Dec. 3 – Round Up!

Had a beautiful hunt today.  The weather was brisk as we had our first real freeze last night and Rebel was rearing to go.  Laura decided to come with me and we chose to take the dogs.  I have been trying to do this more often lately as I intend to get them working as a team and they need more exposure to each other.

Of course taking my wife into the field meant that I was also taking her schedule hunting with me.  I hate going into the woods with a deadline but hey, you do what you gotta.  Rebel weighed in at 40.5 today and this seems a good weight, although with the cold weather, I think I will still try to inch him higher.  I still need to work out the exact relationship of weather to weight with this bird.

We went to the site of Rebel’s earlier ice fishing expedition this week.  He was flying hard right out of the gate, but I didn’t try to keep him on the fist until the pond.  I figured that with two dogs and a not-so-much woods savvy wife, there was virtually no way the ducks wouldn’t flush early.  Add to this the fact that Rebel hung back keeping an eye on the dogs and I think you can make a pretty good guess as to how the first slip went.

The very good news is that once the ducks took off, Rebel screamed after them.  It was funny to watch.  He was frantically pumping through the air and in my mind I could see him screaming “Wait!  Do Over!  I wasn’t ready yet!”  That put aside a lot of my concerns about how he would respond to his drenching on Sunday.  At least he was following the ducks and still viewing them as prey.

He took up position in a dead snag in the middle of the lake and just stared at me like he was begging me to flush them again.  Unfortunately there were not any more ducks on the water at that time so we pressed on.  Rebel left his perch and shot in a straight line deep into the woods past us on the trail of a squirrel.  He was moving fat break neck speed and as he folded up his wings to crash through the branches at the last second I was sure he was heading for a head injury.  He missed that squirrel by millimeters as it ducked into a knothole.  Laura, of course, missed it…

We kept circling the lake looking for more ducks and squirrels.  One flight of woodies came in high scouting the area but Rebel was in a tree below and they were at full speed.  He did not give chase but he stared at them as they flew over.  At the very back of the property near the river, we got up a big grey squirrel and Rebel took off.  We chased him through eight trees and finally he went out on a limb to jump and Rebel snagged him.  He helicoptered down with a nice grip on the head and body. 

As he came to ground, my little schnoodle took off to get a closer look.  Not wise.  Now you have to understand.  This dog has been chasing squirrels for three years.  This of course means that she has been frustrated for three years.  A few weeks ago when Rebel killed a squirrel in the yard, Holly couldn’t believe it.  She kept staring at the hawk in awe like, “You really got one??!”  So here we are in the middle of the woods and Holly wants to help.  Rebel, of course, thinks that Holly wants to eat. 

I ran towards them as fast as I could screaming “No!”, but as you might imagine the schnoodle scoots under the vines faster than I can plow through them.  Rebel took one foot off of his prey to defend himself and Holly is inches from a footing.  I am still screaming, and Mr. Squirrel decides to make a break for it.   He twists away and runs with Rebel running after him.  And the rodeo commences…

I don’t know any other way to describe it.  The squirrel is turning circles and figure eights with the hawk running right after it.  The dog is yapping but thankfully staying clear, having gotten the point from Rebel without the need for getting the pointed talons…  I am finally there and this is happening at my feet.  I swear it was just like the roping contest at the Neshoba County Fair.  Rebel finally hog ties Mr. Squirrel and is declared the victor.  I wish I had a camera.  A running hawk is divine comedy in my mind.

Well, we headed back after the trade off, and Laura made it home in time for the next item on her agenda.  It was a great day to be able to share with her and the dogs.  We don’t get to do that often enough.  I am hopeful that if I can get her out in the woods a few more times, I might get a little less rolling of the eyes when I talk of hawking.  Well, a guy can dream, right?

Dec. 2 – Cage Match

Well I raced home from work to try to get a flight in for Rebel.  With the days getting shorter and daylight savings, it is getting harder and harder to make it home in time to fly, and this bird demands plenty of exercise.  He was a solid 40.6 oz. today and itching to get out of the mews.

