The day started out pretty gloomy. Had the rain held out, the plan was to meet up around ten or so, and we where going to get down on some serious hawkin. Well, the weather didn't want to cooperate, so we didn't end up getting to the field until around 1:30 or so. We had a big crew for this session...Ben and his family where in attendace, Tom, Kent, Jonathan, and of course...myself, where all in attendance, and some bunnies where gettin chased today. When we got there, an interested couple asked if they could come along, so being the accomidating people that we are, welcomed them along. We started out at one of Jonathan's fields, and let me just tell you....this field was rediculous!!!! I thought we already hawked in some pretty thick stuff, but this field was on a whole different level. The briars where all head high at least, and they where WIDE!!! Rabbits where found in great abundance, but they kept slipping away from the Shaung at the last minute.
Eventually, we made it to the edge of the field running along the high way, and one of the rabbits made a bad move. Instead of cutting back through the briar patch, this rabbit thought the best course of action was to leave the thick cover, and shoot across the grassy mowed section. Shaung had been observing from high atop a bill board, and she dropped like a rock and slammed the rabbit into the ground. Squeels where heard, out of shape falconers where running, and there was much rejoicing from all. Jonathan let her eat a bit on the kill, and then he traded her off to the lure, but not before we clicked off a few hero shots. After that, we headed off to one of my fields to fly Kent's young bird. I decided it was a good day to try out the Rosa Parks field, and I was psyched that we could finally fly a bird in there. We took the scenic route to get there, but we FINALLY made it to the parking lot, and we headed off into the field. I'm not sure if it was the moist conditions or what, but we didn't manage NEAR as many rabbits as I normally do when I'm running the dog.
Still though, we had a great session, and probably managed at least 8 or so slips. Hands down, Kent's bird flew harder than I have ever seen him fly. He only pulled up on maybe one slip, and the rest of them he crashed for pretty hard. He damn near caught three of those rabbits, and it blew my mind that he didn't end up scoring. Still though, it was a good day, and we ended the session with some feather reinforcement. I'm thinkin this bird is about to turn on, and then bunnies LOOK OUT! It's going to be sweet!
Nice
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