Sept 30.

Photo's by Mike Marker

Mike Marker sent some pictures that he took while here recently, and kindly consented to their use in this blog. Mike takes some great pictures, and while he wasn't satisfied with his results, I thought they were great.

Photo's by Mike Marker

 Tami, Isabel and Thayen, and I made our pilgrimage to Arock this morning for Rabbits. I got tired of seeing my tracks in the sand, so we crossed another fence to a spot that we had not hunted as of yet. The girls were missing enough Jacks that I was entertaining thoughts of starving them for a while. Oh yeah they were trying, but not crashing into the brush, more like looking for gimmies and mentally slow ones. Well at this time of the year that doesn't happen. As we walked along seeing Jacks running in front of us at long distances, I finally decided that I was being a bit too harsh and that I really only needed to be more patient and allow them to learn and develop their skills even if it took a full year to do so. They were at least trying, just not successful enough for me. About that time a Jack jumped right in front of us.  Sue goes into another gear on the close ones, and slamed into him about 20 yards in front of us. He was in the process of dragging her through the bush when I got there. I finally got him corralled and dispatched.

 This one was a full grown of at least last year's crop. No dummy here, but he did screw up royally today.

The situation is a bit difficult since I would like for Peg to catch one of her own. As it was I cut a front leg from a previous kill into and tossed part to Peg, and the other part to Sue. She abandoned her kill to eat the part that I tossed her and even though she was almost sitting on the Jack, paid no attention to me picking it up to clean. When they were through I tossed each of them some tidbits, and we continued on our way.

They both ignored numerous rabbits "hopping down the bunny trail" for a while. Neither of them were willing to forgo cave exploration however. 

 

It was actually a bit frustrating and I began to wonder if I was screwing Sue up by not letting her gorge on her kill. About that time we jumped a bunny close to my feet and Sue caught him in 20 feet or so. This time she crashed into a Sage to do so. I wanted to kill it, but she had it by the head and shoulders and there was little room for me to stick my fingers in there, especially my bare ones. I made a tentative  move to do so expecting to be grabbed. Instead she took my finger in her beak, looking for tidbits. I must say that I was very surprised that she didn't feel that I was trying to take her food. It is also the first time that feeding a raptor tidbits has ever worked out. I finally put my glove on and broke its neck, then pulled the fur off a hind leg, expecting her to dig in. She did open the stomach, which was the last thing that I wanted. I then took the hind legs and ripped them apart, and she watched me do so and was very happy to climb on the fist to eat, leaving the rest of the bunny laying there on the ground. I have to tell you that is strange behaviour. You rarely see a bird that behaves in that manner. I am sure that in time she will get over it.

The behaviour is all the more strange since she is the one that threatens me every time I tie her to a perch for the night or to weather after hunting.

She is progressing really well. She take a double almost every time we go out. It takes a lot of slips, and a lot of walking, but that is what hunting is all about I guess. If she killed every thing that she chased, I would most likely be bored and give her away.

Jessie is progressing well, and getting stronger. I just turned her loose yesterday and let her fly as long as she was able then called her to the lure. She begins to look like a falcon more every day.