Space for Rent. NO REALLY - OK. Not really. »

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Morning Hunt 12-11-08

Rabbit Number Two was caught this morning. Percy was still 20+ plus grams heavier than his first catch. As you can tell by the photo the sun was out at the temps were in the 20s. There was a slight Northwest wind. I went to a park near where my wife works. It has some super deep ditches with a lot of cover. Almost too much cover! First I circled an area that was about 30' down into a ditch. Again, I didn't want to go down, but after I didn't get anything running on the top of the hill I went down. There were a lot of rabbit tracks but no rabbits here today. I climbed back out after Percy relocated to another tree. I pushed along a trail without even seeing a single rabbit. There were tracks galore, but no rabbits. I went to the other side of the trail where another deep bowl was. The cover was much thicker on this side. I did scare one further into the woods as I decided that I would walk around to attempt to push it across to the bird. When I was walking to the other side Percy saw one sneaking away and made a dive but came up short. When I got to the other side, against my better judgement I went down. It was very thick. When I was halfway through Percy relocated to another tree. I lost sight of him but every once in a while I would hear the bells to reassure that he was still in the area. I crawled up the other side (wishing I had an oxygen tank - falconry hunting is a great workout by the way). Low and behold I was right below him. He flew to an area along the trail that I had previously walked. Figuring that he could see more than me (higher point of view and keener eyesight) I went over in that direction. He was in a tall tree adjacent to a field. I walked where the field met the woods hoping to scare one out into the field. The cover here was again very thick. I didn't see this one as much as I heard it. As I was in the middle of the cover I heard the telltale sound of a catch and looked up to see him on a rabbit in the middle of the field. Number 2 was in the game bag. The pick up was less than desirable. Percy has taken to plucking at least one field jesse out during a hunt. I will deal with that issue tonight. In the meantime a happy hawk and hawker!