Girls day out

The weather has stayed a bit more moderate and Sue and Peg are getting a bit more acclimated to the cooler weather. They are also carrying more weight than I would normally fly them. The snow has for the most part passed around us so far, so there was no reason to not hit the Sage for a bit of exercise. Both Tami and I have missed the excursions with the Harris's. The sky is very overcast with snow threatening, but there isn't much on the ground at Arock.

Both Peg and Sue were pursuing with enthusiasm, but other than piles of rabbit fur we weren't getting satisfaction. The rabbits have changed, in more ways than one. Until recently the only hawk that was getting kicked off was Peg. Today however, Sue had at least three get away, leaving lots of fur on the ground. She whacked one right in front of Tami, and she hit it hard enough that she flipped head over heels. Peg also pulled some hair as well. All of this is with the Jacks, Bunnies do not stand a chance to get away once they are caught.

The Bunnies were running hot and heavy, and escaping with monotous regularity. The girls apparently had missed the hunting as well, and were really turning on the gas.

Sue ripped through a bush hard enough to shed a few feathers with the Jack loosing some hair as well. Finally they got on one that they each missed several times. Finally Sue made another grab and far off in the distance I could hear a strangled scream. We made our best time getting there, but soon we saw Peg jump up on a bush. I thought that perhaps they had lost him. As we got closer, I could see Sue on the ground. That meant that she had him by the head. Peg will help if the head is clear, but steps back if Sue has the head.

If you recall, I mentioned that the rabbits have changed. If you will notice by the color of my ears and the location of my hands, I am doing my best to separate the Jacks neck. I don't know if it is just the fact that these guys have finally reached their full growth, or if they are getting tougher. ( or me weaker) Any way while I like to catch rabbits, I would prefer that their deaths be as quick and painless as possible. Breaking their necks is quick and used to be easy. Knives around hawk toes are a bit chancy, besides they bleed all over the place. The only other solution is suffocation. I hate that almost as much as the rabbit does. I finally was able to get the job done, but it wasn't easy.

As you can see it is no little rabbit. Through it all Thayen slept like the proverbial baby.

Ditch Hawking, again

Our weather has been a bit too much to fly the Harris Hawks, so I have been giving them just enough food to keep them ready to fly if things improve. If there is snow on the ground, one just as well stay at home. Sue will try, but Peg just stays with us without giving it serious effort. I don't blame them. They just aren't suited to cold with wet snow.

The storms while they for the most part go around us at least give us nice sun rises as a consolation prize. The first one was two days ago, the second this morning.

It was a bit nipply this morning at 15 degrees. I put Jessie out, but left the girls inside until it warmed up a bit more. Bruce called about 10:00 AM telling me that he was coming over. I went out and put the charger on the airplane battery just in case the weather held and I could fly the ditch and Lake to check on Duck locations. The last two times that I have flown Jessie on the Lake there was nothing but Swans and Coots. Neither of which are suitable falcon quarry. The Swans are huge and the Coots won't fly 99 percent of the time. I decided that we would have better luck on the Creek especially since we would be hitting it with at least three people to bracket the Ducks. Without enough people the Ducks only fly up and down the ditch, diving into the water to evade the falcons stoop. If you can bracket them, they have to fly away from the water and give the falcon a chance to catch one.

Bruce arrived at 1:30 and the wind was still manageable. I checked the battery and the engine fired up, so I rolled Dart out of the hanger and took off after the engine warmed up. There were Ducks all up and down the ditch in clumps here and there. I marked two of the best looking possibilities on my way to the Lake. The Lake had four Swans, and three or four smaller Ducks. The ditch looked the most promising.

After landing and putting Dart back in the hanger,  I checked my Starling trap. It was full of Starlings and I put one of them in my vest. We loaded Jessie and Betsy up and drove over to Tami's.

Bruce was up first and after getting Jinx ready we walked to the back of Tami's house and made our plan. There was a bunch of Ducks on the ditch just down the creek from her house. Bruce turned Jinx loose and we waited until she was showing signs of wanting to play. Our position was perfect and we hit the Ducks perfectly. They started lifting off and Jinx swooped down and snatched a Gadwall out of the air right in front of us. Bruce found a spot shallow enough to wade and went over to pick her up.

The cows that were in the field had decided that they needed to be some where else. There was a possibility that they disturbed the next batch of Ducks that I wanted to fly with Jessie.

After Bruce fed Jinx, we put Jessie's transmitter on and put her in the air. She hasn't flown for a few days and it was a really nice day, so she spent some time trying to get some lift off the rising hills behind the Creek. A female Prairie came in to visit, but left without causing too much of a disturbance. Jessie just wasn't coming overhead, just circling back behind us. Finally she began to get tired and came up, but not where I hoped the ducks would be. I thought then that they had moved, and sure enough the creek was empty. We began to move down the creek, which is almost a sure way to not get a decent chance at a Duck. Jessie was back over behind us trying to get some lift when a Golden Eye came flying up the creek. Not sure how, but from all appearances had not seen Jessie. Well, Jessie saw him and turned on the power cutting between him and the Creek. Just as he began to approach the Creek, she reached out a long leg and gathered him in, flying hard enough to clear the ditch and the Cattails on the same side of the Creek that we were on.

Reubon was with us today and perhaps for the first time got to see birds taking something. He got a comfortable seat by Jessie and watched her as she ate.

After she had broken in and had eaten some of the Duck, I walked up with the Starling, and she couldn't leave the Duck fast enough to get to me. Bruce ripped a wing and half of the breast off the Duck and after Jess finished the Starling, I gave her the half of Duck to finish her meal. It is supposed to storm again tomorrow, so she will have time to get her weight back down to normal.

This is the first time that I have seen a Golden Eye here, although Bruce says that they have them in Boise. Today was great. The weather was perfect, no wind to speak of, and actually warm enough to be tolerable. Both birds were able to take a Duck, and we were alive to see it.

Visitors

The weather has continued to improve. It will be warmer, but we are supposed to get a lot more snow over the weekend. Oh well, at least is isn't that bone chilling near zero stuff. Hopefully the wind will stay down as well.

I got a call from Bruce Haak this morning. He was freshly back from the NAFA meet in Kansas. He had flown in yesterday on a commercial flight and was anxious to get his Falcon over something to hunt. I told him to hurry on down and we would be able to get his bird a slip at the Lake. With all the cold weather everything is frozen over. Actually the weather in Boise was worse than ours had been as they had snow cover. We at least had no snow. I had planned to take the girls out to catch rabbits at Arock, but plans were changed to accommodate Bruce. We could always hunt the girls on the ranch, even though there are few rabbits living here. We were only required to show them some rabbits, it was up to them to catch them. I felt that we should be able to turn up a couple at least.  The only real fly in the ointment was that the ducks only use the lake to rest during the middle of the day, then leave in the early afternoon to feed in the creek that flows out of the Lake through the ranch. Bruce didn't arrive until 2:30 PM.

