Several words come to mind when describing the mid-winter meet in St. Louis, one stands out over the rest, COLD. I left for the meet Friday afternoon, and headed for the MFA meet, which started 01-15-05. I hooked up with Rob Lyttle to hunt the hawks and dogs in the afternoon. There was snow cover and a brisk wind that cut through you like a knife. I found out later that the weather was never going to change a bit all weekend long. An hour and a half later we headed home with a couple rabbits, two tired dogs and good appetites.

 

The meet started the next morning, with breakfast. The group was better attended than the last meet in KC, which was to be expected, as most of Missouri’s falconers live in or around St Louis. The group was so large that it had to split up due to the number of hawks being flown. My guess is that twenty hawkers or so showed up. Each meet I attend around the country has different persons from different areas coming to see how falconry is practiced. This meet provided us an exchange of information from as far away as the UK. The group I hunted with had lunch in a small deli and had a very interesting exchange of how differently the sport was practiced in our respective countries.

 

The most outstanding flight that I witnessed during the weekend was Tracy Dewitt’s falcon flying crows. The flight went on for a mile at least, starting with a 500 ft stoop and ending when the crow made it safely to the secondary undergrowth and the cover of trees along the Missouri river. This was the falcon’s first attempt at crows in fact the first time the hawk had ever seen a crow according to Tracy. The whole scene unveiled in front of a dozen of us, with half of the group routing for the hawk and the other half for the crow.

 

Most of the game taken at the meet was cottontails.  There never seems to be a shortage of bunnies in St. Louis. The redtails and goshawks were the hawks of choice this meet with weather conditions being so brutal. Most all falconer’s hunting this weekend would say that the hawks were somewhat put off by the weather at best. Understanding the correlation between the hawks hunting weight, the fridge conditions and the impact of hunting the hawk in unfamiliar territory with unusually large hunting parties is quite an undertaking. Most if not all falconers seemed up to the task at hand.

 

I am impressed with the number of first and second year hawker’s and their birds that attended. The hawks were in good feather. All hawks seemed in good condition and most that I saw fly, took game. I was amazed at the handling ability these different people possessed. I remember thinking at the time, that I wished that I could have been that far a long; able to overcome the obstacles and to take game at the first meets I attended. The sponsorship that looks over these new people are to be truly commended.

 

We hunted on through the day to sunset. We then headed for Rob Lyttle’s home for the MFA meeting, pizza, and beer. We spent the evening reliving the different hunts of the day, hunts of the past, great flights, great hawks, and the dogs and hawkers that served them.

 

There was a chance to view some different hawking videos and Mike McDermott’s new book coming out the end of February. I know I had a great time, and my only wish was that more of those hawking during the day could have attended the evening meeting. Several of the different parties headed home at dusk due to the weather prediction of slick roads more snow for the night.

.

 The business meeting was short and sweet, there was very little to go over except the when and where of the last field meet of this season and possible locations for the summer picnic. St Louis and Kansas City were thrown out as possibilities for the picnic. As to the next field meet, some people opted for a meet in Kansas, where jacks were available. The group as a whole though finally agreed to meet again locally in the St. Louis area. The date decided on was March 12^th with details to follow.

Saturday evening we got a couple more inches of snow to help in tracking. Sunday morning a smaller group of hawkers showed up to hunt together. The group hunted from shortly after sunup to sundown.

 

Last season I was one of a party that was stopped and checked by law enforcement and this meet was no different. While explaining to the man that we were in the field pursuing rabbits with hawks, a homeowner battled the elements to see what was going on behind her home. The officer was concerned that we might have guns and be hunting in the city limits. This women said that she witnessed us entering the field and that none of the group had guns. The man then asked me who had given me permission to hunt the field. I explained that I was from out of town, but that someone had secured permission. The lady then butted in and said that she knew the landowner and that it would be fine for us to hunt and take rabbits from the field, that they were everywhere, and that if there were any concerns that she would be happy to address them with him. If where we parked was a problem we could park in front of her home. Without a doubt, we were welcome to hunt there. The officer turned while stating he guessed there were no problems at hand and left.  If it were legal, I think she would have paid us to hunt bunnies behind her home!

 

With in several minutes I could see why she was so concerned. All of the small trees in the area were missing the bark from the ground up twelve inches or so. The bushes around her home were riddled with chew marks and the lawn was covered with rabbit pellets. No wonder she wanted to see that we could take a few rabbits out of the gene pool. She was overrun with them!

 

We started a line behind the house. We hadn’t walked 20 yds when the Harris’s bolted after a bunny that was sitting in a hide, inches from her property line. The hawk took out after it as it headed down through a number of back yards to the center of the housing addition. The hawk was found on a homeowner’s deck spying under it for you know whom. I grabbed him up and headed back to the hunting party.

 

We hadn’t gone far at all when the group jumped another, and this one headed for the open field with my Harris’s “George” right after it. I took off after the both of them, as I knew the hawk could use a hand when he got a hold of the rabbit. The hawk didn’t disappoint me and hit the rabbit from behind. The old rabbit wasn’t going to give it up and took off with the hawk on tow. I got about halfway there and slipped on the ice and snow, took a pretty good spill, loosing my glasses. I got up and looked at the ground for them. I could tell that it wasn’t going to be something that I could find quickly. The rabbit was heading off with the hawk and I decided to help him out first and find the glasses later. When I reached the hawk and finally got a hand on the bunny, my first thought was what a great ending to the hunting part of the meet for George and in the distance I could hear the rest of the hunting party yell out that they found my glasses.

 

 When I next looked up, I didn’t notice at first that we had picked up a couple of young men from the homes next to the field. Mike McDermott took little time to get the guys up close to the hawk and explained the what’s, how’s and why’s of the matter. He took the time to give a short synopsis of falconry, the different prey species and hawks used is this area. Mike showed them what parts of the rabbit were most suitable as food for the hawks and how one went about providing the food for his charge. My guess is that these two boys will probably end up hunters. I ran back to the truck and put up my hawk, as there were still other hawks to be hunted. We hunted on until sunset. As is always, the group had to split up as Sunday evening unfolded. Everyone shook hands and went to their cars and trucks cold and excited,  looking forward to the meet on March 12^th!