False starts

September 1st I planned to go with my sponsor to begin trapping. I was bonkers all day at work; couldn't focus and was totally excited. It turned out that his schedule was fuller than he expected which made us late getting out and we had maybe 30 minutes before dark. He was to get some sparrows from a guy he knew and this guy hadn't started trapping any yet. So my sponsor suggested grabbing a bunch of large grasshoppers for the trap and call him right back. My boys and I ran outside and found 5 largish hoppers and called him back but there was no answer. He called back quite a bit later than I hoped but we went out.

We drove to where I had seen a couple of kestrels hanging out during the last couple of weeks. I got in his car to drop the trap under a power pole where a male was perched. I left my daughter and son in our van on the road and took the keys with me. When we turned his car around to go drop the trap, the bird was long gone. And it was about dark. So we decided to call it quits. I got out of his car and he drove off and he was gone about 300 yards when I realized my keys had fallen out of my pocket in his car. I ended up calling my wife to bring the spare key out.

Before he left, my sponsor said that the next day he was sure his schedule was clear and we'd go out earlier. I went to the pet store on the way home from work and picked up a couple of black and white mice. I called and called my sponsor and left messages and he finally called me back after dark that night and said family had come into town.

Altogether not a good beginning to the trapping experience. And the level of communication between sponsor and apprentice leaves much to be desired. He's just not the type of person to be tied down to a phone or time schedules.