Jordan came with me out to Doc’s land and we took the dogs.  Rebel was like a shell out of a Howitzer taking off from the glove.  He quickly took a high perch and started scanning.  Jordan and I moved off to the pond to see if there were by chance any ducks.  No luck in that regards, but Rebel followed very closely which was encouraging.  We headed out around the other small lake hoping to scare up a rabbit or find a squirrel.  The truth is, as beautiful and convenient as this area is, game is fairly scarce here.  The squirrels prefer the cultivated yards in the neighborhood…  Sheesh, even our squirrels are snobby in Waverly…

Well, Rebel was flying great.  He was following beautifully and I called him down a few times to reinforce fist response and he did well.  The dogs were having a blast and I was having fun watching my daughter try to walk through the high grass and brambles in her Sperrys with no socks…  we were loud enough laughing at each other to wake the dead.  It wasn’t much of a surprise that most of the squirrels were well tucked away by the time we approached.

We did have a few great flights on a particularly wily buck squirrel as dusk was closing in but after chasing him through ten trees, he finally made it into a hole and safety.  Rebel was a bit pissed at that point.  He flew on ahead and Jordan and I got distracted by a beautiful doe and her fawn bounding across the path ahead of us.  I have gotten this pair up several times back here and I am always so appreciative of their grace as they ghost through the foliage.

Well Rebel was in the top of a pine and it was getting dark, so I blew the whistle to call him down.  Strange that he wasn;t coming because he had showed such perfect fist response earlier.  I looked up and saw a hag circling overhead and decided that this bird had Rebel spooked so  I headed his way.  As I got closer, I saw him in the tree.  Right next to him was another hag!  They were doing the stare down thing, not yet crabbing talon to talon.  As I approached the hag took off.  I think this was a mated pair and probably one of the same birds that Rebel has tangled with before.

Well I was done with that.  I called him down and he left his high perch and flew off the other way after the blasted hag!  Okay.  Now I am worried.  You see, I had forgotten to place Rebel’s telemetry on him when we set out because I was in such a hurry to beat the sunset.  I had called him down in the field to put it on but he was way too excited to fly to be still for me to put it on one handed.  So now I have the perfect storm of a situation with a distracted bird, no tele, headed in the opposite direction.

Lure time.  I had a pair of DOCs on the lure and I pulled it out and began blowing his lure call.  He left he hag and came low through the trees to us.  As I had hoped, he was more concerned about those hawks getting his lure than he was about running them off of “his” territory.  After his snack, I slipped the bullet jesses back in and we headed back to the truck and home.

It was great to be out with Jordan and the dogs.  We all had a blast even though we really only had one chase on game.  We saw some beautiful deer, avoided a cage match with a pair of hag RTs, enjoyed a beautiful sunset, and got a little exercise.  Not a bad way to end a day in my book.

Dec. 1 – Houdini Lives!

Two weeks after we mourned the final passing of Houdini the great, another sighting has occurred!  Two weeks of trying to flush this quail out of my garage and being outsmarted by a bird with a brain the size of a dried pea, I finally made my peace with the bird and let it roam free.  Shortly thereafter, we found a pile of feathers near the front door and we said a tearful (my fingers were crossed) goodbye to the Great Houdini.

Flash forward today.  Urgent text from my daughter as I am driving to work.  “Houdini Lives!!!”  She saw the bird on the way to school this morning…  right outside the mews!  He promptly flew to a tree when she walked by.  She had watched him bob on past the front of the mews, just taunting Rebel to beat the band.

Well the good news for Houdini (wondering if he really is a quail or maybe a phoenix?) is that he will soon have company.  I am building a recall pen for quail this weekend and buying another dozen or so of the monsters.  The wife might divorce me, so if anyone needs help with the rent, keep the couch warm and give me a shout. 

