Selling Falconry Bells at the 2004 NAFA Field Meet

The 2004 NAFA Field Meet

I've just returned from attending the 2004 NAFA (North American Falconry Association) Field Meet in Garden City, Kansas. It was an adventure-filled week . . . and I had a very good time, but I'm glad to be home!

The next few posts will cover everything that went on during the past week.


I left for the field meet on Saturday, November 20. The total trip would take about 16 hours, so I had to break it up into two days. Saturday traveling is fairly easy, as there are many good radio shows on NPR to listen all day to. And Shawn had recorded some Coast to Coast shows (you know . . . middle of the night, Art Bell stuff!) After a good night of sleep, and a little help loading the car, I was off.

I stopped the first night in Liberty, Missouri . . . a suburb outside of Kansas City. Not a great hotel, but a clean bed . . . which is all I needed. Up early, and I was on the road again. I drove through Kansas City at 6 in the morning, which is a good time to go through a large city. Even then, they didn't have their roads marked very well, because they had construction on the exit for I70, and I missed the detour. So, a bit of driving around, pulling out the map, bitching some, I found my way out of Kansas City, and continued on my way through Kansas.

As I neared Garden City, it became very foggy, and misty. And for the first two days I was in Garden City, it was very wet and wintery. I located my hotel, but continued down the road and found the Plaza Hotel. The weathering yard in the back, full of raptors on their various bow perches and blocks, confirmed I was in the right place. I parked, and immediately hauled out my own bow perch and put Pente out to weather . . . she'd been in her box for 2 days! A little fresh air and space to stretch her wings would be good. I went in, checked around, registered for the meet and picked up my loot (meet print, mug, pin) and then went to go check into my own hotel. I was staying at the AmericInn . . . and it was a very nice place!! King-sized bed, large roomy bathroom, refrigerator, microwave, full breakfast every morning . . . everything I'd need for a week-long stay. I settled in, got dressed up, and went back over to the Plaza Hotel for the opening night activities. I looked real cute taking my dress shoes off, and doning snow boots, with my nice outfit on, and then tramping across the very muddy weathering yard to retreive my hawk and put her in her box. That evening was also the first night for vendor sales. I was selling Dave's bells, in his absence. And that first night was the best night of the whole meet! I sold 24 the first night.

I met up with Sharon Hartshorn, the falconer from New Mexico I have been corresponding with, and her husband. She has a very nice web site herself that I've been reading for the last few years. If you've never visited, you should. But it is a lot of reading!! The web address is: http://www.spiritwind.cc/hawke/falconry/falconry.html. We went out to dinner, and got to know each other a bit. We agreed to start hawking together the next day, she and her two birds Zephyr, the redtail, and PeeWee, the harris hawk. A quick stop at Wal-Mart after dinner, and we picked up our $70 hunting license for Kansas. WOW!! Not Cheap!! Better catch lots of bunnies to make it worth it!

The evening ended late . . . as every evening did. I slept well in my very large bed!

There are no rabbits in Necedah!!

But there are squirrels. Even still, I didn't bring one home tonight. Which is just as well. The nice bonus of not catching anything is that when you get home you don't have to clean and cut up any game.

I left work a little early today to get Pente out for some exercise. We checked out a lot of the little wood lots in Necedah, next to the golf course. Pente found a mouse right at the beginning . . . and in fact carried it up to a tree to eat. But after much tramping around in the increasingly darker, misty afternoon, I was just about ready to call her down, when I heard her down on the ground behind me. There was a strange squeeking noise, and I didn't realize it was something she had caught. I came back up the hill just in time to see her moving around on the ground, and then see a squirrel escape back up the tree. It was moving a little slow, so I think she might have hurt it. But apparently she didn't have a good enough grip on it to keep it from getting away. I checked the tree out for her, whacking it with my stick, but it was a very large tree, and there was a crack in it, where the squirrel most likely was hidden. Pente moved from branch to branch, looking for her dinner that got away. She was frustrated. I thumped the tree for a bit, and let her flip around a bit to let go of some of her frustration, and then I called her down to the lure, packed her up, and got going home. As I pulled out of the park where I had left my car, there was a squirrel running across the lawn. Darn . . . if I'd only seen that about 10 minutes earlier!

