MFA Major Meet

[GregMik]

OK...I am at breakfast but I thaught I would update you all on what Gaz has been up to over here at the MFA Major Meet.

Greg

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/gregmik/mfamajor07/10feb07gaz_3653.jpg

[Leo 1]

OK...I am at breakfast but I thaught I would update you all on what Gaz has been up to over here at the MFA Major Meet.

Greg

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/gregmik/mfamajor07/10feb07gaz_3653.jpg

looky man pmsl

[MitchellBrad]

[quote=GregMik;472681]OK...I am at breakfast but I thaught I would update you all on what Gaz has been up to over here at the MFA Major Meet.

Greg

Greg,

Don't tell me you taught him how to make snow angels.

[GregMik]

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/gregmik/mfamajor07/10feb07gaz_3388.jpg

[Leo 1]

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/gregmik/mfamajor07/10feb07gaz_3388.jpg

naw i now what u all get up to at meats pmsl:goodman:

[SnakeHuts]

Thats why there is no yellow snow, Dr Who is at the meet bloody Tardis gets everywhere

[GregMik]

Greg,

Don't tell me you taught him how to make snow angels.

Tina tried to teach him a couple times....:shock: :lol:

[MitchellBrad]

Tina tried to teach him a couple times....:shock: :lol:

I don't know about there but here it's pretty warm +10F when I got up. I was actually out in tennis shoes with no socks on. If it weren't for the fog this is shaping up to be a great day. I hope this Ice Age is overwith so we can now have some nice weather.

[Leo 1]

I don't know about there but here it's pretty warm +10F when I got up. I was actually out in tennis shoes with no socks on. If it weren't for the fog this is shaping up to be a great day. I hope this Ice Age is overwith so we can now have some nice weather.

haha i got nothing but sun:twisted:

[Finnish]

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/gregmik/mfamajor07/10feb07gaz_3388.jpg



Don't go in there Gaz you will come out with three legs and four arms....:lol:

[Leo 1]

Don't go in there Gaz you will come out with three legs and four arms....:lol:

pmsl

[GregMik]

More pics...This one was from Duluth, the temp was -5F or -21C

Greg


http://webzoom.freewebs.com/gregmik/MFA%20Major%20Meet%202007/14feb07gaz_4140.jpg

[Pendleside]

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/gregmik/mfamajor07/10feb07gaz_3388.jpg

why is doctor who at the meet ?:lol:
pete.

[GregMik]

why is doctor who at the meet ?:lol:
pete.

They were trying to find a way home and out of the cold.:lol:

[GregMik]

Gaz found a hole.....:lol:

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/gregmik/MFA%20Major%20Meet%202007/11feb07gaz_3630.jpg

[GaryPCO]

Gaz found a hole.....:lol:

http://webzoom.freewebs.com/gregmik/MFA%20Major%20Meet%202007/11feb07gaz_3630.jpg

From what i heard gaz is always finding holes!:D

[Tim Laycock]

Gaz found a hole.....:lol:



Dont tell me, he tried to stick his tongue in to test for depth and thought all was well :rolleyes: :supz:

[FredrickFogg]

Dont tell me, he tried to stick his tongue in to test for depth and thought all was well :rolleyes: :supz:

I thought Gaz always went into holes head first! :rolleyes:

Fred

[Tim Laycock]

Fred,
Similar reports have been heard here :rolleyes: :lol:

[GregMik]

The boys should be home by now. I am sure I am going to get my just due as Gaz had his can with also.

Greg

[Gaz]

Yep,back home..and missing Minnesota like you wouldnt belive!!
Had an amazing time with truly amazing people..big thank you to all of the Minnesota Falconers Association members...especially Tina,Heather,Tasha,Jeff ang the Andersons,Grant and Michelle,what can i say?superb hosts,,their house was your home..and a great way to end a holiday with a meal for all,corn dogs as well!! at their house on Thursday night.....i would be honoured to be allowed to call you all friends and as i stated many times..my house is your house..whenever and for whatever reason..the door will allways be open...hand on heart...word is my bond..

