Jan 16 – Asheville Squirrel Number Two

Wow.  To think that I considered not bringing my bird on this trip.  We woke up a bit early again today to get some flying time in before family time.  No skiing today, the kids were all worn out.  The plan was for pizza and a movie later on and maybe some paintball if the troops could rally.

That left Rebel and I the morning.  Laura decided to come with us for this one.  It was pretty out with clear skies and much warmer temperatures than the teens we had been out in the last few days.  The snow was rapidly melting though and the trails were all pretty muddy.  I have to say I was regretting the loss of the snow.  I loved how I could spot tracks of earthbound activity and even keep tabs on running squirrels while watching them knock snow off of branches in their flight.

Rebel was still on the lower side at 41.4 ounces despite being inside and eating pretty well the last few days.  She was definitely eager to fly.  We headed up to the top of the mountain with dogs in tow.  As we crested the first rise, little Holly the toy poodle / mini schnauzer mix came up with a gift.  She had found a rabbit leg in the snow!  Fortunately Rebel had not seen it so I quickly stowed it to use later in training the dogs a bit.  Wouldn’t you know that my inside dog finds the rabbit scent…  oh well, Addie just needs more training =). 

Apparently the theft of that leg did not go unnoticed by the locals.  A very angry haggard RT came in on us screaming at Rebel as she flew back up to us from down the mountain.  Her cry ripped through the silence around us, putting everyone on alert.  It sounded more dinosaur than RT at first.  Interestingly, Rebel did not fly after her to challenge.  She simply sat her perch about thirty feet or so away from the hag and watched.  She did try her version of that cry but it was again Mike Tyson-esque and pitiful.  Poor bird.

The hag left us and we resumed the hunt.  I was really hoping to get another rabbit flush.  I knew they were here given that we had found a head yesterday and a leg today.  At the op of the mountain, I headed off into the briars to try for a flush.  This was a bit much for Laura who volunteered to take the little dog back to the house by way of the trail.  Rebel saw something and took a few dives along the ground after what I was hoping was a rabbit.  I was running up the mountain now to give chase, as fast as my wheezing lungs and aching legs (skiing remember?) would allow.  I never saw the rabbit but Rebel was watching keenly.

I sat quietly and waited and watched with hope.  Rebel seemed to lose interest and launched herself up and into a thermal.  She was soaring around when out from the left came the hag.  They did a few cool aerial displays that would have made the Blue Angels proud and then she came back to perch besides me.  They never locked up and there was no further screaming that I could hear.  It was more like they were sizing each other up and deciding that maybe there was room in that valley for the two of them after all.

I made my way down the mountain with Rebel reluctantly following.  She was lagging way behind and I was pretty sure that even if I did manage to kick up a rabbit, she would be in no position to see it.  When she once again took off like a shot down the mountain, I was on her tail.  She had spied a squirrel and he ran up a tree frightening the three other squirrels in the tree there.  Wow.  I am not sure how we missed all of these on the way up, but I was happy. Rebel however, was not sure which target to dive upon.  She solved this by choosing none and flying away to a distant vantage to make a plan.  She finally picked the squirrel she wanted and set in.  She chased him through a couple of trees and the squirrel ran to ground.  For the second time this week, Rebel caught that squirrel in the snow. 

Like a surgeon, Rebel had one foot around the head with one talon in the ear and the squirrel was dead almost instantly without any assistance from me.  She is definitely more lethal now as her experience mounts.  The trade off was easy and we headed for home.  She was lagging again behind so I went to my sister’s house and called her to the lure.  I loved seeing her bomb down the mountain in almost free fall with her wings tucked in close almost like a harrier jet.  She hit the lure hard and set in.

I do love watching this bird fly.

Jan 15 – Asheville Entourage and Near Miss on a Rabbit

After an almost perfect day yesterday of hawking in the morning in the glorious snow covered mountains followed by skiing with my family until ten pm yesterday, I was thinking that another hike up the mountain for hawking might just do me in but I was wrong.  Poor Rebel had been cooped up in her giant hood for waaaay too long and was in dire need of some flight time so we headed up the ridge shortly after daybreak.

Rebel, Addie and I got to the top of the mountain via the trail and were slowly making our way down.  Rebel had chased one squirrel waaaaayy down the opposite side of the mountain, but he had gotten away, thank heavens.  I am not sure I could have made it down that ravine to help and if I had, I was pretty sure that making it back up was going to be straight out of a bad survival flick.  Pretty sure I don’t want to go down as the “Into The Wild” guy of falconry….

Nothing much was moving so we set our down the ridge when my cell went off.  My sister had told a few of her friends about her brother with the obvious mental imbalance who liked to chase after hawks.  They came a-runnin’.   My sister, her friends, and their children met me halfway down the mountain.  Brynn came along as well.  I could hear them about a mile before I saw them.  Oh well, we got a kill yesterday, right?..

I started down to introduce myself and say hello.  The kids had all kinds of questions on falconry.  Rebel was still uphill in a tree, turning her nose up at the whole situation.  She flew down a little closer but would not come to the fist so I was thinking maybe she had seen something.  I made my way up to her through the worst patch of deadfall ever to be found in the NC Mountains, leaving small bits of blood and cotton fibers on most of the briars in the area.

