Hunt by our Lonesome.

I had been gearing Musket up all week for a hunt this Saturday. Rudy and Tom (the other apprentice) were planning on heading out to the 1,000 acre place to hunt squirrels. At the last minute, they cancelled, so I was stuck with a hungry bird and no place to hunt. The farm where I keep my horse usually has squirrels in the trees, in fact, their dog had killed one the past week and I figured if he could get one, so could my bird. We got permission from the owners to come out early Saturday morning to hunt. The night before was below freezing, but we braved the cold weather in anticipation of what was to come. We arrived at the farm in the early morning when the squirrels would be most active, or so we thought. When we got out and started looking, there were no squirrels to be found. Concerned, but determined, we let Musket go and she flew into a tall oak. Something I’m beginning to notice about her is that she is unwilling to come back to the fist once she’s up in a tree no matter how hungry she is. I don’t know if it’s inexperience, or unwillingness, but I think it might just be her personality.

Musket kept a close eye on us from the tree and would wait until we were out of sight before diving between branches to find a perch near us where she could observe our activities. We walked all through the wooded area of the Farm and saw lots of little warblers and woodpeckers, and even got mobbed by crows, but no squirrels… anywhere! Musket diligently followed us through the entire woods. She still has not learned to stay ahead of us, but the fact that she is starting to follow and I didn’t have to tease her with the lure once is a vast improvement and well ahead of where I thought we were.

Eventually we had to give up the hunt. Maybe it was just too cold for the squirrels to be out yet, who knows. We had brought “Brandy” with us to hunt in the event that wild game was unavailable. Musket sure knows a rabbit. As soon as she saw the baggie, she made for it and latched on with determination. She had the rabbit by the back legs and it struggled for a while, but eventually gave up. I was amazed at how quickly the frisky rabbit who had clawed up and down my arm, easily outweighed my hawk by double, and with the threat of impending doom just lay down and gave up. Musket worked to get a better hold, always trying to get control of the head. She definitely knows how to work rabbits. Hazen and I assessed the situation. Musket had wrapped herself around a branch and the rabbit and I was afraid if we tried to adjust things that she would break her leg because she was not letting go of that rabbit to save her life. Eventually we decided to cover the rabbit from her view, quietly finish it off, and then get her to trade off to the chicken leg I had in my vest. It took her a while, but she eventually gave up the rabbit and came up to the fist. I let her have the whole leg since I wasn’t planning on hunting her again that weekend. She was very satisfied with herself.

So, now we’re down 1 baggie and 1 previously dead squirrel. Still nothing wild taken alive. I have a lead on a 600 acre place in a sandhill that is supposedly loaded with squirrels. Hopefully I can get access to it and put her somewhere where she can’t miss a squirrel. So far so good though.

Our second "Brandy" kill. Don't feel sorry for it, this rabbit was a DEVIL!

The Hunter... well, sort of.

Saturday was the big day. I worked all week to try to bring Musket's weight down just another ounce or so. I got half an ounce, and that was with her eating only every other day. She's been spending most days with me in the office, so maybe this inactivity has her holding on to those ounces. I'll try to leave her at home most of this week and see how it goes. Ahh... the joys of weight manipulation, it's really an art.

Well, I got in contact with Rudy, my sponsor, and he was gracious enough to let me come to his house and hunt one of his squirrels. I wanted his moral support since this is still new to me. His calm attitude about the bird flying helps to keep me calm. Hazen and I woke up at 6am to head out to Rudy's place. We got there just after the sun came up and the critters were starting to move. There were three squirrels in Rudy's front yard right as we got there, so after we greeted him, he instructed me to let the bird go. I got myself together, pulled Musket out of her box, and turned her loose. She went right up into an oak and started working her way up the tree. The three squirrels stealthily slunk away and Musket didn't see them.

