MN FALCONER'S MEET FARIMONT,MN Feb 13& 14

[Roper]

Mn Falconers year end meet in Fairmont,MN
Dates: Feb 13 & 14, 2010
Meet for Breakfast at Perkins right on I-90 at 9:00 am
Hawk all day (SNOW SHOES STRONGLY RECOMMENDED)
Dinner at Green Mill 6:30 pm
Rooms available :Holiday Inn adjacent to the Green Mill

[citabria]

here already with Ben Ohlander. should be fun. Plenty of game.

[JRedig]

4-5 car caravan coming down early, see you guys at breakfast!

[Lowachi]

4-5 car caravan coming down early, see you guys at breakfast!
a lil more notice so I could have got it off and r4epresented the the "Hoard from Illinois" would have been nice!!!!!frus) What's Grant doing anyway:D Curt & Bobbi need a shake up oncst in a while:D. With my work schedule ...... have one for meclapptoungeout

[citabria]

The going was tough today. Loads of snow make for good bunny hiding spots. My two harris each took a bunny first thing in the morning. Ben Rice's big female RT took a red squirrel in a nice flight right in front of two folks interested in falconry. Now it is time for some beers.

[Roper]

Sorry bout that Rich ,,It just popped into my head to make an announcement when I did.
It basically went something like
meeting at Perkins Rest. for breakfast.
at 9:00 am .. about 21 people
Curt & Bobbi no show
Our new fearless leader had desided to check out a couple of places for us to hawk while we were eating breakfast .
Grant is no longer in the exec position, he and Michelle came down ..
temp about 19 degrees
sky hazy ceiling about 200 feet max
light snow we desided to head out.
a couple of the guys broke off Andy Weaver and Ben Olander and Vick Peppi went in a different direction.
Most of the short wingers clustered together and went looking for wood lots
My dog Pepper found fur, but it was from the bunny that had been killed earlier by our new fearless leader Jill.
I flew my tail first, bunny right under her I dont know if she didnt see it but she did not put in chase, not sure of the reason, the bunny was close but it was 9:30 am in the morn and I just pulled her out of the box with the hood. she is not totally keen on this hood thing yet.
Oh did I mention the snow and if you didnt have snow shoes you were toast. It might have had something to do with the bird taking a smack down face plant in the snow as I tripped on my snow shoes trying to climb up a small hill and she was still on my fist. I am almost positive she came out of that and looked at me and said .. well you can figure it out.
I told grant a. to get his bird, I was not going to waist the day or anyone elses fly time if she was not on, and perhaps try to fly her (the redtail) later. And hopefully fly my harris later also hoping for it to warm up some..
Grant Anderson flew ,Seemed his bird (Abby) was a little of the bubble also.She was not staying as close and hooked up with him as I have seen her, got a couple of bunnies up and a couple of pheasants to no avail.
temp is about 24 degrees.. but kind of wet and damp.
Oh did i mention the snow... if you didnt have snow shoes you were huffin and puffin.
New hawker up sorry I could not remember his name, got a red squirrel with his redtail. Another hawk is up.
Oh did I forget to mention the snow, if you didnt have snow shoes, there was not need to go to the gym, because you were really getting a work out.
Heather g was up , 2 harris in a cast had some good flights
she flew but couldnt quite bring it all together.
Oh did I mention the snow. and if you didnt have snow shoes, you were knee deep in it.
went to a different spot, who else has a bird ready to go.. Well I was a little iffy on the weather with my Harris and did not bolt in and say I have a bird ready to go.. ( the slips were a little light with game and besides..
Oh did I mention the snow and if you didn't have snow shoes, you were ass deep in it.
So we flew Grant A bird again and yes we had some straglers that were not taking this hawking stuff to serious and mainly hung by the cars and more or less came for the comeradery ( thats a long word for "BEER" and the get together later. And no they didin't have any snow shoes with them. We ended up in a small type wooded area with being very close to some people back yard and very close to the " No Tresspassing" Signs only to have the bunnies stand on the other side of the no tresspassing sign with thier little paws up by there ears and the hipps slightly swaying back and forth only to dive into a deep pile of brush that was covered by snow..
Say did I mention the snow, and if you didnt have snow shoes and even if you did you some times fell down and ended up with snow down your pants
anyways
everyone kind of followed along and we finally was comming toward about 4:00 and the weather was about 27 degrees and we ended up driving by a feed mill to see a bunny perched up and we proceeded to get ready with
... Heather G's birds with gloves hats hawk vests and bags and sticks and snow shoes say that reminds me Did I mention the snow, and if you didnt have snow shoes you were toast..
As soon as the birds were loosed into the air the bunny put in for the hole and it was gone we ended up working the area and about 4:30 we were ready for some warmth and food and comeradery
We found our way back through the snow, This was not so bad as this area had been plowed but it was still a little deep and yes most of us had our snow shoes did I mention that if you didnt have your snow shoes, you were a huffin and puffin..
We headed back to the Hotel for a Good dinner ( of course most of us were hungery enough to have eatin our snow shoes by then ) the food was good, the company was good and we were discussing at length the Worldly events of Iran , the Middle east, the Problems in Haiti, Unemployment,Global Warming, the Pros and Cons of every world event
We were working on expanding our horizons and discussing things with intense detail far beyond most peopled scope and understanding
Oh did I mention that we were talking about falconry .... got ya didnt I !!
thought I was going to say snow shoes ... Awards were handed out by our dutiful Michelle Anderson and Ava Redig. Our raffel item consisted of a Marshall scout transmitter that was handed out to one of our new members Blake
We vacated the dinner area and retired to the pool area only because of a few juvinal people that insisted on throwing things back and forth from table to booth and back again..( I think we were asked to leave, not sure.)
We sat at the table only to have our New fearless leader evoke her Presidential wave of her hand and had us all folding letter and stuffing envelopes for the upcomming game dinner..
The pool closed at 11:00 and in our ever present style of staying to long, we were asked to leave.. by a guy that was quite intense at first, but when we made the effort to clean up and toss our garbage, he became more at ease and actually smiled . We then heade to Grant & Michelle's room and proceede to discuss worldly events such as well lets say the conversation slowly migrated south .. I left at about 1 am and shall we say the others were there well past 3 am ..
Only to rise to Perkins in the morning with smiles and slight blurred visions of worldly events. Most headed to home all was safe and all ended well.
Oh did I mention the snow. and if you didnt have snow shoes, you were knee deep in it

