Second Squirrel of the Season at the Community Garden

I was able to take Balaa out for another adventure, this time at the Community Garden in Rochester. It is usually known to have bunnies. We did flush several, but my girl is showing the tendency to take a distance perch, and is somewhat solo hunting. I may be flying her a bit too high, but sometimes have many days between windows to hunt, so have been siding with keeping her well fed instead of hunt sharp. 

As we worked the frozen marsh to kick up rabbits, she went after a squirrel in a tree just the other side of the creek.  She caught it!  However, that then required me to get to the other side to get her.  Thankfully, prior to our frozen season getting going, we were relatively dry, so our creeks froze at a low level. I could not get up over the other bank, but Seneca was on her squirrel close enough that I could reach up and grab her, and drag both her second squirrel catch with me and her off the edge, and tip toe over the ice back to the side I was on. 

When I loaded this clip up on YouTube, I guess now if you select it to be "public" they automatically put it into rotation on their shorts. It got a whole lot of views, which was not my intention. Some "helpful" yahoo out there commented that "that is not how you hold a hawk, you are going to hurt her." Well, I was not holding the hawk, I'm holding the squirrel. She's holding the squirrel, and could let go at any time if she wanted. I'll make sure to tag those short videos as private, to keep unsolicited comments to a minimum. 

An Afternoon with Balaa

 

Over the month of December my friend Foxfeather had a visitor from Seattle, one of her dear friends Anna, known as Balaa. She was game to go out hawking a couple times with Seneca and me, and kick the brush for us.

On the afternoon of these pictures, I selected a place right in the heart of Rochester that I have not visited for many years. It is now an abandoned building, and the bunnies have taken over the place. We flushed so many, but Seneca was not following particulary closely, so we didn't get to see a close up show.  When it came time to pack it in, and me call her down to the lure, she did not respond. I could faintly hear her bells, so followed that lead. I found her on the ground, well tucked into a bunny she caught that we did not see at all.

I let Balaa hold her, as that is something I know folks who love wild animals, especially raptors, like to do if they get a chance. I know I wanted to do just that prior to getting my first falconry bird.

Balaa took these pictures and was kind enough to share them with me for the blog.

THANKS BALAA!!