We hurried to the Lake and finally put his bird in the air. She is a sister to Jessie from a different year, the only other difference is that Jessie flies at a heavier weight, and is cranky. Having her lighter would not improve her attitude at all, probably only make her meaner. Bruce had the parents of both of these birds in his breeding project and was nice enough to give me an opportunity to fly Jessie.

After Jinx was in position, we moved up to the Lake, unfortunately we were a bit late and the only thing that it held was one duck and two Coots. The Duck snuck out while Jinx was checking other portions of the Creek, leaving only the Coots. Bruce went to the far side and started kicking around in the reeds where the Coots were hiding, finally kicking them out and towards the end of the pond where I was standing. I waved and yelled and they decided to leave the pond and go down the ditch that held water. Jinx swooped down and scooped one of them out of the air.

That has to be the first time that I have ever seen a Coot in a position where a Falcon could even have a chance at catching it.

After we got back to the cars, Tami and I hustled to the area where I wanted to hunt. We Got the girls out and began walking the Sage. In total we jumped four Jacks. Peg got her feet on one, but it strained her through the Sage breaking her grip. Finally as we started back to the car a Jack jumped near Bruce and I and started up the hill away from us. Sue gave chase and grabbed him in the butt as she over flew him, flipping both of them in a full circle in the air. The Jack tried to pull her through a small bush, but it was too small. I circled around in front of him causing him to turn to the right. She reached around the bush and grabbed him in the head, and it was all over.

We fed them up as soon as I got the Jack killed. I didn't want to catch any more Jacks at the ranch. They are scarce enough as it is, and I really need the populations to improve so I won't have to drive so far next year.

Nov 24th, clear and cold

The wind finally stopped, but the cold that comes with a Jet Stream out of interior Canada makes it really miserable. The wind, sometimes up to 35 mph, was thankfully during a warmer trend than we are now contending with. Most of the country around was at or below zero this morning. Today however dawned clear and very crisp. We had 7 degrees here at the house. I left all three birds on their perches in the shop yesterday because of the wind. I could have stuck Jessie outside, but there was no point.

The ranch was shipping cattle this morning, so Tami and I decided to go hawking after noon. It makes more sense any way when it is this cold. All the ponds are now frozen solid, and the only place that there are ducks is at the artesian lake on the ranch, and the creek coming out of it. The ducks here on the ranch feed on the creeks in the morning and evenings, so the best time to hit it is in the middle of the day. The only problem with that is that there is sometimes Geese on it as well. Jessie last year killed two "honkers" off of the lake. I would prefer to not tempt her again as sooner or later one is going to kill her.

I took Betsy with me today to help out. Curly was good at finding and flushing ducks out of their hiding places. Betsy's speciality is staying with Jessie and her presence is a deterrent to anything that might want to attack Jessie. Eagles are my prime concern.

We turned Jessie loose at the fence and began our walk to the Lake. I had forgotten some of my equipment, and returned to the truck. By the time I got back to Tami, I couldn't see Jessie. Finally I located her up about 4 or 500 feet. We hurried on to the Lake, and what with watching where I was going I lost sight of her. When we got close, neither one of us could find her in the sky. I pulled out the receiver and from what I could tell she was up there somewhere, higher than my vision could find her. I have no clue how high she was. Finally I gave up and just started walking to the Lake. There was a group of about fifty Geese on the Lake that flew first. Jessie came rocketing down and thankfully did not grab any of them. There was also a Tundra Swan on the Lake as well. It stayed on the water and watched. Jessie kept fooling around trying to catch ducks that were flying down the creek, and screwing around. She made several tries, but either couldn't or didn't hit any of them. By this time we were down to three Teal next to the reeds at the end of the Lake. They flushed our direction, but Jess was out of position once again. The Swan finally took off and headed South West. Jessie was flying in that direction as well. We walked back to the top of the hill with me tying a Pigeon leg on the lure to call her down.

In retrospect, I should have sat down and waited for her to get back up again,  she will usually catch something on one of the subsequent flushes.

When we got to the top of the hill I was calling for Betsy, since she was nowhere in sight. Finally I heard her barking way off to the South. We looked and found her circling a large white object more than a quarter of a mile away in the Sage. Now I will be the first to admit that I didn't see any of this as it was happening and I can only guess what happened, but soon Jessie came from that direction to land on the lure. Betsy was out there running circles around the Swan, just like she did the last time that Jessie took a Goose. Why was the Swan on the ground after flying only a quarter of a mile from the pond. Why would it land in the Sage. I'm not sure that it could take off from the Sage. They generally have to take a running start to get airborne. I believe that the little stinker drove the Swan to the ground, and Betsy was out there trying to help her with it. I will be the first to admit that she has more guts than brains, so it is more than probable that is what happened.

Tami and I dropped Betsy and Jessie off at the house and picked up the Harris Hawks. The temps had warmed up to 24 degrees, and I felt that they would be able to handle the temps. When we drove into the Sage to where we intended to hunt, Tami pointed out a Golden sitting on one of the rock outcroppings. She flew when the truck neared and I didn't think any more about her. The girls were off chasing a Jack that refused to be caught even though they were relaying him pretty good. Tami yelled that the Eagle was coming back. The girls were both on the ground and really vulnerable. The Eagle was coming down from quite a height and she was in a full serious dive. I ran yelling and screaming at her, and she thankfully broke off her attack, and flew to another part of the area. That was the first time that any of the Eagles had even showed any interest in us. It was a Juvenile and probably was blown in on the storms.

We had some really great chases that were happening really close to us, but while they were exciting, the rabbits were winning. One Bunny that they were chasing was looking over its shoulder watching the pursuing hawk and ran straight into a Sage bush, knocking it back on its butt. It recovered fast enough to still make it to its hole before the hawk caught up. Sue was working on her "towering stoop" and she was really putting the scare into the Jacks. I am not sure but what she pulled hair from more than one. One that was close to me, was grunting like a little pig as he twisted and dodged. I had determined that when we caught one we would leave, as I wasn't sure how much of this cold they could stand. Peg was beginning to show some effects of the cold as we finished our circle back to the truck. At last a Jack jumped close by and Peg slammed into him with Sue close behind.  We wasted no time in feeding the girls all they could eat and putting them in the truck. I'm not sure how long I will be able to fly the girls if this weather doesn't break. I had hoped to be able to fly into January, but this cold is hard on them. Sue was shaking with the cold as we were feeding her. 

Stormy skies are here again.

