Billy Bob '07 [Archive] - Falconry Forum (IFF)

Accipiter3

17-10-2007, 10:21 PM

Got Billy up and going now. Ms Havoc should be ready in a week or so.
10/02/2007 {(;-) !!

Brought Billy in and weighed him; 646 grams! But he hit the fist fast and hard when I went in to get him, so we put the tail mount on him and put him in his box out in the truck. I figured I'd fly him on the creance in the field after hunting with Lil Ms.

Got back to the truck and got him out and didn't have a creance along with us. I jumped him off to a fence post and called him back to the fist a few times leash length, and he was so quick about it that I decided to fly him free and had Becky get a quail out of the truck. We walked out into the field tossing him off to trees and calling him back. Then we moved out into the open field and I had Becky toss the quail from a little ways behind me. It flew GOOD! Billy saw it and started pumping HARD! But he neglected to let go of the fist..... :( The quail was about fifty feet up and thirty yards out when he finally let go. He closed with it fast as it was coming down and he was going up, and about the time they were coming together they went behind a large bush. I ran over and found him footing and plucking about ten feet the other side of the bush.

I let him pluck for a while, but then he started looking around at the sky and dragged it over next to the bush and started plucking again. When he broke into the meat, I knelt down next to him and offered a tidbit. He reached over and took it, and I reached down and picked up his quail with him on it and helped him pluck and break in. I let him eat quite a bit before slipping it down through the fist leaving him with a wing to work on. He remembered that he is supposed to get a tidbit for going back into the box, but I had forgotten, so I had Becky pull off a piece of neck. I put it on the perch, shined the flashlight on it, and he jumped in.

I LUV! working with intermewed birds!!!! His fed weight was 708 grams, so I'll skip feeding tomorrow and try for a bunny on Thursday.

Accipiter3

17-10-2007, 10:26 PM

Got Billy up and going now. Ms Havoc should be ready in a week or so. 10/02/2007 {(;-)

10/06/2007

Well, we had planned to go south for quail, but when I talked to Wally, he said that the wind was kicking up a storm, so we'd probably best not. Quick change of plans and we started flying up the interstate in slow motion..... Traffic was atrocious! We arrived at the hay yard with about 45 minutes to hunt and met up with Larry.

I got Billy out and beeped him up, and we found a bunny right away, but it absolutely refused to come out and play. We moved on and found another one, but about then the wind kicked up out of the north, and Billy had to hang on tight. It slowed a bit and we flushed, and he went for it, but it turned into the wind which had kicked back up, and he lost it in the wind and weeds and landed on the fence. I called him back to the fist and he kind of side slipped over to me. The wind died back down a bit and we tried for the first bunny again. Becky was able to get it moving, but the wind came back with a vengeance about then. He flew up onto a hay stack and tried returning to the fist but got picked up and blown away. He came in low fighting the wind , but when he spread his wings to land, it picked him up again and after kiting up about fifty feet, he headed into the teeth of the gale to land in a tree. I moved up north of him, and he tried coming in again and got carried away to the south, so I got the receiver and followed him. He was caddie-corner from where we started and was all over the sky trying to fly back to me and finally landed on a short hay stack just inside the fence. I raised my fist to the top of the fence, and he got blown back a bit while trying to come in and grabbed the fence and ran along the top of it to the fist. I secured the jesses right away and shined the light on the food on my fist so he could eat his reward. As I walked back to the truck, he would let go and kite jess length off the fist and then fold up and grab hold again several times along the way.

In the worst of it, just after he landed in the tree, I looked north, and there was a wall of soil about fifty feet high coming at us. Just after it passed was when he tried returning out of the tree, and it seemed to just kick up harder and harder. Sure was glad to have him back on the fist! Darn weather man said the wind was dying down about 5:00 o'clock, but 6:00 o'clock is when it started kicking up the worst! Sure am glad the boy loves me and wants to come home with me at the end of the day!

Accipiter3

17-10-2007, 10:30 PM

Got Billy up and going now. Ms Havoc should be ready in a week or so. 10/02/2007 {(;-)

10/08/2007

The weather man LIED again! We were supposed to have a high of 68 F, and it was closing on 80 F when we packed up to go hawking. Billy was only down to 640 grams and not real interested in working for a living. And after all this talk about hawk boxes and such, when I opened his today, he came busting out like the devil was in there with him, slapped his left wing against something, and kinked the tip of a primary. We soaked it in hot water when we got home, but it didn't want to straighten out. I'll see how he does tomorrow with preening and all and may cast him and touch it up with a hot glue gun.

We walked most of the way around the inside of the hay yard without coming across a bunny, and when we found him one, I'm not real sure what happened. He pushed off the fist and stooped towards it, passed over it's back with inches to spare, and flew up to perch on a piece of equipment. Then he turned right around and came back to the fist. The next one came out of a shed and did a hard right 180 around the end. Billy was off and chasing, saw it cut to the right, and cut to the right himself to cut it off; straight into the corner of the shed and then a nice circle flight, back outside and around the corner where the rabbit had gone. Of course, it was LONG gone by then.

We got another one up, and he chased it around the corner of the shop building and was sitting on top of one of the storage containers on the other side. As I came around the corner and saw him sitting up there, I noticed a bunny running on the other side of the yard towards the pipes. Got him on the fist and went to check, and sure enough found one. I went back to get Becky and Larry, and Becky got it out and running. Only for about twenty feet, though..... {(;-) I guess missing on the last one had gotten his dander up, and he was all over it that fast!

