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