Well it looks as though the easy times are gone for the year. We have been treated to some weather over the last week or so that has been putting a bit of a crimp in the life style that we would like to lead. Of course it is worse almost every where else, even 10 miles either direction. Ah well, some one has to be spoiled, it might as well be me.

Hunting the Peregrine is no problem with the wind and the snow. The only difficulty lies in the ponds freezing all the ducks out, but I have an edge here, in that the artisan pond on the ranch where Tami lives does not freeze. No matter the temperature. The Harris Hawks are a different matter however. Coming from the Southwestern deserts, there is no reason for water proofing on their feathers, so snow is out of the question. They also don't seem to have the weatherization that is required to withstand the wind and cold. So these cold and snowy days are really tough on them, and I don't hunt them in those conditions.

I haven't hunted them for quite a while because of the stormy conditions. The snow is mostly gone here, so I put them in the truck thinking that if nothing else I would let them fly as much as they could stand after I flew Jessie.  The temps this morning was 31 degrees and the wind was howling, so I put off hunting until around noon. The wind was bad enough that it wore out most of the light snow that we had. I had decided that I would take Jessie over to the Lake on the ranch since the ducks like to go to the lake to rest after their morning feed, then hunt the girls on the way back. The rabbits are scarce, but if nothing else it would mean that they would get a chance to fly for a bit.

The wind really kicked up by the time that we got in position at the lake. Jessie didn't even look around when I struck her hood. She just launched into the air. The wind was blowing about 25 with gusts to 35. She really didn't take that much of a pitch, but she hung around the pond. I flushed one group of the ducks that were on the pond, but she was too close and they weren't about to go over dry land, and they splashed back down. The wind was just too much and although she tried every thing she could, they either splashed back into the pond or the ditch leading out of the lake. I finally called her down to the lure, and we called it quits.

We took the girls out of their boxes and figured that we would if nothing else, walk a bit and if they showed signs of distress, feed them up for the day. The wind was really strong, and it seemed as though we were walking in a vacuum. The cover there is mostly Grease wood and it appeared that the few rabbits that used to live there had moved out. We walked a large circle of several hundred yards without seeing anything. I decided that enough was enough and started back to the truck. We had ventured down close to the fence that enclosed the pasturage of the ranch, a Jack jumped up and sprinted across the wind. Both birds were after him as soon as he moved. Sue caught up to him and rolled him, but he kicked loose. Both girls were in hot pursuit and caught up to him in another 20 yards. Sue took a shot at him, and he ducked around a Grease wood bush, but Peg was there as well. He ducked her, but by that time Sue was back and had him by the head.

I had worried about them getting rusty and slacking a bit with them not hunting much, but if anything it made them try harder. It doesn't get much better that one up, one down.

I was quite happy to call it a day, and feed them their meal.

Curly and Indy!

 Photo by John Hauck

In a lot of ways this has been one of my better years. In the area of hunting companions it has been pretty tough. We mourn the passage of Indy and Curly, two of our hunting dogs. Indy had been with us for 18 years. Really quite unbelievable that she would last that long. She was of course pretty feeble for at least a year, so her passing was expected.

Indy was a real sweetheart, lovable as could be, but terribly camera shy. I could rarely catch her off guard enough to take a picture of her. The above was taken by Larry Bourne while she was distracted by my bird.

We got Curly when Indy was 8 years old with the thought that when she died he would be in his prime and I would still have a pointer able to assist me with the hunting. Of course she stuck around for much longer than that.

Curly was one of the most fiercely independent dogs that I have ever had. He had such a drive to hunt that it was hard to keep him at home. A shock collar with a one mile range helped me to overcome that. He really began to shine when we moved to the high desert. His prowess this year with the Pack Rats was remarkable, but his main value to me was Duck hunting with the falcons. He had no compunction about diving into the water after a duck that refused to fly with a falcon over head. The size of the water made no difference. He could be counted on to find the ducks where ever they hid. Of course being a Brittney, lovable came along with the package.

It really didn't matter what you wanted to hunt, Curly was up for it. I guess the shocking part of his passing was that he didn't look his age, and I wasn't ready for him to go.

Jessie again.

The wind stopped sometime in the night, and it was cold. Jessie was down in weight enough to be nice and was imploring me to take her hunting. I got every thing done at the house and Karen agreed to come along. Tami was helping at the ranch today as they were shipping cattle. There was snow falling a bit north of the pond.

I have been having trouble spotting where Jessie and her victims had been ending up as the pond at Appendix Point is quite large and the Sage at the far end is pretty big, so I decided to go up on the cliff to flush. There was quite a large bunch of ducks on the pond again.

Betsey likes these days when it is only Jessie that is hunted. It means that she can go along, and does she ever like that. She hyperventilates something terrible. There is nothing that one can do to stop it, so we have just learned to ignore it, mostly.

 I turned Jessie loose and Betsey and I started around the hill to get into position. Karen had included the walkie talkies today so I was able to ask where Jessie was. Karen informed me that she was sitting on one of the cliff rocks on her side of the pond. Betsey and I took a seat to wait her out. Soon Jess was taking a pitch over the pond. When she leveled out, we walked down towards the edge of the cliff. There was a whole flock of ducks and they busted out the other side. Jessie came sizzling down and smacked a Mallard into the ground. They however are a tough bird, and he floundered his way back into the water before she could get turned around to catch him. Jessie then changed course and flew towards the end of the pond at about twenty five feet. I lost sight of her and assumed that she had sat down on my side of the hill to rest. She didn't show and I couldn't see her, so I decided that I would just call her to the lure. Well, she wasn't there. I had the telemetry with me so I started trying to find her. The signal kept coming from the Sage at the end of the pond. Again I had trouble pinpointing her position. I tried every variation that I could try and I could not find her. Standing in the road the signal pointed out across the sage. Walk out there and it pointed back towards the hill. I spent at least a half an hour trying to find her. Finally I turned the damn thing up with all the elements out and stumbled on her, tucked under two Sage bushes.

She had eaten all the fat off the breast of the Gadwall that she had somehow caught. I guess she intimidated him badly enough that he just gave up. She shouldn't have caught anything with the way that the flight unfolded, but as I have said before- "The girl makes things happen".

I shouldn't have been able to pick her up at all, and if she had done anything other than pick fat, she would be sleeping under the stars. Probably pissed at me for not bringing her in the shop where it is warm.

I changed Satellite providers for my email today. A product of the "recovery act". I get monthly service for $39.99 rather than the $52.00 that I had been paying.

A wind day, sigh!

This was the sunset yesterday evening. This morning the wind woke me up at 3 AM howling like all the banshee's of hell. While Jessie could withstand the winds that are currently blowing around 30 MPH, I am not sure I could. The Harris's would not enjoy it at all. So, I stayed in bed. Actually I felt sorry for Tami, trying to milk two goats in a gale in the dark so that she could meet me at the house at daylight.

