Went out hawking today at a new field organized by Donna Walker Sullivan over in Horseheads, NY. What a lovely (HUGE) place where a large bunch of pheasants had recently been released and the landowner reported rabbits. The cold lifted above freezing, most of the snow melted away and while rain was in the forecast, it was supposed to come later in the afternoon. So we went earlier with Beth Kwasnowski McKaig, Raylene Lewis, and the star of the show, Jack. Everything started out well. Jack followed, dove at some voles who got away, we saw pheasant tracks and the forested part of the land was stunningly beautiful. But about 30 minutes into our hunt, Jack took off and caught something. I couldnt see, and assuming it was another vole, I didnt hurry. I could see he was eating something, but soon realized hed caught a gut pile, left in the field by a careless deer hunter. DARGH! I hurried up and tried to shove him away, but he didnt want to go, so I picked him up (one hand on either side of his body) with the intent of turning him around so that he rested in the crook of my elbow. Of course, that didnt go well, first because my hands/wrists wouldnt make the turn, and secondly because a long stream of intestines hung from his beak to the ground. I broke that off, but he squirmed away from my grasp. The good news is he stayed on the fist long enough for me to use the loop leash instead of the jesses. We walked a ways away and we continued, but realistically, hed eaten enough that he really wasnt hunting anymore. Instead, he just followed me around, hoping Id pull out his other dinner and wed go home. SIGH! The bad news is Jack has deer guts (stomach contents) over his tail and back (not sure how he managed that), which got smeared down the front of my clean Texas Hawking Association hoodie! Good Im good at laundering the blood and gore and guts! I have to admit I wanted to strangle the hunter responsible for that gut pile...bad thoughts, soon replaced by just the fun out being out there. We walked along for another half-ish mile before we returned back to the Jeep, played a few tidbit games and then a small meal so that I could jess him back up again. We didnt see any rabbit tracks, but we saw plenty of pheasant tracks--didnt see any actual rabbits or pheasants, but theyre there--somewhere. I really need to get Jack and the dogs back to being friends again. This beating the brush as a two-legged human is just too hard for this old broad. I can walk through the field, but really getting into the brush is just impossible. Sadly, we had one casualty, albeit a small one, considering what COULD have happened. Raylene slipped and fell as we crossed the second of two creeks, BUT she didnt break anything and she didnt fall in the creek. PHREW! Having done the falling in the creek thing before, thats NOT fun, but a fall is a fall. They hurt! On the way home, Im cruising along, just under the speed limit and suddenly, a police car appears behind me, complete with flashing lights! Whats this about? I pulled over, but I figured at this point, all it COULD be was that I had a burned out tail light, and thats exactly what it was! I hate it when that happens. Thats pretty much the only way you know--although my old Ford Tempo used to tell me with a display in the drivers compartment when a light was out BEFORE the constabulary pulled me over alongside the road. So Ive got a NY fix-it ticket. If I fix it before January 9 (and mail it back to them before then), which I will, it wont cost me anything. We almost made it back home without incident, but about two miles from home, another local cop saw the same burned-out light and we repeated the process. I showed him the fix-it ticket Id gotten about 30 minutes previously. He smiled and let us go without another one. He didnt even look at my license and registration. Phrew!
Posted on: Mon, 01 Dec 2014 01:53:54 +0000