Tami and I set out with the birds with only Thayen for our hawking today. The truck seemed strangely empty with only the three of us. The Harris's seemed to miss the extra beaters as well. It seemed today that it took forever for them to get their feet on anything to eat.

We started with Jessie of course. The storms are moving some new ducks in the ponds, so things on the Falcon front are just "ducky". This time I stayed back at the truck after releasing Jessie. She did take a higher pitch. I finally tumbled to the idea that Jessie tries to stay in position when I am close to the pond, which means tight circles and lower altitudes.

We flushed the pond and the ducks flew the long way out of the pond and Jessie scooped up a nice hen Mallard on our side, saving me a lung tearing run for once. I am still not well, and would be better off in a blanky with a large brandy by the fire, but that isn't nearly as much fun as going hawking.

 Jessie is still behaving with perfect manners this year. I helped her kill the duck, she allowed me to snap her up. That would have been worth at least one band aide last year. I allowed her to eat for a while and then noticed that she was watching me. I offered her a half duck breast and she jumped to the fist. Amazing! I could learn to like it though.

We drove on over to the rabbit field and the birds just seemed slow, and inept. They missed Bunnies and Jacks alike. We walked all over the field and finally went on one last jaunt in a field that normally doesn't hold Jacks and was walking back to the truck having decided that if they didn't catch anything I was going to quit any way. Sue flew off the perch as though she saw something, but went on to sit on a rock outcropping. Peg was also riding with me, and we walked the line that Sue had flown. A Jack that was hiding in the brush lost his nerve and bolted. Peg took off and hit him in the back of the head with both feet driving his face into a large lava rock. They flipped up and over, and Sue hit the rear end before they hit the ground.

 While the birds were eating their snacks I looked around the area. There was blood all over the place. The Jack never squealed, I guess the poor thing couldn't. His face was bloody and Peg had knocked all this teeth out on the rock.

I killed the Jack and tossed bunny legs to both birds. We fed them up as we walked back to the truck.