MISSOURI FALCONERS’ ASSOCIATION FIELD MEET

15-16^th JANUARY 2005

Stacia A. Novy

 

 

The Missouri Falconers’ Association held its first field meet of the New Year in O’Fallon, Missouri on the 15-16^th of January 05.  Twenty falconers and seven newcomers braved the snow, wind and brutal cold to “beat the brush” and fly birds.  Despite freezing temperatures most were successful at bagging quarry, with Twenty-seven head of game being taken during the two day meet:  22 Rabbits, 1 Sparrow and 4 Miscellaneous.  Tracy DeWitt, Dave Eckenroth, Norma Haynes, Kurt Knickmeyer, Rob Lyttle, Mike Mallett, Justin & Bob May, Mike McDermott, Virgle Mueller, Bob Payne, Tom Schnurbusch and I all went home with something in our game vests!

            Falconers met early on Saturday morning at the Steak & Shake restaurant for coffee and breakfast before hawking the local fields around town.  Rob Lyttle was the first to fly and started the meet off in grand style:  flying a beautiful female Finnish Goshawk off the fist and bagging 2 rabbits before the hawking party had even walked a quarter of the field.  Kurt Knickmeyer and I flew our first-year passage Red-tailed hawks next, and both of us caught a cottontail.  Kurt’s female Redtail seemed impervious to the cold, and flew effortlessly in a woodlot near the far end of the field.  She followed from tree to tree, crashing through the branches, and stooping at rabbits flushed beneath her. 

            Harris hawkers Chris Patterson, Tracy DeWitt, Mike McDermott and Bob Payne waited till mid-day to gang-hawk, hoping the temperature would rise, but it stayed in the low teens throughout the day.  The group flew their birds from T-perches and took occasional breaks to warm their hawks up in the car.  It was exciting to see all those Harris hawks zig-zagging from perch to perch and alternating stoops on rabbits.  At any given moment, there were 2 or 3 hawks in flight, crisscrossing the sky overhead.  Tracy DeWitt’s hawk stooped off a T-perch to catch a House sparrow in mid-air! Earlier in the afternoon Tracy planned to fly his new peregrine on pheasant, but the falcon chased a wild crow before he could serve her. She had never chased crows before, but this time flew like a veteran gamehawk.  She repeatedly mounted above the crow and stooped on it, while the crow rolled-over in flight to evade the attack; with the falcon climbing higher and higher for each successive stoop.  She chased the crow all across the field until it finally escaped into a wooded thicket, and then returned and re-mounted above Tracy, waiting for a pheasant.  After such a show we all felt as if we had been crow-hawking on an English moor. 

            That evening, a small group of falconers gathered at Rob and Jan Lyttle’s house for dinner, drinks, hawk talk and videos.  The newly proposed Federal Falconry Regulations were discussed, as were plans for upcoming MFA meets.  It was decided that the next MFA Field Meet would be held the weekend of March 12-13^th.  Mike McDermott showcased the proofs to his new book, Accipitrine Behavioral Problems.  Many falconers stayed overnight at the Lyttle’s house in anticipation of another day’s hawking--rolling out sleeping bags, air mattresses and comforters wherever space allowed on the family room and dining room floors--it was almost like a teenage slumber party! 

The group woke up early the next day and, after a quick breakfast at Steak & Shake, headed straight for the hunting fields.  It had snowed during the night and the temperature was just as cold as the previous day.  Rob Lyttle flew first and quickly bagged another 3 rabbits in quick succession….he and his goshawk are a hard act to follow!  Rob Lyttle’s apprentice, Virgle Mueller, flew an intermewed female Redtail next and quickly took a cottontail in a short flight out of the trees.  Kurt Knickmeyer, Bob Payne and Justin & Bob May all took bunnies in quick succession as well.   Norma Haynes went hunting with her intermewed tiercel Harris Hawk just before dark and caught a bunny all the way back in Kansas City, MO, hundreds of miles from the actual meet location, on her drive home.  Norma undoubtedly took the very last head of game and thus, concluded the MFA field meet on a positive note for all of us.