The Austringer

The editors of the Tulsa World think that Lawmakers should adopt stronger wildlife laws. That’s fair enough in light of the tragedy in Ohio where exotic predators like lions, tigers, and bears were released by a suicidal keeper. But the editorial’s structure left much to be desired, in my opinion. They do have a good opening:

It’s understandable, and in most instances maybe even OK, for Oklahomans to own and keep certain kinds of unusual critters on their homesteads, even in the city. There’s nothing wrong with a few chickens or an occasional horse or donkey.

But tigers and bears? Allowing people to own and keep large, sometimes-predatory animals on their premises is just asking for a tragedy to occur.

This next part looks all right on first reading, but there is a problem when it is paired with the ending of the editorial:

But in many parts of the state, a tiger can be kept as a backyard pet without the approval of any agency. And too often, the results are predictably tragic.

“These animals are being bought and sold at the hands of people that have no business owning them. I have seen what happens to them in private hands, and the animal loses,” said Dr. Kay Backues, director of animal health and the senior staff veterinarian at the Tulsa Zoo.

“It’s horrifying,” she said. “It’s tragic. And nationally, there are a good number of people that are killed every year or injured by exotic animals they’ve kept as pets.”

Once we get to the end, things have gone from the specific focus and into the completely general:

Micah Holmes, who’s with the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, which licenses native-animal breeders, perfectly summed up what ought to be the Legislature’s marching orders: “First thing we’re going to say is that wildlife belongs in the wild.”

This is a potential problem with a simple solution. Let’s address it before another tragedy occurs.

Do they really want to advocate a simple solution of all wildlife belonging in the wild, that is, that no one can be allowed to have any animal considered wild? They don’t clarify what, exactly, their “simple solution” is supposed to cover. I thought of falconry first. Then in composing my response on their site, I discovered that one of their authorities quoted, Dr. Kay Backues, herself owns exotic wildlife that could be at risk under an exceedingly broad wildlife ban. How far might that go? Many people keep aquaria stocked with exotic wildlife, many species of which are obligate predators. It seems to me that the legislative response to the Ohio tragedy either is going to be more complex than the editors claim, or a lot of people are unexpectedly going to find themselves at the wrong end of a simple law.

Here’s my response in a comment left on their site:

As the saying goes, every complex problem has a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong. The editorial starts with a more specific thrust concerning large, predatory exotic animals capable of killing humans, but ends with an incredibly broad statement about all wildlife as the “marching orders” to the state legislature.

Hopefully the “simple solution” eventually advocated is just complex enough to permit falconry to continue to be practiced in Oklahoma. Falconry involves always-predatory and sometimes large animals kept by people for the purpose of hunting. The falconry community acted to conserve endangered raptor species when pollution threatened those populations, which sounds to me like the wildlife won in that case, contrary to the import of the quote in the editorial from Backues. Of course, Backues may have been more circumspect and nuanced in what she said than what the editors chose to pass on to us. In fact, given that Backues herself owns an exotic pet (an umbrella cockatoo, according to Anne Brockman’s article), one would expect that she must have done so. Does Backues agree with Holmes on the exceedingly broad dictum, “wildlife belongs in the wild”? I’m unaware of any successful release into the wild (success meaning that the released animal lives out the remainder of a normal lifespan there) of an umbrella cockatoo, especially one that has spent 25 years in the care of man.

The legislators might want to talk to the folks at the Oklahoma Falconers Association to figure this issue out, at least as far as falconry is concerned. There may be other stakeholders, such as Dr. Backues, who would also be negatively affected by too-broad a “simple solution”. And if the editors want to advocate a simple solution to the problem, maybe a little more care ought to be invested in saying what they think the simple solution is, since “the regulation of exotic wildlife” leaves quite a bit unspecified.