Since I was bored, I uploaded a video that we took of Jessie last year at Appendix Point. I had fitted Karen with my hat "Spy" camera. Taking video's of hunting Falcons is really tough because every thing happens so fast that keeping up with a stooping falcon in a view finder is almost impossible. So I thought that she had a better chance of getting some usable video with the camera recording where she looked.

The ducks were not cooperating at all and they had dumped back into the water not giving her a chance at one over dry land. Curly, Betsy and I were doing the best we could to force them off the water. Finally one cleared the water far enough that she had a clear chance at one. She bound to it and for what ever reason choose the only clear landing spot right at Karen's feet. As you can see the flight after the catch is a controlled crash at best. The only thing that keeps the hawk from damage is that the duck acts as a cushion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DL1_9GSk0sY

While I have to help the Harris Hawks kill their quarry by breaking its neck. Jessie and all falcons have a notch in their beak that allows them to separate the neck killing their quarry quickly.

Hunting in the wind.

There is a real weather front moving through and it has brought a lot of wind with it. It isn't that cold, but with the wind it doesn't matter. This means that we are having a change over on Raptors and ducks. The ducks will now be a bit fatter coming from Canada's corn fields. Jessie will be happy.

I had seriously considered skipping today when the wind woke me at 3 AM, but it was down to just aggravating by the time that daylight came around. The desire to film a hunt with the Movie camera was pretty strong, and the birds are going to have to learn to deal with the wind anyway. They had an introduction at the Burns falconry meet in Oct. and were beginning to get the hang of it then.

The camera is a Tachyon XC, a helmet cam that I have been using on the plane. I got one of Karen's headbands to secure it to my Straw hat. ( I like to wear a wide brimmed hat when I am using the Tee Perch. It keeps the glasses clean. Peg has a disconcerting habit of crapping on her person if she gets a chance.) Of course one is always moving their head, much more than you would imagine, so I did a lot of cutting and editing to get anything at all.

The birds seemed to like the wind, as they were a lot more aerial today than they are normally. Some of the chases were going a lot further than I was comfortable with. Sue caught a Jack on one of the longer flights, and then lost it before I could limp up to the scene. Of course it was tougher for them to get a really sure shot on the running rabbits, as the wind was making smooth flight impossible.

The rabbits, both Jacks and Bunnies will duck into a hole if they are pressed hard enough. One of those occasions was especially funny to watch as Sue straddled the perch pole that Tami was poking into the hole trying to get the rascal out. She wanted to watch and be prepared if she managed to rout him.

Finally we got a close slip and Sue hit the Jack first with Peg close behind securing the head. It is amazing to me that the birds can be throwing those sharp talons all around and never get one another. Sue will tussle with Peg to get her food, but they haven't hurt each other at all or me, seriously, yet.

After they finished their rewards for the Jack, we called it quits and headed back to the truck. On the way another Jack jumped and Sue gave chase. Peg who was lagging behind got after a Bunny that she found and from the wing over that she put in, I felt that she had connected. Sure enough when I got to where she had disappeared, I found her down in a hole holding onto a Bunny. A good day, one each in tough conditions, and the film to prove it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVLBSzQesfA

Jessie gets another chance.

Jessie felt tremendously put upon when I ignored all her blandishments designed to make me relent and feed her yesterday. So soon does she forget her recent bad behavior. A bit dramatic to be sure, but she did remind me that I have been entirely too lenient with her. She will generally fly and fly well with two or three extra ounces of weight, but there comes a time when she remembers that she is free, and can really be an ass if she wants to be, leaving me no choice but to humor her, at least until I get her leash back on. So my revenge was to not feed her an extra day. She merely lost enough fat to actually reach her real flying weight.

This morning every one was committed to other duties, so it was only Betsy and I to take care of the hunting chores. Actually Betsy thought that she might have gone to heaven to be able to go with me for once, and didn't even have to share with Curly, who is still recuperating from injured shoulders.

I went to Appendix Point this morning, not having visited that pond for several weeks. The Steen's is showing some of its winter coat and of course a picture was in order if for nothing else than to satisfy Bob, one of the blog's followers.

The pond was chock full of ducks, so I got Jess ready and turned her loose. She flew up the ridge line and started to land on the cliff over the pond. Then she apparently looked over her shoulder at all the ducks on the water and decided to keep flying instead. When she got her pitch and position, I began the flush. None of them wanted to leave the water and put back down on the pond. Betsy, the racing dog, soon convinced them that there was a three pronged attack in progress and the sky over the pond filled with enough ducks that I never saw the strike. Jessie however never came back up, so I knew that she was somewhere over on the other side of the pond with a duck.

No problem, I had the forethought to actually put the telemetry receiver in my vest, just for situations like this. ( Actually this behavior is not normal for me ) The unit that I have is a relatively new one for me and I really have not had to use it to find much of anything before. My last one had a gain dial that would allow me to reduce the range enough that I could use it to find the signal when it was close, rather than having to reduce the size of the antenna as on this one. To make a long explanation short, I really didn't know how to use this one. As you can see from the picture above, the pond is in sort of a bowl, and the rocks surrounding it are a "glazed" volcanic rock that reflects signals. I went to the other side of the pond on what was actually the right course, but when I got close the signal was swamping the receiver. I narrowed the reception and it appeared that the signal was now coming from the rocky hillside behind the pond. That jived with my last glimpse of her, so I trekked across the end of the pond checking to see if she was in the Sage there with a duck. Nothing! Betsy was no help, she was still in blitzkrieg mode, trying to be every where at the same time. After looking around close to the pond, I reduced the antenna by retracting some of the elements and the signal was coming from the hill side. I actually checked back the way that I had come and the signal was stronger up the hill. So I crawled through the fence and began hiking up the hillside. Finally reaching the top, the signal faded to almost nothing. (no more reflection ) I checked again and it pointed me to the Sage at the end of the pond. By this time the little rascal had about 15 minutes to stuff all the duck fat into her crop that was available. I finally arrived at the bottom and there she was in the road just around the corner from where I had decided that I needed to climb the hill.

The little darling had consumed all of the considerable fat off the breast of the Mallard drake that she had caught. I was able to snap her up, so I sat back and let her eat all she wanted.

She got enough food that I won't have to worry about her for a few days. I would like to get her back flying on the days that I fly the Harris's, but it isn't necessary. It would just be easier, and I would burn less fuel.

Sue, on fire!

I forgot to mention that I got the hot tub running again. I took the pump in to Nampa, Id. and got it rebuilt for $25.00 What a deal. If I had tried to buy a new pump it would have cost me $400. Its nice to have the hot tub again, but my butt is still sore as can be. I had to have torn some muscle.

