Sat 31st, Halloween, no treat!

I decided to fly Jessie this morning and Peg this afternoon, by ourselves. No Sly, no Karen. She is a bit tired and decided that she wanted a day off, but wanted to watch Jessie fly.

I couldn't resist a different view of the Mountain as usual.

I climbed the bank to check the pond to make sure that ducks were present.

Indy decided that she wanted to go with us, and she has been acting like a young puppy again, so I decided to take her. We have been giving her a supplement recommended by our UPS gal. It is a powdered Glucosamine with Chondrotin and another vitamin supplement that contains every thing from Flax seeds to omega 3. ( www.1stchoicenutrition4pets.com ) It has really made a difference with her. She used to drive me nuts following me around and panting so loudly that I could only hear her breathing. She has quit the heavy breathing, so one would assume that she is not in as much pain as before. She has been sleeping better and even playing with Curly. One of the problems that I had with her before was that I couldn't wake her at night to go outside. She is still deaf and half blind, but she is happier, and that is what counts. Today is her 15th birthday. She still doesn't like to have her picture taken.

Karen thought that Indy would do better if she stayed with her, rather than following me up the side of the hill and over the other side, if Jessie caught something. So Curly and Betsy and Jessie and I, started around and up the hill to the cliff edge. At the bottom of the hill I turned Jessie loose to get her pitch.

I lost sight of Betsy, and that was a mistake apparently because soon there were ducks in the air squirting out over the dam with Jessie starting her stoop. I lost sight of them against the side of the hill and heard her hit one into the ground. It was quite loud, but for whatever reason she continued flying and came back and landed on the cliff face in front of me. Betsy had come back by then, so I called them over with me to wait for her to take flight again. She didn't take very long at all and took off taking a higher pitch than before. We walked up to an apparently empty pond. There was only a diver left on the pond that wasn't about to fly. I began throwing things at him, but he refused to leave. Curly saw that, and ran around the cliff and the first thing I know there is a Mallard Drake getting flushed out of the reeds. Curly found him and went in after him. Jessie stooped and smacked him down about 10 feet off the bank. For whatever reason she strafed him rather than close with him. He eventually made it to the water and she came up and landed on the cliff about 6 feet in front of me. Not sure what is going on in her mind. This is a bit, hell, a whole lot unusual for her. I have no idea why she would knock a medium sized duck into the mountain side and not go down on him, or knock a Mallard into the ground and not finish the job. She was also reluctant to come to the Quail that I offered her after she landed on the cliff face. It takes her a while to accept any kind of change, so it could still be the new hunting time. She is flying well, and strong, just seems to be unused to the time. I know that she still expects to be fed in the evening even when she has a bulging crop. She is a strange Peregrine.

I walked back to the truck while Jessie was eating. ( a reduced meal. Tomorrow she will be a bit hungrier. ) Karen, asked where Indy was? I looked up and she was retracing my footsteps up the hill. We both yelled to get her attention. I did tell you she was deaf, didn't I? Karen started after her while I took Jessie to the truck and tied her to her perch with the rest of her meal. Karen was way up the hill, losing ground. By this time the air was getting tinged with a touch of blue. I took off at my best fat mans stride to try to catch up, and reached Karen up on the hill at about the same time that Indy walked back to the truck. We were relieved enough that the trip back down was a lot happier. Indy follows me every where, and even though she is pretty deaf, seems to be aware of where I am at all times, and does her best to be with me. Most likely should have left her at home. Karen got the job of picking the Cockle burrs out of her coat. She had one in the middle of each of her feet between the pads. Karen had to hold her down while I cut them out with scissors. A long haired dog in this country is not a good move. Betsy of course wanted to be combed, but had nothing on her little flat coat.

Every one was down to weight today, although Jessie didn't seem as interested in going hunting as I am used to. Still hasn't gotten used to morning hunts I suspect.

As usual there was a different look to the Steens and I couldn't resist another picture. I never tire of looking at it.

Jessie was up first, and we took her to the pond that she had trouble with the Teal a couple of days ago. This time there were nothing but Mallards in the pond so I anticipated a bit better outcome. Jessie seems to have regained most of her condition at this point so I turned her loose at the truck, while I made my way around through the Sage to a point where I could flush. After a short period sitting on a rock outcropping, she took her pitch over the pond while I got into position. I flushed and she choose a pair of Mallards that were streaking out the far end of the pond. Apparently I flushed when she was further out of position than I thought, and she could not catch either of them. I called her back and after feeding her, I hooded her and put her in the truck.

