Trapping success!!! Kind of...

Well on Thursday, 10/26, I loaded up the BC trap, mice, giant hood and everything else I could imagine that I would need to trap a hawk, including my 5 yr old son. We drove around for hours scanning the trees, skies, and poles for an immature Redtail. No success was to be had this day. With redtails at least. We saw one haggard bird near a paper mill, threw the trap and she just ignored it. 

Finally my boy started to say he was hungry and wanted to go home. By this time I was pretty discouraged, but I convinced home to let me go down one more road. 

About halfway down this road set a haek in a small tree, just far enough that I could not tell with the naked eye what it was, of course I forgot the binoculars! So I decided to throw the trap. We got the trap out the window and drove away to turn around. Once we got turned around I realized the hawk could not see the trap from where it was. I made the decision to go move the trap. 

Once the trap was repositioned we had just turned around and BAM! the hawk had hit the trap! I couldn't believe it, my first hawk I caught and all by myself at that! We drove near the trap, got out and realized that the hawk we had caught was a Red shouldered hawk, close but no cigar. 

After carefully working it loose from the trap, I held its feet and let my boy touch it's back. I let it go and it took off without hesitation! 

I still cannot wait to trap a redtail, this experience just got my ambitions up even higher! 

Until next time!