Dodge City 2010 NAFA meet (PIC HEAVY)

[sharptail]

Great Pics Paul...Thanks for sharing!! That one of Frieda on the rabbit and your glove is just stunning!

[michaelberan]

FUN, Fun, fun ......thats whats going on in Dodge City, Kansas this year. Just look how much fun these guys are having driving old farm equipment!



You know what else is fun, flying a gang of 7 Harris Hawks in a game rich field, thankfully it slowed down during the transfers, if not for that we had rabbits running every minuet we were in this field.



This thread is going to have some awesome action shots posted in it over the next few weeks, we had three high dollar cameras in the field to capture a lot of the raining talons of terror, here are the Falconers with the take after an hour and a half!

[Pedioecetes]

Paul there is nothing as pretty as an adult NA gos. She is gorgeous!

[Saluqi]

Paul there is nothing as pretty as an adult NA gos. She is gorgeous!

Thanks Bob. There was a fellow there from Oklahoma whose female gos tangled with a cat, no bites but her toe was dislocated, and she looked very different than Frieda. We held them side by side for comparison and she was heavily barred and considerably smaller than Frieda with light colored eyes, Mitch the guy who owns her said she was out of birds from Wyoming I believe. I wish I had gotten some pictures of the two of them...

[PeteJ]

Thanks Bob. There was a fellow there from Oklahoma whose female gos tangled with a cat, no bites but her toe was dislocated, and she looked very different than Frieda. We held them side by side for comparison and she was heavily barred and considerably smaller than Frieda with light colored eyes, Mitch the guy who owns her said she was out of birds from Wyoming I believe. I wish I had gotten some pictures of the two of them...

Some of them are like that particularly second and third year but can often color up normally over time. Some though are just sort of odd and stay heavily marked with lighter eyes that eventually go to sort of a barely orange and then head into brownish later on. My old female that I had from Maine was like that, but she was largish not smallish. Her eye never got red. Utah got red pretty quick like your Frieda...a couple of seasons and he was there.

[Roper]

it was a good meet ya the food at the hotel was a little lame but i had a good time ..

[Dirthawking]

You people better keep posting pictures and stories! I was stuck in the yard all week and only got the trickle down from the birds coming back with full crops and bloody feet!

[Lowachi]

You people better keep posting pictures and stories! I was stuck in the yard all week and only got the trickle down from the birds coming back with full crops and bloody feet!

you weren't stuck...we weren't that busy...just kamakaze redtails, coops, sharpies, prairies.....the 'odd' person who wanted ta know if were watching the equipment come thru...(snaps. BAD AXEL!!!) or .... oh never mind. you didn't cause I didn't...but I appreciate it.

I gotta go fix my well/pump, that I came back to and haul water. And go bury my setter that was killed while I was gone.

[Dirthawking]

you weren't stuck...we weren't that busy...just kamakaze redtails, coops, sharpies, prairies.....the 'odd' person who wanted ta know if were watching the equipment come thru...(snaps. BAD AXEL!!!) or .... oh never mind. you didn't cause I didn't...but I appreciate it.

You forgot merlins and kestrels. A pair of kestrels at that!

I gotta go fix my well/pump, that I came back to and haul water.

What where we saying in the yard about the well? Karma!

And go bury my setter that was killed while I was gone.

You know how I feel about that one. Heart is with ya!

[Lowachi]

yep, pumps burnt Guess what I'm doing tomorrow.....anyway..


Wanted to say thanks to everybody who attended the NAFA meet, for their thank you's, to finally put a face with the names, their offers to help stand while Mario & I hiked back to the hotel to drain the coffee we used to stay warm, set-up and take down while I was handing out kill pins and standing over my falcons (and everybody elses) in case that RT came back. She's fine by the way. And Thanks to Chris L and the ever generous Ron Clarke for their sweet libation contributions to "making my leg feel better", Sharone's bringing us decent coffee, Brandi's chili, Krysie's medical advise-even after the vets showed up, Chad for the elk that I've yet ta cook up, and my wife for letting me spend our vacation with all my friends...again!1

AND MARIO, who for the last several years of being my right hand man. I know I didn't say it loud enough Friday nite, but I don't think I could have pulled this one off with outcha Bro!!! You can thank those that showed you appreciation later.

And to all that indulged me to spend some time with my oldest son, Brandon, to give him his first quarry pin at a NAFA meet for his first jacks with 2 different birds, and see the look on his face when he came back to the yard, and watched me put a Chris Comeaux earring in his ear at banquet, I thank you all! Hope we can do it all again in Vernal, if not before.

Greg Thomas is right. It's not just falconry, it's a lot about extended family.

