Finally a little satisfaction.

I tried to fly Jessie yesterday afternoon at a pond in Arock. Again she hosed me by going to check the pond, (there were Ducks this time) then going up to a rock outcropping and setting down. I waited for a while, but soon got pissed and decided to flush the ducks whether she was ready or not. There was a Redhead on the pond and he had to fly three circles around before she deigned to fly. Of course by that time all the other ducks had gone leaving us with an empty pond and me fuming. Its not good when I fume.

I called her down to the lure with a piece of duck leg consisting of the foot and a chunk of meat big enough to qualify as a Q tip. I fed her the rest of the leg, (There is just not much meat on a Gadwall leg.) when she finished what she had on the lure. She was pissed when she found that she didn't have a full meal. I put her hood on and we drove back home. When I tied her to her night perch, she again thought that I was going to feed her, didn't happen!

I weighed her this morning and found that she had only lost about 1/2 oz. The weather is still warm, so she is still not on her game. I loaded up Jessie and the two Harris's in the truck, and we went to pick up Tami, Thayen and Isabel.

We found a pond that had lots of ducks on it, most were Coots, but there was enough good ones to make it worth while. I was hoping that a night without food, and a pond full of ducks would convince her that she needed to play the game for once.

She took a look at the pond and started climbing. She was holding in tight circles over the pond, waiting for Isabel and I to get into position. We flushed and she was too anxious, smashing a Mallard hen into the reeds at the end of the pond. The pond is a bit large, and she isn't flying high enough for the ducks to fly the length of the pond and still clear over dry land. She went back up and I flushed a Ringbill that cleared the dam on the end, but somehow she managed to be out of position and she tail chased him over the hill and quite a distance away before she broke off and came back. There was another Ringbill on the pond and I managed to push him out the end. She was quite a ways behind, but she was higher and used her speed and height to fly him down at the end of the field.

 I secured her and left her to eat at her leisure, and as much as she wanted. These are local ducks and don't have that much of a fat layer, so I just left her there while we discussed what had happened and let Thayen down to do a little exploring.

 When she slowed down, I picked her and her duck up and we loaded back up in the truck to give the Harris Hawks a chance to hunt. I don't hood her after she kills, and she finished her Duck breast while we were driving and hunting the Harris's.

We went to the hill again, but the rabbits had paid attention to where we hunted the last time, and had moved again. We did find this young one, and Sue caught him in a short intense flight. They both got a front leg to eat, before we moved on. They had several chances at other Rabbits, but neither one connected again.

I was a happy camper however. Jessie seems to be on track again, and the Harris's are really starting to crank it up a notch or two. The only thing that could make it better would be for the price of gas to go down.