The three story beach house that was rented for the week had a wonderful garage where we housed the bird. She spent the week being visited by friends and family and staying tied to her perch. She was quiet and stoic except when she decided whe was hungry and ate the glove sheath and the rag that was on her scale, which she knocked off and broke. Oh well, she can't be perfect. Despite the below picture, I think she's more proud of herself than ashamed. She cast up a pellet of rag pieces after we got back to Florida. Pretty funny.
I had hoped to have the chance to hunt her on some North Carolina rabbits or squirrels. I had to purchase a special falconry license to be able to fly her there, in addition to an out of state hunting license. Warren had picked out a good potential rabbit spot in a field across from his house. Not willing to lose her 12 hours north of us, I did some practice flights on the creance. The first was out on the beach where we attracted quite a crowd. Musket did not know how to react to that kind of stimulus. She saw the big blue ocean and tried to take off for it. I did manage to get her to come to me, but she was sluggish and unwilling, so I quickly put her up.
The next morning, I woke up early and tried her just the two of us in the street in front of the beach house. She was a little more responsive, but still a bit sluggish. I wasn’t feeling good about her response, so I decided that I would not hunt her. The next day, it started raining and didn’t stop until we left. Though I think some of the family were disappointed that they did not get to witness a hunt, I felt good about my decision and took my bird home with me.
This week I had to work a day out of the office because they were working on the electricity and the power was off. I kept a careful eye out the window in case one of the squirrels that we have been feeding all year decided to make an appearance. Well, lo and behold, in the early afternoon, two of the squirrels showed up on the feeders. My heart racing, I gathered all the equipment I needed to hunt with, covered up the rabbits, and took my bird out of her Mews. We came around the front of the house and I showed Musket the squirrel. She took off! But in the wrong direction. She wanted a better perch so she took to a pine tree in the yard. I watched her go and the squirrel that had been on the feeder had vanished. I searched for it and saw it magically transported to the end of property line. They can really book it when they need to.
I walked over to the gardens behind our house and tried to find the other squirrel since I didn’t see where it had gone. Musket followed me to a better perch. I was considering calling her down and walking into the woods to search when I noticed that she had her eye on something. She took off straight for the largest tree we have in the garden. I thought she might be going for another perch, but she slammed into the trunk of the tree and then I saw the squirrel she had been going after. She missed, but barely. It probably had something to do with her eye. She was brilliant though. She landed in another tree and tried to see where the squirrel had gone, but it had managed to get up into the tall branches and out of danger.
I called Musket down to the fist by teasing her with the lure and took her back to her Mew. She was pumped! Poor bird. At least she got to kill her lure. The hunt was thrilling regardless of the miss. I just hope she can get something soon.
The baby bunnies are getting so cute. It's amazing something so cute could come out of something so dog ugly (mom is no beauty queen). I'm trying desperately not to become too attached to them. Hopefully we get some squirrels soon!
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