After a while, we decided to head to the back yard. To get Musket to follow us, I flashed the lure at her. She came right over and landed in a tree above us. Then, we started looking around for squirrels, eventually, we saw one sitting stock still on a branch. All of our moving and shaking could not get this little fellow to budge. We finally decided that we would wound him to see if that movement would get Musket's attention. Rudy pulled out his high-powered air rifle and shot it in the leg. The Squirrel, injured, tried to climb out of the tree, fell, and Musket saw him! She came shooting over and the squirrel scampered up a tree to potential safety. Musket landed in the branches near the squirrel and he stopped moving immediately. He was pretty clever, hiding behind the trunk of the tree just out of Musket's view. Apparently, she's not very skilled with squirrels. She never did manage to get this little guy. He found a woodpecker hole and ducked in to escape.

Bummed, we moved off further into the woods to scout out another squirrel. We finally found one way high up in the small branches of an oak. Now the trick was to get Musket down to where she could see this squirrel. I went and flashed the lure at her again, it took her a little bit to decide to come to me. I put it away and she landed in a tree above me again. She was still not following, so I flashed the lure again and she came down to my glove! Perfect!

Bird in hand, I walked her over to where we saw the squirrel and she put herself up in a low snag. Rudy, following the same procedure as before, tried to wound this squirrel to give her an easier target while we are training. Well, he has a really nice air-rifle and a good aim, because with one shot, he killed the squirrel. It was dead before it hit the ground. Strike two. Musket was way out of range and didn't even see the squirrel fall. I went and gathered the squirrel and we tried to decide what to do.

Musket came over to us on her own this time and landed on a tree above us. Rudy and Hazen were working out how to do a mock hunt with the dead squirrel and I decided to go check and see if that other squirrel we had wounded was feeling brave enough to come out of hiding. Musket came along behind me and landed in a nearby tree. I moved forward again, and so did she. This wasn't just a fluke, she was following me! I was amazed.

Eventually we decided to tie a string to the dead squirrel and loop it over the crook of a tree. I held Musket on my fist and Rudy and Hazen readied the "hunt". She saw the squirrel and immediately grabed it out of the tree, taking it to the ground. We let her sit with it for about 10 minutes as she held it unmoving. I slowly worked my way in there, and she gave me some worried looks and started making small squeeking sounds. Eventually I offered her a whole chicken neck on the glove and she actually left her squirrel to hop up to get it! Rudy said that the fur on the squirrel is a lot of work and they prefer the easy meat of raw meat to having to work through a tough hide.

I still think that we had a successful day. We didn't get anything alive, but she followed me. Rudy was even pleased with it, he says we are moving along quite nicely and gave me a pat on the back.

Hazen took a picture of her on her squirrel that I'll try to add to this post soon. We're going to try again next Saturday at this 1,000 acre place that Rudy has access to.

Fun fun!!

Flying High!

Musket’s weight has been slowly dropping. The washed beef helped her loose a few grams, but she still has not dropped as much as I would have liked. It’s been cold the last few days, but I’ve been keeping her in the house, so I might start putting her outside at night… that should help take the weight off.

Saturday and Sunday, I free-flew Musket at home. She has gotten better every day. Last Monday when I flew her, she was pretty good, but still made me nervous when she was a little hesitant to come back. She was a bit lower this time and she flew pretty well with Hazen videoing the whole thing. She’s usually pretty shy when he’s there. I think bringing her down another ounce will just give me that edge.

Sunday, I flew her without distractions. She was fantastic! She usually wants to fly to her bell perch, but she didn’t give it a second glance and was looking all over for perches to try. She decided at one point that the ground was a pretty good perch. I don’t know how to break her of that, maybe I’ll only reward her occasionally for a ground perch. Her favorite perch is the post that sticks up above the mew. She’ll fly to that and I’ll walk around all over the place. When she feels like I’m too far, she’ll make for me. Some falconers don’t like it when birds just want to play the game of coming to the fist. I don’t mind it because it means my bird wants to come back to ME!

