New Camera

My Wife bought me a Key-fob Camera for Christmas. I attached it to a scout transmitter to try it out on the back of Jez.

After allot of editing here is 10 minutes of the 1hr of video it recorded.

One Sunday afternoon.

Went up to Copan with Remington On Sunday. It was the re-opening of duck season here in Oklahoma. In the distance we could hear plenty of shot gun shots. It was our first time out as a team since Remington got sick. It was more of a training session than a hunt getting Jez to fly over Remington and chase game. Building up confidence from both dog and bird. I also wanted to see how Remington was doing in terms of could he keep up with things. So we set off into a new area we hadn't been before to see what we could russel up. I don't normally like prospect hunting but i had 4hrs before sunset and just needed to get out.We saw plenty of small birds still but little else. Most of the Wetlands Development Unit was full of water but it was also covered in about 2 inches of ice. We did get to see a Bald Eagle sitting out on the ice and an immature Bald Eagle in a tree. I had heard of reports of some quail coveys but in the area we went to i didn't see any.

It's amazing how in 2 months copan has gone from being green to brown.

I'm interested in going out to Ellis County and Optima to try and hunt for quail and pheasant in the new year (falconry Regs here in Oklahoma give us until March 31st to hunt both species. If anyone is interested in coming with me you'd be welcome.  I think it would be interesting to see how Jez does on them.

Gift Horses from the wife should always accepted

So my wife surprised me in finding an English Pointer litter locally in Dewey. Now if you know my wife you knwo this is a big thing. She has a love/hate relationship with remington and she likes the purse dogs that are all cute and cudderely. Her favorite saying is i dont want dogs so for her to say hey come look at this litter, well you just got to its kind of like winning the lottery.

With Remington's health issues she wanted me to have another dog but also one the whole family could get involved in. The owner is a Local hunter that was not intending to breed. He had papers for his Sire and Dam but the deal with the puppies was you vaccinated and did everything else yourself.

Ryan Van Zants another local Falconer and Pointer Trainer/Owner came out with me, as i trust what he's going to tell me, he holds nothing back and i respect his opinion.

We had the pick of all but one of the litter that had already been placed. we whittled it down to three possibles a male and 2 females. I eventually settled on one of the female. She was one of the few that kept coming back to me when i walked off and was interested in a quail wing that i started playing with. She also pointed Ryan's son a couple of times as he ran around the yard ( He had been playing with quail all day).

 

We spent about an hour with the owner talking about puppies , hunting before making our way home. Once we got home i went to tractor supply and got specter 5 as she had not been vaccinated and gave her her first dose. She'll live in the house for the first couple of weeks until she can mix with my other dogs.

oh and we decided on calling her Bella.

Winter is finally here

Winter has finally arrived with our first inches of snow. After some consultation i decided to take Jez out and see what he would do. the temps where in the Upper 20's  with about 1inche of snow on the ground the sun was out allowing a small amount of heat to hit the ground.

 

 

We headed out to our usual spot and started hitting the brush. We could both see Mice and Rats running between the grass clumps and diving into the cover of snow.

Then it was on We have chased this rabbit a few times and pulled fir. He was in the same location he had been on previous occasions. Jez had caught him by the rear and i rushed in to secure the kill. Traded him off fairly well and we tried for a double. We caught 3 more voles. I let him have the heads and traded him off for the rest. We had a couple more chases on rabbits but it was obvious Jez was loosing interest.  After about 20 Minutes Jez had had enough and flew into a tree. Pulled a foot up and didn't want to move.

 

 

On Saturday We went to another location (again int eh mid 20's) .I've hunted this pretty religiously for months (time to give it a rest) we tried to repeat the day before we caught 3 more voles and again after 20 minutes Jez was pulling feet up and no longer interested.

Frost bite in Harris Hawks is a worry so i decided to wait until the temps are back in the 30's  Tuesday should be back in the 40's.

I'm looking for another Harris to Hunt with Jez. If anyone hears of one needing a good home i would be interested in talking about it.

On another note was pretty awesome getting out for 5 minutes with my daughter and doing some redneck sledging. Left over Mews roofing panels make great sledges.