Saturday morning was full of trapping and hawking. I know of at least three birds (a prairie, a redtail, and a kestrel) that were trapped out of the plethora of raptors sighted in the area. Prairies seemed to be everywhere, and I saw as many if not more ferruginous than redtails. Even a couple of eagles were seen that day. I was able to add a sharpie and a coops to my list of raptors sighted during the meet as well. The panhandle is truly a raptor rich environment. Rob Rainey's tiercel finish gos who has been hammering feathers all year made his debut as a rabbit hawk. Bruce Kizarr and Glenn Benard both took starlings with their female coopers. And many of us had the pleasure of seeing Mitch Wishon's hybrid put the pressure on some pheasant, which was a real treat for me and the countless others running below one of the neatest little falcons around. As evening approached some headed out to kite there birds, some went in search of ducks and others awaited the chance to see the eagles fly. I headed out with a small group of falconers and a couple local land owners to watch some Redtail vs. Jack action and though we brought none to bag, we did see some great flights.
The Oklahoma panhandle is also home to some hard-core cowboys and some of us were privileged enough to take a ride on some of the many horses living at the Stevens' ranch. I couldn't help but wonder as we flushed pheasant and jacks at our feet how much fun it would be to hawk from horseback.
Again the evening was much enjoyed, with lots of jokes, hawking videos and story swapping to catch up on every ones day. I remember hearing that some guys had lifted an overturned feeder to flush a cottontail, only to find five rabbits peering back at them when they looked under it! Jeremy Bradshaw showed us all what a quality hood looks like as the evening settled down, and one of our out of state visitors, Michael Garcia installed Marshall TrackPacks with a precision I'm sure only he is capable of. And we all cropped up on what must have been the biggest batch of spaghetti ever made!
Aside from Sunday the winds were very tolerable all weekend but even the gale on the last day didn't stop a group of 14 falconers from forming a line along side Dave's tiercel Golden Eagle Aden. Aden mastered the wind in indescribable fashion taking his 100th head of game just feet in front of the crowed. He seemed ready to go all day, but after a number of great flights, many of which ended with us holding our breath we called it a day and scattered to our own niches of Oklahoma after one last meal together in town.
Obviously one would have difficulty putting all the details of a good meet into words and I know that there are lots of things left unwritten. I recall talking to another falconer and saying that its funny how you go to a meet hoping to see everything, and sometimes leave having only seen a few birds fly.......but its always fun. Whether your getting covered with dirt from the last few kicks of a fighting jack, or admiring a particularly beautiful gyr/merlin on your friends glove, or just enjoying the occasional vocalization of a mesmerizing little goshawk, this meet seemed to have it all..... good friends, good times and good hawking!