Some of you by now will have noticed i have left one name out..our own Gregmik..thats because words would be a waste of time.!.he bent over backwards all week to help us out,nothing was too much trouble,he only left us when he couldnt come through homeland security at the airport!!
Thanks mate,wish there was more i could say/do..we will sink a few in November..:yawinkle: ....
Minnesotans.......
"SIMPLY THE BEST,..BETTER THAN ALL THE REST"


p.s
Greg..remember.."I STARTED THIS GANGSTA' S##T..THIS THE MOTHERF#####G THANKS I GET.." :yawinkle: :supz:

[Gaz]

Our own Gregmik and his Gos just before our last light pheasant slip..:supz:

[Gaz]

"Gaz had his cam with also." QUOTE:
Yep,i did,but knowing you and Tasha there are ,hmm,lets say ,probaly a lot more candid ones of me..(you dont see Tasha in stealth mode,and when you do spot her,its probaly WAY tooo late) so im gonna make a tactical withdrawal from this fray..with this one of Greg AFTER our last light pheasant slip...:supz:

[GregMik]

In our search for the Sasquatch, he made a breif appearance!:supz:


http://webzoom.freewebs.com/gregmik/MFA%20Major%20Meet%202007/11Feb07Gary_3926M.jpg

[Gaz]

"I AM A LINESMAN FOR THE COUNTY..."

Gregmik,Tasha & Redtailman...

[Gaz]

SHANTI..Tashas' bird....

Looking...
Im in...
Got it mom.....again..and again,..and again..and again.....(she dont miss often...)

[Gaz]

Gregmik & Redtailman.....

Greg,could you tell Grant & Michelle that there is something horrible in their window!!

[Finnish]

Look's like you had a cracking time Gaz. Come on more pic's mate.. What did you bring me back...:)

[Jastreb]

Great pics Gaz Man!!!!!

They are top guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hope I will be there again too!!!!!

Cheers Viktor

[Tasha55403]

She is a good bird, isn't she:D
I know, I know. I'm working on the story, but it's the last week of hawking! Time is hard to find and it takes lots of time to write up a not so short novel-lol. Here's a couple pics of Gaz:)
http://webzoom.freewebs.com/gregmik/MFA%20Major%20Meet%202007/11Feb07Gary_3926M.jpg
http://webzoom.freewebs.com/gregmik/MFA%20Major%20Meet%202007/13Feb07Gary_4086M.jpg

[Gaz]

Urban Ferruge...You would not belive the amount of rabbits here!small patch of land in between a housing estate and a road!!
Tinas' bird...
Near miss..

[Tasha55403]

