Hunting Bunnies

Hunting rabbits is hard!  Here in the South, where there are rabbits, there are briars.  I've become accustomed to squirrel hunting in clean, open woods with only the occasional tangle of briars to either go around or navigate through momentarily (well, aside from that one time when a friend and I got enmeshed in a veritable field of briars trying to get out of the woods, but that's another story) where I can run quickly through the forest like Katniss Everdeen without the bow and arrow and horde of murderous fellow citizens when I need to get to her. I'm not used to having to fight for every inch of progress when my bird is on the ground and vulnerable. However, that's exactly what I did this weekend.

That fuzzy blur to the right of the guys?  Yeah, that's me.

I think I like it, actually.  I'm not sure yet since she didn't actually catch a bunny but it was fun and opened my eyes to a whole new type of hunting. Isa didn't seem sure of it at first, but she caught on quickly and I got to experience what it was like not having my bird within fifty feet of me at all times.  It was unnerving at first and there was a lot of "Where is she? Do you see her?" but she soon showed me that she was watching and I was able to focus more on getting a lock on her location in order to know which way to try to drive game and less on worrying about her getting lost. We did manage to flush a bunny and she chased it hard, but she's still not really sure about crashing brush, so it got away. She tried hard, though!

I love everything about this picture.

We spent quite a while in the briar patch trying to convince something to move. We walked all through the fields and ended up with thorns in places we couldn't imagine they'd have been able to get.  When she made the slip on the rabbit I took off running for her (which was more like run three steps, get tangled, mutter, work loose, go three more steps, get tangled again) and I wasn't careful enough about getting my bare hands loose, so I got a row of thorns down the knuckle of my thumb.  That actually hurts more than her talons, surprisingly enough! I did keep going, though. It amazes me how much pain I can ignore when I'm focused on her.  She missed, but when she hopped back up onto my glove to get a better launch point for her to find another perch she was ready to go again!

Don't judge my clothing choices.  Bunnies don't care how I look in the field.

The best part of the whole day, though, was seeing just how determined she is.  We flew for over two hours and she chased a bunny and four or five squirrels.  We had already flown my fiance's bird for a couple of hours that morning (his first successful free flight! Go Heisenberg!!!) and we were all lagging and sore by the end of it, but she just kept pushing. Finally, she was exhausted and we were exhausted, so we decided to have a rest.  She came down and perched on a limb beside us and we sat for a little bit while we caught our breath and discussed the best way out.

Taking a break.

I wanted to carry her out, but we had to cross a lot of barbed wire fences so she had to fly. We stayed right at our head level and just hopped along from tree to tree and then we came up to one fence that we were trying to find a crossing point on and were walking along the length of it. She hopped to the ground and started running just as fast as her little legs could carry her after me.  It was the cutest thing I've ever seen in my life!  I carried her for a while after that until we found a crossing point and she was able to keep up the rest of the way back.

We got back to our starting point and I let her have a really big meal on the lure as a reward for her hard work.  I was so impressed by her never-say-die attitude and her refusal to quit.  She was tired. She could have posted up in a tree and just refused to move or made me climb over fences with her on my glove (which probably would have ended up with both of us on our faces) but I asked her for just a little more effort and she gave it. We were probably less than a mile from the house, but it was still an effort that she didn't have to give when we were both worn out and I was incredibly proud of her. We'd done some long flights before, but none that long or with that many chases and she handled it like a champ! 

"What A Cool Pet!"

I think that one of my biggest pet peeves with falconry is swiftly becoming that one phrase, especially when talking to people online in threads where I've explained in the main post that Isabeau isn't a pet.  I got a first-hand reminder of that fact for myself a few days ago.

Talons on a red tail are bigger and sharper than (most) dog's or cat's teeth.  The force behind them is stronger than you'd expect as well.  These birds' feet are designed to not only pierce but to compress so they have surprising gripping power for their size. I've only been using my glove for a couple months, but it already has a hole in the seam on one of the fingers and a hole by the wrist where her talons have punched through the leather without her even trying. Part of that is that the glove wasn't made with thick enough leather, but part of it is that she's just that powerful even when she doesn't intend to be.

