Log Day 25/26 2nd rabbit!

I left my log book at home today, so I don't have any specific weights for the weekend, but it was a good one!!!!! Headed out to Bartlesville on Friday, and met up with Ryan and Mario, and ran the dogs for a minute. Maggie has been pretty crazy latley due to the fact that I have been really busy, and havn't had much time to run her. Now that I'm getting this bird going, it will free up sometime to work with her agian, and hopefully, I can get her back to where she needs to be as far as conditioning, and response to commands goes. Grabbed a little more coffee at Taco Bueno while those guys grubbed down a little bit, and then it was off to the rabbit fields! Kent and Jonathan had gotten to the fields earlier on, and we caught the tail end on Jonathan's first hunt with his bird. She seemed to be responding well to him, and she put in some good chases on a few rabbits. Next, it was time to fly Kent's Harris hawks in a cast for the first time. This was a HUGE learning experience for me, and I was glad that I got to be there for it. Because of a little too much crabbing at the beginning, we ended up not getting to fly them together that day, but the ball has begun to role, and I'm looking forward to some great hawking with them in the future. Ended up taking his "old" harris hawk (you really need to name them Kent, just for my sake....it will make talkin about them WAY easier:)!!!!) out, and we got a few good flushs in, but he didn't end up connecting. Took a break for the afternoon, and went and did some road trapping with Ryan. Saw an INCREDIBLE dark morph RT (it wasn't a Harlins, b/c it had the red-tail, but it was freakin black!!!) that was amazing, and another really neat light morph bird....it had the white head like a Krider's, but the wing tips where black....I'm thinkin Ryan said it was "western" bird. After trapping, and a quick trip up to the center to feed some birds, it was time for Dee Dee to do a little flying. We went to a new rabbit field, that no one has flown yet, and I'm pretty psyched about the potential that it holds. It's a really large field, and though we probably should have scouted it better before we flew it (just so that we would know where the "honey" holes are and what not), we ended up kicking out a few rabbits. One of which was right as we entered the field, and the bird was still on my fist. She took off after it, but the rabbit made it to a hole pretty darn quickly. Had she been on a high perch, I think she may have connected. Anyways, we walked through the field beating on brush, and discovered a nice "red-tail duck pond" if you will, and we flushed two wood ducks off of it. The pond is surrounded by really tall trees, and has a high bank on the north side of it. I'm going to have to go over stratagy with Ryan, but if I can get the bird to take a perch in one of those trees, and then sneak in from behind the high bank, I think I will be able to set my bird up for some GREAT duck flights. I love flying feather, so this would be REALLY cool for me! Anyways, after checking out the pond, we started heading toward a different end of the field, and I kicked up a covey of 15 or 20 quail. It scared the crap out of me, and I jumped pretty high at the explosion of wings at my feet (Gonna need to take the dogs and Gary's sharpie back to this field!). Anyways, kicked up one more rabbit during this session, but over all, it wasn't that intense. The bird, however followed VERY well, and I think she has figured out that whole aspect of "the following game." As of right now, she follows really well, and will usually take a perch either above us, or a tree just a little ways behind us. It's only going to take a few more slips where the rabbits makes it to cover, before she realizes she either has to take a perch abover us, or in a tree INFRONT of us. I don't think it's going to take long for that to click though. On Sunday (Day 26), my buddy Tommy and I decided it was a good day to go climbing at Sand Creek (the BEST sandstone bouldering we have around here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), so he joined me on my journey out to Bartlesville. We met up with Ryan around 7:30, and watched him fly his hybrid. Tommy got to see a pretty nice stoop on a pigeon, but he missed, and tail chased it down under a tractor. Got the the kite and everything roled back up, and then Tommy and I headed to the rabbit field, while Ryan swung by the center to grab something. I got Dee Dee beeped up, and then we headed to the rose bush by the parking lot, to get the session started, while we waited for Ryan. This is the same bush that she caught her first rabbit over, and i was hesitant to fly it, just b/c we ALWAYS hit this bush, and I don't want to move the rabbits out from this spot....BUT we didn't want to get too far away, so that Ryan could easily meet up with us, so we hit it anyways. Well, we weren't at the bush for more than 30 seconds, before Tommy kicked up a rabbit. She came out of her cedar tree (the same one she caught the first rabbit off of), and she crashed hard into the briars, but didn't make it through. Hopped her up to the fist, and then she flew back up to her cedar. Hit the bush somemore, and we got another rabbit (or maybe it was the same one) moving through the bushes, and she again tried to crash through them with no success. She flew off the ground back up to her cedar, and I can DEF tell that she is starting to build her muscles back from observing that "jump up". I'm not sure if all the holes where full of water or what, but we kept flushing more rabbits from this bush. Had another couple/three flights on some bunnies, and then Ryan showed up at the field. Because of the way the wind was blowing, and since she hadn't been having much luck connecting, she decided her perch wasn't condusive for catching rabbits on this day, so she switched to a dif cedar that was more west of the briars. I guess this was a good call, b/c as Ryan walked under her, he kicked up another rabbit, that started hauling balls toward the briar patch. She came off that cedar hot, and she slams into the brush about three feet infront of the briars. I hear a squeel, and just like the first time, do my jump for joy, and throw my flushing stick into the air (which I really need to STOP doing!!! We lost my flushing stick for two days last time.....one would think that I would have learned my lesson about throwing it....but I'm a slow learner apparently:)!!). Dispatched the rabbit, and then traded her off to the lure. The trade off was a little rough compared to the others, just b/c the part of the rabbit leg I had on there had a lot of meat, and she kept pullin tid bits off, instead of committing to the trade. Lesson learned though, and She eventually traded off fine. Hopped her to the fist after the lure for a nice warm rabbit head, and she spent a good minute munching on that. Unfortunately, my camera battery was dead, but Ryan was kind enough to snap off some pictures with his camera phone, and those are the pictures seen here. Over all, we where probably only in the field about 20 min hawking, and I was pleased that we gave her so many slips, and that she ended up connecting. When I weighed her last night, she was in the low 1100's, and I'm thinking she is going to have a pretty large casting. Hopefully, she will be at weight for a session tonight (though it didn't get very cold, so she may still be WAY too heavy) at "the great expanse" with Jonathan. Our goal for the night....Get Jonathan's new bird it's first bunny!!!!! Second goal......bunny number 3 for Dee Dee. Fingers crossed that it stops raining, and the weather clears up.