Accipiter3

17-10-2007, 10:32 PM

Got Billy up and going now. Ms Havoc should be ready in a week or so. 10/02/2007 {(;-)

10/13/2007

We had a pretty good turn out today at the Refuge Day Celebration; 9 falconers, 3 RTs-2 adult & 1 juvie, 5 goses-2 adult females, 1 juvie female, 1 adult male, and 1 sub-adult male (half gray and half brown), 1 peregrine, one kestrel, 1 screech owl. We were set up in a gazebo down by a small lake and weren't getting much business, so I had most of the people take a bird up to the main event area and mix with the crowd to talk about their birds and falconry.

Went hawking in the rain afterwards; Billy with me and six beaters. Unfortunately the boy spooked and went up to a power pole for a bit and was there when the other folks flushed a hen pheasant about 100 yards away. Couldn't relocate it when I got him back. Moved across the road to try for a bunny and found one. With all the extra help, I had them assault a large evergreen shrub area while I stood back about 30 feet. The bunny came busting out and Billy was on his way. It stopped under a tree, and Billy lost track of it and flared up about twenty feet, looked over his shoulder, and did a wing over when he saw it take off again. He dropped like a little silver meteorite and slammed it as it went into the weeds under the next tree. Another small one, but it ran well and Billy flew well!

Accipiter3

17-10-2007, 10:35 PM

Got Billy up and going now. Ms Havoc should be ready in a week or so. 10/02/2007 {(;-)

10/15/2007

--Richard's known for feeding his hawks too much and saying... oh well they'll fly anyway. (smile)
And they do.
Becky
Well, I obviously shorted the poor boy a bit yesterday, because he was way down to 610 grams today! The boy done GOOOOOD, though! {(;-)

First off I saw a bunny sitting out in the grass next to a parking lot; drove on past and pulled into the lot, but when I got out there was a train sitting there rumbling away. Sigh! The boy definitely don't like trains!! So I drove on past the bunny and back out onto the road and parked behind a sign to get him out. Snuck up to the sign, which was about thirty feet from the bunny, and as soon as I stepped around it, they both took off heading across the parking lot! Billy was closing fast and about to grab it, when it hit a puddle and slid right out from under him! He flared up a few feet and turned around to snag the bunny, but it had scrambled on over to the hole under the side walk it had been going for. No getting it out of there, so we moved on down the road.

Just down the street a ways the other side of the train, there were about half a dozen bunnies sitting out in the grass along a hedge row; too close to the train, though. But there was another one about fifty yards farther on, so we went for that one. Billy was off and pumping hard as soon as it wiggled it's ears, and it took off as soon as he did. He chased it under a large evergreen shrub, flared up and did a wingover into it and came out the other side and down under another shrub and stayed down. I walked over and suddenly he was running across the yard to me and slammed the fist. I went in to try for a reflush but couldn't find the bunny.

I drove around the corner and stopped at a large open field we used to work to good effect. As I walked in, a Eurasian collared dove landed on the fence about thirty feet away. I paid it no nevermind and went about beating the weeds in search of a bunny and was taken by surprise when Billy pushed off to the rear in a ground level attack. He got to the fence and went vertical, rolled off to the left and powered into a twenty foot tall pine tree. It suddenly exploded with those dove going in all direction and Billy coming straight out the top of the tree hot on the tail of one. These doves are a bit different than our natives. They have short broad wings that seem to move real slowly, but they were sure putting some distance between it and Billy! He gave up after about fifty feet and landed in another tree, and I called him back to the fist. I thought he was on his way, but he flew right on past and went back through the tree chasing another dove. This one evaded him, too, and this time the tree was empty, so he returned to me.

I headed on around the building looking for bunnies but had gone a good half mile before I came up on the railroad tracks again and started into a cul de sac on the other side. I didn't see any bunnies when I started in, because they were sitting tight with their ears down looking like rocks, but one of them wiggled it's ears, and Billy was off and chasing. The one he went for ran around a small tree with Billy closing rapidly. I was heading for a large shrub patch, and Billy seemed determined to not let that happen! He grabbed it by the butt, and it kicked off and flipped over on him, but he hung on! Then it went straight up into the air about three feet and kicked him off, but he swung around and grabbed it again before it hit the ground! He still was only able to get a hold on the rump, and they were spinning and bouncing all over the place. I was afraid to move in too quickly, because he didn't have a good enough hold on it. Instead I stood back and watched. He slid one foot forward and snagged it's head, pulled the rump over to the head, and transferred the other foot to the head. The bunny continued to kick and jump, but I now felt it was a good time to move in and assist. What a knock down drag out!!!! There was blood all over the place, but it was all bunny blood. I let him pluck for a while and then called him up to a front leg. He seemed quite happy to jump to the fist for his reward, and I walked over to the road and fed him another one when he finished that one. Big trucks were driving past, but he ignored them and chowed down.

