Hunting Season Preparation Begins Six Months Early After Falconer Remembers Last Year's Disaster

Falconer Tomas Jessop has begun his hunting season preparation a full six months ahead of schedule, citing the events of last October, which he describes in his journal as 'the worst 45 minutes of my falconry career and, by extension, my life.' The 2025 season opener saw Jessop arrive at his preferred hunting grounds with a red-tailed hawk named Brutus, only to discover that his spare jesses had dry-rotted over the summer, his telemetry transmitter batteries were dead, his lure line had been chewed through by mice in his equipment bag, and the landowner whose permission he had secured had sold the property. 'Brutus slipped the jesses on the first flight because the leather cracked,' Jessop recounted. 'I reached for my telemetry receiver and it was dead. I reached for my lure and it had no line. I was standing in a field I no longer had permission to be in, with no way to track or recall my bird, and the new landowner was walking toward me.' Brutus was recovered three hours later from a utility pole, but not before Jessop received a trespassing warning and spent $180 on emergency telemetry batteries from the only supplier open on a Sunday. The resulting pre-season checklist, which Jessop has laminated and posted in his mews, garage, truck, and bathroom, now spans 87 items across categories including equipment inspection, landowner confirmation, veterinary clearance, vehicle preparedness, and a section titled 'Things That Seem Fine But Are Probably Rotting.' 'I check the jesses weekly now,' Jessop said. 'I rotate telemetry batteries monthly. I confirm land permissions in writing, with signatures. I carry backup everything. I will never again be the falconer standing in a stranger's field with no jesses, no telemetry, and no legal right to be there.' Brutus, for his part, appears unconcerned. He is currently sitting on a perch in the mews, watching Jessop condition leather with the gaze of a bird who knows exactly who is in charge.