We took Sylvester and Peg to a new area to see if we could catch some Jacks. Peg's weight was 831 grams, which seems to be real close to a good weight for her. Sylvester was about 710 grams, which makes him very interested in killing something. Peg is starting to understand (perhaps a bit optimistic on my part ) the advantage of having two birds trying to catch some of these tricky Jacks, and she was putting a bit more effort and try into catching them. Finally a Jack took off and with the two birds taking turns and trying to outdo each other, I saw Sylvester put in a hard stoop that resulted in a short scream. I say short because Peg slammed into him at about the same time, cutting off his ability to make any noise. Sylvester had managed to get a foot into his butt, and was threaded through a Sage with his leg at a dangerous angle against a rock. I wanted a picture, but he let go and sat on the top of a nearby Sage while I killed the Jack. I tossed each a chunk of the previous Jack to eat while I took care of this Jack and put him in my bag.


The normal method of handling Sylvester is to give him a leg off his catch and when he finishes that, toss him a few tidbits, and let him look around before going hunting again. He has gotten used to the tidbits coming out of the right hand side of my bag, and if I am not fast enough he will land on my hat, then hop down to my shoulder until I toss him the tidbit. Well I wasn't fast enough and he landed on my head, instead of going to my shoulder, he took my hat off and dragged in into a bush, only letting go when it got hung up. He got his tidbits.

Once they had finished their reward, we went on, hoping against hope that Peg would manage to catch a Jack before Sylvester could. She was trying really hard and both hawks were keying to our shouts when a new rabbit would jump. We had at least one flight at a bunny that beat them to a hole. Karen amused herself taking pictures of me and Peg trying to run him out of the hole. Unfortunately it was too deep and we had to give up.

We fed Sylvester up and I will fly Peg by herself tomorrow to see if she can put it together by herself.

Global warming!

Peg was too high in weight to fly today, so we get an easy one. Only Jessie to fly. The weather forecast was overcast with precipitation around 11:00 AM, probably snow since the temps were 29 degrees at 10:45 AM.

I dug out Betsy's rubber vest, so she wouldn't freeze, loaded every one in the truck and we were off into the lowering clouds. By the time that we arrived at Appendix point it had started to snow. Worried about the possibility of the pond being frozen, I checked and found that there was still open water and ducks on it as well.

I turned her loose and she made a circle around and landed on the rock cliff behind us. Betsy went on point, indicating that there were quail in the Sage along the road.

I decided to go around the pond on the hill side to see if I could get a bit cleaner flush. Karen would stay on the other side to cover Jessie if she killed something, as it would take me a long time to get to her. The dogs eventually found the Quail, but Jessie happily ignored it, and started climbing into the falling snow. I eventually made my way to the top of the cliff, waited until she was coming back over my shoulder, and walked up to the point where I was visible to the ducks below. They immediately flushed off across the pond clearing the water with no hesitation. For once I got to see most of the flight. Generally I am too busy running to take my eyes off my feet. Jessie flew right through the duck hitting him a whack that was easy to hear from my height, followed by the "whump" when he hit the ground that was even louder. She did a short throw up and turned, landing on the stunned duck before he could even get his wits about him.

After a short time of her plucking the duck, I offered her a Quail in trade and she gladly came to me. We walked back through the falling snow to the truck to allow the survivors to land again.

Karen and I attended our State Falconry meet over the weekend, taking our Motor home ( my idea, as Karen will hurry to tell you. After all why pay $140. for a motel room when you have a MH ) out for one of the few times this year. It as usual was interesting. First we were out of Propane, so the heater didn't work, until we could fill up in Crane. ( 65 miles north) The coach battery was stone dead, so I couldn't start the generator to get what ever heat there was in the air conditioner. It wasn't so bad however since it was at least 44 degrees outside.

