A Break from Work

It continues to be very busy days at my workplace.  This last weekend, plus the Monday that I had to work, were just absolutely nuts.  I had a message again on my phone "inviting" me to come up to work, on my day off, if I wanted to help out.  I decided instead that I wanted to spend the day with Hit Girl and Sassy (and Rich - who is so wonderful to come along).  We went to Byron, for hopefully some easy catches for the girls.   I really do like this picture above of Hit Girl. 

Here I am sporting one of my new hats.  In my humble opinion, it is not very flattering, but it is made of a material that would be somewhat impervious to burdock burrs.  I wore it today in case I ran into some.  Pulling burdock from my hair is no fun . . . no fun at all.

Sassy was flown first, and whereas she had many flushes she just did not contact with any of the bunnies.  She did catch two fat field mice fairly early in our hunt, and I think that took the sharpness off her hunger, so she didn't try too hard for the bunnies.  Also, by this time in the winter, what rabbits remain are pretty clever . . . the survivors.  They were almost all very good at scraping off a pursuing hawk as they ducked under tight brush.

However at the end of the day, with Hit Girl, who also caught a mouse near the end of our hunt, finally a bunny was caught out in the open as it tried to escape over the rail road tracks.  She too had multiple flushes, and really should have caught a bunny sooner.  She was flown quite a bit fat, but Tuesday was going to be the only day I could fly them. 

 

As of this writing, both are cropped up nice and sleeping in their mews.  I need to manage them well for the next few days.  This upcoming Saturday will be the Wisconsin Falconers Meet in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin.  We are going!  I want them to be in good flying condition for the meet.