Number Three

I, of course didn't feed Peg yesterday as she was too fat to hunt. She had eaten enough from Fridays catch that she wasn't able to put it all over and she threw up some of it on her perch overnight. ( The food all goes into her crop, and if she cannot put it over quickly, it spoils and she has to cast it up) She has a tendency to over indulge when she gets the chance.

This morning she weighed 724 grams and seemed to be very hungry and anxious to hunt. Karen was going to go with us today, which always makes things better. We got a bit of a late start and I had the sun in my eyes all the way there, but I am getting used to not being able to see when I drive. There is nothing on the Desert to block the sun when it comes up.

I am going to have to be a little more lenient on her weight control, today she was into her hunting so much that she was hard to keep on the fist. She was looking down all the holes and into every crack trying to find something to catch. She made a couple of attempts on Bunnies but they would hide, and she would go to the ground, of course allowing them to slip out the back way. She was for her, difficult to get any where with, as she kept going off and wanting to do a little prospecting on her own for something to chase. Normally she sits the fist really well, not flying until she sees something to chase. She had made a shot at a bunny and it had evaded her in some rocks. She was sitting on the rock where she had last saw it, and I was trying to see if it was hiding out a bit from the rocks. Karen walked up to the rocks and Peg went to her rather than come with me. We all took a few steps more and the rabbit bolted right out from under Karen. Peg was off in a flash and made a shot at it in the middle of a clump of sage. I stopped to see if she had caught it, and for a while there was nothing, then I heard a rabbit scream. Peg had chased him down on foot and caught him.

I have been complaining because she keeps losing her advantage by going to the ground, and hoping that she will finally tumble to the fact that height is her friend. Normally she is there running around on the ground and the rabbits are ducking around and going out the back door. Karen was able to see some of the action, and every where the rabbit ducked, peg was on the other side of the bush cutting him off. Now I will never be able to get her to quit chasing them on the ground.

I had saved a front leg from her last kill and was offering it to her to eat, so that I could clean the rabbit. The older rabbits will have tape worms in them, and I would prefer to prevent her from getting any of them. The meat is no problem, but the guts can be, so I like to get rid of them and make sure that she has only good clean meat.

The girl is showing promise. Now I am going to have to stay in the field until she has caught something, or she gives up.

I had hoped this morning to be posting pictures of the new Harris, but alas that is going to have to wait a while. The guy that bred her was supposed to bring her to Christmas Valley. Unfortunately she died on the trip down. I suspect that he did not provide enough ventilation in the box that he made for her. Karen and I were extremely distressed by this development.

I didn't feed Peg yesterday since she was still carrying a bit too much weight from the Jack that I gave her on Wed. I took the airplane flying instead.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeYlQW5gwmI

This morning I woke up about 5AM and couldn't go back to sleep, so I gathered Peg up and took off for the Danner area. It is a 40 minute drive and I arrived there just at first light. There are lots of Jacks and lots of Bunnies, so I was hoping to find a dumb one that she could manage to catch.

Peg, while a sweetheart, and very nice, is just not what one would call an over achiever at this stage of her life. She could and should develop into an adequate game hawk given enough time and exposure, which I hope to give her. She of course is very inexperienced and makes mistakes that always cost her the chance to kill some of these Rabbits that jump up in front of her. Harris Hawks generally learn their craft from their family group, and of course all she has is an old fat guy. She is bound to be handicapped.

We were jumping Bunnies around every rock outcropping, and she was trying, but you need to be quick and take any and every opening and chance you get, or they will go down one of the numerous holes that infest the area. For the most part she ignored the Jacks because they were jumping up pretty far ahead of us, the close Bunny slips were what triggered her chase impulse. She did make a couple of good tries at close Jacks, and managed to pull hair from a Bunny, but mostly it was an exercise in frustration for the first three hours. I was watching for her to get discouraged and quit chasing as hard, but she was still as game as ever, when the Gods finally smiled on us and put a half grown Jack in our path that waited just a bit too long to run. It jumped no more than 10 feet in front of us and she caught him in less than that.

I pulled up a rock and rested while she did her best to eat as much of him as she could choke down. When she finally calmed down, I picked her and the rest of her Rabbit up and we walked back to the truck. I tossed a leg into the box which she willingly followed, and we trundled on home. When we arrived home she was still eating. I finally got her out of the box and tied her up on her perch for the day. It may take three days to get her back down to weight. She had eaten enough that she couldn't hold any more.

