Abby with Bunny #2 
Saturday, March 12, 2005
Redeption
Today I hoped to return Abby to hunting successfully. I got an early enough start to allow me lots of time to try out several locations, in case the first ones I chose did not work out. However the first field turned out to be successful!
I tried a small, but incredibly dense field in Oakdale, a very small neighboring township. There is a small patch of woods by their town hall, isolated by the Interstate on one side, the town on the other, and a large open field to the west. By the fresh snow that had fallen on Thursday, I could see there were rabbits in this field, as there were fresh tracks everywhere. However, this field is very overgrown with briar (at least there is no burdock), and there are lots and lots of pretty large brush piles. It would be a wonderful field to work with a jack russell terrier or a dachshund. But, since I have neither of those, I was the dog today!
I put Abby up, and she showed herself to be much more energetic than she had a week ago. She began moving from tree to tree, pretty much hunting on her own. She doesn't follow me so much as she does taking her own opportunities. I did see her make at least two attempted stoops, at rabbits I did not see, so I knew there was some activity in this field. We moved around, working the field, for about a half hour. At one point she then flew across the field and took a high perch in an old tree as I was so painstakingly working my way through the field, navigating the briar, and trying to not scratch my face up too much. She had 'marked' a large brush pile, so I followed her lead. As I moved closer, and whacked with my stick, and hissed at the brush, she then stooped suddenly, and crashed the brush far harder than I've ever seen her do before. A bunny started crying!! OK, she has a rabbit!! Hold onto it girl . . . I'm coming to help!!
But what an effort to get to her! The momentum of her stoop had caused her to crash right through the pile, and land deep inside it. When I arrived I could hear the rabbit, so I knew she still had it, but I couldn't see anything. I looked, I pulled branches, I kept looking, but I was baffled to find bunny or bird! I wanted so desperately to help her out, to be successful, to put a hand on the bunny before it could break free, but I couldn't see where to lend that hand. Then Abby flapped, and I saw the hole she had gone into. All this time, the bunny was continuing to cry out, so I knew she still had it. I carefully wormed my arm down to where she was, and beyond, and grabbed the bunny. She had a hold of it by the butt only. This bunny almost did get away. I then worked my hand towards its head, until I had a good grip on it. I then pulled bunny and bird out of the pile, and set them both onto the open snow. Good for Abby! Bunny #2!! And she worked hard for this one. I'm very glad it didn't get away.
I dispatched the poor bunny, who had suffered a bit, then transferred Abby off the rabbit onto the food on the lure. She worked on that as I put the bunny in my bag. At least now I knew that Abby was returned to a good flight weight, 2 lbs. 6.8 oz or 38.8 oz. Last week she was at 2 lbs. 5.0 or 37 oz. Just too low! She had flown well, showed good strength, yet focus. Once done with the food on the lure, she relinquished it for a tidbit on the glove. She still bitched at me as we worked out of the field, but she was pretty keyed up by her success.
I still have a way to go before I feel that I have 'redeemed' myself for our failure last week. I guess I shouldn't feel that I need to prove anything to anyone, but sometimes that emotion does creep in. There is still so much to learn, and every bird teaches me new things. I'm still pretty new to falconry, and it is hard to compare my results to the Masters that I have the opportunity to hawk with. They have had so many years to perfect their techniques, at training and at hunting. The weather continues to be pretty cool, and there is still snow on the ground, so I have some time to add to Abby's game score, before I eventually return her to the wild. But return her I will! I have decided that I'll not be keeping her over the summer. But I hope to learn a few more things with her before I do eventually cut her free. And next year, I hope to make an early start, with a new bird, a big bird, and hopefully get in a full falconry season, without any tragedies or mis-steps.
I tried a small, but incredibly dense field in Oakdale, a very small neighboring township. There is a small patch of woods by their town hall, isolated by the Interstate on one side, the town on the other, and a large open field to the west. By the fresh snow that had fallen on Thursday, I could see there were rabbits in this field, as there were fresh tracks everywhere. However, this field is very overgrown with briar (at least there is no burdock), and there are lots and lots of pretty large brush piles. It would be a wonderful field to work with a jack russell terrier or a dachshund. But, since I have neither of those, I was the dog today!