The young girls weren’t too far behind me, managing to traverse the briars without nearly as much difficulty, still asking questions.  I turned to answer when Rebel dove off of her perch and slammed into the briars in the middle of the deadfall.  It was so think I couldn’t see exactly where she went, but I knew that she had just tried for a rabbit!  We had not caught a rabbit together yet and I was anxious to add that to our game totals for the year.  I crashed through the briars to the spot but when I got there, no Rebel…

We started fanning out looking for her on the ground, as I was sure she was trying to be sneaky with her prize.  Nope.  She was up in a tree looking at us like we were crazy.  Oh well, not today.  I guess it was probably a good thing not to scar the little ones with a dead bunny.  It looked like they could possibly get behind a dead squirrel, but as we all know, Peter Cottontail is a bit different.

The biology lecture continued and Rebel consented to come down for a preen and a chance to show off.  After the oohs and ahhs, had subsided, more questions started coming.  Rebel had had enough so she took back off for a distant perch as we made our way towards home.

As we were leaving the park area, My sister’s dog came bouncing up with something in his mouth that he had dug up from the snow.  It was a rabbit head!  I started to get psyched because I at least knew that they were here.  I picked the rabbit head up to study it a bit and noticed the little ones staring at me.  I must have looked a sight with a mangled rabbit head, complete with one bulging eye, in my hands and a grin on my face.

I expected to see the moms pull the youngsters in close and give me a dirty look as they walked away.  I expected a tear or two and a look of betrayal from at least one of the princesses, but nope.  Wouldn’t you know they came and crowded around wanting to look at the bunny and ask me questions about it.  I explained that a raptor or a four-legged predator who couldn’t finish his meal probably caught this particular rabbit.  Since he couldn’t finish, he had tried to bury it in the snow for later, but the dog with his keen sense of smell was able to find it first.  More questions incoming and one of the dainty things actually wanted to touch the bulging eye.  I guess I need to give kids these days a bit more credit.  That or relook at those immutable rules that I thought governed the universe.  Pretty sure that one of those rules was that little girls don’t like dead things…

I reburied the rabbit head so Rebel wouldn’t see it and come for it.  It looked fresh, but you never know and I would hate it if that rabbit actually died of poison or something.  Anyway we headed down the mountain, the girls possibly a little better educated on hawks and me possibly a little better educated on little girls, if that is even a possibility, which I sincerely doubt.

Jan 15 – Asheville Entourage and Near Miss on a Rabbit

After an almost perfect day yesterday of hawking in the morning in the glorious snow covered mountains followed by skiing with my family until ten pm yesterday, I was thinking that another hike up the mountain for hawking might just do me in but I was wrong.  Poor Rebel had been cooped up in her giant hood for waaaay too long and was in dire need of some flight time so we headed up the ridge shortly after daybreak.

Rebel, Addie and I got to the top of the mountain via the trail and were slowly making our way down.  Rebel had chased one squirrel waaaaayy down the opposite side of the mountain, but he had gotten away, thank heavens.  I am not sure I could have made it down that ravine to help and if I had, I was pretty sure that making it back up was going to be straight out of a bad survival flick.  Pretty sure I don’t want to go down as the “Into The Wild” guy of falconry….

Nothing much was moving so we set our down the ridge when my cell went off.  My sister had told a few of her friends about her brother with the obvious mental imbalance who liked to chase after hawks.  They came a-runnin’.   My sister, her friends, and their children met me halfway down the mountain.  Brynn came along as well.  I could hear them about a mile before I saw them.  Oh well, we got a kill yesterday, right?..

I started down to introduce myself and say hello.  The kids had all kinds of questions on falconry.  Rebel was still uphill in a tree, turning her nose up at the whole situation.  She flew down a little closer but would not come to the fist so I was thinking maybe she had seen something.  I made my way up to her through the worst patch of deadfall ever to be found in the NC Mountains, leaving small bits of blood and cotton fibers on most of the briars in the area.

The young girls weren’t too far behind me, managing to traverse the briars without nearly as much difficulty, still asking questions.  I turned to answer when Rebel dove off of her perch and slammed into the briars in the middle of the deadfall.  It was so think I couldn’t see exactly where she went, but I knew that she had just tried for a rabbit!  We had not caught a rabbit together yet and I was anxious to add that to our game totals for the year.  I crashed through the briars to the spot but when I got there, no Rebel…

We started fanning out looking for her on the ground, as I was sure she was trying to be sneaky with her prize.  Nope.  She was up in a tree looking at us like we were crazy.  Oh well, not today.  I guess it was probably a good thing not to scar the little ones with a dead bunny.  It looked like they could possibly get behind a dead squirrel, but as we all know, Peter Cottontail is a bit different.

The biology lecture continued and Rebel consented to come down for a preen and a chance to show off.  After the oohs and ahhs, had subsided, more questions started coming.  Rebel had had enough so she took back off for a distant perch as we made our way towards home.

