Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Log Day 20 (2nd free flight)

Had a great session yesterday. Got home after work, and she weighed in at 1048 grams. This was 12 grams heavier than when I flew her free the first time, but her response has been getting better at higher weights, so I was confident that she would fly well. Headed over to Jonathan's house, and we headed out to one of his rabbit fields (which is AWSOME! I wish I could find some rabbit fields THAT good). Beeped her up, and did a quick creance flight just to be sure, and then we headed into the field. She was way more focused than the first free flight session, and I had great response out of the trees. She flew to me further than she ever has, and even "followed" a couple times, without me having to motivate her. It was starting to rain while we where flying, which made the rabbits hold pretty tight in their holes, so we only ended up seeing one. The bird was on my fist when this happened, focusing on what I was doing, and didn't even see the rabbit moving....which was a bummer. She flew stronger than she has so far, and I introduced the new rabbit lure to her, and she did alright. It took a little bit of prompting (but less prompting that the first session, when we dragged the dead rabbit), but then she came in from the top of a tree....hovered over it for a minute, and then came down and grabbed it. We bounced her around a little bit on the lure, and then transfered her off to her "other" lure. Transfer was great just like the first time, and I hopped her up to the fist after she was finished. I fed her 50 grams total, and when i put her on the scale when I got home, she weighed in at 1097 grams. It didn't end up getting as cold last night as they had predicted, so this morning at 8:00 AM (DAY 21)(10-6) she was at 1073 grams. Yesterday at 7:00 AM, she was at 1070 grams, so we are about an hour behind yesterday. Heading out to Bartlesville after work to fly with Kent, and by the time it's my turn to fly, her weight will proabably be right around the same spot as yesterday. Her response is great, she is flying strong, and she seems focused, but I may only be messing with her flying weight now....will see what Ryan says tonight, but I may have to bring her down another ten grams or so, to get her at her "hunting weight", just b/c she was mainly focused on me the whole session, and wasn't "actively" looking for game. Today's session will tell a lot.

1 comment:

  1. Your bird is coming along SO FAST!

    Keep up the good work... let us know how you field work goes tonight :P

    -Josh

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