Joint Washington/Oregon Meet in Madras, OR

[SimoneBird]

Joint WFA/OFA meet in Madras, Oregon (jacks!) Nov. 2-4, 2012. More details here: http://oregonfalconers.com/index.php...ith-washington

[Heatherg]

YOU ARE KILLING ME YOU KNOW THIS DONT YOU!!!!!
I hope you have a great time!!! I will not be able to make it ...maybe next year!

[SimoneBird]

Dang, next year! I hope Chase catches a jack! Or 5!

[Goshawk635]

Should be a great meet! Looking forward to seeing our Oregon peeps again

[Barticus]

Sounds fun. I'm going to try to make it.

[Falcon Boy]

If only money grew on trees...i'd be there! Would love to go but without a bird and without excess cash it doesn't appear to be a responsible decision.

[PHILADELPHIA CITY HAWKER]

YOU ARE KILLING ME YOU KNOW THIS DONT YOU!!!!!
I hope you have a great time!!! I will not be able to make it ...maybe next year!

Thats just nort of Bend, Oregon. One of my favorite places!

[Falcon Boy]

You live on the wrong side of the state!

[Goshawk635]

You live on the wrong side of the state!

You two could meet in the Tri-Cities

[SimoneBird]

Noah! I'll be living 10 miles from you in a few days!!! I'll be in Pullman area for two months

[SimoneBird]

Speaking of the meet, can any Oregon falconers on the forum give an idea of what Madras area hawking is like? I've never hawked that part of Oregon before. I know there should be jacks and some ducks. Anyone know about cottontails or quail?

[Falcon Boy]

I totally forgot! We can talk once you get here. Let me know when you're here, we got some pheasants that need chasin'.

[Shichahn]

So sad I'll be missing it!

For those who've never been, yeah, jacks and cottontails and ducks are normally all there. Hopefully the cottontail population is cycling back up this year - last time I was out trying to hunt them was farther south (around Lakeview) and back in 2011, but cottontails were practically nonexistent. We had good numbers of them in Madras in 2010, however. Quail might be trickier to find, though they do exist there.

The jacks are mostly in the scrubby juniper stands around the outskirts of town - get a map that shows you where the BLM land is, that should help out. Anyone there at the meet who has been to Madras before should be able to point you to the bunny field, if it's still good - a big grassy area with lots of mounds and pipes for cover. I've seen pheasants there as well.

[SimoneBird]

Thanks for the info, Lauren! I sure hope the CT numbers are back up. Noah, Hula says, pheasants....bring 'em on!!!!

[Cyrak]

Hello, everyone!

My name is Eileen, and I am an aspiring falconer. I own a house in Redmond, WA, but I am currently working as a military contractor in Afghanistan. I plan to buy some property (hopefully at least 40 acres) in the next couple of years when I come home for good, most likely in the area southeast of Olympia, WA.

It will be several years before I will be in a position to have a bird of my own, but I figure it is never too early to start meeting people and gaining experience. I will be home for R&R from Oct 24 to Nov 7, and I would love to attend this meet. Is that allowed, or is it only open to falconers?

If not, can anyone tell me how I would go about getting involved? I have joined a couple of forums, and read almost every word of Lydia Ash's excellent website, but I would like to get some hands on experience and make sure this is something I want to commit to. How does one go about meeting falconers?

I would appreciate any advice or information...

[California Native]

Hello, everyone!

My name is Eileen, and I am an aspiring falconer. I own a house in Redmond, WA, but I am currently working as a military contractor in Afghanistan. I plan to buy some property (hopefully at least 40 acres) in the next couple of years when I come home for good, most likely in the area southeast of Olympia, WA.

It will be several years before I will be in a position to have a bird of my own, but I figure it is never too early to start meeting people and gaining experience. I will be home for R&R from Oct 24 to Nov 7, and I would love to attend this meet. Is that allowed, or is it only open to falconers?

