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.
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.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home