Trapping Day - Part 1

How I Trapped & Started Training My New Red-Tailed Hawk!

Picture taken twenty minutes off-trap.

I watched him from the side of the road. My Subaru was pulled over, ignition off. The only sounds were the rustling of dead leaves, the hum of a distant highway, and my breath. It felt like a stakeout. Only instead of it being 2AM outside some seedy establishment, it was 11AM on a sunny day and I was parked on the edge of a farmer’s field.

He was not moving. He was sitting a hundred yards away, perched in a tree, surrounded by acres of fallow hayfield. This bird was unbothered, moisturized, and in his lane. His back was turned to me and the trap I’d set a few feet off the shoulder. From where I was parked I couldn’t see it in the tall grass, but I knew it was there, and he’d see it too if he’d just. turn. around.

I brought my binoculars up to the scratched lens of my glasses. I still couldn’t see the tail. I tried squinting and messing with the focus, but nothing helped. My glasses fogged up right as he started to adjust his feet. I whispered a string of swear words as I frantically wiped them clean before looking back.