I put Abby up, and she showed herself to be much more energetic than she had a week ago. She began moving from tree to tree, pretty much hunting on her own. She doesn't follow me so much as she does taking her own opportunities. I did see her make at least two attempted stoops, at rabbits I did not see, so I knew there was some activity in this field. We moved around, working the field, for about a half hour. At one point she then flew across the field and took a high perch in an old tree as I was so painstakingly working my way through the field, navigating the briar, and trying to not scratch my face up too much. She had 'marked' a large brush pile, so I followed her lead. As I moved closer, and whacked with my stick, and hissed at the brush, she then stooped suddenly, and crashed the brush far harder than I've ever seen her do before. A bunny started crying!! OK, she has a rabbit!! Hold onto it girl . . . I'm coming to help!!
But what an effort to get to her! The momentum of her stoop had caused her to crash right through the pile, and land deep inside it. When I arrived I could hear the rabbit, so I knew she still had it, but I couldn't see anything. I looked, I pulled branches, I kept looking, but I was baffled to find bunny or bird! I wanted so desperately to help her out, to be successful, to put a hand on the bunny before it could break free, but I couldn't see where to lend that hand. Then Abby flapped, and I saw the hole she had gone into. All this time, the bunny was continuing to cry out, so I knew she still had it. I carefully wormed my arm down to where she was, and beyond, and grabbed the bunny. She had a hold of it by the butt only. This bunny almost did get away. I then worked my hand towards its head, until I had a good grip on it. I then pulled bunny and bird out of the pile, and set them both onto the open snow. Good for Abby! Bunny #2!! And she worked hard for this one. I'm very glad it didn't get away.
I dispatched the poor bunny, who had suffered a bit, then transferred Abby off the rabbit onto the food on the lure. She worked on that as I put the bunny in my bag. At least now I knew that Abby was returned to a good flight weight, 2 lbs. 6.8 oz or 38.8 oz. Last week she was at 2 lbs. 5.0 or 37 oz. Just too low! She had flown well, showed good strength, yet focus. Once done with the food on the lure, she relinquished it for a tidbit on the glove. She still bitched at me as we worked out of the field, but she was pretty keyed up by her success.
I still have a way to go before I feel that I have 'redeemed' myself for our failure last week. I guess I shouldn't feel that I need to prove anything to anyone, but sometimes that emotion does creep in. There is still so much to learn, and every bird teaches me new things. I'm still pretty new to falconry, and it is hard to compare my results to the Masters that I have the opportunity to hawk with. They have had so many years to perfect their techniques, at training and at hunting. The weather continues to be pretty cool, and there is still snow on the ground, so I have some time to add to Abby's game score, before I eventually return her to the wild. But return her I will! I have decided that I'll not be keeping her over the summer. But I hope to learn a few more things with her before I do eventually cut her free. And next year, I hope to make an early start, with a new bird, a big bird, and hopefully get in a full falconry season, without any tragedies or mis-steps.
Missed Opportunities
On the weekend of March 4 through 6 I was supposed to be down in Illinois for the Lady Hawker's Meet, which was on Saturday the 5th. It was hosted by SOAR (Save Our American Raptors http://www.soar-inc.org/pages/791287/index.htm). I had taken a vacation day from work, and gone down on Friday, and stayed at the home of a falconer. We hawked some of his incredibly rich bunny fields. I only wish we had fields so rich here in Wisconsin, locally where I live, where we do have to work for our bunnies! There is just too much forest area that the rabbits can spread out in. In Illinois they are isolated on the fringes of towns, boxed in by the large, open farm fields. His bird caught a bunny, and mine tried, but did not put out a very good effort. I was to come to find out later, based on her behavior over the next week, that I had dropped her too low to compensate for the warmer weather in Illinois. This proved to be a source of anxiety and frustration.
Unfortunately, in the middle of the night on Friday, I received a phone call, and it was necessary for me to return home, driving through the night, because of a small emergency. So, I was unable to put to good use my 5-day hunting license for Illinois, or allow my hawk to redeem herself. Although, now I'm pretty sure she would not have done well at all, regardless. I addressed that problem in the week that followed.