He was 689 grams when we got home, so he probably won't fly tomorrow, but maybe Ms Havoc will.... {(;-)

Accipiter3

17-10-2007, 10:44 PM

Got Billy up and going now. Ms Havoc should be ready in a week or so. 10/02/2007 {(;-)

10/17/2007

While Becky was letting Lil Ms feed up on her kill, I got Ms Havoc out to see how she would act in the field. At 875 grams, she wasn't even interested in jumping to the fist; wanted the food but didn't want to work for it. Put her back into her box and fed her when we got home.

Billy was 627 grams today. Not quite as hot as yesterday, but he was willing to work a bit. Becky found a bunny in a pipe & rattled it out with the steel ferret. It got about fifty feet before Billy slammed it, but the hit a mud patch and slid against a curb. Billy for some reason or other flew up to the roof of a nearby building and left the bunny scrambling along by it's front legs. It turned out that he had slipped a talon right into the middle of it's back and paralyzed the rear portion. I ran over and grabbed it, stretched it, and put it away before calling him down. We got a few more good flights with no catching, and were walking across a parking lot with trailers in it. I saw one with "The Peregrine" on the side along with a nice picture. I was pointing it out to Becky, and suddenly Billy pushed off the fist and flew around me at a bunny that had flushed from open gravel. We didn't see it until Billy went for it. Not sure where it went, but Billy came back when I walked around the trailer.

We then moved down to a junky area with lots of cement forms and pipes. We got a good dozen or more bunnies up, but they only had to dash about 15-25 feet to the next cover, so it was a real difficult place to hunt. Becky lifted a cement form and sent a bunny running out into the weeds, and Billy pulled it up short in about twenty feet; just before it got to the REALLY thick weed cover. GOOOOOOD Billy!

Here's a picture of him plucking his second bunny. I swear he'd pluck every bit of fur off a bunny if I left him to his own devises! And one of me sitting with him while he plucks the bunny

FredrickFogg

17-10-2007, 11:55 PM

Isaac

18-10-2007, 11:28 PM

Hey Richard!

I'm still here, just been really busy with school etc. I made it up to a meet in the Pawnee Grasslands last weekend and thought I might see you there but it looks like you guys were off at another meet. Maybe I'll give you a call sometime this week and see if we can hook up to go hawking again...? Congrats on a good start to the season despite the weatherman!

Accipiter3

19-10-2007, 03:08 AM

Hey Richard!I'm still here, just been really busy with school etc. I made it up to a meet in the Pawnee Grasslands last weekend and thought I might see you there but it looks like you guys were off at another meet. Maybe I'll give you a call sometime this week and see if we can hook up to go hawking again...? Congrats on a good start to the season despite the weatherman!

Thanks,

I was just looking for your number. Give me a call and we'll see about getting together on Saturday or sometime soon.

Accipiter3

22-10-2007, 06:39 AM

Richard, sounds like a great start to the season! I am sure you and everyone else in the U.S. would like the weather to start acting like fall instead of summer. I am tired of the heat and the leaves, come on winter! LOL Congrats on the bunnies, sure would like to see some video of some of those chases. Hopefully, the next NAFA meet I go to, I can come watch them fly. Fred

Indeed! We did finally get some winter weather today, AND we got down south to look for some scalies!

Most everything seemed to be working against us this morning as we prepared to head south for a birthday party followed by some hawking. First I had to run in to work to drain the water trucks and spray rigs, because I had gotten a different weather report than what was actually happening. So we got started way late and showed up for "darkened" lasagna; still tasted great, of course!

Got down to Pueblo late, too, and Chuck said he hadn't seen any quail this year...... Well, we went out for some bunny hawking, since that's what he's been chasing out there. The wind was whipping up pretty good and the first slip ended with the bunny getting into heavy weed cover and Billy flying off across a parking lot to attempt a down wind landing on a light post...... SILLY BOY!!!! From over a hundred yards away we heard a loud CLUNK when he hit it! Then he drifted down wind, seeming disoriented, and landed on a sign near the vehicles. He did fly right to the fist when I called him, and then almost immediately took off after a bunny that flushed a few feet away. He lost that one when it went under a fence and into weeds, and I called him back and rejoined the others. I walked right past a bunny without seeing it, but when it jumped up to run behind us, Billy pushed off and slammed it in a down wind stoop! He was all over it trying to get turned around and gain a hold on it, but the 25-30 mph wind was just too much for him.

We then crossed a large field without flushing anything, and when Chuck wanted to turn back we were near the water tower where I had been told there are quail. So we went on over the hill and around to the next field over. Half way across the field a jack flushed about fifty yards out, and Billy went for it. He was closing fast, and I was doing my best to try catching up, but luckily the jack got into heavy kochia cover and Billy went up onto a power pole. While I was recovering him, Becky flushed a quail!! We wandered around trying to find the rest of the flock, and Billy took off to the west in pursuit mode after something none of us ever saw. Whatever it was got into some thick kochia, and Billy was hanging in the wind and stooping at it over and over, but then flew up and landed on light pole. I got there shortly after he landed and couldn't find anything for the reflush, so I called him down and returned to Becky and Chuck.