BTW . . . today I also tried to trap some sparrows at work. I'm using one of my 'green' canaries as bait. A couple birds got pretty close. Maybe tomorrow I'll catch at least one. I'll use the sparrows to 'enter' Rigel to hunting them. Sometime later I might use Kookla, my pet starling, to trap some wild starlings. But I might also seek some guidance down in Kansas from any falconer who works with kestrels, and is willing to give me some tips.

Getting Ready for NAFA

Let me quickly wrap up everything else that has been going on over the last week or so, as I soon will not have a lot of time to write in my blog. But I'll have to update everything when I get back. I leave next Saturday, 11/20 to drive down to Kansas. I'm going to travel during the daytime, and stop Saturday night in Liberty, MO. I'll finish up the trip on Sunday morning. This is going to be lots of fun, and quite a bit of an adventure. I've driven to birdshows before by myself, to far flung cities, and been gone for a weekend, but never a whole week. I'm looking forward to hawking all week, and the guest speakers each night, and I hope to make lots of contacts, and maybe a few friends. I think my husband and my girlfriend get a bit tired of listening to me talk "hawk, hawk, hawk" all the time. I'd be nice to make some friends that don't mind the subject, and won't get bored with it. I was going to caravan down to Kansas with Dave and his wife, but their life is a bit busy right now, so they can't go. I'll miss the company on the road, and hawking. Dave is sending his bell box with me, so I should meet a lot of folks while selling his quality bells!

I really look forward to trying Pente out on black-tailed jackrabbits. She's been really hot lately, and I'm optimistic about her abilities. I took her out hawking last Monday, after work, in one of the local towns, Mauston. There is a large open field right in the middle of town. We began to work that patch, and hadn't been out for much more than a half hour, when I flushed a cottontail. Pente was on it, no questions asked. It was her first bunny of the year. I took that one home, cleaned it up, and then gave it to my girlfriend. She's going to make some rabbit stew out of it sometime soon.

I took Pente out again on Thursday, I think it was, back behind my workplace. It's not great rabbitat . . . but there is at least one bunny out there. Pente flushed one herself early on, but missed it completely. Then later, on the return trip back I think I flushed the same bunny. Again, Pente was not in position to take advantage of the situation. But she did crash the brush a bit, and came away with a mouse. It was a nice walk.

I took her out again on Saturday, meeting up with Jason from work (a co-worker who is interested in falconry, but knows he just doesn't have time in his life right now) and Bill Oakes. I got to see KC, Bill's Harris's Hawk, for the first time this year. We worked a thick patch of woods in the middle of Tomah. There are quite a few bunnies in that brushy area, and you do work to move them around. But after about a half hour, Pente contacted with one of them, and right in front of me. So, that's bunny #2, added to squirrel #1, and she's doing very good so far. I'm looking forward to Kansas.

Then Bill flew KC. Poor KC! She's a desert hawk, and she's not sure what to do about all these trees around here. She's got a lot to learn, hunting so far away from her native home. I'm not sure how much longer Bill will be able to fly her either with the cold. Harris's Hawks are truly a desert hawk. They don't take the cold so well. And it is now starting to get pretty cold! Winter is just around the corner.

Well, I think I'll take my big Amazon Bird out tomorrow, somewhere. Not sure yet, but it would be nice for her to practice some more, before we go down to Kansas and chase those big jacks.

Rigel is Flying Free Too!

In the last couple weeks I have been working with my little kestrel, mostly indoors. But sometimes I'll take him outside and 'relay' him back and forth with whatever assistant I can find to help me. Usually it's my husband. But finally I took the risk, and cut him loose. He just continued to fly like he was still tethered. He doesn't want to let me out of his sight . . . because now he's conditioned to think of me as his source of food. That might be a problem as I need to get him more focused on hunting, and not getting tidbits from me.

