Getting Hot as it is Getting Colder

On Thursday, November 12, Rich was able to join us for a hunt. He's my more advanced camera guy, and wears the GoPro for video capture. Many of our hunts he's not been with us, and I have enough on my plate to keep track of the hawk, so I don't wear the GoPro. Then, a lot of the time the action happens out of view.  Well, today we had a front row seat to the action.
 

We visited a farm in our area, the owners having allowed us to hunt there these last many years. There used to be a huge brushy junk pile just behind me in the picture below, but that is gone, gone, gone!! The family did some clean up over the summer.  The rabbits have moved off into the woods behind the house.  We managed to find one of them and kick it out. Wyvern make quick work of the situation.  Again, my silly girl does not allow me to move in quick to help her with her kill, so I just stood back and let her deal with the bunny. When I did slowly move to catch the bunny, she let go and flew up into the tree.  With some coaxing I was able to encourage her to come back for a meal.

It's a strange quirk this bird has. I just try to work around her quirk. The weather is starting to get colder, but Wyvern is doing well. We'll keep making efforts as long as it stays above 30 degrees.  Today was #4 for the year. All my hawks will have fresh bunny on the menu over the weekend.

Networking - Connections

One of the aspects of falconry that I enjoy and appreciate is the opportunity it often gives me to make contacts in my community, and to build bridges with new people.  

Two years ago . . . was it only two years (?) . . . I was fortunate to make the acquaintance of Molly, on the left in the picture above.  She is one of the instructors at the Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center just outside Lanesboro, and also caretaker to that facilities' education ambassadors.  She has given me the opportunity to fly my birds on the grounds of the Center, and this year set up a bow netting station there.  The site for the bow netting turned out to not really be very good.  I did attract in the resident red tail, a canny old formel (new term not yet in full usage out in the falconry or naturalist circles, to describe a female red tail), who proceeded to just observe my lure pigeon but never engaged. Ah well, it gave me the chance to show Anna what a bow netting trapping set up looks like.   

Molly is quite interested in falconry and may pursue her license at some not too distant date.  Yesterday I invited her to go on a hunt with Wyvern and myself.  We went to one of my sites just outside Rushford which is usually pretty good for several rabbit slips.  We did have several, but it was quite warm, and Wyvern is still a bit high in weight, so we did not continue with our trend of catching game each hunt. It was a nice day out hawking.  But what I did "catch" was something much better!  Molly introduced me to Abby, who is an employee at the Featherstone Farm CSA that is in and around the Rushford area.  Check them out if you would be interested in a farm share of quality grown organic produce. There is a brushy lot I have been interested in, and she knows the owner . . . who is also the owner of the CSA. She will introduce me!  Perhaps I may be so lucky as to get access to several new places where Wyvern, or some of my other birds, could remove some environmental pests (rabbits, mice) who may otherwise be munching on the organic produce.

Thanks Molly!  And Thanks Abby!

This is the outlook of the bow netting station.  The view is nice, but there just isn't much "traffic" of hawks flowing through. 

My Little Tamale

 

I didn't write much about this little boy after I trapped him.  All too quickly I found myself having to care for him as he was quite sick. There is a more complete blog entry above covering this.  He's a pretty little boy, and was actually quite sick when I caught him.  Was it the low weight that caused him to be susceptible to Aper?  Or was it the Asper that caused him to lose weight?  Either way, he's lucky I came along.