Thursday, November 06, 2008

First free flight

Well the first free flight is in the books.

Hajimete no free flight wa seiko shimashita.

We didn't hunt since I was getting out later than I thought I would and I didn't have time to do much scouting. There was a slight breeze and I forgot my telemetry but I thought, "What the heck, I'll give it a go..." She did fantastic. It would have been slightly less nerve racking had I brought my telemetry along but there really wasn't anything to worry about. I brought her out of the box, readied myself and turned into the wind. She opened her wings, sped off down wind and then turned into it and worked her way over to a perch. There was a lure malfunction so I tried to work that out but as soon as she saw the lure she was on her way. Since she was coming with the wind she was really moving so I tossed the lure to the ground and she pounded it. My worst fear was realized when she was able to get the tidbit off of the lure but she only hopped a foot away and kept eating. She looked for me when she finished and came right back to the glove for another tidbit. I faced the wind again and she opened her wings and hovered over me for a couple seconds before working her way back to her perch.

Kari jyanakutte, tobashita dake desu ga yokatta deshita. Hasshinki wo wasureta kedo "Ma, ii ka?" to omotte hanashimashita. Kaze ga chotto atta node tsubasa wo hirata shunkan ni sugu sujyu meteru hanarette ikimashita. Shikashi touku made ikanakatta. Lure wo dashitara sugu modorimashita. Lure ni tsuketta niku wa hanashite shimatte doko ka tonde itte tabettara saiaku to omotta kedo doko nimo ikazu sono mama tabette kuremashita. Tabe owattara mata te ni tonde kimashita. Mouichidou yaro to omotte kaze ni mukatte mata tobashimashita.

I worked on getting another tidbit on the lure but she must've seen it and came zooming in to grab it before I'd prepared myself. I let her have it and then called her up to the fist again. Just then a girl came running across the field straight at me! Must've been late to class or something because she ran right on by but Dulcinea didn't like that too much. I figured I'd better not push my luck and fed her up.

Konkai lure ni niku wo tsukeyo to omotta aida lure wo mite shimatte tonde kimashita. Anmari kirei na lure flight jyanai kedo tonikaku kimashita node yokatta desu. Sono ato kyu ni jyousei no kata ga boku no hou ni hashitte kimashite amecho ga bikkuri shimashita. Bikkuri shite iru aida tobasu nowa anmari yokunai node nokori no esa wo yarimashita.

So it wasn't a hunt but I'd say it was a successful first free flight. Amazingly no matter how many times I cut a bird loose for the first time I always get the jitters but not having telemetry on the bird made it that much worse. I'll be hunting this weekend for sure.

Dakara kari jyanai kedo hajimete no free flight toshite wa yokatta. Nankai yatte mo hajimete taka wo free ni suru to kinchou shimasu. Konkai hasshinki mo nakutte toku ni kincho shimashita. Shumatsu ni kari shimasu!

2 comments:

PBurns said...

Congrats! You falconers have 10-pound stones to release a bird for free flight after so much investment in time. I know it's the whole idea, but it's still a big step over fate's edge.

Nice work!

Patrick

Isaac said...

Thanks Patrick!

The first bird I ever trained left my fist on his first free flight and headed for the horizon never to been seen again. Even after all these years that memory haunts me every time I cut a bird loose! :-P

But falconry isn't just about free flying a bird. Now I've got to go catch something!