Saturday, April 03, 2010

Time to Say Goodbye

I released Hayduke this morning. It was a bitter-sweet event as I'm sure you all can imagine. As much as I would've liked to keep him around I just haven't had the time to fly him lately and looking at a spring and summer filled with conferences and vacations it didn't look like I'd have enough time to do him justice. I've been feeding him up for the past week and filled him with the back third of a quail this morning before sending him on his way. He was a fun bird.

Thanks for the memories Hayduke!

7 comments:

Doug said...

Aww man, I'm sad. He was a cool bird. Plans for next year??

Nathan Strange said...

As a kestrel fan, I have loved reading about your adventures. Any ideas what you'll be flying next season? Will you continue posting about it? I hope so!!!

Isaac said...

Thanks Doug and Mrs. Strange. He definitely was a cool bird.

Plans for next year are extremely fluid. I would love to fly a merlin, sharpie, or male coops on small birds but I feel like all of those would require more time (and possibly space) than I have at the moment. Bigger birds are definitely out of the question while I'm still in an apartment too, so if there are no major changes in my life I'll probably just be whacking stuff with a kestrel again. And honestly, I'm okay with that!

But we'll just have to wait and see. I'll post about whatever happens so stay tuned (even though the spring/summer may be a little sparse...).

Thanks all for following along!

Stephen Olner said...

Its been great reading about your adventures

Chas S. Clifton said...

I didn't know you were planning to do that. Letting go a bird you worked with must be exhilarating and sad at the same time.

Mom N said...

No doubt Hayduke is flying around with great memories. There will be many more birds--we'll look forward to hearing/reading about your adventures with them all.

Isaac said...

Sorry all for the late publishing of comments, I had limited internet access at a conference I was at all last week.

Chas, I wasn't sure myself whether or not I was going to release him. "Life" just kind of made the decision for me. I'd feel bad if I kept him and didn't have the time to fly him! I'll get another next year.