Utah Skytrials ユタ州のスカイトライアル

From February 10th through February 17th a good friend of mine from Japan came to the United States to attend the Utah Skytrials. It was a week full of falconry and fun (and exhausting to say the least). We took him out pheasant hunting (with guns), up to the Marshall Telemetry Headquarters, over to a raptor breeders place, out hawking with a golden eagle and then a goshawk and then finally to the Skytrials. Unfortunately I forgot my camera in Colorado and didn't get a hold of another camera in Utah until the first day of the Skytrials. The pics below are from that camera but I'll post some more that my buddy took in the near future.

２月１１日から１７日まで内村さんがユタ州に訪問してきました。銃での雉狩り，マーシャル本社の訪問，ブリーダの見学，イヌワシとオオタカのウサギ狩り，そしてスカイトライアル　に行って来ました。凄く忙しかった！いった間野生のレッドテール，アメチョウ，白頭ワシ，イヌワシ，などを見ました。改めてアメリカは凄いなと僕も感じました。残念ながらオオタカの狩りとスカイトライルの時だけカメラを持ってましたのですべての写真はその二日間だけです。内村さんの写真を後ほど載せます。とりあえずスカイトリアル：

And a couple from our day out with Melissa and her goshawk "Sugar". Now I have to mention that I'm somewhat cursed. It seems that whenever I initially go out with someone and their birds we NEVER catch anything. Take the day we went out with the golden eagle. That eagle has taken 198 jacks this year and I've heard respectable falconers say that it is the best falconry bird of ANY species that they've ever seen. What happens when you throw me in to the mix? Right out of the hood the eagle goes wacky, we got a few flights here and there but in the end he went up over a ridge and we spent the next two hours trudging up and down hills through calf deep snow up looking for him. Honestly about par for the course when I head out with people. It usually takes awhile for the curse to be broken and I have to thank all the people who have invited me back out after a disasterous outing (I know that's not how your bird usually flies, honestly, its me!). But Melissa was a trouper and while it looked like things weren't going to work out in the beginning she stuck with it and Sugar finally nailed a cottontail. Thanks for hanging in there with us Melissa!





そしてオオタカの狩りの写真。ここで一つ言わなきゃいけないことですが私が呪われています。いつも誰かと一緒に狩りに行ったら必ずその日その人の鷹が良く飛べない。例えばイヌワシの狩りを見に行ったら色んな人からこのイヌワシはどんな鷹匠の鷹よりも凄いという話は聞きました。今年だけでウサギ１９８匹を捕ったイヌワシでした。しかし私が一緒に行くとフードを外したすぐ飛んで行ってしまった。”このイヌワシはこんな事するのは初めてよ！”と何回言われた。やっぱり私の呪いだ。とにかくオオタカと一緒に出たときは始めから良くない感じがしました。でも鷹匠が頑張ってウサギを探してくれて最後に一匹捕ることが出来ました。ありがとうございます！

Now I've actually received some pics from my friend in Japan but since this post has taken so long to get to where it is I figured I'd post what I have and do the rest of the pics in another post. He really took some good shots. So keep an eye on this space. More Skytrials pics to follow soon.

内村さんの写真も載せようと思っていますけどこのポストだけでもかなり時間かかったので次のポストにしょうと思っています。かなりいい写真を沢山撮ってくれたのでまた今度見たら載せます。とりあえず以上です。