I of course forgot my camera, so there are no pictures of any of this.

Karen and I are going to Christmas Valley this afternoon to pick up the other bird. I have been thinking about calling her Sue. Whadyathink? Kind of rolls off the tongue naturally doesn't it? Peggy- Sue!

Today Peg was 700 grams, which seems to be perhaps a bit too low. She isn't weak, but she is very intense. Perhaps a bit too intense. We went back out to the Lava lumps that seem to harbor the most Bunnies. They were irrigating and there was water every where and not nearly the number of Jacks that I had seen the last time we were there. She did get a chance at a Bunny and pulled hair, but not enough to have any rabbit inside it. She also had a Jack for a split second, but it too got away from her.

Karen was only wearing tennis shoes and the water was all over, so I asked her to go back to the truck and move it to the spot that I intended to end up. She took a stand on one of the lumps so that she could see and keep track of us. She saw a steady stream of Jacks moving past her well out in front of us. Peg wants the rabbits to get up close to her. I would prefer it as well, but it isn't going to happen until she makes it so hot on them that they begin to hide to try to avoid us.

I decided to go to another spot to see if I could get her a bit closer to them. I have a "Giant Hood" made out of coroplast that doesn't hurt their feathers and that is what I carry her in. She is pretty funny in that she knows the truck, and that she will get a piece of food on her perch when I open the door.




On our way to a new field we came across a flock of White Front Ibis working over the flooded field. We drove right by, without even one of them flying.


We drove up to a hay stack and parked in the shade. We had passed at least four rabbits on the road coming in. When we got out and walked she got several chances at Rabbits, but I think she was getting a bit tired and discouraged. I again wounded a Jack with the 22. She caught it and we gave her a front leg to bring her weight up a bit. We will try again tomorrow at a new spot that we haven't hunted yet. Perhaps I can find one with suicidal tendencies.

August 24th

Peg this morning weighed 714 grams and increase of 1/3 of an ounce. She still seemed to be sharp and anxious to be with me. I talked Karen into postponing her shower until later so that I could have the benefit of her company and help. We left at daylight again for the field.

We walked the lower part of the fields that we have been finding rabbits, and found very few things to chase, so we reversed directions and went back to where the truck was parked. I asked Karen to keep abreast of me with the truck as I beat the brush.

I had not gone more than 200 yards and a Jack got up pretty close to us. Peg took off and soon the sweet music of a rabbit in distress came to my ears. ( sorry, couldn't help myself) Unfortunately the sound drove all the sense from my head, and instead of waiting out of sight of the rabbit, I got too close and the added terror of a wild eyed sweaty falconer was just too much, and since she was one one side of the bush and he the other, he broke loose. She was very upset, as was I, but it is a lesson that she had to learn. A really unfortunate incident and one that is going to take a lot of work to overcome.

I finally got her back on the fist, and we again started out. We had not gone very far, and off the fist she flew and landed on the ground about 15 feet away. She was eating something, so I went over to see what she had. Something had killed a rabbit and gutted it. I have no clue what it was, the only thing that I can think of that actually guts its prey are members of the cat family. There are Coyotes all around, but I am not sure that they would turn down intestines. ( a word of caution, the above information is best classified as "WAG", Wild Assed guess)

She really didn't get her energy back and the rest of the day was one of frustration. When I got her back home I weighed her and found that she has consumed a bit more than an ounce of something. Will see what she weighs tomorrow.

Finally, Peg Scores!

We have been busting our butts trying to get Peg to commit enough to actually begin catching some of her food. I have been prolonging the misery by not being willing to cut Peg back to the point that a bit of desperation would spur her to the effort needed to actually catch something. In the wild she would have been catching her own food much earlier. In the wild you are either quick or dead, but I had been trying to keep her weight up, to hopefully cut down on the possibility of her screaming. It of course was an exercise in futility and when I took her over to Christmas Valley to visit the guy that gave her to me, she had plenty of lessons in Harris Hawk screaming while we were there. Now she calls every time she sees me. She will quit it next year, but I would have preferred that she never start, but it was not a realistic goal.

