"Falconry is not a hobby or an amusement: it is a rage. You eat it and drink it, sleep it and think it. You tremble to write of it, even in recollection. It is, as King James the First remarked, an extreme stirrer of passions." T.H. White

The Godstone and Blackymor, 1959 (First American Edition) Van Rees Press, New York, page 18.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Sept 28 - Lord of the Apes

Well, it had been raining all week and Rebel was itching to get out of his mews to do a little flying.  We hadn't flown in a couple of days.  His weight was up a tad at 38.6 but I have flown him considerably higher.  We had sad news yesterday, and I think I needed some flying time as much as Rebel did.
Anyway, we set out to creance in the front yard with the kids in our usual fashion.  I had been moving creance locations in anticipation of our first free flight.  Rebel had proven that he was pretty much ready for his first free flight, but life gets in the way.  Besides, I wasn't sure that I was ready to let him off the creance yet.
So I set out his perch and he hopped to it.  I walked back towards the front laying out his line.  He was clearly hungry as he started vocalizing as soon as I came near.  i was just about in position when he left the perch and flew to a tree nearby me.  Now this was actually a sign of good behavior as what he was doing could technically be construed as following, the first lesson learned in free flight.  The problem of course was that this bird was still on a long tether line, which can easily tangle in all of the sucker branches growing up in the live oaks.
Fortunately, Rebel went to a low lying branch that was clear and he was completely dialed in to me.  He came right down so I decided to just do his creancing from that tree for the day.  We had done things like this on occasion before so I didn't think much of it.  In fact, during one of our earlier creance sessions, he had flown to a tree in the back yard and got paid a visit by an angry, inquisitive squirrel.  He watched with aloofness as the chattering squirrel came nearer and when he was a few feet away, he sprang!  If he hadn't been on the creance, he would have bagged his first kill.  As it was, the line pulled him up about an inch short and the squirrel decided he might want to pester some other bird with slightly less sharp talons.
So on this day, Rebel was acting so good and his responses were so perfect, that I found myself giving thought to free flying him.  Part of me knew this would be a bad idea as we would be heading out of town the following day for five days and I didn't want him to regress, but part of me just needed to try it.
I called Al and he ducked out of work early to come and watch.  By this point, Rebel had had about an ounce or more of tidbits and his responses were a little less perfect so I had decided just before Al arrived not to free fly.
Well, as it turned out, I am not sure if I made the right call or not.  As I was calling for Rebel on what was to be his last creance of the day, a squirrel made a break in the top of the tree near the front door.  Rebel of course gave immediate chase.  One hundred feet of parachord can make quite a tangled mess.  Such a Rookie mistake, I knew not to let him get up in the trees, but he had just done so well, I wanted to give him a chance.
So Al drives up to find me doing my best Tarzan impression, twenty feet high in the tree in rubber boots with the kids looking on like they were watching a car crash in slow motion.  I was finally able to get the bird on the fist, but then there was no way to climb one handed, I could barely hold myself in the tree!  I couldn't attach the leash either with only one hand.  It was a right mess.  I tossed my bag to Al who pulled out the lure and tried to call Rebel down but by this time the poor bird was just totally freaked.  I unclipped the creance and managed to attach the leash.  In retrospect, I should have just set him free and let him fly to the lure but none of us were ready to chance it.
Amazingly I got him down and I amazingly managed not to break any of my bones in the process.  He attacked the lure with zeal and we ended the session.  Laura came out to watch my antics.  She walked out the front door and saw me in the tree.  The old one word question, "Ab?" has never carried quite so much meaning...  When I began to beat on my chest and say "Me Tarzan, You Jane!", she just rolled her eyes and walked back into the house.
God blessed me in one more way during this fiasco.  Not only did he get my bird and myself down safe and sound, but my son who was watching the entire thing, seemed to forget he had a camera around his neck.  Yup, no pics to have to live down =).
The mental imagery is probably better anyway.  Just please don't picture me in a loincloth...

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