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.