Harris Hawks are designed for survival in one of the harshest climates in the world, unlike most of the raptors, they can actually see possible food sources without actually seeing movement.
Here the little darling has captured the rib cage and spine of a fawn that died sometime earlier this spring.
Here she has captured a dirt clod with some spikey pieces of grass in it. She actually carried it up to the fist, showing quite a bit of disgust when it all fell apart.

She has been hoping that some of the Jack Rabbits would just fall over for her, but they are one of the smartest critters out there. They will lure the hawk into making a strike and dodge around a bush to leave their attackers grounded and in the dust. It takes a serious commitment to actually get a foot on one of these speedsters.

Karen and I have been getting up before dawn every day to give her the opportunity to make a kill

and she has been fooling around hoping against hope that one of them will have a heart attack and fall over for her. It just isn't going to happen. It has been at least 11 days of her getting less and less food and driving me up a wall.

Last night I had a dream that she actually caught something, and I had forgotten to take my camera. Well when we left this morning, I made sure I had my camera. She was 705 grams this morning. When I got her, she weighed 800 grams. 28.5 grams to the ounce.

She was still screwing around, trying to get me to call her, when she would fly to a sage, and give her some free food. I only give her food when I whistle, and that is to establish that when I whistle, she needs to get to me quickly. The rest of the time I just stick up my fist and walk away, she either comes when I am close or she gets to fly a long way to get to me. If she should decide that she doesn't need to come to me, then we go home, no food, no more chances. We had covered most of the field and she had a few chances at Jacks and Bunnies, but had not put forth enough effort to even get close to a rabbit. As with most eyasses she screwed up many of the best slips by being somewhere else at the crucial moment. While she was trolling for a tidbit from me and sitting on a rock pile behind me, I flushed a Jack Rabbit so small that if it had not been for the ears, I would have thought it was a bunny. Of course she didn't see it tottering off into the sage never to be seen again.

I asked Karen to get the truck and follow along the road so that she would not have that long of a useless walk. The area is made up of perfect Bunny habitat, large lava lumps up to 30 feet high with lots of crevices and Badger holes all over the place. She was finally beginning to put some serious effort in trying to catch some of the rabbits that we were bumping. She actually flew through a barb wire fence to slam into the ground in an effort to catch a running Bunny. Luckily she didn't hit the fence. We had two more good slips at Bunnies that she was really bucking some brush in an effort to get her feet on one. Finally she took off the fist and did a quick wing over just about 15 yards in front of me. I was listening for the squeal of a captured rabbit, but was greeted with nothing but silence. Wearily I made my way to where she had went down and found this-
They do not scream when they cannot open their mouth. She has always been a head hunter, which is good. She is actually pretty small and the added handicap of a bum foot would make it extremely difficult to hold a full grown Jack Rabbit by the butt. I cannot recall that many hawks that had the sense to grab them by the head until they have been kicked off several times.


Since there are few JackaLopes around there is not much of a trophy, but a piece of tail isn't anything to sneeze at. A happy camper none the less. Peg with her dirt clod.

Peg, Aug 9

I have been trying to find some rabbits here for Peg to hunt, but apparently the West Nile has again gotten most of them. There seems to be only about 3 or four rabbits here, where this spring there were lots. I have wasted several days walking my butt off, my belly stays no matter what, to no avail. Yesterday we went to a spot that I found a couple of years ago that seemed to have lots of Bunnies. There were lots of Rabbits there but, there were more Jacks than Bunnies. She didn't want to chase the Jacks, but made several attempts to catch the Bunnies. They are hardly ever very far away from their holes, so she was unsuccessful This morning we went back with Karen as the holder and me as the shooter.
I started keeping her in the Giant Hood yesterday. It is much easier all the way around, since she cannot get hurt or spooked and the crap is all in one spot. It is made of "coroplast" and doesn't scrub her feathers either. I just put a piece of meat on the perch, she hops in, and use a piece to call her out.

