Puddy - #12

The weather finally moderated enough to take the girls out to play. All of the girls. Jessie finally came close enough to her flying weight to lull me into thinking that I needed to take her along as well. We had a snow squall or two yesterday and the wind was howling again this morning, but moderated enough to make the trip worth making. Tami and Grace came over at noon, so we loaded up and headed out.

Thankfully there was no snow at Arock, but the ponds were almost frozen over. The only thing keeping the ice at bay was the few ducks that kept the water moving a bit. The Harris's are like sponges so snow just doesn't work for them.

There was still enough wind to cause the girls some discomfort as the Jacks always run into the wind. Both Puddy and Yogi were anxious to chase, and finally when a Jack jumped close to me and Puddy, she wasted no time burning up his butt. He tried to turn inside of her, but she made the cut and the last I saw before they went out of sight around a bunch of Sage, was her long leg reaching out to touch him. There was a short pause and the scream that satisfies came back to us.

Yogi was also in the air, but she landed clear of the two on the ground. By the time that I got there, Pud had him by the head with the Jack's legs straddling hers, and pushing with all he had. Even though I carried a camera, I vapor locked and didn't take a picture. After a bit of stupidity on my part all of us got untangled, and I pulled off a front leg for Yogi. She had come up behind us, waiting to see what was going to happen. I tossed her the leg and she settled down to eat it in her normal dainty manner. The next chore was to get Puddy to take the other one that I was offering her and leave me the Jack to clean. I finally got her off by sticking the leg in her face again and again until she decided to go off and eat it.

 Notice how neat and calm Yogi is, and then there is Miss manners with her food

Perhaps you can see her tail. It is a wreck. Harris Hawks are known for their "rubber feathers". Pud never closes her tail, no matter what she is doing. It is always opened like a Dancers fan. She then sits on it jamming the feathers into what ever surface she is sitting on. I imped the first feather she broke, but within two days she had snapped it again. I have not wasted any more feathers on her. Perhaps by next year she will protect her tail a bit better.

She and the rabbit had left a trail of fur for about 15 feet. I know that the first grab was in the Jack's butt, She somehow walked up his back while they were tumbling around and when the dust cleared, she had him by the head. One of her grabs had torn his ear almost all the way off. Her feet and reaction is more Goshawk than Harris. Those things are flying all over the place. I had thought when I got Yogi that she would be able to teach Pud how to hunt, it appears that the teacher will be Pud.

After they ate their rewards, we went on, intending to hunt them as long as they were eager. We had not gone far when Yogi, sitting on my perch, took off after a close Jack and made a great smash after him. It was so close that I went to look. She had torn a big patch of fur out of his butt. They tried pretty hard, but they had lost enough edge that we gave up and offered them the rest of their meals and went to try our luck with Jessie.

There were a few Ducks on a pond that I normally hunt in that area. Jessie was 900 and a few grams, but it had been four days, so I thought I would give her a try. We turned her loose and even though there were Ducks on the pond she had her mind on flying. It was a really nice day for flying, if you are a hawk, I did convince her to go over the pond and allowed the ducks to fly by just our visible presence. They circled around, trying to stay over the water. She gave it a couple of tries and even tipped one up, but he didn't make the ground. She lost interest and started circling up, looking for lift.

She flew up and out far enough that I could not see her, circling with the Ravens and Redtails. Tami kept her in view with the bino's. I waved a pigeon and swung the lure for a while, but it was evident that she wasn't coming back until she was done. After about 15 minutes she started back and was going to land on the hillside to rest. I decided to call her to the lure, and she came willingly enough. Still a great day!