We got a few slips at bunnies, but they insisted on going under the fence to the water tower where we couldn't follow, so I called him back each time. Then we got back to where the quail had flushed and got up about a dozen of them!!!!! Billy followed to the top of the hill but lost them and came back. Becky flushed another single that flew full tilt into the chain link fence, but Billy didn't even see it, and it recovered and flew off before we got close enough to fly at it. We got over the hill and I saw one fly across the two track and land in the tall grass, so I headed over that way. Billy tried a cross wind strike at it and then had to recover and turn into the wind, and it outdistanced him flying into the wind and over the hill. He climbed up to the top of a power pole and looked hard in the direction it had gone but returned to the fist right away when I called him. I went to rejoin the others, and when I was about fifty feet from them they flushed another single. It flew at us, and Billy met it head on, forcing it to drop into a four wing salt brush. He landed on top of the bush and refused to come to the fist. He was watching the quail under him as it moved around trying to figure a way out. I got down under the bush and helped it decide, and Billy was off the bush and on the quail just after they crossed the two track! Of course they went down in a cholla!!!! And of course, I got a bunch of spines in my hand and knees doing the pick up, but I didn't even notice them until we got back to the trucks about fifteen minutes later for some picture taking......

Tasha55403

22-10-2007, 10:54 AM

:supz: :supz: :supz:

Isaac

22-10-2007, 08:33 PM

Richard and Becky were gracious enough to let me tag along on an outing with Billy Bob on Saturday. I was worried that my curse of never seeing another falconers bird catch game would follow me when Billy didn't seem to want to cooperate at the beginning of the hunt but he soon came to terms and snatched a bunny for us.

I meant to use the record function on my camera to catch the action but I ended up snapping a pic of the grab and then took this cool photo of Billy on the bunny afterwards: Thanks again for letting me tag along Richard and Becky!

Accipiter3

22-10-2007, 11:54 PM

I meant to use the record function on my camera to catch the action but I ended up snapping a pic of the grab and then took this cool photo of Billy on the bunny afterwards: Thanks again for letting me tag along Richard and Becky!

You're quite welcome, Isaac, and most any time. Just give a call and we'll let you know when we're going next.

Jastreb

24-10-2007, 11:05 AM

Bring good old memories back Richard :D thanks for last NAFA hawking with you and Becky :D
I was looking pics again few days ago :D

Great thread again!

Cheers Viktor

Dave G

24-10-2007, 12:03 PM

what a fab looking goss and sounds like hes doing the biz too great stuff cheers dave

Rage

24-10-2007, 07:21 PM

Watching this Gos fly is quite a motivator for me. When it took the quail i couldnt have imagined that it would have been so easy. Trapping starts again soon and i hope to be as proficient as you are with your birds Richard.

Cant wait to get out again!

Chuck

Accipiter3

26-10-2007, 04:36 AM

Bring good old memories back Richard :D thanks for last NAFA hawking with you and Becky :D I was looking pics again few days ago :D Great thread again! Cheers Viktor

Hey Viktor! What are you flying now? Gotta be gos!?

Billy took a pigeon yesterday. There was a flock kind of milling around and a RT stooped down into it. About the same time Billy climbed into it from below and snagged a white one. Took another bunny today. He had it in about twenty feet but got kicked off. Jumped right back up and had it again in another twenty feet. This time he stuck to it and I traded him off to a front leg. He's SO good about that!

So, did that friend of yours from the falconry mag ever show you any of his pictures he took of Billy while we were out that day? He HAD to have gotten some good ones!

Jastreb

27-10-2007, 10:57 PM

Hi Richard,

It's a gos :wink:

http://www.falconryforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=32279

I hope he will give me some love juice :lol:

Cheers Viktor

Accipiter3

28-10-2007, 07:06 AM

Hi Richard, It's a gos :wink:
http://www.falconryforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=32279

I hope he will give me some love juice :lol:

Cheers Viktor

WOW!!!! Just read your diary of Tim! Fantastic little bird! Must be great to have all that quarry around! Hope you get plenty of that love juice from him! For that old female you showed picture of?

Our rabbit populations are down in most of the places we've hunted for years, because of the extreme winter we had last year. Found dead rabbits all over the place when the snow finally melted.

Here's what we did today:

We pulled into the parking lot where we were supposed to meet Larry and Peter and Bryan (young apprentice), and there were two bunnies on the sidewalk at the corner of the building and a squirrel climbing the wall just above them..... Of course they were all gone by the time I got Billy Bob out and beeped up. Larry and Peter pulled up and we went down along the side of the building in search of bunnies, and I saw one run into the shrubs at the far end and moved into position for when the others arrived. The bunny decided to vacate the premises long before they got to him, coming out and making a hard right turn around the corner of the building. Billy pushed off immediately and was right on his tail as he jumped off a 3' high retaining wall. I guess that must have thrown him off a bit, because he climbed a bit and lost some in distance, but then he turned the added height into speed as he stooped on it and grabbed it by the rump. It jumped and twisted and threw him off, but he came right back down on top of it's head and took all the fight out of it. We wanted this one for Bryan's RT, so I traded him off right away.

He tried for another one but missed and then flew off to a tree and then another tree and then a light pole before finally coming back to me. And somewhere along the way he lost his transmitter AND it's signal. It was one of the magnet switch types, and I don't know if it turned off when it hit where ever it landed, or if someone found it and picked it up and drove off with it, but we didn't get any signal at all, and it was beeping strong when I put it on him.

