Some photos from OR/WA meet in Madras, 3 Nov 2012

[Cyrak]

Not sure where the best place is to post this, so I will post it in a couple places. Please let others know about this if you recognize their birds!

My friend Annelisa and I came down from Olympia for the meet in Madras, OR this last weekend, and I took a bunch of photos while we were there. Here are the two links to the albums on my Picasa page:

Misc photos of birds (including Ron's Harris Chili):

https://picasaweb.google.com/1131201...c?noredirect=1 (https://picasaweb.google.com/113120112839650101658/FalconryMeetMisc?noredirect=1)

Mark and Andrew's birds (Maggie, Zeb and Solomon):

https://picasaweb.google.com/1131201...k?noredirect=1 (https://picasaweb.google.com/113120112839650101658/FalconryMeetAndrewAndMark?noredirect=1)

I've had trouble with links in the past, so hopefully these work ok. If not, let me know, and I will try to sort it out.

Thank you so much to everyone we met, especially Ron, Mark and Andrew, who graciously allowed us to tag along with them when they went out! We had such a great time and learned so much! You guys are the best! I hope we can stay in touch, and maybe go out with you on Whidbey sometime when I'm Stateside again!

[PHILADELPHIA CITY HAWKER]

Did that Falconer have success hunting the Great Horned Owl? The Redtails out there are darker with the brown/red hue. I like the colors. Were there a lot of rabbits? I like the pic with the mountains in the background. I was out in Bend, Oregon last year, great place!

[Cyrak]

From what he told us, he is still very young (and vocal!!) and is not ready to hunt yet. He took him out at the end of the day and did some short training with him, trying to get him to follow and fly to the next tree before coming down to the fist. He was doing really well. Such a fascinating creature. I loved the little "clacks" he made with his beak.

I'm not really a very good judge of the rabbit situation, but from what people were saying, there were not an abundance of them (though there was an abundance of sign!). On our first hunt with Ron and Chili, we saw maybe four or five jacks, but he said she was just off her moult, and not hitting well yet. Then in the afternoon, when we went out with Mark and Andrew, their birds seemed very responsive, but we just couldn't find anything - nothing at all for the poor Redtail, and only one cottontail for the Harris. He came VERY close to getting that one, but he was facing the other way when it ran, and it got a head start on him.

I already loved this sport, but I am totally hooked now. I hate that it's going to be so long before I can do anything more than dream! At least I met some really great people to keep in touch with!

[Venomlust]

Cool pictures.

Some very beautiful white gyrs in there.

[Shichahn]

Thanks for posting these! Missing the home meet is the thing that makes me the most sad about being at school out here in Arkansas, hehe. Good to see all of Danny's gyrs blocked out in usual fashion, taking up the whole weathering yard, haha.

[raptrlvr]

Great job with the camera Eileen.

[REYNALDO]

Great pictures!!! Thanks for sharing. I love the grys as well. Those white ones are beautiful!

[Goshawk635]

I'm not really a very good judge of the rabbit situation, but from what people were saying, there were not an abundance of them (though there was an abundance of sign!).

We had to drift about 30 minutes from the meet site to get into the bunnies for the three days. We were all flying MHHs (and Simone's RTH) and everybody caught bunnies each day. It was fun hawking in the juniper/sage brush/rock environments ... the birds worked hard to score but did not disappoint :)

Glad you enjoyed!

Great photos ... we left each day bright and early and returned after dark so no weathering yard time. As my buddy Jerry says "Weather your bird in the field on the glove :)"

Look forward to meeting you next time

[Sink]

I really enjoyed all these photos, thanks for posting them!