Puddy's still fat, Jasper steps it up.

Poor Puddy is just too efficient. She is still more than an ounce over weight, so she has to wait another day without food. So I spent the day doing things that needed to be done here at the house. I worked on the wood shed, stacked wood, found the problem with the airplane. Needs a new Mag. Fixed a screen so that Puddy doesn't have to sit and watch Jessie eat. Finished a book that I have been reading.

Tami, Grace and Tami's brother TJ showed up with Jasper. He was down to 94.5 so I put a couple of Black Birds in my pockets. The plan for today was to get him away from his comfort zone in front of the hanger. We went over behind the chicken house hoping that he would chase some of the Sparrows that are thick there.

This time I put the video card in the camera and took one of Karen's headbands and secured it to my head. The mount was made for a helmet so it is tilted a bit, and there is no sound. It also is wide angle, so some of the best action is lost in the distance, but it will at least give you some idea of what the little guy is doing.

He ignored the Sparrows all together. This has caused me some concern for quite a while. I know that he has made several shots at Meadow Larks, and did so again tonight, but he has not been chasing Sparrows. I had thought that he was just chasing the ones that we tossed because they where handicapped. Imagine my surprise when he took off after a Black Bird that he saw at the Chicken house. Then it hit me, he doesn't know that he can catch Sparrows. I only catch Black Birds here, my wire is too big to hold Sparrows. We are going to have to find some Sparrows to give him, so that he will know that they are on the menu as well.

He chased the Black Bird down in the creek where it evaded him in the Cattails. He went up on the wire as we were walking down there. We stopped and he went up into a hover and I threw him an unhindered Bird. He chased it for several hundred yards, staying remarkably close to it. I was surprised that he could do so well. He eventually broke off the chase, and went into a hover out in the field in front of the house. He was quite a long way off, and I tried waving another bird at him. Of course he made a bee line straight at me, so I tossed the bird when he got close. He made a grab for it, but it evaded his talons and they both hit the Cattails at the same time in the creek bottom.

We went down with Tami prepared to wade the creek to get him, but he was halfway up in the Tules, so she called him. He couldn't fly since it was too tight, so he dropped to the ground and walked to the edge and then flew to her.

I went to get more birds, and we continued out in the Sage and grass outside of the fence. Jasper took off and went over the open ground to hover, and eventually sat on the fence. He took off from the post and slammed into the ground, flushing a Meadow Lark. He went up into another hover and I tossed a Black bird. He chased it and went back into a hover when it got away from him. I tossed him one that he could catch and and streaked across the sky catching it in the weeds.

Quite frankly I was surprised by his flight today. We are hoping that he will come to understand that where we are is where the action is. We are going to have to get him a few Sparrows to catch. He flew four birds today, and he flew them all harder than I thought that he would, and with more ability than I thought he possessed as well.
http://vimeo.com/29205474 Will take you to the video.