The weekend did not turn out at all as I would have liked. I was disappointed on several fronts! But at least the reason I returned home for turned out to be OK. And I went on to have a somewhat enjoyable weekend.
I tried flying Abby on Sunday, locally, but the place I chose simply did not produce any rabbits. I tried again on Tuesday, working the small location across from the Travel Mart in Camp Douglas, which was now free, relatively, of deep snow. We did flush several bunnies, and Abby worked hard for them, but I could tell as the afternoon wore on she was getting terribly exhausted. She simply had been pushed too low, and was in pretty bad condition. We ended up crossing the road into a large field full of cattails. In this field I flushed a pretty easy slip, and she did contact with the bunny, causing it to cry out, but before I could get to her and help her out, she lost her grip and the bunny got away. A few minutes later I saw her struggle to take her perch in a tree, and I could tell that she was just too low, and had no energy to spare. I called her down to the lure. She ate what was on the lure ravenously, and then would simply not let it go to transfer back to the fist. So I ended up trading her off on the bunny head I had in my bag. She ended up with a crop so large, I've never seen her so stuffed. And even then, she complained the whole time I walked out of the field. At one point, fortunately for her, I tripped on a tree root I didn't see, but managed to not fall onto my bird . . . which would have been very bad. Instead I threw myself into the opposite direction (I was going down either way, so I didn't want to crush my bird). I bruised my knee, and twisted my hip, which hurt for the next few days. Who ever said falconry was easy!!??
Because of her poor performance, and her low condition, over the next few days I initiated several days of good feedings, and jump ups. I needed to restore her body's reserves, as well as work her out, and build up a bit of muscle. I carefully weighed her food, each day increasing the amount, to see exactly how much she could consume in one day, yet still return to the same weight the next day. The last day we were up to 4 oz of food. On Saturday, she was looking pretty good, and energetic. I hoped to now return to successful falconry . . . actually catching something with a trained hawk!
Unfortunately, in the middle of the night on Friday, I received a phone call, and it was necessary for me to return home, driving through the night, because of a small emergency. So, I was unable to put to good use my 5-day hunting license for Illinois, or allow my hawk to redeem herself. Although, now I'm pretty sure she would not have done well at all, regardless. I addressed that problem in the week that followed.
The weekend did not turn out at all as I would have liked. I was disappointed on several fronts! But at least the reason I returned home for turned out to be OK. And I went on to have a somewhat enjoyable weekend.
I tried flying Abby on Sunday, locally, but the place I chose simply did not produce any rabbits. I tried again on Tuesday, working the small location across from the Travel Mart in Camp Douglas, which was now free, relatively, of deep snow. We did flush several bunnies, and Abby worked hard for them, but I could tell as the afternoon wore on she was getting terribly exhausted. She simply had been pushed too low, and was in pretty bad condition. We ended up crossing the road into a large field full of cattails. In this field I flushed a pretty easy slip, and she did contact with the bunny, causing it to cry out, but before I could get to her and help her out, she lost her grip and the bunny got away. A few minutes later I saw her struggle to take her perch in a tree, and I could tell that she was just too low, and had no energy to spare. I called her down to the lure. She ate what was on the lure ravenously, and then would simply not let it go to transfer back to the fist. So I ended up trading her off on the bunny head I had in my bag. She ended up with a crop so large, I've never seen her so stuffed. And even then, she complained the whole time I walked out of the field. At one point, fortunately for her, I tripped on a tree root I didn't see, but managed to not fall onto my bird . . . which would have been very bad. Instead I threw myself into the opposite direction (I was going down either way, so I didn't want to crush my bird). I bruised my knee, and twisted my hip, which hurt for the next few days. Who ever said falconry was easy!!??
Because of her poor performance, and her low condition, over the next few days I initiated several days of good feedings, and jump ups. I needed to restore her body's reserves, as well as work her out, and build up a bit of muscle. I carefully weighed her food, each day increasing the amount, to see exactly how much she could consume in one day, yet still return to the same weight the next day. The last day we were up to 4 oz of food. On Saturday, she was looking pretty good, and energetic. I hoped to now return to successful falconry . . . actually catching something with a trained hawk!