I had another visit by, I hope, the last Raccoon in the area. Of course since these are all young, ( yearlings or two year olds at best.) there has to be an old "he Coon" somewhere. Its nice to have a creek nearby, but it means that sooner or later something is going to come calling. 

Much to Jessie's disgust, I left her at home this morning. It has been sprinkling rain most of the morning, but the weather radar only showed it centered around the house. I set up the movie camera on my hat hoping to record enough of the flights so that I would be able to make a short clip of the girls hunting, but didn't clear the card in the camera, so I got nothing. That is too bad as today was a kick in the pants to say the least. Next time.

The rain quit before we got to our hunting field, and we picked a spot that we had not hunted much before. We were not more than 30 yards from the truck when Peg took off like she had seen something, but was mistaken, and landed on a Sage. As I looked, Sue took off Tami's perch and cranked up a bit, then slammed into the ground behind Peg, grabbing a sneaking Jack by the head. That was a bit surprising. I killed the Jack, and tossed each a chunk of Bunny from the last kill. I cleaned the Jack and stowed it away in my vest. Since we had just barely gotten out of the truck, we pushed on. The rabbits were hiding really well in the cool rainy weather. We traveled quite a long way without seeing any more rabbits, and were beginning to turn back towards the truck. We jumped a Bunny and both birds were after it. Peg turned it back towards Sue. Sue slammed into the bush, and I saw her throw one of her long legs out. It came back full of Bunny. I killed that one, pulled off a front leg each for them. I cleaned the Bunny while they were eating. Peg finished hers, leaving the foot and the bones behind to fly to Tami. Sue stayed and swallowed her bones and foot as well as what Peg left behind. We jumped three Jacks that were hiding in the sage in the same little gully before the birds were ready. Eventually Sue returned to the perch and we began our trek back to the truck. Sue had quite a sizable crop, so I didn't expect much out of her for the rest of the trip.

We were within a hundred yards of the truck when a Jack jumped. Both birds gave chase. Sue again made a slashing attack that ended with a screaming Jack. She had again managed to grab it by the head. This was a BIG Jack, and Sue was lying on her side with the Jacks legs stretching her out. Every time the Jack kicked she was grunting with the effort to hold onto him. I got a grip on his legs and she wasted no time in getting out from under him, but she didn't relax her grip. I killed him and gave Tami a front leg from the earlier Jack to feed Peg, while I picked up Sue with the other one. We fed the girls up and put them in their boxes while I cleaned the rabbits. I get enough food from a Jack to feed both girls and still have six meals to put into the freezer for this winter. Today was good for two weeks of food for them.

I did a count when I got back home, and find that they have harvested 65 rabbits so far this year. Not bad for flying every other day. This is the first time that Sue has taken three head in one trip. She is something else. Peg is setting these up for her. Sue would not be doing that well without Peg's help, but Sue really is a remarkable hawk. Peg is a sweetheart, gentle as can be to every one, but a lot of these chases are initiated by her. I can't say why she isn't catching more than she does, but its not from lack of trying. I guess it is just as well or we would hardly get any hunting time.

Jessie is screwing with me again!

I have to admit that some of this stuff is confusing. I hope that every one who signed up as a follower is getting notification of each new post as is supposed to happen.

Apparently I was mistaken about the Raccoon that I caught. I had thought that he was a orphan, because of the amount of chicken that was eaten off the kills. It was almost nothing. There were no holes dug under the wire, no evidence of entry at all. It appeared that the little one had just squeezed through the wire. I was there fore surprised to find a small female Raccoon in a trap that I had put in their normal travel route around the fenced area of the pen. Hopefully that is all of them. I spent some time yesterday sprucing up the chicken run. The wire is quite secure, but it isn't buried wire, so digging in is a possibility.

Karen went with us this morning for our hunt. She bought a Ace bandage that was supposed to help stabilize her knee, but it was too tight and pinched, so she left it home.

We have been getting a bit of weather lately, and the mountain shows it. I will have to start taking the big camera along with us to better capture its changing face.

I checked the pond that I normally fly and while there were ducks on it, there were also cows in the fields surrounding it as well. We started driving in, and the cows assumed that we wanted them somewhere else, and started moving in front of us. I parked the car in the hopes that they would settle down and go on about their business. Everything was fine until we topped the hill above the pond. They all felt guilty and left the fields. Had I not already turned Jessie loose, I would have turned around and left. Jessie took a great pitch and we just walked up in sight of the ducks, and they flushed. Jessie turned on a Mallard and started down. The duck felt her coming and turned back towards the pond. She broke off her pursuit and tried another one, that one did the same thing and she never closed with it either. She picked her pitch back up and I walked down to the pond. A couple busted out the shallow end and she started for them, but was behind too much, she then turned an outside loop and chased another one, but it got into the lower pond. Jessie never came back and I was unsure if she had caught something or not. I left the ladies at the top of the hill and walked down to see what was going on.

By the time that I got down there she was back up in the air. I flushed the lower pond, and she made chases on the ducks that were flying, but for some reason did not follow through. She did this four times on separate flushes. Finally she chased a Mallard over a hill in what looked like a successful pursuit. I walked up to where I could see in time to see her land on a telephone pole. I crossed back over the fence and swung the lure. She came, grabbed the lure, and settled down to eat. When she finished eating the tidbit, she decided that she wasn't done playing and took off again, ignoring the food on my fist. I was disgusted and walked back to Karen and Tami. Jessie had landed on a hay stack, then left and landed on the ground. I swung the lure for a while, but she ignored me. I walked back to get the truck and the telemetry receiver.

When I returned I could see her sitting in the field, so I walked down there and she ignored me until I got to within 50 feet of her. I tossed the lure ( with a sliding weight on it ) in the air and she flew back and forth trying to snag the food on the lure. Finally she sat down on it, and I began to approach her. She jumped up and had managed to get the weight and line all in a ball in her feet and took off with the lure, flying down around the hay stack into another field. ( the lure has a 12 or 14 oz lead weight on a 8 foot line that can slide either up or down. Its purpose is to bounce along the ground either catching on the brush or hitting the ground breaking up the birds flight, thus deterring the bird from flying off with it.) She was sitting in the field rather winded from her efforts. I walked closer to her murmuring curse words of endearment. She again attempted to take off, but was too tired to do so. She began eating and when I got close to her jumped to the fist to get the meal that I had offered to her earlier. I had apparently been punished enough.