It used to be white.

Isa lets me do pretty much anything I want without putting up a fuss. She's very tolerant.  I can touch her feet and pick them up with my bare hands without an issue and she's never even tried to foot me. I made a mistake and assumed that "hasn't" meant "wouldn't" and she very quickly corrected me on that! She had her fourth kill on the ground and I reached in to secure her jesses to the leash.  I got overconfident and reached past the shield of my glove. That foot came out like lightning and she sunk those talons into my bare hand and turned into a raging ball of wild fury. When that happens, you can't tense or pull back because it'll just make them fight harder.  You have to relax and just let them have it and they'll generally let go (there are other things you can do if they don't or if it's an emergency situation, but usually if you just relax they'll let go on their own). I had thought that there would be no way that I could actually follow that advice, though, once it happened!  How do you relax when you've got those talons in you?  As long as you stay calm, it's not as hard as you'd think. It is, however, humbling to get dragged along by the hand by a three pound bird! I finally looked at her and said, "Isa, quit being a drama queen and give me my hand back.  I don't want your squirrel," and she cocked her head and gave me her baby bird look, let go, and hopped back to the squirrel.  She had jerked my hand a couple of feet away from it, but because I went with her and didn't try to pull away, I got out of it with only small puncture wounds.  They're deep, but don't look anywhere near as bad as I was expecting and weren't anywhere near as bad as they could be. All things considered, she was fairly gentle about it.

That isn't a freckle on the back of my hand.

It was a stark reminder, though, that no matter how "tame" she may seem, she isn't a pet. She's a wild animal and always will be.  I accept that and that is what allows us to work together.

And all is forgiven.

Killer Instinct

Warning: This post contains pictures of a red tail hawk on a kill.  I'll try not to post anything too graphic, but if in doubt, skip this post.

Isabeau got her first squirrel!!!  *Happy dance!*  Okay, just had to get that out.  Now to tell about it!
In my last post, I reference the dance between the falconer and the hawk in the field.  Sometimes the bird changes steps on you so quickly you have no choice but to follow.  As much as I would like to say that I took the lead for Isabeau's first catch, I'd be lying if I did.  She was placed in the top of a tree at the end of a stand of trees.  The area we were in had an open area on the right and another stand of trees on the left.  I turned left and continued walking toward the next stand of trees.  However, I didn't hear her bells when I expected, so I turned around to see what she was doing.  Rather than watching me, she had flattened herself until she was parallel with the ground and her wings were out.  Before I registered what was going on, she was diving toward the ground away from us! We all took off running and as I came around a bend, we saw her in the grass tumbling around with a ball of gray fur.  She had caught a squirrel!  I think I vaguely remember shouldering my fiance out of the way like some kind of football star about to win the Super Bowl so that I could get to her.  She was stomping and grabbing and looking around rather than at the squirrel.  When she saw me tearing toward her, she lowered her hackles and looked straight at me like she was asking what now!  I saw that it was still alive and that it had its mouth on the back of her leg.  Squirrels can do major damage to a hawk's legs and feet with their teeth, so my first priority was to get it off of her.  Fortunately, it had just grabbed a mouthful of fur.  I quickly dispatched it and as soon as it stopped fighting her, she relaxed, dropped her wings, and began to eat.

A well-manned bird.

 The amazing thing about this is that it's really, really common for them to do what's called mantling over a kill.  When they mantle, they spread their wings out to protect their catch from being taken away.  It's a testament to how well-manned she is and how confident she is that I'm not going to steal her food that she didn't mantle over it.  She didn't try to grab me with her feet to ward me off.  She let me touch it and her and didn't react at all.  My fiance, a falconer friend of ours who had come to watch her fly, and I were all laying on the ground at her level and she didn't react.

Happy hawk, happy falconer.

