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Hello to all,
This is a brief report about the Jan Field meet held on the 24th. A more detailed newsletter will be published on the website soon. We had great weather Wed, Thurs and Fri before the meet and then the temperatures dropped drastically Friday night. When I arrived at IHOP on Saturday morning the temperature was 10 degrees with a wind chill of 7 below! Not quite the weather I was hoping for. I arrived about 5 minutes late thinking there would not be very many brave souls wanting to tackle the wind and bitter cold with their birds. I had previously talked to only two falconers that said they would be attending. One was my apprentice Meagan Duffee with her new redtail and I also heard from Mindy but she was getting over some sinus infection. I knew we would have a few new and interested falconers hoping to see some raptor's fly. You can imagine what a surprise I had when I walked into Ihop and saw approximately 28 folks sitting around ordering breakfast, chatting and exchanging news on how their hawking season has been going. Falconry is alive and well in Missouri!!! We had 4 redtails and 4 harris hawks in the lineup. We also had newcomers to the sport and most were from the southeast and southwestern part of the state. We had 2 from the West Plains area, 2 from Perryville and 2 more from the Springfield area. We decided to divide up into two groups and fly the redtails first as it would be too cold for the Harris hawks. My group went to fly rabbits and off we went to the secret spot. My apprentice Meagan flew her bird and caught a nice cottontail and boy was it cold. We then flew Ashley's redtail and her bird caught two cottontails. We received a call from the other group who were trying to fly squirrels and decided they would meet up with us at Chesterfield to fly the Harris hawks. Tony Taylor, Tony Taylor Jr and Dennis Samnee all had their Harris’ ready. We had about 25 people in the field and 4 dogs and we had a blast and caught some bunnies! A couple more falconers showed up for a total of 30 that day.
Everyone was getting hungry so we took a break for lunch and discussed some things like the new regulations and what most would like to see. There will be a survey on the website about the new regs so please take the time to take the survey and voice your opinions. After lunch it was back out to the fields. I took my apprentice to another secret spot and she caught another cottontail. I think everyone had as much fun as I did and some, I hope we find a few new falconers at this year’s picnic with their new birds.
I want to thank everyone who braved the cold weather and for helping to make this a fun and successful field meet. I look forward to seeing you all again soon. Look in the web site for pictures of the meet and also for the next date of the last meet of the season, sometime in March. If anyone has some pictures or want to write some news please send it to Mindy at mofalconer@gmail.com.
Thanks for the great day in the fields!
Tom Schultz, President of Missouri Falconers Association
M F A Mid Winters Meet
Jan. 24th 2009
Written by: Mike Mallett
Well as Mid Winter meets go Mother Nature reminded us we are smack dab in the middle of winter! 6 a.m. it was 8 deg. There was little wind to speak of. I thought to my self “gonna be a small group once again.” Well I was wrong, this had to be the largest group of people we have had at a meet in a long time. I counted 28 people with the largest group being people interested in getting into the sport. We also had a few apprentices from out of town attending their first club meet. As far as birds to fly the count was 4 red-tails and 5 Harris hawks. After our introductions and chatting we split up into 2 groups. One group going to fly red tails on rabbits and my group was going to look for squirrels to catch with red tails. I say “look” because with 10 deg. temps’ I wasn’t expecting to find a lot of them out of their nests. We hunted with my bird in a area Joe Lewis and I scouted earlier in the week with good results but it was 45 deg. out. The bird followed great as the group of 10 people followed through the woods. After an hour of nothing the hawk saw something move out in a open field and went to check it out. To all our amazement the hawk did a quick wingover and disappeared into the tall grass. As we ran to the spot we saw the bird go down we saw a hen turkey running away rather in a hurry. There on the ground with 2 feet full?! We continued to hunt for another 30 min. not seeing anything to chase so I called the hawk in and we headed back to meet up with the other group hunting rabbits. We met up with the other group in O Fallon. I wasn’t there so I’ll let Megan Duffee tell her side of the hunt. Here’s a summery:
It was in the industrial park. My hawk has never been good around a lot of people and there were about 15 people total in our group. She flew waaayyy away from us at first but when she saw those rabbits starting to run she came right over us. Kurt was very surprised that Autumn kept up with us all day long!
We flushed a rabbit and she went for it....then we all heard the scream! Yes! I ran to her and she was already dragging it under very thick brush. So there I go crawling in after her and helped her control it. I covered the rabbit and gave her a tid-bit and Autumn did a perfect trade off. We kept moving on, and she went for a few more but they always took cover before she could get to them. She was getting tired so I gave her about ten grams to tie her over and put her into the GH.
