of a head high mass of vines. She dropped off the tree and hauld toward the rabbit, and I lost sight of them as they went around the bush. I then hear the squeel!!!! I flip myself over the fence (which I get hung up on, and end up face planting on the other side), and then stumble around the bush sorta "dazed" like. I find her about a foot and a half in the mess, COMPLETELY tangled in vines, holding the rabbits head firmly in both of her feet. I have to pull the game sheers out, and clip about 20 or so vines, before I could pull them out! I fed her the head on the ground, and then hopped her to the fist for a front leg. When I got home, she weighed in at 1175 grams, and won't be doing anything for the next couple of days. Unfortunately, since I manage to loose everything, and the wife doesn't trust me, the camera is on stand-by in her purse, so I wasn't able to get any pictures. Lame! We didn't even make it to any of the section we had kicked up rabbits last time, so it's looking like this field might be pretty good! Time will tell. DAY 60, she weighed 1123 at 9:00 AM, and 1085 grams at 6:00 PM.

Day 58

I get the phone call from Lindz while at work, and she says it's time to go to the hospital....I run home, and Dee Dee weighs in at 1046 grams and is ready to go kill something. I tell her sorry, and give her 45 grams of squirrel meat, and head off to the hopital. After a long afternoon of sitting around waiting and not much going on, they decide he isn't coming today, and send us home....bummer. On a positive note, while I was there, I noticed a nice wooded section at the end of the parking lot, so I headed back there to tromp around, and to see if I could find any rabbit spots. Luck was shining on me, and I managed to find a couple areas back there, that should be pretty darn condusive to rabbits. I didn't have any shoes with me, so I wasn't able to kick around and try and find them, but I'm thinking I will be able to get some moving when I fly it later on.