A bit of an improvement.

Jasper was too fat to fly tonight. Apparently we were too lavish in our gratitude for his flight, so we were left with Puddy to fly.

I put Pud out in the shop where the big girls stay, last night. She was a bit tricky to pick up this morning, but I got it done with a minimum of hassle. I picked her up and weighed her about 30 minutes before Tami was to arrive, and she weighed 837. I thought that I would give her a chance, prepared to not feed her very much if she didn't work out. She did quite a bit of studying trying to figure out why I was sitting in a lawn chair instead of calling her.

When Tami arrived we started walking over to the Sage on the other side of the property. I set her on one of the rock jacks, and called her to the fist. After an appropriate amount of thinking, she flew to the fist. I gave Tami a chunk and Pud surprised me by flying to Tami. It was only a couple of feet, but it was an improvement. I called her back to my fist, but of course she had to think about it for a while. We walked to the fence and I sat her on a post. I crossed over the fence, and Tami was coming through the fence, when Pud decided that she was scared and flew in a large circle finally ending up on the door support post for the hanger doors. I tried calling her, but she just sat. We kept on in the direction we were going, with me stopping occasionally to call her. I swung the lure  and tossed it in the air to try to tempt her to come. Nothing! We walked on around and down into the creek area, not getting that much further away, but we were still 200 yards from her. Finally down in the bottom of the creek I stuck up my fist and whistled. She began to think about it, bending and moving around. She finally took off and came sailing down to us. A covey of about 30 Quail busted out in front of her, but she ignored them and kept coming. She was obviously going too fast for her own comfort and zipped over the fist. Touching it, but not stopping. She continued flying and flew another 100 yards to the rimrock on the north end of the property. I called her again, but she ignored us. I pulled out the lure and called her while swinging it. She took off and was coming, but I threw it too soon, and she couldn't see it even though it was in fairly short grass. She continued on trying to find a place to land, finally sitting in some short grass on the other side of the creek. I again swung the lure and tried to call her. I got her to start by throwing the lure up in the air. It of course landed in some tall grass, and she flared before I could clear it and put it where she could see it. She landed on the hill side about 40 yards away. I tried calling her again, but she stayed put. We walked up the fence and finally crossed still trying to get the lure somewhere she felt she could get it. I finally threw it right in front of her and she was able to see it well enough to commit to it.

Tonight as dismal as it all may sound was a vast improvement for her. She has finally conceded that she has to come to me to eat. Her reluctance to land on the fist while flying so fast is normal. She really doesn't know how to fly or how to control her flight much beyond very basic stuff. The fact that she has to see the lure, rather than knowing where the general area is and look for it is also normal. I didn't feed her very much and she should lose a bit more weight, so she should fly a little more eagerly tomorrow. Now if I can get her over her fear of Rabbits. :-)