And a glorious day it was. Cool, sunny, and we were driving against the morning commuter traffic. Poor 9-5'ers. I was pepped up on coffee and ice tea and a steak sandwich.
We followed J and W out to Falls Lake, to try W's new 6mo old bird, a Red Tail hawk, out on squirrels. We were decked out with orange, beating sticks and ready to try to make some squirrels move for the bird. As it was, the bird was thrown by so many new variables, just like a dog at its first trial. More people than usual, occasional vehicle and people walking dogs, us wearing orange, cool temps, different game than he's hunted before, conditioning of the bird himself, more close work in the woods than the open space he was used to, flight weight, youth, inexperience, position speed and intent of his handler, and probably a zillion others I didn't catch. I wouldn't have thought about the orange - dogs don't care if they even see a difference, so that's not amoungst my variables. Apparently hawks can see into ultraviolet, which is very cool. At an rate, the hunt was unproductive as far as squirrels being caught, but interesting and fun nonetheless for me. We didn't take the pups this time - the birds are new and learning and we'll combine the team when everyone knows their jobs. J's bird was flown on creance at a different site for practice, a female Harris hawk and looks to be quite the character. I love this pic of them - you can see the relationship being built, that's magic right there.
Later Gonna met W at a different site we were checking out for promise of rabbit - we didn't flush any and the pups are going to be fuzzy about what their job is until we do, just like the juvenile hawks. Gonna however did pick up our track afterwards and confidently went along showing me where we walked, after telling me which car we'd come in. LOL. Not the best rabbit dog today, but makes me ponder doing her TD sooner than later!
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