Catch up!

There really hasn't been that much going on, at least not that much note worthy. At best I am teaching Pud to be a serious "roadkill" hawk. She is chasing Bunnies pretty hard, but doesn't know how to make a connection with them. There seems to be fewer of them this year as well.

 One of my fields has been pretty seriously shot out by the land owner. The rabbits were just getting too thick for his alfalfa crops. I can't blame him, but it wasn't what I needed. The area that we are hunting in these two pictures borders his fields on the other side. It however is being hunted and used by five Golden Eagles, so it isn't carrying the amount of rabbits that it did last year either.  There would be no problem for a hunting Hawk to make a kill in a fairly short time, but that is easier said than done with a new bird that seems to be slow developing. We are still able to find enough rabbits that I can cripple, (lately kill) for her.

It however does require some rest stops in the action periodically. Pud leaves little to be desired as far as hunting with us. She doesn't require constant tidbits to stick with us, or even come to the fist. It appears that 820 grams is a good weight for her. She is the most active at that weight, flying in front of us to the various outcroppings, and not hesitating to come to the Tee Perch or fist which ever is offered.

She made at least two serious tries for Bunnies, crashing into the brush. Of course with her experience or rather lack of it, it will be a while before that bears any fruit. She would score sooner with Jacks if she chased them with the same vigor.

I finally got a decent chance at a sitting Jack, but while the shot looked good, when we walked up there I was looking for the Jack in front of us. I couldn't see any movement. Pud fell off my fist to the stone dead Jack behind the bush I was standing by. Oh well, it goes like that sometime. This time when she started trying to drag it off, I held on to the rear legs, and got a hand full of tidbits. I would offer her one, and as soon as she swallowed it, I would give her another. I did that until all my tidbits were gone. Then I offered her a front leg from the last kill. She grabbed that and let go of the Jacks head so that she could eat the leg. I took the dead Jack to clean it and removed another front leg to give her when the other one was gone. I returned to her before she finished the first one, then when she started to look around for the rest of the Jack, I offered her the next one. She jumped to the fist and we began our trek back to the truck. By the time that we got to the truck she had a seriously bulging crop.

That evening Tami brought Jasper over. We planned to release Sparrows until he caught one. She turned him loose and we tried for a bit to get him to chase some of the numerous Sparrows in my Chicken yard, but he was interested in other things and soon took a pitch of a 100 or more feet over the hanger. I went into the pen to catch the Sparrows in my trap. I caught four and stuffed them into a sock. There was a full grown Quail in the trap with them. I decided to take him to where Jasper was flying to release him.

Jasper was still up there hovering and working his way back toward us, and I tossed the Quail up in the air about 15 feet high.  ( "It seemed like a good idea at the time" ) The Quail did not open it wings other than to break its fall before hitting the ground, then started running towards the dog kennel. Some one yelled here he comes! The quail ducked through the chain link fence, and Jasper flew into the chain, trying to get through. At the time I was thinking, "what the hell does he think he is trying to do".  I went around behind the kennel and ran a 2x4 under the box to flush the Quail out. It ran into the kennel again and then tried to go out the left side of the kennel. I heard someone say, "he got him"!

 When the Quail got halfway through the links, Jasper flashed around the pen and grabbed the part sticking out. The poor quail was in a chain straight jacket and couldn't fight back. Jasper was wasting no time and was digging for the brain with his beak.

It appears that when Jasper saw me coming out with the Quail in my hand, he started a dive towards us. When I tossed the Quail it was intimidated by his stoop and refused to fly in favor of escape on foot. It also appears that if I toss it, Jasper will do his best to catch it. While totally amazed at what occurred, I was still bummed by not being able to toss a Sparrow for him so that we can actually start hunting things that he can catch and hold. Oh well it goes like that sometimes. (have you seen that sentence before? )

This afternoon, John and I decided to go back to one of my fishing holes that I had lost a fillet knife the last time we went fishing. Since today was going to be the last warm day for a while, perhaps the rest of the year, it was a good choice. We arrived and parked the truck and about 5 feet behind the truck there was my knife lying in the road. So far so good.

We rigged up with my usual "never fail" spinner, but neither of us could get a strike. Finally I decided to try some of the plastic worms used in a "Carolina rig". I flipped it out and on the first cast caught a nice Small Mouth Bass. I told John to change, but he was stubborn, so I caught another on the next cast, and he was convinced.

 The water is a bit nippy, but you get used to it after a while. The temperature  of the water had the bass on the bottom of the river and the worms were just what they wanted. We caught our limit of them and went on home to raise our Mercury levels a bit. ( They recommend that you only eat fish from the Owyhee once a week or less due to the naturally occurring Mercury in the water. )

With our levels fully topped off, we took our naps and listened to the news with our eyes closed. Finally Josie insisted that I go do the evening chores, and on my way back I see a Coyote in the field down by the creek, just standing there watching the house and all the goings on. He paid no attention to me or the dogs, which was a mistake. He doesn't live here anymore.