Gonzo & the Squirrel

Gonzo loves squirrels. I brought Tess into the mix because I couldn't keep Gonzo off of them, and Tess' feet can handle a squirrel bite better than Gonzo's would be able to. Don't get me wrong, both of the birds get bites when we hunt, but it is usually Tess that is the one that finishes the deal.

It is cool to watch them coordinate.

We went out today to a spot I've only hunted once this season. We chased a bunny from thick cover to thick cover right off the bat, but soon lost it. The rabbit was heading for the park where there was a family eating with their dog and small children and I didn't want to have to stop to answer questions today. I called them off the rabbit and moved into the trees.

It didn't take long before we had a squirrel moving through the scrub pine. Gonzo keeps higher in the trees, moving from pine top to pine top, while the heavier Tess waits a bit lowerin the branches, looking for the squirrel to bail out.

You learn to respect squirrels. They are fast, tough, and smart. This one knew exactly what he was doing. He menuevered from one side of the trunk to the other, keeping the horizontal branches between himself and both birds. When he had them both on the opposite side of the tree, he would leap to the next tree and the whole thing would start again. At one point, Tess was able to snatch him off the side of the trunk, only to get hung up in some branches. Her feet pistoned up and down, trying to find purchase, but the squirrel parried her talons with his own razor teeth. Tess dropped him and he fell to the ground, Gonzo nailing the spot where he landed a second too late.

Before either bird could extricate themselves, the squirrel spiraled up an other tree trunk and disappeared into a hole in a tree.

We moved on.

Our second squirrel was very much like the first. Tess would keep the squirrel high in the tree, and Gonzo would push him to the ends of the branches, where he could only leap into Tess' claws, or bail out to the ground, only to be hit by twin feathered missles.

The battle raged from treetop to treetop. Pine to oak to beech. Gonzo kept pushing and finally the squirrel couldn't take the pressure and bailed for the ground. Tess saw her chance and leapt, Gonzo right behind.

As usual, Tess got this one. She is generally the one who binds to the quarry, but Gonzo works it hard and they both get some reward for their efforts.

The team works just like I wanted them too.

I traded Tess off the squirrel and gave Gonzo some quality footing time. We took some pictures and called it a day at one.

Terrierwork pictures

I found some pictures of Murphy's last hunting trip.

Rabbits in the marsh and other available prey

It has been a cold, windy, rainy week and I haven't gotten the hawks out hunting at all. The weather this weekend is supposed to be perfect, and their weights should be right on as well.

For the record:
Tess flies at 850 grams (plus or minus)
Gonzo flies at 650 grams.

Neither bird is a monster, but for the quarry we have here in NC, they can handle whatever I throw at them. Usually that's squirrels. Last season, I flew Gonzo mainly at rabbits, and we did fair on marsh rabbits (http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/site/accounts/information/Sylvilagus_palustris.html) .

We don't have large populations in hawkable areas, but we do have them. Generally, I'll put between 2-6 in the bag in any given year without actually targeting them. I find the squirrel hunts much more exciting, and I can't keep my birds off of them. even when we avoided squirrels in favor of rabbits, the birds would seek the little grays out along the edges of the woods. finally, I gave in and decided to add a female to the mix, so that Gonzo's toes would stand a chance.

watching the two birds hunt together has been a treat this year, and more than once I have found myself laughing out loud as they repeatedly dive after a squirrel that has bailed from its nest. Tess has even figured out what nests are and will tear them apart if she believes that there may be squirrels in the nests creamy center.

Unfortunately, good squirrel pictures are hard to take, as the predator and prey are continually moving. I'll see what I can do this weekend.

Terrierwork

Earlier I mentioned Patrick and his Terrierman Blog ( http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/ ). Patrick has been kind enough to take both me and my Fell terrrier, Murphy, out hunting groundhogs in the rolling hills of Virginia. Murphy has only been going to ground a few times, but she definitely took right to it. If you own terriers, and you think that terrierwork may be in your future (there is no hunting season), read his book and start asking around.

I hope to be posting about some awesome fox hunts with the terriers before the end of the winter. In the meantime. Here is a picture of my dog, Murphy and Patricks book; American Working Terriers.

Settling in

Andrew is on his way to Minnisota this weekend to speak to a group of Herpatologists about snake breeding and legislation. He has a ton of cool snakes - mostly reticulated pythons. I'll try to get some pictures. In the meantime, he brought his new kestrel over so I can keep an eye on it over the weekend. It didn't take this little guy long to get settled in.

PETA is a bunch of crackpots

For those of you who follow dogs - I always recommend terrierman's blog.
http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/

And Patrick has brought to the forefront how pedigree dogs are in serious danger from the closed registry system. Just this last year a documentary came out on the BBC that exposed the serious problems with the AKC closed registry system.

Then PETA has jumped on the bandwagon, and the producer of the program "Pedigree Dogs Exposed" has basically told PETA to go to hell!

