Cisco's 20th Season

This place is okay for veteran hawks. Trying to enter a new bird here would turn her into a pet quickly. There are some jacks, but tons of uncatchable ground lizards. Both buzzards are distracted big time. A month from now, it will be good. I'm planning to come back in November. I will let Cisco catch a month's worth of squirrels in Houston and then bring them both back here. Farrah is doing a little better because she's following better. Cisco tracked a jackrabbit right to this bush and when we flushed it he watched it running off. This is the third or fourth Jack that he found and tracked. He's likely a little too high in weight and not in really tip-top shape. He's actually at his high flying weight right now. I don't want to cut him. He'll be different November for sure. Cisco is right in the middle of the picture in that far, far away bush. Farrah's following better and is tracking and chasing jacks a little bit. It's just that she&#

I have the birds at the weights that I want them at this point. They both molted quickly with nice feathers coming in and the old one's dropping off fast all summer. But the last little bit is taking longer. I fed them a little bit light during the trip out here; the decrease in their input may have triggered something in their bodies. They're both doing fine. Farrah has not molted a single feather since we were in Houston. Cisco dropped a a few more on the trip. He actually got a little bit low on the trip out. Not dangerously, but lower than he's been in a pretty good while. He dropped a few feathers since early August when I left. Not surprising that he's lagging a Bay-winged Hawk in his molting speed. I'm deliberately keeping them about an ounce over hunting weight, but I'm feeding them everyday, which means something completely different from being an ounce over hunting weight on alternate days hunting season feedings, After every hunt, each bird gets a cou

Farrah is starting to look good. Her activity level is high and she looks strong. She is still pushing out the two outer retrices, maybe a week from being hard penned. She has a dry socket in her left wing, one of her outer primaries. A couple of years ago I went out to her enclosure in Houston and there was that feather. It looked like it had been pulled out. Odd because it's not her typical behavior at all. I have never seen her pull on feathers other than preening. But there it was, a fairly long primary lying on the ground. Sure enough there's now a dry socket. It's easily visible when you see her fly. But she's fast and powerful, so it's not the end of the world. I flew Farrah in the yard this morning in Placitas, since I was going to fly Cisco out in the hunting area. She looked quite strong. And super responsive. Cisco is older, not in great shape right now, but coming along pretty well. A week or two ago he was not even in good enough shape where it was wort

Off to a late start but I took Farrah out again this morning. It's possible we've been out 12 mornings in a row. This morning was mostly dull, especially the first hour. We kicked up one rabbit. I guess a good size cottontail. And that was the only chase we had in an hour. So it was a bit boring. It reminded me of a few of the things about falconry that bore me. Three come prominently to mind. The first is walking through the woods with a usually new apprentice with a fresh passage Red-tail who has no idea that the woods are full of squirrels. The second is having a bird who won't follow in the open field in which you have limited game. That results in no game caught and ruining a good hike. You can't really leave the bird up in the tree, you have to hang around and beat the bush in an area that isn't very productive. I got a lot of that from Farrah this morning. I have to reteach her and she needs to teach herself how to hunt rabbits again. One thing I noticed with