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.
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