I figure that if Houdini can live unaided in my neighborhood all alone for several weeks, perhaps the neighborhood cats are too well fed to care about quail.  My goal is to carry a bird with me when out hunting and when Rebel starts to soar, throw a bird out.  I really want him to learn to hunt feathers from a soar.  Planning to make a pigeon trap this weekend too.  Keep that quiet though because that might cost me more than a divorce…

So Rebel weighed in at 40.5 ounces today and was ready to go.  I barely got home with enough daylight to get him out to fly.  If it weren’t for the fact that he had not been flown at all in the last two days since our imitation of the Polar Bear Club initiations, I probably would have just gone inside, poured a stiff one and taken him a rabbit leg for supper.  Nope.  Weary or no, my bird needed to fly and he was letting me know it.  He started bating as soon as I pulled in and jumped right to the fist before I could even get his mews tethers off.

We headed over to Al’s house where I planned to take him down to the river in search of a giant fox squirrel, but it was getting dark too quickly.  There was actually one of the demon spawn sitting at a feeder in Al’s yard as I walked through but I thought it would be poor form to take one of his pet squirrels…  I regretted that decision immensely as we saw nothing else while out.

Well he got to stretch his wings a bit.  He was following a little closely, but I am not surprised.  His weight is lower than it has been and it is getting cold so he definitely has food on his mind, and I am not entirely sure that he is over the trauma from his arctic exposure two days ago.  That or he was just watching closely to see if I would do something stupid like jump in Al’s lake…  Regardless, he feasted on squirrel tonight and looks happy in his mews.  We will try again tomorrow.

And Friday…..   Quail!  I hope…

Nov. 28 - Rebel's First Woody!

Rebel was keen at 39.7 today.  After the way he flew on Friday, I felt that I should lower his weight a bit.  I guess it worked.  He acted like he was starving when I got him out of the mews.  He did not fly yesterday as I worked, so he was even more excited to get out than usual.

We headed out to Georgetown to see if we could jump a duck again.  I was a bit discouraged because everything I was reading seemed to imply that I really needed to give this bird more pen raised birds as baggies to get him going.  I was also a little worried because last time we were here I had my brother with me to help with the flush and this time I would be alone.

Once there, I walked Rebel back to the pond and came in at a slightly different direction in hopes of encouraging him to get into a good position for the slip.  His first perch was in the right direction so I figured we were good.  I slowly crept up towards the lake. 

We were in luck!  There were definitely birds on the lake and they were slowly moving away from the near bank in response to our incursion.  I looked up and saw that Rebel had marked the ducks and figured he would head up for a better and closer perch.  To my amazement, Rebel flew across to my left away from the ducks…  I was confused.  I was pretty sure he had seen the ducks and based on Thanksgiving, I was sure he would find a good perch but he seemed to be going the wrong way.

I waited for him to head back my way.  I whistled a few times, but nothing.  He took a perch off to my left over the front corner of the other lake where we had had flushes in the past.  I figured that he had seen birds on the water here and was waiting on me to flush them.  This bummed me out because the closer lake was a much better flush.

Oh well, I decided I would go ahead and flush the birds so he could at least learn from the experience and figure out better positioning.  I climbed up the levy and figured I would flush my birds and whatever Rebel was interested in at the same time.  My birds got up first, a flight of about ten woodies.  They jumped and started speeding up the other lake, right towards Rebel!  He left his perch right as they got up and was in the perfect position.  He took a sharp dive and nailed a big male wood duck about twenty-five feet in the air!

It was amazing!  A spectacular flight and stoop that I was definitely not expecting!  The moment of exhilaration, however, was short lived as my bird was plummeting down into the middle of the damned lake, duck in tow.  I ran down the hill to see my bird trying to swim.  He was about twenty yards offshore using his soggy wings to pull himself through the water.  If I wasn’t so worried about him, I would have noticed right off the eerie resemblance of a swimming hawk to my father-in-law’s rather interesting interpretation of the crawl stroke…  A lot of uncoordinated movement for very little forward progress.  Sorry Bill.

