Blasted Voles and Eagles!

Things have been working against us lately. Tami and Grace went out with Puddy and I for the first time hunting on Friday. The last time she saw her fly, Puddy was trying unsuccessfully to come to terms with my requirement that she fly to me before I would feed her. She was so impressive that I was trying to decide who I would give her to, just to get her out of my hair. It was a bit of a surprise the change that had occurred in her attitude.

Pud was on the high end of her response weight, but she was chasing every thing that moved, and was getting a little more serious with each flight and miss. We had traveled over about half of the field, when Grace flushed a probably record book Vole out of one of the bushes, and Pud was after it in a flash. She was like a "whirling Dervish", feet were flying all around trying to catch this wonderful prize. The hapless Vole was no match for her and she soon had him under control. As I said he was very large for his species, and Pud relished each and every bite. She came to the perch after she finished, and we beat our heads against the proverbial wall for a while, trying to get her to catch something before that Vole hit bottom. She still tried, but her desire was no match for the Jacks, so we decided to call it a day. I had to resort to the lure to get Puddy on the fist so that I could put her up for the trip home. She wanted more to eat, but couldn't catch it, and she had seen this routine before, and didn't like it. So of course she was too heavy to go out on Sat. morning.

The Oregon Falconers Association were having a meet in Burns over the weekend. Karen is one of the Directors, so she of course had to attend. Tami and her sister Tara wanted to go. Tami was worried about taking Jasper to the meet and did not intend to take him. I dismissed all her reasons for not taking him, telling her that the opportunities for birds for Jasper to fly was much too good to pass up. I suggested that she take him to the fairgrounds as there are always lots of Sparrow hanging around the barns and stalls. She reluctantly agreed to take him along, in spite of her misgivings. Of course she thought that he was too insignificant to take to a falconry meet. She arrived at the meet at about 3PM. I did not attend, so Karen took over my duties as a sponsor and here is her account of Jasper's hunt.
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Larry asked me to write up Tami's first foray to an Oregon Falconers Assoc. fall meet as an Apprentice with a bird. She was the second apprentice at the meet with an American Kestrel. Jasper's weight was on the low side and she was concerned that he might get too low to hunt, so she asked if she should give him some food to bring his weight up. After discussing it with several of us, she felt it would be a good idea to give him something to eat to calm him down, as we planned to fly him later in the afternoon. When he gets to weight, he gets the Kestrel version of "Yarak" and just cannot sit still. There were several people who wanted to see him fly. I let her decide where to fly as there were several suitable spots. She decided to go to the Harney County Fairgrounds. Others had found plenty of Sparrows in the open barn. At 4:00 pm our convoy left for there. I counted cars following us but didn't tell  her as her butterflies were working overtime. When we lined up to enter the barn I counted 13 people. We discussed how to do the flushing, with Tami and I going down the center of the arena and the rest dividing up to go down the stall area on each side of the arena.  This would leave Tami and I as the only ones who would get to see the kill,but no one had a problem with that.We started down the arena with several sparrows standing on the top of the walls that were about 8 feet high. We told them to keep walking as there was lots of activity. I told Tami to keep up with the flushers. We were getting close to the end when Jasper decided that he had the best shot and rocketed off after one. He flashed over the wall hot on ones tail, the sparrow with him right behind it came up and over the wall scrabbling down the wood almost to the ground when the sparrow decided he could scrape that little fury off by diving into a pile of gates stacked against the end wall. The next thing we hear is a sparrow screaming bloody murder. I told Tami to get close to the gates in case Jasper needed help. The two of them fell down through gaps in the gates. When it looked like the sparrow might win I told Tami to reach in and grab the sparrow. Sure glad she is small as it was hard for her to get to them, which she did with great success. He was glad to get out of the gates where he could work on his catch. Trent Seager  told her go ahead and finish the bird, She let Jasper eat his fill. The whole hunt took about 20 minutes.

Before we went into the barn Tami and Tara were getting her backup birds out of the carrying box when one got loose and  headed for the front of the car. We closed all of the doors and Tara climbed in and attempted to catch it. It got under the seat. After the flight Grace was helping me put the two we had back in the carry box when one of them got loose in my car. This one didn't hide under the seat, it went into the heat vent. My bird was seen today trying to get out, so I left the windows down all day.

