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17 and 11

On to a new season - Cisco's seventeeth, and with me, Farrah's eleventh. Last season was the most productive in terms of catch numbers for both hawks, for whatever that's worth. My principal goal is getting through the season safely with the hawks' consistently catching game. That constitutes a successful season.

One of the three squirrels in one tree

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- January 06, 2022

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Fourth

- December 31, 2021

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 f...

Superb effort from Cisco

- March 18, 2022

Cisco was on the disabled list for a few weeks, after a squirrel chewed on his toe a while back. The day before yesterday I took him hunting. My reference to the hunt in my log book was "Boh-ring!" He was an ounce heavy and it was warm. Today was different. Cisco was at 900 grams after two day fast; the weather was cool, also extremely windy. Cisco is very dependable in the wind, and though sometimes it affects the squirrels, I am not overly concerned about it. Cisco was spot-on. He made a perfunctory swoop at a fox squirrel, then quickly found a cat squirrel. A steady pursuit followed, including one interesting flight. The squirrel was at the top of a tall tree. Cisco flew upwind and used the wind as an elevator to put him very high in the same tree. He took a huge arc out, swung back and landed perfectly. A few minutes later he was on the ground with a squirrel. Arnold was there, worked well, and had fun. This is the last squirrel of the season. I clipped Farrah's talon...