SUCCESS!
NAPOLEON CAUGHT A SHREW! His second ever vertebrate catch! YAAAAAAAY!
He was so good, too! He performed beautifully in the face of a whole pile of new situations: new location, new people, more people than he's hunted with before, new hunting style. He started on the fist while we flipped over boards and sheet metal, and he figured out pretty quick what was going on. When we finally flipped a board with a nest full of mice, we got carried away with the yelling and Poly freaked out and flew away in the other direction and into a tree and wouldn't come down again. After he calmed down a bit (and made a try at one of the escaped mice), shichahn started flipping boards again, and again he clued in immediately, following along from his treetop like a hawk hunting bunnies. ...Napoleon, I'm sorry, I will never call you dumb again. (Ok, that's a lie, I probably will.) shichahn exposed a shrew and he dropped like a guided missile. I heard the impact from thirty yards away. He flew with it into a tree, but it was a low branch and he went right back to the glove without too much trouble at all. HE'S SUCH A GOOD BOY. <3
shichahn hooded him and we had a bit of fun trying to catch rodents by hand. shichahn's sponsor Ben the Kestrel did succeed in catching a vole, and we all succeeded in getting our hands and knees muddy.
After a spot of lunch we had a very successful afternoon with the bunny hawkers. Parker the redtail hawk caught a packrat in a tree (to the chagrin of his falconer, who had trouble getting him down again), and Ruby, another redtail, caught a garter snake. True to form, our favorite mass murderer, Harlot the goshawk, ended the lives of four cottontail rabbits. <3 <3 <3
It was a gorgeous day, and I spent a fair amount of it scrambling through the underbrush and getting my skin ripped apart by blackberry brambles, and I am now very tired and very happy. I can't think of any way I could have spent my Saturday more enjoyably.
He was so good, too! He performed beautifully in the face of a whole pile of new situations: new location, new people, more people than he's hunted with before, new hunting style. He started on the fist while we flipped over boards and sheet metal, and he figured out pretty quick what was going on. When we finally flipped a board with a nest full of mice, we got carried away with the yelling and Poly freaked out and flew away in the other direction and into a tree and wouldn't come down again. After he calmed down a bit (and made a try at one of the escaped mice), shichahn started flipping boards again, and again he clued in immediately, following along from his treetop like a hawk hunting bunnies. ...Napoleon, I'm sorry, I will never call you dumb again. (Ok, that's a lie, I probably will.) shichahn exposed a shrew and he dropped like a guided missile. I heard the impact from thirty yards away. He flew with it into a tree, but it was a low branch and he went right back to the glove without too much trouble at all. HE'S SUCH A GOOD BOY. <3
shichahn hooded him and we had a bit of fun trying to catch rodents by hand. shichahn's sponsor Ben the Kestrel did succeed in catching a vole, and we all succeeded in getting our hands and knees muddy.
After a spot of lunch we had a very successful afternoon with the bunny hawkers. Parker the redtail hawk caught a packrat in a tree (to the chagrin of his falconer, who had trouble getting him down again), and Ruby, another redtail, caught a garter snake. True to form, our favorite mass murderer, Harlot the goshawk, ended the lives of four cottontail rabbits. <3 <3 <3
It was a gorgeous day, and I spent a fair amount of it scrambling through the underbrush and getting my skin ripped apart by blackberry brambles, and I am now very tired and very happy. I can't think of any way I could have spent my Saturday more enjoyably.