At our meet dinner we give out pins for those who bring birds and are successful in taking game. As meet chairman I got to give Tami the only pin for taking game at this fall meet. There were 2 Peregrine falcons,2 Goshawks, 2 Coopers hawks, 3 Harris' hawks, 2 Redtail hawks and the 2 American Kestrels. This the only time that a Kestrel has got the only game pin at a meet put on by OFA. She definitely deserves a big "atta boy, girl"!

Karen
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Today Tara and Grace accompanied me hunting Pud. Her weight was just right and she was putting in some serious efforts in the brush. She was not fooling around and intended to have rabbit for dinner. She had made about 5 tries, getting just a bit closer each time. We circled around a big Lava mound and she flew off the perch to the ground at the end of the Lava. At first I couldn't tell what she was after as she was mantling in an opening in the Sage. As I got closer, I could see the big bloody patch with rabbit hair scattered all around. One of the Eagles that hunt the fields here had killed one of the Jacks and of course left enough of the carcass for Puddy to think that she needed to go no further than right where she was.

Of course I had no intention of taking it away from her. I let her eat for a while, then offered her some tidbits and a front leg that I had intended to be her reward for killing one of her own. She came up to the fist and we made our way back to the truck, foiled again!

Tami, Tara, and the kids came over at 4 PM to fly Jasper. I had about 6 Sparrows in the trap, so I caught them up and had them in a box in case we needed them. We first spent about 10 minutes chasing Sparrows in and out of the chicken house. It was a lot of fun, the Sparrows were trying to make their escape in some of the wire around the chicken house and we had a couple of close calls, but the Sparrows one by one managed their escape, so Tami and I decided to give Tara an idea of what the little fella was capable of. We walked to the field at the end of the hanger and Jasper cranked up and began circling us at about 125 feet, just like the big boys. I let a couple of Sparrows out of the box and Jasper gave chase, forcing one of them to the ground in my old John Deere tractor. He was in and out of the motor, through the front wheels, around the back tires and into the motor again. They both stopped a bit in a stalemate, trying to get the other to break first and commit to a plan. Finally the Sparrow managed to make his escape leaving Jasper trying to find him in the motor. When he decided that it was gone it was back up in the sky circling again, waiting for whatever would happen.

All in all I released 3 bunches of Sparrows for him to chase. None of them were hampered in any way. They did all escape, by varying degrees of narrowness. Jasper was circling at heights of 150 or more feet, and stooping after the Sparrows with all the style that one could ask of the finest Peregrine ever flown. This is the second time that he has circled rather than hovered, and today for the first time, he came over when I waved my hat at him. I of course served him a Sparrow to chase when he did, so he will remember what the waving hat means. Today I started three feeding stations out in the field. If the Sparrows find them before the Chickens do, then we will have some game to hunt, and his ability to "wait on" will pay off big time. After the last Sparrow was gone, he took a pitch again, and was even a bit higher than before. I suggested to Tami that she should give him the lure as we have not thrown the lure for him in a long time. She garnished it and made the first swing. As soon as he saw it he turned over in a stoop. Tami yelled and tossed it up in the air out in front of her. He kept tucked in the stoop until he was about a foot off the ground. He popped out his wings and tail and came to a gentle landing on the lure. It is good that he sometimes experiences failure. It will make him more determined the next time he flies. It is also an opportunity to reacquaint him to the lure again as well. 

Sadly, those attending the meet in Burns were surprised at what one of these little guy's can do. They saw little of what this little guy is capable of, but what they did see was enough to impress them apparently. Tami told some of them that he "waited on", when they asked how she hunted him, but she didn't think that they believed her.

Today was Jessie's turn to fly free for the first time this year. I have finally starved her into temporary submission. I put the balloon up about 100 feet with the lure at 50 feet. She did well, binding to it on the first circle, coming to the fist for the rest of her food after finishing what was on the lure. Although she did well, she didn't fool me. She is just waiting for the right time to get even.