No sign of the duck but a pile of feathers behind my guy as he pulled himself through the water.  Okay, so I wasn’t panicky at this point.  I mean the bird was slowly making it towards the bank, but when he saw me, he started to vocalize.  This wasn’t his typical vocalization when he is hungry.  This was clearly a distress call and it freaked me right out.  

Now you have to remember, this bird had very little experience with water.  I believe his first time in water was the other day when he took the voluntary mud bath.  He really seemed to enjoy that one, but it was balmy that day and the water he was in was relatively shallow.  That place was small enough that the banks were a hop away.  Not so much this lake.  Nope, he was out in the middle of it.  Up the lake without a paddle.  This water was deep and he was still out far.  To top it all off, we had had our first frost last night and the water was cold.  Bitter cold.

I hesitated only long enough to toss my jacket, keys and cell phone on the ground and started into the water.  It was deep.  I was hoping for knees, but I got armpits.  I am actually shivering as I type this just thinking about it.  As I waded out, I saw that Rebel still had his prize held tightly in his right talon.  Awesome!  On the other hand, his movements were becoming a little more spasmodic and jerky and his distress call was more forceful. 

I was six inches away from him when he dropped the duck.  He was in survival mode and he was trying to climb up a twig to get out of the water.  Not good.  I scooped him up and watched the duck with a broken neck, give a kick and disappear under the bracken under the water.  I felt bad for the guy losing his prize, but couldn’t spare much thought on that as I was seriously worried about the hawk.

I got him up on the back and pulled a towel out to dry him a bit.  Yup.  He hated that.  He saw the lure so I gave him a couple of chicks off of the lure.  Not sure that was a good idea as we didn’t need him to shunt blood away from warming his periphery to digest food, but I couldn’t stop him at that point.  He had a hard time eating.  He was slow and kept dropping his food.  He couldn’t grip the food well to tear.  It was awful to watch.

I squelched back to the truck and popped a bedraggled hawk back in the giant hood.  I turned on the car and set the heat at 90.  Then I did what I had to do.  I stripped down and drove home in my skivvies.  I am pretty sure we have all said prayers at certain times to keep from getting pulled over.  I said more of them.  Out loud. 

The whole drive home I was playing the “what if” game.  What if my bird had drowned?  What if he has hypothermia?  What if he refuses to chase ducks from now on after this debacle?  What if the cop that is about to pull me over is one of my friends from the ED?

Well, I made it home without encountering Johnny law, thank the good Lord above.  I went in the front door and took the bird inside with me.  After getting cleaned up, I lit a fire and we sat in front of it.  He was definitely looking more like his normal self.  He was still whining at me, but it was his normal “feed me!” call.  He started to preen and after a while, was back to his old self.  I actually think he was enjoying the football game.  I can’t be sure but I think he is an Atlanta fan…

Well, as luck would have it, I was taking Rebel out to the mews and one of my really nice neighbor kids came up with a bag of two ducks for Rebel.  He had shot them the day before and had just cut away the breasts.  He asked if I wanted the rest for Rebel.  What a blessing!  I took some out to Rebel and he chowed down like a fifth grader on corn dog day in the school cafeteria.

All’s well that ends well!

Nov 26 - Kingstree redeux

I was so excited for this hunt.  Our last Kingstree hunt was such a success where Rebel had bagged a squirrel, a woodpecker (I think, couldn't identify and Rebel ate it in the tree) on the wing, and a quail in one day.  I couldn't wait to see what we would do today.  Ernie invited all of us including families out to his farm for a pig roast and a little hawking.  Unfortunately only one other falconer could make it that day with the holidays and everyone's family commitments.

It was overcast and windy when we got there and as we pulled up, we saw a huge bald eagle sitting in a pine tree across the lake.  He had apparently raked the lake for fish earlier that morning and was enjoying his catch.  Fortunately he moved on before we were ready to head out.  Still made me a little nervous.  My bird doesn't back down from a fight with larger RTs, I pray he wouldn't be that stupid with an eagle...

