580 Grams

The weather today was just beautiful. No wind to speak of but just a breeze. I took Luscian out to one of my northern most fields. It is known for cotton tail and jacks with small numbers of quail.There are no trees so Luscian has to stay on the fist or follow as we walk long distances.
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When we first got to the field I went right to the cotton tail honey hole only to find out that there where none there. At least that I couldn't find. The cover is short but the cover is full of spikes and painful to walk through. The spines go right through my jeans and make the walk Very uncomfortable. There is a wide open area between cotton tail areas. I'm guessing its at least half a mile. As I walked the direction to the second field I busted up a few Jacks. The first just smoked Luscian but the second ran with the slight wind and was doing pretty well till it decided to hide behind a sage bush. Luscian whipped around and I saw the Jack run out the other side with Luscian attached to its back end! With some tumbling and spinning the jack worked itself loose before I could even get close enough to help. I really should have taken a picture of all the fur that was pulled on that one. The third jack had a similar outcome but less fur was pulled. Before we got to the Cotton field we ran into a mouse running through the grass and it became a quick tidbit. At the Cotton tail field of second chance we had a good half dozen shots. Seems Luscian takes off and lands 20 yards off just as I hit a bush and a rabbit comes out. That is so frustrating and I ended up holding his Jesses to help our odds. Not sure what that is all about but it was annoying. One of the cotton tail chases took a couple re flushes all in a non stop action. The cotton tail would bail to a bush and I would hit it as Luscian pitched up. Then to the next bush. Finally after the 3rd bush Luscian was High and the rabbit ran to the open for a hole. Luscian hit the ground hard just as the rabbit hit the hole. I got there quick to find Luscian mostly in the hole with his wings and head hanging out. I worked very carefully to pull him out. He had a hold of his Knee, he must have thought he had the rabbit but the other foot had nothing. He took a bit to let go of his own leg. On the way back to the truck we caught another mouse. HMMM.... Proud of my little guy grabbing a jack. Hopefully he will be flying in a cast within the next 2 weeks with Gizmo.

LuscianStop!

Photo of Luscian at a stop sign as he followed from one field to another. Seems he is smart enough to follow the Law. LOL

570 Grams

570 Grams
Todays hunt started late and we only had a good 45 minutes. We hit all of our normal areas with a few chases but no luck. The last area we went presented a bunny that ran for the cover of baseball fields paved area before you go to the bleechers. I had to find another way in as there are fancy barrs and a gate to get in but when I did I found the rabbit hiding behind a statue. I came from behind and with luscian in place. I Flung out my stick and the rabbit took off towards the barred fence with Luscian closing in fast snagging it up just before it got through and possibly to safety. I gave Luscian the front leg and all his tidbits before we went to the truck. Short and sweet to hunt as the sun is setting.

555 Grams

I freaked out today when I weighed Luscian. I couldnt believe my eyes when I saw the scale. I rushed out to go out hunting. I did manage to get Noah to come out hunting with me today. He was a great help today. Luscian flew like a complete champion today and very deliberate and forcefull. He pulled fur on 2 cotton tail and caught another. The rabbit that he caught was stopped in a willow grove and took a few minutes to find where he was. When we did find him he had the rabbit killed and started to eat the chest. I traded him off and took off for more hunting. At the end of the hunt I let him have his rabbit back to eat off of for a minute before I pulled a front leg to let him finish. Maybe I need to have him lower like this to get some real action. I figure the 575 to 565 range.

593 Grams First Rabbit Double!

Photo of Luscian after his first bunny catch. I had to take off my jacket as 39 degrees F was too warm to hunt with a jacket.



Todays Hunt went by pretty quickly. Luscian was super screamy today and when we got to the field it was nice to hear silence. We went to CSU and started our work near the baseball field, luscian following my by changing position on the wall. I got to the end of one of the sides of the diamond and all the sudden I hear a rabbit screaming behind me. WOW I was only 30 yards away and after a few steps I stopped to hear if everything was still on so that I could locate them. The cover was super dense. Not bushes but lots of weeds. I got to Luscian and he had a great hold onto this decent sized rabbit. I figured we where only out for 3 minutes so we where going to go out and work on more bunnies.





