Much better!

Well today was a productive one. I managed to do the Annual on the Firestar, Dart is good for another year. I also scraped all the horse manure into one pile with the Quad, and repaired the Skunk live trap. The pan had come off earlier and it somehow had some dents and stuff in it that I had to remove. Its good until I lose my temper at a dumb Skunk again.

Peg and Sylvester were both at weight again as was Jessie. All were eager to go hunting, so at 3 PM we loaded up to see what today would bring. We decided to hunt the Harris's first, and went to a small field that generally holds several Jacks and a few Bunnies.

We never really got started as there was rabbits congregated in the corner where we generally start. We had probably 8 flights without getting more than 50 yards from the truck. Peg is really starting to crash the brush in serious attempts to catch one. She got after a Bunny in some really tall and thick Sage and crashed through the Sage with a loud thump. When I got there she was doing a good imitation of a Roadrunner, apparently sure that she was going to run him down on foot.

We started around the field when Peg took off again and crashed after a Jack turning it towards Sylvester, who thumped it. I could hear the Jack screaming, but Peg was sitting on top of a tree root ball watching. When I got there I could see why.

 

 

He had it by the head again and the Jacks rear legs had Sylvester stretched out and on his back. There was no place for Peg to grab. I am continually amazed that these birds show such constraint when another has a Rabbit. If Sly has one in the butt, Peg doesn't hesitate to grab the front end, but if he is wrapped up in it she doesn't horn in.

We tossed each a front leg for them to eat while I took care of the Jack. It was a big old Jack in the 5 to 7 pound range. We decided to quit while we were ahead and go fly Jess. ( I am finding it interesting that none of the Jacks that we are catching show no problems with Warbles, tape worms or show any problems with their liver. Generally the older ones are pretty gross. )

Here is a picture of a Bunny that the two caught two days ago, and I didn't add anything to the blog. In the whole time that I have had Sylvester we have only caught two Bunnies. Peg set it up for him, but he managed it.

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Jessie has been very restless all day, giving every indication that she wanted to be picked up. So I had high hopes after scoping the pond and finding that there was a good bunch of Mallards in the far shallow end of the pond.

 

She was restless as I walked into position, but when I loosed her, she flew to her rock. I continued on and got into position at the dam out of sight of the ducks. Karen and I sat down while she decided what she was going to do. This is new this year. Last year she never sat unless she was worn out and needed a rest. I have no clue as to what is going on in her mind with this stuff. My attention had wandered a bit when I heard a commotion and looked up to see her flying back towards me from the far end of the pond. (This is the Falcon version of Chicken. When she sets, It is a contest to see if she can make me pull the lure or other wise flinch. When I set down, she loses and will then go ahead and fly having decided that there isn't going to be a easy meal)  When she saw me on my feet she started climbing and was hanging right over the pond. The Mallards were screwed, there was no more water and the only chance that they had was to fly. There was about 15 or more Mallards in the flock, and she whacked one of them to the ground and did a quick turn around and pounced on the duck. I hustled to her as fast as I could since there were a bunch of cows at that end of the pond. There was one heifer that was closing in on her that I shooed away. The cow didn't know it, but if she had stuck her nose up to smell, she would have had a nose full of talons or been bitten. Jess doesn't take any crap from anyone.

I helped her dispatch it and clipped her up at the same time, tying her to my bag. Its funny, but if the duck is alive, she doesn't resent me helping her, but when it is dead, that is entirely an different story, and I am the one to bite. I let her have her way with the duck

Plucking satisfies Jessie somehow, and if she is just given raw meat to eat, she doesn't seem satisfied. I let her do as she liked and what she liked is "Duck Butter". She ate very little actual meat, but she did her best to eat every bit of fat on this duck. I let her eat all the way back to the truck and eventually sat her on her perch in the truck.

 

If you will notice there is almost no actual meat missing. When I got back to the house she was still searching for Duck fat. I have no clue how long it is going to take her to come back down to weight, but it was worth it.

On our way out we watched some of the deer in the field. It should be the peak of the rut, and this ole boy was checking out the girls. There was two forked horns in the field, but they were being low key so that they wouldn't incur his wrath.

We traveled home with a nice Sunset.