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...