Road Trip

I have to go away on an adobe training course for a few days, willow is comming with me, should prove interesting... Back on Wednesday.....

Willow getting some fresh air from After Effects fundermentals

more training

a tail of two temps

Yesterday was upper 70s low 80s, today couldn't be further from that if you tried.Right now its 32f , the wife was cold, i was cold and the bird was well, non- responsive and ended with the fly 2 feet and "will you please through the lure out so we can get out of here". The change in temp caught me off guard with her weight and she came down a little lower than i wanted . I'll check her tonight and make adjustments.

Todays Flights

Company and Compulsion

I took Willow to the local park today. I need the space to fly her and a few less trees. She weighed in at 1100 grams again. I staked out 80 feet of creance and we started our training session. About half way through we both here this scream, a redtail hag was telling us both to piss off and leave the area, willows wings came down and into the defencive posturing that stressed redtails take. The hag soon bugged out after about 3 minutes and we continued. She continues to fly back to her perch after her tidbit which for some reason amuses me. I always get the feeling its "hurry up and i get another treat" going through her head. We ended the session on the lure at 80 feet and then a good trade of to a tidbit on the glove from the lure. One thing i must remember is to be careful where i throw the lure because when you go to trade off and are sitting on the lure, a fire ants nest can erupt from beneath your ass and the over desiring compulsion to immediately stand up very fast can be over whelming.

It's amazing how much she has changed since introducing the lure, I'm actually starting to enjoy this and it doesn't seem like such hard work.

50K is never a good reason

Woman detained after falcons found in luggage

Day 29

We had a great session today i had her flying to 60 feet on the creance, she also worked out that if she flew back after her tid bit, it would take half the time before getting another one. She must have put in 40 flights. Local kids all came to watch and she didn't batter an eye lid i felt her response was finally focused on me. Lure response was again very good and she was on it as soon as it hit the ground. She was wanting to carry the lure so we will work on that some more. Trade off was a breeze , tid bit on the glove , off the lure and it was forgotten. Now my confidence is back up we will move to a different field and go for some longer flights. I want to bring her weight down a little more , not much. Shes hovering around 1100 and 1105 grams so I'll take it just below 1100 grams and we will see how she responds.

Progress

We hada  good session today 40 feet on the creance at 1105 grams, Followed up by a good trade off on the lure. I introduced her to the lure yesterday and it was amazing that she knew what it was. Before i had finished getting it out of my pocket she was flying towards me.

Day 25

I spoke with my sponsor Steve Armstrong a week ago and we decided to go back to basics for a week. The creance outside wasn't working out. She was easily distracted and was wanting to hunt, field control was just out the window. We decided to spend more time on the fist and fly her in the house re-enforcing me as the supplier of all food. Feeding on the fist is always fun and learning how to palm the food(last season with Zoie) so she don't sink 4 talons in my hand is always fun( Murphy's laws says she'll probably foot me now) .The weather here hasn't been to great either, high winds and rain so as it turned out this wasn't to bad a prospect.

She's now at 1130 grams and behaving allot better. Bating less of the fist and less jumpy. We decided to bring her down to 1100 grams, she should be there at the weekend and we will once again ready to go outside on the creance.

I have two new hunting grounds once deer season is over, one north of Durant and one west of Boswell. Private land but with a ton of squirrels on them.

Day 16

Well things are still progressing slowly, but we are doing this at willows pace and not mine. Shes flying across the room now. Not every flight results in a tidbit on the glove. I have been changing the way i present the tidbit on the glove and she seems to be responding better. She still bates of the pearch when i approch so we have been working on that too.

A friend of mine Matt made me a new cloroplast box ( he had a spare sheet) which i have now furnished out. I'm not sure its quite tall enough so will probably be making another really soon and ill keep the other for another hawk in the future. Its amazing how much lighter than my wooden GH it is ( and i made that on the sparse side).

As promised

and finally... Day 13

Dropped her weight to 1206 grams, instant response and jumped to the fist after a little hesitation. She not only hopped once but 6 times, Shes still nervous around people but that's getting better as time has gone on. There is a video to come once i find out how to get it into my computer, seems my Dazzle Video Capture card is not compatible with Windows 7 64 bit ( it is with everything else) so once i work that out there will be more videos coming. Hopefully we will have her on the creance ( long leash) pretty soon..

What goes into making a Quality Scope

Interesting video on what goes into makeing a Carl Zeiss Scope