Peg and Sylvester, together at last!

I have to admit that I have been concerned with trying to get these two to hunt together. I can see all kinds of terrible things happening even though I know that Harris's have been hunting together since their beginning. I still worry. We took Peg out yesterday to an area that I had seen lots and lots of Jacks on my early morning trip to pick up Sylvester, but they were apparently bussed in as we saw only one Jack and very little sign.

After the morning warmed a bit we loaded up and made our pilgrimage to the Rabbit field. I took Sylvester out first and he flew up on the top of the truck. I then took Peg out and called her to the Tee perch. Sylvester then flew off to a Sage close by, and we started walking. He kept well in front of us, and finally gave chase to a Jack further out. I started his direction and flushed another Jack which Peg gave chase to, and about three other Rabbits and a bunny busted out under my feet. Sylvester chased another one over a Lava lump, and as I came near in an attempt to flush it again, he decided that he wanted more distance, flying across a grass field to some Lava there. He would not return, so Karen took Peg on the fist and went off on her own, while I went after Sylvester. As soon as that pesky, untrustworthy kid was not with me he came to the Tee Perch and we hunted our side of the fields. There are few rabbits there however. The fields eventually taper off and my plan was to hunt for a while and rejoin Karen later. It was pretty obvious that he did not trust the kid and was not going to put himself into a situation where she could hurt him. Even though it wasn't working out the way that I wanted, I could not help but sympathize with him and admire his intelligence. A bunny does live at the end of the fields in a clump of Lava. Peg has chased him several time and he has eluded her every time. Sly got antsy and flew to the clump that he generally takes refuge in, so I started looking for him in the Sage between us. I did find him and he ran to his alternate hole behind me with Sly in hot pursuit. He crashed into the ground behind a Sage and I was sure that he got him. When I arrived there was Sly looking down a hole with a Cotton Tail tail lying on the ground. He got away, but his butt is going to be very cold.

Sly led me on down into the large Lava humps that shelter a lot of Cotton Tails and Jacks by chasing several in the tall Sage. Some of it over my head, so you have some idea how tough it is for a Hawk to get a clean shot at one of them in that cover. He had several chances at both species with no success. He had landed on one of the large lumps (30 to 40 feet high) after a chase at a Jack. As I started to work around the Jack to try to drive it towards him, he disappeared over the lump out of sight. I walked over there and could see that he was trying to find a rabbit that had hidden in some of the Lava cracks on top. I went up to look and finally saw a bunny butt in one of the cracks. I reached in a goosed him, and apparently gave him enough incentive that he out ran Sly to the next cover where in he made sure no one could goose him again. 

When I picked him up again, we started back towards Karen and soon saw her on a little ridge in front of us. Sly seemed to be feeling better about Peg so I walked closer and intended to walk parallel back through the rest of the field. I hadn't taken too many steps when Sly took off after a Jack between the two of us. Peg joined in the pursuit, but Sly grabbed him in the butt, well before she even got close. The rabbit squealed and I was doing my best broken field running to get there. ( genuine broken field, large lava rocks all over the ground make you want to be sure where you are putting your feet) He didn't have a good grip on him and the Jack was making good time even with the Hawk holding him by the front shoulder. Peg landed on a rock nearby, (which pleased me greatly) and was watching. The Jack had hung up by the simple fact that Sly was wrapped around a Sage bush and the Jack didn't have the strength to pull him free, although he was doing his best to do so. Peg looked the situation over and flew over and grabbed him in the butt, which anchored the situation very nicely. I then grabbed the Jack by the middle,   ( he was an old one and I couldn't wrap my hand all the way around him.) When I got hold of the Rabbit, Peg let go and backed up, again pleasing me to no end.

Sylvester held on while I broke the Jacks neck. I tossed a Jack front leg from one of Sylvester's earlier kills to Peg, who had been waiting and watching, then tossed another to Sylvester in the other direction, leaving me the Jack all to myself, so that I could refresh my supply of front legs.

After they both finished their snacks, Karen picked up Peg and I Sylvester, and we started back to the truck. While I was trying to cross a barb wire fence, I attempted to set Sylvester on a post. He flew off to a Sage about 50 yards away. Peg also took off and landed in the same bush, lower than him. I hurried over there to find that she was lying on her side in the bush, holding onto his foot. She didn't grab him with her talons, but was just holding on and giving the begging call. Sylvester was just looking at her, not doing anything. I brushed her off the bush with the tee perch and called her to the fist. Sylvester got on the Tee perch. I had Karen call her and hold her tight by her jesses until we got back to the truck. We managed to get back there without any more incidences and they both got another front leg to eat in their boxes while we traveled home.

On the whole, it could not have worked out better. Sly caught one right in front of her, and she demonstrated more manners than I thought she would have done. Peg is not a super aggressive bird, if she were we wouldn't have to go through all this. I am very pleased and gratified that things worked out the way that they did, I couldn't have planned it any better. We said our thanks to the Rabbit that gave its all, and the falconry Gods as well.