When we got the tank filled, things were a bit better, even warm. We then stopped at Les Schwab to get a new battery, which I had previously checked and was told would cost $108. plus $10.00 for installation. Only it turns out that it was a "misquote", ( sounded too good to be true. ) and it cost $202.00. Oh well, I needed one any way. Next stop was Pacific pride. $201 for 70 gallons of Diesel, then a run around Burns to try to find a windshield wiper. Nothing of course available, so I bought one of the inserts for $10.00 and modified (Mickey moused) the old one to accept the insert and we are off. The wiper was a good idea as it rained all the way to Madras, where the meet was held. West of Brothers on Hwy 20 the fuel filter plugged up. I managed to make it to a turn out, dug out the spare fuel filter that I carry just in case. Changing the filter was a piece of cake, but there was no diesel fuel to fill it with and of course without that nothing is going to happen. Pat Brewster was behind us, so we called her cell phone, and asked her to bring us a quart of diesel fuel. When she arrived it took very little time to get it started and we were off again. The rest of the trip was trouble free. I bought another filter and was told to get a quart of ATF to fill the filter with the next time. I was not aware of that, since I am at best a reluctant and fairly inept mechanic. That night the furnace quit working. I had prepared for that however and plugged in a new out of the box electric heater that was so full of safety features that it would not even get hot enough to feel any heat, so that night we used the heater part of the air conditioner. Not very effective however, but we couldn't hear any traffic over the noise of the AC. Betsy had learned her lesson and stayed under the covers all night.

We did not take any of the hawks with us, having fed them all up before we left. It was just as well. Every one needs to fly at the same time and I admit that I am spoiled. I hate to have to fly my birds in all that population.

I had put the birds in the three chambers that I have here, taking their leashes off and allowing them to fly free. When we got back Jessie was very interested in coming to me, in fact she was landing on my head in the hopes that I would feed her. I tried to get Karen interested in going hawking, but she was too tired, and I really needed to get the MH winterized again, all the lines blown out and stuff like that, so I fed her what I thought would keep her until the next day. Peg was just fine and starved as usual, so I fed her enough to hold her over night. Sylvester however was a different story. I use the vestibule of his chamber to store extra chicken scratch. I noticed that there was a rather large family of mice in there when I put him in. I am sure that is no longer the case as he was much too fat to even consider coming to me until today.

Monday morning dawned cold and a bit windy at the house. Jessie was too fat and would not come to me, Peg was fatter than I liked but she was up for anything, so we went hunting. At least I was, she was along for the ride.

The wind started picking up and by Tuesday morning it was fairly ripping. It hit 51 miles per hour before the day was over and kept that up all through the day and most of the night.

This morning Sylvester had run out of mice and was happy to see me again. Peg was at 831 grams, which was a much better weight. Even Jessie was glad that I was considering picking her up. I decided that two trips a day was just too much so we were going to have to combine them and fly every body in one trip, so Jessie went into the truck as well. It was still a bit windy and blowing at about 14 MPH with a 37 degree temp.

We noticed on the way to the Hwy that it had snowed on the Steens and there was a bit of a low pressure because the clouds were crammed down even with the top. A sure sign that the weather was going to get worse.


We went to a pond on the other side of the area that we hunt the Harris's, and found that there were lots of ducks on the pond and a lot of it was frozen, but there was still an open spot near the dam. This was the first time that I had flown Jessie in the morning, but I thought she would be OK as she was a bit lower than I intended her to be on this frosty morning. I got her in position and turned her loose. She proceeded to fly low over the pond and the ducks for a while before she started climbing. ( It would be nice if I could find some way to tell her that ducks that aren't petrified by her buzzing them are a lot more willing to leave the pond.) When she set her tail, (Falcons that are ready for the flush will spread their tail and set their wings when they are ready for the ducks) I jumped up and tried to flush them. They flew a 30 foot circle and splashed back down on the water. I tried harder and got some of them to start over the land, but they went back as soon as she started down again. She bounced one of them on the bank, and he promptly floundered back into the water. We did this until I was worn out, with her bouncing them on the bank, four in all, and Karen and I were so tired that Karen was cussing hawks and ducks. ( She can get cranky sometimes) We finally got one to leave the pond and Jessie started after him, which caused him ( Teal) to crash into a pile of weeds. I finally called her down to the lure and fed her a quail. She was lead astray by concentrating on the Teal, which are small flying rats, rather than on the bigger birds that were dumb enough to keep flying. Oh well, that is why they call it hunting, its all fun, although I did get another education in colorful language. (She claims that she learned it all from me. I don't believe her though)


Then it was time for the Harris Hawks. Sylvester was hungry and I was pretty sure that it wouldn't take him long to catch one, which he did in pretty short order. Peg never even saw the Jack jump, so she didn't get in on any of the action. Karen and I weren't communicating very well, and Peg managed to see the food that I threw for Sylvester before he did, so she got fed as well. I considered putting him up and just hunting her, but he seemed to be still game, so off we went. Peg was much better at 831 and was trying, although she is still so naive that it makes me cringe. She got a close slip on a Jack and pulled a bunch of hair out of his butt, but was scraped off in the brush. We kept on and she got another foot full of hair as did Sylvester, but the rabbit made his escape. Sylvester hit one Jack off a ways from me and the wind blew hair all over the place, a bit like an explosion. The wind by that time had picked up briskly and both birds were tired as we were too. It was a long cold trip back to the truck. Sylvester flying into the cover of the bushes to get out of the wind.

