Bored already...

Started feeding Katana up this week and learned it is going to take a while. I apparently fed her too much on Tues (small quail and 2 mice) because she threw up. After dealing with Veruka having the same problem last season I wasn't worried. I am just feeding her a little less. She is still burning a lot, and sitting at flight weight the next day. :( I guess I am going to have to feed smaller portions twice a day to raise her weight. She is now spending days in the weathering area and evenings inside. I was to spend time with her daily as we did Veruka in case she gets sick or anything else unusual happens. It was also cool to see Veruka preen out her feathers last year. Nothing dropped yet, but her weight isn't even up.
Come on baby....shake your tail feathers!!

All good things must come to an end...

Well, 3 days of hawking yielded a rabbit and a rat.

Friday, we set out to hunt a field that usually yields quite a few slips. They are hard chases, but a lot of fun to watch. The cover is getting so think that we saw hardly any action.

Saturday, Aaron made arrangements for us to go squirrel hawking at a pecan orchard. The owners say they kill a hundred squirrels a year, so we were excited. Putting Veruka up first we worked the entire area and saw four squirrels. The chases were very exciting! She even had a flight on a cottontail, but we did not fly Katana there due to lack of game. We flew her at another field and had several slips, but no where near the number we had earlier in the month. She started the day by dropping off a pole to snag a vole, which she proceeded to fly around the field with it in her beak before landing and eating it. We continued on flushing. At one point she was soaring over the field and a rabbit flushed. She folded up her wings and tear dropped straight down. The rabbit got away, she re pitched and folded over again, nailing it. It was incredible!

Sunday I put her up twice, and she kept soaring. The first time we found her on a pole next to a resident red tail. The second time we chased her all over the field before calling it a day.

The weather is getting hot and the cover thick. I swore I would put her up when I was unable to flush game under her, and the time is here. As sad as it is to end the season, I have the excitement of her adult plumage to look forward to.

We had a great season: 31 Head of game to include 23 rabbits, 4 snakes, and 4 rats. Looking forward to next year!!

She is a machine!!

"Listen. And understand. That terminator is out there. It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead. " The Terminator, 1984

Another great day of hunting. I don't know where to start. Each day I hunt with Katana, I am more in awe of her performance. When I loaded Katana into the car, she was 900 grams. This is a low weight for her, so I fed her 30 grams before we left. Aaron and I took Veruka out and flew her first. After a rocky start with her season, we found the perfect weight for Veruka. We worked an area that looked really good, a little rough but a lot of rabbit sign. After an hour and a half, we had kicked up nothing. Veruka never faltered. She took high perches, followed closely, responded to the game call...she was perfect. So perfect, that she chased something a long way and we lost her. We searched the area we thought she went down to no avail. Krys was on his way to meet us and he stopped to grab the receiver. As he is pulling in to park he called, Veruka was in a tree close by. A sign of relief, Aaron called her to the lure and after 2 hours ended the hunt. If she responds this well on Saturday, I know a lot of squirrels in trouble.... :)

When looking for Veruka, we stumbled upon an area next to a frequently hunted field we had never been to before. I saw rabbits sitting there looking at me! This is where we hunted Katana. I could not even begin to speculate the number of flushes or flights she took, they were too numerous to count. It was another windy day, and with her a little low I didn't think I would be able to hunt her long before she tired. I was wrong. The field was filled with perfectly spaced briar patches, surrounded by open area. Katana has figured out the game, and our purpose. She followed VERY closely, jumping in trees higher and higher to find the best perch. She was in perfect position for 95% of the flushes, the other times it was because she had just finished a longer chase. Her persistence was amazing, it took her no time to recover from a missed attempt before she was back in the tree looking to us for the reflush. Over and over, briar patch to briar patch, flight after flight, "She is a machine!" Both Aaron and Krys kept saying these words as we ran around the field flushing rabbits, "she is a machine!" The wind was definitely a factor in a lot of the missed flights, as well as the deep cover when the rabbit made it to another briar patch. Katana took one rabbit out of the field, but her persistence is what makes her great. We flew for an hour and a half, and her weight never really affected her flight at all. I am definitely taking her back to the field this weekend when she is in her ideal weight range, and am expecting great things from her when I do.

