Deer hawking?!

More Skytrials Pics 内村さんの写真

Better late than never, right?

やっと載せました！

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。

A couple of great videos ビデオ

IMPRESSIVE! 凄い過ぎる！

I've never seen this goshawk fly and I've never met the falconer that flies her but I get to read her adventures on a couple of email lists I'm a member of and all I can say is WOW!! In this particular instance all that game was taken by that hawk in about 5 hours. What makes it even more amazing is that last year she had West Nile and lost vision in one eye. I don't know about anyone else but I'd take this one-eyed gos over a whole lot of two eyed birds! Earlier this year this bird took its 1000th head of game for her falconer in her 5th season with him. This is the level of falconry I hope to achieve one day! Thanks for the inspiration!

このオオタカは凄い過ぎる！５時間の狩りでキジ四羽，リス一匹，鴨一羽，獲物全部で六つを捕りました。しかも去年病気で方目が見えなくなった！それにしてもこう何捕れるなんって信じられない！残念ながらこのオオタカは実際に見た事がない。アメリカの北東にいるけど話は良く聞きます。今年は５年目で獲物１０００匹を超えました。いつかこういう鷹匠になりたいな。。。

One of those days. よくない狩り

I can't say it was a horrible day, but it certainly wasn't a good day. The birds just seemed off a bit. The red-tail went first and for the first few slips just didn't put forth much effort.

最悪という訳ではない。結局ウサギ８匹を捕ったけどまぁまぁの捕り方でした。鷹はただあんまりよく飛ばなかったしウサギは走らなかった。最初はレッドテールでした。何匹かだしても頑張って追いかけなかった。こんな感じでした：

Fortunately we finally did connect. The bird had flown up to a light post overlooking a parking lot and her falconer was poking around in some low brush around the entrance to a building. I didn't think there would be anything in such sparse cover so I didn't have the camera ready for video but suddenly a bunny popped out of nowhere and ran almost straight toward the light pole the bird was on. Sheila (the bird) took a short hop off the pole, pumped once, and power stooped into the fleeing bunny hitting it right on the edge of a snow bank covered in ice. The angle was just such that the snow bank acted like a skateboard ramp and both bird and bunny shot a few feet up in the air! When they landed Sheila had firm control.

数回追いかけってからやっと捕りました。鷹が電信柱の上に止まった時建物の周りの草をたたえたら急に一匹が出ました。電信柱のすぐ下に走っていたので鷹が飛んだよりも落ちって凄い力でドンとウサギを捕りました。

We tried one or two more slips but the bird just wasn't up to it so she got put up while we got the Sisters (two female Harris Hawks) out. It was really cold, and that might have had something to do with it, but we weren't finding many rabbits either. The ones we did catch were nothing to write home (or blog) about. The missed flights were better then the catches but even then they weren't all that exciting.

後も一匹頑張ろうと思ったけど鷹はも終わりという感じな飛び方だったので辞めました。次はハリス♀２羽を出しました。寒かったから影響があったかもしれないけどウサギもあんまり見つからなかった。見つかったのもあんまり走らなかった。捕ったけど面白くなかった。ミスした時の方が面白かったけどそれにしてもまぁまぁでした。

Once the girls were done we got out one more red-tail that flew in a way I've never seen a red-tail fly before. We walked out into a field, the hood came off and she went up just like a falcon! Not nearly as high as a falcon mind you, but she wasn't going to be flown off the fist. She was only about 50 feet up when this bunny got up. Interesting flight but not stellar.

ハリスの狩りが終わったらまた他のレッドテールを出しました。このレッドテールは面白かった。手から飛ぶのはしない。隼みたいにフッドを外したらすぐ上がる。隼ほど高くないけど面白かった。ウサギを出した時２０メテルぐらいから落ちました。

And that pretty much summed up the day. Like I said, not a horrible day but I've seen better. But what's that saying? The worst day hawking (which this wasn't) is better than the best day at work? Looking forward to the next time out.

それで狩りが終わりました。言った通り最悪ではなかったけどもっと楽しい時がある。今度は楽しみ！

Hawking in the snow 雪での狩り

A little thing like snow wasn't going to keep us from hawking this weekend! The roads were miserable but the hawking was great! Ms. Havoc was up first. We followed some tracks to a culvert and a quick glance down the tunnel confirmed that Mr. Bunny was home. I popped the ferret down and soon enough the bunny came shooting out the other end. It was pure speed on speed as the bunny ran about 50 yards down a retaining wall and then cut down into a depression trying to make another culvert. Ms. Havoc snagged him about a foot away! Great flight!
土曜日雪が降ったけどあれだけで狩りに行かない訳ないよ！道が大変だったけど狩りはよかった。１２年目のオオタカでウサギ２匹を捕りました。最初のウサギは７５メテルぐらい走って穴に入った直前捕った！オオタカのスピードは凄い！

It didn't take long to find bunny #2. He was hiding underneath a dumpster, and hiding well at that! It took a minute for us to confirm that it was rabbit ears that we were seeing and not just some brush! The ferret went in again but wandered right past the bunny! Luckily she saw the error of her ways and got the bunny moving. Here's that flight:

２番目はすぐ見つかりました。追いかけたけどミス。その時の映像は撮ったけど遠かったためあんまり見えないです。松の木を回って僕の方に戻ったけどウサギが建物の雨流し穴に入って逃げました。

It was a nice flight around the spruce but the bunny made it into a drain pipe on the side of the building. Luckily another bunny found its way to the same dumpster a few moments later courtesy of the ferrest. A carbon copy of the flight shown above ensued but this time there was no chasing around the tree as Ms. Havoc nailed it on the first stoop from the building.
すぐ後またウサギを見つかりました。全く同じ所に逃げようとしたけど今回松の木まで行かなかった。

Her posture in the above pictures seems to say, "Das right foo!"

“お前捕ったぜ”という感じな立て方。

An absolute beauty of a bird. See the drain pipe on the side of the building in the right of the picture? That's where the first bunny is hiding!

この鷹は凄く綺麗！右後ろの方に見える雨流しの中にビデオで見れるウサギが隠れています！