I am forced to admit that I over did it a bit today. We spent a total of four hours hunting the birds, most of it walking with the Harris's. However, I think I am getting closer with Peg. I do despair sometimes of her ever learning how to catch Jacks, but sometime she shows me something new that makes me believe that she will someday be able to hold her own. She saw a sitting Jack today and crashed into the bush narrowly missing him.

Jessie's Fifth

Karen and I loaded all the critters in the car for an afternoon Jessie hunt. It is time for a gorge for her and I wanted it to be on a duck that she catches. Last year I let her eat every thing she wanted and flew her again when she came down to weight. This will convince a falcon that hunting is good, and satisfying as well. I have never decided whether the pleasure of eating all she would want is greater than catching something and eating a reasonable meal. I wanted her to know that I can supply both. This year I have been allowing her to pluck and eat some of the neck before I traded her either half of a Pigeon breast and wing. She likes duck fat, but does not care all that much for the meat, so she will step off the duck quite readily for Pigeon and especially Coturnix quail. We are way ahead of our head count compared to last year, and so far she seems quite happy. It has always been considered good practice to gorge a hawk once a week, and it is a practice that I have always followed.

The day has been quite a nice fall day with the temps in the low 60's. I turned Jessie loose below the dam at Appendix point, ( named so by the Grandfather of the family next door, because of all the belly scars of the ladies that swam in the pond.) I think the map is different. Jessie flew to the cliff and admired all the little duckies swimming in the pond. I was not surprised, she still had lots of time before it got dark, and she was apparently going to enjoy the afternoon. Karen and I picked out soft rocks to wait her out. She scratched, roused and flapped her wings for about 15 minutes before deciding to get to work.She took a fair pitch and I walked up to the pond and before I could flush, the ducks took off and she foolishly allowed them to sucker her into a stoop at them. Of course as soon as she started down, they all turned back to the pond. I had thought that we had gone through this last year. Some of the others decided to make a try at escape, so she switched gears and grabbed one by the wing, but it managed to tear loose. She then decided she was tired and landed on the cliff again. By this time I was in an area that was fairly wet, so sitting was out of the question. I squatted painfully in the Rabbit brush for another 15 minutes while she rested. Another couple of ducks flew in while we were waiting for her to get going again.This time when she took off, she wasn't about to lose her pitch and she stayed up there while the dogs and I ran to the other end of the pond to where some ducks were hiding in the cattails. She shadowed the ones that I flushed towards the other end of the pond. When they cleared the end of the dam she began her stoop. A drake Gadwall tried to turn back, but she cut him off and grabbed him coming to a crashing halt right in front of Karen. It is unfortunate that the spy camera isn't good enough to capture the flight, because it was quite spectacular as it all happened within yards of where Karen was standing.

I tied her to a Sage and let her pluck to her hearts content. She ate about a half crop on the duck before I gave her a quail to finish her meal.

Hopefully she will remember this little episode the next time she is tempted by a flying duck, and wait until it is over the ground before even starting.

Oct 21st

Yesterday when we finished hunting, I contacted another landowner for permission to hunt a different area, one that borders one of our other hunting spots. We were in need of another spot to hunt to let our other ones rest a bit, since we have been hitting them hard lately.This particular property covers several square miles and should completely fill our rabbit needs.

I guess, like most people I have a selective memory. It seems to me that the last Harris Hawks that we had were much more effective than the birds that I am flying now. Our last two trips covered about three hours each, and we still didn't come away with any rabbits in the bag. Today appeared to be more of the same. Granted Peg could most likely lose about an ounce, but Sylvester should be pretty well right on at 710 grams. The cover isn't that high or thick.  Sure the Bunnies are generally pretty close to the burrows, but somebody should screw up some of the time. It isn't late enough in the year for all the slow and dumb ones to be dead yet.