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My parents send me interesting articles from my hometown paper, the Lakeland Ledger. One of the latest of these I got was an article by Eric Pera titled, A Special Kind of Air Patrol. It is about Polk county farmers employing American Bird Abatement Service (ABAS) to keep crops like blueberries safe from depredation by flocks of cedar waxwings and other birds. Their method? Fly falcons over the fields during the daytime. Check out the article; it has some nice pictures of the Aplomado falcons used by ABAS.

While reading the article I realized that I had a personal connection in the story: Jim Nelson, co-owner of ABAS, was quoted in there. Jim is a friend of Diane and I from back when we were living in eastern Washington state. Jim is an avid longwinger who nonetheless took time to help us train our then-new Harris’ hawk, Rusty. Rusty surprised Jim by showing enthusiasm for hunting upland birds and ducks. (Rusty also surprised him in having an absolute unwillingness to be or remain hooded.) We wish Jim and his colleagues all the best with the ABAS venture.

In the article, it says that ABAS’s “services aren’t cheap, costing as much as $600 a day for one falconer and up to four birds”. Well, I don’t know how one defines cheap here. It is likely that the falconer gets half or less of the day’s charge, so they are specialists with federal/state permits probably working for less than $40/hour. The other half would have to cover the costs of breeding, training, and maintaining the falcons. That is a not-inconsiderable expense in terms of materials and labor itself. There are travel costs and the costs of radio-telemetry for each falcon. Figure in also that ABAS likely does not have a full year-round schedule, so the days that do get paid have to cover the parts of the year that don’t. If the farmer gets about $2/pint of blueberries, and needs about a week’s protection to get the crop harvested, he comes out ahead if the falcons save him over 2,100 pints of blueberries.

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Just noticed this at Florida Animal Law:

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) had requested comments from the public regarding plans to delist the peregrine falcon, as well as any economic and social factors that should be considered in managing the falcons in Florida (WCTV).

The falcons are slated to be delisted from the state’s imperiled species list. Comments can be submitted to Peregrine Falcon Management Plan Comments, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, Northeast Region, 1239 SW 10th St., Ocala, FL 34471-0323 or e-mailed to peregrine@MyFWC.com. Comments must be received by 5 p.m., Aug. 12, 2008.

August 12th is approaching rapidly. Get those comments in.

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It’s been a rough fall. Sunday marked our first serious falconry outing of the season. Between colds for Diane and I, extra work and various other complications, things only came together this past Sunday. We had made a couple of brief outings to a nearby nursery where there are lots of rabbits, but also loads of rabbit holes, too.

Beka, our mini-dachshund, hasn’t quite figured out what exactly is happening, but she is showing some promise. She mostly followed Ritka, our Vizsla. At one point, she flushed a rabbit. Beka is not yet interested in going down rabbit holes. She’s seven months old now, so there’s time yet for her to figure it out.

Rusty and Shelby were ready for action. Rusty actually grabbed a rabbit after about twenty minutes in the field. Diane made in and pulled out a rabbit leg to give to Rusty. Unfortunately, Rusty let go of the rabbit and it departed at high speed — to its hole about fifty yards away. Rusty used to make sure someone had the prey item in hand, but it seems that we need to make certain that’s under control before making the food visible.

More text and pictures below the fold.

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The Chicago Tribune reports on the case of birders practicing falconry without a license.

The species—a burrowing owl and a Brant goose—were spotted about 9 a.m. Wednesday within 100 feet of each other in the wooded natural area. Within hours, however, the burrowing owl had been torn apart by a hungry Cooper’s hawk in front of chagrined bird-watchers.

By Thursday morning, local Web forums on birding were awash with discussions as to whether over-eager birders helped facilitate the doomed owl’s death by showing up in numbers and repeatedly flushing it into the air so it could be seen.

OK, guys, you seem to have stumbled upon one way that falconry may have gotten its start long, long ago, with opportunistic interactions with wild raptors. Repeatedly flushing prey is a key skill to have when giving a raptor slips over prey, so you’ve hit upon something useful there. Stylistically, though, you’ll find that falconers working birds often use a pointing or flushing dog. However, this isn’t pre-history, and we have the Migratory Bird Treaty Act nowadays. Unfortunately, the burrowing owl isn’t on anybody’s list of game birds, and there is no season for taking them. On the other hand, you guys seem to have stumbled upon the “leave it lay” concept all on your own. But do get yourselves falconry and hunting permits if you are going to practice falconry, even informally.

