Rudy kind of laughed at my hesitation, but he was supportive. I went to work and thought all day about the task set before me. I called my father on my way home for some moral support and he asked me to explain exactly what the steps would be when I flew her free. I realized that I hadn’t actually gone over them in my head; I was just going to do it and hope for the best. I felt better about it after that conversation, that I was really ready.
When I got home, I mechanically took Musket out of her mew and went through the normal routine of hooding and weighing her. I’m sure she could tell that something was different, but she probably didn’t care. I had her tidbits all cut up and ready in my pouch and switched out her mews jesses for jesses without a slit in case she did as I feared and took off for the wild blue. Then I brought her outside.
I placed her on her lawn perch and backed up as I did routinely with our creance flying. She came immediately. No hesitation. I asked her to fly back to her perch and she went. We did this several times back and forth until I felt comfortable. Then I placed her in a short cherry tree and asked her to come to the fist. She came! She came back to me every time. This wild bird willingly came to me when she could have left at any moment. How wonderful!
I’m sure to her it was no big deal, not much different than creance flying. The training was there, she just kept doing what she always did, come to the glove when called.
I did these flights several times in the yard over the next few days. I could get her to follow my finger and land on an object I pointed at and then get her to return to my fist. I took her out into the acre of woods behind our house and asked her to come to me from logs and fence posts. She’d fly to the top of her mew and back down to me when asked. Now this was fun! All that hard work and fretting was finally coming to fruition.
Now that the line had been cut, it was time to hunt!
When I got home, I mechanically took Musket out of her mew and went through the normal routine of hooding and weighing her. I’m sure she could tell that something was different, but she probably didn’t care. I had her tidbits all cut up and ready in my pouch and switched out her mews jesses for jesses without a slit in case she did as I feared and took off for the wild blue. Then I brought her outside.
I placed her on her lawn perch and backed up as I did routinely with our creance flying. She came immediately. No hesitation. I asked her to fly back to her perch and she went. We did this several times back and forth until I felt comfortable. Then I placed her in a short cherry tree and asked her to come to the fist. She came! She came back to me every time. This wild bird willingly came to me when she could have left at any moment. How wonderful!
I’m sure to her it was no big deal, not much different than creance flying. The training was there, she just kept doing what she always did, come to the glove when called.
I did these flights several times in the yard over the next few days. I could get her to follow my finger and land on an object I pointed at and then get her to return to my fist. I took her out into the acre of woods behind our house and asked her to come to me from logs and fence posts. She’d fly to the top of her mew and back down to me when asked. Now this was fun! All that hard work and fretting was finally coming to fruition.
Now that the line had been cut, it was time to hunt!
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