A quickie!

I believe that my last statement on my last post had something to do with being happy to go hawking again. They say you should be careful what you wish for.

The girls had not eaten for two days, as they were not low enough in condition to warrant feeding yesterday. Sue has not picked up screaming as a bad habit as yet. It is true that she doesn't crash into the brush in the desperate attitude of the caloric deprived, but she generally does get things done at her higher weight. Peg went into the box at 830 grams, and Sue at 960. I have been content to keep her fat and work a bit harder rather than risk her starting to scream.

As we started into the field I told Tami that things may go a bit faster today as both felt as though they were very deprived. They both started on a running Jack and Sue for the first time did a classic corkscrew vertical dive through a Sage bush in an attempt to catch a Jack. Once she is successful at that maneuver things will change for the better. The Jack eluded both of them in spite of several shots each at the Jack. We bumped a Bunny that tried to scrape the two birds off on a Lava lump, and did so on the first chase. We flushed either him or another one that went up and over another lump, Peg went out of sight in a very fast flight that showed no signs of anything other than serious intent. We walked around the lump without finding any sign of either of the birds. Tami finally found them and Peg had indeed been very serious. She had caught the Bunny and was trying her best to keep him out of Sue's sight.

This is the first time that Sue hasn't joined in on the Kill. She knew that Peg had a Rabbit, but she still sat on a rock and watched. She was expecting some food, but she was content to get it from me rather than try to take it away from Peg. I was very proud of her, whether or not her actions were the result of anything that I might have done.

Tami and I talked it over and felt that Peg should be rewarded with an uninterrupted meal of the Bunny that she had caught, so we leashed her up and I left Tami and Isabel with her. Sue and I went off to see what fortune had to offer us. Within a couple of hundred yards, Sue went after another Bunny. She missed and sat on the top of the lava flow, while I went around the base to see if I could flush another one. When I got to the other side, no bird. I climbed on top and started looking around for her, nothing. Finally way off in the distance I could hear the faint sounds of a Jack with a hawk attached to his butt. I did my best speed in the direction that the sound was coming from, and stopped to get my bearings again.

I looked down into this hole and there was Sue holding onto a Jacks Butt with one foot. The Jack had squeezed into the hole further in, but she kept him from getting any deeper into the hole. I ripped as much of the Sage brush away from the hole as I could, and tried to reach the Jack. They were in deeper than I could reach. I finally took off my vest, hat and glasses and tried to crawl into the hole. It was narrower than my shoulders, but I squeezed myself in as far as I could, but could only touch him on the butt. I couldn't get a grasp on anything. I tried to dig the hole bigger, but had no success with that. There was a small 2 inch space between the rock and the floor of the hole, and that was apparently where the Jack was trying to go. I took my perch pole and was poking it in the other side trying to force the Jack back the other direction. I could occasionally feel the softer Jack with the pole, but could not gain any ground. I tried three different times to reach the Jack with no success. I finally got the pole in front of the Jack, and pushed his nose back a bit towards Sue. I then went back to the opening and somehow forced my way another two inches into the opening and managed to get a grip on the Jack and pulled them out.

I killed the Jack and Sue was quite happy to receive a front leg for an appetizer. 

 When I returned to Tami and Isabel, they seemed to enjoy my appearence a lot more than was necessary.

Peg had gotten on the outside of almost all the Bunny that she had caught, while Sue ate two front legs and a hind leg as well. Since both Tami and I were occupied, Isabel helped me to dismember the Jack so that Sue could have something to eat. It was a new experience for the poor girl, but she held up well considering that she had to stand on one leg and pull the other while I sawed at it with a pocket knife that had skinned two deer yesterday. My kind of Girl!

This was one of the quickest hunts that we have had with the birds, which is a good thing. My arms and hands are a mess from the Lava rocks, and my back is telling me that I had better hit the hot tub, or I won't have flexibility enough to cut up two deer for the freezer.