A bit of a surprise.

When I picked up Peg this morning she weighed 724 grams. Heavier than she has shown serious interest so far, but it is time she got the relationship with catching something and eating, so I decided to take her out to see what she would do. If you remember at 742 she really did not ever start at anything, but she also didn't get fed either. It has been three days since she last ate, and I expected that to goad her to at least make some effort. It is in both our best interest that she be as heavy as she can tolerate and still catch stuff.

I felt that there was a good chance that it might be a wasted effort so I went back to the Rome area to hunt. Karen can follow in the truck, but there is a lot of Grease Wood and the sage and the other weed and nasty growths are very high. She got two chances at Jacks there, and we found some Bunnies hiding around the buildings and junk there, but we couldn't get a good shot at anything. Always too close to cover.

 

  

This is the way that they used to make the corrals. Two posts are set in the ground in the shape that you want and willows are cut and put in between them. It made a good fence out of materials that were ready to hand.

 

I decided that since she seemed to be interested in catching something that we would go to the Arock area where the terrain is a bit more amenable to chasing Jacks.

She got a couple of chances at Bunnies there, but they all managed to give her the slip. Karen was trying to break in a new pair of boots, and they were eating her ankles up, so she went back to the truck, leaving me and Curly to carry on. I made a big swing out through the rocks and the brush getting one more chance at a Jack. Again inexperience reared its ugly head, and she missed. I headed back to the truck again across a little peninsula of Sage and rocks. We jumped a Jack and she made a terrific cut at it, but missed once again. As I walked up to her to pick her up, she made a short shot at a clump of Sage. I thought that she was after a lizard or something. She made a grab into the bush and a Black Bird started screaming and tried to bolt out of the other side. Peg was faster and caught him in about three feet. I was both amazed and a bit chagrined, but a kill is a kill to her and will be to me as well. As long as it isn't a lizard or a Chipmunk. I was a bit concerned about the health of the bird, so I gave her the Jack front leg that I carry for a reward when she does catch a Rabbit. After closer examination the bird gave no appearance of any flaw other than stupidity. Apparently Peg's chase after the Jack pinned it in the Sage clump and it was trying to escape notice by hiding. Another piece of evidence about the wonderful vision of the Harris Hawk.

 

 

  I want her to hunt Chukar eventually so it was not a bad deal all in all. She has tried Quail occasionally, but not seriously. Perhaps now she will be a bit more interested.