Another strike out. Damn Wind!

Well I took Abby to a field in Fort Worth. It was very windy but I was hopping we could work that in our favor. I put her up in a tree and was going to walk to the far end of the field and flush the rabbits to her. Instead she was following real close. We had a dozen or so flushes, but Abby is used to short flights on squirrels and almost every flush was a long tail chase and she is not in shape for that and the wind was kicking our ass. She did pull fur once on a really long chase that was down wind. I am just cursed I guess.
12-15-08 1010 grams

Maybe she lost her touch.

Took her to our favorite squirrel area yesterday. Put her up in a tree and we had to walk around a while before we saw any squirrels. She followed great and rewarded her with a tidbit twice. She was flying from tree to tree as if looking for the squirrels, which I am sure is what she was doing. After a bit she stopped following and when I blew my whistle for her to come, she bolted in a different direction. So I ran to where she was and she was jumping from limb to limb in a tree. I looked around and saw the squirrel. We played battle of wits with this squirrel for a while, but it eventually disappeared. I found another squirrel and called Abby to the tree, with a lot of hesitation. Eventually she came over, but the squirrel escaped somewhere that I could not see. After a little longer and no more squirrels to see, I took Abby and put her in the box. I think she may still be a little heavy so I am going to drop her about 20 more grams.
12/10/08 1050 grams no kills

Still willing to chase squirrels

I took Abby to Lucy park and put her in the first big tree, where there so happened to be a squirrel at the top. She immediacy laddered up the tree and the game of wits began. It went back and forth about 30 minutes till the squirrel finally found a hole. We walked through the park about another 45 minutes but no other squirrels, so called her to the lure and fed her up pretty good.
12/5/08 1038 grams no kills

NAFA 2008

Well we survived Amarillo. Took Abby to a field Wednesday with a group and Abby did her usual in a group. She was not acting like she was on weight but I know she was. All she wanted to do was sit in a tree and ignore us. She gave one chase on a Jack Rabbit, but did not pursue very hard. I called her to the lure and we went back to motel. Thursday I went out on my own, to see if she would chase with no one around. I went to a field that i was told had Jacks. I waited to take Abby's hood off when we were way out in the field and put her on the T-perch. She immediately flew a good 100 yards to the road side and got on a post. I got her to fly pack and we continued through the field. But every time a jack would slip she would leave the perch and than bale to the ground. She did chase one cotton tail a good ways but it was up wind, and it was a pretty windy day. After a while she would not ride the t-perch any more and just kept jumping off to the ground, so I called it a day. Well I decided to just get what she does best, squirrels. So A small group took Abby to a cemetery. I put Abby up a tree and it did not take her long to set on a squirrel. This will be a squirrel I will always remember. She chased and re-chased this squirrel and it was a battle of wits. Abby finally grabbed the squirrel and it started biting Abby's chaps. This was one of the few times Abby did not get the squirrels head. I kept waiting for them to fall to the ground so I could assist, but they were in a V in the tree. After a bit Abby started pulling fur off the squirrels underside. Then a very scary thing happend, The squirrel let go of the chaps and bit Abby in the head. Than Abby went limp. I was going crazy not able to do a thing, Finally gravity took over and they fell to the ground, Abby was still limp, but still had her talons in the squirrel but the squirrel had its upper teeth in Abby skull right above the cere and it lowere teeth in I thought her eye. I could not get the squirrel to let go, so I pulled out my knife and cut the squirrel underside open and it finally went limp. I was able to pull the squirrel off her head now and when I did she looked up at me. I was very happy to see she was alive, but her actions was very lethorgic. I could not tell if it was her injury or tired, or shock. We sat there on the ground a little trying to let her relax. After a bit she started to regain herself, but not much. Than she started to try to eat the squirrel but would not step off onto the lure. I was finally able to get her on the fist. We rode back to the hotel with her on my fist. After we could not find the meet vet I saw she was acting okay but still worried. So I put her in the giant hood as we tried to find the vet. We found out he was out hunting in the field and was able to get ahold of his cell and said he would be there in about 30 to 45 minutes. When Dr. Jones out of Tennesse got there we took Abby up to his room. We cast her and he proceeded to treat the wound. He irigated the wound and it appeared to not have pinitrated the skull. He plucked some fethers from around the wound so he could expose skin so as to close the wound with three stiches. We put her in the hood and he gave me anti-biotics for her. I will take her to a local vet in 10 days to check the wound. It is now 2 days later and she is eating well and acting normal in her chamber. She looks funny with the bald spot on her head. I am happy she is ok and I never want to see my bird fall from a tree like that again. One of the falconers with me took pictures of the whole deal and I am waiting on the pics.

