After thousands of miles, countless hours, a lot of frustration, and some tears; I finally brought home a beautiful little red-tail! We call him Goblin.
After our wonderful vacation to Texas to spend Christmas with Hazen’s family (and seeing tons of beautiful hawks lining the roads) we started back at trapping. Since the days are so short now, we had to wait until New Year’s Day to have the opportunity to get out and look for some birds. As forecasted, New Year’s morning was windy and wet, but it cleared out and turned into a really nice sunny day at about 2pm. After watching the Rose Parade on DVR (I love DVR!), we headed out to look for a bird. Secretly, Hazen and I were thinking, “this time we’ll get one.” I figured that after a bad weather morning, there would be birds all over trying to catch a meal before the sun set. Well, we saw birds, but no juvenile red-tails and the other birds seemed pretty scarce too.
After that day, I was feeling pretty down. Hazen later admitted to me that he felt the same way, but on the outside, we were both trying to remain optimistic even if we felt differently.
Saturday morning came and we got up early and headed south this time. We took the back roads to Ocala—Horse Country. I figured that Ocala would provide lots of open fields and we might have a better chance at seeing a bird. It took us over 2 hours to get down to the Ocala area, and that whole time we saw only 2 adult red-tails where we had seen 8 the night before. I was really starting to get depressed at this point. The way I figured it was this was my last weekend to trap with help since Hazen is teaching a class starting next Saturday. After that I’d be on my own, so I really wanted to catch a bird this time. Also, time is running short for the trapping season, it ends on January 15th.
We hit Ocala and then tried to figure out where to go next. I decided that we should make it a loop and start heading back for home so we took a turn and headed North-west. After we got out of the town of Ocala, we started to hit some open fields. Hazen saw a bird and casually informed me. It took me a second to register and then even longer to get off the road. We were too far away by the time I stopped to get a good ID on it so we made a U-turn and headed back towards it. As we were watching, a person on a bicycle drove right under the bird… d’oh! But it didn’t get scared and stayed put. It was a red-tail, but more than that, it was a juvenile! Hazen identified it before I could through the Kowa spotting scope lovingly passed down to us by Hazen’s folks. (Thanks for the scope, it came in quite handy!)
After making a game-plan, Hazen and I drove across the road to set the trap. (another U-turn) we got a pole’s length away from the bird, threw out the trap, and drove away without frightening the bird (we’re pros at this now). We came back around the road to watch the bird where we could easily drive up and grab him if he went for the bait (2 more U-turns). After about 5 minutes, he looked across the road and left his perch… curses! But he didn’t go far. He landed on a tall stake on the fence-line, not too far away. As we were evaluating our next move, he made a dive for the ground after some small animal concealed in the hedge-row… more curses! After a few minutes, he left the ground and flew, without anything obviously caught in his feet, to a small billboard. Even though he had shunned the bait before, we decided to go for it. I figured that he’d still be in hunting mode at this point. We came around the road (yet again, another U-turn) and set the trap. As we were driving off, he took to the air… I figured that we had spooked him. But I watched him in the rear-view and he was making a B-line for the trap.
I didn’t know what to do so I slowed down and Hazen told me to hurry up and loop around so we could get him. From what I could see in the rear-view, he looked caught… if only we could get to him before he managed to get loose. 2 final U-turns later, I made it back to the trap. Hazen dove out of the truck and leapt on the bird. I ran out, everything looked fine, so I went back to grab my video camera and took a short movie of Hazen with the bird. Little did I know that Hazen did not actually have a hold on the bird, he was just pushing him down, and the bird slipped out of Hazen’s grip. Realizing what was happening, I dove for the bird and in my panic yelled at Hazen to not let him go. Luckily, he was pretty bound up in the trap and I got a good hold of his legs and worked on getting him out of the nooses. About this time, a concerned citizen drove up to offer assistance. He thought the bird was hung up on something and came over to free it. He was very concerned with what we were doing and why we were trapping a bird. He asked if we had proper papers to trap a bird and I assured him that we did and offered to show them to him if he would like to see them. He was still very concerned when he left so I was sure to call our Law Enforcement Dispatch to let them know just in case someone else called with similar concerns. After the man left, we finished getting the bird secured, discovered that we were missing a few essentials like scissors and a towel, but we had enough to secure him safely.
After our wonderful vacation to Texas to spend Christmas with Hazen’s family (and seeing tons of beautiful hawks lining the roads) we started back at trapping. Since the days are so short now, we had to wait until New Year’s Day to have the opportunity to get out and look for some birds. As forecasted, New Year’s morning was windy and wet, but it cleared out and turned into a really nice sunny day at about 2pm. After watching the Rose Parade on DVR (I love DVR!), we headed out to look for a bird. Secretly, Hazen and I were thinking, “this time we’ll get one.” I figured that after a bad weather morning, there would be birds all over trying to catch a meal before the sun set. Well, we saw birds, but no juvenile red-tails and the other birds seemed pretty scarce too.
