Puddy makes a giant step!

Bribery in the form of breakfast at Rome served to get Karen to accompany me to Arock to try to finally get a Rabbit that Puddy could catch. Once I finally was able to come to grips with the fact that she is going to be an 800 gram bird, she has been slowly making the adjustments necessary to be able to eat. One of my problems is that she is so footy, that you cannot get a bare hand close to her without having four puncture wounds in said hand. I finally solved that problem with the bill of my hat under her beak so that she cannot see the hand. Once I could feel her keel it was obvious that she wasn't that big a bird. She has been very slow to mature as well. I suppose that is normal for a Harris Hawk, but apparently not to my thinking.

I was a bit dismayed at the height of all the vegetation at Arock. The Cheat grass is knee high, and there seemed to not be as many rabbit paths as last year. Karen was carrying Pud on the Tee perch, and she was free to fly. Her weight this morning was still at 800 grams, so she has been on skimpy rations for about two weeks. After we had walked a couple hundred yards into the field, she began to want to do a bit of prospecting on her own, and flew to one of the rock piles. Karen put a tidbit on the perch and Pud came as soon as it was offered. Karen saw a Jack bust out behind us, and Pud flew to another rock that has been a haven to the Bunnies in the area. I decided to circle the Sage in front of it to see if I could drive a Bunny towards her. I had not gone very far when a Jack jumped and circled out through the Sage. I attempted to get a view of him, but a Bunny jumped out to my left. I circled around and saw the Bunny frozen just a few feet to my left. My pistol has a red dot sight that even my old eyes can see, and I popped him in the butt. I stuck up my fist and whistled for Pud. She came immediately to the fist, and after she ate her tidbit, I walked up to the area that I had last seen the Bunny. He moved and she immediately pounced on him. No hesitation!

 To say that all of us were excited is an understatement. I just stood back and left her with the Bunny. I had not intended to start with Bunnies, but a benefit of a Bunny is that I didn't have to get in there to help her at all. The Bunny was no contest for her at all, so Karen and I just left her to figure out what the hell she had in her feet and what to do with it.

 She soon killed it with her constant footing and grabbing, then the only thing left was for her to get over the excitement of having caught something alive. It took her more than five minutes for the adrenaline to subside in her body. To say that she was torqued is a total understatement.

 She is very hard on her feathers, because she has no clue as to what they are doing. She ate almost a quarter of the Bunny before she closed her wings. She never ever closed her tail. I had to imp a center deck feather into her tail after the last time we flew her. I fully expect her to be the rattiest Harris Hawk in captivity before the year is ended.

 Once the Bunny was dead and she recovered enough to stand up, she had no idea what to do with her prize. She made some tentative nibbles at the fur, trying to figure out how to open this thing. I finally offered her some tidbits on the glove and was able to pull some fur off the legs without getting some new holes in my hand. Once she saw the meat, she of course footed it, then began eating. She knows nothing about guts and soon had a mess going that had us both making disgusted noises. That would be Karen and I, Pud was " happier than a pig in shit". I let her eat most of one side before I even secured her jesses. She finally got into the rib cage after I bared some more flesh for her. In all she ate one half of the Bunny before she could hold no more.

When we got back to the car, I found a spray bottle and tried to clean her feet of some of the gore. After I got her cleaned up I opened the Giant hood and wonder of all wonders, she hopped in of her own accord. Things are looking up and for the first time, I have hopes that she will be a hunting Hawk.

I paid my debt of breakfast to Karen with pleasure. Since I seem to do most of the cooking it is doubtful that Karen was the only one to benefit