As we were leaving the park area, My sister’s dog came bouncing up with something in his mouth that he had dug up from the snow.  It was a rabbit head!  I started to get psyched because I at least knew that they were here.  I picked the rabbit head up to study it a bit and noticed the little ones staring at me.  I must have looked a sight with a mangled rabbit head, complete with one bulging eye, in my hands and a grin on my face.

I expected to see the moms pull the youngsters in close and give me a dirty look as they walked away.  I expected a tear or two and a look of betrayal from at least one of the princesses, but nope.  Wouldn’t you know they came and crowded around wanting to look at the bunny and ask me questions about it.  I explained that a raptor or a four-legged predator who couldn’t finish his meal probably caught this particular rabbit.  Since he couldn’t finish, he had tried to bury it in the snow for later, but the dog with his keen sense of smell was able to find it first.  More questions incoming and one of the dainty things actually wanted to touch the bulging eye.  I guess I need to give kids these days a bit more credit.  That or relook at those immutable rules that I thought governed the universe.  Pretty sure that one of those rules was that little girls don’t like dead things…

I reburied the rabbit head so Rebel wouldn’t see it and come for it.  It looked fresh, but you never know and I would hate it if that rabbit actually died of poison or something.  Anyway we headed down the mountain, the girls possibly a little better educated on hawks and me possibly a little better educated on little girls, if that is even a possibility, which I sincerely doubt.

Jan 14 – Asheville Squirrels Taste Sweeter!

So what do you do when you have a family trip to Asheville for a little skiing and family fun, and there is no one at home to keep your bird?  You take her with you, of course!  Poor me!  Forced to carve away a bit of time for falconry in the snow (a first).  It is such a shame that my sister lives at the top of a neighborhood, above which is a state park and hiking trails quite literally out her doorstep.

Rebel was keen from her long incarceration and was weighing in at a low 41.5 ounces.  We have not been below 42 in some time, and I was previously flying above 44.  The bird was sharp on at these weights and wanted badly to get outside.  I unleashed her as we stepped off of the pavement and she took a perch, not quite understanding this white stuff called snow that she had never seen before.

It didn’t seem to phase her much.  She played in it a bit on a limb and then set about the business of dinner.  Addie was running hither and yon, digging in the snow and sometimes deep into the loamy soil underneath when she smelled something.   I had gotten up with the dawn to hunt as we were supposed to go skiing on the early side of things.  It was cold and clear with a splendidly bright sky overhead.

I looked back one time as I was climbing the mountain and the bird was behind me.  The sun was rising behind my bird and I was pretty pumped.  As the new morning sunlight shone through, there were these fine ice crystals floating in the air creating a sparkling prismatic effect that took my breath away.  It didn’t last long, but it was truly beautiful and nothing like anything I have ever seen before.

We trudged all the way to the top of the mountain.  Somewhere along the way we managed to pick up a murder of crows that was badgering Rebel incessantly.  Amazingly Rebel didn’t seem to care one bit.  They would dive bomb her when she flew and caw at her whenever she was on perch.  They would leave for a bit to annoy something else on the mountain, but they inevitably came back.

At the very top, Rebel finally got a squirrel running and Addie and I happily gave pursuit.  It was pretty cool to watch because when the squirrel would try to run down a branch, it would knock the snow off of the branch, giving its position away.  I can’t tell you how many times I lost the blasted thing, only to see snow falling a dozen feet away or so and see the squirrel scampering for a knothole.   Rebel was right behind him and a murder of crows was right behind Rebel!  The squirrel bailed out of the tree and landed about ten feet away from me.  He turned immediately and scurried up a dead branch as Rebel raked the snow off of the limb right behind him!  It was intense to say the least.  The crows where whirling just overhead and Rebel turned to fly back up but the squirrel had made it safely to his knothole.

We stomped through the snowdrifts a bit more and started heading down the mountain along the ridge and though the briars.  I was still hoping for a rabbit slip but Rebel found another grey squirrel instead.  She chased this one through the trees like a pro and it finally ditched to the ground with Rebel on its tail.  She crashed it as it leapt over a log and rolled it into the snow.  The snow was covering her talons and the squirrel but she didn’t let go.  The trade off was smooth and we headed down the mountain with grins on our faces.  Well.  Rebel can’t really grin so I did it for her.

Jan 11 – So Close To Home

Well I was tooling around with Google maps to look for nearby areas to fly when time is pressing (which seems like all the time), when I found the best area ever right down the street from my old home.  This place is only about two or three miles from where I live right now and it used to be a horse barn and riding property but the county has recently bought it to turn it into a public park.  They have not started any of the construction yet and don’t plan to for another few years. 

It was raining all morning so I thought that I would drive over and check it out.  I stopped at a nearby house to get the scoop on the area and the nice gentleman informed me that I was welcome to fly on his three acres and that the county had been inviting the public to come and walk the property in the paper.  Perfect!  It is about 50-60 acres of swamp and hardwoods.  I rode around on the dirt roads and saw all of the horse tracks leading around the woods that would be killer to explore.