Today was looking like more of the same, and I was getting cranky. Sylvester had pulled a bit of hair out of a bunny that ran into the rocks. Peg was behind the chase and really not affecting the outcome, but she got there in time to follow the bunny to the hole. I stuck the end of my Tee Perch in the hole and could feel rabbit. I called Peg over to where I was, and poked it again. Out come the rabbit right at her feet, and she still missed it. That one was funny. We went a bit further and they got after another one, and I could see its nose. I called her over again, held her right over the hole, and she still missed. That one made me grumpy. I was just expounding to Karen about how it was time for "tough love, Don't catch, Don't eat". Apparently they heard me, and when a Jack jumped they both took off, peg made a shot at it and turned it into Sylvester and he grabbed it by the butt. It had a split second to squeal before Peg grabbed him by the face and front shoulders. That saved Sylvester some pain. This was an old male, that would have strained him through the bush if he hadn't had some help.

So they got another reprieve and they were fed up one more time. We will take them out again when their weight comes back to flying weight.They are working well with each other. Peg's manners are quite nice actually.

Oct. 20

Karen and I decided that we needed supplies yesterday so we went to town. We got back about 5:45 PM and grabbed the dogs and Jessie and went for ducks. Since we were limited on time we went over to the ranch next door. There is a small dinky pond there that had three ducks on it when I flew the area last.

It had rained pretty good here and things were slick as could be. We carefully made our way to the pond and when in position, turned Jessie loose. She got her pitch and I rushed the pond when she got into position flushing three Gadwall Ducks. She struck one a terrific blow and did a quick turn around and pounced on him before he could recover his wits.

Today dawned as bright and clear as yesterday was rainy and gloomy.

The Harris Hawks were ready to hunt, although Peg might have been a bit heavy. At this point I really don't know what her weight should be.

We arrived at the field and found that Arock (where we were hunting) had received much more rain that we did, and modified our hunting area choices to keep as dry as possible. We had a few good chases with no success, so we widened our search area. I was on top of a lump when I heard Karen laughing. I could see Peg on the ground, but I couldn't tell what she was doing, upon inquiring I learned that she was trying to take a bath in a mudhole.

To say the least, I was surprised. She had never shown any inclination to bathe or even drink before. Karen managed to get her back on the perch and we carried on. Around the next lump they chased another rabbit, and Peg found enough water to actually get wet.

 Needless to say the hunt was over for Peg, so as soon as she finished her bath, Karen returned back to the truck. I went on about the hunt with Sylvester, but we did not connect either on the 5 Pheasants that we found or the Jacks that we jumped. It was still a very nice morning.

Jessie 3rd Duck

I rolled out the plane to check for ducks after I finished my post about Peg and Sly. The Lake didn't have anything other than Coots, there were some ducks in the horse pasture, along with all the horses at the ranch, so I decided to go to "Appendix Point" for our afternoon hunt with Jessie. After putting the plane away, we loaded everyone in the truck and began the bumpy ride to the pond.

There were ducks on the pond, and I went to get Jessie. She had thrown a fit and pulled her hood on the trip up there. I actually only hood her to prove to her that I can. She rides really well without a hood, and I rarely ever hood her after she has flown. We had a bit longer walk and she flew a lot more than I would have preferred, or allowed if she still had her hood on. A Kestral wanted to contest ownership of the pond, but she paid no more attention to him than a Mosquito, and soon took her pitch over the pond. Apparently there has been a turnover on the residents, these blew out without any influence by me.

 

You can see her coming down after the ducks, who have pitched back into the pond. I thought that she would pull up and I would have to flush them again, but she skimmed over the water and scooped up a duck and took him to the bank with her momentum. I was a bit amazed that she had managed to pull it off.

I was amazed to find that the duck she caught was a Red Head. For one thing it is quite a bit heavier than she is, so she was cooking when she grabbed him, since she was about 30 yards from the water. I don't recall ever seeing a Redhead here. Karen had the audacity to complain that it was over too fast, not me, my butts dragging, Jessie was panting with the exertion of the flight.

Old business and Rabbit hawking

Yesterday was a rest day and winterizing day all in one. I was able to get almost all of my winterizing chores completed, draining hoses, last lawn mowing, draining lines to the pool, etc. One of the things that I was able to do was to repair the Havahart trap. Karen set the trap in the cat house before we quit for the night.

