Musket's Release

Well, I did it. I let my bird go. I decided that she was not destined to be a squirrel hawk and that is was just not fair to keep her unless I can get her on some rabbits. So for the past two weeks I have been feeding her as much as she would eat through her food chute. Even still, when I would come in to her mew with my glove, she would jump up to it without hesitation and let me change out her jesses. They say that the whole bond is about food, but I also think that it’s about the time you put in with your bird. After two weeks of very minimal handling to try to break the bond, she was still easy to work with and when I went into her mew Saturday evening to put on her jesses and leash for the last time, she hopped up all the same just like it was any day. I had not intended for this to be my last evening with her, but Hazen suggested that it was better to pull off the band-aid quickly then to spend a sleepless night dreaming about getting up early to release her. Ultimately he was right.

I put Musket in her box and loaded up a pile of chicken necks so she would leave me with a full crop. We drove to this creepy barn where Hazen wants to go one day and take black and white pictures. She was easy as I opened her Giant Hood and guided her on to my fist. Hazen readied the camera, and with my heart in my throat, I cut the anklets loose. On cue, he tossed out her meal and she hesitated before leaving my fist and I had to urge her to go for the fresh meat lying in the grass. I’m sure the hesitation was due to her lack of hunger, but eventually her animal instincts took over; she just cannot pass up a free meal. She glided from my fist to the ground and spent the good part of 10 minutes searching for all the chicken. Eventually she realized that she had found all of the food and finally jumped to a post.

I watched her for a few minutes and then we backed up and drove off. I watched the rear-view mirror as her image disappeared. I am sure that picture will be burned in my brain for the rest of my life. Hazen and I took a little drive and came back just to see if she would still be sitting in the same place, but she was nowhere to be found. I hope she has put herself up in a nice tree to spend the night in. Hopefully she will catch a nice thermal and get the urge to migrate north. Maybe one day soon she’ll make new little red-tail babies of her own. In the meantime, I’ll head back and check on her for at least the next week or so.

We went back the next day and drove up and down the road where we released Musket. On the way we passed two live squirrels and one dead in the road. Maybe she’ll be more successful on her own than she was with me. We searched the tree-line and the power poles, but no sign of Musket. As we headed back, I saw a large soaring raptor, but it was too quick to get a positive ID. Hazen thinks it might have been a red-shouldered hawk, but I’m not so sure… Hopefully I’ll get lucky enough to really see her, at least one more time.

Looking forward, I am excited about the next bird. In September I will try to trap a small male red-tail with big feet. I know so much about training a hawk and I think I can avoid the mistakes that I made with Musket. There’s nothing like living with a red-tail, and I can’t wait to have one of these amazing birds back in my life. Until then, I feel like a small piece of me is out there somewhere and I am starting to wonder if I’ll ever be the same again.

I've posted my release video on YouTube. I should show up on the top of the sidebar to the right of this post.