Jasper's Second wild kill.

Today was a bit hectic. Karen, John and I made a trip to town for the monthly shopping resupply for the house. We got back about 4 PM. I called Tami to see what she wanted to do regarding Jasper. I wanted to make sure that he got a chance at some Sparrows this time. Tami and the rest of the crew at the ranch had about 115 calves to vaccinate before any hunting could even be attempted. I wanted to hunt at the ranch since there were lots of possibilities for Jasper there. John and I went over to help out so that we could be ready to hunt as soon as the work was done. I took 5 Sparrows with me to use if necessary. He hasn't made any effort at the Sparrows here at the house, chasing Meadow Larks, Black Birds, and Quail, but for what ever reason, dismissing Sparrows as viable quarry.

 The calves have been separated from their mothers and held in a corral. Tami, on horse back, was pushing them into a chute where they could be immobilized, vaccinated, and ear tagged with an ID chip.

 Reuben was keeping Dave Supplied with tags, Rosy with the syringe's, Isabel and Sam were keeping the calves coming. My job was to stick a post in behind the calves in the chute to keep them from going back.

We finished about 7 PM, and Tami put her horse up and met John and I at her house. Jasper was really restless and ready to go. It was a bit late, but we took him outside to see if any of the Black Birds were out by the chicken pen. No such luck at this late time, so we went out to the willows behind the garage. There were a few Sparrows there and we started pushing them, to try to get them flying. Jasper was beginning to take notice of what we were doing, and eventually started taking an active part in the chase. We exhausted all the possibilities at the house and made our way down to the new barn. There were a couple of Sparrows in one of the Willow patches there, and Grace, Tami and I started trying to get one of them to break cover. Jasper had taken a perch on a pole in the middle of the small patch of Willows, ignoring the three of us encircling him, kicking the weeds and shaking the Willows. After a bit he saw the Sparrow on the ground running, and dove off after him. Tami was little help since she was laughing so loudly at him trying to bust through the weeds running after the Sparrow. Finally the Sparrow busted and took refuge in another small bit of Rabbit Brush about 20 yards away. Grace fortunately saw where he went, and we flushed him out of there. Jasper zoomed after him so fast that he took refuge in another bush within 15 yards. Jasper bounced off the bush, but took a perch on it, and was peering down into the bush. He soon dived off and had it on the ground.

 As you can see this was no skimpy girly cover, at least for a Kestrel. Tami pried the weeds apart and secured both of them and the second kill was in the bag. Tami didn't seem to be that excited.

 Yeah right!

I am totally blown away by this little hawk. Tami has done a superb job with him. He requires little in the way of tidbits, she has only to hold up her hand and he is there. He totally ignores the field of beaters as they try to get him quarry to hunt. He is 100 percent try.