It has been raining a lot here in the Desert. Mushrooms are sprouting all over, and today, the final insult.

I think it is a tree frog. If so, he is in a lot of trouble. Luckily neither hawk saw him, or he would have been whitewash tomorrow at this time.

John and Karen are still going with us, so we took the truck today to keep Tami from having to drive her car. Sue and Peg both thought they were starved, and flew like it today. Sue took off after the first Jack that jumped, and had him for a while. We heard him scream and then saw him break loose. He left a very large patch of hair behind him. It is the first Jack that she has lost. She also ended up with a broken tail feather today, so I guess there is a good reason that she was unable to hold him.

We had several chases and misses, before Sue surprised a Bunny in a lighter area of Sage.

 I gave both birds a front leg from an earlier Bunny and we started off again. Both birds had several chases with no success. Both Peg and Sue were trying pretty hard, making some hard crashes into the Sage, but the Jacks were pretty tricky in their twists and turns. Karen and John had posted themselves on top of a lava lump and were telling us how many Jacks were scattered around them. We had several hard chases on Jacks that ran around us, and then tried to hide behind them. It was a two ring circus, with every one yelling and trying to run interference enough to confuse the Jacks. It was worth the whole day, just to be a witness.  Jacks were squirting every where, wearing both us and the birds out.

Finally another bunny made an error in judgment and tried to beat Sue with speed. Sue caught him within two feet of safety. Not a large margin, but enough for a determined hawk.

 Peg stayed back this time, so Sue was the only one to get a front leg to eat. After she finished, we decided to work our way back to the truck in the hopes that Peg would be able to catch one of her own. The two ran another Bunny into some shelf lava rock. I started poking into the hole with my perch, and could feel him every third or forth poke. I tried yelling down the pipe. The birds were giving me a bit more room than necessary and soon the Bunny came scooting out fast enough that he made his getaway, leaving us laughing and the birds with empty feet.

Thayen had been restless for the first time on our hunts and Tami was going to let him walk a bit and asked Isabel to take the perch and walk with Peg for a while. It didn't take too long before Peg welcomed her to the fold, marking her as one of the privileged She took it all in stride however. Last week she was gutting rabbits and this week she gets the crappy end of the stick. A lot of firsts for her, but no complaints. She is my kind of girl!

We had a few more chases on the way back to the truck, but by that time we had been going pretty much full tilt for three hours. We called the birds to the fist for the rest of their meal. Peg is getting better at coming to the fist, but she is still not doing as she should. She comes to the Perch with no problem, coming to the whistle with little hesitation, but the fist needs a bit more coaxing.
It was a fun morning for me at least.

Jessie yesterday afternoon ignored the balloon, flying for about 30 to 45 minutes before coming back to the house. I ended up calling her to the lure, which she promptly snatched out of my hands. I decided that I would let her do without food today and take her out tomorrow to see if she wants to kill a duck.