My Hawking Companions Today. From left to right: Dave Zilker, Dave Noble, Myself, and Mike Barlow. Thanks Guys for a Great Day!! 

Myself, the Lady Hawker, and Abby, my newly entered hunting hawk! 

Dave N. and Giddy 

Dave Z. and Honey 

Mike and Ruby 

A Most Excellent Day . . . and Burdock Part II

Sometimes I am in awe, and feel most fortunate to have found falconry, and to have been mentored into its fraternity where there are such outstanding people. Perhaps it may simply be that the one who taught me is such an outstanding person, who associates with others of the same personality, or perhaps, just maybe, the whole art of falconry, and the demands it makes upon those involved, makes for people of high character, responsibility, integrity and honor.

I had a most excellent day today hawking in Sun Prairie with Dave Noble, my sponsor, his good friend, Dave Zilker, and a new gentleman I've not met previously, Mike Barlow. We each flew our birds, all red tails, and every bird took a bunny today, with Dave's bird scoring a double.

We flew Mike's bird, Ruby, first. We started at the field they refer to as "Enzo's Field", a brushy slope, rising up onto a tree and brush covered hill, where there are many bunnies. This is the location where, unfortunately, a good friend of these gentlemen, and a falconer, passed away some few years ago from a heart attack, as he was about to enter the field to hawk. The place is indelibly etched into the memory, because of a terribly tragic event.

We were uncertain if we would be able to hunt this location, for as we walked up the hill, and Mike was about to release his bird, we heard a hunter's whistle, and saw dogs up on the hill. But after awhile we observed that the dogs moved off, and were called by their master to leave. So Mike put his bird up. We worked the hill some, and then pushed the brush on the slope pretty hard. After a short time Ruby flew out over us, and took a tree some distance away. And from here she then dove from her tree, and did not come back up. Mike went to investigate, and then informed us that she caught a bunny. So the first bird had success! We decided to move fields now.

We stopped for some lunch then went to the same field I hunted with Dave and his friends during the Wisconsin Falconry Meet two weekends ago. Dave Zilker hunted his bird, Honey, next. And a honey of a bird she is! She moved around, following her falconer, having about 5 slips, before connecting with her bunny, the second one of the day for the group, out in an open field. Dave Noble followed suit, with his bird, Giddy, and she caught her bunny among the briars, holding onto it through all the briars. In fact, she had crashed this bunny, and missed the first time, only to come back up and crash again, this time getting her bunny. So, three birds, and three bunnies. The luck was in the air!

I took Abby out to hunt, and hoped the luck would extend to us as well. At first, when I cast her off, she very quickly discovered a rotting deer carcase. Great! Just what I need! A bird cropping up on carrion. And she would have been happy to do so. I quickly lifted her up, and walked her away. The guys covered up the deer so she wouldn't see it. I then put her up a tree, and she slowly moved to a nice high perch, so she could watch the entire field. We all moved around, working the field, but she didn't see anything. After awhile, she did fly from her tree towards a tree line, and took a good perch. So we all moved, and began pushing towards her direction. At this point, I made my mistake for the day, and decided to carefully push through a large thicket of burdock. I should have known better! I did manage to get a bit into my hair, but most importantly, about this time, I saw Abby crash straight down, and I knew I needed to go find out if she caught anything. I hurried out of the burdock plantation a bit too quickly, and not as carefully, and managed to take several burrs across my face. I would spend a good portion of the following evening pulling splinters from my face. But at the time I didn't care, for as I raced across the field, and went over the fence, there my Abby was, in the thick brush, holding her first head of game. I lifted her out, as the other three falconers joined me. I was able to transfer her onto her lure, and very shortly, I had a fresh bunny in the pouch in the back of my vest. BUNNY #1 for Abby!! She is now officially entered as a game hawk!! After some teasing from the guys, and pulling burdock from my hair, we packed up and decided to move down the street and explore a new field, and see if Giddy would take a second bunny.