My buddy's RT was a little high still so we decided to fly Rebel first.  I headed to the truck to get prepared only to find that I have left my food in the fridge back home.  Doh!  Okay not all is lost.  My buddy has a piece of squirrel in his truck that I can cut up.  Okay.  Back in business.  Wait.  Where is the lure?  Back at home with the food.  Sonofa....

Now Rebel had flown like a fighter pilot yesterday.  He was zigzagging all around the woods flying as hard as I have ever seen him.  His fist response was perfect and his following was spot on.  He seemed to be anticipating me very well yesterday, getting into good positions for flushes and everything.  Today he weighed the exact same and I really wanted to fly him badly.  I know better than to fly unprepared but I decided that the squirrel tail would  make an excellent lure and full of confidence, I said we would fly anyway.

I am sure you can see where this is leading.  I got Rebel up in a tree and we quickly flushed the first squirrel.  I ran and shouted ready for Rebel to swoop in.  Nothing.  He sat there staring at me.  I shook the vines, I beat the tree, I stood on my head...  Okay I didn't do a headstand but I would have if it would have helped.  Finally Rebel left his perch but he went the other way.  I thought maybe he had been watching something else so I followed.  Nope new perch in a tall pine.

The weather was weird, my bird was weird, and I wasn't completely prepared.  I decided to call him down and maybe we could take Al's bird out.  Of course, he wasn't coming down to the call so that made things difficult.  at first I held out hopes of just tid-bitting him down and letting him cool off in the truck until my wife, who was meeting us out there for lunch, could bring the rest of my gear.  Well he wasn't coming down for tid-bits so I decided that I would walk back to the truck and call him down to the squirrel tail lure.

Well he followed a bit and sat on the edge of the woods in a tall pine watching me.  I pulled out the squirrel tail and blew his lure call and nothing.  Nada.  I repeated several times but nothing.  I was getting frustrated at this point but i kept telling myself that it was my own fault for being unprepared.  Finally Rebel left his perch to soar over the lake.  It was so windy that he was just gliding around against the wind enjoying himself.  He took interest in the coots on the water and perched in a fir on the edge.

I borrowed Al's lure but no luck.  Finally I garnished the glove with all of the squirrel I had left and he came down.  Whew.  He wasn't happy when I leashed him and put him up.  Another lesson learned.

Nov. 25 - Thanksgiving Day

Well today was an absolutely beautiful day.  I got up early to take my brother hunting with me.  We went to the other side of Georgetown, leaving the house with the dawn so that we could be home in time to help with the dinner preparations.  I actually stuffed, oiled, and seasoned the bird prior to leaving.  Not Rebel, the turkey…

It was cool but not cold and the sky was just a tad overcast.  The wind was steady but not too bad.  The leaves were really starting to fall so the forest seemed almost alive as we made in.  I kept Rebel tethered to the glove until we were close enough as I really wanted him to get in a good position prior to our first flush.  The first flush is a small lake that is part of the drainage for a larger lake that is on the edge of Justin’s place.  These lakes are filled with cedar trees and the water is as black as ink.  They are also filled with wood ducks.  Every time I have been here, we have flushed wood ducks off of this spot, and while Rebel has seen these flushes before, he has almost always been out of position for them.  I was hoping that he would learn to get in better spots prior to the flush and to learn to actually expect the flush.

So I threw him up in a tree and once again, he did not seem interested in getting to the right spot.  He seemed to be busy looking around for squirrels and such.  I went ahead and flushed the ducks hoping Rebel was close enough to at least give chase.  He saw them get up and zoned right in.  He was off and following but way too far behind.  He flew on ahead a few perches while we tried to catch up.  He kept zipping back to us as if to encourage us on to faster progress…  “They are right over there!  Hurry up!!  Right over there!!!”  He was like an electron without a neutron, bouncing all over the place.

His energy was contagious.  I was running through the woods trying to keep pace with him.  I had never seen him fly that fast before and he was pretty hefty at 41.7 ounces.  He stopped to chase a squirrel that made it to a ground hole practically under my feet, and then off to perch atop a snag right in the middle of the lake.  I was excited.  He seemed to finally be getting the idea of perching high and ahead of me in anticipation of the slip.

