The last hawking blog of the season.

The regular duck season ends in this zone this Sunday, but for me and Jessie it ended on the 16th. For whatever reason the ducks and the hawks have all gone somewhere else. I assume that due to the longer days they are returning north to eventually arrive at their breeding grounds. Yeah I know, in February they will be so thick here that I will wish for the sight of Jessie in the air again, waiting for the flush, but that will have to wait for next season. The winds forecast for the rest of the week, the soft condition of the roads to get to flights, and the lack of game, just doesn't justify the effort. There are for all practical purposes no upland game to fly here, so it is time to regrow feathers that have been damaged by fights with Geese and cranky Prairie Falcons.

We have had a great season. The totals are nothing to get excited about, but falconry is not about large numbers of bodies for the freezer and table. It is about the flights, the cooperation of man, dog and hawk. It is about the eagerness of the falcon when she steps to the fist in anticipation of the hunt. The eager wing pumping when she sees you step out of the house wearing your hunting vest. We brought to bag a total of 20 birds this year. Eighteen ducks and two Geese. For the first time in a long time I actually ate something that Jessie caught. Normally I make her eat the ducks. I would rather have a spam sandwich. Nothing goes to waste, but I got tired of ducks long ago. I can recommend smoked Goose however.

Peg supplied us with a lot of fun and exercise this year. She caught 12 head of game that included Jacks, Bunnies, a Black bird and of course a Bullfrog. She learned a lot and will do better this next year. We intend to get a hunting pardner for her and her maturity will improve her abilities a lot.

The weather was pretty darn good this year, there was water in the ponds and the ducks came. Upland game is making a slow comeback, but it will be many years before they are in numbers that are huntable. Until then we will depend on the ducks.

This has been Jessie's 6th season. She has again improved both in temperament and style. I do not know how much longer I will have her to enjoy. Life is tenuous at best for a Falcon. There are so many things that can go wrong besides disease. It only takes a whim from an Eagle, a fence wire, or just a slight miscalculation to end every thing.

It may be a while before I post anything again. Falconry for sure will not start before next July or August. The posts between now and then will be about fishing and flying. Again, if you do not want to read these musings, you have only to send a request to remove you from the email notifications, and I will gladly do so. lcottrell@fmtcblue.com

I have included some of my favorite pictures. 

Sat 16th, round two

Our UPS Lady, (who has the supplements for the dogs) and her husband Dan, were coming today to see Jessie fly. I agreed to film a testimonial for their product, as it has helped Indy, our 16 year old Setter more than I can say. I had earlier thought that I was going to have to put her down because she was in so much pain. With the addition of the supplements, that time has not yet come. She was sleeping all the time, and in a lot of pain. While she isn't out working with the other dogs she is much more aware of her surroundings and has enough of a reduction in pain to enjoy life again. Dogs have few enough days in the sun as it is.

When I set this up, I had intended to fly at the ranch next door, but the gun hunters had been there for two days, and I was unsure what kind of an effect this would have on the duck populations, so I rolled Dart out of the hanger to see if there was anything left over there to hunt.

It has been a long time since I have been able to fly, and I would not have gone today due to the soft ground, if I did not need to know what we were going to find over there. The weather has been fairly dry for the last week so I had hopes that the ground had set up enough to not do much damage. I walked the runway with the dogs this morning and it seemed to be OK. The temps were in the mid 40's so I rolled it out about 11:30 and did my preflight, adding a half quart of oil, and fired it up. As you can see the clouds are low, and there was a slight cross wind.

Randy and I had hunted the place pretty hard, and rousted the ducks off the ditches pretty energetically.  We had no problem finding ducks and even having them come back into the spots that we had just flushed them out of. We didn't have guns though, and that seems to make a lot of difference.

You can see the creek and potholes in this picture that the ducks like to hang out in, but today they were empty. The Lake also only had four Coots on it. I did not see any Geese at all, so there would be no use to hunt  here today and quite likely for quite a while.  While I was disappointed, it was nothing compared to having put Jessie up over an empty pond.

Teri and Dan showed up and after a bit we loaded up to see what Arock would have to offer. The pond that was still frozen two days ago, had an open spot that was so crowded with Mallards that there was no open water at all. Jessie was a bit lower in weight than I prefer. Still well able to fly, but likely to be a bit more anxious than is good for success.

