A little different

This will be a little different since I am hunting every day with different birds, it makes sense to consolidate two trips into one post. The first part will be hunting with the Harris's and the second with Jessie. Things with the Harris Hawks are beginning to be similar enough to be boring. The only difference mostly is whether they catch Bunnies or Jacks and how many. Things have settled into a routine such that there is little variation. Peg tries with varying degrees of intensity, and Sue pretty much carries the show.

Tami was sick today, so Karen agreed to go with me to help if necessary. We went to Arock so that Karen could take advantage of the better walking. She is doing pretty well, but the uneven ground really kicks her butt.

The rabbits at Arock have been chased so much that they are doing their best to remain unseen. I think that I found at least ten of them hiding in various clumps trying vainly to remain concealed. Perhaps some of them succeeded, but not all of them. All of the hiders did escape capture however. The birds are both crawling down holes after the Bunnies. It pays off just enough that they think that they might be able to drag them out of their hidey hole.

Hunting by myself is not a real problem, but carrying the two of them can be a real chore sometimes. They do get heavy after a while.


The slips that pay off the best are those that are in the semi open. Perhaps the open would do as well, but Sue almost always connects when the slips are close and the Sage isn't large enough for the Jacks to hide in. They still haven't learned how to counteract the Jacks and Bunnies tactic of suddenly stopping in a Sage bush. It is hilarious sometimes to see the Bunnies starting, stopping and dodging turning both hawks into each other trying to figure out just what the rascal is going to do next. Poor ole Peg really gets upset when she gets really close, and then misses because they stop, causing her to overshoot. She really gets vocal about it.

This fella however made the mistake of not having enough cover for those tactics to work. Sue caught up to him just as he tried to duck into a Sage bush.

 We had several close misses after this Jack, but I didn't push it too hard, being content with just one today. Peggy put in some hard chases, but just couldn't connect. I had fed them my supply of Bunny front legs when Sue caught this Jack, and since they were small and quickly eaten, I didn't get a chance to chunk up the Jack. I was trying to hide under the front of the truck to butcher the Jack for their finish meal, and Sue was slowly and surely tracking me down. They both got their fill of Jack Rabbit, and I didn't get any new wounds. We were both happy.















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Jessie, Oct 12th Second flight.

I picked Jessie up at 5 PM and this time I used the new Hood. Her weight was at 870 grams. We went over to the ranch, picked up Grace then went on to Appendix Pt. to give Jessie her second flight at Ducks. This time when given the chance to fly, she took to the air in a much more relaxed attitude. She was picking up altitude nicely, and I wanted to push the ducks to the end of the pond so that when they flew they would be over the ground quicker. Well it was a nice thought, but it didn't happen. I had thought that the ducks wouldn't fly unless necessary with her right up above them. I was wrong! They flew, and Jessie didn't wait, she bashed one into the water, then flew up to the rock cliff and sat.

 

She sat for about 15 minutes and then took off gaining much more altitude. The ducks weren't leaving, but she bashed another one into the water. From that point on, it was just an exercise in futility, so I called her down to the lure, and we trekked on home, with at least one of us smarter.

We traveled home with the Sunset in our rear view mirror.
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