The other day I flew him free around the yard, casting him off my hand so he was forced to fly, or take a perch somewhere, and then calling him to the fist a short time and distance later. I realized sometime later too that I was guilty of torturing my redtail while I was doing this. I was calling Rigel to the fist with my whistle, the same one I use for Pente. I had walked around my yard, and had walked in front of her mews, although some distance from it. She could see me calling the little bird to me . . . but as far as she was concerned, I was calling her . . . and she couldn't get out of the mews to get to me. She was throwing herself up against the wall, and generally having quite a fit. I'll make sure to not do that again! Rigel practically doesn't need a whistle call anyway. He's always watching my hand to see if I'm offering food.

I took him to work today, and we walked around the plant during my morning break, and at lunch. We have house sparrows in the bushes by my plant. We tried for them a couple times, and I did flush them for Rigel a few times. But he either is just not hungry enough to try for them, or possibly, he doesn't know that he can take winged quarry. I might have to set up a situation to prove otherwise to him. However, it was a nice, clear blue sky day. It was a nice walk, and even more enjoyable to have this kestrel flying around me, moving from perch to perch. Such a wonderful hobby! I'm so happy I found it . . . and found people to train me in the proper practice of it.

Trapping

During last week I was invited to go trapping with Bill Oakes, one of the two master level falconers I'm fortunate to know, and to have as a falconry friend and mentor. He's trying to trap a new redtail to train this year. His second cousin Tim also came along for the adventure. Tim is 12, and has seen Harry Potter. He currently has a love affair going on for owls . . . but I think he also is increasingly liking hawks. Perhaps he will join falconry at a proper age to do so. In Wisconsin, you have to be 14. Wish I could have started at 14 . . . instead of 37!

Anyway . . . the other 'guest' that came along with us that day was Murphy. You know which Murphy I mean!!

Our day started off with Bill and I missing each other due to a mis-communication. He was waiting at one exit off the freeway, while I was at another. Fortunately, we both had cell phones, and were able to link up through Bill's wife, who was still at home. We lost a little time there, but finally found each other, and headed down to Janesville, where there is a pheasant farm that pulls redtails out of the sky (and other birds, like coopers hawks). When we got to Janesville we took the wrong exit, so lost some more time driving through the town, looking for the pheasant farm. At the farm, Bill was going to purchase a couple of game birds for the traps. We had brought gerbils, but he wanted to use a chukar, or hungarian partridge, for his bow trap, and also for my BC, which was big enough. However, the office informed us that he should have requested those 3 days before. Bill used his best negotiating skills, and his charm, and was able to get them to agree to catch a couple birds for him . . . but we would not be able to get them until after noon. Well, our day would almost be over by then, as we had to leave at 2:00 in order for me to get home to get to my hunter safety course, but he agreed. Then and only then did we finally get to go into the farm to begin trapping.

We saw a passage bird immediately outside the office, sitting on an electric pole. Bill put his first trap down, and eventually the bird did fly by to check it out, but seemed wary, and never came to the ground. We then moved into the farm and began working in earnest. We drove around the area, circling around the large pens, looking for opportunities. There were passage birds around, but not incredible numbers of them. My trap did eventually catch three birds that day . . . however it only caught one bird permanently. Two of the captures the hawk managed to break free when we were moving from the car to secure the bird. I'll have to work with the trap to see if I can improve that! Unfortunately, the bird we did catch soundly also was not a good candidate. He had a lot of broken feathers on one wing . . . no knowing what he had come up against to sustain such damage. Bill was not interested in imping right off the start, so he let the bird go. However, this bird was also 'kind' enough to hand out a little lesson to me. Bill caught the bird initially from the trap, and asked for some help as he freed the nooses. However, due to bad timing, or lack of caution, I got footed. For you non-falconry folks . . . that means the beast grabbed onto my hand and punctured me with his talons. It was not a pleasant experience. Fortunately, Bill was there to help free me from this raptor's handshake. I had a good sized slash on my palm, and a couple of pokes on the other side, but no major damage. Just to my pride! Well, if you deal with raptors, you are going to get hurt sometimes. Next time I'll be more cautious.

At the end of the day, Bill came home empty-handed. He continues to this day to try and trap a new hunting companion. He has until December 31st to succeed.

