Jasper scores again.

A couple of days ago I modified the Chicken house again to give Jasper a little better chance at the Sparrows that want to roost there. There had been two 10x10 chain link panels leaning up against the peak of the building that gave the Sparrows a head start, because Jasper could see them, but couldn't get to them. We took them down and wired them together at the top and moved them out from the building and left them sitting as an "A " frame about 5 feet away from the building. The Sparrows are now in jeopardy as soon as they crawl out the hole in the peak of the building.

When we tried it two days ago, it was too early and there were no Sparrows in the building at all. So we were forced to fly bagged Sparrows. As we were sitting there feeding Jasper, it began to get darker and the Sparrows were flooding into the building. Today I suggested to Tami that she wait until dusk to come over to hunt.

While we were waiting for Tami to come over, Karen and I flew Jessie on the balloon. I ran it up to 250 feet and turned her loose. The Pigeons were out, and when she took to the wing, they did as well. She is getting stronger, and I could see the difference in her flight. I told Karen that we were going to have to look sharp as she was going to try for a Pigeon. Sure enough she cut one out of the flock and turned it on. They  went down in the creek, and I was sure that I was going to have to go down there to retrieve her, but the Pigeon wasn't as dumb as it looked and he came out of the creek with a lead and beat it into the Pigeon house without missing a wing beat. The rest of the flock did their best to stay above her and kept flying. She had done all that she was capable of and started trying to get enough altitude to grab the lure. She was struggling, so I felt sorry for her and pulled it down about 25 feet so that she could get it.

When she landed on the ground with the lure she was really panting. It was obvious that she had given all she had. Her recovery however was pretty quick, and she was soon eating the pigeon leg that I had put on the lure. I sat down on the ground and waited for her to finish, and come to the fist for the rest of her meal. Karen and the dogs also joined us and we all sat in the dirt until she finished her meal. Tami drove over from the ranch and joined us as well.

After I put Jessie up for the night, we sat out in front of the hanger watching for the Sparrows to go to bed. Soon we decided that we had enough to start our hunt. We had Reuben sneak around the back of the Chicken house and block the hole at that end. Jasper took off after a Sparrow that was hanging around the Pigeon house and the hunt was on. There are not adequate words to fully describe the hunt that followed. The little guy needs to glow, because he is so quick that it is almost impossible for one person to keep track of the little guy's flights and location. We kind of stationed ourselves at strategic points to reflush the Sparrows and keep track of him. He put so many Sparrows into cover that I cannot remember the actual number. He would put them into cover, we would flush, reflush, again and again. He had them taking refuge in the kennel, under the pigeon house, in the horse leanto. He even went into the pigeon house once looking for a Sparrow.

He would come to the Chicken house, sit on the peak, I would run a Sparrow out, and the chase was on. Here, there, in, out, under, and back for another one. Finally he sat on the Hanger, after a long chase. We were watching him laughing at the Pigeon who didn't want to share the roof with him. We were waiting for him to come back to us, when he took off the building did some kind of fancy wing over,or something and slammed into a fleeing Sparrow, taking him to the ground behind the tractor. Tami let him kill the Sparrow and then picked him up to let him eat as we sat in the hanger watching the evening light fade to darkness. I am not sure how many flights we watched. Upwards of 15 or more I am sure. The little guy never doubted that he would be successful, never slowed. He has a heart as big as any Eagle that ever lived.