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An article talks about a falconer’s Harris’s hawk that got loose in the vicinity of the Lavender Pond Nature Reserve in the United Kingdom. It apparently interacted with people on the grounds of the reserve, going so far as to eat peanuts being tossed to squirrels. Why it wasn’t simply grabbing the squirrels and eating them, I have no idea, save that captive-bred HHs don’t always do what seems reasonable. The last sentence says that the falconer returned a few days later to get his bird.

There’s a picture that ran with the story. It shows a HH in a tree. One can clearly see that it has jesses on. What’s less clear is that toward the bottom of the frame, it looks like the jesses come together and may be connected by a piece of metal, which here in the USA would likely be some type of clip or swivel, used to go between the jesses and a leash of some sort. The article is not clear about whether the picture is a stock photo or whether it is a picture of the peregrinating HH herself. However, a loose HH with jesses somehow tied together is in grave danger of getting that loop entangled on some projecting object and getting stuck in place. That usually means starvation or becoming the prey of some other predator. Raptors tend not to be vocal when in compromised condition, and they also tend to blend into foliage, so if they get stuck somewhere, they aren’t likely to respond to calls and will be tough to see. So if you see a bird of prey with looped jesses, the situation is serious. Calling your relevant wildlife officials wherever you are is a good first step.

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OK, there’s a new critter underfoot here. Follow the link for a “cute” overdose.

But there is some method here… we’re looking for a canine substitute for a weasel or ferret, to pop down rabbit holes and flush the rabbits out where the hawks can have a chance at them. This one should be about ready to hunt come fall. So far, the hawks seem to have no problem recognizing that the new pack member is not a rabbit itself.

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I got the following notice from the Michigan Hawking Club:

Attention Michigan Falconer

Last Wed April 23rd the Senate Natural Resources and Environment Affairs Committee passed Senate Bill 1085. This bill will allow a continued take of Wild Raptors for Falconry use. It Ends the Sunset and puts the rules and regulations concerning wild take in the hands of the DNR and Natural Resources Commission. Please write your Senator and Representative and tell them you want them to support this Bill. Do it Now!!! Follow it up with a phone call to their office in Lansing. Please….. the fate of a wild take is now up to YOU!!

Michigan Hawking Club

I’m not nearly as enthusiastic for the bang punctuation, but the message is spot on.

Find contact information for your Michigan State Senator

This is the info for my senator.

	Senator Information
State Senate District:	23
Senator:	Whitmer, Gretchen
Address:	415 Farnum Building
Office Phone:	(517)373-1734
Office Fax:	(517)373-5397
E-mail:	SenGWhitmer@senate.michigan.gov
Website:	http://www.senate.michigan.gov/whitmer/

Find contact information for your Michigan State Representative

My representative is one or the other of the following. I’ll get it down to one tomorrow.

067	Byrum	Barb	D	S 1086 HOB	517-373-0587	barbbyrum@house.mi.gov
069	Meadows	Mark	D	S 1088 HOB	517-373-1786	markmeadows@house.mi.gov

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Falconers hawk bill to let them continue capturing raptors – Capital News Service – MLive.com

It looks like a bill aimed at dropping a 2009 sunset on a falconry law is getting general support. Getting rid of the sunset provision means that falconers in Michigan can continue to trap birds from the wild under provisions of the law. This is especially important for apprentices, who are barred from using captive-bred birds during their apprenticeship here in Michigan.

In general, statements from Audubon Society representative Thomas Funke were supportive of the bill and falconers. Perhaps the following was not intentional on Funke’s part:

Funke agreed, “Today, falconers are committed to the conservation of their species.”

