Joe Sedrak's Harris’s Hawk with Sparrow

First ever

Ardilla Numéro Quatorce

It took a couple of hours, and about 40 attacks, but Cisco nabbed a squirrel just ahead of the rain. High and low, he ran himself ragged, but caught one by the creek and dropped straight down, fortunately. He has carried them across in the past. Amazing effort by my hawk. Panting at times, after about an hour, I called him down to squirt some water in his mouth. He is relentless.

Cisco was all over the place, attacking in the trees and chasing squirrels on the ground on foot. He continually missed, but hung in. I was ready to call it quits. Cisco will hunt until he can't fly any more. He is a wonderful hawk.

Text from Lynne Holder

Well camo'd dog and hawk...

2 minutes, Cisco!

The13th squirrel was the toughest ever. One hour, one tree, one squirrel. Finally I HAD to go so yelled up, "2 minutes Cisco!" Within two minutes he nabbed the squirrel and we headed back. No, I'm not making this up.

I was supposed to go with Mike Wiegel to pick up a gyr-peregrine tiercel from Chris Comeau. I needed an efficient hunt. Cisco chased squirrels for a while and then worked on one in an oak tree. The action was just interesting enough to stay out, though there was dead time with the hawk working on strategy. Cisco would not let up on the squirrel in spite of missing repeatedly. Because I was running late, I started to leave several times, but Cisco persisted and wouldn't follow. Finally his focus paid off. He caught the squirrel about 30 feet high and instantly parachuted down with it.

The white eye is from flash reflection, not blindness. This was a very agile squirrel. 

Later that day

Aesha Training Her Redtail at THA Meet in Abilene

"Gambit"

Jonathan Millican's American Kestrel

Copied and pasted from a text Jonathan sent:

"She held on this morning, and bagged a starling... First one since Jan 7"

First starling he means. This hawk is a consistent game hawk. She was injured by a Cooper's hawk earlier this month.

Windy Hunt

From a group text :

I took Farrah out this morning to old stomping grounds, SE of Igloo plant. Windy. She chased sparrows but is in the mode of pursue, pitch up and hover. Meanwhile the sparrow has gotten to the phone booth and is gone,  back with Morpheus, Trinity, and Neo.  When Dart began chasing cotton rats he did a similar thing. He'd pursue, pitch up and flutter to ground. Then he would try to excavate the rat out of hole. It took him a while to slam them. Farrah will be a sparrow hawk by season's end, even though she has yet to catch even one. Getting her weight down is tough and she's hog fat,  like normal molting weight. I'll get serious now. She chased a rabbit today too. The good thing about chasing sparrows with Farrah and Dart is you can walk a normal pace. Cisco will only catch them when you creep along really slowly. But when he's in his groove I have yet to see a more efficient sparrow catcher. He caught seven or eight one outing. I've always called it seven because the eighth I couldn't ID.