Sunday was one of those days that makes me glad to live in FL. I was up at the crack of dawn loading up birds and the dog and off to the field.
I flew Rufus, the Shaheen, first and all started normally enough. I had the kite up 800' and he went right up. He grabbed the bait and came to the ground. He finished his meal and came running over to me and hoped right up to the glove. I put one jess in and he then looked up at me and freaked out. He spent the next 5 min baiting, screaming and footing my arm with his free leg. I finally attached the leash and let him go to the ground to see if he would calm down. He continued looking at me like he'd never seen me before and would not look at the food in my glove. 15 min later I finally had to grab his legs and force his hood on. I don't know what I'll do with this bird but I do think he's fat and that will be the first problem I fix.
Now for the merlin. Black Mamba was unhooded and she rode around on the fist for a few minutes and then took a perch in a tree on the edge of the field. A group of sparrows flew to a bush and I called her in for the flush. I flushed a dozen birds out and she pulled in behind one tailing it across the field until it made it to cover. I had another bird in the bush so I called her back and flushed, she smashed it in a head on flight.
She took the sparrow to a fallen pine tree and I watched her eat the head and then hop around finally caching it and flying back to me. She cached the first baggie I gave her and now this one, her third wild sparrow.
I headed home, unloaded the birds and hooked up the boat. Two hours later I was launching at River Breeze park at the north end of Mosquito Lagoon. 10 minutes into poling the boat I saw a red fish cruising the shoreline. I made my first cast and hooked up with a nice 26" red. I then sent a photo of the fish to both of my buddies that backed out on the fishing trip HAAAAAA.
It's tough to beat Florida for someone that loves to hunt and fish, especially when you want to do both in the same day in November.
1 comment:
Nice redfish. One of, if not my very favorite eating fish when grilled "on the half shell". Since you were flying falcons, you couldn't call it "cast and blast". What would be the equivalent? "Fly & fling"?
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