The Harris Hawks had gotten less than usual for a meal the last time that I had flown them because they just didn't seem to want to chase Jacks. Peg spent every effort to try to talk me into feeding her yesterday and was down about an ounce from what she had flown at before. Sue was down as well, and both were "sharp set" for a change. They were putting on a show today when ever we got a Jack up in front of them. They just would not quit the chase until the Jack managed to totally elude them either by hiding or making his escape when they couldn't see him. Sue and Peg were crashing the brush like crazy, putting in shots that evoked a lot of "wow" exclamations from both of us. Sue took a diving shot at one who only escaped by jumping over her as she hit the ground. It was like popcorn on a hot griddle. Karen was keeping close in the truck and could see better there than on foot. One of the girls ripped a hand full of hair out of one of the Jacks during a pursuit. It just couldn't last, they were trying too hard. Finally Sue, after both she and Peg had taken a couple of shots each, saw an opening and slammed into one that tried to hide.

My tidbits had spoiled, so I ripped off a Jack front leg for each as a reward. I really didn't want to feed them that big of a chunk of meat, but I knew that we had 15 or 20 minutes before it hit their stomach and dulled their enthusiasm for the hunt. We traveled on and began to bump Bunnies. The girls weren't at all reluctant to chase them. We had just gotten back to the road, when they began to relay a fleeing Bunny. He managed to evade three shots, but Sue put in a forth one that put an end to the chase and the day. I tore off a front leg and walked back to the truck to clean the Bunny and cut off their meal for the day. We fed them up when they finished their treats. We still finished earlier than normal even with Jessie screwing things up.

Snow day

First I would like to thank those of you that made the sacrifice and signed up to receive the blog.

The area here is quite unique in that a lot of the storms that sweep through the area and on into Idaho, miss us altogether. The mountains to the north and south seem to pull the storms far enough either way to miss the house completely. It can be raining like crazy just six miles up the road and the same for the area to the south, and dry at the house.  It was overcast this morning, but basically dry. We had a small rain last night, enough to see on the side walk, but nothing of any consequence. As we drove further east we began to get some flakes of snow on the windshield. The weather forecast called for a "winter storm warning" until 10:00 AM.

We checked the pond that I have been flying with Jessie and while I thought that there might have been some flying ducks there, I couldn't really pick any out with the bino's.  There was definitely some Coots.  ( diving Ducks, hard to make fly.) There was also a bunch of cows around the pond. It is not a good idea to be running, screaming and flapping your arms around a man's livestock. It can be misinterpreted as rude behavior.

We checked another pond, but found nothing to fly. There was another pond by the Hwy that I had not flown yet this year and we decided to try it. By the time that we got there, Karen drove in with my camera, which I had forgotten when I left this morning. I talked her into going with us to fly Jessie there. By the time we got in position it was snowing big flakes and the ground was starting to show the snow. I turned Jessie loose and she never even went over the pond to see if there was ducks there. She instead circled over a hay field and then sat down in the edge of it. When she didn't return, I decided that it was going to be a bust, so we drove out and over to where we saw her sit down. She had decided to go flying and was circling high over the field. I finally got her attention and called her down to the lure. One down, two to go.

We drove to the rabbit field, Karen went on home. Smart girl! The flakes by that time were about quarter size, but we went out any way. While there were tracks all over there wasn't a rabbit to be seen. They were hiding and not about to come out. We made a pretty big circle and perhaps saw 6 rabbits of which the girls only chased one like they meant it. Thayen got tired of getting snow in his face and soon let me know just how foolish it really was. Sue was still reluctantly willing to chase something if we could get it close enough to see it through the snow, but Peg had given up. Snow is not a Harris Hawk's friend. They really have no water proofing on their feathers and are just not designed for that type of weather.

Both were quite glad to get in their box out of the snow. It put down about 1 1/2 inches in about 30 minutes. On the way home we had not gone more than 10 miles and there was no snow at all. Oh well!

Things are getting better

If you will notice there is an icon to the right of this page where one can sign up to be a "follower" of this blog. If you do sign up it will notify you of any addition to the blog when ever I post one. I would encourage you to sign up for that status if you do read this blog. Today will be my last personal notification of an entry, so if you don't hear from me again about the blog, that will be the reason why. There are currently 26 "followers", while my notification list has about 45 people on it. Hopefully the rest of you will sign up.

It appears that I broke one of my ribs in my last ride on Ezra, or rather untimely dismount. My butt, with at least a tube of Ben Gay on it, is greasier but less painful. My cough is much better, so the broken rib isn't causing my vocabulary to deteriorate that much. I finally caught the chicken eater before I was totally out of chickens. So things are beginning to look up. I find that I am much too delicate to tolerate much discomfort or adversity, so things are better.

I had decided that it was a Weasel that was causing me so much trouble. The dead birds had their heads chewed on, beak and eyes missing, skin missing off their necks, innards eaten. Not a lot missing on them, but at least one every night. The biggest thing was that there was little or no blood, and Weasels like to drink the blood. There was no signs of anything digging into the pen. It had to be small enough to get through the wire. Saturday evening I put one of my Starling funnel traps out with a pigeon in it and a small steel trap in the funnel that the Weasel would have cross over to get into the pigeon. The next morning I found the trap empty and sprung, Pigeon OK. There was a dead Chicken in the house with the same injuries as listed above. I made two Weasel boxes, set a double spring Fox trap where critters normally walk along the wall between the fence and pen. I also took the last body, hung it from the pen and put another fox trap underneath it.

I checked it last night before I went to bed and found a baby Raccoon in the trap. I say Baby, but it was born in the spring. It probably weighed about 7 pounds. I had seen the mother and two babies over at the ranch this spring. I can only guess, but it appears that something happened to the adult and the other baby. I can tell you for sure that no adults had gotten into the chicken pen. My guess is that the little fella has been on his own for some time. There just wasn't that much eaten on any of my poor chickens. No holes dug under the pen. He wasn't that skinny, so he was eating something other than my chickens. He did manage to kill about 10 of them along with some pigeons. Karen has been telling me that something was visiting in the outside "cat house" and eating the food. Apparently we had been contributing to this orphan's welfare for some time. He just got old enough to eat more than the mice that the cats dropped in the cat house and the cat food. This Chicken stuff is difficult at best with all the things that like to eat them.

Jessie is really doing well this year. She is taking a very nice pitch for her. I have never insisted that she fly higher than necessary to kill ducks. Since I have learned to turn her loose at the truck rather than close to the pond, she is going higher almost each time.

We flushed when she was turning upwind, and she came sizzling down out of the sky finally grabbing a Mallard about 200 yards from the pond. It took her that long to get down. My aching butt won't allow me to run, so I asked Grace to please run up to where she was to protect her from the three Ravens that were harassing her. Grace, being fleet of foot as well as pretty, was there in good time allowing me to hobble down there at my leisure.

 Photo's by Grace

Yesterday evening when I was bringing Jessie and Peg into the shop for the night, Sue started her defiant screams, still in a low voice, but there none the less. I decided that I would just leave her there rather than start another confrontation. So she got to spend the night ( high 30's ) outside rather than in the warm shop. She was less defiant this morning when I picked every one up to go hunting. I am willing to try anything to avoid a confrontation, and if being a Harris sickle will help then I am for it.