Anyway, we moved over to a prairie dog town to fly Bryan's RT (Rigger) on the bunny. First Peter and Bryan flew him back and forth between them for tidbits. Then I released the bunny for him. He slammed right where the bunny had been, but it had jumped over his head at the precise opportune moment and started running the other way. Rigger spun around and jumped right back into the air and snagged it before it had gone ten feet! I then had Bryan move in and start giving tidbits, which the bird was happy to take, and I moved in alongside him to show him how to do the stretch. We opened it up and let Rigger eat a bit, but they had to be somewhere else, so I had Bryan pick him up to a front leg, and he chowed down as we walked back to the vehicles. He did pretty good for a first outing.

Then I got Ms Havoc out for her first hunt of the season. She flew up to a light pole and waited for us to flush for her, and it seemed to take us forever, but she saw one and made a stoop at it and went up to another pole. I got it moving again, and she chased it off across a lawn and into some shrubs in a ditch. About the time they went over the edge, a GHO joined them. The bunny came running out first and across the parking lot, and then both birds came up. I was running like crazy (it is NICE to be able to run again!), and they flew over to a large cottonwood tree. The owl left as I approached, and when I shined my light on my fist Ms Havoc just suddenly appeared on it.

Oh yeah, because we lost the transmitter and the other tail mount one died, I had to put our Velcro bewit leg mount on her. It went on fine, but when I went to take it off, it hung up and didn't want to release. Ms Havoc finally got tired of me messing around down there and snagged my right hand; just with her left foot at first, but then when I tried disconnecting her with my gloved hand, she reached out with the right and grabbed me with that, too! OUCH!!!!! The left hind talon was sunk all the way into my palm, and the front power talon went to the bone on top of my hand and pinched a nerve up against it. And that cute little pinkie talon that doesn't look at all evil!? It went into my pinkie finger to the hilt, and when she released a bit to grip again, it pulled out, and there was blood pumping all over her feet and my hand! Becky said, "Is that your blood on her?!" and I said, "Yeah it is!" {(;-) I got her disconnected from me and the bewit released during the commotion, so I got that off her. I had Becky get a tidbit out and put it on the perch in the box, and when I shined my light on it, Ms H went right in. First hunt; first blood!

Jastreb

28-10-2007, 07:29 AM

Accipiter3

28-10-2007, 04:57 PM

I prepared season with some released birds and than I have also found few spots where I didin't know that there is anything.....specially wild grey partridges :D :cool: put out extra feeders and here is the season :D
Great diary Richard........keep coming pics please :supz: Cheers Viktor

Missed putting up this one of our Friday excursion. 10/26/07

The wind was kicking up to 25-35 mph and we had company; a woman and her 6 year old daughter-friends of Larrys. Billy doesn't mind the company, but the wind got to him a bit. He's been doing silly eyass stuff that I thought he had learned about in his first season. Like coming in with the wind under his tail and trying to land. Or coming in with the wind pushing him from behind and trying to grab a bunny. I thought he had figured out that it is best to swing around and hit the perch from down wind and maybe slam bunnies from behind or the side but then come in and get them from the front. He's always had an aversion to down wind chases, but suddenly it's what he's doing.

And with the weather we've been having, he is now hunting best at ~610 grams. Five grams more and he isn't putting his all into it. Until it starts getting dark. If I can get something up for him then, he is all over it even at higher weights. His fist response is great, though. Yesterday he got blown down wind several times, up to a couple hundred yards, and he'd then turn around and fly straight into the wind to the fist.

One of his better flights was across the wind at a bunny, but then it turned down wind and Billy slammed it but couldn't get control. He was all over it, trying to twist around into the wind, but it busted loose and got into an old building. Then he chased a pigeon, but with both of them flying with the wind under their tails, the pigeon outdistanced him in short order. He went into the building and was hunting pigeons in the rafters, but as soon as I called him, he flew into the wind to the fist about a hundred yards away. The building is old and dilapidated, and I'm afraid to go into it other than to retrieve the boy if he were to catch something in there.

So, there ya are! Skunked again! If Becky got any pics, I'll put them up later.

Accipiter3

29-10-2007, 05:43 AM

Sunday 10/28/07

Well, the temp got up to 71* today, and Lil Ms and Ms Havoc were both way too high for it. We started with Lil Ms getting in some good flights but not quite making the connection. Then I got Ms Havoc out, and she went ape over ????? So I put her back and got Billy Bob out. Billy was close to right on at 610 grams, but even he acted up a bit. Once we started walking and beating brush, though, he settled in and got snaky necked.

Becky found a bunny hiding under a pallet and made short work of getting it moving. Billy pushed off and closed rapidly on it, snagging it by the rump as it entered some heavy weed cover under a small tree. I was running over to assist, when the bunny broke loose and headed up over a dirt mound. Billy was a bit slow breaking free from the weeds but got up and moving in time to almost catch it again..... It got into a prairie dog hole.

In the mean time, Larry saw a bunny sneak through some weeds and into a hole, so we went over and slipped Mommy Dearest in to see what she could manage. In about a minute a bunny came dashing out, and Billy pushed off the fist and grabbed it about forty feet out and just as it entered the weeds again. This time he held on, and I was able to get hold of the bunny, unwrap it's hind legs from around his neck, and move them out into the open, stretch it, and let Billy pluck for a while before calling him up to a front leg. While Larry and Becky waited for Mommy to come back out, I wandered off alone to see what I could find.

