I'm sitting here trying to think of a descriptive title for today's events, and I am drawing a blank. For the Harris Hawks, the description would be Wow! Jessie was a bit blah, but successful. So I guess I will leave it blank.

Randy Carnahan is here for a visit, and a break in period for his Goshawk. He is just out of the mews and is terribly out of shape.

Our day started with Jessie. In an attempt to avoid the Prairie Falcon @#$@#^&%$ we traveled to the far side of Arock to try a pond at the far end of the area. A Pilgrim was parked below the dam with, I think, a bunch of decoys in the pond, he was standing on the top of the dam. Not sure what he was thinking, but a Prairie #$%@%^& was the lesser evil.

We went back to the first pond. The resident Eagle, kindly left the area to us. I put Jessie in the air and although we passed the Prairie on the way in, she chose to stay away. Jessie took a pitch that I was satisfied with, so we flushed the ducks before the Prairie decided to butt in. Jessie avoided smacking a Mallard and diverted to a Gadwall. Not sure how she did it, but she put him down in the spillway of the dam. She went down in there to get him, but landed on the top and sat there waiting for me to fetch it for her. Randy and I went into the ditch and I found the duck in some Rabbit brush. It didn't attempt to fly, but tried to run. Randy blocked it, I wrung its neck and tossed it to Jessie. I gave her a bit of time to pluck and then offered her a Quail. She left the duck with no hesitation, and we returned to the truck. We then traveled to where we were going to hunt the Harris Hawks.

I think she hurt her feet on the last Mallard that she caught at that pond. She is in her first few flights of the year, so things could change after she hits her stride.

We arrived at our Rabbit spot. John Stayed in the truck to pace along with us as much as he could. We hadn't gotten very far when a Jack jumped up and ran to a Lava lump. Unfortunately for him he was a bit unaware of Sue, but she soon made him aware of his mistake by grabbing him in the butt. Randy bull dogged him in the bush that he was trying to drag Sue through, and number one was in the bag. Unfortunately I was busy and very surprised at the speed that things were happening and I didn't get a picture of either Randy's sprawl or the Rabbit. I tossed both birds a Bunny leg each, and we put the Jack in the truck so that I didn't have to carry it.

After they finished their snacks, we began again. We had not gone very far when a Bunny busted with both birds after him. He bumped into two more bunnies on his way and confusion reigned. Sue had taken a perch in a Sage near one of their escape routes, and I tried to flush it. I was successful and both birds were off again. Sue beat him to his hole and number two was in the bag. Peg didn't really act that interested, so I didn't give her anything to eat.

We walked and had a few more chases with no successes, when apparently just the right Jack Rabbit jumped and Peg smoked him, this time in the front end, so Sue brought up the rear.

 Randy again helped out and killed the Jack for the girls. I brought out the rest of their meals and we fed them while we walked to the truck. I felt that a "hero" shot was in order.

 Not a bad morning at all, and the girls made it seem easy today. They have been steadily improving each trip, but they are still not what I would call a finished hunting Hawk.



We wandered on home to put the girls in the weathering area to bathe and rest. Then picked up Randy's Gos, Cully, to see if we could get him a start for the season on ditch Ducks. He is just out of the mews as well and really doesn't have the conditioning that he needs to make it all work. We did our best for him and got him in the middle of a bunch of Ducks.

 But he just couldn't make it happen. Although it was very close.

 While we were walking by the creek, I kept noticing dark spots in the water in the cow tracks. On closer examination found that it was bugs. A check on Goggle revealed that they are Springtails. The internet and Karen's memory are wonderful.

 The wind came up about then and even though we tried some Quail, it just wasn't happening for the boy. There is always tomorrow.