Winter Hawking

The first major snow of the season arrived last week, and it was a decent amount. About 9 inches fell, and blanketed everything. The hawking just got easier, and harder. Easier, because now you can see if there is any bunny activity in the field you want to fly your bird in. Harder, because you have to tromp through it all. I don't have a dog . . . I should really, seriously start thinking about getting one. It would be nice to let a young, agile dog sniff out and kick out the rabbits. Instead it's me, and sometimes I have the pleasure of Richard's company, to tromp through the areas and try to find the rabbits. Yesterday we hit a couple places in La Crosse. We didn't flush as many rabbits as there were sign of their presence. My hawk is also, still, not very good at catching them!! As of yesterday he has now 'furred' about four rabbits. He really needs to learn to grab them by the head, as by the but they just rip away . . . their fur and skin being very loose. It is one of their defense mechanisms. The heavy snow has now made finding mice almost impossible. It is now that the inexperienced birds start to starve. Bailey is just lucky he has a safety net, in me. I just hope he starts getting wiser on how to catch what I work so hard to flush for him. At this point . . . I'm not planning to keep him for another season. He'd better wise up, or fly South when I let him go in the spring.