For the first few kills, most falconers allow the bird to "crop up" which is when they eat until they're full.  Full for a raptor is a little bit different from full with other animals.  Raptors (as well as some other birds) don't have to worry about their stomach getting full because they have an expandable storage sac built in called the crop.  When they eat, the crop fills up and it empties as they digest the food in their stomach to make room.  So I let her eat until she was done (about half of the squirrel!) and then I traded her off of the kill onto my glove with another piece of meat.  She came right to me and even allowed me to pick the remainder of the squirrel up and hold it for a picture without protest. My fiance is a deer hunter and he said that the tradition when you kill your first deer is to paint your face with the blood of the kill.  It's something about respecting the life force of the animal and claiming yourself as a hunter. I would have to get him to clarify sometime when my adrenaline isn't through the roof.  Anyway, he rubbed squirrel blood on my face. 

Partners.

It'll take some time for that to digest and for her weight to normalize again, so she'll get a few days off to just relax.
I'm so proud of her!  She is fierce!

Flight

A lot has happened since my last post.  Isabeau never ceases to amaze me.  This bird is so smart!  I free flew her for the first time and she acted like she'd been trained for her entire life.  The goal when free flying is to have them follow the falconer.  The falconer walks in the direction they want to go and the bird flies from one spot to the other behind you or sometimes leapfrogging with you, but always nearby.  Getting higher up in the tree is a good thing as well because it gives them a better vantage point, but it's something a lot of young birds have to be taught themselves.  Isabeau immediately went as high as she could and she followed me better than my dog does!
I started out by putting her on a tree branch on the creance (a long thin line used in training to allow them to fly longer distances while still being restrained) and having her come to me and then I removed the creance and let her jesses hang free and, with my heart in my throat, launched her off of my glove.  She found a tree and went high into it and I called her back down to me to reinforce that, while she was now unrestrained, the game was still the same.  She came right to me, at which time I breathed a huge sigh of relief.  I sent her back to the tree and started walking away.  After a few moments, I heard the jingle of her bells and looked over my shoulder to see her fly into the tree directly behind me.  She was following me!  She willingly chose to stay with me rather than fly away!  We were a team! I continued to call her down to the glove as I walked, increasing the distance each time, until she had followed me for 100 yards without a tidbit.  At that time, I threw the lure out for her and she slammed it.  Our first free flight ended with my bird coming home with me!

Look, Ma!  No leash!

We continued to train with her free flying.  She very quickly learned to follow without me needing to call her down to the glove for tidbits and continued getting higher and higher in the trees as she went. I've learned that if she isn't following closely enough or if I lose sight of her, I can stop and turn around and she'll fly up to the nearest tree.  If she doesn't, then I know that she either sees something that interests her or she thinks she does and I need to go back to her.  Her eyesight is far better than mine, so when we fly, it's a dance.  She trusts and follows me and when she sees something I don't, I trust her and we turn in that direction to check it out.  Now it's time to see how that plays out when we're actually hunting and she's not just waiting for me to throw the lure.

Any day you come home with your bird is a good day.

Lures

Today I started working Isabeau on the lure. I get asked a lot "How do you get them to come back?" Well, the lure is one of our tools for this. With a red tail, pretty much anything will do, including an old shoe. I made mine out of leather with a long cord attached to swing it.

My lure.

The lure is a guaranteed meal and plays to their lazy, opportunistic nature. It is their favorite thing in the entire world. If the bird is in a dangerous situation, the lure is a go-to virtual guarantee of bringing the bird in.
Today, I made our lures and put her entire daily ration of food on it. I kept the introduction simple and  just tossed it on the ground below her perch while blowing hard on the whistle. She had a moment of confusion when she didn't see the glove raised until she noticed the meat. She figured it out quickly after that. The best thing about it was that she didn't mantle--spreading the wings to guard the meal--showing that she's comfortable with me being near her food. I let her take her time eating and reached in with the glove to touch her and touch the lure to show that I wouldn't take it from her, which will be helpful if she's got a squirrel trying to bite her toes off (it can happen!) and I need to help with the dispatch. When she was finished, I let her play with it until she got bored before covering it with my skirt while she got back up on the perch. Tomorrow I'll have her come to it from a greater distance and we'll keep this up until she's willing to stop whatever she's doing to get it.

Venturing Out

Since she had flown across my kitchen to me the day before, yesterday we went outside into the backyard on the creance--a long, slim line that attaches to the jesses on one end and to a weighted point on the other that acts like a long leash does for a dog or a longe line for a horse--for the first time.  We've been doing walks around the neighborhood for the past few days to get her accustomed to being outside in her gear and staying with me, so I was hopeful that the transition would go smoothly. 

