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.