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.