Third Squirrel

YEAH! HooRaaaay! The picture loading function is working again!

On Sunday I went out hawking, and as I have done quite a lot this past year, I took along some new "dogs". One was a young lady that I met last year, while still living at my home, who when she found out I was a falconer wanted to know more. I had her over for a visit and let her meet Nina, but that was in the summer, so I could not demonstrate any flying or hunting. Since that time she herself also moved to the Milwaukee area. She was visiting La Crosse this weekend, seeing some friends, so contacted me. I said "sure you can come along" when she asked if I would be going hunting. The other "dog" is a fella I've chatted with a little online. He too wanted to see the hawk. So I met up with everyone at Panera's over coffee and bagels. Then off to hunting.

I took them to the industrial field where I last took Dave and Bill. On my last visit the place was crawling with bunnies. Today, there was plenty of sign, but they are all tucked in safe under the mounds of snow. Nina was the lowest I've allowed her this year, which was good, for she did get challenged by the residents on more than one occassion. She ignored them all, and focused on the hunting. While in this field, I worked some extensive cattail beds over ice, but did not flush anything. I did break through not once, but several times, and utterly soaked my right leg. It became heavy with ice, and smelly pond water. Previously I've pulled a muscle in my leg, so that aggravated it. Overall, the field was a bust! I also notice what looked to me to be some new Do Not Trespass signs. This field is not looking very good to me anymore, even though it was one of the best locations I've found, when not covered in all the snow. I'm probably not going back this year, or ever for that matter now.

Upon deciding to change fields, the fella "dog" decided he'd walked enough, so he departed for home. Christy (that's the young lady's name) wanted to continue on. I then moved to a park that I visited when we had the ice crust. I had flushed some squirrels there, and that was what I was after now. We entered the field, and moved about some, and then I saw Nina dive down from a high perch into a tree crook, and from the nature of her dive, I thought she had nailed something in that same crotch . . . which would be bad if it was game that she could then eat up there out of my reach. However, upon further observation, I realized she was eating something long dead and frozen. I still don't know what it was, but there wasn't that much of it. She finished that and came down to my lure, which had only a small bit of rabbit garnish. That done, I set her off again, and continued moving through the trees. About five minutes later, we finally flushed a squirrel, and the chase was on. It was a good and exciting chase. The squirrel moved from tree to tree, and tried to come down several times, but Christy and I were quick to get underneath and scare it back up. It had run into an area where there were not a whole lot of large trees, and eventually Nina had a successful dive on it, and caught it and came down with her prize. So, make that three squirrels for the year!

I was happy that Christy got to see a real hunt. We worked up quite a sweat out there. The snow is deep in some places! I dispatched the squirrel, traded Nina off, put it into the bag, got her all situated, then came back to the cars. After a few quick pictures, I invited her back to my place for some hot chocolate and more bagels. She asked me lots of questions, and hopes to maybe earn her falconry license sometime in the next few years.

Good Luck!

She took the above picture! I like it!