I know I promised y'all a meet story, but we've had a couple falconer friends (Gary and Adrian) from the UK over for the last week (a couple weeks ago now)so it's been nonstop fun and games (ie no time to write up stories). They come over for NAFA every year and this year decided to come visit us and enjoy some Minnesota hawkin' as well. They're lucky they came for the major meet and the week AFTER, though. With the cold temps the week before they wouldn't have seen much hawkin'. As it was, it was pretty chilly, but it was at least doable. We met them at Cabela's Friday night and went to the hotel in Worthington from there. We managed to crawl out of bed Saturday morning for some breakfast and started sorting ourselves into groups to go hawking. Gary and Adrian wanted to go out with the longwingers, but when they went to get gas the longwinger's left them behind so instead we went out with the redtails. Generally more fun, anyways. My friend Tina and her ferruge Shawnee were first up for some whitetail jack hawkin'. We saw a few, but Shawnee wasn't in the mood to chase very hard. It was pretty chilly and breezy-one of those bright blue frigid days we've been having so many of lately. Next up was Tina's apprentice Jeff and his passage redtail Kira. He had spotted a couple jacks and attempted to sneak up on them. She had a great flight off the fist at one and grabbed it...and got the snot kicked out of her. I would've gotten some fantastic pics of it, but Jeff moved right between the bird/rabbit and my camera. Argh. I hate it when that happens. Greg got a couple pics, but was too far away to get anything really great (his lens has less range than mine). We went to another spot for some cottontails after that. We had one sitting under a pine tree when we arrived and Jeff got his bird out, but she wasn't interested. It was cold and she'd just gotten kicked pretty badly so she was NOT in the mood to play. She chased halfheartedly a couple times when we pushed a rabbit right under her, but she ignored a good many more. After Jeff got her down it was my turn. I put Shanti up and we had a couple nice chases but nothing spectacular. Then we got one to run across a wide open space and Shanti showed what a fantastic bird she is. She hit the ground after it several times and kept picking herself back up and chasing it again and again. It went to a building two hundred yards away and tried to hide under a downspout, but Shanti pushed it out (by crashing into it) and chased it another two hundred yards across an open field and managed to nail it. We could tell both bird and rabbit were quite pooped out. And so was I by the time I managed to trudge through the snow to where they were. It was one of the best flights I've ever seen. We flew Tuna's passage redtail next, but she was cold and while there were rabbits running everywhere she was picking her flights and just wasn't connecting on the flights she did make. Gary and Adrian were cold so they left us to go explore the local Walmart and get some lunch. We moved on and put Jeff's redtail Kira up again, but only got a couple flights in that spot. He called her down to the lure and called it a day for her. Next up was Tina's redtail Bonnie. She nailed a rabbit almost immediately at the next spot. Flew right past me to do it and was too close for Greg to get any pics:) Next was Jill's passage redtail, a beautiful black Harlan's/melanistic bird. He had only caught one bunny so far (late trapped mouser), but he put in a fantastic long flight (Greg sez about 150 yards) on a bunny running down a creek bed. He grabbed it, then lost it, flew up and went down again and actually managed to recatch it. We put Tuna's bird up again and she had some nice flights. One rabbit ran out across no-man's land and stopped by an electic transformer box for underground cable (so Greg sez, and he would know better than me-lol). The bird didn't see it, but Tina went after it-she saw it lay down out there. She scared it back our way, but I was standing right on it's trail so it stopped right in the middle. With the fresh snow it didn't want to leave the trail, but it couldn't go forward because of me and it couldn't go back because of Tina. It was perfect. But the bird was back in the woodlot chasing other rabbits. While we waited for the bird another rabbit came charging out of the woodlot and went down the trail towards Tina (not knowing she was there). Well, that was more than the other bunny could take. It came charging right at me, dodging to the side down a side trail about 8 feet in front of me. Meanwhile, we heard a bunny scream back in the woodlot-she'd finally caught one. Those were two lucky bunnies. After that we decided to split up. Greg wanted to fly his gos so we went to another woodlot to fly him. He was too high though and gave Greg a bit of exercise. While I waited for him to get back I watched 4 rabbits play in front of me. I couldn't help myself-when Greg got back we decided to put Shanti up for one more. It was a bit disappointing, though. A quick bunny, but the flight was pretty humdrum. Greg didn't even get to see it, he was too far back in the woodlot. Even though there was still daylight we called it a day. If we went for another Shanti wouldn't be ready the next day. We went to a truck stop to let the dogs out and to our surprise we found rabbit sign around a small cattail lined pond. Hmmm...

[Tasha55403]

