Halloween Treat!

 The sunrise this morning was pleasing as is usual for this time of the year. While I finished the chores, Karen snapped this picture for me.

Jessie this morning weighed in at 910 grams, just about an ounce more than I was planning on. I started to put her back on her perch, but I knew that she was empty, not having been fed yesterday. She has always been more interested in killing something rather than exploring the surrounding area, so I decided to take a chance on her, and put her in the truck. I loaded the other two girls, started the truck and waited for Tami to arrive. She promptly drove in at 9 AM, we loaded Thayen and Isabel and made our way to Arock.

There were plenty of Ducks on the pond, so we put her transmitter on her leg and turned her loose. We stayed at the truck again to let her get some height. She circled higher and higher staying over the pond. We started our stroll to the crest of the hill overlooking the pond. Apparently she was a bit heavier than she needed to be as she dropped at least 100 feet of her altitude in anticipation of the flush. She started her stoop as soon as the ducks took flight closing much too fast to be able to catch one over dry ground. She had to change ducks and chased one the length of the pond and out over the ground in a big circle with the duck taking refuge in the water again. Jessie then flew on around and sat down on the hillside to rest. She was out of sight around the hill. I checked her position with the telemetry and we discussed what she had done while she rested. Soon the signal changed and she took position back up above the pond. We ran and screamed, scaring the Gadwall off the water again. She used her height and scooped him up 100 yards below the dam.

 I had intended to take a quail along with me to feed her so that she would lose some weight for Tuesdays flight, but managed to leave it at home, so she got half a duck breast to eat again. Perhaps since this duck was a local and wasn't carrying loads of fat, she will loose enough to hunt then.  I will decide when I see the scales on Tuesday.

We decided to try a spot that we had not yet hunted with the Harris Hawks. There were a few Jacks, but the wind was coming up by this time and they just couldn't make it happen. We walked around the field and back to the truck, loading the girls in their boxes and went to our old standby.

The wind by this time was pretty bad and they were having trouble with it. The Jacks were taking refuge in holes just as bad as the Bunnies were. They ran at least four into holes today. I poked at least two of them and while they would squeal, they weren't interested in coming out. I left them unhurt today, we will kill them later. :-)  Sue chased a Jack into a large deep hole that I couldn't help her with. I took my stick and raked it around, moving what I thought was the Jack a bit closer. I could hear him grunting and scratching in there, so I laid down and reached in, touching what I took to be a front leg. I slowly pulled it out and found that it was Sue that I had hold of. She looked at me like she was wondering what the hell I was doing. I had to call her out to tidbits to get her out of there.  The girls chased a Bunny into one Lava crack, and I was unable to get it out. We walked around the Lava, jumped another rabbit that ran into the same hole. I went around the other side to see if I could do any good from that angle. I got in there further than I would have believed possible. A Bunny zipped past Peg on the other end of the hole and a Jack ran over my foot going the other way. Both escaped!

The wind was really causing trouble, but the girls were getting better. They ganged up on one Jack and one of them pulled a hand full of fur out of his butt. They were beginning to get a little cranky about the whole thing. My butt was dragging so we decided to go back to the truck off in the distance giving them the chance to catch something on the way back. They had several chases, but couldn't make it happen. About 200 yards from the truck, we jumped a close one. Sue has been experimenting with a throw up when the Jack stops, but hasn't been able to follow through with a slashing dive onto the hiding Jack as of yet. Today the wind kicked her higher than normal and glory be she slammed into him without opening her parachute (wings) to break her dive. That has been the only part of the maneuver that has been causing her to miss. The Jack apparently really messed up because she got a shot at his head. When they do that the Jack will try to kick them off and the legs end up split by the hawks legs. Since the hawk isn't going to release its grip on the rabbits face, the rabbit is rendered unable to get on its feet, thus it cannot get away from the hawk. Enlarge the picture and look closely at the legs.

 She allowed me to rearrange his legs and kill the Jack for her. They each got a leg from a earlier victim and I put the Jack in the bag. We fed the birds on the way back to the truck.

That was my Halloween treat!