Since I had agreed to give Puddy away, it was only fair that I make the effort to go to the meet to get her new owner off to a good start. Karen and I were "charter members" of the club. The list of those members is now a very small one at this date. Three I think are all that are left. I have not been an active participant in the last few years, feeling that it was time for the younger members to have the major offices of the club. It was not going the way that Karen thought was efficient, so she had been one of the directors, and was hosting the meets for the year. I had already winterized the fifth wheel, but I figured we could run it dry, and if it became necessary I could do it again when we got back. So we loaded it up, and prepared to make the trip.
Karen at least was happy, as this cuts down on her work load by quite a bit. Plus she seems to miss me? What can I say? Our neighbor kindly agreed to take care of the critters for us.
We loaded up and headed out Thursday morning. Karen needed to do some shopping for the dinner on Saturday, ( she has never learned to say no, but then again that is one of the things that I liked about her.) We drove on a hwy to the East of Bend Oregon and set up camp in a ATV park for the night. ( All terrain Vehicles) Karen went shopping, and I took a nap.
We had set up the screen tent to protect the birds from anything other than a direct attack.
During the night we were serenaded by the local Coyotes. I thrashed myself several times for not bringing my Coyote hunting gear. As we drove out of the area where we had camped, there was a really nice Coyote lying dead by the intersection. Apparently someone ran the stop sign at the four way stop, and he was in the "cross walk". Looked like a head shot, so again, remorse for my lack of foresight. :-/
We got up the next morning and drove the rest of the way to Madras where the meet was being held this year. As the day progressed the members began trickling in. Richard Hoyer (Puddy's new owner) came, and we took off around three PM to see if we could find something to chase. We hit 7 different fields and the Rabbits appear to be as scarce here as they are at the house.
Since there were few actual practicing falconers in attendance, we had quite a following. There were plenty of people, too bad there were not any Rabbits.
I brought out Puddy for the first time, and gave Richard a Tee perch, so that she would know that he was the one that she was supposed to go to.
The girls did their best, and followed along.
We began to make a drive, but it soon became obvious to all of us, especially Yogi, that this was a dry hole. She soon lost interest and went to the other side of the Hwy and sat on a hill side.
I finally accepted that it was a waste and then called them back to the truck so that we could move to another spot.
It was necessary to use the lure to recall Yogi, and she flew right over Marilyn Gregory of "Dream rider photos" to come to me. All of these pictures of the birds flying are supplied by her.
Puddy, not missing a trick, grabbed the lure and the tidbit on it as soon as Yogi came to the fist.
Neither one of them wanted to go back to the boxes, as that is generally the end of a hunt.
We drove over the hill to another spot to try, but it was no better.
We finally just gave up and went back to the fairgrounds.
Saturday morning, Karen and I furnished breakfast for all. The kitchen had every thing that we needed for a pancake breakfast.
I cooked pancakes for a small donation to the club. We made $95. for an outlay of $16.00, not bad.
After breakfast, everyone loaded up for a Rabbit hunt (bunny) with the other Harris Hawks that others had brought. A couple of Bunnys were found hiding in irrigation pipes and that supplied the only "sport" in that arena. There was a small pond bordering the Golf Course, and I was offered the opportunity? to hunt it with Jessie. I went back to the fairgrounds to get her, and by the time that we were set up it was the middle of the day and the thermals were popping. Thermals and falcons, offer the same level of temptation that could compare to a topless bar and 16 year old boys.
I knew that she was hungry, but then again falcons don't necessarily hunt because they are hungry. They hunt because they want to kill something. It had been close to 5 days since she had flown. The sun was shinning, there was little to no wind, About 30 people for witnesses, what could go wrong?
Jessie stroked strongly into the blue sky, and the ducks were nervously muttering in the pond. Jessie climbed up to about 1000 feet or so, and I knew then that she wasn't going to play.She saw one of the offshoots of the Deschutes River Canyon, and it was like a magnet. She circled on the currents over it for about 30 or more minutes, finally going below my line of sight. I gathered up my stuff and with the two passengers that had come with me, went looking. She was of course on the other side of the Canyon where she apparently could not see me. We began driving into town to come back on to the the flat land farms on the other side. Of course when we got there, she had gone back either to the other side or down into the canyon. We went back there and finally called her up out of the Canyon. My hunting was done for the duration of the meet.
Richard's birthday was on the 18th. and his many apprentices from past seasons bought him a telemetry receiver and transmitter. At 80 years old his hearing is going and the telemetry will enable him to find his hawks with a bit less looking.
We were cooking dinner that night, So Karen and I with help from a few others prepared a Mexican dinner.
We fed about 60 people for about $95.00, and had plenty left over.
At the business meeting that followed, the progress of the club was discussed, and surprisingly to Karen and I, we were awarded a lifetime honorary membership to the club.
The next morning we again supplied breakfast, and then we all cleaned the place, and departed for our various homes.
Puddy is now living in Corvallis Oregon. I did my best to tell Richard of her quirks, plus and minus. She is very free with her feet, and I guess Richard is wearing a few band aids by now.