Sunday was much warmer (I think it got up to +22F!), but it was very damp so it still felt pretty cold. Everything was frosted over-it was very overcast, but pretty in a chilly way. We started out trying to chase whitetail jacks again, but ended up chasing cottontails. There was a small woodlot next to the field they were chasing the jacks in and all three redtails (Jeff's Kira, Grant's Abby and later in the day Ross Dirk's passage female) ended up catching a cottontail in there rather than getting any good chases on the jacks. After Grant's redtail caught her cottontail we went to the truck stop we had found the day before. Ben Ohlander tried to fly his gos, but she took exception to the crowd on the sidelines or something and went probably a half mile away to a woodlot. While he went to get her we got out John Arent's harris hawks. They were cold, but we got some chases for them. It was funny watching John stuff his male in his jacket to warm him up. His female did manage to catch one while John was on the other end of the pond with the male. Tabitha took care of it and picked her up and they were bundled back into the car before they could get too much colder. We decided to go back to where we'd flown the Harlan's/melanistic the day before to fly my bird. I wanted to go back to where we caught my first rabbit, but I realized it was Sunday and since it was behind a church we should probably NOT go back that day. So, the caravan got to the spot and I threw the transmitter on my bird and let her go. At that point someone said "Dean's got his bird out." Sh*t. Shanti was about to land on the building when she suddenly turned and headed straight for them. I yelled "LOOK OUT!!!" and started running. By the time I got there Greg was already working on getting Shanti's foot off the gos's wing. I grabbed the jess to her other foot to keep her from grabbing anything. John got there and grabbed the leg itself (I shoulda thought of that) and tried the vulcan head grip (didn't work). Everyone was telling Greg to pull her middle talon. Unfortunately (fortunately?) the foot that had hold of the gos was her bad foot-the tendon to the middle toe was already broken, so pulling on it was useless. Tina managed to do something or other (pinching her toes somehow?) and we finally got her off the gos. Shanti seemed to take the manhandling/ripping the gos away fairly well. She was all "I can take it!!!", stretching to look over my shoulder and around me while I walked away. After Dean put his bird away I put Shanti back up and we got back to the business of hawking proper game. She seemed alright but I noticed instead of coming to the fist when I called her she just moved up. That worked well enough so I didn't push it and we kept hawking. The first flight was on a LONG slip, maybe 100-150? yards away. I'm terrible at distances, but it was a long one (she's really, really good at those). It got away, but she was right where we were heading so I left her there and we started moving towards her. Then she launched off her perch and made another nice long flight in front of us, with a beautiful pause, hover and drop straight down. She missed it and we started pushing again when someone (Ross, I think) said he had a rabbit pinned in some brush. The guys surrounded it and pushed it out across the open and Shanti had a beautiful flight and nailed it right in front of the brits:) Next up was Daphnae and her 1?2?x intermewed passage redtail Boomer. She nailed one pretty quick so we packed it up and headed back to where we started the day to fly Ross Dirk's passage redtail. He tried on to fly her on jacks, but they flushed too early and she went to the woodlot and got a cottontail like the other two. While we were waiting Helen Harvey flew her imprint kestrel on starlings. She returned to the caravan with the fruit of her bird's hunt...a piece of garlic toast she stole from a starling-lol. She even ate it! It was absolutely hilarious. Helen took her off to try to catch a bird to go with her toast, while we went back to the truck stop/cattail pond to fly Tabitha's once intermewed redtail. It's a really cool looking bird. She was worried he would be upset at the crowd and the bird wouldn't chase the rabbits so she kept him on the fist. He didn't chase so they gave it a rabbit that they had caught (by hand, I think) to encourage it to chase with a crowd present. Helen got back shortly after that with her prize-a starling to go with the garlic toast-lol. She was a very happy camper:) After that we all broke up and started heading for home. After a bit of driving we got to a WMA and Greg flew the gos on pheasants while I read a book in the car (WAY too much work and it was cold and I was tired...).

[Tasha55403]