As we cleared out of the heavy cover we started on a hill with some cholla. We got one chase right away but the rabbit made it to a rat nest and I didnt feel like working the nest. I am trying to enforce rabbits and not rats right now. While Luscian was still on the nest I walked foreward. 20 feet later I got another one up and made the game call. With the rabbit running down hill and luscian following in hot persuit I ran like no other. The rabbit made it to another cholla and Luscian pitched straight up a good 30 feet giving me time to run in and reflush. I got to the cholla seeing the bunny the whole time. I hit the bush as soon as I got there so that I could give Luscian the best advantage. The rabbit ran full tilt but with a hawk coming in from straight above it had little chance. Luscian hit it hard and the fight was on. This rabbit wanted to kick my birds butt pretty bad and was doing a good job of it till I got there. Stretched Luscian got to eat the front leg. I really am proud of my little guy!

596 Grams

I only had a hour to hunt today. I took Luscian out and forgot to bring the magnet to turn on the transmitter but I wasn't to worried and flew anyhow. It was a little windy and that made for some interesting kiting. Today was the first day for him to do this. He would just sit 20 feet or so above me and watch what I was doing. While he was up in the air I managed to get 2 cotton tail running with an instant chase, unfortunately it was into the wind and it seemed too strong for him but one of the chases was just so close to make that an excuse. We also utilized the trees at one point. Most of the trees are almost bare now but the cover on the ground is still in full force. Soon enough here we will have a good frost to knock that all down not to mention the areas that I am hunting are getting knocked down a little just from me being there. This year the college seems to be a pretty good place to find bunnies despite all the development going on. Maybe its just that the cottontail are being concentrated into certain areas. One of my favorite areas has work being don't to it now putting down a sidewalk for a trail. That hurts my heart but we will have to adapt.

595 Grams

Photo of Luscian with his Mouse.
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I am working on bringing Luscian down for reasons that I want him to have a little more sence of urgency. He is catching but a good portion of the time he is pretty lax and picky on how fast he will get out on a chase.
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Today I had to go to Denver to pick up Luscians little brother at the airport. I got into town a good 6 hours early and made a call to Becky to see if I could come and Visit. Ended up that they where going hunting. That sounded fun so I offered to go along and beat the bush for them. Richard and Becky thought that it would be a good idea to fly her new HH Tonic in a cast with Luscian. We went out and first birds to be flown where the HH's. The two did pretty well only crabbing twice and neither being anything major. They are both young and not sure what they are suposed to be doing so I have no ill will towards that. There where no Bunnies flushed but the flights together where pretty nice. Tonic is Glued to Becky and that is nice to see. He just needs more bunnies put under him and he will be a real good bird to fly. At one point while Luscian was on a tall dirt mound and Richard was at the base hitting weeds, Luscian saw a mouse and had to take advantage of that. I told my sponsor and he sent me a cool quote.
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"It is better to catch a mouse when there are no bunnies than to be out and catch nothing at all" - Unknown Author

603 Grams

Luscians Toe isn't that bad today and I can barely notice the swelling. After work I met up with Rick to go to the college and see if we could bag us a bunny. He also brought JayLyn with us. It is nice to have extra flushers for sure. The wind was picking up so I figured to stay close to the college and not go out into the prairies. We stayed around the wooded areas of the baseball fields and got some real beautiful flights. The cover is still very high and hard to get that final commitment when the rabbit just disappears. We also got buzzed a few times by a local resident redtail Hag but she left us as she didn't care for our screaming and throwing of ski poles into the air. I really thought it was close once but luscian took off and evaded the inevitable screaming and coming in to me.
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I do find it interesting Lately and I have been paying very good attention. Luscian is quite vocal at home and in the truck to the fields. I have also began to learn how to differentiate whether his scream is for calling me or just for chatting. I can tell at least 3 different vocalizations now and really it is cool. This bird for sure is teaching me allot.
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We closed off the day with a Cottontail making the wrong decision of running into a tennis court and not being able to get out easily. Luscian was on the fence and was anticipating that the rabbit would go one direction so he went there. Unfortunately the bunny couldn't because of the fence and Luscian acted very confused and didn't want to play in that area. Eventually the bunny made it out to the open and that's when Luscian came in for the final kill. After all was said and done I lost my iPhone and we spent the next 2 hours looking for it in the dark. Thank the lord we found it . Rick barely saw the light from it but it was in an area that I thought that it had to be. WHEW!

