Cisco's Nineteenth Season

Cisco at 931 gm body weight (fed a rat yesterday), on a cool and cloudy morning. Like last time, not an enormous amount of activity in the woods, though there were a few fox squirrels running around where I parked the Honda. Cisco has caught only a handful of them over the years. We had a few minor issues early today. No collection bag for the squirrel, and the blinking light on Arnold's tracking collar was not visible. Then, when I tried to zap Arnold with his training collar to truncate his eating enjoyment of some disgusting substance, he didn't respond. Hmm. Cisco wandered some and then flew west; over fifteen minutes took a big counter clockwise circle and it was apparent he found a squirrel. Arnold was barking and being useful, something infrequent this season. He attacked and missed this squirrel a few times. Finally he nabbed it and flew off about 50 or 100 feet.. Anold and I followed. It was a very small cat squirrel. When I caught up Cisco was dealing with it. It sunk

I lollygagged over waffles at the house this morning. Hence it was warm in the woods, also very quiet squirrelwise. I got bored about 20 minutes in, and decided to head back to the Honda. Arnold and I had been mostly following Cisco, who was roaming, usually not a good sign. Cisco followed us now, with a little whistling encouragement. No reward, or he'll instantly switch to what I call "tidbit mode," following on, but actually panhandling in the trees. Today though he was a little vocal, another bad sign, he continued to look for squirrels. He found one eventually, a big male cat squirrel.  I'm wondering whether it's possible to become a falconer in Houston anymore, even flying a Harris's or Red-tail. There's just not enough game here to get experience catching game, an activity integral to hawking. I've had three apprentices who took at least part of a third season before consistently catching then upgrading the permit to general. One did a full thir

Days like this I really appreciate how satisfying it is to fly a Harris's Hawk. After breakfast I took Farrah out to one of my new fields. She was flying at about 785, net body weight. It's leaner than I shoot for, but she flies very plump, so not a big deal. I put her transmitter on, and released her. She hung out on the Honda for a few minutes and then flew about 40 yards to the warehouse and parked. I headed out to the field, across a little ditch, T pole in hand. She joined me and rode the pole. The temperature was not horrible, and it was partly cloudy.  Initially, I was quite disappointed. The field seemed empty of HH stuff. Then it began to pick up. She chased some fast sparrows, and possibly a cotton rat or two. Then she snagged a small game bird and gobbled it up. I headed back to the Honda, and she chased a few more things. I had a large rat chunk because of her weight. After flying to the Honda she flew back to me a few times basically panhandling. Ultimately I fed h

Cisco found a small squirrel to catch today. Little thrill, Cisco had its number. Arnold was a spectator, contributing nothing, but wasn't in the way.

Cisco came in at a hefty 920 body weight. It was cool and sunny. Early on I second-guessed him after he watched a couple of squirrels before following. Too high, I thought. I was wrong. Most of the time when I second-guess Cisco I'm wrong. Within a minute or two Cisco had a squirrel pinned on the side of a tree. He neatly pulled it off and dropped straight down into a big grove of palmetto. Crash! Unfortunately, palmetto can be loud; his austringer ran in to help him. When I hit the palmetto, it sounded like a cannon going off and a squirrel was gone.. Cisco didn't want me to feel bad so he went back to hunting. It was a little slow for a few minutes but pretty soon he peeled off another. This time he glided off about 100 ft instead of dropping into the palmetto. Arnold helped. He was pretty good today. He got a small squirrel tidbit to eat. All is good.

A beautiful weather day. Truly doesn't get better than this. After Cisco caught a junior squirrel on Friday, I strove to reduce his weight a little more. Not much improvement. He's still about an ounce heavy. 925 grams body weight.  I released Cisco and he soon pursued a squirrel. Quite good, but the squirrel bested him. The chase went about forty or fifty yards. After that, we didn't see any squirrels. We were out for about an hour or so. I really do need to get Arnold the dog involved. Might make a difference. I tested my "short-range receiver," just a SDR (software-defined radio) receiver that plugs into my Pixel 7 phone. Works well, easily picking up Cisco's signal from 100 yards. I use it occasionally when I want to know if a buzzard is "close." If I don't hear a signal I know Cisco is a long way off and it might be time to get my serious tracking receiver.