When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always long to return.
-Unknown

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Hunting Success with Indie

I haven’t been out in the field hunting since Christmas Day.  My Falconry bird, Sable, is out of commission until further notice while we get her back into hunting shape.  So it was today that I went out with my sponsor for an afternoon of hunting with “Indie.”  Indie is getting more experience each week and her skill at hunting is increasing with each hunting adventure. While the stories of her hunting excursions are nothing short of educational, it’s an entirely different experience to witness her learning first hand.

After 50 yards into the woods, a squirrel pops out of a nest about 60 feet up in the trees and climbs up higher into the tree.  After hiding there for a minute, the squirrel takes refuge in another nest in the crook of a tree.  Indie comes over a little closer to investigate.  After a few minutes assessing the situation, she lands on the top of the nest and springs the squirrel from his hideout. He bails out and moves through the canopy quickly while Indie watches closely.  The squirrel, looking for another place to hide, finds another nest and pops out a second squirrel. Now there are two going.  Indie watches patiently. After the first squirrel, clearly the larger of the two, moves a few more trees over, he makes is way down the trunk of a tree and that’s when Indie made her move.  She took off from the nest she was perched on and swiped the squirrel off the trunk of the tree as it made it’s way down toward the ground. The Squirrel bailed out and Indie nailed him on the way down to the ground, securing the head and waiting for assistance.

I ran flat out to get to the hawk and squirrel in order to secure the squirrel. Luckily, Indie had the squirrel in a good head hold and the squirrel was unable to do any damage to Indie’s feet, or so I had thought.   Indie was easily traded off to the lure from the squirrel and he was in the bag.  After further inspection of Indie, however, it was discovered that the squirrel had bitten the right talon as was evidenced by the blood and razor-like incisions. This is one of the hazards of squirrel hawking, one in which injuries can come at any time, and in varying degrees of severity.  I’m sure Indie will heal up and be out in the woods hunting squirrels again in no time.

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Left Turn on the Falconry Journey

  

Sable's Hawk Feet

Sometimes the journey takes an turn when you least expect it.  While this sideline delay isn’t completely unexpected, it is most certainly unwelcome as it takes away from the Hunting Season and all the Hunting activities.  Being sidelined for hunting injuries is bound to happen, it’s just a matter of time and luck. Sable is now laid up for about three-four weeks as we intensely care for her feet which are marred up by an encounter with an angry squirrel and an opossum.  Each time out hunting has it’s own potential for hazards and the holiday break gave us extra hunting opportunities which in turn gave extra opportunities for danger.  While late December isn’t exactly ‘the-middle-of-winter’, it is supposed to be a time when the weather is cold and the hibernating animals are, well, hibernating.  Opossums normally hibernate and are tucked away in a den or a tree-trunk somewhere sleeping away the cold winter days.  In this case, Christmas Day wasn’t exactly a cold winter day and the weather for the previous couple of weeks hadn’t been solidly cold.  In any event, an unlucky young opossum met it’s fate when it wandered off into the sticks in search of a meal and Sable was perched high in a tree overlooking those sticks.  We’ll be caring for these feet for a few weeks while we let them heal up.

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Falconry First: Opossum

So Falconry still holds many firsts for me.  Each time I go out hunting with Sable, or other falconers, there is a chance that I may experience something new. Something, that otherwise would not happen, or would not be able to be witnessed any other day;  which is why I go with them.  So as it would happen to me, as I went out hunting on Christmas Day on Sunday with my PFRT that she should catch her first Opossum out in the field.

Opossums are generally not the most docile creatures running around the forest, as they are quite formidable opponents, armed with a pretty good set of razor sharp teeth and a big mouth.  Luckily on this day, Sable targeted  a smaller opossum, catching him by the nose and only having one talon in his mouth. He was growling wildly and was generally in a foul mood as most trapped critters are.  The cuts and scratches on Sable’s Talons were minor, but had I not reached them in the brush as soon as I did, the damage could have been worse.  A bigger opossum most certainly would have caused more serious damage to Sable and would have been more difficult to put down.

So, an opossum is not the greatest nor most difficult game to catch, however Sable did get to catch something that day we were out to reinforce the hunting training and purpose that we work together to share.  Merry Christmas, Sable!

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Jump-Up Training

I’m experimenting this week with some additional hawk training this week to keep Sable in top condition through the winter. When I trapped her, Sable’s keel was exceptionally sharp and this seems to maintain it’s shape despite my best efforts to ‘beef her up’ with higher food rations. This doesn’t do much for hunting episodes, but I do want to make sure that she’s got enough muscle to fly properly when we do hunt. These exercises are part of that training.

As you can see by the video episode, she jumps up the the glove on each whistle command. There are 17 total jumps to the glove for food reward. One of the things I enjoy most about Sable is her easy-going personality.  She is not tethered for these training exercises, and follows commands and pays attention for the duration of the training session. When I need to take care of her feet for inspection and such, I can hood her, sock her up, and take care of her talons and feet. When I’m done, she pops back up to the glove like nothing ever happened.

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