The use of the qualifier “today” sends the wrong message. Falconers were in the forefront of organizing conservation efforts for falcon populations pushed to the brink of extinction by indiscriminate pesticide use, and continue to be conservation-minded. I’m a bit sensitive on such usage coming from other conservation groups who should be allies, for there is a history there of short-changing falconers on the credit for the recovery of raptor populations, even though falconers contributed their time, money, effort, and often their own birds to captive breeding programs right from the start of the problem being noticed.

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CBS Sports reports that Tripp Isenhour is being charged with killing a red-shouldered hawk on a golf course. Apparently, the hawk was making noise while Isenhour was trying to perform for a video production. It took shot after shot for a while, but Isenhour finally managed to bean the hawk in the head with a golf ball. Neither Isenhour nor any of his production crew figured out that this was a bad idea before he actually managed to fatally injure the hawk.

According to court documents, Isenhour got upset when a red-shouldered hawk began making noise, forcing another take. He began hitting balls at the bird, then 300 yards away, but gave up. Isenhour started again when the hawk moved within about 75 yards, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officer Brian Baine indicated in a report.

Isenhour allegedly said, “I’ll get him now,” and aimed for the hawk.

“About the sixth ball came very near the bird’s head, and (Isenhour) was very excited that it was so close,” Baine wrote.

A few shots later, witnesses said he hit the hawk. The bird, protected as a migratory species, fell to the ground bleeding from both nostrils.

Back in 2006, there was the Orlando golf course that called in the USDA to kill a red-shouldered hawk. Is there something about golf that turns people’s brains off? [Looking back, that golf course was the "Villas of Grand Cypress"; this one is called "Grand Cypress". Does anyone know if this is actually the same facility? -- WRE]

Update: The story expands to unveil another seamy aspect of human behavior, this time in the form of parasitic attention-seeking. Unable to interest people in the core issue of severing all ties between humans and domesticated species, animal rights groups desperately latch onto just about any incident that might be somewhat more broadly respectable and milk it. Poser-group “Humane Society of the United States”, whose name even was chosen to illicitly borrow credibility from the far older animal welfare groups that actually ran pet shelters and did good work in countering cruelty to animals, has jumped on the Isenhour incident with all the unseemly haste of a junkie going for a dropped wallet. Why the San Francisco Chronicle chose an enabling role by putting that non-news action in their lead sentence on the story remains a mystery.

An animal rights group wants the PGA Tour to take action against player Tripp Isenhour, facing charges for hitting a hawk with a golf shot because it was making noise as he videotaped a TV show.

I wouldn’t mind if the PGA Tour wanted to add on some penalties to obvious idiocy on the part of high-profile people in golf. But that’s what makes this such a juicy target for parasitism, since that is likely to be a generally approved-of action.

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The PBS Nature series looks at the intersection between falconry and science with Raptor Force. The episode airs this evening, 8 PM ET.

Hat tip to Karen Spivey.

I hope to have some comments later when the program airs.

Update: They had a lot of nice photography on the show, though I think that they borrowed some film from the NatGeo “Wolves of the Air” program, or at least it was strongly reminiscent of scenes from that program when they showed Harris hawks in the desert. There were some problems here and there in statements, such as saying that Harris hawk “stacking” behavior has something to do with the top bird having a better vantage due to the few additional inches of height, and not saying anything about the work done that teased out the dominance hierarchies that underlie “stacking”. The other clinker I recall clearly was saying that the near-silent flight of owls was perhaps due to not interfering with the owl’s own hearing in flight, when a fairly obvious alternative explanation would be that they don’t wish to have the prey hear them coming. Or, rather, that noisy owls likely would less often surprise prey items than more silent-flying conspecifics.

I thought the technology tie-ins were fairly weak elements of the show. While military aircraft video certainly makes for guy-gripping TV, there really wasn’t much depth at all in explaining how raptor biology actually was part of some technology transfer to aviation. The whole bit about development of a raptor backpack-cam could have been condensed down to “our tech guys did a great job getting us this video”, rather than sucking up precious program time showing us a guy soldering circuits in his basement. I’ve been that sort of guy before, but even I recognize that that is not what makes for informative television.