Squirrel #2

We went to the new pecan grove and it was 52 degrees and winds about 10 mph. Abby was following great. We were walking through the trees and I was using the Mr. Squirrel call and the "kiss of death" and was not seeing squirrels. I was shooting marbles in the few nest I saw with no results. Abby took a flight to a tree that was not in my direction so I was watching her than I saw the squirrel. So did she. She hit the squirrel up in the tree and was wrapped up in some limbs. I could tell the way the squirrel was balled up it was bitting Abby or her chaps. I started getting worried. Finally she and the squirrel hit the ground. I ran over to her her and grabbed the squirrels head and it let go, and I covered the squirrel with my glove and threw the lure and Abby traded off great. I dispatched the squirrel and put it in the bag. Got Abby on my glove and her left foot was cover in blood. I could see a small puncture between two of her toes. It did not look serious. I put her back up in a tree and she followed to the truck. I offered her the lure, than hooded her. I sprayed off her feet, and than sprayed anti-biotic on the wound. Very small puncture. We got home and I put ointment on the wound. It looked fine the next day. All in all a very good day and Abby's second squirrel this year.
11/22/08 1028 grams 1 squirrel

Chase but no catch

Took Abby to Lucy Park this morning. I was there at 6:45 and it was 38 degrees, very light winds. This is the same park a couple of weeks ago had squirrels every where. I don't know if they were in their nest and not coming out or what. I was able to get 1 squirrel out of the nest and Abby gave it a good chase, but could not get it. A little while later she spotted another one and it out smarted her. Walked around for a while longer and could not find any more. So I got her to the fist and took her to another part of the park which is real thick. After a bit she saw another and gave it chase but it got into the undercover and took off. I spotted one a little while later and I could never get her to see it. After a long wait I was about to give up than she took a real long flight to a huge high tree next to the river. I ran over there and she was staring down a hole in the tree. Apparently the squirrel was jacking with her, because every now and than she would charge the hole. After a while I realized she was not getting the squirrel out of there so I called her to the lure which she hit right off. Hooded her than took the 20 minute walk back to the truck.
11/18/08 1030 grams

THA mini meet

Well Saturday was cold and very windy. I picked Abby up from Noels. He said her fly weight should be around 1050. I think that will be high. I put her up in a tree Saturday and tried on a bunnie field but she would not follow. I do not know if it was the crowd of people, the high winds, or she prefers squirrel hawking. So I called her to the lure and put her up for the day. Got a later start than I wanted to on Sunday, we met Noel around noon and went to the park where Abby got her last squirrel. She had a few chases but was not following that good. Both days she was right on 1050 grams. She did not connect with any squirrels but was activly chasing. As I said however, she would not follow. Called her to the lure with only 30 grams of food because I wanted to try her on bunnies on the way home. I stopped at Karma field and she was at 1080grams. Put her up in a tree and immediatly I got her 3 or 4 bunny slips and she just watched them run by. I moved to another part of the field and she followed. I put a bunny right under her and she went after it but it gave her the slip. I thought good now we can get some where. Boy was I wrong, she stopped following and started rat hunting. Even though I continued to give her slips. Called her to the lure and went home.
11/17/08 1080 grams

Some pictures of Abby's First Squirrel of the Season

Things ended up better, but I miss my Bird.

