In Game: vs. Ohio

[raptorcat]

Chapter Nine of The Falconry Chronicles: Fiona Goes to Davidson

After I'd achieved modest success with Fiona chasing and "catching" the zombie squirrel, I needed to take her to a target-rich environment, and it dawned on me that the Davidson campus was the perfect place. In a chance encounter with then-President Tom Ross and his wife Susan at an early-season basketball game, I was recounting to Susan my experiences as an apprentice falconer. She was intrigued, and when I mentioned that squirrels were our hoped-for quarry, she suggested, in jest, that I should bring her to campus because the squirrels were digging up all the pansies planted around the presidential manse, as well as those located around Chambers and E. H. Little Library. I told her I could bring Fiona and make a symbolic gesture in the landscapers' war against the pests. She said she'd love to accompany me, and we both looked to Tom for permission. He shrugged and said it would be fine if we tried this during Christmas break when the campus was relatively deserted.

We quickly agreed upon a day when the dorms were closed for the break and the weather was sunny and mild. I arrived with Fiona in her travel box and parked near the Carnegie guest house. After I took her out and she roused herself with a good shake of her feathers, I threw her up to the branches of one of the nearby live oaks. Susan and I set out at a brisk pace, headed towards Chambers. It became apparent that while Davidson's squirrels are incredibly tame when it comes to being habituated by people, they're not stupid. They were in evident abundance along the ground, but as soon as they saw the movement of a large raptor with a four-foot wingspan flying toward them, they all took to the trees and made themselves scarce.

But as we proceeded to the back of Chambers to explore the trees between Chambers and E.H. Little, Fiona spied a squirrel still on the ground and quickly flew to it. The squirrel scooted up one of the smaller trees and Fiona was in hot pursuit. When she landed on a nearby branch, the squirrel panicked, bailed out of the tree, and made for the bushes around Chambers. She caught it just before it got to the impenetrable maze of branches in a holly bush. By the time we got to it, she had gripped it around the neck and torso with those incredibly strong feet and talons, constricting it. The squirrel expired from suffocation, a relatively quick resolution in the life-or-death scenarios that play out in nature between hunter and prey.

Susan accompanied me on at least one other hunt with Fiona and a couple more with Roxanne in subsequent years. Fiona managed to catch and kill a few more squirrels during her first season with me. I decided to keep her another year, mainly because I wanted to experience her transition from a juvenile hawk to a fully mature bird as she acquired her adult plumage, including that distinctive dark orange tail. So when the falconry season ended at the end of February, I put her in her mews for the five months it would take for her to molt all her feathers and I let her weight return to her original trapped weight, plus a few ounces more. By September, she was darker and her creamy white breast feathers had taken on more of a ginger hue, speckled with brown. Her red tail looked magnificent, and I began to show her off at Boy Scout, Cub Scout, and Girl Scout meetings, as well as civic clubs and school assemblies. She never became the stone-cold squirrel killer I'd hoped for, but she more than made up for this shortcoming with her willingness to put on a show for large groups of people.

We developed a routine of parlor tricks, and if we were in a large enough room, I would arrange the assemblage so that they would sit in two rows of chairs facing each other, with about five feet of space between the two rows. I would sit Fiona on her perch at one end of the room, go to the other end, and blow my whistle. At this cue, she would launch from her perch, and glide the length of the room between the two rows of people, her wings almost touching the floor. As she glided along, she would be below the eye level of the participants and they could feel the rush of air as she passed by at their feet. When she reached me, she would tip her head upward, beat her wings once, and land on my glove as gently as a feather. It never failed to make a tremendous impression on the onlookers, and me as well. There's nothing that can describe the experience of awe and pride I felt as a roomful of kids or adults interacted firsthand with such a magnificent creature.

At the end of Fiona's second season, I decided to set her free. Davidson was the obvious location for me, as I knew she would never lack food in the form of squirrels or chipmunks in that environment. She would also provide some exciting moments for the students if they saw her out hunting or flying across the camps. So on a bright spring day, I, along with Mrs. Raptorcat and my youngest son Ian, made the journey to the campus and released her between Phi and Eu Halls, giving her a big send-off with another whole squirrel. While she ate, I lay on my belly and detached her bells and her jesses. I then rose and walked away as she continued to eat her feast.

I never encountered Fiona again on the occasions I returned to campus, but I did receive several reports from friends who saw a big beautiful Redtail flying about, doing her part to put a dent in the pestilence of bushytails among those stately surroundings.

Up next: The Short Happy Life of "Julius Rousseau."

Until then, GO CATS!

[stevelee]

Thanks, Joe. I may be enjoying the articles as much as the basketball.

I realized that before the Cutty Sark, I had recently been on the Fram. It was the ship that Amundsen used to bring oil filters from the Arctic.

[graveline]

Dorp and me also spent a good amount of time chasing squirrel at Davidson, with similarly disappointing results

[MrMac]

As I finished this episode, something like tears began to well up in my eyes. Must be time for my annual ophthalmologist appointment.

[JCDC]

Close game, per ESPN. Cats are favored by 1.5

[MrMac]

Letting them play...in every way. #4 from Bobcats carried the ball egregiously.

[wildforthecats]

Hunter Adam starting

[RichmondCat]

No Skogman is going to make this tough.

[CatsRom]

No skogman early?

[CatDawg]

Where is he??

[RichmondCat]

The bench it appears.

[CatsRom]

No Skogman is going to make this tough.

What’s the reason he is out?

[MrMac]

Injury per announcer (or sickness?).

[MrMac]

The steal and layup by Grant were a superb study in body control.

[MrMac]

Bailey is getting the chances, but he has got to finish.