Widow 9/11/08

September 11, 2008

Our weather has just the hint of fall in it. The mornings are cool and the daytime temps are not going over the mid 70’s. The last few flights with Widow have not gone well. I had come across some wild slips while driving in the BLM so I attempted to fly her on them. The end result was she didn’t fly well. So I went back to basics and took her back up on the big hill as a refresher. I was pleased to see her go up right away and as she was gaining height a large female first year eagle came in fast and bound to Widow. They both went cart wheeling towards the ground and, just before smashing into the ground, they released and flew off in opposite directions. Then, from out of nowhere, three more eagles showed up, two more females and one male. One of the females was an adult, most likely their mother. They all soared with Widow and finally the wild eagles went off and specked out, off on some adventure to be sure. Widow came over me and I called her down to the lure, and launched her off again, only to call her in once more. On the third flight I launched a pheasant which flew out over the valley. Widow was directly over me at about 2000 ft when I served her the pheasant. The second she saw the pheasant Widow folded up and stooped, hitting the pheasant and killing it dead in the air. I could hear the sizzle as she came in with tremendous speed and, whack, end of flight.