Well Saturday I went to a field hoping to see some bunnies. I put Abby up in a tree in the middle of an area with some thick mesquite and cactus. As I walked through the trees Abby surprised me and was following great. We worked the area pretty heavy but to no avail. After about 45 minutes and sweating my butt off I decided to call it a day. I was frustrated because she was doing so well I wanted her to get a bunny. I pulled out the lure and she hit it right away and traded off good and hooded easy. She was at 1090 grams.
Sunday I was taking her to Noels house to hold for 2 weeks to see if she will loose her aggression in her mews due to being territorial. He asked me if I wanted to hunt her on some squirrels or bunnies, and I said sure. We decided to go with the squirrels since Kylie had never seen successful squirrel hawking, and I knew Abby was better on squirrel than bunny. So we loaded up and Noel took us to this pretty thick area, but had lots of trails and high trees. We saw a lot of leaf balls up in the trees so I knew there were squirrels. Abby chased a squirrel after about 5 minutes in, but missed. A little bit later she saw another one and she took chase that ended up in some ones back yard. I took off after her and decided to jump the neighbors fence because I could not get in the yard she was in. I got over and pulled out the lure with a small reward on it and she came right away. I hooded her and handed her over the fence to Kylie. We walked off a ways and decided to see how she would react unhooded on Kylie's arm. Since we are trying to get her used to others I thought this was a good idea, but nervous about Abby freaking out and face grabbing Kylie. She struck the hood and Abby looked at her kind of like who the heck are you, but showed no aggresion. We figured Abby would freak and take off. Kylie ended up having to toss Abby up in a tree. We went on with a coulple of more chases, but typical squirrel hawking, lots of chasing. After a bit she went after another squirrel and chased it to about 3 or 4 differant trees and the squirrel went to a tree by Noel, so Noel started hitting the tree and I came up the other side and started doing the same. The squirrel made that fatal error and bailed out the tree and went running down a washout. Abby nailed it and I took chase. I got there and was very pleased to see that she had both feet on the head. I dispatched the squirrel and let Abby have one hind leg and the head. We thawent and hunted Kylie's bird Katana on some bunny. After that we took Abby to Noels and dropped her off.
11/3/08 1070 grams 1 Squirrel.

Better today

Well I got home from work and decided I need to get some game under Abby. She was still heavy so I decided to take her to a field where I knew would be lots of easy slips on rats. I got home and weighed her and than hooded her as I did not want to get footed again. I changed out her jesses and put on the bells. This was a challenge because she kept trying to strike, so I was dodging talons plus trying to slid things through moving holes,lol. I did not get concerned with this as she has never liked me messing with her feet while hooded. We got out in the field and I walked into the field leaving her hooded. She was doing a lot of screaming which she does when she is ready to hunt. I got to the area where I knew the rats would be and unleashed her jesses. I than struck her hood and raised my arm above my head so I could duck if she decided to come at me. She looked around a while than flew to a close tree. She immediately remembered how the game works, I walked over to a piece of tin to flip it and she flew to the branch right above me. I raised the tin and she immediately hit a rat. This went on about a half hour and she ate three rats and I traded her off on two. So that is 5 rats total. Some would consider this on there head count, but I will not because of the fact they were easy kills. I hope my goal was accomplished as to let her get some aggression out and get free food.
10/30/08 1095 grams