Thanks
Rich Borquist

[Roper]

here here
and a huge thanks to you and mario for manning the yard . one more year to look back on makes you take pause for the good times that are had because of guys like you and gives memories of the small conversation that we had in the morning befor you went to the yard.. heres to ya..

[NMHighPlains]

Wanted to say thanks to everybody who attended the NAFA meet,

Thanks to YOU!!!

And thanks again to everyone who took me and my son out hawking. At church today, he was wearing the buckle you made that Jenni won and gave him. Not being real clear on "raffle", he was telling everyone that he "won it playing cards".

[sharptail]

Rich, what happen to your setter?

[Eragon]

yep, pumps burnt Guess what I'm doing tomorrow.....anyway..


Wanted to say thanks to everybody who attended the NAFA meet, for their thank you's, to finally put a face with the names, their offers to help stand while Mario & I hiked back to the hotel to drain the coffee we used to stay warm, set-up and take down while I was handing out kill pins and standing over my falcons (and everybody elses) in case that RT came back. She's fine by the way. And Thanks to Chris L and the ever generous Ron Clarke for their sweet libation contributions to "making my leg feel better", Sharone's bringing us decent coffee, Brandi's chili, Krysie's medical advise-even after the vets showed up, Chad for the elk that I've yet ta cook up, and my wife for letting me spend our vacation with all my friends...again!1

AND MARIO, who for the last several years of being my right hand man. I know I didn't say it loud enough Friday nite, but I don't think I could have pulled this one off with outcha Bro!!! You can thank those that showed you appreciation later.

And to all that indulged me to spend some time with my oldest son, Brandon, to give him his first quarry pin at a NAFA meet for his first jacks with 2 different birds, and see the look on his face when he came back to the yard, and watched me put a Chris Comeaux earring in his ear at banquet, I thank you all! Hope we can do it all again in Vernal, if not before.

Greg Thomas is right. It's not just falconry, it's a lot about extended family.

Thanks
Rich Borquist

Thought you might like these Rich!

[AxelFortWorth]

Rich and Mario, I like to thank you for all you patience and help at the meet/yard. I had a great time.

I also like to thank Greg Thomas. Greg, you are just as I expected you to be, very nice with an huge amount of patience.

But my biggest thank you goes to Brandon. Brandon you are way ahead of your age. You are one heck of a good guy.

On a side note, either it was the alcohol, or just the fact that I had such a great time, but the friday night meal was very good. Of course it did help that for the first time in my life I actually won something that meant a lot to me. Thank you for all the individuals that donated to the apprentice starter kit.

My RT did ok the first two hunts, of course I had his weight to hight again, but on the last hunting day with Brandon's help, Tommy was able to get his first double of this season.

[Lowachi]

thanks Ryan. Now I have pix of MY redtail on her 1st jack LOL!! ( he did the training...so it's only fitting)

[Lowachi]

Rich and Mario, I like to thank you for all you patience and help at the meet/yard. I had a great time.

I also like to thank Greg Thomas. Greg, you are just as I expected you to be, very nice with an huge amount of patience.

But my biggest thank you goes to Brandon. Brandon you are way ahead of your age. You are one heck of a good guy.

On a side note, either it was the alcohol, or just the fact that I had such a great time, but the friday night meal was very good. Of course it did help that for the first time in my life I actually won something that meant a lot to me. Thank you for all the individuals that donated to the apprentice starter kit.

My RT did ok the first two hunts, of course I had his weight to hight again, but on the last hunting day with Brandon's help, Tommy was able to get his first double of this season.

Thank you for the kind words, Axel. I'm proud of both my boys, and like somee folks, maybe don't always say it enough. Glad you enjoyed yourself and good to finally meet you....that being said, loose the clips

[frootdog]

On a side note, either it was the alcohol, or just the fact that I had such a great time, but the friday night meal was very good.

My guess is booze and a good time cause the food sucked! On a side note people checing into the hotel mid week were paying $69/night. Wait a second........

[forestfalcon]

On a side note people checing into the hotel mid week were paying $69/night. Wait a second........

What???!!! That place was definitely not worth the $80+ a night. I went to bed one night, and the sheets they put on my bed had a faded bloodstain on it. Really? for $80 a night, could they not afford new sheets??

[frootdog]

What???!!! That place was definitely not worth the $80+ a night. I went to bed one night, and the sheets they put on my bed had a faded bloodstain on it. Really? for $80 a night, could they not afford new sheets??

WORST hotel experience I have ever had. The game made up for it though. Next time though at the Casino's soon to be built hotel!

[Dutch]

Rich,

For those of us who went home for Thanksgiving and those who were not able to attend, can you share how many head and quarries were reported taken at the 2010 NAFA meet?

J. Stoddart

[Lowachi]

Rich,

For those of us who went home for Thanksgiving and those who were not able to attend, can you share how many head and quarries were reported taken at the 2010 NAFA meet?

