Now this is hunting...

[YELLOWDOGDAVE]

Howdy folks - been quite a while since I've been around. Glad to see all the familar names are still around. Haven't done too much detecting lately- wildlife photography and falconry have taken up most of my time the past two years.
Trapped my Redtail hawk on Thanksgiving day this year and had her hunting with me in a little less than four weeks. If you ever get the cahnce to go out hunting with a falconer and his bird - take the opportunity - it is absolutely amazing watching these
birds in action. The speed and determination of a hawk chasing it's prey is nothing short of amazing.
Had an awesome day hunting with the hawk yesterday. She had some real great flights after some fuzzies and finally connected with one. I think she's finally starting to catch on to hunting with my buddies beagle. She was a little intimidated of him at first but she sure wasn't letting go this rabbit yesterday. The dog was more scared of her I think.
Unfortunately I forgot my Contour HD video cam at home. Will have to get some vid of her next time.
Here's some shots of the days adventure.

Heres my best pic from last years adventures. This is a cover shot for sure...

You can see all my pics at my pbase site at
www.pbase.com/yellowdogdave

Take care
Dave

 

[RustyNTX]

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[Ed SW Fla]

.... As a young boy growing up in central Pennsylvania, I hunted and fished a lot within several miles from our rural residential neighborhood.

One day while fishing at a tiny stream for creek chubs (small fish that tastes terrible when cooked on a stick over an open fire .... and full of tiny bones ... Magz, I'll give you the recipe at the end of this long story), then planning to cook up my catch, I heard some rustling leaves and some squawking a bit further out in the woods.

It turned out to be a couple baby birds that looked half starved to death. I took them home and cared for them. Made them a cage, kept it in the garage by the window and watched them grow..... and grow .... and grow! They were red tailed hawks. One got to be quite friendly to me while the other always seemed to have a bit less friendly attitude. This one would reluctantly hop out of the cage and sit on my shoulder while I cleaned the cage.

The friendly one would sit on my hand or shoulder and we'd walk all around the house and even out in the yard. When I was doing my homework, the friendly hawk would sit on top of my open bedroom door .... always careful to crap behind the door, not in front of it. My mother was not very pleased when I brought my hawk inside.

I was a boy scout then and was getting ready to attend the just about 14 day international boy scout jamboree in Valley Forge, PA. My troop was not going so I was assigned to a provisional troop of international scouts. I asked my own scoutmaster If it would be OK to take my hawk so long as he was contained or leashed and cared for by me and show him to any other scouts that were interested. He called someone who said it would be OK.

The day I left my father dropped us (me and my hawk) off at the bus station where a bus was taking scouts to the jamboree. Just as I was boarding the bus, some man in a scout leader uniform told me I could not take my hawk even though I told him my scoutmaster told me he checked and it was OK. He promised me he would take care of my hawk for my while I was away and return it to me when the bus returned. He got my name address and phone number. I was too naive then too ask him for his ID and get his name and address.

Needless to say, upon return, the only person waiting for me was my father. On the drive home Dad told me that when my sister was trying to feed my other hawk, he had escaped the cage and flew out of the garage although he was still hanging around the house some days.

I did see the less friendly hawk a couple times later in the summer while he was hunting rabbits and mice in the fields near our house. One time he even flew to a tree near me and stared at me for about 10 minutes before flying away.

I quit the scouts shortly after the jamboree ... scouting was just not as much fun anymore since my hawk was stolen.

Magz, here is the best way to enjoy creek chubs for a meal.

1. Catch three or four nice chubs.
2. Keep them fresh in a bucket of water while building a nice fire.
3. While the fire buns down to a nice big pile of burning embers, strip the bark off a thin green tree branch and gut the chubs.
4. Jam the chubs on the branch as you would a hot dog.
5. Hold the branch over the flaming embers until the chubs blacken on the outside and juices stop running down the branch to your hand.
6. With a another small "Y" shaped branch, carefully slide the crackling hot chubs off the cooking branch to the top of a clean flat rock.
7. Thrown the chubs away and eat the cooking branch!

 

[Jim West Pa]

and
ages and ages and ages and ages and ages
and
ages and ages and ages and ages and ages
and
ages and ages and ages and ages and ages
and
ages and ages and ages and ages and ages
and
ages and ages and ages and ages and ages
and
ages and ages and ages and ages and ages
and
ages and ages and ages and ages and ages ago

Even thinkin o' such a thing would be hangin offense in Pa now.

 

[Magyar]

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[Ma Betty in MO]

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[Craig in Alabama]

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[TwoRivers]

Thanks for sharing................they are beautiful birds and are fun to watch. I have them frequent my property and it's always a thrill to watch them...

...................................................................John

 

[mudpuppy]

Muscoveys can fly, we were too poor to afford bags of feed, so I had minnnow traps set up and down the creek, (creek chub memories) and would feed them minnows and crawdads and whatnot.
I was always interested in Falconry, so I decided to sharpen my skills and trained a muscovey to fly up and land on my arm just like a falcon would do! It was the damndest thing! Then, we butchered them all and ate them over the winter...they tasted very fishy and crawdaddy...
Mud

 

[Lawrence in Alabama]

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