Aggresive Red Tail

This is our third year together and this year is a whole new challenge. When I started bringing her out of the molt and dropping her weight, she was not dropping no matter what I did. I would try just a few grams a day, and would try a large crop every other day. No matter what I did she would only loose 10 grams a day. This last weekend I did not feed her for 2 days, lost 20 grams, and than cropped her good with 170 grams. My bird is not very aggressive except when there is food involved, and not to get to the food, but if there is no food. I will explain. When she is on my glove I can run my hand all over her with no problems. I can pull on her beak, play with her talons, she is a little fidgety, but not aggressive. When I cropped her up this last weekend, the whole time she was eating off the lure I was running my hand all over her with not to much problem ( I usually do not mess with her while she is eating, just trying to re-enforce the fact that I will be moving in on a kill). The next night I took her out of the chamber and took her to the shop and weighed her, she dropped 113 grams, a little more than half what I gave her the night before. So it looked like her metabolism was kicking in. The problem came when I brought her back to the chamber. I put her on a perch in the chamber and removed my glove and folded it and was holding it in my hand. I turned to look for a casting and she hit the elbow that was holding the glove. I dropped the glove and she hit the glove. I had to use my other hand to push her off the glove and she kept jumping at it. I was than able to leave the chamber. Let me give you some idea of where her weight is at. First off I trapped her at 1380 with a small crop. The first year I flew her at 1010, last year I flew her at 990. This year at the end of the molt she weighed a whopping 1420. At the time she hit my elbow she was at 1175. It gets worse, last night I weighed her and she was back to where she was before I cropped her up at 1110. I carried her back to her chamber and went to put her on the perch, but instead of stepping off the glove to the perch she turned and hit the left side of my face. So I am at a loss as to what to do as she is not at weight yet.
10/29/08

Still dropping

Well most of the week has been just feeding her small amounts about 30 grams of chicken. Still only losing about 10 grams a day. Sunday evening gave her a full crop of rabbit, 178 grams, hoping to kick the metabolism in, which she weighed 1110 grams before feeding her. Monday night I did not feed her and she was very aggressive and weighed 1175. Which means she burned off 113 grams Monday, so we may be headed in the right direction. The problem is, I took her out of her chamber and weighed her and than put her on a perch in her chamber. I took off my glove and held it in my hand while my back was to her looking for a casting on the ground. Than all of a sudden Abby hit my left elbow with both feet and dug in good. I had to take the glove and throw it across the chamber to get her to release. She hit the glove like it was the lure. I may need to take her out and see if we can get some game under her, whether she is at weight or not.
10/28/08

She is still fat

Well I went to fort Worth again with her, and just like before response on lure great, response in field.....none. She is still 200 grams heavy. I am going to start feeding her just 30 grams a day every day. See if that works. Her weight this morning was down to 160 over, so maybe by this weekend, it will be down. I sure hope so because Kylie and me found a really good field to hunt. Her bird got a double.
11/20/08 1160 grams.

Weight Frustration

I just don't get it. The weight will not come off. She is doing great on the creance. Coming on or before first whistle as soon as I raise my glove. Hits the lure immediately and hard. I am going to go with out feeding her today or tomorrow, and than get her in the field the next day. I need top get her flying on game. I gave her 140grams of chicken neck yesterday. 100 grams on the creance and 40 grams in the mews.
10-16-08 1190 grams. (still 190 grams heavier than last years hunt weight)

It just is not coming off?

I just don't get it. I flew her on the creance again yesterday and she is coming every time with or without tidbit. She hits the lure hard, but she is loosing weight very slow. I am giving her 100 grams every other day and she looses that plus 10 more. I had been giving her washed beef heart when giving her food every day. Than unwashed beef heart when every other day. Yesterday I gave her chicken breast, 100 grams. We will see how that works.
10/14/08 1190 grams

Getting there, but still fat.

Well Saturday I did some more creance work. Two days earlier I gave her 95 grams and skipped the next day. She lost all I gave her plus a few grams. She was responding great and was coming on first whistle or sooner no mater where I was. Ended it with the lure, which also went well. She got a total of 90 grams of beef heart.
10/13/08 1198 grams.