J. Stoddart

Counting yours Jack(kudoos by the way) 59 birds took 200 head of game. I do not have a total of birds registered... and I can think of several people that left that I did not recieve quarry sheets for. There were also folks there hunting & killed, but not registered, but on the other hand, they were not taking in the activities either, just hunting thru as it were.

2 gyr/pere, 3 goldens, 7 NA gos, 2 euro gos, 4 pere, 1 gyrXbarbary, 19 tails, 17 Harris', 1 Red Shoulder, 1 kestral 1 merlin, 1 coops

took 9 duck, 1 quail,2 starling, 8 LBJ's, 1 pheas, 1 pocket gopher, 1 squirrel, 1 garter snake, 2 barnyard fowl, 3 barn owls(all released unharmed)2 prairie Chickens, 137 ct's & 32 Jacks. and as you can see by the pix, alot of those cts & jacks were taken by the Nafex crew, & the quail, and the barnyard stuff, and the starlings & some of the LBJ's.

I'll go back thru and recount before I turn all this in for the Archives, but that's how the count stands now.

[Ken S.]

I had a great time at the meet! It was a really long drive from Maryland but I think it was worth it. Made a few friends, was able to put some faces with names from the forum, found some really great fields with endless hunting opportunities, put a ton of miles on my truck, caught a few bunnies, pulled fur off a few jacks, saw a lot of pheasants, wild raptors on every pole, etc. We hawked all day, every day, didn't even stop for lunch we were having so much fun. We didn't even make it to the Thanksgiving meal (which I had prepaid for), because it was held in the day time (1-4pm or something?).

I'll have to process and upload the pictures from my video camera, but below are a few from my camera-phone.

Here's a shot of my Harris on one of the rabbits she caught.


Met a local cop at one of the public hunting spots that was interested in Falconry and he gave us a police escort around to a bunch of spots... so I took my picture leaning on his car to send to my wife as a joke. He even called around and got us some private hunting spots. He took us to the chief of police's hunting spot and it was full of jackrabbits!



Made a lot of good memories on this trip... it's going to be really really hard to go back to hawking around here where the rabbits are deep in the briars and good hawking spots are hard to come by. Not to mention how tough it was to get up and come to work today instead of hawking all day.

Good times...

[Lowachi]

Rich, what happen to your setter?

the young man that watches things here while I'm gone, put her out on a line while he was cleaning kennels. She slipped the clip, bolted out the front and got hit. He's heart broken and has offered to replace her- I told him no. He's a good kid, her re-call's been off lately, not really his fault.
I spoke breifly with Heather G., which is where I got her. There might be another in my future. Time will tell. Looks like I'll be finishing the season with Bubba, my Viszla pup(from Wes), he's settling down pretty well.

[Heatherg]

the young man that watches things here while I'm gone, put her out on a line while he was cleaning kennels. She slipped the clip, bolted out the front and got hit. He's heart broken and has offered to replace her- I told him no. He's a good kid, her re-call's been off lately, not really his fault.
I spoke breifly with Heather G., which is where I got her. There might be another in my future. Time will tell. Looks like I'll be finishing the season with Bubba, my Viszla pup(from Wes), he's settling down pretty well.

You just have to let me know if you want a pup....theres a litter that will be on the ground in January....one is yours if you want it ....Again...I am so sorry for you!

On a brighter note..I got to see another one of my pups...and actually I believe 3 were there...but its alwasy good to see them and see how happy they are!!! Thanks Jay for the visit time

[MtnMan]

I had a blast at the meet! I actually started out at the GOE, and then moved over to the NAFA meet.

My party was flying redtails (two intermewed birds, and two passage birds) chasing jacks. We actually made an effort to avoid cottontails entirely (but still ended up with a few flushes and a few catches) because we didn't want our birds catching them since we can do that here at home. We also did all of our flying from the fist, and either went over and picked our birds up from the ground, called them back to the fist, or called them off of poles if they flew up to them (just because we don't hawk from the fist at all back home).

One of the passage birds caught two jacks and a cottontail at the GOE meet, the other caught her first head of game at the GOE (a cottontail on day 28 out of the trap) after pulling fur on several jacks. She caught her first jack a few days later at the NAFA meet.

My intermewed bird caught two jacks at the GOE, and three more at the NAFA meet. She doubled on jacks on Tuesday, one on a very cool flight in the fog, and the other in an awesome flight in the 25 mph winds later in the afternoon. She'd been coming off my fist, using the wind to very quickly loft up to 75ft or so AGL, and then stoop in behind the jack. Mainly that resulted in misses as the jack would just pause, set her up, and jink out of the way at the last second. In this case though she made it work. Probably one of the coolest flights I've ever seen, IMO. I even filmed it, so I'll probably post it here eventually.