I went back that afternoon when the rain was down to a drizzle to try to fly Rebel.  I had been bringing Rebel’s weight down a bit and she was sitting at 42.4 and very ready, though a bit wet.  As soon as I set her up, I heard wood ducks deep in the swamp and started to explore.  There is a long shallow lake on the north east side of the property with ducks on it but I had no way of getting over to them to flush without waders.  Oh well, maybe another time.

The rain was picking up so we didn’t have much time for exploring.  A murder of crows decided to drop in and make things even more difficult.  We decided to pack it in and come back another day to better assess this spot, but I think this is just what we needed.  It was quite a bit of fortune to find an easily accessible and unused piece of property in the middle of this town.  Can’t wait to explore it more and find out where the squirrels are.

Jan 7 – Michael Phelps Redeux…

So today I got up early and took Rebel to Georgetown for a chance at some woodies and squirrels.  It was cold but not bitter and the sky was clear and bright.  The clouds were puffy and moving across the sky at a fair clip but not so fast that you couldn’t see a few nice images in them.  Kept looking for a hawk breaking down on a duck…

We got out a little behind schedule but still with plenty of time before work.  Addie was all over it and having a blast.  She would streak in to the water for a little ice bath action then get out and zip around in circles as fast as she could to warm up.  It was pretty funny to watch, but it wasn’t helping us sneak up on any ducks.  There were no ducks on the lake in our first and best slip spot, but we took off hoping to find them in another slew.

Rebel was flying pretty well down to 43.4 ounces.  I want to try to get her down to around 41 or so and see how she flies.  She has not had a duck kill since November and she was at 40 ounces then.  I truly think that her reluctance on ducks is not only because of her bad experience of the ice bath, but also because she has gotten so much better on squirrels that she is primarily looking for them as prey.  It is a bummer to me as I loved watching her stoop on ducks, but things have not been looking good on that front lately.  That being said, many other falconers suggest that perhaps her weight has drifted too high for her to fly on ducks.  I don’t know.  I am having a hard time reconciling how hard she is flying on other prey to her lack of interest in ducks at the exact same weight.

The weight issue brings up another point that I have been very slow in making.  I have had a very hard time trying to find this bird’s ideal body weight for hunting.  She started so low and has been so successful at so many different weights, it is hard for me to determine what weight is the healthiest for her.   Weight is not the only variable in determining how well she hunts, but it is a big factor in determining how well she flies.  Hunger seems to be the main determinant of how well she hunts.  If I feed her a huge crop of duck one day and nothing the next, her weight may still be two or more ounces higher than my expectations, but she will still fly hard and hunt because her stomach is empty.  The problem seems to be one of endurance when she is too far off of her desired weight.  She still follows well and hunts well with the proper hunger drive at heavy weights, but she doesn’t fly as fast.  On the other end, if her weight is too low, she seems a tad faster but doesn’t leave the perch very well and seems more insistent on tidbits.  It is very frustrating to work out exactly where her weight should be.

Well, she was flying fine, she just wasn’t too interested in ducks.  Once again our first flush was missed and in retrospect it was our best one.  Hoping for more flushes, we started making our way across the lake.  She took a beautiful perch in a dead snag in the middle of the far end of the lake.  This is a place she has perched before and seen many a wood duck cutting a path back down the lake as I flush this corner.  It effectively pushes them right underneath her. 

So I was pretty fired up.  My bird was in perfect position, I had heard ducks on the lake and this slew was where they had to be.  If Addie and I could flush them, they almost always follow the lake back, right under where Rebel was perched and maybe we could break our streak of bad luck.   Addie and I pushed up and success!  A brace of eight wood ducks jumped up and flew across us down the lake just as I had envisioned!  I looked up to where Rebel was to watch the pitch and saw…  No Rebel.

The ducks winged past about five feet under the now empty perch.  It seems Rebel had seen a squirrel and given chase right as I flushed.  Damn.  She flew back to her perch and watched the ducks take off for the hills.  Oh well.  As I was trying to console myself for Rebel’s missing yet another perfect slip, she took a dive at a squirrel who had been hiding right over my head.  This one she chased through the cedars and tagged him in a treetop out over the lake.  Oops. 

At least it was warmer than her first unintentional bath out here.  She and the squirrel splashed down like a search and rescue team and Rebel began swimming towards shore.  Fortunately she wasn’t that far away this time and by the time I got over there, she was already on the shore, bedraggled and cold, clutching her equally soggy prize.  The trade off was pretty smooth except for the somewhat significant fact that I failed to make sure that the squirrel was dead before putting it in my bag.  That was an unpleasant discovery as I felt something moving in my bag pocket…  I couldn’t do much immediately as I had a wet Rebel on my arm and I definitely did not want her to see this again.  

I put her up in a tree and turned to dispatch the squirrel out of sight.  Rebel must have known what was going on because she steadfastedly refused to come back down or even acknowledge my presence.  She sat high in the tree in the sun to try to dry off and I finally had to call her down to the lure and walk out.  Oh well.  A successful day on squirrels but again no ducks.  A smelly wet bird that was still a bit miffed with me gave me a disdainful look as I put her back in the hood for the ride home.