On Tuesday the brits came out hawking with Greg and I on our home turf. We managed to catch one with Shanti pretty quick, but she just couldn't put another in the bag though we had some nice flights. After a bit they had to go-daylight was getting short and they still had to fly Greg's bird. Wednesday I took off work and we had a nice crew go up to Duluth to show the brits some snowshoe hawking. Unfortunately, it's near the end of the season and it was hard work just finding them this time. I had fed Shanti a bit more than planned in our efforts to catch a second rabbit, so I didn't want to fly until after 1 or 2pm. First up was Grant's redtail Abby. She got a couple flights on snowshoe, but there wasn't much there and eventually he called her down and we headed to another spot to fly Jeff's redtail Kira. We only managed to kick up one snowshoe and she wasn't in position to see it. She was cold and not following too well. So, we headed to another spot to fly Dave's redtail Jeebus. Dave's our guide when we go to Duluth so he wasn't all that keen on flying his bird-he'd rather see the rest of us fly since he can chase the snowshoes whenever he likes. But, Jeebus had a couple very nice flights before he called her down. The best was when Jeff fell through the ice on a creek and flushed a snowshoe behind him. Jeebus piled in after it and it just barely got away. Jeff was freezing up quick, so it was probably a good thing Dave decided to call it and go elsewhere. At this point my memory is a little fuzzy (it WAS a week ago and I don't have a photographic record to give me a timeline) so I might mess up who flew when, but I do remember the basics of what happened when everyone flew-lol. I think I was up next. I got to fly at one of my favorite spots-a cattail swamp, big surprise, hmm? Lol. I put Shanti up but before we could get very far in she suddenly started screaming?!! A territorial scream no less. Now, the weather was nice, relatively warm (20 something, if I remember correctly), sunny and breezy. But this was completely unfamiliar territory-she'd never been there before in her life. It took us a minute to reassure ourselves that it was actually my bird screaming and not a wild one. By then she had started to fly and was going into a bit of a soar. Tina suggested I call her down, which I attempted to do. She didn't respond before two birds suddenly appeared and started seriously mobbing her-two very large ravens. I think they were bigger than she is. They were doing their very best to drive her out of the area and were succeeding admirably. She kept going up. I decided the situation was serious enough and pulled out the lure, whistling and swinging. I think she may even have tried to come back our way, but the ravens were just hammering her in the air so continued on heading for the horizon. We hopped in the car and headed thataway. She had telemetry on, but I hadn't beeped it up (I've gotten used to not being able to since Greg usually has the receiver) which made me a bit nervous. But, we didn't really even need it. She had landed in a tree and was nice and obvious even without telemetry. The ravens had disappeared thank goodness. I called her down, but the spot we were at had sign and looked good so I put her back up and we all started beating. We had a few nice chases before we ended up back at the cars. I still wanted to fly Shanti, but since we were back at the cars we all just kinda decided we were done there and I put her away and we went elsewhere. We put Jeff's bird Kira back up at what used to be a honey hole. But there was barely any sign and we never saw a rabbit. Jeff decided to call it a day and called her down to the lure and put her away. Next up was Tina and her redtail Bonnie at a different spot. We had hardly walked into the spot when she went down in some really thick brush. To Tina's immense disappointment Bonnie had caught a cottontail, not a snowshoe. But, it was the first thing to be caught all day, so it was still very much a good thing. Next up was Grant and Abby again. Since we hadn't gotten very far in this spot we stayed there and kept pushing it. It was awful to walk in. Big lumpy hummocks so you'd slip/step off and jar your back when you landed on the lower spots. It was tough. After the first time I did it I was really careful about where I put my feet, but the rest of the folks seemed to be more miserable than I and had more trouble...or maybe their backs were just more sensitive since most of them were quite a bit older than me-lol. After quite awhile of trudging and not much rabbits to be found the group split up, not really on purpose. Half the group was pooped and wanted to go back to the cars, the other half wanted to keep trying. I was happy to go either way, but when I looked up half the folks and the bird had disappeared, so I headed back to the cars with the other folks that got left behind (the folks with the bird weren't answering our yells for them). After a bit Greg showed up back at the cars. The same thing happened to him-he was beating and when he looked up realized he was all alone, so he just headed back to the cars. I still wanted to fly Shanti, so Greg and I broke off to go back to the spot where we had tried to fly her earlier. Shortly after we got there we were joined by Dave and Tina. The rest (including the brits) were giving up and heading out. The brits wanted to visit Wisconsin (just a short drive away) and it was getting late and everyone was tired. Grant had managed to catch a cottontail after we lost them, so he was happy. Though that was an awful lot of work for a cottontail-lol. Since we had lost most of our beaters I let Bear come out to play with us. We worked our way through the swamp and thankfully the ravens weren't in evidence. It was getting late so maybe they were already roosting. After a short while Shanti had a flight, but didn't crash. Then she had another nice flight and crashed into the cattails. At the same time Bear sounded off that she had a rabbit. Figures. But, I thought I heard a faint squeal so I went "running" towards her. When I got there Tina and Dave were waiting for me with the bird. She had a snowshoe:) It was a good thing Tina was there though-she said Shanti had it by the rear end and it was trying to scrape her off in the cattails so she jumped in and grabbed it. Shanti immediately transferred to the head. She didn't seem too upset about the help when I got there, though Tina wasn't sure if Shanti had tried to grab Tina or was just transferring to the head. Hard to say either way, really. She transferred off nicely and we went home with the only snowshoe for the day. It was a pretty big one, too. It weighed in at 1726g (3lb 13 oz). I think I weighed the heart in at 11.4g. Thursday we went to Grant and Michelle's for a farewell dinner-Gary and Adrian had to head home. The food was good and much fun was had by all:)

[Fawkes]

great stories tasha, always a pleasure to read :D

[CJTaylor]

Great thread Greg, snow on the ground and fun all around..

[Gaz]

Gaz found a hole.....:lol:



http://webzoom.freewebs.com/gregmik/MFA%20Major%20Meet%202007/11feb07gaz_3630.jpg

From 'down the hole'..:yawinkle: