Although gas prices have eased I am still putting a lot in my truck. Still no bird. It has been a very interesting year (for the limited time that I have been trapping). I am no stranger to Murphy of Murphy's Law. He has reared his head quite a few times. More than once I had to pull up next to someone oggling my trap (these are traps designed to catch hawks - not kill them) and explained that I am a licensed falconer and I am trying to catch a hawk. Little do they know that their moronic curiousity has caused the attempt at catching a hawk to fail. I have been courteous thus far, but that is wearing thin. I actually had someone PICK UP a trap (called a bal chatri). Although I was tempted to yell "Get your friggen hands off that", I calmly explained that I was a licensed falconer and I am attempting to the hawk in yonder tree (I didn't use yonder with her). People need to leave stuff alone and just keep on driving. I realize that falconry gear looks odd, but I am ALWAYS within sight distance of my traps.
The best chance I had was Sunday. I went out with my nephew. Although the winds were pretty high we still went out. We spotted a first year coopers hawk near Wadena and deployed a harnessed pigeon. I turned around and drove back and the hawk was on the trap. This time I got to play the role of village idiot and attempted to photograph the hawk on the trap and bumped it off. The hawk repositioned to a tree and we drove on to 1) get away and 2) get an angle where we could see the trap. Not five minute later a deer hunter walked out of the woods just 40 yards away from the trap. He took a couple looks at the traps and then continued walking down the road. If that wasn't enough to spook the hawk some folks in a vehicle then drove by and stopped and backed up to take a look. Having royally screwed up this attempt we picked up and went our way.
I spoke to my old sponsor today. He is also facing the same issues I am. The bulk of the first year red tails may have already passed through. So with my limited window of available trapping time dwindling and the uncooperative weather and the inevitable appearance of Mr. Murphy I am again caught behind the eight ball trying to have a bird for this season and I am not paying for a bird. On the positive side there are a lot of old birds around - red tails and bald eagles.
All the preparation time I spent this summer and fall appear to be for naught. But I am not giving up.
If all else fails I will get a Kestrel (actually I thought about getting one whether I get a Red Tail or not). I have a few plans for how and where to effectively hunt a "K-Bird".
