The next weekend, Hazen and I headed out to the Quail Farm. We stopped by Rudy’s house, hoping to persuade him to join us, but his children and grandchildren were visiting so he elected to stay behind, giving me the needed boot out of the nest. Hazen and I tackled hunting with my bird for the first time by ourselves.
We set off for the Quail Farm and went to our “usual” hunting spot. I sent Musket up into a tree and we proceeded to crash through the bushes. She still was not following very well, but I think she was starting to pay attention to what we were doing which was better than last time. I managed to lure her to follow us a little and towards the end, I think she started to figure it out.
Hazen and I diligently kicked through bushes, leaving no stone unturned. We managed to flush a rabbit. I blew my whistle to Musket, but she was a little far out of range, she dived but missed the rabbit. I thought for a second that she had grabbed it because it did seem so close, but we did not hear the tell-tale scream. When we got to Musket, she was standing near a gopher tortoise burrow; we figured the rabbit had escaped down there.
I collected Musket and gave her a little break. After a moment I sent her up into a tree. She managed to get on top of a 10ft pine, not very high. So we continued to kick bushes and managed to flush another rabbit right under her! She was off after it in an instant and crashed after it into the brush (she has no fear once she’s on the rabbit!). Again I thought she had it, but still no scream. Musket was panting and pretty tired at this point. I collected her and held her over my head while I tried to kick the rabbit back up. It did flush one more time, and Musket tried, but she was just too exhausted to get it. She got a big reward on the glove for her effort and we decided to go ahead and put her up for the day.
Even though we didn’t come home with a rabbit, I still thought the trip was valuable. I now know how hard I have to work to condition my bird to get her in shape to have successful hunts. We got to witness a fair chase between hawk and prey, and this time the prey won. I really have a new appreciation of hunting after this experience. I can see now why hunters get so excited when they do manage to shoot something since there is so much work and preparation that goes into that culminating moment.
The next day, Musket got tangled in her jesses and broke the tip off of four outside primary feathers on one wing as she tried to regain her perch. She needed those feathers to hunt, without complete feathers it was going to make it even harder for her to catch something. Since it was getting close to what the books said was the moulting season, I made the decision to start giving her a lot of food and let her moult instead of fixing those feathers. She dropped her first flight feather 3 weeks later at the end of May. Now it is the end of September and she still has three brown feathers left, she’s pretty scruffy looking (The picture below was taken at the end of August). At this rate it will be the end of October before we are actually hunting again. I have been working with her for the past few weeks and things are progressing. I’ll be updating this blog on current events now that the history has been told. It may come a bit more slowly, but keep checking in for updates!
We set off for the Quail Farm and went to our “usual” hunting spot. I sent Musket up into a tree and we proceeded to crash through the bushes. She still was not following very well, but I think she was starting to pay attention to what we were doing which was better than last time. I managed to lure her to follow us a little and towards the end, I think she started to figure it out.
Hazen and I diligently kicked through bushes, leaving no stone unturned. We managed to flush a rabbit. I blew my whistle to Musket, but she was a little far out of range, she dived but missed the rabbit. I thought for a second that she had grabbed it because it did seem so close, but we did not hear the tell-tale scream. When we got to Musket, she was standing near a gopher tortoise burrow; we figured the rabbit had escaped down there.
I collected Musket and gave her a little break. After a moment I sent her up into a tree. She managed to get on top of a 10ft pine, not very high. So we continued to kick bushes and managed to flush another rabbit right under her! She was off after it in an instant and crashed after it into the brush (she has no fear once she’s on the rabbit!). Again I thought she had it, but still no scream. Musket was panting and pretty tired at this point. I collected her and held her over my head while I tried to kick the rabbit back up. It did flush one more time, and Musket tried, but she was just too exhausted to get it. She got a big reward on the glove for her effort and we decided to go ahead and put her up for the day.
Even though we didn’t come home with a rabbit, I still thought the trip was valuable. I now know how hard I have to work to condition my bird to get her in shape to have successful hunts. We got to witness a fair chase between hawk and prey, and this time the prey won. I really have a new appreciation of hunting after this experience. I can see now why hunters get so excited when they do manage to shoot something since there is so much work and preparation that goes into that culminating moment.
The next day, Musket got tangled in her jesses and broke the tip off of four outside primary feathers on one wing as she tried to regain her perch. She needed those feathers to hunt, without complete feathers it was going to make it even harder for her to catch something. Since it was getting close to what the books said was the moulting season, I made the decision to start giving her a lot of food and let her moult instead of fixing those feathers. She dropped her first flight feather 3 weeks later at the end of May. Now it is the end of September and she still has three brown feathers left, she’s pretty scruffy looking (The picture below was taken at the end of August). At this rate it will be the end of October before we are actually hunting again. I have been working with her for the past few weeks and things are progressing. I’ll be updating this blog on current events now that the history has been told. It may come a bit more slowly, but keep checking in for updates!
1 comment:
Hey Anni!
You are working so hard with Musket, I am absolutely impressed! Your blog is really interesting--I like all of the information and the stories as well. We are so excited to see you all in Novemeber and meet Ms. Musket. There are plenty of rabbits in the neighborhood and fields that surround us!
Talk to you soon,
jenny
Post a Comment