Almost too easy

It was time for our monthly grocery run to Idaho, and we wanted to get an early start. This was Thursday morning. It had snowed a lot in Boise the day before and I wanted to get there and back before it got too crazy, so I was out at first light doing the chores. My first stop is the free range Chickens. There are quite a few Sparrows and Starlings roosting in there, and they hit the holes and various escape routes when I start to open the door. This morning there was an unusual chorus coming from behind the Chicken house. I peeked around the corner and eventually picked out a lump in the predawn darkness, that seemed to be a Starling in distress. I could finally make out the little male Sharpshin Hawk that had the Starling. He looked up and saw me, but like most Sharpshins the fear factor really isn't there. Its like they never learned to fear humans. I turned and ran at my best speed to the house for the camera. On my way back I used the cover of the Chicken house to get back to my original position. The Starling was on its back with the Hawk holding it in the chest. Every time the Hawk would try to bite it, the Starling would try to stab it with its quite formidable beak. I have a Canon EOS Rebel with a 55 to 250 lens on it, which I needed to get the shot that I wanted, but it was essentially dark. I snapped every different variation that I could think of and still could not get a clear shot. I finally just gave up and put it on auto and allowed the flash to fire. I actually took several with the flash before the little guy gave up and hauled the Starling to a quieter location to finish the job.

These little guy's are really neat, and smart as well. He had seen the routine before or he was attracted to the noise of them in the little house and was lurking around there to see if he could get breakfast. They are so small and so fast most normal people, ( those who are not always looking at birds) would never be aware that they are around. Their normal habitat this time of the year is generally someones bird feeder, and they are so quick, that most never know they are there.

Jessie was down to weight today and Tami and I arranged to hunt her there at the ranch around 2:30 PM. Yesterday while in town we went to Cabela's to look for something that I could wade the creek in if necessary. With the frozen conditions, all my Duck hawking is going to be the Creek. Since they are not using any of the water coming out of the Lake, it is higher than my Bog boots. I found a pair that had water proof fabric attached to the boots that could either be rolled up on top of the boots for walking or unrolled for wading. The boot part was more comfortable that your normal rubber hip wader and with them rolled up I could still walk normally. The normal method for ditch hawking is to try to scare the ducks directly away from the ditch and over open ground so the Hawk has a chance to catch one. If you fail to do so, the duck just dives into the water, and you are screwed.

On arrival, Tami told me that there were ducks right in behind the house, and sure enough there was a dozen or so within 50 yards of the house. We went out the front and this time I remembered Betsy and took her out of the truck so she could join in the fun. I turned Jess loose using the house to cover her from the ducks. Once she is in the air, they will hold until they feel they have to fly because of human presence. I left Tami at the house to come in through the garden gate, while I circled behind the barn to come in quite a bit lower than their position. Jess had a good pitch and we started moving into position. Apparently some of them saw me and they started to fly towards Tami. She, like a good pupil yelled and waved her arms. The ducks, now about a dozen in the air, turned and started flying towards me. They however were over the land and Jess came rocketing down out of the sky from the other side of the ditch and scooped up a hen Mallard coming to ground about 20 feet in front of me.

Mallards are quite a handful for a falcon, and this one was putting up a tussle.

She doesn't seem to object to me helping her with a Mallard. In fact she seems to expect it. I finally helped her kill it and snapped her up at the same time. I let her pluck a bit before I gave her the lure with a Starling on it to eat while I cleaned the Duck.

After she finished the Starling I gave her half of the breast with all the fat on it to eat. She finished it in the truck on the way home. The whole thing took less than an hour even with visiting with Tami's husband, Dave and the kids. The only bad part of the whole deal was that I didn't get to use the waders at all. My normal foot wear would have been just fine. Oh well.

As you can see, killing a Mallard can be bloody work. So when I got home, I poured Jess a warm bath and heated up the shop so that she could dry without freezing to death. I poured the water in her bath and she was in it before I got out of the door to the weathering yard.

She splashed most of the water out and looked like a drowned rat. She was shivering and quite glad to see me when I went to pick her up. I guess it is nice to have a servant to take care of your needs.