Finally finding some rabbits

Well it has been a while since I posted on Bohannon's progress. Everything is going very well. I was not going to bore you all with just the day to day going ons. We caught our first rabbit the first part of November. I did not have my phone with me so no pictures of that one. On this past sunday (12/6/15) we went down to a grown up abandoned lumber yard. We flushed a rabbit out and it made the mistake of running in the down an old railroad bed. Bohannon was right on his tail the whole time, I'm convinced he was waiting for a head shot to get control of the rabbit. After about 50 yards he grabbed the rabbit. They both rolled for a couple more feet and that was all she wrote! Awesome quick hunt, we weren't in the field for more than 20 minutes. Until next time! If there is anything ya'll want to hear about or have questions just leave comments and I will do my best to answer them!

Not much to report lately

We have not had much luck finding rabbits, butBohannon is definitely ready to get on one. So I'll just throw up some pics from the last couple days 

Free Bird!!

A couple days after my last post my dog chewed up my creance so I decided to fly Bohannon free. It worked out great! 

He came when called and hit the lure with the possessiveness that every falconer loves to see! 

I have been trying to find a rabbit for him, but with all the thick cover that is still green it has been extremely hard! So yesterday I pulled out a frozen rabbit from last season that I refer to as"frosty" and set up a hunt scenario with frosty. When frosty was pulled from his "hiding" spot Bohannon was on it as quick as he saw it! Now I have to find some real live rabbits for him to hunt. 

Here's Bohannon waiting on the bus in the morning with the kids! 

See y'all later! 

We have lift off!!

Two days ago I decided it was time to take Bohannon outside to try flying him to the glove. He did great! Came when he was called! I started just a few feet from him and was able to get 50 yards away. 

I did a little flying with him in the house last night, due to not getting home until after dark. He did very well though! 

This afternoon I took him out again. This time his response was instant! All the way out to 50 yards again. I also introduced him to his lure. The lure is what he will eat most of his meal off of and will be used to  trade him off game once we start hunting. 

I'm planning on doing a post on the equipment with pictures so that you all that are not familiar with falconry can know what I am writing about. 

Major updates

Bohannon ate from the fist last night (9/15) with four other people in the room. He did this about 10 times. This is great, this means that he trust me enough to expose the back of his head to me, while taking the meat off the glove. This is a very vulnerable position for this bird.

Tonight Bohannon flew to the fist! Nothing like wild bred Red Tail Hawk flying to you! I started out about a foot away from him with a tidbit on the glove. I gradually moved away from him. The furthest he would come is about 15 feet. His response was not instant as it should be. I will try again tomorrow night. 

God Bless America 

Quick update

Bohannon ate 6 small tidbits (small pieces of meat) at beak level the night before last. 

He is manning down nicely. No where near as jumpy as when he was first trapped. 

I'm back! Hopefully for good!

Hey guys and gals! I'm going to try to keep up with this blog this season. Last season it fell by the way due to too many projects going on. 

Let me introduce Bohannon, my male passage Red Tail Hawk for the 2015-16 season. For the past few days he has been hanging out with the family trying to get used to us humans. His fear of us is starting to subside and his hunger is getting the best of him. Last night he finally ate a couple pieces of meat from the end of a chopstick. 

Tonight we will work on eating when the food is a little lower and he actually had to move his head for it. 

Getting the newly trapped hawk used to humans is called manning. I try to expose the hawk to everything indoors as much as I can while manning. Once he is comfortable inside we will move to the outside. 

He is still not too sure about that small human crawling around. Don't worry, the bird is far enough away that he can't get the baby! 

Well that's all I have for now. Talk to ya'll soon! 

God Bless America