Suddenly Ron yelled 'flight!' and let out a series of shouts of Hoy! Hoy! Hoy!.... Jesse flipped on his back and stooped down from a few hundred feet up at a now twisting and turning Lilac-Breasted Roller. The Roller seemed to plunge headlong into the tall grass of the vlei with only a few feet left between it and the Falcon. Jesse pulled up out of his dive and climbed back up to his pitch with his momentum. Only to flip into another dive as the Roller tried to scramble out and back into the grass! This frantic activity was repeated three or four times to Ron's shouts of 'Hoy!, Hoy!' and us crashing through the grass to catch up with the action. Falconry is certainly not a stealth sport but even here in the middle of the African bush is part of an age old tradition. The 'Hoy's' that Ron was shouting are actually part of the tradition - being Chaucerian English for 'Hunt'. It is the signal from the Falconer to the bird to continue to push the hunt. Ron Hartley and I had ended our time at the Batoka by traveling to the nearby game ranch of Larry and Shirley Cummings. The Cumming's son Wayne was a pupil at Falcon College where Ron is a teacher (and I was also once a pupil). Ron runs a falconry club at the school, in which a handful of selected pupils practice Falconry as one of the college sports. Wayne was Ron's head falconer at the club. The bottom of the shallow valley below the Cummings homestead is dominated by a wide 'vlei' - a field of tall grass that is waterlogged in the wet season. It was also an ideal place to find Francolin or Grey Louries at which Ron could fly his falcons. Ron had brought 'Jesse' his beautifully steel grey plumaged 12 year old veteran male (tiercel) African Peregrine and 'Phu' a darker plumaged 7 year old female. Spotting some Grey Louries, laboring with slow flight and long tails between some of the thorn trees that dotted the vlei, Ron readied Jesse. Once Jesse was up and holding above us we started to make in on the Louries, to flush them, timed as the falcon headed into the wind on his circles above us. However just before we could start, the Roller appeared out of no-where and enticed the falcon into his breathtaking head-long stoop!

Ron knew Jesse well and after these series of near misses he said that Jesse was likely to wander and look further afield. So Ron pulled out the lure and with a few swings brought Jesse in to feed on part of a dove that Ron had ready. As it was then getting dark we called it quits and headed back to our guest cottage and the great hosting by the Cummings's.

The next afternoon it was Phu's turn to hunt. This time we were joined by the Cummings's and some of their guests. Luckily we did not fly Phu in the same area as we had the day before. When the farm manager arrived he said that a pride of lions was hunting in the very vlei we had been the day before. This time the target was a number of Teal sitting on the water in a small dam further up the valley. The challenge was to get the Teal to leave the water as soon as Phu had reached her pitch. Ducks would rather sit on the water and be able to dive than take their chances at outflying a falcon. However like with so much, when dealing with animals, things seldom go as planned. Instead of waiting on over the ducks Phu suddenly streaked off across the bush and disappeared from sight. Suddenly we could see her throw up a hundred feet above the trees and flip over to drop down again. Ron said she had struck something. He took out his telemetry set and followed the blips until he zeroed in on Phu! She was sitting quietly plucking the feathers off a Grey lourie. Ron let her continue to pluck and start to feed before picking her up and toasting her success!

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