The other intermewed bird ended up with six jacks for her total, two of which were during the NAFA meet.

It was my first time at either meet, and I definitely enjoyed the experience enough to go back!

[sharptail]

Murphy been stalkin ya. What would a man do without friends like Heather?

[Peregrine At Heart]

The meet was awesome!!! I want to thank Krys, Brandi, and Michael for letting me tag along with them and their birds. Also want to thank Mario and Rich for the sound advice and help they gave me. The NAFEX dinner was also nice and I want to thank Chris L. and everybody else that donated things to the raffel....I was very happy with everything!! I will certainly miss everyone and a year seems a long time to wait until our next meeting..... Here are some pics that I would like to contribute to the thread.

[Dutch]

“2 gyr/pere, 3 goldens, 7 NA gos, 2 euro gos, 4 pere, 1 gyrXbarbary, 19 tails, 17 Harris', 1 Red Shoulder, 1 kestral 1 merlin, 1 coops

took 9 duck, 1 quail,2 starling, 8 LBJ's, 1 pheas, 1 pocket gopher, 1 squirrel, 1 garter snake, 2 barnyard fowl[IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/OWNER%7E1.OWN/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif[/IMG], 3 barn owls(all released unharmed)2 prairie Chickens[IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/OWNER%7E1.OWN/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image002.gif[/IMG], 137 ct's & 32 Jacks. and as you can see by the pix, alot of those cts & jacks were taken by the Nafex crew, & the quail, and the barnyard stuff, and the starlings & some of the LBJ's.

I'll go back thru and recount before I turn all this in for the Archives, but that's how the count stands now.”

Thanks Rich,

We had a good time at the meet, but we did not sleep at the Cow Palace. I did not hear anyone complain about lack of quarry. Lots if game makes for a good meet. The weather was cooperative as well.
Dodge City, Kansas is not a great quail hawking destination in Kansas, but it is one of the good pheasant hawking areas in the state. I wish we could have seen Bobbie R.’s excitement when her new Harris took that cock pheasant. I understand some people heard her screaming a mile away.

Jack

[Lowachi]

“2 gyr/pere, 3 goldens, 7 NA gos, 2 euro gos, 4 pere, 1 gyrXbarbary, 19 tails, 17 Harris', 1 Red Shoulder, 1 kestral 1 merlin, 1 coops

took 9 duck, 1 quail,2 starling, 8 LBJ's, 1 pheas, 1 pocket gopher, 1 squirrel, 1 garter snake, 2 barnyard fowl[IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/OWNER%7E1.OWN/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image001.gif[/IMG], 3 barn owls(all released unharmed)2 prairie Chickens[IMG]file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/OWNER%7E1.OWN/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image002.gif[/IMG], 137 ct's & 32 Jacks. and as you can see by the pix, alot of those cts & jacks were taken by the Nafex crew, & the quail, and the barnyard stuff, and the starlings & some of the LBJ's.

I'll go back thru and recount before I turn all this in for the Archives, but that's how the count stands now.”

Thanks Rich,

We had a good time at the meet, but we did not sleep at the Cow Palace. I did not hear anyone complain about lack of quarry. Lots if game makes for a good meet. The weather was cooperative as well.
Dodge City, Kansas is not a great quail hawking destination in Kansas, but it is one of the good pheasant hawking areas in the state. I wish we could have seen Bobbie R.’s excitement when her new Harris took that cock pheasant. I understand some people heard her screaming a mile away.

Jack

I'd have paid good money to see her doing the "happy Dance" out there. The bird has really done her good, and visa versa! Was good ta see ya again, and thank your wife again for the extra day

[Flatwater Falconer]

I'd like to give a big THANKS to everyone on the field meet committee - from the yard wardens to the chair to the volunteers who helped out in any way shape or form.

It was simply fantastic to visit with everyone, watch the birds fly, and generally have a great time.

Folks - until you've actually done it you've got NO idea how hard and long the task is. It's easy to nit-pick when it's all being done for you. For a REAL eye-opener volunteer to help out for the next meet!

So once again -

THANKS to everyone who made this 2010 meet happen!

I had a splendid time.
And now I'm suffering from post-meet depression as usual . . .

Cheers,

[FredFogg]

Krys, what are you doing to that poor red-tail? LOL

[Dirthawking]

Krys, what are you doing to that poor red-tail? LOL

And just why is his fly down?

[Flight]

Krys, what are you doing to that poor red-tail? LOL

Red-Tail!? I thought that was one of them thar miniature turkeys!

[Tasha55403]

And just why is his fly down?

I've got a pic showing that (where's the emoticon with the Evil Grin?)