We parked and climbed over the fence to get into the right field to get into position. The Hay field has been grazed by lots of cows, and there are lots of apparently irresistible, at least to Curly, cow pies lying every where. Curly was running around like crazy with his nose to the ground, much like what you would expect if it was bird scent that was filling his nostrils, rather than bull shit.  It will be several days before I let him lick me again. At least he was particular, not just any cow pie would do, but some were definitely irresistible. I in turn was frustrated by the fact that while my shock collar call button would work, the red one that makes him pee down both legs was on the fritz.  Oh well, who am I to denigrate his pleasures.

Jess circled the pond a bit lower than I would have preferred, most likely due to the lower weight that I mentioned earlier. I was very pleased to find the little com radio lying on the ground that I had apparently lost the last time that Jessie attacked me. It had apparently fallen out of my vest and had been lying on the ground since Nov 18th exposed to the rain and snow. I turned it on the batteries were still up and it worked just fine.

We did our best rush up the side of the dam and I yelled for all I was worth. The ducks came up in a cloud and Jess slashed through them, and I lost sight of her in all the wings. Finally when the dust and feathers cleared, she was sitting on the bank and a Mallard was sitting in the water just off the edge. Apparently she had smashed him into the water.

We walked back to the truck, I called her to the fist, and fed her half of a Pigeon breast and put her into the truck. When we got back home, I fed her the rest of the pigeon. Season closes the 24th. Not sure at this time whether I will fly her again before the season closes.

                                  

Its a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

That is Karen's title, not mine. I try to humor her every once and a while. Keeps her guessing as to what I am up to. Today was very nice however, almost like that we sometimes get around the first of Feb. The temps topped out in the high 40's, crystal clear and no noticeable wind.

I had thought to go hawking yesterday, but the wind came up really strong and I didn't want to get out in it, for either me or Karen. We have been preoccupied with lots of stuff from helping the neighbors cut up a beef to making the trek to Ontario to license our new car. Of course we didn't manage to get the car licensed since they had not received the title yet.

We loaded up and went over to the ranch only to find that the gun hunters were there, so we drove up to appendix point to see if the pond was thawed. After a 10 mile bouncing trip over bad roads mixed with enough mudholes to make it interesting, we found it to be as solidly frozen as the last time we saw it. We drove out and headed to Arock to see if those ponds fared any better.

On our arrival we found the pond by the road to be frozen still. After a few cuss words we started down the road to find that there was a small rain puddle about 20 feet across. After checking it and finding it was empty we went on, intending to check a pond by where we hunt Peg. We had driven a short distance when 4 ducks flew over us and back the way we had come. I stopped in the road to see where they were going. To my surprise they landed in the puddle. We did a U turn and went back out to a wide spot and put Jessie's transmitter on her leg so that she would be ready to go when I stopped. We started down the road only to find that the four ducks on the puddle had left. As we drove by, a couple of large flocks lifted off the fields and were milling around over the hay fields. A bunch of about 15 landed on the little puddle. We drove up and turned around to try again. By the time we got back all the ducks that had been flying settled back in the field.

We parked out of sight, I got Jess out and unhooded her to let her get her bearings. While she was sitting on the fist looking around, a flock of about 200 or more ducks lifted off the field and was flying around the field. Soon we spotted a female Prairie Falcon that was trying to figure out how to catch one of them. I was a bit concerned that Jessie would take off and try her luck as well, but while she was very interested, she didn't move a muscle. We all watched as about 60 Mallards landed in that little puddle. The Prairie landed on a nearby telephone Pole. Jessie watched for a bit more and then took off, flying out over the field. The Prairie stayed on the pole and we went through the gate into the field. Jess was circling the puddle and getting a bit higher each time. The Prairie couldn't stand it anymore and took off to crab with Jessie. They locked feet? (Jess had two broken tailfeathers when I picked her up) and lost a bit of altitude, but Jess would not be deterred and the Prairie finally flew off, leaving the field to us.

The ducks were a bit reluctant to fly, but I pushed them up off the puddle. Jessie slashed through the flock and grabbed a Mallard just about the same time that they crashed into the ground. There was a small hill on the far side of the puddle and I think all the ducks and wings caused her to misjudge the height of the hill. I held my breath, because I could not see that she had done anything to reduce her speed. It was just a dive into the ground unabated. The only thing between her and the ground was the duck. Apparently even though I didn't see the duck leave, Jess was standing there on the hill apparently stunned. I crawled through the fence because I wasn't sure if she was hurt or not. Of course she let me crawl on my belly in the mud under the fence before she came to me. Other than the broken feathers she appeared to have come to no harm, much to my amazement.

