Cisco's Nineteenth Season

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 ...

 I posted this on April 19, 2026. But this video and snapshot were taken on Wednesday January 17, 2024.....This is as close to a video of Cisco's catch as I've ever caught out of several hundred squirrel catches. Last minute snag.....

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. 

I took Farrah and BB out west of Katy to let them fly. They did well. Both caught a little game. It was super windy and I believe BB's first real field outing since March. He stayed on the ground a lot, avoiding the wind. We had luck around the detention ponds rather than in the open.

.... 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 a...

Apologies to Hemingway for butchering his short story title. Cisco nabbed a small cat squirrel today, minutes after screaming the classic Red-tail scream. I typically set my timer for twenty minutes of delay as his screaming is often a response to stress caused by wild Red-tails, Bald Eagles, crows, or Red-Shouldered Hawks. There were crows and RSHs today. Surprisingly, minutes later he nabbed a half grown cat squirrel. After he grabbed it, Cisco was up on the side of a brushy limb, wing up, and awkward looking. Not knowing it was small, I wondered if he would lose it. A bigger squirrel might have gotten away. 

I hope I can get another season out of this field. A major wound I discovered today. What you see at the right used to be grassy. It's now a detention pond and a huge concrete pad. The grass is cut short on the east side of the pipeline. On the west side there's a long strip of grass. Farrah chased a few birds and caught one. I picked up a tick, discovered on the way home. I do have a better access road to hunt on the west side of Willow Fork, but the grass is cut too short maybe. Sometimes you can't tell. Farrah behaved well. I thought for sure Farrah was going to kill a Cattle Egret, but  it flew off as she was about to dive, and she just landed. Whew. 

Farrah's third outing of the season today. I met Wiegel for breakfast, and ran home to go get Farrah and head to the park. You see her in the new jesses which are a new concept I've been working on. She's settled in to the routine, flying well, but there's no real game out there. She caught a large cotton rat, and took her time eating it. In the buzzards' minds this IS game, the best actually. Certainly good food. 

Farrah began her thirteenth season with me this morning. First field trip. I got up before five to try to get to the field early to avoid the heat. When I opened the front door to take Arnold the dog walking, a humid blast of air greeted me. An instantly bad mood. I don't like the heat anyway, and combined with hunting?? Grr. I headed out after weighing Farrah. Her scale weight was 800 grams. With her anklets, jesses, band and tail clip, her net body weight about 785 to 790 grams. A good weight in a lot of ways but I fly her a little higher because she's less interested in killing herons, at least that's what I tell myself.  I headed out via Whataburger, picking up a sausage biscuit and a free old guy cup of coffee. At the park, it was slightly drizzly. Farrah sat quietly, stepping on my fist. She flew to a tree, and I grabbed the t pole and headed west, perch held above my head. She flew to it like old times. She flew to a tree, and I decided to cut the rat in half. She fl...

Cisco and Farrah are molting with Farrah ripping through; she's dropped all primaries and retrices. The heat is awful, but the Harris's is very content, and the Red-tail doing all right. Each day I put a water mister on him  after noon. (8/7/2023 update)