Fourth

Happy New Year's Eve

My apprentice Isaac reported that he caught his fourth squirrel with his passage Red-tail. My foster apprentice, Stephanie, caught her fourth. And today, Cisco caught his fourth lifetime fox squirrel. This is out of about 240 squirrels.

It was really stressful, at the same time interesting. Here's a text that I sent:

Cisco's fourth lifetime fox squirrel taken. Stressful. Up in tree for a long time, hanging upside down. Then he dropped it, and grabbed, hanging onto its tail. He was covered in blood after it escaped and I called him. Cisco was super tired. 20 minutes later he pulled the wounded squirrel from nest and killed it. Jeez.

Everything started routinely. I had Arnold with me and released Cisco. He has not flown for more than a week, the season interrupted with a trip to Denver.

Cisco took off and started working a squirrel, which he grabbed in some high leaves. The squirrel was squealing some and I could see Cisco hanging below. It went on for a bit, and then the squirrel called again, and then again. This made me very uneasy. There's a video link below. The beginning of video followed about fifteen minutes of tree activity. Twenty seconds into the video, the squirrel either got loose or Cisco dropped it, but he quickly grabbed it again, by only the tail. You can see that . Then it escaped and Cisco crashed into the leaves right below. He was tired. He rested there for a few minutes then flew to a branch to rest some more. I called him to fist to inspect him. His feet were covered with blood, presumably the squirrel's. I seriously considered taking him home, but there was a wounded squirrel dragging around.

Cisco was not eager to fly so I gave him some time. He was looking around the trees. He took off and moved from branch to branch, normal when working a squirrel. But he was very slow and deliberate. Suddenly he smacked a dray, attacked it, and then didn't move for about five or ten minutes. That's apparently where that squirrel hid. From another angle I could just barely see the dead squirrel. Again Cisco was not moving fast. He sat up there for a while, and finally came down.

At the house, there appeared to be no bites.

Fox Squirrel