NFA field meet, January '12

The meet was supposed to start with a slip at grouse at dawn on Saturday, but we got started late and were promised a chance at pheasant instead. When we got to the pheasant field, what did we see but a flock of grouse putting into a cornfield?

[Eric Johnson and Gunner]


Of course, when we ran in to flush the grouse...


...a couple of pheasant got up and one was promptly taken by Anita Johnson's gyr x peregrine, Riddick.



[Gunner gets a hug]



We (Jessica, Ellie and I—Jess took all the photos, by the way) missed a couple of flights: Chris Podraza's unfortunately-named redtail, Bubbles, and a Harris' hawk flown by Nick Morris. Had we known we would be the only ones flying Sunday morning, we might have made more of an effort to stay with the group, but as it turned out the rest of the meet belonged to Stekoa. He took a rabbit on Saturday afternoon and two more on Sunday morning.

[Maxine]





[Donna Vorce shows off her burr collection]



[Ellie picked up some burrs as well—actually we all did; at one point, we were scooping them up by the handful and throwing them at one another like snowballs.]



[Stekoa stoops into a cornfield—this was a miss, but both of his rabbits Sunday morning made the mistake of leaving the riparian woods and were taken in the corn stubble.]