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.