First Squirrel of the Season

Today was Nina's first successful squirrel hunt for the 2007/2008 season. It was a good sized black La Crosse squirrel - one of probably several hundred that live in this city. So many of the squirrels around here are un-huntable, because they live either in the parks downtown, or in people's neighborhoods. However, this one was located in a rather large tree in a deserted park that borders an open marsh next to a very busy train yard. I had seen this field, having driven by it on I94. Recently I looked at a map to locate it, and yesterday went on a reconnaissance drive to find how to get to it. I also located a couple of other likely places that I can try to fly my bird in the near future.

I actually had this field in mind for bunnies. I certainly saw plenty of rabbit sign to know they are here. There is a quite sizable marsh area bordering this park, with a great swath of cattails. The snow is deep, and there continues to be this underlayer of ice causing difficulty ambulating. If I was to be successful pushing this cattail bed I'd really need a couple more "dogs" in the field . . . the human type. For that matter, a jack russell terrier would be handy too! I'm going to have to seriously think about adding a real dog to my team once I've completed my schooling, and I'm able to get back to falconry. Many times I've thought one would be useful. I've seen them used by other falconers to great success. It would certainly save me a lot of trudging! Dem little dogs, the real kind, can move through the field very quickly! The trick is making sure you have good control of them through training.

I arrived this morning about 9 or so to hunt this field. I began the hunt realizing that something is wrong with my telemetry. I was not getting a signal. I have some old batteries, and tried one, but that was not the problem. I checked the tightness of the antenna too. Nope! Looks like I may have burned out my first transmitter. Well, I do have a replacement! So I flew her without a safety net today.

I released her, and began working the brush up to the cattail bed. All I got was . . . tired! I never flushed a single bunny. After getting to the end of this cattail bed, and about to think about moving into the bed and trying to work it, Nina flew back towards a very large tree and flushed a couple of squirrels. OK . . . squirrels make for good exercise for the bird, and can be very exciting to watch. They flushed from where they were and ran to another even larger tree, and right into a leaf nest.

Some of the trees here in Wisconsin have climbing vines that grow up them. This tree did . . . right up to the leaf nest. I grabbed one and gave it a good tug. Out popped the two squirrels, and Nina was hot on their tails. She crashed onto the nest as they ran the other way. She stayed there for awhile, looking, looking to see if any more would come out. She then started looking for the two that had run out. What then followed was about fifteen minutes of her trying again and again to get the upper maneuver on those tree rats. On her last dive, I noticed one of the squirrels had returned to the refuge of the nest. As I moved over to tug on the vine, Nina knew what was afoot this time. She was ready! I tugged, squirrel ran out, she pounced on it, SHE HAD IT!!

She was propped up on top of the leaf nest, her wing open, balancing, as both feet were busy hanging onto the squirrel. I waited. I then tugged on the vine a final time, and she then parachuted down. I grabbed her squirrel, though she had a very good grip on it. It wasn't going anywhere. It did manage to bite my glove, pinching me through it, on the same finger that Nina had gotten a few weeks back. What's the deal with that?? It's the "ring" finger on my left hand, and it has taken quite a bit of abuse of late! Maybe it's time for a new gauntlet!

I dispatched the squirrel, gave Nina her transfer on the lure, packed the tree rat away, hopped her to my fist and walked back to the car. I then did a bit of first aid on myself, for once I took my glove off, the pinch was more of a puncture, and it started to bleed. Nina had a couple bites too. Darn squirrels!! They are dangerous!! After pictures I got her home, administered an Epsom salt and hydrogen peroxide soak for both of us (it's interesting to try and soak a hawk's feet when they don't want to get wet), then tied her out. I gave her the squirrel head as a tiring.

As of this writing, it is much later in the evening. I attended class today, for Anatomy. I have one week left, and 3 tests. I got back the results from my other online class. An A! Yeah! I hope to accomplish the same with the Anatomy.

I'm sore tonight. Walking in the deep snow, with the ice underneath complicating it, makes me use muscles I don't often use. I'm stiff tonight. I could really use a back rub. I'm not going to be getting one. Maybe I'll sit in the hot-tub tonight before retiring to bed. It's nice! Not the same as a back rub. But nice.

(And I wish I knew why my paragraph breaks are not being shown! Truly, I know where to take a break in my ramblings above, but the formatting is not translating through! Oh well!)