I pushed ahead leaving Chris behind with the bird taking pictures and keeping an eye.  I got up about ten woodies and they headed back towards Rebel.  I couldn’t see from my spot but Chris let out a yell as Rebel stooped and just missed one of the ducks by a foot!  Woo Hoo!  He was clearly dialing in on the ducks as quarry which was exactly what I was wishing for.

We provided about five more flushes for Rebel but he never connected.  He was acting very hungry even at this weight and started keeping a bit closer.  I gave him a few tidbits and maybe that was a mistake.  It was clear that he was burning a lot of energy with his rather kinetic flying so I was trying to keep the reserves up but instead I got him wanting to play games.  He would fly to my feet in hopes of playing the jump-up game we do for exercises.   Once he even flew to Chris’ feet in hopes that Chris might be holding a bit of beef heart or a mouse…  He got back on target after a few minutes and started chasing squirrels.  He had some rather brutal crashes through the trees but no luck and then, paydirt.

He caught a squirrel crossing trees out on a limb and grabbed it out of the air.  He was doing a perfect helicopter to the ground when for some reason, he let go of the damned squirrel!  Bizarre!  He had the damn thing and let go again.  I checked him for bites but found none.  Now typically, I would say that the bird is too fat at these weights since he can’t seem to hold on to his prey, but he is flying so hard, I just can’t reconcile that with a fat bird.  Well he is still a young bird and learning so I guess we can chalk it up to learning.

He followed beautifully all the way back to the car but no more squirrels or ducks were seen.  He flew to my brother a few times for tidbits and a DOC.  For some reason, the guy with the chicken restaurant got a little nervous when Rebel tore into his chick…  Weak =)

It was a gorgeous day and Chris got some excellent pictures.  It was great being out in the woods with my bird and my brother.  I gave Rebel another DOC and a mouse back in the mews as his Thanksgiving feast.  I did not want him to be to fat for tomorrow’s hunt in Kingstree, but hey, it was Thanksgiving after all.

Nov. 22 - Near Miss

Rebel weighed in at a whopping 42 ounces today.  The duck leg last night was a little more than either of us thought.  I had to be in Georgetown to pick something up anyway, so we headed down to Justin’s place to try a few wood duck slips.  Rebel was gamey out of the mews and ready to go.  He is taking to the giant hood much better as he is now associating it with travel to hunting.

I slipped the bullet jesses on Rebel and walked him most of the way to the slip, as I just wasn’t sure how he was going to follow given his high weight.  I put him up in a tree and slowly made my way up to the pond.  He wouldn’t follow…  I was so bummed.  I pointed, I whispered…  Nothing.   If a man dog cusses his bird in whispers in a forest, and there is no one there to hear it, did he really make a sound?  Apparently the answer is yes, because the friggin’ wood ducks flushed and headed for less argumentative grounds.

Well as it turns out, Rebel was stuck on a squirrel that I had missed sitting in the tree right over my head.  He dove twice for the beast, but it ultimately scampered into a knothole and safety.  Rebel gave up and winged over towards the pond but still out of position.  I moved up to the next slew for another flush but the birds were a little more leery this time.  Once again they flushed early with Rebel out of position, and once again, Rebel peeled off on a squirrel.  He flew hard on this squirrel.  He stayed after it even when I wanted to get to the next flush before we had to leave.  He actually had two in the tree and he must have dove ten times on these lucky bastards.  On the last pass, he hit the squirrel trying to escape and knocked it to the ground not a foot from me!  I tried to reach out and step on him, but no luck.  He scampered away through the pine straw and must have found a hole to duck into.

I had to get back so I started out.  Rebel had other plans initially, but he followed reluctantly.  When I got back to the truck, I called him to the lure and he once again struck it out of the air with high drama.  It did make a very sweet ending. 

Not sure I will ever really understand this bird’s weight.  There is no way that he should be flying at 42 ounces, much less hunting this hard and following.  Just bizarre…