FINALLY....have time for an update

Gosh.....the phrase "life catching up to you" has never been so darn appropriate as it is right now. I have been CRAZY busy, but it's about time to update the old bloggskie. Sunday was our first hunt. I don't have my log book with me, but I believe she was around 585 grams or so (maybe 580....I will have to check...) I headed to some industrial areas just across the river with hopes of finding tons of birds. Luck was on my side, and they where out in force! The first slip was a bust....three starlings on the side of the road not paying ANY attention, but she wouldn't go for them. Why didn't she go you ask? I have no clue....we continued on. Next slip found five starlings up against the side of a building. The window went down, and she shot out like she had been doing this for years. Four of the birds busted, but the fifth one just didn't see Sayda coming. She closed the gap in a heart beat, and I'm thinking this bird is toast. Well, last second, it sees her coming, and tries to fly straight up the wall. Sayda flairs, and follows the bird up on the rise, and JUST BARELY misses snagging it. I mean LITERALLY...just misses. I see her foot shoot out, and miss the bird by half an inch or so. GOOD BIRD! Call her back to the fist, and we continue on. Find another three starlings pecking around in a thin grassy strip on the side of the road, and Sayda blasts out of the window and slams the ground. I bail out of the car like a bat out of hell b/c it looked like she got it, only to discover that she had SOMEHOW missed it. I'm a little dumb founded, b/c I'm pretty sure she hit it on the ground....must not have though, b/c no startling is going to pull away from the Sayda girl, that's for darn sure! Well, I'm pleased with the day....first hunt, two great slips, she pumped hard, almost connected, and I was going to end the session on a bagger (gotta keep that confidence high!). Well, I start heading to where I'm going to toss the starling, and what do I see on the side of the road....yep....five starlings takin a bath paying ZERO attention to what's going on. I pass them, no heads look. I drive passed again....no heads look. I can't resist. Pass for the third time, and I slip her out of the window. She blasts out like a rocket and...................................pulls up immediately for a tree. I call her down...no response. Pull out the lure, no response. I rush to the subi to pull out a live lure, and turn around to toss it AND...............she is gone. WTF!!!!!! I'm kicking myself at this point....I broke the number one rule in falconry, and didn't stick to my plan. We had a perfect session up to this point, and I should have just bagged her and called it a day. Instead, I was too focused on getting that first kill, and I pushed the bounry line too hard. I got greedy, and it bit me in the a$$. To make a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG story short....we telemetry chase her for the rest of the afternoon, and I finally get her back about four hours later (25 grams heavier b/c she was buggin the whole darn time!). MANY thanks go out to Gary for dropping what he was doing to try and help find her, along with thanks going to Jeff for his concern and willingness to help out as well. Biggest thanks go to Jonathan though, who was there with his receiver in a heart beat once he learned the situation, and we had her tracked down in no time. What I fed her combined with the bugs she got (that I didn't know about), made her nice and high, so no session on Monday. That worked out well though, b/c it gave me the opportunity to meet up with Ryan and Steve, and we spent Monday and Tuesday installing cameras in a bald eagles nest. It's pretty hard to describe the feeling you get when you pull over the edge of an eagles nest, and climb inside. It was pretty darn sureal, and I was psyched that I got the opportunity to do it. Once we got everything wrapped up and made it back to town on Tuesday, it was time to do a little car hawking. Ryan has a gorgeous little female kestrel, and we where gunning for starling number two. Since there arn't really any car hawkers in Sandsprings, I have sorta laid claim to it, and we headed there to see how the starlings where doing. First slip was on the side of the access road running beside the Wally world. She shot out like a rocket, and slammed into the starling on the rise (maybe three or four feet in the air). It looked pretty darn solid, but the starlings SOMEHOW managed to escape. Got another slip soon after which she got REALLY close on, and another one that was pretty good as well. Later on, we pulled up to a stop sign, and there was a lone starling pecking around on the side. Four or five cars drove by, and it didn't lift it's head once. We finally got a break, so we pulled along side and slipped her out the window. She jumped off his fist and immediately turned into a bullet. She dropped out of the window and just smoked the little bugger! I ran out and grabbed them, and we drove to an out of the way spot to take some hero shots. What was REALLY cool about this starling, is that it had a huge white spot on it's head. I havn't ever seen that before, and I thought it was pretty tight. Well, it was starting to get late, but we thought we would try and get a slip or two for Sayda. Drove around for a bit, but it was just too late for them. Roosting birds arn't hawkable, so I decided it was a good day to introduce her to pigeons. Up until this point, the only birds she has come into contact with where starlings, but being that she is showing tendancies to want to carry, I decided I needed to switch focus to pigeons for those fist few kills. Sayda showed ZERO hesitation as she pumped out the window and nailed the pigeon, and at 575 grams (or was it 570...I will have to look), she was acting the way she should have been. I approached and she didn't try and carry at all....GOOD BIRD! I wanted to reward that, so I offered her a tid bit, and she jumped right off the pigeon for it....BAD BIRD! Gonna need to stop doing that. She hopped back on it pretty quickly, and that's when it happened. My stupid a$$ knows she is footy little thing, and I KNOW she gets pretty amped up on kills. Well, I rushed her, and went in for the dispatch, and she nailed me HARD!!!!!! This footing made Dee Dee's stuff feel like love taps, and my hand was completely covered in blood by the time she let go (which took a cool minute). Stupid apprentice!!!!! All in all though, Ryan was pleased with her behavior (this is the first time Ryan has been pleased about ANYTHING related to Sayda in a cool minute...), and it was nice to get the "good job nod" from him (about the bird...NOT the footing incident...that he laughed about!). Fed her enough to put her at weight for our session today, and if the slips are happening, then I'm hoping for our first kill today. We have a BIG storm moving in, so if she scores, I will feed her up nicely, and aim to have a session on Friday....if not....I will feed her enough to put her at weight the next day, and we will do a hundred or so jump ups in the garage.