Changes

2011 was a year of rather large changes. A new job moved me to a new state and my falconry universe was thrown out of whack for awhile there but I think things have settled enough now for me to throw up an occasional blog post now and then.

Administrative note: The break in blogging gave the opportunity to update a the blog address as well. I started this blog quite a few years ago when I lived in Japan and I thought it would be mostly for my Japanese falconry friends to follow along with my falconry adventures in the States so the blog address was for them. Since I doubt any of them are following along at this point it makes sense to have my blog address match my blog title. Hopefully not too many readers get lost in the switch (not that I have all that many...). The old blog is here.

First things first, this is Gomer:

He's a passage male Coopers Hawk I trapped mid-January. I've always heard that Coopers are difficult birds and late trapped Coopers are darn near impossible to train...Gomer has thus far proven quite the opposite. He's been one of the fastest birds to train I've ever had. We were hunting 3 weeks off the trap and the picture above is his first sparrow which he caught today. I'm hoping to get out and try for quail at least once before the quail season ends at the end of the month but the plan right now is to go ahead and fly him right through the moult since there's no season for sparrows, starlings, or pigeons, all of which I'm sure he'll take quite handily. We'll see how it goes but the summer adventures should provide plenty of blog fodder. Now whether or not I'm able to keep it up to date is the next challenge! Looking forward to trying though, let the games begin!