Jan 4 – The Perfect Mallard Slip…

This afternoon we decided to keep it local and Rebel and Addie and I headed up to Doc’s land around the corner.  I was hoping to put Addie out in the briar patch and see if we couldn’t get a rabbit moving.  Unfortunately, a group of kids was hanging out at this area so I moved on up to the rice fields.  As I crossed over the lake, I saw something that I had not seen here in forever… ducks on the water!

We pulled on through and parked.  I got Addie out and she seemed to sense the urgency, as she stayed right beside me without commands.  I put Rebel up and tried to convey where I wanted her to go.  She took off to a nearby tree to view her surroundings.  She saw the ducks on the water so she pushed up ahead as I have been trying to get her to do forever.  She flew across the lake to a dead snag on the opposite bank.  Perfect!  I stood up straight and began walking to the lake.  A few groups of ducks would get up and fly but Rebel was waiting.  When the right group got up, she gave chase but she was already way behind.  She ducked out (no pun intended) into another high perch. 

Several ducks had flown further up the lake, so Addie and I headed up the lake.  Rebel was perched in a tall pine and I spotted a male and female mallard just past her on our side of the water.  We headed in and the ducks stayed on the water.  They paddled to the far side of the lake, but would not get up even with me on the bank, so I sent Addie in after them.  As she got closer, the ducks leapt up into the air, the greenhead wheeling back over right over my head.  About one second too late, Rebel left her perch to drop on the ducks.  I couldn’t believe it.  It was the most perfect duck slip I have ever managed for the bird.  She has had success in much more difficult situations, but this one, she practically let go.

Uggg.  She followed the mallards out into the swamp and turned back.  She lit in a gigantic live oak near me and spooked up two squirrels.  Okay, I could handle a successful squirrel hunt to offset the bitter taste of that last missed slip.  The trouble with these squirrels is that they stayed together.  Because they stayed together, Rebel could not decide which one to go after.  She finally gave up on this too.  Bummer.

Now I know that Rebel flew hard yesterday.  She was lower today at 43.4 where she was 44.5 yesterday, but this is well within her range (so far, every weight I have flown her is in her range…).  I suppose she was just tired or sore or pissed about the tradeoffs.  I don’t know.  I can say this for sure though.  I will be checking that easy lake slip more often now for ducks.

Jan 3 – Raining Squirrels

Wow!  What a day!  I don’t know if anything else could have possibly happened today.  Something amazing happened every five minutes it seemed!

The day was nothing short of epic for falconry, brisk but comfortable, nice breeze, bright sunshine and excellent company.  Rebel and I got to fly today with my sponsor and his new PFRT, Jade.  We headed out to Wee Tee, a farm owned by one of my friends outside of Georgetown.  It is a gorgeous place with lakes, cropland and tons of hardwood forest.  There are turkeys and deer everywhere.  You almost step on the dove if you walk in the cornfields.  About every tree has a squirrel nest in it and the rabbitat is amazing.

As we pulled in, we saw a big passage RT sitting in a snag on the side of the road.  We had my trap with us so we turned around and tossed it out underneath him.  He was on the trap immediately and was snagged!  We ran up but he managed to get free and flew up into a nearby tree.   We decided to throw the trap back out and watch and see.  Sure enough he came down again and hit the trap hard.  He footed it several times but it took forever for him to get caught.  Again, we raced up only to see him get free.  This is the luckiest bird ever…   Once again, he flew up into a nearby tree but did not leave.  We left the trap and rode away.  Gave the bird fifteen minutes and came back to find him on the trap for the THIRD time!  Now by now, most of the nooses needed to be reset, so it was not a surprise that he did not get trapped.  He flared as we rolled up and we let him be.

We pulled in to the farm and started to cruise around to find our first hunting spot.  There were many hags spotted around the place, one soaring at about 800 feet in lazy circles around the open fields.  As we pulled up on the lake, we saw several wood ducks on the water.  Fortunately they had not bumped from the truck, so we backed out and got Rebel ready to go.  Rebel set up too far from the water’s edge and the ducks got up too far away.  I was surprised that he didn’t give chase, but then I noticed the ginormous Fox Squirrel he was intently staring down. 

We started yelling and banging the tree and the Fox Squirrel began to run with Rebel in hot pursuit.  He dove twice just missing the behemoth.  As the Fox squirrel ran out on a small branch right above me, Rebel swooped in.  I could see his talons closing down right when the branch snapped and down came the fox squirrel from about forty feet.  I watched his underbelly as the squirrel spread his arms and legs to increase his resistance and I realized that he was going to fall directly on my head.  Hmmm.  This was a simple fly ball catch with my left hand, falconry glove already in place.  I reached up to catch the big squirrel when strangely I pulled back.  Rebel was feet away from the squirrel and I thought for sure he was going to catch this thing right at my feet and I didn’t particularly relish the idea of him crashing into my squirrel filled glove.  We already have some issues with possessiveness and I was pretty sure that if he saw me snagging his meal out of the air, he was going to hire a hit man.

