Bunny Take Out

It was VERY COLD today!! Nina was still quite a bit high on her weight, but it was just so gosh darn cold that I decided it was safe to fly her. Besides, when I went to go get her this morning, to prepare her for hunting, she flew at me, which means in hawk lingo: "Feed me feed me FEED ME!!!!!!"

Liz and I left early, and had some coffee and a bagel at Paneras. We were waiting for a fella to come join us for the hunt. I'm not shy about what I do, hawking, and I'm more than happy to share the experience with anyone "stupid" enough (said tongue in cheek) to gear up and go out into the sub-freezing temperatures to beat brush with us. Rich was just such a person! He even came complete with a Russian hat, so I know his head stayed warm!

Initially I had planned to return to a field we've worked before, as we have not even come close to covering the entire area. However, driving away from Paneras I changed my mind and decided to work a patch right there behind the Office Max. Inspection on foot satisfied my curiosity that it looked like a good place to hunt. So we geared up.

I released Nina, and she flew some distance and took a perch in a far tree line. Very quickly though as we started to work the brush she flew back to where we were. I hardly had enough time to yell to Rich to keep his ears open for the bells on the bird, when we flushed a bunny. Nina was all over it . . . and thus we had #5 for the year! I confirmed afterwards with Rich that he did see the action!

I traded her off to the lure, put the bunny in the bag, and decided to try for doubles as we had been in the field about 3 minutes. However, the combination of her already high state, the fact that the field we worked very quickly went down into a deep and steep valley, and the incredible cold, not to mention that she wasn't following very good now, caused me to decide to call it quits for now and bring her in for the day. She came to the lure double-quick, and didn't have to be asked twice.

We got back to the cars, which we'd not gotten very far from, got Nina calmed down and hooded, then took some pictures. Below is one of my roomie and I cutting up, acting tough . . . when really were were just freezing! Afterwards, Rich offered to warm us up with another cup of something hot. It was tea for them, and coffee for me!

On a side note to my friend in NM . . . I'm doing OK. I guess I just hadn't realized all the pics so far this year I was not smiling. Nina and I are having a good time finding all the bunny spots in La Crosse!