Its getting better

Well yesterday was a lot better on the creance. I took her behind the shop and she responded great on the creance. Consistently coming on the first whistle, a couple of times before the whistle. It did take two whistles on the lure but she hit it hard once she realized what it was. As adviced by a friend I went ahead and gave her 100 grams to get a good crop in her to try to get her metabalism going. The day before I only gave her 20 grams and she lost 25 grams. It was a cool night so I figured she would have lost more. Any ways she did a lot better, I hope to have her hunting by next weekend.
10/10/08 1200 grams

Ah the frustration of weight control

Well after work today I tried some more creance and lure work. Was not a success at all. I could only get five 10' flights out of her, and I piratically had to beg her for those. We were in the parking lot at work, due to the field flooded after the nights rain, so it was pretty busy. That and she is still heavy had something to do with it. I only gave her 20 grams, and when i weighed her this morning she was 20 grams heavier. She is not loosing weight.
10/6/08 1200 grams

Oh the frustration

Took Abby to Fort Worth this weekend to free fly for the first time this season. I knew she was heavy, but the way she has been acting on the creance I thought she was going to fly heavier this year. But an apprentice mistake, 200 grams is way to heavy and I guess I was just to impatient to get out and do some flying. We put her up in a tree in this field that had a group of trees in the middle surrounded by field that looked great for bunnies. When she got up in the trees she started moving around like she was squirrel hawking, but there were no squirrels. I think now looking back, she was just trying to avoid me. It was freaking hot and cover was think and we flushed no bunnies. So I decided to call her to the lure. Well guess what, she wasn't coming. I ended up putting a bunnie on the lure and took a while but finally got her down. Called it a weekend and went hunting with a couple of other falconers that had their birds ready. So back on the creance and a diet.
10/5/08 still no kill 1225 grams

More Creance and Lure

Abby lacked response she had yesterday. She was about 20 grams heavier, but I also had lady staked out close to her. I was only able to go about 25'. She would not fly further. I only did this a few times so I did not raise her weight any more. I pulled out the lure while standing next to Lady. It took a few minutes but she finally came. I threw the lure down within reach of lady and told her leave it. Abby hit the lure but was really keeping an eye on Lady. Lady was acting like she wanted to play with Abby, but never got close enough to be footed. After Abby finished the lure hooded her and called it a day. Abby still is not ready for free flight. I will not feed her any more today, and nothing tomorrow.
1270 grams 10/2/08

First Creance Flight of season

Well the first creance flight of the year was what I would consider a success. Put the creance on her and unrolled about 25 feet. I unhooded her and walked back to the anchor (25') and put my glove up and she had instent response. Put her back on the perch walked about 40' and same thing. I walked again what i thought would be the full length of the creance and I was about 2' to far. She hit the end of the creance than flew to her left at the full length of the creance. She landed on the ground and gave me the go to hell look,lol. I put her back on the perch and she would not fly to me. So I hooded her and waited till she roused. Than I tried again, but had to move to within 15'. Than gradually increased and she started coming to me as I walked off. We had about 20 creance flights. She did not seem tired when I was done. She will not eat tonight, and I will try her again tomorrow.
10/1/08 1252 grams this morning.

Getting closer

Well not much to report as of yet. She is taking to the hood a lot better, and not as hard to get on the fist in the mews. We did about 20 jump ups with a reward each hop. Took her to work first time this season. Sitting on perch hooded. Will do some manning later. She was at 1270grams last night. Not loosing wieght very fast. But keel is starting to sharpen. 9/29/08

First post for Abby

I am anxious to get going on this season this year. I have started reducing Abby's weight a couple of days ago. She was at 1420 grams which is about 100 grams heavier than what I trapped her. I guess I over fed her during the molt this year. I weighed her last night and she is down to 1320, which was her trap weight. I have been feeding her on the glove and re-introducing the hood. She gave me problems with the hood the first day, and a little the next. These last two days she hoods easy. I built a chain link weathering yard and she has been staying out there in the evenings while I work on the mews. I am acquiring a Harris hawk this year (separate blog to come) so I am splitting my mews in half. She seems to have molted nicely, all her feathers have come in and she is a little lighter than previous, but not much. Her tail feathers are without frets and look good. I will be bringing her to work starting next week to start maning her to public again.
9/26/08 1320 grams 0 kills.