All-in-all a better hour of television than most, but it could have been even better than it was without much more effort.

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Pleasanton Weekly : Hosterman can keep her hawk

I lived from late 2003 to early 2007 in Concord, California. The news story above concerns Pleasanton, a community near Concord. It seems to me to be much todo about nothing.

At basis, it concerns an apprentice falconer who simply wants to have an outside mews in her backyard. This, apparently, was not specifically mentioned in Pleasanton’s municipal regulations, though there are rules permitting the keeping of chickens and other “fowl”.

Now, this likely would never have attracted attention from anyone, but the apprentice falconer also happens to be the current mayor of Pleasanton, Jennifer Hosterman. That brought on various attempts by her political opponents to make things as difficult as possible for Hosterman. This latest report notes that Hosterman was given a temporary permit for her mews.

Some of the commentary reported comes straight out of clueless idiocy, such as the opponent who said of hawks at every opportunity that they were “trained to kill” and that the community would be at risk of Hosterman’s hawk attacking humans and pets. First off, no one needs to “train” a raptor to kill; that’s part of their inherited behavior. Raptors get trained to associate the falconer and good things happening, primarily the availability of food, and to hunt in particular ways. What they are likely to attack, though, primarily comes from untrained instinct. Birds taken from the wild, as it seems Hosterman’s hawk is, generally are quite reticent when it comes to people other than their falconer and unfamiliar animals, like domestic dogs and cats. (A domestic rabbit, though, would be very likely to trigger a response from a hungry hawk.) One suspects here that idiocy in pursuit of political ambition is simply par for the course.

Diane and I have made neighborhood or community regulations a deciding factor in places that we have lived to avoid situations such as Hosterman is facing. We purchased a home in the Sea Isle subdivision of Galveston, Texas in preference to another subdivision precisely because of vagueness in the neighborhood association rules in the other subdivision. In general, there do need to be some limitations on things people can do when packed in like sardines in subdivisions, but there should also be a recognition that those things that do not infringe on the peace of their neighbors or their property values are also not the business of their neighbors.

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A friend of mine put her hawk in the weathering yard at the January, 2007 California Hawking Club meet. At the end of the meet, she put her bird in its traveling box, put box and bird in her vehicle, then went back to collect her ring perch. She discovered that someone else had collected it and disappeared in the meantime. She made sure that the meet organizers knew about the theft at the time.

Perches are bits of hardware that cost between $50 and $300, depending on the design and workmanship. The ring perch she had is nearer the upper end of that scale. A similar unit is available through NorthWoods.

The actual perch is in this photo, on the right:

Well, she is back at the California Hawking Club meet this year, and when she went out to the weathering area, she was surprised to see that her perch was there. Apparently, the falconer with the perch now had purchased it off of eBay, and is chagrined to have bought stolen goods. The CHC is working towards identifying the thief and turning him in. They also have offered to buy her a replacement perch, so things are working out.

She says her hawk also caught a jackrabbit today, with an assist on keeping it from her Jack Russell Terrier.

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Joy as stolen bird of prey found in bush

A nice uplifting article about a goshawk who was in a vehicle when the vehicle was stolen. The thief apparently dumped the goshawk out of its travel box. The falconer put out a request for information in the local newspaper with a reward, and while there were a lot of responses, one of them turned out to actually bring falconer and goshawk back together. The big issue was that the goshawk had its jesses tied together to a glove, and so any snag could immobilize the goshawk and prevent it from hunting for food. That put a time limit on how long the bird could survive after the theft if not found.

I recall a kestrel I had that made an escape with a yard-long leash on. Though I didn’t recover the kestrel, I’m pretty certain it was fine, since it knew how to divest itself of its leash and jesses in minutes on its own. As various people have noted since, when working with animals, it pays if the trainer is somewhat more intelligent than the animal; some of the raptors I’ve encountered apparently tip the scales in the other direction.