The first bunny I got up was hiding under basically nothing in an inside corner of a building, and Billy had just flown up and landed on a sign. It ran out behind him, and he flipped over backwards trying to get to it, slammed the ground right behind it, and then just stood there With wings hanging and watched it run away! The next one came out of a large rose bush in another inside corner, ran around the entrance way to the building and back into a large rose bush on the other side. Billy flared up at the rose bush and then climbed straight up about forty feet to the top of the building. Just as he landed, the bunny came back out and ran out across the parking lot, over the median, across the street and into some shrub cover on the other side. And Billy just watched him go.

He came right down to the fist when called and I walked around the corner and saw a bunny under a tree. Billy pushed off hard and slammed into the hole it had just dived into...... He kept looking into the hole and then back at me, but when I offered the fist he came right up to it. I walked down to the next corner and across the parking lot and into some thick Canada thistle growth. Anyway, a bunny jumped up about fifty feet out and headed for the next county. Billy had other thoughts on that, though. It hadn't made it another fifty feet before Billy was all over it! He caught it just as it went under a small Russian olive tree, though, and the two of them were wrapped around the trunk. Billy had one foot on it's head on one side of the trunk and his other foot on the rump on the other side. The bunny was laying on it's side and kicking against the tree trying to break free, but Billy wasn't about to let go! So another one went into the bag and, ultimately, the fry pan! Yumm!

Larry and Becky had heard me yell the hearty HO! HO! HO! and saw me running and headed on over to join me. We then headed back to the vehicles and got Ms Havoc out for another try. I've gotten her started about a month earlier than usual, and the weather is way warmer than I usually start her in. She was down to 837 grams today, which is normally pretty low for her but too high for these conditions. Anyway, she was still acting up, but she was also looking for game, so we proceeded. Becky got a bunny up, and Ms Havoc just kind of strolled along and let it get into a big bunch of heat duct and pipes and flew up to perch on the roof of a nearby building. We couldn't find it again, but I found one hiding under a dumpster across the way, so we moved over and flushed it. It ran out straight at her for about 60 feet, and she finally decided to drop off the roof and go for it. It saw her coming and cut hard left and then back to the right and towards some pallets. They were over a small hill and out of sight when we heard the squeal. I ran over and found her out in the middle of the parking lot with it and looking very uncomfortable. When I was about twenty feet from her, she decided to fly over to the building with it. She had gone about fifteen feet and had it about two feet off the ground when it kicked loose and ran under a gate into a storage area with Ms Havoc slamming into the gate just an instant too late..... So, she could have had her first bunny of the season and a good meal, but instead she got left overs and short ration at that!

Accipiter3

01-11-2007, 05:35 AM

10/30/07

Ms Havoc got her chance to do goooood today. And the bunnies decided to stay indoors to celebrate it! :( One finally came sneaking out, and when Ms H saw it and went for it, it turned and ran back into a bunch of junk and around the building and under a truck. Ms Havoc flared up and went to perch on a power pole, and then we couldn't get anything moving. The wind started kicking up to around 30 mph, and she had to lean over to stay on the pole. Then, when she did start to come down, the wind took her and she landed in a tree on the other side of the building. I went through the gate and found where she was, but before I could call her, she was off again and flew back over to the pole. I got back over there, and she dropped down to the fist, and we went hunting.

There's a bunch of pipes outside the fence, and we beat brush all the way over there without finding a single bunny. BUT, there was one in a pipe, and Becky made short work of getting it moving with the mechanical ferret. It was trying for another pipe, but Ms Havoc was closing fast, and it turned and hit the side of the pipe instead of the opening. It bounced off to the right, and Ms Havoc overshot it and hit the ground. She pushed off and climbed about ten feet and did a wingover and slammed it just as it got to the heavy weed cover. She misbehaved terribly, but after I stretched it for her I let her eat off it a bit before picking her up for the walk back to the truck.

Accipiter3

01-11-2007, 05:38 AM

10/31/07

Lil Ms went first today, and we only got one bunny up the whole time she was out. She made a nice flight at it and put it into a 4" x 20' hose and landed in a tree above it. I went to running the tape in to encourage it to bust out, and instead of going forward, it backed out and was gone before I realized what was happening!

I wandered all over the place with Billy and didn't see a single bunny. He seems to have, though, because he did a lot of flying with hovering, stooping, hanging in the wind, and slamming cover but never catching anything. He may have just been going through the motions to impress me....... Did a good job of it! {(;-) He also got spooked by a train going by with the engine revved high and the horn blowing and flew off about half a mile. I had to track him down that time, and we got a few flights on the way back but in way too much cover.

I came back to the truck along the main road and was calling Billy to the fist for tidbits. Just as he flew off to land on a fence, I noticed a bunny sitting in the grass about thirty feet ahead of us. I called him back to the fist, and the bunny hunkered down and pretended he wasn't there. I walked down the road pretending he wasn't there, but when I was about fifteen feet away he made the mistake of shifting his weight to his hind legs for a fast take off and got Billy's attention. Now when Billy's attention shifts to a bunny, it had better be turning on the afterburners! It did, and Billy was off and chasing; under the fence and around a post and then straight at the fire house! I really thought it was going to go under the Chief's truck, but instead he ran past it and straight at the building. He pushed off hard and high and hit the stone wall about three feet up, kicked off and tried to pass over Billy as he struck at where he used to be. Billy, on the other hand, seemed to realize what was happening and came up under him and grabbed him by the belly with one foot and the head with the other. It wrapped it's legs around Billy's back just below the wings, and I had to look hard to figure out how to get hold of the rabbit and not Billy. I located the tail and followed the legs up and untwined them, got my other hand on the neck and did the stretch. I let Billy work at plucking for a while, but then someone looked out the window above us and bothered him, so I called him up to a front leg. and headed back to the truck.

