Had a beautiful hunt today. The weather was brisk as we had our first real freeze last night and Rebel was rearing to go. Laura decided to come with me and we chose to take the dogs. I have been trying to do this more often lately as I intend to get them working as a team and they need more exposure to each other.
Of course taking my wife into the field meant that I was also taking her schedule hunting with me. I hate going into the woods with a deadline but hey, you do what you gotta. Rebel weighed in at 40.5 today and this seems a good weight, although with the cold weather, I think I will still try to inch him higher. I still need to work out the exact relationship of weather to weight with this bird.
We went to the site of Rebel’s earlier ice fishing expedition this week. He was flying hard right out of the gate, but I didn’t try to keep him on the fist until the pond. I figured that with two dogs and a not-so-much woods savvy wife, there was virtually no way the ducks wouldn’t flush early. Add to this the fact that Rebel hung back keeping an eye on the dogs and I think you can make a pretty good guess as to how the first slip went.
The very good news is that once the ducks took off, Rebel screamed after them. It was funny to watch. He was frantically pumping through the air and in my mind I could see him screaming “Wait! Do Over! I wasn’t ready yet!” That put aside a lot of my concerns about how he would respond to his drenching on Sunday. At least he was following the ducks and still viewing them as prey.
He took up position in a dead snag in the middle of the lake and just stared at me like he was begging me to flush them again. Unfortunately there were not any more ducks on the water at that time so we pressed on. Rebel left his perch and shot in a straight line deep into the woods past us on the trail of a squirrel. He was moving fat break neck speed and as he folded up his wings to crash through the branches at the last second I was sure he was heading for a head injury. He missed that squirrel by millimeters as it ducked into a knothole. Laura, of course, missed it…
We kept circling the lake looking for more ducks and squirrels. One flight of woodies came in high scouting the area but Rebel was in a tree below and they were at full speed. He did not give chase but he stared at them as they flew over. At the very back of the property near the river, we got up a big grey squirrel and Rebel took off. We chased him through eight trees and finally he went out on a limb to jump and Rebel snagged him. He helicoptered down with a nice grip on the head and body.
As he came to ground, my little schnoodle took off to get a closer look. Not wise. Now you have to understand. This dog has been chasing squirrels for three years. This of course means that she has been frustrated for three years. A few weeks ago when Rebel killed a squirrel in the yard, Holly couldn’t believe it. She kept staring at the hawk in awe like, “You really got one??!” So here we are in the middle of the woods and Holly wants to help. Rebel, of course, thinks that Holly wants to eat.
I ran towards them as fast as I could screaming “No!”, but as you might imagine the schnoodle scoots under the vines faster than I can plow through them. Rebel took one foot off of his prey to defend himself and Holly is inches from a footing. I am still screaming, and Mr. Squirrel decides to make a break for it. He twists away and runs with Rebel running after him. And the rodeo commences…
I don’t know any other way to describe it. The squirrel is turning circles and figure eights with the hawk running right after it. The dog is yapping but thankfully staying clear, having gotten the point from Rebel without the need for getting the pointed talons… I am finally there and this is happening at my feet. I swear it was just like the roping contest at the Neshoba County Fair. Rebel finally hog ties Mr. Squirrel and is declared the victor. I wish I had a camera. A running hawk is divine comedy in my mind.
No comments:
Post a Comment