Sue B, field trip!

It was tough, but I forced myself to get enough ambition to get the chores done, pick up Sue and head for the rabbit fields. I say forced, because I seem to really like laying around the house drinking coffee and cussing at the politicians on TV. However I did manage, and even took every thing with me that I would need with one exception. Mosquito Spray. I went back to the house to get it and Karen told me that it was on the passenger side of the truck. I heard car, and since I was taking the car, no problem.

Sue, followed her usual routine of several aggressive moves at my face and a few screams, with which I responded with a loud WHAAAAAT? that seemed to blow her off the fist. After my usual vigorous petting for such behavior, I set her on the scales. Her weight was just right, and she climbed into her travel crate with no problems, and we set off.

The morning was just right, and game seemed to be every where. Pheasants and deer were in the fields at Arock , dead rabbits littered the hwy about every hundred feet. It looks to be a good year. When I parked the car, I could see three Jacks at various distances in the Alfalfa fields. I considered trying to hit one of them with the pistol, but decided to give her some time to see what her reactions were going to be. She was still in the crate, and I was afraid that I was only going to have another "road kill" for her. Since I am not training a Vulture, I really wanted a bit more action.

I did at least three searches of the car and could turn up nothing that looked like Mosquito repellent. They were happy, and Sue got quite a lot of manning and training in ignoring arm flapping and cussing. If I die of West Nile, I will blame Karen, whose only defense is that as usual, I didn't listen to her.

She came out of the crate with no problem, and we started our trek. Up until this time, I had not walked with her in the sage and called her to the fist, so I was watching her reactions pretty closely. We had not gone far when a bunny scooted out underfoot through the sage. She flashed after it, but it of course got into a burrow and she turned around to come back to me. I was lost in the moment, kicking brush and whooping and damn near scared her to death. She didn't go far however and came back to the fist for a tidbit. After that we didn't see much in the way of Rabbits for a while, at least not close ones. Sue was very interested in every thing around her, and I was very pleased. She would jump off the fist to a bush every now and then to get a tidbit, and I didn't discourage her at all. She never allowed me to get more than 25 feet away from her at any time. Later she will learn that if I whistle, she gets a tidbit, if not, nothing. That will stop her flying off just to get food, but that comes later.

After quite a bit of walking and swatting, I began to believe that I might have erred in not shooting the gimmie at the beginning of the field. I did try several times to hit Jacks with the pistol, and of course missed as they were quite a ways off. The report would spook her a bit at first, but she would return with no problem. I decided to change fields to one that has a lot of lava "hoodoo's" that harbour a lot of Bunnies, since the Jacks size seemed to be putting her off. They were flood irrigating the alfalfa fields that dot the area, and it was pure torture to get any where near the water that seemed to be every where. We had walked to the area of the Hoodoo's and were seeing several bunnies, but no chases as yet. At the edge of a wet, mosquito infested patch of grass, I saw a rabbit run through the brush. I followed slowly hoping to get a shot at it. Finally I saw a rabbit stop in the brush in front of me. I fired and a bunny started jumping up and down. That was enough for Sue and she dived into the sage after it.

I gave thanks to the Bunny for its sacrifice and to the falconry Gods for their help.

She of course was very excited. This was the first one that she had her feet on that was still moving. I allowed her time to get used to the idea, and eventually moved to where I could see her, and gave her a few tidbits to get her juices flowing enough for her to move to the next step. I allowed her to eat quite a lot of Bunny before dragging her and the rabbit out of the bush. After a while, I gave her the rabbit leg that I had taken along with me, and got her on the fist and secured. We made it back to the car with minimal loss of blood on my part, and she went into her box with no fuss at all.