I put her in a small cherry tree and she took to it really well. She even took the initiative of working her way higher into the tree to get a better perch. She was wonderful! She’d come before or instantly after I called. I really think that she’s about at the point where she is ready to go! I love this stage! There were moments in our flying yesterday that I really felt like part of a partnership with this wild bird. I’m so happy.

LOOOONG Week

After the excitement of Monday's free flight at home, this week has been relatively slow comparatively. Musket and I have plateaued. I have been flying her mid-day at work and she's been pretty slow to respond. Her weight has also leveled out, so I bought some beef that I let soak in water to get all the blood out of it and have been using that as our tidbit meat for the last day.

Yesterday night at the house, she managed to get her leash loose and I was outside when I heard this loud crash against the door. Guessing what happened, I peaked inside to see my bird looking at me with those hungry eyes. I went around to the other door and grabbed my glove. Once she saw it, she b-lined for me. I still had some left-over tidbits from our earlier session at work (since she was so slow to respond then, I decided that I needed to work on dropping her weight and that was more important than finishing the creance flying). Well, she got her tidbits. Oh well.

When I finished with my outside chores and came in to feed Sabel, I found a disaster in the laundry room. I guess she had gone for that window too. One of the living stone succulents had been knocked off the shelf, pot broken, and a bite taken out of it! I guess she really was hungry! I wonder if she saw a squirrel or bird through that window and she went for it.

I wanted to try to hunt her this weekend. I might try a hunt around the house and wait for one of those squirrels to show up and then ambush them. I need to get in touch with my sponsor and see what his plans are. I'd prefer to do the first hunt with him, but we'll see.

Big Changes, but still a long way to go.

I wanted to take a break from my regularly scheduled blog to talk about the recent events in our country. This gives me an opportunity to write down some of my thoughts and I invite others to share their opinions as well.

I believe that yesterday marked a great milestone for our country. The United States has elected it's first black president. Amazing. I was reading stories today about black centenarians, some who were the children of slaves. In their lifetimes, they have first hand accounts of what slavery was like, struggled for civil rights, and were able to cast their ballots for the first black president. It's taken over 100 years to reach this point. I will not say the struggle is over for black Americans, but yesterday, I think, belonged more to them than the rest of us. I heard an estimate that over 90% of the black population nationwide voted for Obama. I think that is wonderful. And I hope that because he got such a large percentage of the American People in general behind him, that he can be effective as the unifying force that he is making himself to be. Americans put their faith in Barak Obama yesterday, I hope he lives up to the expectations. I have a good feeling about him, that he will.

Beside the hope and joy I felt last night, and the pride in our country to prove that we have a wonderful working democracy, I felt anguish and frustration that we still have so far to go. I was able to cast my vote for the first black president on the same ballot that has the most hateful piece of legislation that has ever been my duty to vote against. The Florida Ban on Gay Marriage, or the "Save our Families" constitutional amendment. This passed by a narrow margin last night, and was up for voting even though Florida already has anti-gay legislation that already defines marriage between a man and a woman only. It just wasn't enough, they had to take it a step further and ban civil unions too.

"This amendment protects marriage as the legal union of only one man and one woman as husband and wife and provides that no other legal union that is treated as marriage or the substantial equivalent thereof shall be valid or recognized."

This is the vague legal language that is now written into the Florida Constitution. I heard people say that they were voting on this to protect the children. I just don't understand what that means. I know they wanted to be sure that "activist" judges could not declare that it is legal for gays to marry and that was the motivation behind this, but they took it way too far. And they got what they wanted, of course.

I did a lot of soul searching after the poles closed yesterday. I thought about the struggle that women went through to be granted the right to vote. I thought about the new president and how long it took for us to get him. I firmly believe that in my lifetime, I will be like those centenarians and see real change for the gay community and they will be able to one day marry the ones they love without so much controversy. I hope that day will come sooner for me than it did for the black community. I hope that we will be able to look back on the past and wonder what the big deal was. But I see a long road ahead and I hope that this new president will be the beginning of that change.