This is the 11th consecutive hunt Katana has taken game, bringing her total for the season to 29 head of game, with 22 rabbits. This weekend we are going to a pecan orchard to hunt squirrels, and I am excited to see how she does. What a great season!! Why does it have to end...

Things that grow exponentially

I headed out with the Kat this morning.. We hit a field on 377 just north of 820. I knew it would be good for game due to the briars that grew in the area. I started the long walk to the best parts of the field, working along the way. I kicked up a couple of rabbits, but Katana did not score on either of them. I crested the hill and crossed the tracks to the briar patch. Katana was waiting in a tree above me overlooking a massive amount of land. The great thing is its all down hill and she had a commanding perch no matter where a bunny appeared. As soon as I stepped into the briars Katana slammed the ground next to me HARD. I did not hear a thing. She started mantling and I knew she had something. I made in and took a baby rabbit from her. I went to put the rabbit in the game bag, and noticed something was wrong. There was no head. After a search of the area where the kill took place I found the missing head. Apparently she had hit so hard that she popped the head clean off the baby rabbit. This was also what I was trying to avoid by hitting a different field, but I guess it's just that time of year. It's a good thing that Kylie is planning on putting Katana up for the molt soon. I know how hard of a decision it is for her. This weekend we will try our hand at some squirrel hawking in an effort to avoid the babies and preggers rabbits. Anyway we continued working through the briars kicking up a few as we went along. Now all I was seeing was adults, but they were wise and used the rapidly growing cover to their advantage. One bunny simply sidestepped Katana as she slammed down and sat in the briars about 3 feet from her. Kat used the wind to lift her about 5 or 6 feet in the air and slammed down again, but to no avail. This bunny was too sly and slipped out under the cover of the briars. Kat got back up and took yet another commanding perch. As I worked toward the end of the briars a rabbit slipped into the open and made for the cover about 200 yards on the other side of the clearing near the oil well. Kat was after it in a heart beat. The thing she had going for her was the rabbit was running with the wind. With every leap the rabbit took Katana was closing the gap. I thought there is simply too much open ground for this rabbit to escape. Katana slammed the ground and a saw a rabbit run off and make it to the cover. I thought for sure she would get that one. I started walking to her and she started hopping to the brush dragging something with her. She got it after all! The bunny that ran for the cover must have been flushed by all the commotion. We started walking/hunting back to the truck, but Katana stopped following. I got to the top of the hill and had to lure her in, since she was on a low perch and would not be able to see me on the other side. We walked back to the truck and finished the day. Come to think of it Goose had the same problem as Katana. Once we got to one side of a field it was VERY difficult to get her to change directions. I usually had to lure her in once I got back to the truck. She started following much better a few weeks into her second season, so I hope Katana eventually gets the hang of it. We scored # 27 and 28 today. Only 14 short days ago the Kat only had 8 head of game. #9 came on March 7th. Since then she has more than tripled her head count! She has caught fire here lately. She gets out and flys almost every day. She's on an incredible streak of 10 hunts in a row with at least one head of game, including a quintuple...something I have never done with a redtail. But Kylie my dear I have taken 18 head of game in one day with the Dog.

Two out of three ain't bad!!

Well, another windy day yesterday. Brandi and I headed to a field we hadn't been to in a while in search of game for Katana. We worked for a LONG time with out kicking up any rabbits. Katana followed along very well, especially considering the lack of game we put under her. She did fly at something which neither Brandi nor I saw. Coming to the end of one side of the field, we kicked up a rabbit. Due to Katana's excellent positioning, she took off and nailed it. I transferred her off the rabbit and put it in the game bag to discover a few seconds later, it was still moving. Brandi reached in to dispatch the invincible rabbit, and we continued on. About 15 minutes later, Brandi kicked up another rabbit. If Katana had been sitting anywhere other than where she was, she probably would have missed. The rabbit ran into the wind which was gusting to about 20 mph, but she took a crosswind flight and scored. Another transfer and we started walking back to the truck. I think that Katana senses when we are heading back, because she still followed, just not as close. Had she been closer, she might have scored #3. We flushed it twice until it took cover in some railroad ties covered in thorns. Unable to reflush we continued to the car and called her to the lure. A great day of hunting, bringing her season total to 26! I think that I will fly her for two more weeks, and put her up for the moult on April 1st. As much as I hate to season come to an end, game is getting scarce and cover thick. The heat is upon us and my girl has earned a well deserved break!!