After that day, I was feeling pretty down. Hazen later admitted to me that he felt the same way, but on the outside, we were both trying to remain optimistic even if we felt differently.
Saturday morning came and we got up early and headed south this time. We took the back roads to Ocala—Horse Country. I figured that Ocala would provide lots of open fields and we might have a better chance at seeing a bird. It took us over 2 hours to get down to the Ocala area, and that whole time we saw only 2 adult red-tails where we had seen 8 the night before. I was really starting to get depressed at this point. The way I figured it was this was my last weekend to trap with help since Hazen is teaching a class starting next Saturday. After that I’d be on my own, so I really wanted to catch a bird this time. Also, time is running short for the trapping season, it ends on January 15th.
We hit Ocala and then tried to figure out where to go next. I decided that we should make it a loop and start heading back for home so we took a turn and headed North-west. After we got out of the town of Ocala, we started to hit some open fields. Hazen saw a bird and casually informed me. It took me a second to register and then even longer to get off the road. We were too far away by the time I stopped to get a good ID on it so we made a U-turn and headed back towards it. As we were watching, a person on a bicycle drove right under the bird… d’oh! But it didn’t get scared and stayed put. It was a red-tail, but more than that, it was a juvenile! Hazen identified it before I could through the Kowa spotting scope lovingly passed down to us by Hazen’s folks. (Thanks for the scope, it came in quite handy!)
After making a game-plan, Hazen and I drove across the road to set the trap. (another U-turn) we got a pole’s length away from the bird, threw out the trap, and drove away without frightening the bird (we’re pros at this now). We came back around the road to watch the bird where we could easily drive up and grab him if he went for the bait (2 more U-turns). After about 5 minutes, he looked across the road and left his perch… curses! But he didn’t go far. He landed on a tall stake on the fence-line, not too far away. As we were evaluating our next move, he made a dive for the ground after some small animal concealed in the hedge-row… more curses! After a few minutes, he left the ground and flew, without anything obviously caught in his feet, to a small billboard. Even though he had shunned the bait before, we decided to go for it. I figured that he’d still be in hunting mode at this point. We came around the road (yet again, another U-turn) and set the trap. As we were driving off, he took to the air… I figured that we had spooked him. But I watched him in the rear-view and he was making a B-line for the trap.
I didn’t know what to do so I slowed down and Hazen told me to hurry up and loop around so we could get him. From what I could see in the rear-view, he looked caught… if only we could get to him before he managed to get loose. 2 final U-turns later, I made it back to the trap. Hazen dove out of the truck and leapt on the bird. I ran out, everything looked fine, so I went back to grab my video camera and took a short movie of Hazen with the bird. Little did I know that Hazen did not actually have a hold on the bird, he was just pushing him down, and the bird slipped out of Hazen’s grip. Realizing what was happening, I dove for the bird and in my panic yelled at Hazen to not let him go. Luckily, he was pretty bound up in the trap and I got a good hold of his legs and worked on getting him out of the nooses. About this time, a concerned citizen drove up to offer assistance. He thought the bird was hung up on something and came over to free it. He was very concerned with what we were doing and why we were trapping a bird. He asked if we had proper papers to trap a bird and I assured him that we did and offered to show them to him if he would like to see them. He was still very concerned when he left so I was sure to call our Law Enforcement Dispatch to let them know just in case someone else called with similar concerns. After the man left, we finished getting the bird secured, discovered that we were missing a few essentials like scissors and a towel, but we had enough to secure him safely.
An hour later, we had him home and in his new outfit. He’s a feisty little guy…perfect light colored male red-tail with large feet and squirrel bites on his toes. This little fellow has probably already hunted squirrels. I can’t wait to see what he does in the field!
On day three now and he still hasn’t been brave enough to take food from my glove. He got really close last night, but couldn’t quite make that extra effort. I’m sure he’ll eat tonight though, then we can really start training! He’s coming around nicely; I can see little improvements every time I handle him. Thank you everyone for listening to my whining for the last few months. I’m on cloud 9 right now, all that hard work has finally paid off and I learned a lot about trapping a bird too.
On day three now and he still hasn’t been brave enough to take food from my glove. He got really close last night, but couldn’t quite make that extra effort. I’m sure he’ll eat tonight though, then we can really start training! He’s coming around nicely; I can see little improvements every time I handle him. Thank you everyone for listening to my whining for the last few months. I’m on cloud 9 right now, all that hard work has finally paid off and I learned a lot about trapping a bird too.
I doubt the Snuggie Corporation ever envisioned their product being used while manning a hawk!
Thanks for the perch Mom and Dad!!
Hazen with Goblin on the trap. Unknown to me at this point, he doesn't have a good grip on the bird.
First time on the glove.
Goblin is quite the fighter. Even not being able to see, he still tried to bite and claw at our voices. I'm fully impressed with his ferocity.
2 comments:
Great looking hawk Anni!! I wish we were around more to spend time with you guys.
Congratulations. How exciting. The last video is hilarious. Hazen is so funny! Good luck with your ferocious bird!
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