First Snow Hunt

Winter has finally arrived here in Wisconsin in the form of snow. It has been long overdue! I've been keeping myself busy starting classes and getting down to the serious business of looking for a job. I canvassed several possibilities in the La Crosse area on Thursday, January 18. Because she was at weight, and because I knew I would be in a new area, I packed Nina up and took her along for the trip. She probably enjoyed, as best a hawk can, the experience, as she was in her box all day, and it was WARM. She was at weight in the AM, so I didn't need for her to burn any more calories. After completing my errands, I met up with my friend Lisa for a bagel. She then followed me and I went to check out a field behind the Gander Mountain store. I had poked around in this field previously, and it looked GOOD!! It still was! I let Nina go to take a tree. I then pushed the brush along the field. Sure enough, a bunny jumped up. Nina stooped for it, but it got away down a drainage pipe. After a moment when she had collected herself and gotten back up a tree, I started to climb up a little hill into the thick of the brush. As I crested the hill she flew with purpose over my head and into the valley below. I heard a crash and a bunny squeal. Just like that . . . bunny #16! I ran as fast as I could down the hill and pulled her out from inside the bush and took care of bunny, trading her off onto the lure. I then made my way out of the field to show my friend Lisa, who was unable to actually come into the field with me. She took a pic of us.

Hey . . . land for sale! Any falconers interested! I can vouch it has bunnies on it!

Also . . . if anyone comes here and is interested, a video has been posted of part of an educational talk I did with the OLA. Go to my MySpace page. It is there on the front page. Click it and watch. It's kindof long, but perhaps interesting. This way you can see a live video of me and my bird.

http://www.myspace.com/kestrellunaeye