Now here’s Ashley Schulte’s story on her hunt:
"I got my bird (Sadie) out and let her go up into the trees. I was a little worried about how my bird would do with all of the people but it didn't bother her a bit. When she had a good perch we started to hit the brush and we moved down the tracks and bumped a couple of rabbits that she missed but she followed like a pro and stayed nice and high in the trees. We were not out in the field that long when someone bumped a rabbit that ran down the tracks and she was on the other side of the tracks up in a tall tree and she timed it just right and caught the rabbit before it ran into the cover. I ran over to her to assist in dispatching it and traded her off the rabbit with a small tidbit on it and she came off easily. So I called her to the fist for another small tidbit and let her settle a minute before I cast her back up. When she was back in the trees we went down the tracks and she followed well again and we didn't hit anything on the way down, but at one point when she was following she started to soar around a little over the trees so I called her name and she stayed near. It was really neat to see she was enjoying herself! She landed in a tree above us and we decided to turn around since we weren't seeing anything and she stayed back a little this time. We bumped more rabbits and she chased and missed a few, and at one point two rabbits were flushed one on one side of the trees and one on the side by the tracks and she flew over them in the middle but didn't try to chase either one! She then landed in a tree and I figured she would fly over to where we were but she didn't, so I called her and even put a tidbit on the glove and she didn't budge. So I said we should just hit the brush and she will see the rabbits running and then she'll come over here. We bumped a rabbit that ran her way through the brush and we yelled "HO!" and she just sat! Moments later though she went down and I knew she went after the rabbit that ran her way, so I hurried down the tracks and she was mantling but I couldn't see the rabbit so at first I thought she had caught a mouse but I moved to the front of her and saw her second rabbit! I let her have a sizable feed and she hoped up to the glove and then we were done. It was the first time I took doubles and I was very pleased with how well she did. I enjoyed getting to meet new people and had a blast hunting! I really enjoyed seeing how other people flew their birds and how they called them and I learned a couple of things along the way."
After we finished with the red tails and the day warmed up 20 deg. now we went to an abandoned nursery to fly the Harris hawk’s. There were many brush piles there for cover. We had the under ground crew to help motivate the rabbits to come out and play. With 4 Harris hawks in a cast and 4 jack russels in all directions we got to see many rabbits run from brush pile to brush pile. It was quite a site. Hawks and dogs in all directions.
With that fun over we broke for lunch to warm up and refuel. After lunch we split up to fly red tails again. Our group took Mark Mizeras hawk to a place to look for squirrels again. We did see one but it went up to the top of a tall tree and made like a branch. We tried to get the hawk to look up but no luck. We moved on because day light was burning and ended up with a rabbit. It’s nice to hunt with some of the new falconers. You can see how they handle things and help guide them to make things go smoother. With light fading we pulled my bird out to chase some bunnies in a patch of woods. There were many impressive flights. One I was in a good spot to see. The hawk chased a rabbit on the ground running after missing and the dog was running next to the hawk in a foot race. The hawk finally took wing and left the race. It’s really great to see things like that, things only people like us who are close to creatures of such majesty get to see. We ended up catching a rabbit at last light to end our day. While our group hunted Megan Duffee was taking another shot with her bird at rabbits. Again here’s her take on the hunt:
"This time we went to an area with a large rock type hill side and weeds on top and bottom with a large field at the bottom. Autumn took a perch way over in the field really high and we flushed a few but they all made cover inside of the rocks. Finally we flushed one and it went up the rocks and into the empty field behind me. Autumn took off into this beautiful overhead glide about thirty feet above, hovered and did the classic "red-tail drop". The rabbit took a sharp turn just at the end and she was left sitting in the grass. I gave her a tid-bit and cast her back into the trees. This time we chased another into the woods and she followed. We knew there was no area with any cover for it to take in there (it was a young growth forest) and we could see the rabbit in the distance. Autumn took a beautiful high perch in one of the only really tall trees and began to follow the group perfectly. All of a sudden I hear "HO HO HO!" and see a glimpse of the rabbit trying to make it to the field for cover. Autumn takes off above the trees, hovers for a brief moment and does a three sixty dive into the trees and slams into the ground right in front of a pre-apprentice! He was excited! LOL!!! She had a good grip on the rabbit and not wanting to share it with the pre-apprentice who kept his distance. I had a great time this past weekend and I hope that we have another meet in March, if so I will be there...you can count on that!"
It was nice to be out hunting our birds in a group. This is what our meets are about friends with similar interests having a good time. I hope we did a good job of representing this sport to the new comers and they came away with a positive perspective. I’ll end with some comments sent to me about that day. Hope to see you all next time.
Mike Mallett
Secretary
Missouri Falconers Association
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“It was well Organized and very informative. I am looking forward to getting into the sport.”
Mark Rood
Hey Mike!
“This was a huge help to me and really helped me realize what’s involved. I really liked that the staff was very willing to answer any questions I had and show me everything I wanted to see!
Thanks for everything you did for me Saturday, Mike! I hope I didn’t act like a pest or a little shadow to you, but I was VERY interested in every aspect of that day, and you seemed most willing to help me and teach me and I am very thank full for that!
Quent Robinson
“It was amazing, seeing that hawk strike on that rabbit. It was life-changing. It was, by far, the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.”
Jonah Tucker
“Thanks for the note and for the exposure to the sport. Louis (my son) and I had a great time.”
Robert Jones
“We had a wonderful time and can't wait for the next event. After our experiences this past weekend we've definitely decided that the best is yet to come. We would like to thank everyone who spoke with us and shared their hard earned knowledge with a couple of rookies and we would especially like to thank all of those who brought birds to share their talent and beauty with us.”
Jim Criger and Jonathan Burt
