Cool pic! クーパの写真

A falconer from Texas posted this picture of a friend's female Cooper's Hawk (Turbo Dog) chasing a grackle on another site and I just thought it was a cool picture so I'm posting it here. Someday I'll get to fly a Coopers...someday.



テクサス州の鷹匠が別のウェブサイトにこの写真を貼っていました。クーパの雌がカラスを追いかけています。かっこいからここでも貼ろうと思っただけです。いつかクーパもやりたいな。。。

Praire falcon プレリー隼

With no job yet and school only on Tuesdays and Thursdays we took advantage of some free time on Wednesday and went down to a National Park called "Garden of the Gods" near Colorado Springs.

仕事はまだなくって，学校は火，木だけなので暇を使って近くの国立公園“神の庭”に出かけました。

The above picture is at the visitors center near the entrance of the park. The red rock ridge sticking up in the back ground is called "Kissing Camels". If you look closely you can see why:

上の写真入れ口だけど後ろの岩は“キシングラクダ”と言います。なぜかというと良く見たらなんとなく分かると思う。

Anyway, we headed over toward these 'kissing camels' to take a short hike through the heart of the park. As we got to the trail head I noticed this sign:

とにかくその近くにハイキングの道があったからそこに向かいました。ハイキングの所に着いたらこの知らせがありました：

I don't know if you can read the letters in red that I've highlighted but it says that the formation is closed to rock climbing from February to August due to nesting Praire falcons. "Cool!" I thought and I started looking closer at the cliffs hoping to spot one even though it is September...Just then I hear "kyaaa kya kya kya", the distict voice of a praire falcon!! Now I was really excited. I remembered I had binoculars in the car so I ran back and grabbed them. As soon as I got back to the the sign I could hear the falcon again. I'm guessing it was a juvenile, recently fledged and still trying to beg food off it's parents. And then, there it was, gliding near the cliff edge screaming away!

赤で書いてる字では，“２月から８月までプレリー隼の巣のために岩登りは禁止”と書いていました。“プレリーだ！”と思って９月だけどがきに目を傾いた。その時“キャーキャキャキャ”というプレリーの声が聞こえてきました。車に望遠鏡があったので車に走り戻って取って来ました。

My wife thought it was hilarious because I was pointing and yelling, "Look there she is, do you see her? Do you see her?!" What can I say, I was excited. And then she landed on the cliffs and I got a really good view of her with the binoculars. Unfortunately our camera isn't as good as the binoculars. As you can see, she was a ways away:

戻ったら飛んでいる姿が見えました。そしてがきに降りてくれました！あんまりいいカメラではないので良く見えないけど写真を撮りました。やっぱり遠い！

Here he is using digital zoom AND photoshop to sharpen the image...still not the greatest pic:

ディジカメのズームを使ってここまで見えるけどまだまだ綺麗ではない。

I could've spent the rest of the day watching her but the wife said there was hiking to be done so I finally had to put the binoculars away and go hiking. When we came back an hour later though she took off from the ledge she had been on and circled the kissing camels once before settling back on the cliff. I really wish I had a better camera!

私ならずーと見たかったけど奥さんはハイキングしたいと言ったので望遠鏡を固唾けってハイキングに行きました。しかし一時間後戻ってきたらまだ飛んでくれて別のところに降りました。まだまだ遠い！いいカメラを持っていたらいいな！

And again with the digital zoom and photoshop:

またディジカメのズーム：

The pics don't do her justice. She was a pretty bird!

このカメラでは良く見えないけどすごく綺麗でした！

History

Apprentice Seminar 初級鷹匠講座

On Saturday I headed down to Colorado Springs to attend an apprentice seminar put on by the Colorado Hawking Club. The seminar covered Colorado regs, field identification, trapping, suggestions for success in the first 2 years, and a coping demonstration...The coping demonstration is the only thing I got pics of!

I went mainly for the networking, I wanted to meet some more local falconers and talk to the President of the club about getting my license here. He says he'll vouch for my experience as far as an upgrade to general but there's really no way around the 6 month residency thing. I think I'm pretty much sunk as far as getting my own bird this season goes. It'll be a watch and learn kinda year, and let's be honest, it could be worse.

