First Free Flight!

Well we FINALLY got off the darn creance! It's about time...I know! Got home after work, and she weighed in at 595 grams. The plan was to do a few calls to the fist, and then fly her out of the car window. I was wanting to do it with the car moving, but yesterdays circumstances just wouldn't allow for it. Did a call or two to start out, and her response was just so so. She never tried to fly off or anything, but she didn't have that keyed in focus that we have been having (makes sense...she was QUITE a bit higher than we have been flying at...). Flipped the creance off of her, and did a few more flights across the yard. I didn't want to push my luck, so after that, we flew out of the window. I think she is starting to connect the game call with food, and when I started saying ho, she started looking around pretty intently. She saw the starling, and almost went after it immediately, but then she noticed the cat that was watching from across the street. She kept looking back and forth between the starling and the cat, but after a few moments, flew out and grabbed the starling. She missed on her initial slip...not really sure what happened, but then she flipped back really quickly and grabbed it. She is going to need to improve on her aim pretty quickly :). She was looking around pretty good, but I was able to approch without any carrying attempts. Let her calm down for a moment, and then I traded her off to the lure. I dragged her pretty close to the base of a tree, but I guess she still felt too exposed, b/c she dragged the lure the remaining five feet under it. Once there, she immediately started tearing at the lure, and when she was finished, I "hopped" her to the fist.....I say "hop", b/c it was pretty much the full distance of the yard. Yesterday sorta confirmed some behaviors that I have been noticing, but hadn't figured out the direct factors that contributed. I had been thinking that she is just REALLY darn nervous when she is out in the open, and just doesn't feel that secure without the cover of trees. This further confirmed my theory, and this is going to prove problamatic, being that most of our car hawking slips are going to be out in the open. I am going to have to get her REALLY solid on the whole situation in the next few days, b/c I DEF don't want to create a carrier. I will have to talk stratagy this afternoon, and I'm hoping for a great session today. After the session, we sat on the pole perch unhooded for the rest of the evening, and Sayda slept that way through the night. This morning, she weighed in at 607 grams, so that should put her around 585 grams or so this afternoon, and I think (if we have a great session), I'm going to feed her up pretty darn good afterwards....probably enough where we won't have a session on Saturday, and then MAYBE go hawkin for the first time on Sunday....I am going to have to call Ryan and talk game plan though.