I am still taking the transmitter off Peg's tail for a while, so we fired it up, checking it with the receiver, and I clipped it in the holder, or at least I thought that I did. Its a bit tough because you have to lift the wings, find the little clip and then get it stuffed in the clip. A bit like stuffing a wet noodle in a cats butt. You can do it, but it isn't always easy. 

It didn't take too long and the girls started a Bunny that ran into a crack. I flushed him out with my perch and Sue caught him in about 20 feet. It was a bit of an awkward catch with one leg on one side of a Sage main stem and the other one on the other side. She solidified it by grabbing him in the face with her beak and moving the other foot over. I was taking pictures because of the weird position she was in and to my surprise, he broke loose and actually made his getaway. 

 Oh well, if he can do it, more power to him. We hunted on through the rest of the field and it became apparent that the Bunnies were getting precedence, which bother me quite a bit. Sue was watching the Jacks hop off, while Peg was still giving them equal time. I decided to box them up and go to another field to see if the behavior would change.  Before we could get to the truck, Sue caught another one.

We tried two more spots, one had new spooky cows in it so we didn't stay. Sue still wasn't much interested in catching Jacks, so we decided to call it a day. We fed the girls a reduced ration to bring their weight down and put Peg in her box. I reached in to get the transmitter and found that it was not in its clip. Wonderful!

We back tracked with the receiver and finally got a faint signal where I thought it had to be at the first pole that they landed on. We walked all the way to the furthermost point that we had gone and finally found it sticking in a Sage bush there. Tami got a lesson of tracking a transmitter without it being on a bird.

When I got home, I made a few calls and I am going to have to drain the hot tub and take the pump in. We are going to go sit in it a while before I do that this evening.

OK, OK, I have learned my lesson.

The proverbs and of course your mother says " Pride goes before a fall". I am extremely sorry that I  was so vain that I bragged in my last post. I have since seen the light, and will here after remain modest and quiet.

I do live in a great place with unlimited possibilities for fun. I was very lucky to retire when I did, sell my house at the peak of the housing market, buy an exceptional house in a depressed area that just happens to be loaded with the kind of things that I like to do. Some times my happiness just flows over and I forget how my glowing reports of how good life is treating me, can be rather depressing for those of you who are still working or looking for work, stuck in places that are not fit for man nor beast. Fate has stepped in and shown me the error of my ways.

Curly, the Britney has pulled a muscle in his shoulder and so far we haven't found any respite for him. We are on our second set of medications in the hope that we can give him some relief. That is just normal life.

I ordered some antennas for the birds telemetry and a new wire to put on one of the transmitters so that I could attach it to Peg's tail. There is a little socket that clips on a center tail feather and the transmitter clips into that. Since they can be activated via a magnetic switch. It is the perfect solution. Hanging them on the birds feet is like putting weights on a boxers hands. Karen and I did that, and then I attempted to pick up Sue to change her batteries. I have mentioned before that she is territorial with her night perch, but today she footed me when I picked her up and she spent the rest of the time that I was holding her screaming and trying to grab me. I carried her around for an hour or so with no improvement, finally putting her in the giant hood in the back of the truck. When I went out to put the birds up for the night I found that Peg had pulled the offending feather out of her butt.

Now how sweet is that? I decided that I would clip another one to the other center tail feather, but not put the transmitter on until she gets used to the weight of the thing. I do hope that works.

I got up this morning after worrying all night long about how Sue was going to act this morning. What worries me is that habits like this generally get worse rather than better. However the sun always comes up and sometimes it is really lovely.

 Of course they say that  "Red sky in the morning, Sailors take warning". Not being a sailor, I have never paid much attention, just admiration. Of course when I went to do my chores this morning I discovered that I apparently have a Weasel killing my Chickens. One dead yesterday, two more this morning.

First up this morning was Jessie as is usual. I was feeling a bit apprehensive, but she behaved well, taking a nice pitch after checking the area. We flushed and some Mallards flew out of the shallow end of the pond. Jessie came fogging down after a hen, but it threw up a wing to take the blow. It still knocked her into the ground, but she quickly recovered and made the pond again before Jessie could get back around to her. Jessie recovered her pitch, and we ran the pond again hoping that we could find some that had been hiding in the tules. I did flush the Mallard who flew the same course and a Gadwall that went the other way. The Mallard dumped and Jess tried to catch up to the Gadwall, but she had too much of a head start. Jessie landed on the ground in a cut alfalfa field between the two ponds. I have not ever flown the lower pond, as there are wires and fences around it, but I was willing if Jessie wanted to. She is pretty savvy about that sort of stuff. We walked closer to the pond, giving her a chance to rest. She seemed quite content to sit on the ground and watch the day go by. I finally decided the best way to get her to fly was to offer her the fist with food. She knows that I am serious when I do that. While we were sitting there, we watched another Mallard fly into the top pond. She took a pitch over the top pond, so we made our best time up there and rushed the pond from both sides, pushing the Mallard out the end. Jess whacked it down into the willows at the top of the pond and whipped in to grab it. I got there as fast as I could and found her wrestling with the hen. It saw me and started wing whipping her and she let go to let me subdue the critter. I missed and it got into the water with me right after it. I grabbed, it dived and eluded me underwater. An interesting fact that most people do not think of until too late is that water proof boots not only repel water, but they also hold water as well. I called Jess to the lure and she seemed to hold no grudge. Not necessary, I knew who was the dunce.

When we took the Harris Hawks out, I was pleased to find that Peg hadn't ripped out the other feather while she was in the box. Sue screamed a rather subdued defiance for a bit, but soon quit, and got down to hunting. They chased several rabbits, and the new method of escape for the Jacks is to hide in holes like little "girly" rabbits. They finally ganged up on this one after Sue slammed into him on one side of the Sage with Peg taking the front.

We started back to the truck after this one was in the bag. Another Jack when pressed, ran into a hole. We rooted him out, and he couldn't make it to another one.

When we got home I left Sue in the box, intending to take her out a bit before dark and carry her until time to put her up for the night. I am at the end of my ideas on how to handle this insurrection.

So feeling a bit down I decided to roll out the plane and see if a little air time would help my feelings of being a dork. Karen was in Burns getting some new medication for Curly, and she told me that the wind was howling there. I knew that my time was limited. Well once in the air, I became aware that the front was well on its way, so I returned to the house and landed without incident.