If not, can anyone tell me how I would go about getting involved? I have joined a couple of forums, and read almost every word of Lydia Ash's excellent website, but I would like to get some hands on experience and make sure this is something I want to commit to. How does one go about meeting falconers?

I would appreciate any advice or information...

Eileen,

Just drive down to Madras and go to the location in the meet flyer posted in Simone's opening post. You are welcome to attend. You will find people there who can offer you ideas and people to meet from your area of Washington State. The meet is open to YOU !
Going there is the best way to start meeting people and getting help and ideas.

[Yeomanfalconer]

Eileen,

Just drive down to Madras and go to the location in the meet flyer posted in Simone's opening post. You are welcome to attend. You will find people there who can offer you ideas and people to meet from your area of Washington State. The meet is open to YOU !
Going there is the best way to start meeting people and getting help and ideas.

Are there any big stock yards with a lot of Starlings? Pokie wants to go to the Oregon meet if so.

[Cyrak]

Eileen,

Just drive down to Madras and go to the location in the meet flyer posted in Simone's opening post. You are welcome to attend. You will find people there who can offer you ideas and people to meet from your area of Washington State. The meet is open to YOU !
Going there is the best way to start meeting people and getting help and ideas.

Thank you so much!! I'm so sorry I didn't reply to this sooner, but we've had sporadic internet over here lately.

I will be down on Friday, then, hopefully in time to make it to the dinner at Sonny's. I just reserved a room at the motel there for Friday night (the lady at Sonny's was incredibly nice), and I will be at the fairgrounds for most of the festivities on Saturday. I will have my dog with me, but he is very good in the van. I have Schutzhund with him Sunday morning in Olympia, so unfortunately, I won't be able to stay for the whole weekend, but hopefully I will get to meet most of you and see some of the hawking! I'm so excited!

[The Jaspercat]

The wife and I will be down late Friday, staying at the fairground... And trapping our first birds!

[Goshawk635]

Just wanted to bump this thread and remind everyone to join us in Madras! Looking forward to seeing some old friends and making some new ones. I am also looking forward to four days straight of hawking ... Work gets in the way of so many wonderful things.

See you in the Sage

[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, 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

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

https://picasaweb.google.com/1131201...k?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!

[Goshawk635]

It really was a good meet. Had to drive a ways for the quality bunny hawking but any meet where we could catch game every day, return with healthy dogs and birds, and spend time with good people is a Meet worth attending.

Got to see Simone fly her awesome RTH and catch a bunny as well as chase a few with her Cooper's hawk.

All in all, a good time provided by the great team at the Oregon Falconer's Assoc with support from the WA folks ... and the food ... outstanding!

[goshawkr]

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, 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

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

https://picasaweb.google.com/1131201...k?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!

Hi Eileen.

I looked for you at the meet, but didn't find you. I didn't actually do a very good job tracking down the people I wanted to meet that I hadn't met, but did manage a few.

When you get back in the states, add me to the list of those to get in touch with. I work in Redmond, and live in the Lake Stevens area.

Can I use some of your photos to print in the WFA newsletter?

Primary credit for pulling off the meet goes to the OFA - they did a fantastic job, and they did most of the hard work getting it lined up.

[Cyrak]

Hi Eileen.

I looked for you at the meet, but didn't find you. I didn't actually do a very good job tracking down the people I wanted to meet that I hadn't met, but did manage a few.

When you get back in the states, add me to the list of those to get in touch with. I work in Redmond, and live in the Lake Stevens area.

Can I use some of your photos to print in the WFA newsletter?

Primary credit for pulling off the meet goes to the OFA - they did a fantastic job, and they did most of the hard work getting it lined up.

Oh no!! I can't believe we missed you! I had no idea there was someone from Redmond there! We will definitely have to connect when I come back next time! I didn't see any Goshawks at the meet (that I know of)...

Absolutely! You can use the photos any way you like! That goes for anyone else as well. Feel free to copy and share as much as you want!

Huge thanks to everyone involved in making this happen! So glad we had this opportunity!