We will try again on Saturday.

First of the Year.

Normally by this time I have quit, being out of options for flights and generally speaking, frozen out. Thanks to Global Warming, we have not had our usual mind numbing cold that generally strikes us the first of January. Of course the rest of the country is paying the price for our comfort. Being able to hunt on the Ranch next door has given me a new lease on hunting life, even if it is mostly ditches. Hey, game is game, and like it or not it is a bunch better than nothing. I still reserve the right to bitch and moan about them though.

I have not gone out since Randy left, for one reason or another, primarily because we hammered the ranch pretty hard and I wanted the Lake to settle down so the ducks would start using it again. Jess has been indicating that she really would like to fly, by getting excited each day at flying time, and today I decided it had been long enough and even though it was too warm ( 32 ) to make the trip with the truck through the swamp that is on the way to the Lake, we could try the ditches. The last time we flew the ditches I observed a spot that should give a falcon a good chance to make something happen. When Randy and I flew it last we managed to mess up the flush. ( Not unusual on any ditch flush ) This time I had it all figured out. ( yeah right ) Karen and the dogs and I made the long walk to the last bunch of reeds on the Creek that I was sure held most of the ducks on that end of the Ranch. I stopped to brief Karen on how I wanted to handle the flush. Betsy was busy being an Alpha female, scratching up the ground, being a big dog.                                               

I turned Jess loose and after she got her pitch, we started on the ditch. I was at the heaviest part of the reeds, and of course ducks busted out of the bottom part well out of Jessie's range. The dogs and I ran the rest of the reeds and found nothing at all. I cannot adequately express my distress. Jess finally gave up, strafed me and tried to land on my shoulder. I avoided that, and she took a perch on a fence post. I walked on, heading back to the Ranch and finally decided that the ducks had to be somewhere on the ditch closer to the Ranch. I crossed the fence between me and the creek and continued on towards the Ranch. At the end of the field I could hear the ducks talking over by the ditch. Jess was still sitting on a post at the other end of the field. Sounds close, but I needed bino's to see her. Karen moved down and crossed into the same field that I was in, and I positioned her where if we got a chance to flush, would give us the best result.

Jess was in no hurry and she kept us waiting for about a half an hour before she finally decided that there might be a reason why I had not called her to the fist. She was quite well rested and took another good pitch above us. Karen and I, along with the dogs made our rush and actually managed to scare the ducks away from the ditch. Jessie made her stoop ignoring some of the smaller ducks to bind to a female Mallard about 50 yards on the other side of the creek.

I looked for a shallow place to cross and finally just gave up and waded in, well over the tops of my boots. Jessie and the duck were fighting on the ground and Betsy of course stood guard while I helped Jess. I let her pluck and eat for quite a long time before I picked her up for the trip to the truck. When we got home, I gave her even more since I will not be able to fly her before next Monday.

New year, same stuff.

The weather has turned quite warm, at least warm enough to rid us of the snow. Now we are dealing with mud and soft ground. The alkali bottoms along the creek and anywhere that a cow has walked is gooey at best, down right dangerous to dignity at its worst.

Our first order of business was to try to get the Peregrine female that Randy is rehabbing a little flight time. She is going to be a challenge to get strong enough and smart enough to release. She is one of the bridge birds out of Portland, Or. She landed in the road on one of her first flights and was struck by a car. Just feather damage, but the Portland Audubon kept her long enough to screw her up. They say "The Road to hell is paved with good intentions".

