Life is good

Karen and I agreed to do a raptor count for the East Cascades Audubon Society, when we were in Klamath and now that we live here on the East side, do one here. We had a fairly free day so we loaded up early this morning to get it done for November. Since Puddy didn't kill yesterday, we decided to take her along and I would try one of the other fields closer to Jordan Valley.

The count is down a bit, because a lot of the raptors have already made their way past here to warmer climes. We still found 44 Redtailed Hawks, 14 Kestrels, 13 Northern Harriers, 16 Golden Eagles, 15 American Rough legs, 2 Ferruginous Hawks, 7 Prairie Falcons and 2 Coopers Hawks. We also saw Coyotes, Deer, Pheasants, ducks, Geese, Swans, and Antelope.

The area that I had intended to hunt had more snow than I cared to subject Puddy to, ( They absorb water much too easily to be effective in it. ) so we went back to my original spot. There were a pile of cows in there, but I decided to hunt it any way. Karen decided to stay in the car while we hunted.

The Bunnies seemed to be a bit more plentiful than I had noticed before. Perhaps it was due to the fact that the cows had either eaten or trampled most of the ground cover. Pud was after one in the first 75 yards. They are a real pain to hunt, because they stop and hide, then run the other way and if your hawk hasn't seen that maneuver a lot, they are left sitting on the ground wondering what happened. We finally ran the first one into a hole, and moved on. Just over the first hump we flushed a Jack, and Pud grabbed him just as he got into the Sage. There were a couple of screams, a flurry and he was loose and making time out of there. We jumped and chased several more Jacks and Bunnies, when one of them was a bit slow, but very lucky and only left a foot full of fur behind. Pud was getting pissed. I went to another part of the field, and we had a couple of tries at Pheasant. Close but no cigar. Finally she made this horrific pounce just in front of me. Another Vole bites the dust. This one didn't seem to be that big, so I had hopes that she would still want to kill something.

We went on to another part of the fields and had several chases on Jacks, but the Sage in this field is almost shoulder high, so the outcome was almost preordained. I started back and came to an area that generally holds Bunnies. By this time the Vole had hit bottom, and she was chasing Bunnies a lot better than she was the Jacks. We ran one Bunny back and forth through the tall Sage for 15 or more minutes with her just inches behind, until he finally found a hole and pulled it in behind himself.

I decided that we were not going to get anything and started my trek back to the car. At this point we had been hunting hard for an hour and 45 minutes. On the way back, I was walking one of the little two tracks in the field, when Pud jumps off my fist into a bush along the road behind us. No one was more surprised to hear a Bunny screaming than I. She had managed to see him hiding in the bush, and hit him before he could react. Life is good, for some of us at least.

 The trip back to the car was much nicer with a bit of game in my pocket.

She finished her meal, and we continued on with our count and trip back home.

This morning when I put the birds out in the weathering area, I offered Yogi a tidbit when I picked her up off her night perch. She cheeped and twittered when she saw the meat. She had no problem remembering where tidbits come from. After I had put Pud on her perch in the shop this evening, I went back to Yogi and offered her a tidbit on the fist. She flew to the fist with no hesitation at all. I weighed her and found that she weighed 1250 grams, ( 43 3/4 ounces ) That is huge. I had given Karen a bunch of tidbits earlier. I tied a creance on Yogi. When Karen came out, she offered her fist with the tidbit on it. As soon as she whistled, Yogi jumped to her fist. As soon as she ate that one, I whistled and offered my fist. We flew her back and forth between us until she was coming about 20 feet each way. She never hesitated a bit. I finally called her to a Bunny hind leg to finish her meal. When it was all over I weighed her again and found that I had given her 3 and 1/3 ounces of meat. We will see what she does tomorrow.

Tami came over at 5:45 PM and it was Jasper's turn. This time his weight was right on at 95 grams. He has killed at that weight almost every time. He got his bearings and went right to the chicken house, this time sitting on the other side, where all the Sparrows generally come out of the house. I went to the door and he went to the back and sat where he could look in their escape hole. I opened the door and three Sparrows made a mad dash for the hole. According to Karen and Tami he caught the Sparrow in self defense. The Sparrow bolted and ran right into him, and they both came off the side of the house, but Jasper landed on top.