Monday, October 19, 2009

OFA 2009 meet weekend! Rabbits Number 4 and 5


This was my first field meet to go to, and I had a GREAT time! Got to see a ton of friends, and made some new ones as well, and had the opportunity to scope out some of the fields we have access to fly on for the NAFA meet. Took Friday off (DAY 31), met at Kent's house, and where on our way by about 6:30AM. The drive was only about 4 hours or so, and we had the campsite set up, and where at the wildlife expo by around 12:30 or 1:00. Chilled there most of the afternoon, as more and more people started to show up, and just relaxed and chatted with people and friends. We finally broke away around five thirty or so, and headed out to a possible rabbit field near where Greg used to work. Since we where short on time, Heather and I decided to bring both birds into the field, and just hold one hooded, while the other flew...then switch. Well...the best laid plans and all that stuff, but it just didn't work out. We flew Heathers bird first (1X intermewed PMRT), and only managed to kick up one rabbit. He wasn't responding the way she would have liked, so she cut her session short, and it was my turn to fly. Dee Dee was at 1037 grams, and followed along alright (not the best though). After a few moves through the trees, and no rabbits kicked up, she takes off pumping hard at "something"....I start running that direction, and then I hear "THE girls" (Heather and Raegan) making some noise. Apparently, Dee Dee saw Heather's bird hooded on her fist, and thought he looked tasty. Apparently, she slammed him right off of her fist, and when I got there, had his head firmly in one foot, with her other tightly around his leg. It took a moment to break them up (and it would have taken longer, had Chris not stepped in and showed me the "proper" way to get things done). They decided to take the bird back to the car, so Kent, Ryan C, and I went to see if we could kick something up. No rabbits where to be found, so I decided to end the session on the lure. Now, it's a little known fact, but I can run with the speed and grace of a young gazzel, so I took off through the field dragging the lure at an ungodly speed. Dee Dee was coming in fast, and I glanced back to see where she was.....well, about that time, this stupid mound of sand reached up and grabbed my foot (that's right...it grabbed my foot...can you believe the nerve of that sand mound?!?!?!?), and I went head over heels roling on the ground. Too bad no one caught it on camera, cause it would have gone in the bloopers highlight reel for sure! Got back to the cars, had a good laugh at my expense, and then we headed back to the hotel for a little chillen. The ho bo juice was flowing like water, stories where shared, and good times where had by all. We where pretty tired by the time we made it back to the campsite, and I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. Woke up the next moring (DAY 32) with a killer head ache....it was sorta a bummer. Kent and I went to the hotel, and we hopped in the car with Chris, Ryan C, and Puff Daddy (1st year male imprint kestrel), and we went looking for starlings. Puffy was pretty excited, but we only managed to find a couple slips (apparently, starlings out there enjoy sleeping in or what not), and he wasn't able to connect. Made it back to the hotel, and we met up with "THE girls", and we headed out to a lake around Ft. Supply. Kent had the honors this morning, so he beeped up his "old" harris, and we started kicking around for some bunnies. Made a pretty big loop throught he cover, but didn't manage to kick up ANY rabbits (at least, not that any of us saw...the cover is still pretty thick being that we havn't had a freeze yet). After a bit of brush beating, we head back to the cars, and are met by Glen and his sons, Rob R, Mitch, and his new apprentice Jake (good guy BTW...he is wanting to trap a kestrel!). Rob has a good buddy who lives out there and knows where a lot of potential fields are, so he gave us the heads up on some to check out. We split into a a couple groups..."THE girls", Glen and his crew, Kent, Chris, and Ryan C head off to "cooper" something or other to fly Kents young harris, while I jump in the car with Mitch and Jake, and we follow Rob and his buddy to go check some other fields out. Being that these guys fly Gos Hawks, some car slips HAD to be taken advantage of on the way, and I got to see a pretty sick flight....the gos bailed out FAST (this is the first time I've seen a gos fly, and it blew my mind)and threaded through the strands