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.