The new field did turn out to be pretty good, and we didn't even work much of it. In pretty short order Giddy grabbed a second bunny among the cattails. She's quite an awesome bird, but she has a good falconer who was able to make the most of her natural talents. She might have gone for a triple, but our time was running short, and we had to leave. We returned to Dave Z.'s house and sorted out all our stuff, but not before I was able to get everyone to line up so we could take a picture.

A Most Excellent Day, regardless of the splinters in my face. Such days are the happy memories we take with us, of excellent birds, and good friends! Most fortunate I am to be a part of falconry!

Stealth Bunnies

Tuesday there was no hunting, as I had previous plans with friends. We went to see Fiddler on the Roof in La Crosse. It is a Broadway production, making the tour of the country, and stopping in our neck of the woods for the night. It was very good, and much enjoyed with friends, but there was no time to take the bird out. In fact, there wasn’t much time for anything! We got home very late, so I was sleepy on Wednesday, having only caught about 4 hours of sleep. But that didn’t stop me Wednesday night.

I took Abby out to a field that is across from the location I was at on Monday. Not as good a location, but there was plenty of rabbit sign. But all those bunnies were stealthy, and under cover. We didn’t flush even one. And at one point, Abby took off and flew across the Interstate, which runs along these fields. I was worried, just a bit, first because I don’t have any telemetry on her (a replacement antenna is on order), and second, I was concerned that she might fly back to my side, when I called her, too low and risk getting smacked by a truck. Fortunately, I saw the tree she landed in. She laddered up after awhile, and then I guess decided the grass really wasn’t much greener on that side of the Interstate, so flew back, missing any collisions. I continued to work the field just a bit longer, but because it was getting late, called her to the lure, and went home. Still no bunnies.

Thursday night is ‘Girl’s Night’ with my best friend, Jill. And although we (collectively, the falconers that I know) now speculate that Abby might possibly not be female, but instead a large male, I shall not change her name to Abner, nor will I deviate from referring to the bird in the female gender, nor will she be invited to go with us tonight. Chocolate is certainly not good for hawks, nor is coffee, both of which are usual items to be pursued, subdued and consumed on ‘Girl’s Night’!

Abby and I can go out on Friday, and this weekend . . . in search of more appropriate quarry for her hawkish appetites.

Pushing Bunnies

On Monday evening, I hurried home from work so I could take Abby out to fly. I’ve missed so much of the hawking season, I need to make the best of the time left. And it is really important that Abby catch her first head of game, so she is truly entered into being a game hawk.

I decided to work a small patch of woods across from the Camp Douglas Travel Mart. This runs just alongside the exit ramp to the freeway. It is deceptive to look at, but actually quite a large patch of trees when you walk it, with lots of thick brush, and fallen down trees. Many places for bunnies to hide. Pente took a rabbit in this spot last year in minutes flat . . . but Abby is no Pente! There is also fresh snow, so it makes movement by the falconer a bit harder too. However, I could see lots of fresh sign, so there were definitely bunnies in this patch.

Within a few minutes I did flush the first rabbit. Abby proceeded to fly hither and yon in this small patch, moving around, up and down, all around. She got a lot of flying in. We must have had about 8 slips, but it was possibly some of the same rabbits being pushed back and forth. And I was able to observe that she seems to have pretty bad timing. I don’t know if she might just be naturally this way, or if those three missing primaries in her left wing unbalances her, causing her to miss. But she missed every time.

The very last slip of the evening was one I thought surely she should have caught. I had finally tired of pushing bunnies back and forth, and it was starting to get dark. So I left the patch of woods, and worked the edge along the fence. As I pushed around the fence, I must have pushed forward a single bunny. Abby spotted it and came zipping from the woods and smacked down, just behind bunny . . . who moved off rather slowly I thought. I ran over and picked Abby up, and pushed the rest of the thick grass, hoping the bunny hadn’t gotten too far, but it must have found a hiding spot somewhere, or escaped out of the field all together when I wasn’t looking. Either way, no bunnies today.