Accipiter3

04-11-2007, 06:23 AM

I went bunny hawking today. Took Issac along and met up with Peter
and Bryan with his PTRT. We saw a bunny while driving in, and it was a
setup we'd done before, so I figured we could do it again. The problem is
double sewer drains about fifty feet from the corner of the building where
the bunny was hiding in the shrubs. I got Billy out and walked over towards
the drains while the others beat the brush. The bunny came out as predicted
and ran to the drains as predicted, and Billy was closing fast. The
preferred drain seems to be the one slightly farther away, because it comes
out in a shrub lined ditch on the other side of the road. But Billy was
going for the grab just as they got to the first one that dead ends in two
drains; one on each side of the road. With Billy reaching for it, the bunny
jinked to the right and slammed into the cement retaining wall head on and
bounced into the drain pipe. There was a VERY audible THUNK when it hit and
it looked to be out, but when I moved the trash out of the way to retrieve
it, it got up
and ran back into the drain. Then Billy flew up onto a light post and
spread his tail and wings and soaked up some of the nice 65* sunshine for
a
while. Then the local kestrel came in and started dive bombing him, so he
came down so I could protect him from the bad little girl....... {(;-)

We went around the building and Isaac found a bunny hiding under some
pallets. He chased it out, and Billy was all over it and pulled plenty of
fur but got thrown off and the bunny gone. We then checked some pipes and
found one that contained a bunny, so we moved it out into the grass and ran
one out.... Well, it poked it's head out and saw Billy and went back in.
Billy started for it and then regained the fist, but then it came out again
and Billy flew it down in about ten feet. I said something like, "WOW
Billy! Ya oughta let 'em run a bit before catching them!" And he let it go
and flew it down again in about another ten feet! I was told that I
shouldn't say things like that and get him all confused, so I won't do it
again... :(

Well, it turned out that there were two bunnies in that pipe, so Bryan ran
back to their Jeep and got his RT. He stood up on the hill while his father
ran the bunny out of the pipe, and his bird put in a REAL great flight but
lost it when it got into a storage area for AC/ heat ducting. We found
another bunny under a trash roll off and had Bryan stand on the retaining
wall above while I flushed the bunny. I guess Isaac was too busy taking
pictures, because the bunny ran right around the corner that he was supposed
to be guarding. The hawk followed hard on it's butt around the corner and
across the parking lot and around the end of the next building over but lost
it. Got another bunny out twice, but I guess Rigger was tired and put off,
and he didn't try for it. He did fly great and return well to the fist, and
we'll try again tomorrow.

Then we split up so they could try to find more slips for Rigger and I could
fly Ms Havoc. She put in some good flights and pulled fur and slammed into
a shrub where I thought she had caught one, but then she came out the other
side running around and looking like "Where did it go!" And the local
police officer stopped by to see what we were up to and was happy to see her
up close and visit for a while. And then it just got too late to go on....
:(

Isaac

04-11-2007, 06:02 PM

I guess Isaac was too busy taking
pictures, because the bunny ran right around the corner that he was supposed
to be guarding.

:oops: :oops: :oops: Made for a good video though! ;) And you can see most the flights mentioned above on my blog (link in my sig).

Accipitress

08-11-2007, 01:16 AM

Nice Blog there, I enjoyed it very much.

Accipitress

08-11-2007, 01:18 AM

Isaac,

Ask Richard about the ferret.... :rolleyes::lol:

Accipiter3

11-11-2007, 04:36 PM

Isaac,Ask Richard about the ferret.... :rolleyes::lol:

:oops: The ferret went into a prairie dog hole and disappeared for a couple hours; sure messed up the afternoon's hawking! I did get a slip on a bunny on the way back to the truck to put Billy away and get the shovels, but he got scared by a diesel truck and went walkabout; chased him for about a mile before getting close enough to recall him. Gave up digging with the small shovels I had in the truck and went to buy a couple big ones but got the call that she was out before I could find a store.

11/19/07
Yesterday Ms Havoc went first and spent the whole time just barely missing
each rabbit that got up. The first one came out of a log pile, and she
almost had it when it went under a piece of equipment with about 4" ground
clearance. She flared up at the last instant and took a bit too long
getting back down, so it was able to get into the huge pallet pile. The
next one came out of a piece of equipment and under the chain link fence and
into another piece of equipment. She followed it under the fence and over
to the equipment and went up onto a pole above it. On the reflush, it ran
around some small pine trees with Ms Havoc closing fast, but this time when
it went under the fence, she slammed into it. She must have seen it at the
last possible instant, because she back paddled and got her feet out in
front of her to push off and went back up to the pole.

We got another one out of a pipe, and she put it into another pipe a ways
away. When it came out of that pipe, she lost it in heavy weed cover and
went back up onto the pole. I reflushed it out of the weeds, and she went
at it head on and slammed into the weeds where it had been just before it
jinked to the left and headed under the fence. And then we ran out of day
light and called it quits.

