Busy day!

When I put the birds out this morning, I found that Jessie was not going to be flying today. A bit too much Pigeon will do that for you. The "Girls" would be at an acceptable weight by afternoon, so the morning was free.

I didn't have quite enough Ducks for our dinner tomorrow night, so I picked up the shotgun to see if I could fill the gap with a walk up the creek. The answer is, just barely. The last time I went duck hunting was when they banned lead shot. Not sure how long ago that was, but it was apparently too long. Some one has been tampering with my shotgun. The damn thing doesn't shoot straight any more. I did manage to get two ducks, and that with the three that Jessie has killed, and a Chicken thrown in for those with a queasy appetite, should suffice.

Then I had four young roosters that needed to go in the freezer, and the two ducks to pick, so my morning turned into a mid day chore. Tami and Isabel came over to fly Jasper at 1:30 PM. Tami felt sorry for me and picked one of the Ducks.

This time we watched the Chicken pen, and waited until it filled up with Sparrows and Starlings. Tami did a sneak through the corral, and Jasper made short work of his efforts to feed himself. Before I could even get there he had caught and killed a Sparrow. That makes 17 head for the guy. No camera, of course. :-/

While he ate, I finished cleaning the Chickens. We then picked up the Girls and headed to the field to see how the Rabbit hunting would go. On the way there in a two mile stretch we counted 10 Golden Eagles either sitting on telephone poles or on the ground. Glad they were there instead of where we wanted to hunt.

We had just gotten into the field when Yogi took off after a rabbit that was so far away that we never saw it. We walked on wanting her to come to us. We had not gone far when Pud took off after something in the Sage where we had already walked. I was horrified to see a LARGE cat running with Pud hot after him. It of course took her no time at all to grab him in the butt. I braced myself for the worst, as these type of interactions generally do not turn out well. I am not sure what actually happened, but she turned loose of him, and he ran on. Yogi by this time had seen the flight and the cat, and she was flying an interception course. Apparently this time the cat was much smarter and made it to a hole. Yogi can see way too well to leave her any opportunity to figure out where this cat was. I yelled, and she ignored me. I waved my hat and threw it up in the air to get her attention. That worked well. Yogi started, and Pud caught my hat before it hit the ground. Then she was running around through the bushes with my hat. Much to Tami and Isabel's enjoyment. She was convinced that there was some kind of a prize hidden in that hat. I finally distracted her by throwing tidbits on the ground for her, while I stepped on my hat. You do not want to put your hand down there unless you have a glove on it. She is not mean, she just can't help herself. I finally retrieved my hat and we went on.

We managed about 10 feet when Pud took off and slammed into a bush just in front of us. A Bunnies squeal informed us that she had again managed to catch something. When I got there she had the Bunny about halfway up the bush. He was standing on his rear legs. Puddy had one foot in his ribs, and the other over a limb and into his head. I had a heck of a time getting them untangled. She did not want to give this one up at all. I gave her a Jack's hind leg, up to what would be the calf with a foot on it. She didn't want it, she wanted the whole Bunny. I finally got her untangled enough to rip off a front leg, and she finally took that and went to the next bush to eat it. Tami had given Yogi a few tidbits and was holding her to keep her out of the tangle. When Pud left I threw the rest of the Jack leg into a bush. I picked up Pud and we walked on.

There are lots of Bunnies in this field, and we had a merry time trying to outsmart another one. They managed to evade us at every turn, even though we had some heroic vertical dives into the bushes and rocks. Finally it began to get dark, and even though I didn't want to, we decided to call it an evening and started back to the car. On the way Yogi saw another Bunny run over this little hill and we walked up to get her. She was on my perch and suddenly dived off and into a bush. She had something, but it sure wasn't a rabbit. As I walked up, Pud dived in through the other side and was crabbing with Yogi. I looked in and realized that it was the Jack leg that I had thrown away earlier in the day. Pud had her foot wrapped around Yogi's foot. It didn't look like she had her talons in her foot, but I didn't want it to get any further. I had put a leather work glove on my right hand, so I just reached down and used the "Vulcan Death Grip" ( grabbed her by the neck. That insures that she will turn loose of whatever she has and will grab the hand that is holding her) I then gave her to Tami to hold. I reached into my bag and pulled out a ziplock baggie with some meat in it, but not the one that I wanted. I stuffed it into the bag on my left side, and was fumbling around in the one on my right, when Pud slammed into my side, reached into my bag and pulled out the zip lock bag, going back to Tami to see what her prize was. I traded her a front leg without the plastic covering.

While Tami kept Puddy amused, I retired to a distant bush to rip the Bunny apart for their final meal. Puddy by this time had quite an assortment of bunny parts in her feet even when we arrived at the car. Yogi finished hers and went quietly into her giant hood. It was getting late and a bit chilly, so I told Tami to take her into the car and she could eat while we made our way home.

Puddy has turned into quite an amusing, and very pleasing hawk, not to mention a "kick ass" hunting hawk. Hunts are never boring with her around. She has "sudden" feet, but there is no malice on her part. She has gone full circle from hair pulling, to pretty close to wonderful.