The squirrel landed inches from my feet and I could feel the impact through the soles of my boots.  He hit the ground running, scrambling towards a nearby pine.  Rebel crashed behind him right as he hit the base of the tree and unbelievably, he missed.  Bummer.  I thought for sure we had our first Fox Squirrel in the bag.  The squirrel disappeared in a knothole at the top of the tree and Rebel gave up.  We headed back around the lake and Rebel had a stoop on a wood duck that I got up on the far side of the lake, but he missed.  He also missed a smaller grey squirrel after chasing him through about a dozen trees through the swamp. 

On the far side of the lake, Rebel took off to a stand of trees so we followed convinced she had seen something.  We beat on trees and yelled, but nothing was moving.  When I was finally ready to call her down and move, on, she dove getting another big Fox Squirrel running.  She stooped on it twice and almost had it but once it was into the top of a pine, she gave him up.  It is weird.  In retrospect, all three Fox Squirrels she has had experience with, she has abandoned when it got into a pine.  We decided it was Jade’s turn and we would give Rebel a rest so we headed back to the truck.  On the way, we saw the three geese from the other day.  Rebel wisely wanted nothing to do with them this time.

Jade looked good out of the box but was a little skittish of Addie running around under her.  She got used to the dog quickly though.  She treed a grey squirrel and laddered him up the tree like a pro.  I was shaking vines like a madman when the squirrel made his break.  He raced down the truck with Jade and her T-Rex sized talons right behind him.  She was closing the gap when the squirrel decided to bail.  He leapt out of the tree and fell, once again, right on top of me.  This time I did reach out, but the squirrel was an inch out of reach.  Again, the bird barely missed the beast on the ground.

After covering that territory well and not finding much game, we decided to head back towards the cabin where we had seen a ton of nests.  We put Jade up and she seemed to love the 70-foot tall pines.  She chased a couple of squirrels but ended up frustrated.  Back in the box for her and it was time for Rebel to try again.  Rebel came out of the box amped up like a crack head on check day.  She set the pace and we blazed through the woods.  She finally treed one squirrel in a maple abutting a holly tree.  She was so smart in the way she herded the squirrel up and latched on when he broke out on a limb.  It was a beautiful chase but she carried the blasted thing about three hundred yards.  Sigh.  Excellent trainer…

The trade off was actually very smooth and I put her back up in the air to make our way back to the truck for Jade to have another turn.  On the way out, I shook a vine near a nest and a smallish grey jumped out and started fussing at me.  Rebel took note and swooped in.  She chased that squirrel into one of the tallest pines I have ever seen.  Again, the bird showed real experience, laddering the squirrel higher and higher until it panicked and tried to race down the trunk.  She was of course waiting for just this eventuality and she neatly plucked him right off of the tree.  Another carrying session, this one nearly five hundred yards, and Rebel had her second double!  Easy trade off with a rat and a fuzzie and I took her to the truck for a DOC as a reward.

We were running out of daylight when we put Jade back up looking for those Fox Squirrels.  I was pretty sure she would not hesitate if she saw one, but they were still holed up in the lairs I guess.  Jade unfortunately did not get any game on this outing, but I am sure that will be corrected next time we venture back here.  We looked to see if we would have another shot at that passage bird on the way back, but he must have gotten other game and was perched for the night.  We headed home as the sun was setting, very thankful for a spectacular day.

Jan 1 – New Year’s Day Double!

WooHoo!  First double today!  What a great way to start the New Year!  Rebel was revved up and ready weighing in at 44.6 oz.  I had the privilege of taking my wife and her father with me this time, and Rebel made me look good.  Well, as good as you can look to your father-in-law I suppose…

We went to our Georgetown spot in hopes again of ducks.  It has been so long, I am worried that Rebel has forgotten them as prey.  We pulled in and got everyone ready.  We were talking a lot on the way in and I didn’t have much hope of getting to the first slip without flushing the ducks early.  Rebel sensed this as well, taking off way ahead of us to scout the lake. Rebel actually flushed several ducks off of the water, but he drove at least one back down into the water and he flared off up into a tree!  Perfect!  I have been hoping to teach him to scout ahead and keep the ducks on the water until Addie and I can get there to flush, and this was text book.

I made in and flushed the duck up pretty quickly.  Actually maybe too quickly, as Rebel elected not to chase.  Bummer.  We moved on around the lake, but there were no other ducks on the water.  Rebel got a squirrel moving near the edge of the lake in an area where she has been successful before.  She chased this squirrel through a dozen or so trees staying with it the whole time.  She is really impressing me with the way she matures in her hunting techniques.  She cornered it in a tall scrub oak and we saw a second squirrel up there with the first.  Rebel did not pay it any mind.  She swooped in and snatched her squirrel right off the trunk.  She did carry a bit, which now I am somewhat expecting, but the trade off was easy and there was no snatching or footing.