I cast Abby off back to the trees, and then called her down to the lure. It was a good session . . . I was tired, and she had a lot of good flying in. No bunnies yet . . . but we’ll keep on trying!

All 'braided' up with burdock 

Burdock

Arctium lappa – so says my guidebook on plants and herbs. Apparently a nutritious plant, when harvested in its first year, before the thistles have formed. And also, by a search of the Internet, a most useful medicinal plant, with root, leaves and seed all being beneficial.

Well . . . to the interested person . . . they are welcome to my allotment of this noxious weed! Unfortunately, it is also a common plant often found in places where bunnies like to hide. And I always seem to find it!

This past Saturday, I was out with Dave and Bill, and Bill’s second cousin, Tim, to hunt our birds. This would be Abby’s first true hunt, away from my yard, and with people around. She weighed in at 38.2 oz, and she was very focused. We started in the Sparta area.

We flew Dave’s bird, Giddy, first. And in very short order, she smashed a rabbit that we had chased around a bit. We then changed locations to fly Abby. My new girl is still not real clear on the whole process, but she’s learning. I had to resort to casting her off by her jesses towards the trees to get her to go take a perch. She kept making short flights from me to the ground, and wondering when I would give her something to eat. But once we had her up the tree, and we started to work the ditch (that was horribly clogged with burdock) she saw the rabbit flush, and followed it up the ditch to another perch. Now she was catching on. She moved a couple times, following the progress of the rabbit as we moved it. However, when she had come back to my fist and wasn’t watching, I saw the rabbit go up the side of the hill, onto the road, cross across the bridge, then down the other side, and into a large brush pile. Well . . . this bunny certainly knew its territory. So we moved over that way. I held Abby up on my fist on the bridge, facing down at the pile, as Dave went and stomped on the pile. Bunny bolted, and Abby was after it. But at the last moment the bunny changed course, and Abby missed it. It proceeded to run under the bridge, and onto the other side, where the ‘No Tresspassing’ signs kept us from following. Well . . . she certainly showed that she knows her business. I’ll just have to keep trying to flush game under her.

In the meantime, while chasing said bunny around this ditch, I picked up a massive number of burdock burs . . . . all over my clothes, and worst, in my hair. Now I have mid length hair, which was recently permed, so its wavy and tangles easily. Introduce burdock into it . . . and what a mess. The guys stood around helplessly as I yanked and pulled the burs from my head. Fortunately, I did have a comb to use, and it helped, but I really needed to see what I was doing to make progress. So we took a break, and went to the local Kwik Trip, and I used their bathroom to work the burs free. Unfortunately, I also ended up pulling a hunk of hair out with the worst bur, that had tangled itself down next to my scalp. OUCH!! I also picked up multiple splinters on my arms. I’m going to have to get some kind of canvas coat, like my coveralls, to protect my arms while in the field.

After my ordeal with the burdock, we moved back to the Tomah area, in search of more bunnies. We tried a couple fields, and did flush a rabbit or two, all of which Abby did chase, but she never got a good slip on them. And while at one of these fields, she managed to knock her antenna off of her transmitter. Without the antenna, it doesn’t work. Dave was kind enough to let me use his. I’ll have to buy a new antenna!

By the end of the day, and having changed fields again, Abby had several opportunities to take her first head of game. Dave scored her an A for effort . . . but withheld an A+, as that would only have been earned if she had caught a bunny. The day was getting late, so I called her down to the lure, to which she responded very quickly. She had a really good workout . . . and we had covered a lot of territory. The bunnies are just all winter survivors, and a bit more cunning. I’ll keep trying until she gets that coveted first kill.

In the meantime . . . I’m recovering from burdock punctures. After much Caladryl, and some time spent pulling barbs from my clothing . . . I have come to the conclusion . . . that I HATE BURDOCK!!