of a barb wire fence, almost connecting on the other side. Drove around and checked out some other fields, and then we went and hooked up with the other crew. Walked around with Mitch's gos for a minute, but didn't kick anything up, so we headed back to a section where they had kicked up some "meadow birds" while flying Kent's young bird. Got to see an INCREDIBLE flight on one of those, but it dumped into a hole under a cedar, and we weren't able to get a reflush. Headed back down to the cars, which where parked next to some junk piles, and we kicked up a rabbit out of there. The Gos should have had it, but I think his "A" game had been thrown off, due to all the travel and what not. Next, we got out Heather's bird, but he was being a lil $hit again, and didn't want to fly properly. Chased him around for a bit, but then we decided to call it a day at that spot (being that we only kicked up a little bit of game, and wanted to check out more spots). Heather has a dynamite little bird, and I'm thinkin she will have him back to hunting weight in short order....should be slaying bunnies again in no time! Side high light, Ryan flipped three coach whips under a water troff (sp????) that where AWSOME! The ones that I catch at "the honey hole" are the black ones, with the rose colored tails.....these three where super light colored. Apparently they where the typical color variation for this area so not as big of a deal to them, but I hadn't ever seen any that looked like these, so I thought they where pretty tight. Quick lunch at McDonnalds, and then we headed back to the expo to regroup, and Greg gave us the heads up on one of his old "honey holes" for rabbits. This place was GREAT, and had quite a few rabbits in it. It appeared to be a storage place for a bunch of old construction equipment and other stuff, and the ground was littered with tons of "rabbitat" forming junk. One cool thing, the field had a old crane right in the center of it, which created a really nice vantage point for the birds to sit on. Got Dee Dee weighed in (which apparently is weird....I guess people don't weigh their birds before the hunt...they just do it in the morning and go with it???? I don't know...I'm still getting her keyed in, so I'm gonna keep doing it...), and at 3:00 PM, she weighed in at 1026 grams. "THE girls", Chris, Ryan, Kent, Myself, and Dee Dee headed into the field and started kicking around, and after a short stay on a perch, she flew right up to the top of the crane (NICE perch!). So much happened this weekend, so I'm a little fuzzy on the details, but I think we had one or two flushs pretty quickly....one of which was a Jack rabbit, but she was out of position. One of the rabbits that we kicked up ran under a pile of old telephone poles. Ryan and I started moving them around (well....we where trying to move them...I couldn't budge them cause I'm a lil weakling, but Ryan moved a few), but then hercules (Chris) comes in and starts making stuff happen. He starts tossing them around like they are match sticks, and gets part of the pile moved away in short order. The rabbit couldn't stand it anymore, and ends up bailing out of the pile. Dee Dee comes in hot, and they both go under a piece of equipment and then......SQUEEL!!!!! The video is pretty funny....we are all sorta standing there anxiously watching, and then as soon as that squeel happens, its like someone hit the play buttone, and every gets excited and starts running for it at the same time (I will have to post it if I can get a copy from Kent). I try to slide underneath the equipment to get to them, but the gap was just WAY too small. Chris says he can get to them from the other side, so I go around, and pull them both out. I'm all geeked, nervous, and what not, and end up popping the rabbit's head off while I'm dispatching it. I let her sit on it too long, and she started eating on the neck. The trade of was HORRIBLE, and I'm going to be paying for it for a while. The whole situation was bad, and had I not had all my friends around to take care of me, I think I would have lost my flushing stick, the lure, my glove, my bag....pretty much everything I came to the field with other than the bird. I really need to start calming down on these kills!!!! Afterwards, we pulled out Kent's "older" bird, and we get a bunch of slips for him, but with no connections. Kent decided that he needs to come down about ten grams or so, and that will hopefully motivate him to try a little bit harder. Head back to the hotel after a bit, and we introduced my bird to crows (she was at 1049 