The Third Season (2003/2004)

Currently I am training a new passage male RT hawk (Trip). I caught him on the first of September. He didn't eat voluntarily for 7 days. After he ate he trained rapidly and we are now hunting. He is actively chasing squirrels and is quite fast through the tree tops. The weather right now is absolutely miserable with the highs in the 90's and the canopy is completely green still. My goals for this RT are sleightly different than my first year. My first year goal was the same as any apprentice's goal should be. Catch game and keep my hawk healthy was my mantra, but this year I want a little bit of game diversity. Squirrels will still be the main focus, but I hope to add at least 20 rabbits to the gamebag this year. That will be a huge increase and will certainly depend on my dogs providing the slips. This RT is doing GREAT. He is so quick and he is nailing squirrels in the canopy that I am not seeing. I caught him the same place I caught Zeke and I wonder if maybe he is a sibling of Zekes?

My passage male RT died suddenly even under Vet care. He was perching and hunting from fantastic perches and the next day he was dead. The Vet said it was blunt force trauma. Other falconers think maybe it was a snake or a cat scratch. Whatever it was it stung. It was three days before my first trip out West.

I trained a female RT (Dakota). I was running her with my new dachshund and feist and new JRT puppy. The dachshund is improving on rabbits and the feist is great on squirrels. I think the dachshund will be GREAT by next year. I flew this female from late Oct through the first week in January. She caught nearly 60 squirrels in that time. She was a very average bird but was hunted a lot. I did catch 4 with her once, but most of the time I just caught one or two with her.

I traded her with a falconer in Fla for his male HH. He is was a good bird hawk and rabbit hawk. I hope he turns out to be as good as stated for me. He has caught some rats and almost a sparrow and almost a quail and almost a rabbit and this is the first week I have had him. He is working with one dog right now and the others will be introduced shortly. I also had a hag female kestrel and she caught a few birds out of the window. I released her to focus on the dogs and hawk. It was a good season this year. I increased my rabbit single season record by 5 fold!