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.