grams....I'm thinkin she is going to have to be lower in order to get her serious about car hawking. Consumed some pizza, and dranks some brews, and we called the day to a close. DAY 33 (Sunday).....it was CRAZY windy!!!!! Not really sure how strong it was blowing, but it was kickin full force. Gathered the crew, and we headed back out to the field we caught the rabbit in on Saturday. Heather didn't feel comfortable flying her bird in that much wind, and Kent wasn't up for it either, so I pulled Dee Dee out and beeped her up. At 8:30 Am, she weighed in at 1058 grams. We managed to kick up a couple rabbits, and she made a really nice attempt on one of them (almost catching it), but that was about it. She got a GREAT work out though, and was breathing really hard by the time i called her down to the fist to end the session. After that, we headed back out to the cooper whatever it's named area, and met up with the other crew (Mitch, Rob, Jake, etc), and tried to get some rabbits going for Mitch's Gos. We managed to kick up one that he chased pretty well, but it ended up pulling a houdini, and dissappeared for the reflush. The Gos ended up catching a house sparrow in a dump shot off the fist, and though I thought it was cool, wasn't anything to write home about as far as flights are concerned. We all loaded up, and headed off to a different spot, and we decided to fly my bird again. The wind was still howling, but I was hoping for a nice performance out of her (being that EVERYONE was there, and I had to make my sponsor look good and what not!). Well, as soon as she spread her wings, the wind pulled her straight up into the air. She doesn't flap or anything...just starts going straight up in little circles. I thinking OH $HIT she's gone!!!! She then finishs rising, and starts hovering over us, looking straight down VERY intently!!!! I'm like what??? She is focused and hunting. Everyone is beating the crap out of brush trying SO hard to get a rabbit moving (so that we can enforce her great behavior), but no luck. At one point, about half was through her "soar", she banked the other direction, and my heart almost stopped again. I'm thinkin "great, she was doing so well, but has now lost interest, and she is going to be off in another state in a heart beat!" She then turns back toward us, and starts hovering again (apparently, she was just adjusting her position or what not). After about five minutes of "Soar hawking", she decides to fly down and land in a tree.....and THEN we kick up a rabbit....DANG IT!!!! Call her down after a bit, and it's time to head on back home. We get back to Kent's house around 5:30 PM, so i decide that, since I'm passing the rabbit field and all, I may as well fly her for an hour before dark. I get there, get all my brush gear on, and beep her up. At 6:00 PM, she weighed in at 1038 grams. She flies up to one of the cedars directly north of the Parking lot, and a little bit west of "the" rose bush. I decided to head out West of the bush into the open field, where there is a clump of bushs that tends to have one rabbit slip in it. I start making my way that direction, and kick up a rabbit at my feet after being in the field about 30 seconds. She comes out of the tree pumping REALLY hard, and is about to crash the brush, when she pulls off, and uses her momentum to shoot her straight up in the air about 20 or 25 feet....she does about three hovering pumps with her wings, and then does a crazy wing over twist, and slams straight down into the ground and SQUEEL!!!!!!!! I could see the rabbit when she hit it, and she drilled it's head straight into the ground on impact. I run in there and dispatch the rabbit, and then I have an alright trade off to the lure. I then hop her up to the fist for a nice warm feist of two hind legs, and stick her back in her GH very pleased. Nothing compares to the first rabbit, but other than that, this was probably my favorite catch so far. The wing over was SO sick, and it was also neat b/c it was the first rabbit we have caught by ourselves. Though I wish we had had a few more slips, just so I could have done more hawking, it was neat that she slammed the first one I kicked up. She is starting to turn it on!!!!!!!!!

2 comments:

  1. man, that sounds like fun. I wish I could have been there. I'll catch you next time. congrats on the kills!

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  2. wish i could have been there , was trying to catch my own bird without much success but we had fun all the same

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