I put one of Jessie's Geese in the smoker for our evening meal, and we set off to the ranch to see what the ditches would provide for us on this day. I saw some ducks put in on the other side of the barn, so we picked up Culley, the Goshawk, and began our stalk. Since it was across open grass pasture the odds were against us. We had a general idea of where the ducks were, but the danger lies in the tendency of one who you are not stalking, and did not know was there, flushing wild and turning the whole thing into crap. Today was no exception. We started back, but went along the Tules, just in case. We spotted a bunch of ducks down by one of the fences. (A flight for Goshawks, who are direct pursuit raptors is different than that for Falcons, of course. One has to be neither too far or too close to the prey when it flies. To far by 5 or 10 feet means an empty bag, and too close means that the duck and hawk ends up in the water. Goshawks are by nature set on a "  hair trigger"  , so Randy was holding Culley's jesses to try to keep him from going too fast. There is one problem with that in that the hawk's reflexes make ours look like those of a sloth. ) While we were sneaking around a patch of Tules, a flock of about 8 Mallards busted right beside us. I looked at Randy, and he was still holding tight. Culley of course had already tried to fly and couldn't. The other bunch was still there, and finally Randy turned Culley loose who took the occasion to land on one of the fence posts by the creek. We then tried to flush the ducks by him, but they were Teal who are really flying Weasels at best, who are quite well suited to survival. Today was no exception. We put Culley up, and took out Ghillie, Jessie's sister to try.

This set up required that we slog for a 1/4 mile through the Alkali goo to a patch of reeds that should be sheltering another bunch of ducks. We got what we thought was in position, Ghillie had been flying for some time following us, and of course the usual duck flushed wild and from that point on it was "situation normal" Dogs and fat falconers were running all over. Ghillie tried, but once position was lost the outcome was pretty well assured. When she quit flying we worked our way back to the truck.

We were driving to our next location when I spotted a duck just in front of the houses, in the reeds. Randy got Culley out again and climbed over the fence and made his way using the tall reeds to block his approach. The wind was pretty strong blowing down the ditch. The duck to get out of there was going to have to fly right in front of the Goshawk. Randy yelled and the duck flushed, with the Gos flying just a split second behind. The duck was streaking skyward at a speed that I doubted that the Gos could match.  ( Ducks when pursued by Raptors will try to out climb the hawk, So the flight goes skyward and the hawk must overtake the prey, and have enough speed to flip over and grab the duck by the butt.) The flight reached an estimated height of about 75 feet, when the duck began to slow, but Culley was not slowing at all. A quick flip and grab and the flight was done. Culley rode his duck to the ground, and Randy began looking for a place to cross the creek.

Next was Jessie, and today we were going to try her on the section of creek that gave it the name "Crooked Creek". This is a section of hairpins that at places are no more than 15 feet between the goosenecks. Again it is almost impossible to tell where the ducks are hiding, so you "pays your money, and takes your chances". Jessie was flying well, and we got pretty lucky, so we had ducks going everywhere. Unfortunately there were Teal in the bunch and I think she knocked one down on the ditch. She landed on the ground, trying to find it. Teal are so light that on anything other than frozen ground, being smashed into it really does not seem to hurt them. She took to the air again and we began trying to head the ducks again. She flew three different times, resting when necessary, but we were never able to get her the chance that she needed to connect, so we slogged back through the goo with a crabby hawk.

Before leaving to fly the birds, I gave Peg a whole Pigeon to eat. We were gone from 2 PM till dark, and when we got back she was still trying to finish the Pigeon. Right now what she needs the most is to mature a bit. Next year she will be smarter and better, and I am content with her progress, it is time for her to stop. Soon it will be entirely too cold to hunt her, then the rabbits will be starting their breeding season.

When we got back the Goose was cooked, and after putting birds away and cleaning up a bit we sat down to a meal provided by Jessie. I normally require Jessie to eat what she catches, but the Goose was much too big and delicious as well.

Randy leaves today, so I will be able to return to my slothful ways with only Jessie to hunt. If you notice there are no pictures with this trip, it is all Karen's fault. I try to remember to bring food for the hawks, and Karen takes care of every thing else. Works quite well, when she goes, but leaves me less than prepared when she does not.  
 

I have had a bit of company and been just a bit busy, so I haven't kept up with the blog that much. I will try to catch up as best as I can.

Ron and Joyce left on Tuesday. Randy Carnahan, a long time friend, arrived that evening with his birds and dog. Pat and Ray went back to Burns Wed. midday. Randy and I took his Finnish Gos to Arock to see what we could find to hunt there. We also took Peg to try for some Rabbit action. The weather warmed up to freezing and we picked up about an inch and half of snow.

Peg didn't seem too bothered by the cold, but she would not chase anything due to the snow, I guess. We gave up after she had refused to chase any of the dozen or so Jacks that we jumped for her. Time to give up for the year for her. A bit of maturity will help her. She really hasn't been that bad for a first year Harris. Nothing spectacular for sure, but she will be better next year.