In order from left to right: Mark Snyder, Danny Denham, Dave Noble, Myself . . . The Lady Hawker, and Gary Brewer 

2005 Wisconsin Falconry Meet

I have been so busy in these last couple weeks actually living my life, that I've not had time to write about it in this blog. Mostly, my evenings have been occupied with training Abby, and then going about my evening duties and responsibilities at home, that I've not had much time for the computer. However, today, a winter storm comes through the upper midwest, and driving is not advised. It is a quiet morning, the dogs lay about my feet, wondering if I'm ever going to get up and feed them. Shawn snores in the next room. A good time to catch up on a few things.

On the weekend of February 12 I attended the 2005 Wisconsin Falconry Meet. There were actually some hawking activities on Friday, but with just certain club members who had gone down to Sun Prairie early to pick up the guest speaker. The first day of the meet really was Saturday. Besides, I had to work on Friday, so couldn't come down then.

I was fortunate enough to receive an invitation to join Dave Noble and his friends for Saturday hawking. As a fair newbie to the sport, to be included in such a group, composed of over 120 years (at least) of experience is to say the least, flattering. I hooked up with the group on Saturday morning at the McGoverns Hotel in Sun Prairie. We all then went to breakfast. That is, they had breakfast, I had tea, as I had already eaten earlier in the morning. Our hawking party consisted of Dave Noble, my sponsor into falconry, his friend Mark Snyder, from Illinois, another friend of his, Danny Denham, a truly hard-core hawker from Kentucky, and the guest speaker, Gary Brewer, a notorious squirrel hawker from Texas. After breakfast we all loaded up and went looking for a field to fly birds. Dave brought his bird, Giddy to fly. Mark had One along to catch some Wisconsin bunnies as well. Unfortunately, Danny's bird had sustained an injury previously, as she was dispatching some Kentucky varmit, so did not accompany her falconer to Wisconsin. And because he took a plane to our location, Gary did not have a bird either. At this point, Abby was not quite ready to fly free, as I will cover later. So just 2 birds to fly.

Dave located a field just west of Sun Prairie. When he stopped to check for rabbit sign, he came back stating the field was "just lousy" with them . . . as in lots and lots of rabbit sign! So we got out, geared up, and went hawking. It was shaping up to be a really nice day. Clear blue sky, 30s to 40s. The field was just full of rabbits. Both birds were flown, and in pretty short order, both birds took a bunny. The field, however, is terribly overgrown with burdock . . . a plant which I'm increasingly coming to hate! It clings to everything, tangling in hair, and feathers, and flesh. But usually, where there is burdock, there are bunnies!

We returned from the morning hawking outing to the parking lot at McGoverns. There I shared my bagels with the hawking group that I had picked up that morning in Madison, on my way to the meet. Einsteins Bagels . . . some of the best! Generally a usual stop in Madison when I visit. My fellow hawkers seemed to agree they were pretty good . . . as they diappeared pretty quick. I then did a little training with Abby, who I had brought. I did so in front of all 4 Master Level falconers, which can be a bit intimidating, to say the least. However, to do so also exposes you to their experience. I received many good tips and suggestions on improving behavior and performance of my bird. But they all jointly agreed she was not safe to fly free on this day.

Sometime shortly after this, we all headed out to the falconry demonstration. Several members of the Wisconsin Club would fly their birds on bagged game. Always a treat to see longwings in action, as I have never been invited to join a real hunt with longwings. And after the demonstration, the group I was with was invited to join another falconer, Steve Kaufer, as he flew his goshawk, Mina, at pheasant and rabbit and ducks. Dave stated, in his experience, that Steve would rank in the top 1% of the falconry community. His job allows him the time to take his birds out several days a week, for the entire day, and that he has brought their training to a level not frequently approached by most in the falconry community. On this day I saw his gos take a pheasant (well, I didn't actually see it, I was looking away for just a moment at the key time, and the gos is terribly fast!!), a rabbit, and make a good attempt at ducks. So accomplished is she and her falconer, that he mostly engages now in 'catch and release' falconry. Steve is able to remove Mina from whatever she catches easily, before any real damage is done, and the quarry is released to live another day. Dave tells me that she took some ducks on the previous day. So wonderful to see such a fine working team!