The rest of the story can be found here:
http://www.dogmagazine.net/archives/1668/pedigree-dogs-exposed-film-maker-hits-out-at-animal-rights-extremists/#more-1668

To see the whole show (it's about an hour) Pedigree dogs exposed - check this link
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=44215931

More good hunting

It looks like I wasn't the only one who had a big time hunting this weekend. These guys hunt with longwings over their long dogs. A different kind of falconry, that's for sure, but great reading, none the less.
http://www.stephenbodio.blogspot.com/

With the kids

After the long weekend of hunting, the harris' hawks got the last two days off. I took Ulrich (the kestrel) to school today. He did great hanging out in a room full of fifth graders. He sat on the fist as we discussed adaptations and how falcons differ from hawks, and then compared what we knew about their anatomy.

It didn't hurt that we just finished reading My Side of the Mountain and they all knew about frightful's part in the journey.

At one point Ulrich was even jumping to the fist from over a foot away. He's coming along well.

Break through!

I admit it - I was multitasking. As I wrote about dinner, I was also feeding Ulrich, the kestrel. While I was doing that (and typing one handed, I might add), Ulrich decided that he was ready to jump to the fist. So, as he sits in the middle of the family room, he hopped his leash length four times for a tidbit.




Go Ulrich!

mom's fried rabbit and gravy

Alright, I cooked dinner. It was rabbit that Chris had brought from his last rabbit hunt. THe recipe was one I found on the internet called "Mom's Fried Rabbit and Gravy". I found it here: http://www.backwoodsbound.com/zrabbit8.html

It turned out delicious! We had broccoli cheese casserole and mashed potatoes with the meal. I'm not going to say it was a delicacy, but man was it good after a long day out in the woods.

End of the weekend

The falconry weekend is coming to a close. We ended up with four guys out hunting - Chris, Andrew, Mark, and myself- with a special, guest appearance from my younger son. We spent the day today hunting some new spots. This area was pristine maritime forest with towering pines and mixed hardwoods. We tromped up and down the hills until we finally located some

squirrels and had some great chases. Gonzo and Tess did fantastic, but the battle talon didn't hold up as well as I'd hoped. I'll have to figure how to fix that later on.

After we'd taken some squirrels in some really exciting chases, I had to leave the guys to their own devices, as I had an appointment with my kids. They went out and continued to hunt Chris's red tail. They tell me that the chase for the next squirrel was astounding, with his cool little beagel running around on the ground below. I guess I have to believe them, but the squirrel ended up the victor in that contest.

Next, we went north to Corolla to try Andrews bird. He's been having trouble with his bird for a while now this season. Today he was still having problems with the bird flying right, so we got it down on the fist and took turns feeling his keel. The bird was flying too thin. His weight was about the same as last year, but his keel was sharp and we decided that his bird's weight needs to be brought up 2 ounces or so.

I have been assigned dinner duty so I need to review the rabbit recipe that I found online. I'll let you know how it goes.

Well, our hawking weekend is drawing to a close. I like to think that everyone had a good time. It ended up as Chris, Andrew, Mark, and myself with a guest appearence from my 9 year old boy. He loves to tromp through the woods.

We hunted all day both Friday and saturday with two red tails and my Harris' hawks. The harris performed in their excellent fashion, though Tess' battle talon didn't hold up like I'd hoped.

We had some great chases this morning as the cool morning dried the rain from last night. We were in a new spot and ended up taking 3 squirrels. There was almost a fourth, but we lost it after another great (and exhausting) chase through the tree tops.

After lunch, I had to leave the guys to their own devices and they had another few good chases while I was gone.



We ended up the weekend witha total of 5 squirrels, and more importantly, alot of laughs.

Battle Talon

Tess had an accident the other day. We were out hunting and a squirrel nipped off the end of her talon. It freaked me out at first, since it bled a whole lot. We get squirrel bites, but this one seemed worse than others.

I looked on the web to see what others had done in this situation, and I also called my friend Chris for some advice.

I wanted to keep hunting this season. We are having one of my best squirrel seasons ever, and I hated to end it early. I decided to create a prostetic talon based on a design I found online.

The first one I had made by a guy that works at the local hardware store. That one stayed on attached about a month, but when it came off, I created another myself. It's not as pretty as the first one, but it sems to fit a bit better. I'm hoping that this one will last until hunting season is over and I put the birds up for breeding.

Red tail hawk

This is Andrew with his male Red tail hawk. This bird was trapped by Lake Mattamuskeet in NC. He flew it last winter with good success, and kept it over the winter. This will be the first time that Andrew has worked with a bird for more than one season.

It's a good bird that follows well. He hunts primarily squirrels - but we're thinking about trying some car hawking with it.

Welcome

This is my first post of my first blog. I will mostly be writing about various aspects of falconry, and hopefully the breeding of my harris' hawks. I'll include stuff about my other animals as well. Alas, I will need to borrow a camera from my children to post pictures.

This is a photo of the tiercel kestrel that I was working with.