Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Log Day 35 (6th Rabbit)


All photos from this log entry where shot by my beautiful wife! That's right...she came hawkin with me!!!! Now before anyone starts hollerin and what not....I didn't have my prego wife out running through the briars and beating brush....she just came along so she could see what I have been doing with all my free time, though I'm sure she would have flushed hundreds of bunnies had she tried ;-)! Anyways, headed out to Bartlesville after work, b/c the wife had been observing/helping out with KT's class, and was already out there and what not. Decided that a quick session was in order, and then a little grillen out wit Ryan and the girls afterwards. I was planning on meeting up with Kent and his Harris hawks, but we just ran out of time. Sooooo, we decided to go fly a new field yesterday, and it was not too shabby. Got Dee Dee beeped up, and she weighed in at 1036 grams, which meant we where in store for some great flights. Walked into the field, and Ryan kicked up a rabbit within a few seconds of being in the field. Dee came out of the tree really fast and crashed into the ground pretty darn hard, but for some reason, missed her mark. She flew back up into a tree, and we started kicking around somemore. I was pretty focused on the ground directly under my brush beating stick, so only just looked up as she left her perch, pumping really hard in the direction of some cedars that where to the south of us about 30 or 40 yards. She dissappeared from sight, and I hear what I believe to be the shortest squeel yet. I take off in her direction, and Ryan says he didn't hear a thing. I start looking around everywhere, but can't hear her bell or anything. I'm starting to think I'm going to have to go to the car and grab the receiver, when Ryan walks up to the area I'm looking in, and promptly finds her under a cedar, holding onto a struggling rabbit. Since he was already there and what not, he quickly dispatched the rabbit, and moved her out to a more open area. We had a less than stellar trade off, and so we decided to go with the "hold onto the rabbit, throw the tid bits to the side" thing, and it worked in the end. Since we had only been in the field for about five minutes, and I was hoping to get a nice warm bunny for Kent's your Harris to feast on, we decided to try for a double. She sulked for a minute or two up in a tree, so we gave her a little time and some space, and then she got her head back into the game. We ended up kicking up another couple rabbits, and she chased them pretty hard. Unfortunately, we didn't snag a second, which would have been GREAT as far as showing her the name of the "new" game we where trying to play. She did a little bit of soaring above us (not nearly as high as she did at the OFA meet, but still soared), and was focused on our actions, and actively looking for the bunnies to jump out the sides. Again, didn't manage to get a slip under her to enforce that behavior, but I have a feeling it's just a matter of time. A few brews, some dank food, and some good times where had, and then we headed on home and called it a night. Ryan suggested that I don't try for another double for a minute, just until we get this trade off thing fixed. As always, that's good advice, and I will be doing just that.

1 comment:

  1. Dan,

    Looks like your season is kicking in to gear... i am so jelious!!! I literally read your blog every morning and dream about my getting my first bird.

    Its kinda tough to hook up with falconers in my area because they all tend to be older and sorta keep to themselves in the field. WHICH IS PERFECTLY UNDERSTANDABLE. A good portion of falconry is incredibly seclusive and private... but oh well.

    I am still trying to figure out a way to get you some of my falconry videos. I know you would love them... ask around at work and see if someone can show you how to use torrents

    Congrats on your morning hunt.
    -Josh

    ReplyDelete