600 Grams

Today's hunt was very eventful. We ended up in a field that I deemed unhuntable anymore as I couldn't find any rabbits last year. This year they seem to be in real good numbers. The one advantage that they have and they used it was the holes. Luscian also gets juked almost on a regular basis by the rabbits when they jerk around a bush and hold tight for a second. It is as if he is saying, Well it got away. I'm thinking I may crank his weight down just a little to see if I can get a little more passion. at the end of they hunt it was almost completely dark and we ended up getting a good chase on a bunny but it made it to a rat nest before luscian could get there. I started to work the nest and a Huge rat runs out. I weighed this rat after we got home and it was 417grams. Unfortunately Luscian got bit again pretty good and I ran my bird home with a bloody foot thinking of the worse. Well after we got home and I cleaned the wound and put neosporin on It didn't look that bad, just bled good. The swelling isn't getting that bad so we will see for tomorrow.

605 Grams

Well its taken 5 days to get Luscian back down to 605 grams. I'm thinking I may want to drop to the 600 range as it seems to really be a good number for him. I took Luscian to the college today and we had a great time chasing bunnies that bordered the golf course. Those bunnies though knew just where the holes where at the fence line and Luscian just had too much trouble with the heavy cover before the rascals got away. He was definitely hot to trot though as he chased with real zeal. At one point I flushed a jack right at my feet. That rabbit ran pretty fast and next thing I knew they where 30 yards away. Luscian has started to stray off after a bit when chasing jacks but today he really seemed like he wanted to get one. Ok, so the jack took off and was 30 yards off and instantly stopped and hid behind a cholla bush. Luscian instantly pitched up a good 25 feet and dove straight down behind the cactus. Next thing I hear a jack scream and suddenly I see a jack running with a Harris Hawk attached to its Back! Wow was this almost comical watching this rabbit run full tilt screaming and Kicking like a Bronco! It was only another 30 yards of that and Luscian let go. He didn't seem any worse for the wear so I gave him a generous tidbit for his actions. Towards the end of the day we got to a stream that had a bunch of trees around it and they where all big. The leaves where dropped for the most part and Luscian took to them and climbed quite nicely. The fun part was that there where 2 rabbits that where in this area that was maybe a quarter acre and they wouldn't leave the saftey of the trees but there where no hiding places either. They would move around getting chased by the hawk and juke him enough to get away making him re perch in the tree. There was allot of cover but no holes. They also would move real slow if I didn't put real pressure on them. Eventually they both took off and made it to safety. On the way back to the truck we pulled what I would call a Jo now as we caught a mouse. Funny think is that it was so small I cant imagine that it was weaned from its mother. LOL. Good times but No camera for the day.

625 Grams

Today Ill post a few photos along with the story. We did end up empty handed but then we are also about 30 grams High as well. Luscian chased well on a few bunnies but just couldnt close the deal. The first bunny that was flushed took off after a bush and as luscian was closing in to reach out the bunny instantly stopped forcing Luscian to hit the ground after he passed the critter up nearly getting a head shot. The first photo is of Luscian coming to the fist after the first chase.




In our second photo here we where done chasing bunnies as we where basicly done with this portion of the field. We must have flushed a good dozen rabbits but they have holes very close and Luscian still wants to get out and stretch his wings instead of sit on the fist where he will get a better vantage point durring the hunt. Here he is at a rat nest. He really gets worked up about rats. I didnt work them today as I really want to reinforce the chasing of rabbits.

Our Last picture here is Luscian diving after a sparrow that bailed to the bush. For some reason he will crash a bush harder for a sparrow than he will for a rabbit. Those little vitamin pills must be pretty tasty for all the work he goes through to get them.

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Todays hunt basicly other than 2 good rabbit flushes was basicly excersize and fat burning activities. I really love that we can do this with excelent responce and following. This is such a fun bird and a great change from last year. I need it for sure.

645 Grams

Even though Luscian had a casting from yesterday and was a bit over weight we still went out for some excersize. He chased pretty well concitering the rediculous cover that we where walking through. It isnt often that we hunt from trees so it was nice to see him climb up and up. There was one point when a squirel started chattering. Luscian took off after it as I screamed NO NO NO not HO HO HO!. The Squirel got to a nest and Luscian landed on it and did some work trying to tear at it. This is the first time and hopefully the last. I really dont want to hunt tree rats with him. We ended up chasing 5 cotton tail and a handfull of sparrows. So much for 45 minutes of light for the hunt. Here is also a Moon shot from tonight. Full Moons are so fun

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