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Here’s a blog post recounting an encounter between a hawk (species unspecified), a chihuahua, and its owner. The owner managed to get the hawk to let go of the dog, though the dog sustained some severe injuries. The comments also bring out some anti-hawk sentiment.

A little natural history for you folks: it’s winter now. Hawks, such as the red-tailed hawk, have high juvenile mortality. Estimates run upwards of 80% of all first-year birds will not survive to next spring. So, you have a bunch of starving hawks out there, often living near humans, since we have co-opted so much of their range (see “habitat loss”). Red-tailed hawks are buteos; these birds prey on small mammals. People with toy dogs shouldn’t be too surprised when a starving hawk decides that it is worth a try to get a small mammal under less than ideal circumstances. That includes getting close to people.

The hawk that failed to make a meal out of the chihuahua? Odds are that it is dead by now, if not solely from starvation, perhaps also from injuries sustained during the dog owner’s counter-attack. For the commenter saying that he “hates hawks”, this is probably a comforting thought that so many of them are dying as we speak. The chihuahua, at 2 pounds, 5 ounces, most likely outweighed the hawk attacking it, especially if it was already malnourished.

I guess what I’d like to communicate is that we still live in a world with wildlife. If you have a small mammal as a pet, part of your responsibility is to realize that starvation makes both people and wildlife desperate. A little forethought concerning when and where one lets a toy dog outside is just something you need to invest. Close supervision of your companion outside through the winter months is the strongest deterrent you have to communicate to a raptor that it should spend its time looking for different prey.

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Blackwood’s Linden Farli CD, RN, JH, OA, OAJ, TF1, ONYX, UTP3, TDI

Born July 2nd, 1993
Died December 10th, 2007

Farli was our first dog, a Vizsla (or Hungarian pointer). Our female Harris’ hawk, Rusty, really enjoyed chasing, and sometimes catching, upland birds. It is hard for a human to effectively work a field to flush upland birds. It was time to look for a hunting companion for Rusty. Diane auditioned several breeds of dogs with Rusty, and determined that Rusty was only going to work over a pointing dog. We talked about different breeds of pointer, and got down to Brittanys and Vizslas. I voted for less hair, though if Diane really had wanted a Brittany, I think we’d have gotten one.

Farli was originally set to go to someone else. Breeders of Vizslas at the time often had buyers for particular breedings well in advance. But the vet who docked the tails on the litter got things mixed up: he was supposed to dock about 1/3rd of the tail, and he docked closer to 2/3rds. The original buyers backed out, and since we had no intention of showing our dog in conformation, we got her instead.

Farli turned out to be an exceptionally gifted hunting dog. Her nose was acute, and she had a tremendous drive to retrieve game. Once, at a Shoot to Retrieve trial, I was the shooter for Farli. They had put out pen-raised quail. I took a shot at a flushing quail, missed, and since the quail had veered off in the direction of others at the buildings, did not take any subsequent shot. Diane released Farli after the shot, so she was off. As I stood there, the judge said, “Call safety”. I responded that I had already set the safety on the gun. What I didn’t know was that in StR, calling “Safety” would allow a dog to receive a default retrieve score for that particular instance. So the judge and I had an Abbott and Costello routine going for a couple of minutes, at the end of which Farli came trotting up to Diane — with the quail in her mouth. The judge gave her a 100% score and remarked that he wished that he had a dog like that.

Farli got into dog sports. Diane took her to a Vizsla “fun day” that featured a flyball demonstration. Farli got all excited about that, so Diane took her to the start line after the demonstration was over, and Farli took off, jumped over the hurdles going to the box, tripped the box, and then chased the tennis ball and ran around with it. Flyball was her favorite, and her lifetime point total is the third highest in NAFA flyball for a Vizsla.

Farli had a brief modeling career, too. A friend of ours served as an agent, and Farli appeared on pet product packaging, advertisements, annual reports, and appeared in a pharmaceutical infomercial. This was when she was between 6 and 9 years old.