Free Flight Part Deux

The days have gotten shorter since the time change. On my way home from work yesterday, I could feel it getting dark. I had prepared for this in getting everything together for my attempted free-flight. I had a new pair of field jesses that I cut earlier in the day ready to go. I put a phone call into my sponsor to tell him that I was going to make the attempt. I had mentally planned the steps I needed to take to get the bird out on the creance as quickly as possible. I even covered the rabbits just in case she got around to where she could see them. Everything was ready.

I got my gear on and had Musket weighed and ready to go. She weighed 41.6 oz, a full 5oz above her flight weight from last year, this worried me quite a bit. I thought… okay, I’ll try her on the creance for a few flights to see how responsive she is. Well, she was instant! I couldn’t get 10 feet from her without her going for me. So, my heart literally in my throat, I brought her back in the house and took off her mews jesses and put on her slitless field jesses.

Trying not to think about the freezer full of hawk food that would sit for months until I could trap again, or the rabbits that I’m breeding just for her, or the 10 months of training that I had put into my bird, I stepped out the door and turned her loose. She jumped down to her perch with such gusto that I was sure she knew that she was not tied. Undaunted, I held out my fist and she came before I blew the whistle. My mind went numb and my body filled with adrenaline. She came back! I did it again, mechanically, not breaking from our routine, and she dutifully came back to me from her perch every time. I took her to the mew and asked her to fly on top of it like we had done last year. She remembered that perch and hopped up to it. I held up my hand, wary about her being up higher and getting ideas into her head, and she took one look at me and came immediately. I was thrilled! I thought I’d try it again, just one more time. The day was getting late and I know that the birds have a tendency to want to go up and roost when the day is ending. I was afraid that she would decide to find a nice comfortable tree to spend the night in instead of coming back to me. When she went back up the second time, she did sit there for a few seconds, but just a few seconds. I held up my fist and she was busy looking around. I started to panic a little even though it was such a short amount of time, it seemed like she was realizing my fear. I blew the whistle hard and she looked at me, thought about it for a second, and then came to my glove! Ahh… sweet relief!

After that, I didn’t take any chances, the sun was setting and the shadows were past being long and starting to disappear. I flew her back and forth to her perch, having her fly to me at different directions and when I was moving. She came instantly every time! I finished it up with letting her have a Day-old Chick on the glove. She mantled over it and was very satisfied with herself. With a great sigh of relief, I brought her back into the house. I had flown my bird and she had come back to me, by her own free choice. Magic!

Video: Musket was drinking out of her water dish on and off for half an hour last night. She was pretty thirsty after our free flight!

Creance Flying Going Well

I creance-flew Musket outside several days last week. She did really well, though you can’t really tell by this video. She was very wary of Hazen out there with us and kept looking at the camera instead of me. That was not the response I wanted, she should have her full attention on me no matter what if I'm getting close to free-flying her.

I decided to feed her up on the lure on Wednesday and she did much better than last time. Before when she ate off the lure, she freaked and tried to take my arm off. There was none of that aggression this time. She was a little cautious as she ate her quail, but eventually got used to me being there and quieted down. When she finished and was searching the ground for more food, I threw out a tidbit to her and she went after it instantly. Then I covered up the lure and held out my glove to her. She jumped up to me immediately, just the response I wanted! Successful trade-off!

I then let her sit in her Mews for two days to work off the extra weight she got from a full crop and flew her again on Saturday. She was absolutely perfect, coming to me even before I called her. She was never like this last year; I think she’ll follow well in the field. I had a moment when I was flying her Saturday that I thought, boy, she’s ready to go! And I almost cut her loose. But I didn’t have my field jesses or a garnished lure with me so I decided to wait. I also wanted to have her lose an extra ounce or two before trying to free fly her. Last year her response weight was still a full 100g less than it is now, and I worry about that. But her response is just what I want, even better than when I cut her loose last time, so if the weather holds today and it doesn’t get too windy, I’m going to go for it!

I really hope that next time I Blog, I still have a red-tail.