Yogi finally scores, Yea!!!!

The wind finally blew itself out, or at least into Wyoming where it belongs, and today was nice for a change. Puddy was down a bit in weight, and Yogi was lighter than she has ever been, at 1170 grams. Tami, Barbara , T.J. and Reuben came over to help me fly the girls.

Yogi has not caught anything yet, and the last time I had her out, she didn't stay with us, wandering off by herself to hunt. Therefore the weight loss. I was pretty sure that Puddy was going to catch a Jack pretty quickly.

We had not been in the field for more than 10 minutes when she grabbed a big Jack by the butt that waited too long to run. The only problem was that there was a low hanging chunk of Sage that the Jack slipped under, but Puddy didn't. So the hold was a short one. The Jack didn't get away with all he had started out with though. He left a trail of fur for about 8 feet.

 Not to mention a chunk in raggedy Ann's feet. The Jack jerked loose by jamming her into the large branch of Sage. You can see that she is hanging her left wing quite a bit. I was concerned that she might have damaged it, but she worked out of it in about a half hour. It took her about that long to resume crashing the brush.

 Yogi was giving it all she had, but she is still a bit cautious about crashing into the brush. She made several really close chases where the Jack was just inches in front of her talons. We had covered quite a bit of ground with both chasing Jacks and Bunnies. Pud almost caught both Quail and Pheasants, but they both somehow gave her the slip on the ground. Perhaps someday she will be able to counteract their defensive maneuvers, but not today.

The Jacks were hiding today, and we saw just about as many behind us as in front. There were Eagle kills all over the place. Finally we hit a hot spot that had several Jacks trying to hide. Both birds were working together and trying very hard to make it happen. I walked over a little hump and Yogi who was riding on my perch flashed off behind me, slamming into a clump of Sage about 8 feet behind me. I was estatic to hear a Jack screaming for all he was worth. Of course before I could make two steps Puddy also slammed into the same bush and Jack. I have been concerned about the outcome of this kind of situation since I got Yogi.

Yogi is a "Lady", but Puddy is a juvenile brat. The Jacks that Puddy has caught have caused no confrontation, because Yogi just stands back watching. I jumped into the fray as soon as I could just in case not all the talons were in the Jack. However this time they were both holding the Jack by the head. There was no place on that Jacks head that didn't have a talon stuck in it. I broke the Sage apart to drag them both out where I could get to them. The Jack as you can imagine was kicking as hard as he could.

 I put my glove over the rabbits head to make sure that there was no problems between the girls.

 The only way that I could kill the Jack was to stop its heart, so I put my work glove on the keep Puddy from making any more holes in my hand, and reached over her and put my thumb on his heart. Thankfully I was able to put him out of his misery fairly quickly.

 Now the next step is to get the birds off the rabbit. That means that I have to pull my bloody glove off  with my teeth so that I can get a chunk of meat to offer as an enticement to leave the now still rabbit. They won't let go as long as it is still alive and moving.

 They actually did quite well and were even seeing things beak to beak before it was all over.

 As I said Yogi is a lady and she was quite willing to accept a chunk of Jack, leaving Puddy in sole possession. If you will notice she just walked right over top of her. Puds head is sticking out of her wing.

 Pud is a lot harder to get to let go. I was finally able to get her to accept a front leg, but she still would not let go of the rabbits head. After what seemed like forever, I was able to get her to hold the front leg that I had given her with both feet. T.J. cleaned the Jack for me bringing both rear legs for the girls to finish their meals.

I was fortunate to get Tami to feed Yogi for me, leaving me with the bad mannered but lighter hawk to carry back to the car.

As you can see from Tami's smile she was pretty proud of her. I can assure you that mine was just as big. The first one is the hardest. It may take a while, but soon she will be catching as many as Pud, maybe more. She has perfected the location of hiding prey, and when she chases a rabbit, and will not come back, it is because she knows where he is hiding. When her flying ability matches her knowledge, she will indeed be formidable.

Tami has been rooting for Yogi along with me. The terrain is completely different than what she is used to dealing with and the adaptation takes a while. I am pretty sure that her diet in the wild was a lot smaller and probably a lot slower quarry than what we have to offer. I am also quite aware that she just wasn't cutting it where she was, and was starving to death. While she is much older than Puddy, she is nowhere near an accomplished hunter. She is on her way to remedy that situation.

My thanks to Barbara, (Tami's Mother) for the use of her photographs. I had as usual forgotten my camera. Tami used her mother's camera and took 63 photo's of the two birds on the rabbit. I think I mentioned that Tami likes Yogi.