Farli’s arthritis and hip dysplasia became an issue in later life. We had to restrict her diet, since carrying extra pounds would have made the arthritis pain that much worse. We went through a series of different pain medicines and regimens looking for something that would relieve her pain, without much success in these last months. This ongoing, chronic pain was a major issue when we were considering what to do in her final days. Last year, she added a senior dog vestibular disorder to her list of problems. Since then, Farli went around with a permanent rightward head tilt and inherent wobbliness on her feet.

Farli went into kidney failure. We noticed that she wasn’t eating well, which had never been a problem with her. We got blood work done, taking a fasting blood value last Thursday, and got the news midday on Friday. This put us in a bind, since treatment would mean intravenous fluids, which we could not do at home. Diane wasn’t willing to leave Farli in a place where she would be caged overnight without anyone in attendance, so we arranged to provide subcutaneous fluid treatment over the weekend. This would simply be a maintenance, not a therapy, so we took her back to the vet Monday morning for another look. Diane was able to call from in between teaching classes and speak with the vet. While the vet wasn’t willing to talk plainly about possible prognosis, our sense was that treatment might or might not work, and depending upon the cause of the kidney failure, she might live anywhere from days to a few more months. Given Farli’s continuing chronic pain, we felt that putting her down was the right thing to do now. Since Farli had protested even the short car ride to and from the vet clinic, we got a vet service that made house calls to come out to provide euthanasia for Farli.

Diane took a bit of a nap with Farli that last afternoon, and late in the day, we let Farli chase and retrieve a chukar, something that she did with a last glimmer of vitality, though it left her quite tired afterward. The vet arrived about an hour and a half later. Farli died around 6:35 Monday night, as comfortable as we could make her on the couch, with Diane and I petting her.

It’s hard to say whether Ritka, our younger dog, gets what has transpired. She came out with us Tuesday morning when we buried Farli. If Rusty notices at all, it will likely be in wondering why the dog hunting with us isn’t as talented a hunter. But for Diane and I, it is a wrench to let go, and I expect that Farli will live long in our memory.

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These photos are from an outing on October 28th, when we headed down to the Dansville area to check out some public hunting land there. Michigan has a fairly extensive system of privately-owned, but publicly accessible land in addition to state-owned parks and wildlife areas.

The first place we tried had a large field of soybeans left standing. We arrived early, and everything was covered in frost when we got there. While we didn’t scare up any rabbits, the hawks and Ritka worked the field well.

Sometimes things happen to fall into place. I was tracking Rusty flying over the field, and she happened to cross such that the moon showed up in the photo.

Here Shelby is heading to perch on a glove.

Shelby and Ritka checking out a part of the field.

And here is Ritka bounding through the frosted soybeans well before breakfast.

All the photos were taken with a Nikon D2Xs and Nikkor VR 70-200mm f/2.8 lens, ISO 800, and cropped, resampled, and contrast adjusted in Corel Photo-Paint.

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I’m hoping that things are getting back into a groove where I can put up pictures of raptors on a weekly basis again.

Our birds are getting out some now. The leaves are turning color and falling here. The temperature is falling, too. I’ve been told that “road construction” season will soon be over, giving way to “winter” here in Michigan.

The lighting wasn’t great; we started our walk close to dusk. But Rusty followed us well and paid attention to the dogs, who didn’t find anything for her on this trip.

Nikon D2Xs, Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8, ISO 800.

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In 2003, we went out for a walk with Rusty, Beater, and Biter at Tierra Santa near San Diego.

Fuji S2 Pro, Nikkor G 70-300mm lens.

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Here’s a falcon on a block perch in the weathering yard at the 2001 California Hawking Club meet in Bakersfield.

Canon Pro 90 IS camera used here. This was one of the second generation super-zoom compact digital cameras, featuring image stabilization and 2.6 megapixels. Contrast touched up in Corel PhotoPaint.

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