Overall, though, it was a very nice day. Trapping is a lot of fun . . . and the company was first rate!

Catch Up!!

Again, how time flies

It has been a very busy couple of weeks, and I have not had too much opportunity to post to my blog. So, let me hit the high points.

Last week, October 2 through 6 I drove to Marshfield every evening to attend a Hunter Safety Course. Saturday the 6th was in the morning. I found out that it is required that anyone born after 1957 has to have this course in order to get a hunting license in Kansas. Fortunately, I was able to locate a class and take it, so there will be no problem with me going to Kansas, and hunting my birds.

The main thing they want you to learn from the class is the 4 main hunting safety rules. Because I'm not hunting with a gun . . . I've made a few changes to the rules, just for fun.

#1 Muzzle control . . . always be aware of where your firearm is pointing.

For falconry, that would be beak control. Always know where that pecker is facing. Or maybe that could be referring to the nether regions of the hawk. Standing in the wrong direction when the hawk slices can be a very bad thing!

#2 Treat every firearm as though it is loaded.

For falconry . . . well, treat every hawk as though it is loaded . . . because it is! Talons, beak, the aforementioned nether regions!

#3 Always be aware of your target, and the surrounding area.

For falconry . . . be aware of your hawks target. Keep away from chickens, poodles, small children!

#4 Keep your finger outside of the trigger guard only until you are ready to fire.

For falconry . . . hmmmm . . . there is no trigger to guard, other than the jesses. OK, hang onto those jesses, until you are ready to cast off your bird at game.

So there . . . just a little fun! I passed the course, no problem, and fired a .22. Did just fine there too.

On Friday evening I brought Rigel to class, and he was a hit, especially with all the boys in the class. Most of my fellow class mates were about 12 years old! But some of the dads were interested too! I brought Pente on Saturday . . . and she was even more impressive.


After the final class on Saturday AM, I drove around Marshfield a bit, looking for hunting spots. I then visited Wal-Mart (aka 'the Evil Empire') and purchased goodies for the bird club meeting. It was my turn to host . . . but I was unable to have it in my home, as I had to be in Marshfield at 8:00 that morning. So we had it at the library . . . which is fine with me, because then I didn't have to clean my house. YEAH!! So, after the meeting, I showed off my two birds to the bird club members, and flew Rigel in the parking lot of the library. We attracted attention from other library-goers.

Once the meeting was done, I took Pente to one of the woody locations I had found. At first I thought it might have bunnies, but I never spotted even one. Quite a lot of the area had very thick, tall marsh grass. But I had seen a squirrel when I first arrived, so that held out some promise. After working what brushy areas there were, and swimming through some of the thick grass, I began to move through the trees, thinking to work my way back to the car. But a fortunate glance up, and I saw a squirrel. I moved over to the tree where it was at and began hitting the tree with my stick and 'ho-ho-ing'. Pente quickly flew over and took a perch somewhere between where I was on the ground and the squirrel above. She was looking at me as if to say, "Hey, where do you see a rabbit?" I kept hitting the tree, and looking up, and finally she did too, and oh, then she saw the target. She quickly took a higher perch, above the squirrel and then began to pressure it down the tree. The rodent was in a bit of a hard spot, as he couldn't come down to the ground, because I was there, but couldn't go back up because of the hawk. Pente then pressured it very hard, and it dodged as she dove down the tree. She hit the ground, as squirrel made its way back up the tree. At this point I noticed another tree with 3 squirrels in it. So, I called Pente up to my fist, and cast her off in that direction, and followed her. This time she picked a squirrel that was high up in the tree, and she pressured it out to the small branches. It was then just a matter of diving in on it, and catching it. What she did then was really quite impressive. She just folded her wings up over her body, and parachuted down to the ground. I was so excited when I arrived to where she was. Our first head of game, and it was a squirrel. She's never taken a squirrel before with me. What a wonderful way to start the year. I dispatched her prize, secured her on a leash, then traded her off on the food I had on the lure. I hoped to take a picture later with her and her first squirrel, but was unable to.

The hunting season begins . . . and is off to a very good start!!