Isabeau on the creance.

I started close in like I had done in the house to give her the idea that it was the same thing.  She didn't hesitate, so I doubled the distance and tried again.  She did wonderfully until I got even with the house.  She flew toward me and then at the last moment soared up above my head and landed on the roof!  As much as I didn't want to reward her behavior, I had to get her down, so I called her to the glove with a tidbit and went back to try again.  The second time, she came to me at the same distance without a problem, so I increased the distance again and the same thing happened.  I stayed in one spot until she came straight to me and then would move back again.  The last time, rather than landing on the roof on the first attempt, she flew past me to land on the gate.  Since I was able to reach her, I simply picked her up and carried her back to her perch without giving her the tidbit and made her try again.  It was like the proverbial light clicked on and she came to me.  It was amazing! Watching this wild animal willingly fly toward me and land on my glove with no fear is beyond explanation.  
Today, we went to the ball field near my house to fly.  She went double the length of the creance and didn't skip a beat. It was awesome! We'll do this again to get it set into her head and then we'll start working on the lure, which I'll go into next time. 

Walking back to the perch after a 300' flight.

Small Steps and Giant Leaps

Once Isabeau had overcome her fears and eaten on the glove, the real training began. Now that she had figured out that I wasn't going to eat her, she had another fear to overcome. It's one thing for her to tolerate sitting with me. It's another thing entirely to have her come toward the big scary predator. Thus, I needed to teach her to come to the glove.
I placed her on the bow perch and presented her with a good sized chunk of meat. She stretched and stretched her head out trying to reach it. When that didn't work, she reached out with her foot. Eventually, after bobbing and weaving and making adorable chirping noises, she gathered herself and hopped! I gave her the meat and placed her back on the perch to try again. Unfortunately, the dog chose that moment to walk out of the room and she wouldn't try again. I put the remainder of her food aside to wait for the next day.
The next day, after she cast the pellet of undigested fur and bone they bring up like a cat with a fur ball, I tried again. I misjudged the distance, though, and she grabbed the first piece with her foot. The second time, though, she jumped and it was like a light bulb went on. She got it. Today, I cut her food into smaller pieces and had her fly the length of her leash to me (a few feet). She did it about seven times with little to no hesitation. It was amazing. She had to put forth effort and come toward me in order to get her meal and she did it repeatedly. It was a big milestone for us. 

Flying to the fist.

After that, we took her outside for a walk to let her get used to being out in the open while tethered. She did really well and only bated a handful of times. My fiancé still hadn't gotten his bird, so after we had all cooled down from the walk, we went out trapping. We have driven 1400 miles in six days trying to find one for him and had had no luck. We were on the verge of giving up on our area and waiting for more to migrate in, but wanted to try one more time, so we went out. We saw a red tail high up on a post and couldn't see its tail so decided to try. We threw the trap and after about 30 minutes, it came down. We were really excited until we saw the bright red tail of an adult. We approached to release it and it pulled loose and flew away. We moved on. The light was beginning to fade from the sky when we saw one on a pole. It was clearly a juvenile male, which was what he had been hoping for so we threw the trap. Within minutes, he flew down to it. We started to approach, but he wasn't caught and he flew up to a low power line. We knew we didn't have time to find another, so we decided to wait and see if he'd try again. He did, but again didn't get snagged and flew back to the line. He kept looking at it, so we waited. When he came down again, I was astonished. This time, he did get caught. We rushed over to get him off of the trap.

My fiancé and his bird.

We taped his feet for the ride home and put his gear on, then rushed to get him home. We weighed him and confirmed that he's a male and sprayed him with parakeet spray for parasites and checked him over to ensure that he's healthy. My fiancé is a huge fan of Breaking Bad, so he named him Heisenberg. They're now sitting together with Heisenberg hooded while he waits for him to rouse and show that he's comfortable. In the meantime, I'm trying to figure out how to acclimate Isabeau to him without undue stress as they will need to be able to be calm around each other so we don't have to keep them constantly hooded.