This morning as I was getting every thing ready to go hawking, Karen came out of the cat house carrying a sprung trap. I looked in and our little buddy was in there. I got the Shotgun and the Quad and went up the hill towards the Hwy, out of the wind channel for the house. I long ago cut the end out of a railroad spike can and put a handle on the top of it, so that a critter in the trap could not see you and it could be carried to a suitable location. I released the locks for the trap and turned it upside down so that the Skunk could walk out. The @^$#*& wouldn't leave. After waiting for a long time, ( I am not very patient) I rolled it over again. Nothing! I threw rocks at it and elicited a minor squirt, which was the last thing I wanted, so I went up and rolled the can a couple of turns, still nothing. Finally I started kicking it down the hill and the SOB still wouldn't come out. I have never seen such a contrary Skunk, he, it, will not do anything at all. I thought Horned Owls were stupid, but they have nothing on this Skunk. I mean, he has been squirted with Wasp Spray and ran out of the cat house for three days. Comes back, get drowned with Clorox, thumped with a PVC Pipe, shot with a BB gun, ran out again, and comes back for a third try. (Bleach does not affect Skunk fur apparently ) I finally pulled the trap completely out of the can, and after quite a bit of indecision it walked out of the trap.    I shot him twice, just to make sure.

We took the Harris's back to the same field to try for Rabbits. We had quite a few good chases and Sylvester finally caught a Bunny by making a Kamikazi dive as it was disappearing down a hole.

The bunny is down in the hole, and as you can tell, Sly is pretty far down in there himself.

I gave each bird a front leg and we went on with our hunt. Unfortunately they were not able to make a catch on any more, but Sly made a hard shot at a Rooster Pheasant, which managed to side step him, Peg went after another and missed, Sly again tried to catch another one but missed again. Peg took off again and made a hard shot at another bird which turned out to be a Sage Grouse that was hanging with the Pheasants. Karen got to see that one and said that the Grouse barely managed to escape being grabbed. We walked a total of 3 hours and finally was forced to give in to exhaustion. Sly and Peg are starting to share the same Tee Perch. Peg went from Butter fly to hard charging by the end of the day, so I am still hopeful that she will get her act together. She is also starting to flare up in the sky when the rabbit stops. If she will just go higher and wait longer, she will start to see some real success. As it was, there was still improvement.

Jessie's memory improves

After a bit of rest Karen and I loaded up the dogs and Jessie for the afternoon duck hunt. I decided to go to the lake on the ranch across the road. It always has ducks either on the lake or on the ditches and drainage coming out of it. The approach is a blind one that is almost impossible to check without flushing any ducks on it, so I didn't bother. When the trees surrounding the pond were visible, I turned Jessie loose. This time she chupped to me (She only chups when she is happy) and took a good look around to see just where she was. After a bit she took off and began climbing to a pretty respectable pitch for her, and was waiting for the flush. Some Widgeon flushed and she began her stoop. They chickened out and went back to the pond, she, back up to her previous pitch in a very short time, never losing her command of the pond. If she had they would have blown out leaving us empty handed. Curly, Betsey and myself rushed the pond at the right time for once, and one of the ducks climbed out over the trees and over bare ground. Jessie did her "velcro cannon ball" routine and smacked into him at about 75 feet high and took him to the ground.

I promised both her and Karen if she caught a duck tonight, I would feed her up so that we could take a day off. Both got their wish!   I did too!

We spent 7 hours hunting today, and at least that yesterday.

Peggy turns it on.

After chores this morning we loaded up the Harris Hawks for another try. We were going back to a field at Danner that we hadn't been able to hunt while Deer season was going on. There are lots of Bunnies there, probably 3 to 1 compared to Jacks. For some reason, I have thought that Bunnies were easier to catch than Jacks. Apparently not true.

I made Karen a Tee Perch of her own to try to get Peg to stay with her, so that Sylvester would stick around more. Peg knows the advantage of a Tee perch and doesn't require a tidbit to come to it.  So I was hoping that things would go a bit smoother with a good high perch for her.

 

We got into the field and Rabbits were going every where, hawks too. Peg still had not realized the full advantage of having another hawk to set up the rabbits for her, so we were watching miss after miss. The Jacks use the cover to full advantage and will stop, reverse direction, hide then bolt out when the hawk commits to landing in a bush or on the ground. The Bunnies were making both birds look slow and clumsy beating them to holes or hiding first then going to a hole. They were trying and trying hard, but still not closing the deal. Peg was now flying as she should have before. She was putting on the speed and being very respectful of Sylvester, which allowed him to quit worrying about being blind sided by a dumb baby. They even set side by side on a Tee Perch when we took a short rest.