I was pretty excited.  It was a thrilling chess match and my bird was successful.  It was still early and I didn’t have to be at work until one, so I put Rebel up again.  She followed very closely at first, wondering where her prey had gone.  I gave her a few extra tidbits and she cornered another squirrel high in a dead snag.  This squirrel stayed tucked in for a long time.  I thought maybe she was seeing things after we sat there for fifteen minutes with no action.  Finally, Rebel took a dive flushing the squirrel to make a run for it.  The squirrel fled across several trees getting closer to the ground.  I was running to try to catch up and keep the squirrel up in the tree, when Rebel swooped low and peeled her second squirrel off of the side of the tree almost making it look easy!  She carried a little way but not far.

She was still breathing pretty heavily when I got to her.  I put the squeeze on and noticed a small bite.  Nothing a little scarlet oil couldn’t handle.  Rebel had caught a very nice buck squirrel weighing just shy of 20 oz.  Sweet!  The trade off was pretty easy.  I elected to give her a DOC for her second reward and she accepted it greedily.  We headed back to the truck, me sporting a heavy bag and a mile wide grin.  My wife was sporting a fresh set of chigger bites.  Dang.  I can’t catch a break.  Every time I think I am making some headway and getting her interested in falconry, something crops up.  Pass the clear nail polish…  Sigh.

Dec 31- Wee Tee Farm

Well today was supposed to be all about the kids, but I managed to slip a little bit of falconry in anyway.  I packed up all of the kids and their friends along with roughly three tons of paintball gear and headed out to my neighbor’s farm for a little paintball fun.  This could probably be more accurately described as therapy for dads who really want to shoot their kids but can’t seem to find the time…

I had stayed up the night before filling bottles and organizing gear and stuff so I was a bit tired but the coffee was good.  I had decided to take Rebel out there with me as this place has more abundant game than any place I think I have ever been outside of Mississippi.  This is a large tract of land that is managed for hunting with a little farmland thrown in.  Mostly, the farm land is just for raising corn for the deer and dove.  It is a hunter’s paradise with a great little lake dotted with Cyprus trees where the wood ducks congregate, tons of briar patches and dense cover areas for rabbits and quail, food in abundance for all game, and a squirrel nest on every other tree.

Well we had more kids than guns, so I, ever so self-sacrificing, offered up my gun.  After getting them all set up, I headed out with Rebel and Addie.  My buddy decided we needed to hit the lake first to look for the ducks, so he had me jump on his fourwheeler, bird on the fist and drove us up there.  Rebel did not know what to think.   We were going at a modest clip and she would spread her wings like she knew she should be flying.  A few times, she left the fist and sort of hovered / glided beside us.  She kept looking at me like, “Dude…”

We got to the lake and my buddy headed back.  Rebel, Addie, and I wound our way around the lake.  Not too far up I saw ducks on the water and I crouched down.  I got Rebel up in to position and waited for her to see them.  She was looking so I slowly made my way on up for the flush.  The ducks weren’t moving so I started to send Addie in to get em up when Rebel took off further up, abandoning the pitch.  WTF?  I stood up expecting the ducks to flush but nothing.  Apparently plastic duck decoys do not fly well without extreme provocation.

Sigh.  As we rounded the next corner, Rebel went on alert pitching forward like she was about to take off and I quickly learned why.  Three rather large geese waddled into the water right ahead of us.  I say rather large as you would when describing the national debt or an expansive mountain range.  These birds were huge!  Corn fed geese be damned, these were the geese that ate the corn fed geese.  Even Addie was intimidated for a minute, which in dog years is a very long time.  It didn’t last long as she was quickly running right at them and barking like a raving lunatic.  They started beating a course through the water making nice V ripples behind them that looked as if they should have come from behind my john boat. 

Brilliant dog that I have raised, she headed right into the water after them.  I swear, that dog would have chased the creature from the black lagoon into the water if she could.  I started to call her name, but knowing it wouldn’t make any difference, I decided the time would be better served taking off my coat and divesting myself of my cell phone and other electronic devices as I was sure a trip into the water to fend the geese off of my dog was immanent.  Amazingly, the geese were scared of her.  She actually got them up into the air and circling over the pond.  She paddled back to me, tongue lolling out so proud of herself.  Good girl.

Oh No.  Rebel.  I gave myself whiplash wrenching my neck around to make sure Rebel was still on perch in the tree and not chasing these behemoths.  Whew.  She just sat there and stared at us like “What?  You didn’t seriously expect me to chase after that did you?  Just because I hang out with two idiots doesn’t mean I am one too…”

Okay, enough of the lake.  I started beating the brush in the tall grass and cornfield, trying scare up a rabbit.  Addie was running totally amok by now all amped by her self-titled victory over the geese from hell, so she was no good. I got nothing moving by the time I had crossed the field a few times and by now, my bird is in a tall tree four hundred yards away showing no signs of leaving that perch.  Okay, I can tell when I am licked.  I called her to the lure and she flew high over the field, soaring a tad looking over the cornrows before diving in on her dinner. 

