Dec. 7 – Empty bag, full heart

Today was a cold, windy, but gorgeous day that found Rebel and myself heading back out to Harmony and the site of his latest duck kill.  The fat bird did not fly yesterday as even in the late afternoon, he was weighing in at a whopping 46.8 ounces with a crop.  I didn’t feed him yesterday and it got down to the twenties, so he was rearing to go today at 41.5 oz.

I took Addie, my two-year-old silver lab, with me today.  I really want to work on these two being a team.  It is going to be difficult as Addie’s initial training was retrieving and I will have to reshape that.  I just bought some quail and will work on some flushing skills.  A friend just gave me three of her grandfathers old rabbit gums that I will put out to hopefully catch a bunny both to enter Rebel on and start doing some scent training for my dog.

Anyway, we got to our spot around three thirty and there was nothing visible on the lakes driving in.  This was a little concerning.  I drove up a dirt road and decided to come up on our first lake from behind as that was the direction the ducks had fled previously and the wind was blowing from the southeast.   Did I mention that it was cold?  That wind cut right through my layers and but I didn’t seem to care.  The air was fresh and it was just me watching my dog do what she was bred to do, hunting, tracking, following commands, and watching my hawk be what nature created it to be, a predator who could command the sky.

We walked up through eight-foot tall ragweed and briars but not a rabbit was heard or seen.  There were also plenty of nascent pine trees clogging up the route.  I quickly found a small animal path and made towards the lake.  Addie was ranging a bit ahead of me but was incredibly responsive to coming back when called.  I think that not having the distraction of another dog with us really helped.

As we approached the clearing in front of the lake, I was able to see at least one duck on the water.  I called Addie back and she sat like a statue, clearly sensing that something was up.  From Rebel’s vantage point, I was sure that he could see the ducks on the water but was not sure that he was recognizing them as game yet as he didn’t seem to move forward into position.  I tried to stay still but as I peeked out to get a count of the ducks on the water, I spooked at least four of them who got up and high tailed it due south.  Rebel took notice of this and moved up closer to the lake.  Fortunately, I saw a half dozen more ducks on the lake who had not spooked yet.

Rebel had taken up position about fifty yards to my right along the edge of the clearing.  Now this edge was about twenty yards away from the pond’s edge, not ideal, but not too bad.  A large heron that I hadn’t seen gave a loud croak and started to take off.  I was sure this was going to spook the ducks so I waited to make sure that Rebel was watching intently and then I stepped out into full view.  I told Addie to go get ‘em and she charged into the water, not exactly sure what to do, but doing it with boundless energy.  The ducks took off and amazingly, they started flying right over me!  I thought that this was going to be the perfect setup for Rebel to cut them off and pinch one.  The sun was in my eyes, but I saw that Rebel had already left his perch and was making his way in to the ducks.  The ducks saw him as well and began to veer my way.  I started to shout and wave my hands in hopes of making them flair, but I think I just spurred them on to faster speeds. 

They left Rebel in the dust.  He had chosen a poor angle at which to cut them off and he pulled off the pursuit, flying instead to a tall pine on the other side of me.  Addie is still doing her thing, splashing in the lake and Rebel just turns to me like, “What?”  I am not sure if he was thrown off by the heron or if he was just being a bit lazy.  His flight didn’t seem as intense as I have seen it before.  He probably just knew he was already beat so only put up a token flight.  Oh well.

Unfortunately, that was it for the duck slips.  I was bummed that we hadn’t gone to Justin’s place, but I wasn’t sure either of us was ready to go swimming on a day as cold as this.  No bunny slips either.  In fact, we saw no game that day other than the ducks.

Truth is, it didn’t matter.  I was outside with my dog and my hawk and that was really all I needed right then.  As if to prove this, Rebel began doing his soaring tricks.  He would float against the wind almost hover heading straight over me, then turn and zip with the wind five hundred yards away in an instant.  He was steady about ten feet above the treetops.  No wheeling, just floating and zipping.  He was having a blast.  Addie down below was exploring every new and interesting smell she could get her nose on.  Her tail never stopped wagging and never came down.  Every minute or so her head would pop up and she would look back at me like, “Is this alright?” and go right back to tracking a field mouse or something.

We explored four other lakes, just taking it slow and letting each other enjoy the time outside.  I am sure that my grin would have been bigger if we had put something in the bag, but I think we each got exactly what we needed that evening. 

God’s peace to you all.