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.