Verdugo's Last Flight

Dad went out to fly Verdugo today and Verdugo got killed by an eagle! He was up about 2,500 feet and he had remounted 3 times. And all of a sudden a black dot came out of the clouds, grabbed him and took off with him to the mountains. Bummer!!! he has been flying so well this year. I was really exited to hunt with him!

Falconry season has started!

Falconry season has finally started! We have been flying Verdugo. He's flying really high. We took him out earlier today and flew him and he went up about 2500 feet. But an eagle flew past him and he came down very quickly. He has had bad experiences with eagles so he is eagle wise. :) But we are very happy with how he is flying. Hopefully he will kill grouse this year.

We are getting ready to start flying Rush. She hasn't finished her molt yet but she is almost done.

I'm not sure what we are doing with Dakota yet. We will probably start flying her soon.

Verdugo Got Loose

Dad forgot to latch Verdugo's door shut and a strong wind came up and the door blew open and Verdugo got away. So we went looking for him and we couldn't find him. So the next morning Dad went out looking for him and couldn't find him. So we figured an owl got him. But we were still watching out for him just in case. Dad told his friend (Joe Terry) that Verdugo was gone and he said that we should putt the training balloon up. So Dad tied some food to the balloon and let it go up about 5,000 feet and then started to lower it. Then all of the sodden Dad heard a screaming sound! He looked up and there was Verdugo trying to get the bait. We got him to come down to the lure and got him back. We are very happy! :)

Our Falconry Trip

I was going to talk about how the falcons flew every day but they flew the same each day, BAD! We flew Verdugo on prairie chickens on Wednesday and he flew OKAY. After we cast him off he flew about 20 feet above our heads. But after a while he went up 1000 feet. So we flushed the prarie chickens and he refused them! Then he came down and flew above our heads 20 feet in the air again! Then about 5 minutes later he went up 1000 feet again. So we went into flush more prairie chickens and there were no more! And then he gradually came down and sat on a on a telephone pole. So we waved our hands at him and he started flying and we called him down to the lure. It was a terrible flight! But it was one of the best flights out if all the flights.

We're going to Kansas

We are going to Kansas! We're going out there to fly our birds with some falconers from Kansas and there are some other falconers coming from South Dakota. I am very exited!

4th Place

We went to the Utah Sky Trials and took fourth place with Verdugo! He flew better on Friday than he did on Saturday. We WERE in 2nd place but Verdugo didn't fly very good on Saturday and we took fourth. He didn't fly bad! He just didn't fly good enough. We won $100.