土曜日コロラド州の鷹狩倶楽部が初級鷹匠講座を開きました。コロラド州の法律，トラピング，初級鷹匠へのアドバイスなどをテーマにして３時間ほど話しました。最後に２４歳のレードテールの口をきれいにしました（上の写真）。 トラピングの時期が９月５日から始めましたので２日前に捕まえたレードテールもいました。すごくうらやましい！倶楽部の会長に話したら中級レベルで始められるようにしてくれると言ってくれましたが６ヶ月以上コロラド州に住まないとどうせ免許が取れないと言っていたので今年はやっぱり無理です。残念！春から雛を捕って頑張ろうと思っています。それまでに他の鷹匠に頼って狩を見学します。

WANTED: HAWK TO CHASE BUNNIES! 鷹が欲しい！

Look at this! Just look! This is in the parking lot of a computer store, similar scenes are 200 yards from my door. They're EVERYWHERE! I really need to figure this license thing out!

見てよ！こう何ウサギがいます。これは市内の店の駐車場，同じようにアパートの周りにいる。今日アパートから２００メールのところにウサギを７匹見ました。鷹狩免許くれ！！！

And in the meantime, the hawks are everywhere as well. Spotted this Cooper's just a few hundred yards down a walking path near my apartment.

毎日鷹も見ています。アパートの近くの散歩者道からこのクーパを見つけました。

Hawks EVERYWHERE! 鷹だらけ！！

This not having a license and not being able to trap thing is going to drive me nuts. Running some errands this afternoon I saw 3 kestrels and 2 red-tails within about a mile stretch of each other! And that's not to mention all the other red-tails and kestrels that weren't in that mile stretch!

最近寒くなったからのせいかも分からないけどコロラド州は鷹だらけ！！今日用事をしながら一キロ以内にレードテールを２羽，アメチョウ３羽を見ました。。。一キロ以内ですよ！そして一昨日ぐらいアパートの前にクーパが飛んでいました。免許なくってトラピングできないのは非常に残念！アメリカの法律は嫌い！ウサギもアパートの周りに住んでいるから早めに鷹を手に入れないと頭がおかしくなる！

Picture found at: http://www.birdersworld.com/objects/images/brdpw040307.jpg

Relicensing woes...and a bit of hawking 免許が取れないけど狩が始まる

I'm finally back in the States! After a couple weeks in Hawaii (where I did a bit of spearfishing, my second love), we flew to Utah to spend a couple weeks with the folks and then on August 30th we drove over to Colorado where we'll start life all over.

Shortly after we arrived in Utah I began calling around to see what I'd need to do to get going on this whole "relicensing" thing...It's gonna be an uphill battle to say the least. I first called Colorado and they said that they won't recognize any of my falconry experience in Japan because there isn't a government license there to prove I was a falconer. A letter from the President of our local hawking club, pictures and video isn't enough apparently (rolls eyes). But they did say that they'd recognize my apprenticeship from 10 years ago if I had copies of my licenses etc. So I call up the folks at the Utah FWS...They say they have NO RECORD of me ever being a falconer there! Wha...?!? So to make a long story short, I've asked my sponsor to write a letter stating that I was his apprentice and that I'm qualified to be upgraded to a general. Whether or not it works is yet to be determined *Sigh*. But we'll see.

今年鷹狩免許が取れなさそう！：-（　免許を渡す政府の人たちが日本の経験を認めてくれないと言っています。ばか！残念ながら前のアメリカの免許を持っていたら何とかできるかもと言っているのに１０年前の免許がやっぱり見つからない！困った！まぁ，まだまだ終わっていない色んな面が戦います。最悪の場合春から一から始まってレードテールかアメチョウで頑張る。最悪の場合にならないように努力します。

In the meantime, I'm not letting MY lack of a license keep me from going out with other falconers. We'd been in Colorado less than 72 hours before I hooked up with Richard and Becky Brunoette (sp?), goshawkers who live about 45 minutes away from my new apartment. They were gracious enough to let me tag along for a training run with a young gos. There were plenty of bunnies to go around but the brown bird hasn't quite got it's head wrapped around those bouncing furballs yet. It won't be long though I'm sure. I'm looking forward to the season whether or not I have a bird (although, let's be honest, I'd rather have my own bird...;-).

免許なくても狩に行かない訳じゃないです。コロラド州に着いて７２時間以内鷹匠を連絡して今年生まれのオオタカの訓練を手伝いに行きました。ウサギが山ほどいったけどウサギを始めて見たオオタカはなかなか行かなかった。残念だったけど近い内にそこにいるウサギの心にオオタカの怖さが届くでしょう。楽しみ！免許が取れなくても今年は楽しみ！

Becky Brunoette and Lil Ms. looking for bunnies in Colorado

コロラド州は広い！！こういう所でウサギを探す。