I Swear She's Trying to Kill Me

The weather here has gone from bad to worst over the past week. Between the torrential winds, rain, and even tornados we have not gotten much hunting time in. I have gotten in the habit of hunting her home but the game is scarce. We have gotten very few slips lately, but she has given it her all.
Monday, after a two hour drive home stopping at all the places I usually find birds, I gave up. I ended up going to Tom's house and decided to take her on a walk through the trees in his large yard. She did great for a bit and her response was on key. She then discovered a large vine-covered bush that housed a lot of sparrows. This was new to me, but cool! She had perched over the bush, so I tried to get them to flush. The little buggers held tight. I finally got one to flush and she proceeded to chase it across the street. Not a problem, his street is not busy at all. She landed on the ground next to the neighbor's fence and I started to walk across the street to collect her from the ground. As I get about halfway across the street, a cat comes out of nowhere and decides that it is dinner time. I start to run and the cat immediately bolts, thankfully. Scarlet had other ideas however. She immediately disappeared through a crack in the fence and proceeded to chase the cat on foot. This was no small cat either. Again I ran, scaled the fence, chased the cat off and picked her up. She was still puffed up and defensive, but I soon had her clam and eating. I gave her a good look over and she was perfectly fine. I, of course, was now in great pain from my acrobatic attempts. First the tree, now the fence...I am pretty sure she is out to get me.
The only other question I have: why will she chase huge cats, but not grackles? This is a strange one.....

Getting it Down

I have hesitated to fly Scarlet at lunch, just in case she throws one of her temper tantrums and it takes a while to get her back. Today was overcast and there were birds everywhere so I just could not resist. She was 96 grams at lunch time, so I loaded her up and headed out the door.
I think she finally has it. We had 4 perfect slips and 4 perfect chases. She came VERY close on two of them. I think that she is going out the window a tad too soon as she gets excited, giving her disadvantage. I will have to work with her on that. She came back to the fist easily everytime and after the second slip she was actively looking around for birds while we were driving. I have had a hard time finding prey for her but hit the jackpot today with cowbirds and starling. I really hope that I can get a repeat performance tomorrow, and that the prey decided to hang around!
AWESOME!

Hide and Seek

Yesterday I had class so I was only able to work with Scarlet at lunch time. She was 97.5 grams when it was time to eat. Another windy day outside caused me to be creative. I work in your typical cubicle farm and on this particular day alot of people took lunch at the same time. I perched Scarlet on one of the end cubes and moved around the room calling her. I would make sure that I was out of sight and she would have to come find me. I must say that she did very well. She only tried to cheat a few times....following me when I was trying to hide. This is typical of a child though :)

Today after work Noel drove me around for a few minutes before heading home. The first slip we upon was absolutely perfect. Scarlet saw the starlings out the front window, slicked down, patiently waited and then flew out the window at the perfect time. It was a perfect example of how carhawking should look. Even though she chased like hell, she unfortunately missed, but not before getting a nice grab on a starling butt. I was VERY happy with the slip. Noel and I were unable to find anymore slips like that so he went home. I slipped her out a few more times and she gave another great flight on sparrows. However, her response today was terrible and only grew worse as the day went on. The last flight took me over 20 minutes to get her back as she kept self-hunting and ignoring me all together. I will perhaps drop another half gram and see how she does on Friday. She is definitely getting better though!