We had just barely parked the truck and climbed the first little hump and a Bunnie ran one way, a Jack the other. I managed to get a clear shot at the Jack, and shot him in the butt. Peg saw him and just as quickly caught him. It was all pretty exciting for her and it took her quite a long time for her to calm down enough to begin eating.
You can tell from her crest, that she is hyped up. Karen and I sat down and ignored her until she began eating and managed to eat about a quarter crop. I then went up to her and fed her tidbits, until she decided to leave the rabbit and come to me for more of the easy stuff. I had a front leg for her to tear on, and she worked on that until we got back to the truck. When she finished, I put her in the box and it was home again, until tomorrow.

The entering process begins.

I decided after walking all over and getting no response from her on anything other than lizards that I was going to see if I could short circuit the process and take Peg over to Christmas Valley where a bunch of guys including Dan Pike, who bred her, were flying their birds and see if I could get a chance to fly her with their birds to show her what it is all about.

I stopped at Crystal Crane Hot Springs on my way and tempted Ron Kearney to join me on the trip. I had a phone number that no one was answering, and other than a general agreement a couple of weeks ago, no one knew for sure that I would attempt it. So the chances of it working smoothly were pretty long. I would have been able to stay as long as necessary, but Ron needed to come back the next day. It was still an adventure, and worth the effort.

We arrived in Christmas Valley at dusk, and still no answer on their cell phone, so we got something to eat and a Motel room. The next morning as soon as it was light, I broke out the telementry equipment and got a signal off to the North East. We finally tracked down Toby Bradshaw, whom I had not seen since the 80's. Other than thinning hair there was no difference. Still a great guy to be around and a great sense of humor. We tried to locate some of the other ones but were unsuccessful. We then went driving, trying to find a rabbit in a spot that we might be able to get her a chance at. The guys had returned to their rented house by then and finally turned on a cell phone to call us.

We arrived to a nice breakfast, prepared by Toby and "shot some bulls", and got caught up on the latest in their lives and ours. Dan looked at Peg's leg and insisted that he was going to send me a replacement for her when she (new bird) was old enough. I have to admit that I am torn, because I like her a lot. She may or may not be able to handle Jacks with her leg being the way it is, but she is a sweetie. Perhaps Karen will take her for her own? We finally said our good byes and headed back.

When we returned, Ron picked up a glove so that he could carry her, while I attempted to shoot a Rabbit for her. We were walking in some sage and a Jack jumped about 20 yards in front of us. Peg took off after him and tried her best to catch it, but he had moves that she had never seen before and escaped. She also tried to catch a Short Eared Owl, but thankfully had no chance at that either. We walked back to the truck, it was very hot and I was tired and thirsty. Ron was having trouble getting her on the perch in the truck, so I laid the 22 down on the bumper, Tied her up and promptly walked to the front of the truck, leaving the gun on the bumper. (my multitasking days are apparently over) I finally remember it when I got home about an hour later. I called Ron and one of his neighbors found it lying in the road.

After I got every thing squared away here at the house, we took Peg out and sat her, loose, on a perch on the hot tub, while I sat in a chair in front of her. After a bit one of the Jacks came into the yard to munch. I shot him and let Peg have her fill of nice hot Jack Rabbit.

She spent the night on the perch in front of the stove where she has been since I got her. This morning it became very apparent that it is time for her to go out to the hanger for her night perch. She has a lot more range with a full crop. It took Karen and I a lot of scrubbing to get the hearth and stove cleaned up.

When she comes back to her flying weight, we will go where there are a lot of Cotton Tails. Actually they are Brush Bunnies, but they look like little Cottontail Rabbits. Not sure how long that will be, at least two days for sure.

Flying free

I had a bunch of things to attend to and didn't get ready to fly her until about 1100. She sat quietly here in the house until she saw me cutting up meat. She then came to edge of the perch and began squeaking quietly. I found a transmitter and got every thing ready, taking my 22 in case I should get a chance to wound a rabbit for her.

We walked for a bit and I put her on a rock so that I could call her to me.

