It’s our first day at the California Hawking Club’s Bakersfield falconry meet. Diane went out early with Andrea and Mark Ashbaugh. They put up three Harris’s hawks (Rusty (13yo female), Glamdring (2yo male), and Shelby (2yo male)) over four dogs (Farli (11yo Vizsla), Ritka (1yo Vizsla), Sunny (4yo whippet), and Gossip (1yo Jack Russell terrier)). Various game was chased, but the only bird who connected was Shelby, who caught a rabbit.

I stayed at the hotel, got us registered, and rested some. We went to see a lure-flying demonstration that didn’t turn out too well. A Harris’s hawk was flown at a lure moved by a lure coursing machine several times. A relatively uninterested Aplamado falcon mostly ignored a lure swung by his falconer.