Second Kill

Pictures courtesy of oknsakes.org

We have been hunting for squirrels and rabbits the last few days. She def seems to know what squirrel woods are and what nests are. So far we have been unable to connect. Wild Red-Tails where soring over ahead so all squirrels where holed up tight and good and i couldn't kick up a rabbit to save my life. We where in a little creek area and Zoie was up a tree and she flew away from me with purpose. i managed to get to her minutes later thinking initially it was a mouse only to my horror to find it was a snake. I broke the head with my t-perch (pushed the head into the ground) Not know what sort of snake at the time it was caution on my part. I traded her off to the lure and we headed home.

New Hood

Today the weather was against us and i had a few errands to do. One of those was to stop by Hobby Lobby and see what leather they had, I needed a new hood for the weekend. they had some 4-5oz tan leather. They had an 8x11 piece for $7.99 it was a little on the thick side but will do for now. The result is the following

It's basically an Anglo Indian but with a feather plume twist. Need to work on my piping a little but it is a good fit and will work until she has another pissy fit and destroys it. I finally worked out how braces work. I quite pleased as this is only the 4th hood i have ever made.

Tomorrow we are off out hunting, so i just fed her 40 grams of squirrel.

Hoods and Leather Conversion

Well I'm in the middle of making a new hood, i also need to buy some more leather. One of the issues i have with all the leather suppliers is they measure there leather in different thickness. It took a while but i finally found out what the difference was and found a conversion chart

Leather Conversion Chart

Inch	Ounces	Irons	Millimeters
1/64	1	0.75	0.4
1/32	2	1.5	0.8
3/64	3	2.25	1.2
1/16	4	3.0	1.6
5/64	5	3.75	2.0
3/32	6	4.5	2.4
7/64	7	5.25	2.8
1/8	8	6.0	3.2
9/64	9	6.75	3.6
5/32	10	7.5	4.0
11/64	11	8.25	4.4
3/16	12	9.0	4.8
13/64	13	9.75	5.2
7/32	14	10.5	5.6
15/64	15	11.25	6.0
1/4	16	12.0	6.4
17/64	17	12.75	6.8
9/32	18	13.5	7.2

The modern apprentice has a link for Slijpers Hood software.
Slijper's Cannon Indian hood pattern software - shareware

She did kill somthing but not what i wanted

We headed out to platter tonight to look for squirrels, I have seen a number in a small wood that is near one of the bunny fields. We pulled up and immediately i heard one bolt from the hedge row. My wife was bashing one side of it whilst i got zoie in position and then the flight was on before it put in again. We both tried to reflush but the hedgerow was way to thick and what ever was there was long gone, We tried entering a wood that i have seen plenty of squirrels in. Zoie was all about this and followed very well. We couldn't see or hear anything so headed back to the field that had the bunnies in but nothing. As the sun went down again and nothing in the bag zoie got fed up and frustrated and flew to my left elbow and grabbed it we tried flushing again in the brush piles but nothing. I hooded her up and we headed home.

On the trip home she decided to show her displeasure with lots of banging about.

This is all that's left of her hood. I fed her up extra and she responded to the lure in an instant, I put her up for the night. We need to find some game and find it fast i think we are both getting a little frustrated.

If your not bleeding....

my sponsor has a saying if your not bleeding your not hawking.

Today i raced home, food was already weighed out this morning and she was spot on weight come time to go. Decided to go up near the airport. The filed i wanted had been mowed so i went 300 yards into another field. It was tough going. the thorns and black berry brambles where waist height. My knees are cut to ribbons. Zoie had two flights, the ground was dense so I'm assuming they where mice, the first was a dive straight into some long grass and she came up short and did the what teh hell happened look. The second was an awesome wing over into some dense bush, she got hung up in it and again ended up short. We walked the field and then went around the back of some old hangers. She followed pretty well and again was happy to land on the T-Perch. The sun started to set so we headed home, i fed her up the rest of her ration and tossed her lure out she hit it pretty hard , i messed up the trade off but we got there eventually.

Tomorrow I'm going to head back to platter and see if i can do a bit of squirrel hawking

Zoie was spot on at 940 so Latrell, Shelby and i headed to our field in platter, the weather was cold. We had two good flights on something, she started using the T-Perch and i could feel her strength through the pole, she followed a little more closely. We watched the sun go down and it was was time to head home, fed her up on some squirrel and pigeon and then did some hop ups to the T-Perch once we got home. Ill probably go on my own tomorrow or look for some nearby squirrels

All Washed Out

It was the last day of my 5 Day Texas Hunting Permit, Well last day of my available time. We headed to a field that is my sponsors , sponsors sponsors (Jay Lehmer). Fort worth, McKinney and Frisco all have areas that are classed as flood plains. Building has forced rabbits into these fields as these are the only available fields left. Today we headed to one of these fields. Last year we were tripping over bunnies in this filed and it was decided that it would be good for me and zoie to try it with Jays approval. This year the field had changed mainly because they had cleaned it up, many of the wood piles had been moved.

Zoie was a little heavy at 953 grams but we gave it ago anyway. My wife Latrell came with me along with my middle daughter Shelby. This is Shelby's second time in the field and Latrell's first. We had 3 flights two barley missing on a caught rabbit. It was so close that in both cases the rabbit got away with just an inch separating the pursued from the pursuer.

The only complaint i had was zoie kept going back to the location of the second flush and not following us to were the rabbit had put in. In the field she came back to the glove no issue at all but often got out of position. Part of our team building is slowly coming together but we both learn something each time we go out together.

Some people would say it was not a successful outing as no game was brought home, i would beg to differ in that we had two near misses, i can trust her at a slightly heavier weight and I appear to have a very versatile hawk.

Our last flush we thing was a rat or a mouse , on all three occasions zoie ended up looking at me with the "What the hell happened look" at this point the heavens opened and in no time , Latrell , Steve ,Zoie and myself where drenched to the skin. It was time to call it a day and head home.

Once home i got Zoie out and she was still wet after an hour in the car. Fed her 33 grams of squirell and 18grams of pigeon. She seems to burn of pigeon alot faster than anything.

Tomorrow if Zoie is at weight we start to hit more local fields on our side of the red river.

One thing i did notice, Squirrel is to hawks like porridge is to man, it sticks and burns of slowly.