Tuesday, December 22, 2009

A little progress


Headed over to Jeff's house after work. It's ALWAYS good times talkin to Jeff, and yesterday was no exception. We talked falconry for a good minute, showed him my new little girl, and we talked strategy. Jeff is a car hawking guru, and I'm trying to soak up as many tricks and pointers as I can. He was kind enough to hook me up with a NICE braided setup for the bird, and I have decided that black is def her color. She looks like a little bad@$$ sitting there, just waiting to get out and kill some birds! Headed back to my babies, and after cookin a litle dinner, it was time to mess with the bird. Pulled the hood off, and she started bating like crazy! Finally stopped, and I put her back on the fist......she sat there! NICE! Got a good minute out of her, and then she popped off again.....and regained the fist! NICE AGAIN! Offered her the top half of a rat and she would bite at it, but wouldn't commit enough to hold it. I offered her a rat leg, and that was a different story. She bit down on it, and would hold it in her mouth for a while, but wouldn't eat it. Everytime, she would either drop it on the glove, or else drop it while bating. I switched gears, and offered her a tid bit from my finger tip. She grabbed it, and did the hold thing, but then she swallowed it! SWEET! Gave her another 3 tid bits, and then we ended the session. I HAVE to get a new hood. She is biting at it now, so that is annoying.....we will get over that soon enough. This one "fits", but not correctly. It's an arab hood, so it's made to fit a falcon, and her head is DEF not falcon like :). I think that is what's causing the troubles. I think it's just too tight when it goes on...I assume it feels more like something is grabbing her head than the "looser" styles do. I need an anglo probably...where its not pushing on her head as much when it's going in. Ryan made me a nice one the other day (thanks!), but it ended up being too small. I have discovered that she is pretty much a male harris hawk size, but just a TINY bit different. Hopefully, we will get that taken care of in the very near future, and I won't have to worry about it anymore. Anyways, the 8 grams will put us behind a day. She burns VERY slowly, and she still has a ways to come down. It's going to be pretty warm today, so I probably won't mess with her at all. I'm thinkin tommorow might be the day she actually reachs down to the fist for food, which will be one goal completed. Now, as far as a trapping story goes....there isn't really one. My good buddy Gary knew that I was on the quest for a RS, and he let me know that there was a passage that hung out around his house. He figured out what her routine was, and the BC was left for her. Next thing I know, I have a new bird sitting on the fist :)! Pretty uneventful, but that's alright. John (who is doing AWSOME with his new bird!) asked about my focus with her, and it's going to be birds! I will bag her on rabbits, and will def chase some of those around, but my main focus will be birds. I plan on car hawkin the crap out of her in the beginning, and will hopefully get a bird with a lot of confidence on feather that way. Once she is solid, I will transition slowly to field hawking. Hopefully she will do this well, but if she is a little slower at it, I will still be car hawkin her in there, and will use baggies in the field if I see her confidence diminishing. It's going to be an adventure, and I'm so psyched to get back out hawkin!!!! I havn't been getting my daily session, and the outings with the bros (though good times for sure) just arn't giving me my fix! I need to fly!

4 comments:

  1. um....I don't remember what size hood we where going to try next....I will have to check

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  2. Sounds like you got a good strategy there.

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  3. I'm real curious about how this turns out. I've considered red shoulders before but when out trapping them have started to find them often very tentative on the trap. I worry that they will be the same on game. Keep the posts coming - I wanna know what happens.

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