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.