Trapping and the Central flyway Region

Went trapping today. Its my birthday so it was my birthday present ( as well as a new freezer so i can keep all my hawk food in it without the kids complaining) , the plan is to bring back a Tericel Redtail hawk. We headed north on hignway 75 past McAlester and ended up on highway 69. The number of Redtails dramatically increased past McAlester. We spotted a number of hags but eventually found a passage. We bumped her of the trap the first time backed off and she went down on a second trap. The first time she landed on the trap she was able to lift the 2.5lb trap, so basically her own body weight. She had massive feet, ideal for squirrel hawking. She was almost a direct replica of Zoie in size, weight and appearance. We weighed her in at 1060 grams. Her strength was really impressive. My wife and Steve were surprised i passed her up. I think if this had been last year i would have definitely kept her.

Steve was tempted by her but she was about 150 grams to light for what he wanted and 100 grams more than i wanted so we released her back into the wild for her only to fly back to the pole we called her in from.

The rest of the day we spent finding poles that might be useful for later on in the season. definitely worth going back to in a few weeks. The heat then got to 104f, way to hot to safely trap so we called it a day

I have been researching the Central flyway migration routes.

Interesting to note the two main routes in Oklahoma are down through the panhandle and Hackerberry flats and then down from Tulsa to Broken Bow.   I haven't paid much attention to the Central flyway region info before now but this affects allot of things and not just falconry but all water fowl hunting.

The council decides bag limits for ducks geese and other water fowl hunting as well as permits for peregrine take. This route starts in Canada and moves down though the central plains including Dekota, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas to name just a few.

Trapping Season

Trapping Season started yesterday. We managed to get out for a few ours to have a look but everything we saw was a hag or too far from the road to have ago.
I made my own trap this year , well cant keep borrowing the sponsors. I also had a go at making some parachord jessies that I'll use in the weathering area and in the giant hood.

The BC only cost me $22 bucks in materials which surprised me really as a BC trap sells for $100+ , just goes to show more often than not your better off making your own.

The parachord was on sale at gander mountain, gander mountain will no longer be stocking parachord so i bought up 200 feet which should last me a while. It took me a moment to figure how to thread the chord back in on itself but i got there eventually.

6 days to go

Unfortunetly our mini-vans engine decided to give up the ghost so looks like trapping will be out for a few more weeks till we can either get a new car or that one fixed. I'm not full ready anyway as i want to get some more leather and make a few more hoods. Been doing lots of reading and reshearch on some other things. One of the things i am interest in is trapping in other states , so if you read this and your from another state or no of the regs in another state here is a question for you. "What are the rules and costs envolved in trapping for a non-resident falconer in your state?"

Good luck to all those OKIES that can go trapping in 6 days time !

On another note my friend Albert form TROC has a new encouragment incentive for troops in the middle east , he is currently there as a contracter . You can read all about his adventures and his idea Yo-Yo