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.