There is not enough out there

[wilded]

Someone needs to publish a falconry magazine that comes out at least once a month and covers more of the type of falconry done by the everyday Joe right here in Texas and the rest of the USA. How many of you can afford to take exotic trips for you and your bird. I would love to read about the hawking I think most of us do. I hunt the creeks in a park back of a pro baseball stadium and have a buddy that hunts the fringes of public golf courses. With development in our area it is getting harder and harder to find land to hawk on. With gas at nearly $3.00 a gallon I will be hawking more and more areas here in town. What about you, how are the fuel prices changing your hawking. I would love to hear your stories and think that most on the board would also like to read them. I love to bow hunt and I am planning on taking Blade with me this year and try to do some hawking on bow hunting trips. I am also thinking about just taking him on family trips and see if I can work in some surprise hunts.
I know some of you in the Dallas/Fort Worth area hunt like I do. I suspect that Wild Child can tell us some real humdingers. Come on guys. I will save a few stories to write here if the rest of you will get started. I need some reading that interests me. Yours in the sport, ET

Make time for the Important things in Life.
Ed Thomas

[wildchild]

Alright, alright Ed. This will call for a big hug come January.
I have several thousand acres to hunt on, but prefer one favorite field that is only 5 minutes from my house. It's convenient and its full of game mostly the jackrabbits "BamBam" likes to take. The land will disappear in less than 3 years due to the housing market so I feel like I'm doing the population a favor by thinning it out since they have no place else to go anyway.
Mesquite trees provide cover for jacks, briar for cottontails and giant mounds on the outskirts house hundred of prairie dogs. Burrowing owls are abundant as are mourning dove, covey's of quail and pocket gophers. There are always a variety of other predators there and a nesting pair of RTh's in the area. Furruginous hawks spend winter months gorging on jacks and p. dogs. Rains bring a small playa that waterfowl flock to. I have tried to get BamBam interested those, but she is dead set on those mega rabbits.
She gets aggravated at the p.dogs for making their calls and alerting those rabbits that she's there. She stoops on them and runs them back in their hole to quiet them down for a moment. She has only flown hard on them once and what an ordeal it was.
I prefer she stay away from them least they bite her toes.
One day she had been flying hard and rolled a couple bunnies, but no connection. The p. dogs kept barking their call and I could see BamBam's body language telling me she could take no more.
Before I knew it she flew to a mound and looking on noticed she was being drug inside the mound.
I ran to the mound and she had p. dog by the a** end and would not let go. The dog was taking her down the hole with it. Only her head and wings were peering out. The hole itself was not much bigger than the dog and very little room to munever in. I tried to pull Bam backyards with no luck. I dug out the dirt to one side so that I could get my gloved hand down the hole to at least grab hold of the pdog or Bam's feet. I had the legs of the dog, but it reached back and bit through my gauntlet and would not let go. In agony from this vise grip of teeth, I grabbed my knife with the other hand slid it down the hole, just then Bam grabbed my other hand thinking it was moving so it must be prey.
Double agony, blood here, blood there (my blood mind ya) I sucked it up and was able to stab the p.dog in the heart bringing it to a lifeless existence. It went limp, let go of my hand. As I pulled that hand out of the hole I had to loosen my grip on the p. dog, as did Bam. The dog slid on down the hole, Bam let go of my bare hand and all we had left was a dead dog in a hole, 2 bloody hands and a p*'d off hawk.
At least BamBam didn't loose a toe! ;D

[wilded]

Great story! You can have a hug anytime. ET

[colohen]

Wilded
I have to agree with the magizine issue! 4 copies for what?$37.00 a year, thinner then a pancake and full of How great my _ _ _ did in BF Egypt. There are a many falconers that would Love to make the NAFA meet but can't aford it! This time of year I am lucky to be able to get out of the county little lone out of state!

[frootdog]

OK wild bunch ed and child that is. I've got one from this weekend. More of a cautionary tale then anything spectacular. I took Goose out on Sat with a LARGE group of people, about 15 or so. We were working some RR tracks between some warehouses in Blue Mound. 10 Min in Goose slayed her first bunny. 5 more minutes we got the second flush but no kill. 5 more min flush # 3 and kill #2. Not bad for 20 min of hawking. We got back to the vehicles and I squeeze gutted the 2 rabbits. One rabbit had bright neon green stomach and intestines. Any one have a guess as to what would cause this? I'll fill ya'll in after a few guesses.

[ccrobbins]

Antifreeze? ;D

[wilded]

It's from eating grass along the RR track where toxic waste has spilled from leaking rail cars. ;D

[Weasel]

Here's a hint.....It has to do with rodents

[wilded]

What? The rabbit is eating green rodents!

[Weasel]

Yea, I told him to stop hunting on the old nuke reactor sites....hehehe.... I went out hawking with Yarak and Frootdog yesterday for a little Squirrel hawking. Bane caught a squirrel after a few chases and she fed up on the squirrel. We then put up frootdogs bird and we started flushing squirrels for her. She chased a few and finnaly ended up doing a long flight across the creek to kill a 1 1/2 foot ribbon snake......I had to leave at this point and he put his bird up in the trees to continue hunting. On the way home, I get a call that he can't find his bird and that he neds me at the park with the receiver. I grab it from the house and head back to the park. The last thing the bird was seen doing was going to ground in a ravine area that had some dense foliage on the forrest floor. They had searched for half an hour to locate the bird with no luck. After about a five minute walk we located her in some brush with a dead squirrel and that is when frootdog realized that she had lost her bell during the attack on which is why they could not find her before. Got her back, and she got a squirrel......good day.

[wilded]

Glad to hear you found the bird. I know of nothing worse than that sickening feeling when you first realize you don't know where your bird went.

[ccrobbins]

Thank god I was not there then.........


Is it Rat Poison?

[Weasel]

DING!DING!DING!!!!! We have a weeeeener!!!!

[wilded]

Good way to lose a bird and a falconer that eats rabbits.

[frootdog]

Yep, Rat Poison. Not all rat poison is grren however so be careful out there. Those were rabbits # 21 & 22 by the way.