I leashed her up and headed back to paintball central.  Rebel was put up in the giant hood to digest her meal and I joined the epic struggle between good and evil.  I would like to say that I was instrumental in my side’s crushing defeat of the enemy.  I would like to but it would be as far from factual truth as cable news is from actual news.  Nope,  I charged in leading my outnumbered forces in the attack only to find that the battery on my trigger was sporked so my gun wouldn’t work.  MmmHmm.  I don't make this stuff up.  I dove behind a log and quickly received about ten special deliveries to various anatomical parts that don’t sound so good when paired with the adjective “splattered”.

Thank goodness that the football game was coming on and all the Dad's were well decompressed from taking out their frustrations on the kids.  I was able to beat a hasty retreat with no further humiliation.  And to think, I actually plan and set up these activities.  I am pretty sure my well educated wife would label me a defeatist or a masochist or something.  Where I am from, we just call it being plain stupid…

Dec 28 – Rat-Tailed Squirrel…

Rebel and I buzzed down to Georgetown again this afternoon along with Addie for a late afternoon hunt.  It seems the squirrels in this place tend to favor morning activity, but we were still hunting the now elusive ducks.   Rebel was flying heavy at 44.8 ounces but looking strong and eager.

The temperature was just under 30 degrees but that air was clear and the sun was shining.  There wasn’t much ice on the lake so I was encouraged.  We came in to our first slip from a different angle but Rebel was again behind me when the ducks flushed.  She never even saw them to give her now usual half hearted chase.  Oh well.  We pressed on hoping to round the corner and get up a nice brace of woodies.  I could hear them calling but I was worried that they were out over the river and not on our lake. 

As we rounded the corner, Rebel spied a young squirrel racing for its nest.  She chased it through a few trees with a couple of near misses, but the spritely guy made it to its nest, chattering all the while.  Rebel stared down the nest for about a minute before charging in.  She hit that nest hard shaking everything around her and dislodging half of the nest material.  The squirrel screamed and ducked out it’s bottom entrance but Rebel had it by the tail.  It barked and chattered and finally managed to pull free and leap through the Cyprus trees our over the lake.  I wasn’t sure what I was seeing at first because it didn’t look quite like a squirrel at all.  It took me a minute to put my finger on what was missing…  It’s tail fur!  It was running through the limbs with that back half of its tail missing all the fur!  Half rat, half squirrel on the run!  Rebel had evidently stripped the fur off of the distal end of the tail as the squirrel pulled free!

I started screaming at Rebel and chasing the squirrel but she was locked up tight on the nest.  She had the sensation that she had a kill between her talons and she was squeezing away.  I know she watched that squirrel go tearing off, but she kept right on squeezing that nest.  She kicked and pulled a little bit and finally figured out that she did not have a squirrel in her mitts.   She was a tad bit pissed, you could say, so she took it out on the nest.  Not a twig was left standing.  I am pretty sure even the big bad wolf would have been impressed with how thoroughly she blew away that house of sticks.

We headed on around the lake and chased a couple of more squirrels but it was getting dark and we needed to head in.  Of course, right as I decide that, Rebel finds another squirrel to chase.  I set off running, as it is looking like she might be successful when Bam!  Lightning strikes my right ankle and I fell.  I had fallen victim to one of our famous yankee ankle breaker traps in my hurry.  Friggin’ gophers.

I sat there not sure what to do.  I was about two miles from the truck, my bird in a tree looking at me funny with dark setting in.  All I could think at the time was, “Why do I keep getting myself into these situations?”  I sat up and re-laced my right boot all the way up and discovered that I could walk okay.  The bird was intent on me and came right to the glove when called.  Apparently the squirrel had made it to a knothole but I didn’t check.  I went ahead and leashed up Rebel and we hobbled out of the woods.  First sprained ankle in a long time.

We didn’t kill anything but time but even with the injury it was a good day.  Still wonder how that little squirrel is making out telling his friends about why he only has half a tail.  You know, squirrels use their tail for communication, I believe.  I wonder how bad having the fur on you tail plucked out affects your squirrel-accent?  More questions for God when I meet him I suppose…

Dec 25 – Christmas Day

Not much of a hunt, but a nice walk with the family and the bird.  We headed out to see if we could walk over to Doc’s with my wife and kids and dogs.  Rebel started out feeling like his style was being a bit cramped by all of the people and he was lagging behind.  I was hoping to try to get Addie to run a rabbit for Rebel, but it wasn’t looking like we were going to even get all of the way there.  Rebel was enjoying a few high perches in the neighbors’ yards.

I was getting a bit frustrated when deliverance came from an unlooked for source.  A small murder of crows saw Rebel and began to dive bomb him perched in his treetop.  He finally said enough was enough and left with the crows swarming him.  He came straight to us, and the crows veered off.  Okay, back on track again.  We made it around the block and Rebel gave chase to a squirrel in a huge oak in the median of the road.  It unfortunately got into a knothole and that was pretty much the extent of our “hunt”.

Rebel took off into the neighbor’s backyard.  I went to follow and the family headed back home.  I watched Rebel for a bit and called her down to the lure.  A neighbor with Down’s syndrome came out to watch and ask a few questions.  We ran into a few more neighbors on the way back.  It was pretty nice overall, but definitely not a hunt.  It was so nice just to be outside on a wonderful day thanking God for all of the blessings he continues to bestow.