The heat has beaten me this year. Each year it seems to gets a bit warmer, which corresponds to worldwide measurements. It's been an odd season. There were no field birds, with Farrah catching only one. I took her to the woods after considering releasing her. Her modest number of catches, eleven, resulted in her best squirrel season ever. She contributed to the season total, which would have been respectable for a single buzzard. I hunted a lot, nearly daily, and often twice. Cisco was deadly in late December, then struggled big time after January 1. Farrah picked up some of slack, and was often a lot of fun. Their styles on squirrels are so different. There was a lot of ground cover, a significant change from last season, and getting good ambush setups was difficult. I retired Arnold the dog last fall. He's now just too old. Sad. Odd things happened this season. Late last fall when I was trying to hunt with Farrah in the open fields she spotted a big female Great-horned Owl w...
Cisco has been struggling a bit since the beginning of 2026, mostly related to the odd vegetation and poor setups I believe. He's taken only a few squirrels over twenty hunts. Ahead of some really nasty weather late yesterday he caught one. The crash sound was amazing. Then Joe Manby and I couldn't find him even though the receiver was giving a good signal. I wondered if Cisco might be dead. Tracking a bird on the ground coupled with major bias as to where he "had to be" made a very stressful half hour at least. Ultimately I found him trying to eat a squirrel under a live oak way out in the open. Cisco broke primaries #3, #4, and #5 on the left side. #3 and #4 primaries had already been broken and imped by Jim Ince. The repairs held up, but both feathers broke again anyway. A great picture.... Farrah is tied for her all time season record, and has helped contribute to the squirrel catch. The pictures below are representative.... ...