The day was now getting late, and as we returned to McGoverns, I decided to see if there were any vacancies, and I would stay the night, instead of driving home after the evening program. Fortunately, there were still rooms available, so I purchased one for the night. I had just enough time to change clothes, before all 4 of my hawking team were at my door, knocking, wanting to go to dinner. It was a lovely evening, sharing conversation with so many experienced falconers! I must admit, this Lady Hawker was most certainly enjoying the company!

The evening program followed dinner. Our guest, Gary Brewer, spoke in length of his experience hunting the red-tailed hawk. It was informative, and inspirational. As a late-comer to falconry, I guess in years past the red-tailed hawk has not always had a very good reputation as a hunting bird. However, through the work of people such as Gary, her abilities have been demonstrated to be most superb in the realms of falconry, when you work with her, and learn how to fly her. For myself, I have only truly worked with the Red-Tail, and it is a most appropriate bird for my environment. She is hardy, she is valiant, a truly all purpose game hawk. But I am still a newbie! In years to come I might then also expeience some of the other birds commonly used in falconry, and might form another opinion, though I somehow doubt it. But for the foreseeable future, my fate lay with the red tail!

The evening wrapped up with the raffle, of which I only won a shirt. Oh well . . . can't win every time! Then a small group assembled at the bar, and watched some videos of hawking. After awhile, though, the days activities were catching up with me, and it was definitely time to get to bed. So, say good night to everyone, and head to my room for some sleep.

The next morning I was up and dressed and in the parking lot at 6:45. I was told we would meet at 7:00, and I would not be accused of holding up any of these guys. As it turned out, I was the first one up . . . and they were all late! So, I took advantage of the time, and sorted out my stuff in the car, and let Abby weather a bit. We attracted the attention of all the local crows, who assembled at the tops of the trees, and cawed their silly heads off for awhile.

Once all the guys did wake up and come stumbling out of their rooms, we headed off for breakfast. I managed on this morning to have breakfast with about 9 men. I guess this was significant enough that one of the workers at the restaurant found it necessary to come over and state to me that I must be "a lucky lady" to have all these men having breakfast with me. Well, it was interesting to listen to them all talk about falconry, and know that I did belong in the group, as I too am a falconer, just that I didn't have a bird ready to fly that weekend . . . but soon I will! I also note, that though I had breakfast with all these men, I did buy my own breakfast! Mind you, not that I expected anyone to pick it up! ;-)

The final activity of the meet was a mob of hawkers going out to see some red tails fly. Dave would fly Giddy, and another member of the club flew his bird. Unfortunately, I did not get his name, or his bird's name. Sunday was not nearly so nice, weather wise. It was colder, and as the day wore on, it began to sleet. But we did see Giddy take another bunny, and at the end of it all, Steve flew his gos, who also caught a bunny. A nice wrap up to a good meet. Dave's group, however, had to leave to get back to the hotel, to take Gary to the airport to catch his plane going home. I was able to get all these hawkers to line up for a few minutes, to get a picture to remember the weekend by.

A very good time, this weekend, and good memories! I feel very fortunate to have such people to learn this most ancient sport from . . . and that they don't hold it against me that I'm a woman, participating in this mostly male-dominated sport.

A Most Excellent Session

Today had to be the best session yet that I've experienced with Abby. Her lessons are coming together, and soon, very soon, I'll be ready to attach the telemetry, and try flying her free. But not for a few more days.

The last few days I've been reinforcing lure training. It is very important that she has a keen attraction to this most important 'insurance policy'. However, today I wanted to test her out on distance for the creance. And distance to the lure.