Yucky Weather

Between the rain, sleet, snow and wind over the last week we did not get out to do any hunting until yesterday. I was very sad, there is nothing worse than getting the day off of work and not being able to use it to hunt!
Afterwork yesterday Scarlet was a perfect 98 grams. We loaded up into the truck and headed out. I made my usual rounds and ended up in the WalMart parking lot again. In the grass was a nice collection of grackles and starlings. She seemed very interested and as I neared she went out the window. She gave a small chase then pulled off to land on a tall light fixure at the edge of the lot. I got out, pulled out a tidbit and began to call her to the lure. It was then that I noticed why she selected that particular light fixture. She was sitting right next to a male Kestrel and the two were chattering away. I watched them play leap frog over each other and dance around the top of the pole. He would take off to fly around a little then come right back to her as if to invite her to follow. Fortunately, she did not follow, but she did not come to me either. 30 minutes later the male left and she started paying attention to me again. When I called her she would begin to come to me, then hover over me before taking off again. She even tried the classic snatch and grab but I held the meat tight so she was not successful. I finally got her back though and with a sigh of relief I put her back in the car for another day. Tuesdays I have class so I will do some work with her inside this evening and fly again on Wednesday. I think I will also take another half gram off her to see if that helps.

A Good Weekend

Friday I took Scarlet out after work. I was supposed to have someone go with me but it fell through so I decided to fly her by myself. I slappped a transmitter on her and loaded her up into the car. Unfortunately we mostly saw grackles. She did go out the window a few times but did not really chase. Her fist response was EXCELLENT. She came back everytime I called her. I was ecstatic. At the end of the day I was confident so I slipped her on some sparrows. She looked like she was going to chase but just flew over them to a tree. I called her to the fist and called it a day. 99 grams.
Saturday was super cold and windy. I have had a really bad weekend with my back so I decided to stay in. Kenny was over so for experiments sake I had him feed Scarlet. He called her to the lure and she came immediately. Good to know!
Today I decided to give Scarlet a baggie and work on some anti-carrying and build up her confidence. We tied the sparrow about 10 feet from the car and drove up on it. She slicked down and out the window she went. I have to admit if it had not been tied down she would have missed. I waited patiently for her to start plucking. I then put a tidbit on my finger and slowly made in. She tried to carry a little bit but took the tidbit graciously. After a few moments she continued plucking. I kept feeding her tidbit and she was soon pulling her sparrow towards me to get them. She finally calmed down enough for me to reach in and tether her. She was not eating yet so I helped her by opening the chest. She began to eat and then moved to the head. I continued to feed her tidbits and she soon quit mantling and trying to carry. She moved from the chest to the head and which gave me chance to pull the rest of the sparrow away from her. She finished the head, looked at me, and then hopped to my fist. All in all I must say it was a great experience. She is learning that I am not going to take her game from her. I have one more baggie that I will give her and I hope it will go even better than this one. 98.5 grams today and I think I will try her again at this weight and see how she does.

Splashing in Puddles

At lunchtime today Scarlet was dead on 100 grams. I loaded up the creance and to the parking lot we go. Today was another exceptional day. I had her flying the full length of the parking lot to the fist. There was no hesitation except for one flight just as another person came outside. In this case she paused to look at the person and then flew to me.
Her lure response is still waning. It took her a while to come to the lure and she is still not landing on it. Her fist response far makes up for her lack in this area but I would like to see better performance. Once on the lure she has started looking to me for tidbits. This is great, hopefully she will do the same on a kill. I will keep my fingers crossed anyway. My little girl also stopped to enjoy some fresh puddles in the parking lot today....just to play. Silly girl.
Tomorrow after work Noel and I are going to try to find Scarlet some starlings....it is hunting time!
Here are some pics from the THA Meet last weekend. Enjoy!

Best Day Ever!

Due to falconer error and being stuck in a meeting WAY longer than expected Scarlet was at 100 grams today at lunch. She has been down to 101 before, but this is the lowest she has ever been. As quickly as possible I cut up food, tied her to the creance and headed outside. I started out at about 10 feet and barely had my fist in the air before she was in bound. Excellent! I moved farther and farther back and it only got better and better. Before I knew it she was flying the full length of the parking lot with instant response. After about 10 flights I pulled the lure and she was inbound. She is still lot landing on the lure but her response was great. She usually lands a foot short and then walks to it. She is still trying to pull it away from me at first but readily accepts the tidbits as I feed them to her. We are making progress there. I am very happy with today's training....time to get out hunting again!