[citabria]

just because your jealous doesn't mean you need to be snippy toungeout

[Tasha55403]

Faceplant!!!
http://falconryphotography.webs.com/photos/MFA/MajorMeet2010_c7g0108.jpg

Note the difference between snowshoes...and no snowshoes-it's wicked out there!
http://falconryphotography.webs.com/photos/MFA/MajorMeet2010_c7g0114.jpg

The frost was pretty, even if all that humidity made the falcons fly like cr*p...
http://falconryphotography.webs.com/photos/MFA/MajorMeet2010_c7g0206.jpg

[Roper]

I really like the last px best..
at least it is not of trees and harris hawks and blowing snow and.....:D
I bet you only took 3 px the whole weekend ,jeese

[Tasha55403]

Lol, I took a fair number of pics, but they're all of people. We didn't get to see much flying on Saturday, really. Not enough to get good pics, anyways. In fact, I don't think we even saw any chases while we were out with y'all. Well, there was that one, but I was behind all those weeds trying to keep myself from jumping on Katrina's rabbit, lol. She got her bell rung pretty good when you fell, I expect that's probably at least part of the reason for her lackluster flight.

[JRedig]

How 'bout some pics of the Saturday night shennigans? :-D Or maybe a gallery on the MFA site?

[Roper]

i suspect your right ,, I have never seen her act like that hence her name.
I know there is some discussion about heading to Fargo this upcomming weekend.. wait isnt that where there are trees and wind and blowing snow and climbing trees are being considered for the 2014 winter olympic events??
that is why I didnt go last time it brings back painfull memories lol.;):D;)

I am not sure we want the documentation of photos of how proper falconers act late at night in MN Jeff..:D.

[Tasha55403]

How 'bout some pics of the Saturday night shennigans? :-D Or maybe a gallery on the MFA site?
Yeah...I think we might want to keep those pics in house, lol.