Fly! Be Free! Letting Manuka Go
Today we took Manuka out for her last hunt in captivity. We went a different, longer way into the field near the river. L kept her on fist the whole time and K and I tried to scare game her way. K flushed out 2 rabbits but they got away. As the time went on L let me take his place holding Manuka on top of a small hill and he took my spot being a “bird dog”.
He was successful and flushed a rabbit out in our line of sight. I let Manuka go and she swooped down magnificently.
Once she became preoccupied with eating, L took her jesses and bracelets off. Then K and I took our turns petting her goodbye, L of course did so as well.
Then we retreated to another small hill and watcher over her in case a dog were to come up upon her.
Eventually she stopped eating and dragged the rest of the rabbit into a bush. Where she also stayed for awhile. Every now and then she had looked our way when she was eating so we wondered what she would do at the end.
Turns out she just stayed in the bush. No dramatic sail off into the sunset ending.
L had had an id bracelet put on her in case she was found by someone else and needed help. We guessed that if she did permanently adopt the field as her hunting ground that we could id her from that.
She would be wild again if we saw her next, L said it would not take long at all for her to fear humans again.
We walked back and occasionally talked about L’s new hawk, a male juvenile. We might be hunting with him in a month’s time. Also he was hoping to gain another bird or he might be helping to rehabiliate a peregrine.
Bye Manuka, the first hawk I got to help fly and train, live long, have little birdies, and may your prey never get away!
You have some cool photos to go with the posts. So, what is your plan for your next bird?
Myself, I’ve had my hen Harris’s hawk for fifteen years and don’t anticipate a change anytime soon. I have no doubt that she could do well on her own in the wild, but so far she has come back. My wife did describe one incident, in taking her on a hunt in the sort of country she grew up in, and how she seemed to be weighing things between hooking up with a group of wild Harris’s hawks and coming back to Diane.
Comment by Wesley R. Elsberry — January 27, 2006 @ 10:11 pm
Hello, thanks for the compliment, you’ve got some great pictures yourself on your site and great information.
Manuka wasn’t my bird by any means, I was just lucky to have helped out for a short while
My friend is the falconer and I get to tag along sometimes. One day maybe I’ll have my own bird, I’ve seen some harris hawks in action and they seem like great birds.
Comment by sometimessilent — January 29, 2006 @ 10:13 pm