I've been working with her on the road that runs in front of my home. It is a country road with very minimal traffic. It allows me to use the creance with no problem of it tangling, but is also far enough away from all the large trees on my property. The last place that I usually work my hawks is a nearby park (Nelson Park) that allows me to use the double over of the creance, for a full 100 yards of distance. I will also usually test my hawks with a crowd of people. When they ignore all that, and come to my call, I know they are safe to fly free.

Her weight, pre-training, was 2 lbs, 9.2 oz (41.2 oz). This is her lowest weight yet. She's been spending time in her weathering yard, and does a lot of bating when in there. I've watched her from inside the house, and discovered that she is quite capable of returning to the bow perch, if she wants to. But instead she chooses to remain on the ground after a bate. The cold on her feet (standing in ice and snow) and the repeated bates causes her to burn her calories, so she's ready for training every day.

I set her up, and upon my first call, she hopped right to the fist. I then ran out to about 1/4 the distance of the creance. She paused for only a short time, thinking about the distance, and then came to my call. OK, out to half the creance. Again, pretty quick response. Big test now, run all the distance of the creance (50 yards). She came with very little hesitation. I then decided to test her lure response while she was still hungry. I went out half the distance of the creance, and swung the lure. She came off her perch right away, and landed a short distance from the lure, and then walked the rest and footed the lure. I came to stand next to her while she pulled the mouse off the lure and ate it. It is important for her to also be comfortable with me standing right next to her while she eats on the ground, and for her to know that I will not steal her food from her. When she was done with her mouse, I called her up to my fist for a tidbit, and stepped over the lure so I could pick it up and tuck it back into my bag. I returned her to her perch, and went out the full distance of the creance. I then swung it one more time, with a small hunk of rabbit. She responded, but did fly over me and landed a short distance on the ground behind me. But she did then walk to the lure and eat the rabbit attached.

There is still more work to do, to perfect her responses, but today I saw definite progress. Today is day 25 since trapping. It is amazing the changes from a frightened hawk on the trap, to one who responds quickly, and flies willingly to me for her food reward. Many techniques, some ancient, some modern, to change a wild creature's response to a willing hunting partner. Soon, very soon we'll be out chasing bunnies . . . Together!

Some Days . . .

. . . Just Don't Go The Way You Want Them Too!

Training progresses for Abby. Her weight comes steadily down, and her behavior becomes more calm, more behaved. There are still many things she must learn. I am working on 'wedding' her to the lure. She's starting to take interest, but it needs reinforcing. She also has not flown the full creance yet. Her weight is down to 2 lbs. 9.6 oz (41.6 oz), and I believe she can still go a little lower. Her response is not immediate, so that is an indication that we still have some work to do. She also still has not learned to sit calmly in the weathering yard. She just bates and bates when out there. It's good if I want her to burn calories, but I don't like that she becomes rather frantic if left out for any length of time. Time, and exposure should get her through this.

Now . . . back to the topic!

Last Sunday I was invited for a hawking outing. The day turned out to be rather warm, compared to what we've been experiencing. And this probably contributed to what usually is pretty embarrasing, and frustrating about flying an independent creature like a hawk. One of the birds, when released, promptly went up to the tippy tops of the trees, and decided she liked it there so much, she stayed up for several hours. She did move a few times, but mostly just sat, and enjoyed the fresh air, and preened, and completely ignored her falconer who tried very hard to get her to come down. Finally, in the late evening, she decided she'd had enough freedom, and much to his relief, returned to be put in her giant hood, and to be taken home. Such times can be very scary. I must never forget that working with such aloof animals, that no matter how long you've associated with them, they can fool you, and leave you standing empty-handed.

The day was not a complete waste. It was a pleasantly mild day. There was visiting with friends, and I did show off Abby's creance work. And a little hawking was possible before it got dark. But the bunnies were safe that day!