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.
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