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.