Next chore was Ezra. He is a Tennessee Walker that we have had as a colt, but for one reason or another have not really done that much with. We had another horse that was a pain in the butt, that we just sold. I determined that I would start riding Ezra, if nothing else to keep him occupied. I saddled him up and I decided to ride down the runway, as he had been nowhere but the corral for a long time. I am working on his reining, and he is doing well, but he is still jumpy. We did quite well until we got to the end of the runway. Something spooked him and he whipped around so fast that the next thing I knew was that I was looking at him from somewhere other than from the saddle. I held on to the reins long enough get stretched out and landed on the flat part of my butt. Ezra headed out for home, leaving me a half mile walk to contemplate my sins. It could have been worse, sore rear end, either a sprained or bruised rib. He was calmly eating grass at the house, and came to me with no problem.  I "got back on my horse" and finished the reining lesson.

Oh, did I mention that the pump went out on the hot tub? It still heats, but no massage. Sigh!

All of it nothing more than coincidence I am sure, I think?

Nov 4th

On our arrival at Arock we were a bit dismayed to find a Golden Eagle flying up to sit on a fence post at the side of the road. The pond was just under the hill, and She was a bit too close for my comfort. We checked the pond and found that there was plenty of ducks on it. We watched for a while, and she flew out of the area. We went back up to see what she was feeding on and found that it was only a road kill Jack, which she had finished before our arrival. I felt much better and we decided to try it.

Jessie is still on the high end of my comfort range, but flew well and took a good pitch over the pond. We flushed and Jessie slashed a Gadwall out of the air below the dam. Unfortunately it was below the level of the dam and out of our sight, so neither Tami or her mother got to see the strike again. After evaluating her performance the last two times, I am going to have to concede that she may not be over weight at all.

 We let her eat for a while and she happily threw feathers all over the place. I brought a quail to trade her, as she preferred Quail last year to ducks. Apparently that has changed, as she soon showed signs that she was having second thoughts. I ripped a wing and breast off the duck and she happily ate that instead.

After we got Jessie settled in the truck, we drove over to the rabbit field.  We watched a passage Coopers Hawk chasing a passage Sharpshin on the way.

The girls were chasing, but the Jacks are getting smarter each day. They were stopping, twisting, turning, and in general outmaneuvering them at every turn. One got a bit slow and lost a hand full of hair, but he managed to escape. While we were walking I watched a Golden flying over the ground a 1/4 mile away suddenly do a wing over and smash into the ground. He didn't get back up in the air, so I assume that he was successful.

We moved into an area that we had not hunted before and the girls chased a Jack over a Lava ridge. Soon I heard the faint sound of a Jack with talons in its butt. I hurried over the ridge and could see nothing of either the birds or hear the Jack any more. We started looking further and further out all the time, and finally could hear a muted, strangled gurgle further out. I found the birds tangled up in a large piece of Sage. Sue holding the butt from the far side, pulled as tight to the Sage as possible, and Peg on the other end with her talons stuck into his throat. I was finally able to gain control of the Jack, and Peg let loose. I thought that I had broken his neck, and concentrated on untangling Sue. I let the rabbit go, but he got his breath back and tried again to get away. Peg grabbed him by the head again. I finally was able to kill the rabbit. I know that it sounds easy, but sometimes there just isn't a place to grab with two hawks latched onto one rabbit. I couldn't find the two bunny legs that I had brought for this situation, so I tossed Peg a Quail leg, and gave one to Sue. They retired to their separate corners and I tried to clean the Jack. They finished sooner than I was ready and we had an interesting few minutes to show me how much I had screwed up. I finally got things under control again. The good part about today is that this is the first time that Peg has assisted Sue in subduing a Jack, and the fact that she did it twice was doubly pleasing.


My problem was that we had only caught a Bunny the last time and I couldn't find the front legs that I had put aside for them, and then there wasn't enough bunny left to actually feed both girls. I had intended to make their meals out of what ever they caught. So I tossed the Quail leg, which they finished in no time. Now that we had returned to the truck I still had the problem of trying to get enough time alone to dismember the Jack. Both birds, especially Sue was not about to get far enough away from me to allow that to happen. I finally solved that problem by giving Barbara my glove and a front leg to feed Peg while Tami took care of Sue.

While they fed the birds for me, I cleaned the Jack, leaving the boys, Thayen, Reubon and Spike (Tara's son had come down with Tami's mother for a visit)  to dig holes for the offal and cover it for me. The only problem with that was that Thayen only wanted to dig where we had already buried things. It all worked out in the end however. We managed to catch game with all the birds, and we took a bit of the edge off the boy's energy level. On our way out we saw an Osprey with a fish in its talons flying just in front of the truck as we crossed Jordan Creek.

It was really quite a trip today, we saw a nice four point Deer, Coyote, and even a covey of Hungarian Partridge, Eagles, Two different Accipiters. Just another shitty day in paradise I guess.

Jessie's feet are better!

We started an hour earlier yesterday because Tami had an appointment with visiting F&W guys to inspect her facilities. This was something that she has been working towards for quite some time, and I for one was not going to make her late and miss her chance. It is the final step before she can apply for her capture permit for a bird of her own.

An inspection of all new facilities is required of apprentices and all falconers when they have moved. I complied with the rules when I moved here five years ago, and called for an inspection. I have yet to see anyone show up. I invited these guys to look at mine, (better late than never?) but they declined to drive the mile out of their way to do so. You see the office that governs our area is in Vale, 135 miles away and has to drive through Idaho to get here.

Tami's mother, Barbara, went with us yesterday.  I have enjoyed meeting Tami's family, not only are all the ladies good looking, they are fun to be around as well. There doesn't seem to be a squeamish one in the bunch, and all seem to like the outdoors.

Jessie was down a bit in weight, although still about 3/4 of an ounce heavier than optimal. I had managed to forget to turn off the telemetry receiver and the batteries were dead, so I was hoping that Jessie would continue to play the game. I am not sure where the nearest supply of 9 volt batteries were located. She behaved perfectly however and was soon waiting on over the pond for me to flush. There were a lot of ducks on the pond, and it was hard to keep track of Jessie, but she slashed through a Gadwall on the far side of the pond. She threw up in a tight circle and was back on it before it could even move. This is the first time that she has done anything other than bind to her quarry since the Mallard Drake that she killed before the meet. It would indicate that her feet are now feeling better.

 We then went to see what we could catch with the girls in the short time we had left. We tried the hill along the field on the other side of Arock. They had cows in the flat and I didn't want to disturb them with our presence. The Jacks all ran up the hill as is usual, and even though Sue ripped ones back open, they weren't able to catch a Jack. Bunnies however are not familiar with the up hill trick, and Sue set one up for Peg.

 We still had twenty minutes left to hunt and Peg soon had another catch. The caption for this one should read- " Mine, all mine! Peg is not one to turn anything down, even the lowly Vole is a prize for her.

We had just retrieved Tami's car from the house and gone through the gate when the ODFW rig followed us in. They were very pleased with the facilities inspection saying that hers was a model for how facilities should be.