A big improvement. After watching Peg for a while, it was evident to me that she was picking up on the fact that Sly could help her get a better chance at the rabbits, and she was taking advantage of his attempts, to set up a shot at the rabbit for herself. Each flight saw an improvement in her tactics and her efforts to catch one herself. I told Karen that she really wanted to catch something, much more than she had before, and was surely going to succeed soon.

As we moved into another series of Lava lumps, Karen stayed out a bit and I took the inside by the rocks. A Jack flushed right in between us and Peg was off in a flash, making the first shot at him, turning him towards Sylvester. He missed and it turned him towards Peg who grabbed him.

 

When I got there, the Jack was tied up pretty good indeed. With two Harris Hawks there is no need to worry about a Jack breaking free, it isn't going to happen. I added my ham hand in there and even though Peg was the first to grab him, she let go and walked off. I tossed her a chunk of rabbit prepared for just that purpose. While she fed, I killed the rabbit and tossed Sly his chunk the other direction. When he was finally able to let go, I cleaned the Jack and put it in my bag. We hunted our way back to the truck getting several more slips, but they didn't connect. We had been in the field for at least two and half hours, and it was getting hot, so we put the birds in their boxes with the remainder of their meal and went home, happy again. Peg might not be one of the best hawks around, and may not have the full free use of her limbs, but it appears she is improving. That is all I ask.

He's back!

As you might have gathered, I was a bit tired last night and looking forward a good nights rest, so we could do it again today. No rest for the wicked they say, and last night was no exception.

It started with Curly on his last outside run for the night, telling us that all was not right at the Cat house. I went to see what was going on and smelled the results of our little buddy getting enough of a scare to cause him to employ his chemical defense. I made Curly come back in the house, and picked up the shotgun and a "Q Beam" to go look. Sure enough the Skunk had moved back into his bed to spend the night. I had seen Lexie in the window as I went by. She hid when I went into the building. I turned on the inside light, and then went for the nearly depleted Wasp Spray. When I returned I gave him the remaining spray in the can, but it was just not enough.

My "Havahart" skunk trap was suffering from old age, the pan had come off the trigger. I attempted to fix it, but was not as successful as I should have been. It was reset in a natural runway among all the horse tack and an old chest in the hopes that we could catch the critter and put an end to all this irritation once and for all.

I went back into the house fuming, but not mad enough to shoot him inside the building- yet! I went to the hanger and retrieved a jug of Clorox and a spray bottle. My goal of course was to drive him out of the building and blast him with the shotgun at a suitable distance from the house.

Well, I could drive him all over the building, but not out. I brow beat him so bad with the spray bottle that he just humped up in the corner and I ended up thumping him with a PVC pipe with a elbow and two foot long piece pointed down. I finally drove him back to his bed, which I had removed the blanket he had been sleeping on, but couldn't get him out the door. By this time my eyes are burning so badly from the fumes that I kept having to go outside to clear them. I went back to the house and asked Karen how bad the skunk smell was on me. I assumed that it was skunk that was making my eyes water and now I believe that it was the Clorox. I didn't want my clothes to smell like skunk, so I stripped down to my "Hanes" and boots, got my BB gun and went back. At this point I am getting close to blasting him in the building and facing the problems later. Not sure I want to be in a rock room with a full load of 20 gauge rattling around, close, but still not over the edge.

I went back in with the BB gun and pumped it up just enough to sting, but not penetrate, and shot him in the butt. Good for a flinch, but nothing more. He was even past the point of threatening me. I shot him four or five more times, and still could not get him to run. So I just took the PVC pipe and started poking him. I finally poked and prodded him out of his corner and out the door. The sucker turned and tried to come back in, but I persisted and slowly herded him out the door and down the fence of the corral, around the corner and past the corner of the rock fence of my property. He was moving quite slow up to that point. I took the light, and my eyes off him long enough to climb over the fence, figuring to run him down the hill towards the creek and then shoot him. Good plan with only one hitch, when I got over the fence, I was alone. Nothing but me and a loaded shotgun. Picture a half crazed, frustrated, shotgun wielding guy in a pair of tidy whiteys and gum boots cussing like a sailor, and you have a good picture of me at the realization that it is still not over, not finished.

