I was looking forward to our first hunt in a long time today. I had just finished a VERY long series at work and needed to get out badly. The only one who needed to get out more than me was Rebel. We had hardly hunted in so long that she was wearing out her leash with all of the baiting she was doing. I am telling you, this bird was ready to go.
Unfortunately, the weather was not cooperating. It was drizzling and overcast and I kept scouring the sky for a sign of a break. I was packing up to head out anyway, but I was discouraged. My bird typically does not do so well with cloud cover. It must be some version of avian cyclothymia, no doubt. Anyway, just as soon as I had placed Rebel into the GH, I got a call from my buddy in Florence telling me that the weather was perfect and he had a great spot scouted out for rabbits. Well I didn’t need to be asked twice. We were heading down the road before I even hung up the phone.
It was almost a two-hour drive, but it was worth it. The weather began to clear about thirty miles from his house and it was truly a blue bird day. I met Al at his house and we struck immediately for the field. This particular field was mostly straw grass with a ton of briars, ranging in size from one foot high to ten feet high. There were many perches scattered around in the form of patches of pine trees, perfect for a Red Tail.
We put Rebel up first and she got her bearings. I was glad that I had actually had the foresight to bring my pole perch, although it wasn’t completely necessary. Rebel had great response to the perch. She would come to it whenever I whistled looking for a tidbit, but didn’t particularly like to ride it. She would stay on a little longer each time as she got more used to it.
Rebel did a really nice soar over the field to check things out as we started. I really think that if I knew how to properly reinforce this behavior and could predict it better, this bird could be a soar hawker’s dream. After the first soar, she really didn’t do it too much, although she did take a couple of S curves when flying to and from the pole perch. Despite the abundance of perches, it took awhile for Rebel to get into the game. Al had jumped up a couple of rabbits early, but Rebel was in no position to see them. She was way too far behind and the cover was so thick, she couldn’t see them.
Addie was having a time of it. She was bouncing through the grass and ducking through the briars like she had body armor on. She would wade into the thickest of thickets without hesitation. She was staying close for the most part, but of course would occasionally surge ahead, looking back at me from time to time to gauge my mood with her face grinning and her tongue lolling out the side.
We had a couple of breath-holding moments when Rebel was gliding across the field and did a sudden wingover and hit the ground. I ran up to find nothing both times. The second time, he was clutching a clump of grass. I think he was going after a little field mouse or something that time. Not sure about the first.
As I was wading through a nine-foot high row of briars, very carefully I might add, I saw Rebel dive down into the grass behind me. She had shot out of the tip top of a nearby pine and winged over about two feet off of the ground, slamming something out of sight. I heard the sound and knew we had our first rabbit! I got there quickly and helped dispatch the rabbit and traded Rebel off smoothly. It was a nice big cottontail with thick long legs!
I fed Rebel up and we put him back in the truck to give my buddy’s bird a turn. No luck for him at that spot but he didn’t seem to mind. I think that he was just as fired up as I was with Rebel getting his first! DEFINITELY worth the two hour drive!
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