We took the Gos to the back side of Arock and found a fair number of Pheasants on some land that I could hunt. The Gos was actually just getting a start for this year, and was a bit fat. (The hunting in the Willamette Valley does not start until the winter rains put some water down in the ditches and low spots to draw the ducks in. Until that happens there is basically nothing to hunt.)  The Gos chased a Rooster up the hill and into the willows. There was a ditch on the other side of the willows that allowed the Pheasant to slip away. We dropped down to the Sage to see if there were any Pheasants there. We found a lot of Jacks and Bunnies, but no Pheasant. We did get a chase on Quail that he lost in the Sage. We decided to come on back home and let him lose some weight over night.

Randy has Jessie's sister, and we picked up both birds to see if we could change our luck with the Falcons. We took Jessie to the Lake and put her into the air. She took a good pitch over the lake, but was a bit out of position when the Mallards flushed on their own. She took a shot at them behind the trees, and we think she connected with a Mallard, but she didn't land on it. It would have landed in the water if she did knock it down. She came up the hill and landed close to us on the ground. We walked off from her and went down in the bottom to see if we could find a crippled duck there. She eventually started flying again, but wasn't up that high. We walked up to the Lake and flushed a Gadwall out the far end of the pond. She could only tail chase and it outdistanced her. She went over to a pile of dirt and sat down. A Coot wobbled into the air and out the end of the Lake almost past Jessie. She watched it go. I eventually allowed her to come to the fist and fed her a very reduced ration.

We then took Randy's bird down to the ranch and the ditches down the creek from the houses. We turned her loose and walked down stream back off the creek far enough to not scare any ducks that might have been sitting there. Finally we got in position and walked to the ditch, ducks went every where. She grabbed a female Mallard, but it tore loose. Ducks were coming out of the woodwork, but she couldn't put it together and we went home empty handed.

Yesterday as we were getting things ready to go, we found that there were ducks on the ditch below the house. We decided to let the Gos try for them rather than try to squeeze three separate flushes from the ranch. The approach was difficult and the Gos having been hooded for quite a while was not quite awake yet, so they flew away unharmed. While we were looking for more, the flock of quail that lives here at the house flew out into the Sage. We switched plans, and he was off and into the middle of them before they were even aware that he was in the area. The Quail of course were scurrying around on the ground in waist high Sage, and he pitched up about 15 feet or so until he could see a target, and then crashed into the sage catching the quail as it tried to fly out and away.

 

The weather was quite warm, 32 degrees, and overcast with occasional fine snow.

The next up was Jessie at the Lake. I was pretty sure that there wasn't going to be anything at the Lake to fly, but there wasn't that many options. I struck her hood and held her up in the air, but she didn't seem to want to fly. She has been acting strange lately, just too tame and relaxed. Not like Jessie at all. She was almost too low in weight, but not so low that she should be anything than over anxious. I finally boosted her off the fist and she landed on a nearby fence post. We stood around waiting for her to fly, but she just sat. I finally had to pretend that I was going to try to pick her up to get her to fly. Her wing beat was strong however, and she flew pretty high for her. I knew when she made one pass over the lake and came back our way that there were no ducks on the Lake. She flew out over the hay fields to the ditch that runs down the middle of it. She made several feints at the ducks as they leapfrogged down the ditch. She did get a stoop in at some Mallards that were too far away for us to see if she connected or not. Knowing that it was a waste of time, I walked down there anyway. By that time she was done and stooped down behind me and tagged me on the finger as she went by. Of course it was a light hit, but she still made a shallow cut about a half inch long. She swung around and tried to land on my shoulder again, but I ducked and went around. This time I let her land, but I kept walking. She nibbled on my neck a bit, but didn't break the skin. One of her talons however did puncture my thin skin. I gave her half of a Starling breast, and boosted her into the air after she finished. She landed on a pile of dirt and stayed while we walked around on the ditches. We finally gave up and went back to the truck.

We went down below the ranch houses again with her Randy's bird. She took a fair pitch over the ditch and when we flushed the horde of ducks there, she struck one but it of course was over the ditch, so we ended up with one Quail for the day's efforts. Not an unusual result, in fact a fairly normal one. It is only unusual when all the birds catch something.