Falconers are so WEIRD! 鷹匠って可笑しい！

On Saturday I met up with Richard and his goshawks and we headed to an industrial park where we hooked up with a couple of his apprentices. Billy Bob, the tiercel goshawk from a couple weeks ago was up first. We'd spotted a bunny creeping into some bushes near a building so we thought we'd give that a try to start things off. The bunny bolted out of the bushes and made it to a drain pipe before Billy could get to him but since we knew where the bunny was, and it was a big enough (2.5 ft. in diameter?) drain pipe, I offered to climb in from the other side to scare the bunny out. It was a fairly long pipe, maybe 150 ft. from one side of the road to the other but I could see the bunny sillouetted against the light at the other end. I threw a couple rocks down the pipe to see if I could get it to move that way (and I really didn't want to climb into the pipe) but it wasn't moving so after brushing a few cobwebs out from the entrance I climbed in. The pipe was only slightly larger than my shoulder width, but by commando crawling on my elbows and pushing with my feet I could move pretty steadily so off I went. I was making quite the ruckas as I went pushing a short piece of PVC pipe in front of me that clattered along the dry cement as it went but the bunny just wasn't budging! About half way through the pipe I hear a voice from the other side say, "Isaac? You're in the wrong pipe!" The "bunny" that I could see at the end of the pipe I was in was a rock! I guess 150 ft. of dark pipe obscures vision just a bit! But with no where to go but forward I pushed on and finally emerged from my experience as a ferret with scrapped up elbows, but none the worse for wear and we continued hawking. When I got home I told my wife the story and she says, "You did WHAT? Are you that desperate to catch a bunny? If I saw a bunch of superfreaks climbing thru drain pipes and chasing bunnies in an industrial park I'd laugh at you. Falconers are so WEIRD!!"...and ya know what, in this instance I have to agree!

土曜日近くの鷹匠と一緒に狩に出かけました。今回はオオタカでまたウサギを探しました。車を出たばっかりの時ウサギが出ました。オオタカが捕まえる前に５０ｃｍほどの水道パイプに逃げられた。パイプに見てみると約５０メテル程の長さで反対側の光の中ウサギの影が見えました。石など投げてもなかなか動かなかったので“まぁ，自分で入ろうかな”と思いました。パイプに入って肩より少しだけ大きいだったので肘と足で頑張って進んでみました。それにしてもウサギはなかなか動かない。２５メテル進んだところで反対側から声を聞こえて，“おい！パイプは間違っているよ！ウサギはいない。”ということでした。僕がウサギの影と思ったものは石でした！困った！これ程狭いパイプに入って頑張って進んだのになにもいないだ！さぁ，前に進むしかないから頑張ってパイプ全部取りました。汚いし，クモも蛇もいる可能性もあるところだったのに入っても意味なかった！狩が終わって帰ったら奥さんにパイプの話をしたら，“えっ？ばかか？鷹狩って全くわからない。鷹匠は可笑しい！”今回さんせいします！

Billy ended up catching a bunny coming out of a pipe in a short flight. Richard told the bird he should've let it run a little more and Billy released the bunny! He caught it again in 20 feet but we told Richard he probably shouldn't say that again!

結局オオタカは一匹を捕まえた。早かったので“もちょっと走らせたら？”と鷹匠が冗談で言ったらオオタカは実際にウサギを放した！１０メテルぐらいにまた捕まったけど二度と言わないようにと皆が笑いながら言った。

Richards apprentice then took his red-tail out for his first real hunt. While the bird didn't catch anything it flew wonderfully, barely missing a couple times and chasing a good while. It'll be a good bird in the near future. Here's some of the flights:

そして一緒に来た初級鷹匠がレッドテールを出して，初めての狩をやって見ました。ウサギは捕まらなかったけど動きが良かった！ご覧ください：