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.