Billy was supposed to go first today, but when I opened his box he looked
out at me all bug-eyed and refused to jump to the fist. So I got Ms Havoc
out to go first. We walked about half an hour before finding a bunny. Ms
Havoc had bated a few times, trying to go to trees, but I wanted her on the
fist. Then when a bunny tried sneaking out behind us, she bated and I held
on because I didn't see it.

I recognized her bate as being after game rather than a perch, though, and
swung around, saw the bunny and let her go when she tried again. The bunny
was running full tilt along the front of a building just behind the bushes,
and was clearly visible. Ms Havoc knows the game, though, and rather than
try to go in after it, she flew along outside the shrub row until they got
to the corner of the building where there weren't any bushes. She flared up
a bit and turned sideways and slammed into the bunny with a very loud
"THUD". As I ran over to her, I saw her just sitting there and looking
around and thought she had missed it, but then she went to plucking and
tossing bunny fur to the wind! I stretched it for her and pulled the head
off. She had the head in one foot and then went for the body with both feet
and tossed the head as she went. I made the mistake of trying to reach
right in to grab the head and almost got my right hand lacerated. But she
took charge of the body at that point and started plucking again. I pulled
a front leg off and handed it to her, and she moved off to the side to work
on that while I put the bunny away.

Then I called her up to the other front leg and walked back to the truck and
made the mistake of not going for another with her. Instead I got Billy out
to give him a chance to excel...... He DID come rushing out of the box this
time, but that seemed to be the last of the hurry up he had in him. We must
have gotten a good dozen slips for him, and he would start at them and then
rake off and go perch. I figured he'd do better as time passed, but he
never did try harder all the way up to the final bunny that jumped up just
before we got back to the truck. He should be just a bit lower tomorrow,
but if he doesn't put more into it, I'm going to raise his weight about 20
grams or so and see how he does.

Did I mention the weather? Everybody is ooooing and aaaahing about the
beautiful 70+ temperatures, but I think it's ****! It's NOVEMBER!!!!! It's
supposed to be cold!!!! We've been having lows in the high 40s & 50s and
highs in the 60s & 70s! It was still mid 60s while we were hawking this
afternoon! And then there is the wind kicking up besides!

Isaac

12-11-2007, 07:51 PM

They said on the weather report the other day that this year the average temperature for the month of November has been 68 degrees!! And when I moved here everyone said it was going to be cold...:roll:

Accipiter3

09-12-2007, 04:06 PM

YeeHa! We finally got some snow! About four inches with more falling as we hunted. Isaac rode out with me and we met Larry at the take down area. Larry was late, so I drove around a bit checking out likely areas and saw one that looked good with rabbitat and tracks.

Billy was way high at 645 grams, so Ms Havoc was up first. She was also a bit high at 871 grams, but there is a whole lot of attitude difference between the two when high. Ms Havoc is a bit aloof and more independent but is still focused on hunting. Billy bates a lot and spooks easily and flies quite a ways but then comes back to the fist when called.

I didn't realize it until just before the bunny launched out of the culvert, but I think Ms Havoc chased this same bunny in the same circumstances last winter. She seemed to remember it, too. We followed the tracks to the culvert, and Isaac looked in to verify it was still there; sho 'nuff! It came scooting out and around to the right of a retaining wall. Ms Havoc pushed off low and to the left side of the wall, and when the bunny hit the other end and cut hard left to head down into the catchment basin and the culvert at the bottom, there was Ms Havoc to meet him! He saw her at the last instant and back paddled a bit, so she missed him, but then he continued down towards the culvert, and she snagged him a couple feet away from it. They came to a stop right at the entrance, but she had both feet on it's head at that point, so it was all over.

Well, that was over way too soon, and I figured Billy still wouldn't be ready, so we headed over to a nearby building with a few large roll off dumpsters behind it. We found one under the first dumpster, so Larry slipped Mommy under. She walked straight down the side at the bunny until she was about a couple feet away and then crossed over to the other side until she was past it, and then went back over and down to the end. I rattled my stick right about where the bunny was, and it ran out the other side right below where Ms Havoc was perched on top of the dumpster. She was off and chasing right away, under a set of steps and around a blue spruce about 320 degrees before she broke off and climbed straight up to the roof and the bunny cut back behind her and into a down spout.

I looked in with the light and could see him in there but decided there wasn't any way to get him out other than reaching in and grabbing him, so we moved on to another dumpster. We found another bunny and Mommy did the same thing, and so did I. Ms Havoc dropped straight down off the roof and slammed into the bunny as it tried to join the other one in the down spout. I let her break into this one, but she ate way more than I thought she had time for. Her total intake was about 100 grams, so she may not be ready tomorrow. Then again, it's dropping down to single digits tonight, so maybe.

Billy did the butthead thing and blinked on several easy slips. He did respond well to the fist, though, and he tried for some sparrows and starlings that we chased out of some spruce trees. He should be down about ten grams tomorrow, so maybe he'll pay more attention to what's happening around him.

My camera died before I was able to take the first picture, but Isaac got some and promised to send some to me when he gets a chance. I guess he probably partied too much last night when he got home and then slept in this morning, so we'll have to wait until he gets around to sending some pics and the line to the video. :razz: