Wednesday the dog....

.... comes with me. I took Cisco out flying for the first time since March. With him, I don't do any prep work. No zip line or creance flying. About ten or fifteen years ago I took him hunting two weeks before he was done molting. He caught a small swamp rabbit. Farrah I transition over a couple of weeks. Not because she's likely to fly off, or won't return to the fist, but because she's so jumpy. I might reach in and she's instantly up in a tree.

Cisco was at 930 gram body weight. 900 is the arbitrarily picked hunting weight. He hunted like a heavy buzzard, but his recall was perfect. He made a couple of high-in-weight squirrel chases, and sat and enjoyed the cool morning. I pulled out a chick leg and he was on my fist. It was a boring hour, which is fine. I might have taken Arnold, but didn't, just in case I had trouble with Cisco. Wednesday he's coming with us. Cisco should be closer to a motivation weight too. He ate two chickens. I expect he'll be around 915 or 920 on Wednesday.

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Wrapped Up a Long Time Ago

I quit updating this blog last mid November. A bad month. We lost our friend Lynne Holder, my erstwhile apprentice, a close friend, and in 2009 the recipient of my male Bay-winged Buzzard, Dart. The evening she died, I was in the woods with Cisco; Lynne and I were chatting via text, and she quit responding. Texts being what they are, I didn't think much about it. Ron Holder called me the next morning to tell me she had died, and also to see if I could come and get Dart, which I did. A tragic loss. At least we got together a couple of times near the end. A couple of weeks before that, flying in the field soutwest of town, BB broke his leg. Lots of surgery and rehab, but he ultimately succumbed. He was a wonderful little Harris's, one of my lifetime favorites. I flew Dart the rest of the season, along with my usual team, Cisco and Farrah. Lynne called me as I was pulling out of the veterinary hospital the day BB got hurt. She wanted to know if I'd fly Dart while they went to ...

Not a bad outing

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...

A good squirrel chase, then nothing

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.

Cisco's Nineteenth Season

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