You can see her flying just over the sage bush behind me. She rode the fist quite well all along the rocky outcroppings. I set her down so that I could call her several times. I do not wait for the bird to come to me, she must want to come to me enough that she will fly to me while I am walking. The sooner she comes the less distance she has to fly. If she chooses to not come to me, she will have to eventually look for me. If she gets too far behind, I will stick my fist in the air, but I will not stop. If I have to stop and go back for her, she will not get anything more until tomorrow. Lesson will be over.
She did not lag at all, so we continued on. We got up to the top of the escarpment (little one) and several Jacks got up in front of us, but she has no clue that they are on the menu. Lizards are another matter however. We have a lizard here that I call racing lizards. (Long nosed leopard lizard)They are about 8 to 10 inches long and are faster than anything that I have seen for a long time. I have paced them on my quad and they can run about 20 mph. Anyway, Peg thinks that they are really good to eat. We had some good flights on them too. They can twist and turn with the best of them but thankfully she didn't catch any. She had chased one that flushed out behind us and I was trying to get a tidbit ready for her, when she flew to me without me asking. She landed on the butt of the rifle and then worked her way down to the fist.

We walked about 2.5 hours and covered a couple of miles. She did well. She hasn't developed the fly off to a bush so that I could call her back to the fist routine yet, but it won't be long.

I have decided to take her to Christmas Valley, where a couple of guys are hunting their Harris Hawks that are already made, so that she can get an idea of what we are actually hunting for.

Peg, almost ready!

My neighbor, Tami, sent me some pictures of my introduction of Peg to a rowdy pool party, and adoring audience. Of course she was a instant success with the girls.

The only thing that she objected to Was Curly barging in front of me to go swimming with the girls.
I didn't get these pictures until last night so I though that I would include them since they were of a bit better quality than what I had been doing. In the one above you can see the problem to her right leg is in her foot joint. Its like it is a bit twisted.

Now on to today's flight:

She was as usual all fluffed up on her perch right up to the time that I put on my vest. On weighing her I found that I had only increased her weight by 5 grams. Not too bad considering the amount of food that I fed her. She weighed 772 grams today. We all trooped out to the runway for our exercise. Walking is a "manning" ( meaning to tame) exercise that has been used since the first falconer most likely. It not only gets the bird used to movement and tames it down, it is also good for the participants as well. Indy, who is 15, has a tendency to sleep a lot, and is a bit arthritic as well, forgets her age and goes off merrily on her way if you have a hawk on your fist.
Karen had to work at it to catch her back with us rather than out in front sniffing around. The walks are a bit leisurely and photo ops are permissible also.

When we got back, I tied on a longer creance, (line) so that we could stretch things out a bit as I am about ready to turn her loose. I could of course have done so today, but I wanted to make sure that the panic button (lure) had as much meaning as it should.

She did quite well and is on the verge of not waiting for me to call for her to fly to me.

As you can see from this picture she has come about 100 feet to the fist as soon as it was presented. On the next one I threw the lure for her and she did not hesitate. She does still want to drag the lure to a secluded spot to eat. That comes from having a bunch of your siblings trying to take your food away from you every time you get something good to eat. She may or may not get over that given time.

You will notice that she has grabbed the biggest part of the lure rather than the food. She lost her grip on it a couple of times and had to run back and get it, since I was standing on the line and not letting her drag it off. I began to tidbit her while she had the lure and eventually she began eating. When she was done, she jumped to the fist still holding the lure.

Unless her weight is much higher than it was today, tomorrow she will fly free.

Peg's introduction to the lure.

I tied Peg out yesterday to the weathering area after we finished our lesson. It is the second time that I have tried to put her outside and she sits on the ground rather than her perch. I tried two rotating perches and she preferred to sit on the edge of her bath. I finally put one of my falcon blocks out there for her, and she finally started to use it. I brought her in the house at dusk.

Today after I had gotten every thing done, I started putting on my hawking bag and picked up the glove. She slicked down and moved to the edge of her perch in anticipation of me offering my fist and the attendant tidbit.

I weighed her first this time, and found that she weighed 766 grams, obviously judging from her actions, well within her response weight. Karen brought Indy out and we went on our walk. Peg as usual did quite well until we returned and neared her fence. She did finally bate at it as soon as we got within 30 yards of it. I wanted more room however so we went to the ranch yard to call her to the fist.

Her response was quick and she even came once before I called her. (I take every thing off and fly them free when I can't get to where I want to call them before they fly to me without prompting) After calling her several times to the fist, I brought out the lure and threw that for her. (A lure in this case is a small leather bag stuffed with "Cling Free" with a cord on it to attach food that is used to call them from a distance and when you really really need them to respond) ( a panic button if you will) She did go down to it, and I called her again and she responded quite well this time.