I will let you know if the Clorox is able to bleach out a Skunks fur when I next see him. I'm pretty sure that I will.

Busy, busy!

We had Ron Kearny come to visit and hunt with us for a while. He arrived Monday evening bringing with him Tory, an Anatum Peregrine female that he uses for nuisance abatement. In his off time he also hunts her on what ever game is available.

We had already flown the Harris hawks, so we loaded up Jessie, my Tundra Peregrine and Tory and went to one of my ponds. It was to be Jessie's first time out this year, as well as the first time this year that I had tightened the hood and her first time in the truck. It should have brought back memories of last year and as she didn't take it too bad, I assume that it did so. However she did not exhibit her pitch from last year in her flying. She flew around at about 75 feet and then landed on the cliff by the pond making all the ducks nervous. Since it was getting late and I was getting pissed, I called her back to the lure after a 20 minute wait. I put her back in the truck giving her only enough food to get her back on the fist, and we got Tory out to see what she could do.

After she was in the air, we flushed the ducks and she smacked one down in the sage.

 

 

The next day was windy and rainy but we revisited the same pond and she killed another one. I had decided that I was going to put Jessie back on the balloon again, and in spite of the roaring wind we put a kite up 400 feet and she fought her way up to the lure. Wed. was really crappy and the wind was hitting as high 38 MPH. It did die a bit in the evening and we flew Tory again on a different pond, but she was enjoying playing in the wind and the ducks blew out before she even saw them. Ron left to go back home, and Karen and I spent the evening catching up on TV shows on the DVR.

The wind finally blew itself out and today dawned nice and quiet. I had to wait for a Spa repair guy to come from Boise and fix the Hot tub. He showed up at 10:30 and it turns out they had given me the wrong circulation pump for the tub. He replaced that with the correct part and we were back in business. I missed that thing, there has been some hot tub weather here lately.

I gathered up Slyvester and Peg and we headed for the rabbit flats. As we arrived at the field a Rooster Pheasant crossed the road and went into the field. When I let the birds out, Slyvester  landed on one of the Sage, and then took off across a grassy bowl, doing a quick turn and slammed into the ground on the other side of some Bull Thistle. I heard the Rooster's squawk of surprise, but when I got there he had only lost some feathers. Peg insisted in riding on the Tee Perch and Slyvester was having some trouble with that, so he stayed wide and eventually went off on his own rather than stay with us. I left Karen with Peg and went looking for him. We went into a spot that we normally didn't go to and he killed a young Jack there. I fed him some from a previous rabbit he had killed and we eventually worked our way back to Karen. This time he didn't seem to object and stayed around. They both got a chase on a bunny, that managed to elude both of them. It was actually the first time that I have seen Peg put on some speed in her pursuit, but they still weren't working with each other. Peg again insisted on the Tee Perch even though Karen was giving her tidbits to ride the fist. She and I walked the fringe around a large rock where we normally did not go and found the hiding spot for a large Jack. Peg took after him using her best speed with Sly joining in. She actually kept the lead on the flight, but the Jack escaped cleanly. It was hot, 61 degrees, and we were both tired, so we called it a day and began the trek back to the truck. For the first time today they both sat on the perch together. Slyvester has learned that when my hand goes into the right pocket there is generally a tidbit forthcoming, so he decided to get the best position to get it. It was good for a laugh for both of us.

We made it back home about 3:00 PM and had dinner followed by a nap for both of us and the dogs as well. At 5:00 we loaded up Jessie for another try. This time there would be no pressure for her to fly right away. We bumped our way out to the duck pond and turned her loose.

She took a perch on the cliff again and we sat down to let her decide what she wanted to do. After about 15 minutes she took off and climbed up over the pond and the nervous ducks. The pond is very full this year, and she started her stoop too soon for the ducks to clear the water, so she drove them back into the water. The whole bunch milled around for a bit and she picked out a nice Widgeon hen and took her down in the Sage on the other side of the dam. She was hidden well enough that I had to get the receiver to find her.

 

Curly insisted on coming over to watch the proceedings.

 

She doesn't seen to care about the dogs at all, but a different dog even with the same coloring is recognized immediately. After she had broken in to the duck, I offered her a Pigeon breast and wing and she stepped right up on the fist.

The sun set behind the Steen's as we were going through our last gate.

Tomorrow we will do most of it again since the weather is supposed to get bad by Saturday.