Jasper and update.

The duck season has closed, and the wind during the biggest part of January was lethal. The Harris's could not manage that much wind so I kept feeding them, and keeping them at weight. It lasted so long that I began to feel sorry for them, and finally broke down and started giving them enough food that they were a bit more satisfied with life. Jessie has began her molt, so she is up for the year. There just isn't enough upland game birds to hunt her on. The Sage Grouse are still suffering from the West Nile outbreak that traveled through here three years ago. I had to keep pretty close to home due to Karen's restricted ability as well. In all honesty I am quite content to toss another log on the fire and open a book. It has been a great year. I have two new birds well on their way to making good hunting hawks. I am content to let the rest of the Jacks and Bunnies do their best to evade the Eagles that don't have some one to feed them. Perhaps there will be enough this next year that I don't have to leave the property to hunt rabbits. Right now Puddy is carrying an extra 6 ounces of weight. She weighs 2 lbs 2 ounces, but still thinks she is starved, while Yogi weighs 3 lbs 2 ounces.

Jasper however is another story. He has also had his problems with the wind, but as a falcon he can handle a lot more wind than a hawk can. The scarcity of dumb dicky birds has been his biggest problem. We went through a period of time that we were catching some Starlings, but could not get him a decent shot at wild birds. When he opens his wings the Sparrows and Starlings leave the area before he can begin to close the distance. That leaves us with a busted hunt and eventually tossing a bag when he begins to climb up to wait on. One of the side effects of this is that he has developed the belief that if he keeps pressing the birds he will eventually be able to catch them. Some of the flights are covering distances of 1/4 mile or more. I have to admit that we sometimes are relieved to see him break off the pursuit, because if he did catch them, we would never be able to find him.

Yesterday I went over to Tami's in the hopes that we would be able to get something going over there. She had caught a Starling, and I put it in my pocket just in case we couldn't get anything else going. Well it didn't take any time at all until he was the only bird around. We stood around a bit, hoping that something would show up to give him a chance to hunt, but he started climbing up in the sky circling right over us, and I couldn't resist. Out went the Starling with a yell and the chase was on. Out of the field, through the barn and around the chicken house, behind the house, and Jasper was closing the distance.

That was the last that we saw him. We began our search. Tami went down to the creek and the shoulder high Tules, while I looked around the house. Nothing! No sound, but no Jasper either, a sure sign that he had caught it. We looked all around trying to listen to see if we could hear the distress cries of the Starling. Wind blowing, Dave working with an excavator, nothing! We started working our way up the creek, Tami low, me on the road, checking high. Finally I suggested that Tami swing the lure, just in case. As she started swinging it, he flew up into one of the trees by their house. He saw the lure and came over to us, but really didn't seem all that anxious to come to her. He took a perch in the top of one of the trees. She tried to call him to the fist, but he ignored her. We tried walking off from him, but again he didn't seem inclined to follow us. Finally both of us agreed that we didn't like his actions, so we decided to end the hunt by calling him to the lure. He did come to that, and Tami picked him up after he finished the garnishment on the lure. She noticed that he had fresh blood on his feet and beak. Tami has a big old Tom Cat that hangs around the house. We are sure that the Cat took his bird from him. At least he was smart enough to not wait around to discuss ownership with it. We also could not find the cat any where. Usually he is under foot.

Tami called this evening and related that he was a bit fat, but he had been agitated all night and wanted to hunt. He is really something else. When he kills, he is as contented with life as one can be, but when he misses, he is as grumpy as an old bear. The fact that he only weighs 3 ounces does nothing to dispel the image.

She came over around 5 PM and though there didn't seem to be many Sparrows about, we turned him loose to see what he could do. He took off the fist in a sneak attack about 12 inches over the ground and flashed up over the fence at the Pigeon house. Nothing seemed to be in the area, so he took a perch on a post between the loafing shed and the Chicken pen. Tami went to the loafing shed and I went on the outside of the fence to the old truck parked there. I must have scared one out from under it, as Jasper chased it around the yard between the pens and into the rock wall by the Pigeons. I kicked as many rocks as I could, but could not get it to bolt. I went back out to the truck again and apparently managed to flush another one. He chased it through the yard, over the fence, back over the rock wall and slammed into it as it tried to take refuge in the back wall of the loafing shed. Tami scaled the fence and we both got to him at about the same time. She helped him pull the Sparrow out of the rocks. As soon as he was clear he jumped to her fist with the Sparrow and began to eat the tidbit that was on her fist. He had to finish that before he broke into the Sparrow.

Sunset

I had thought that I would be efficient for once and write the blog early so that I could watch the football games. Well unlike Karen, I get bored pretty quickly and do just as well listening to them while I am doing something else or sleeping, which I do best. All was well, I was reading a bit, reading emails, and then it was time to do chores. I put the hawks up for the night and after turning the corner of the hanger, here was a great sunset. I managed to ignore it for a while, but it kept getting better and better. Finally I decided to go for the camera, thinking that it would fade before I got back. Well it did not, and it still improved.

 I kept trying to finish my evening chores and every time I looked the sunset intensified.

 These clouds seemed to be rolled on the outside edges.

 And then they got puffy and more interesting

 Looking straight West it was hard to not let the lens be overpowered.

Finally I just had to turn my back on it and go into the house. I still shot 16 pictures of it. These are the best.

All Jasper today.

I knew it was too good to last. We actually have a storm blowing in form the Southwest today. The temps jumped up to 54 degrees, and the wind was gusting to 24. I had intended to fly the Harris's but with this wind, the best thing was to feed them enough to hold them over to tomorrow.

I had two Starlings in my trap, so I wanted to get Jasper started on the kite. I got the quad out of the doors to the hanger, but didn't see the need to go that far away since the wind was blowing away from the hanger. The only thing that I didn't take into account is that the wind shadow from the hanger was going to make for some squirrely wind. I got the kite up in the air, and once it reached about 50 feet it turned over and slammed into the ground breaking the rod that makes up the spine. Time for plan B.

The wind was still screaming, and Jasper really had to hang on to the fist to keep from being blown away. He first took a perch on the free Chickens house, but the Starlings and Sparrows were all over to the captive pen. He soon zipped over there and the usual mayhem ensued. He was here, there, chasing this one, missing one in the rocks. Off again after another, then we were out of Sparrows and opportunities. Just as we were about ready to go to a bagged Starling, a batch of Sparrows flew back in and the chase was on again. Once again, he frittered away all the opportunities, and Tami, who was outside the pen started to go through the fence, flushed another Sparrow. This time he was determined to catch it. The last I saw of him as he disappeared around the loafing shed, was just about a foot in behind the Sparrow. He didn't come back, but a large group of Sparrows that had taken refuge in front of the house lifted off and came to the pens to hide.

We waited, but he didn't show up, so we started a search for him, sure that he had caught something. One of the big problems with him is that he is hard to see if he is more than 50 yards away or down on the ground. If he was the type to be secretive, she would have lost him long ago.

 I finally found him on the ground by the back of the house, almost under the eves. The flight had gone more than 100 yards. This is the first time that he has really pressed the pursuit. The hardest part of flying any kind of game is to convince the hawk that if they keep pressing they can generally force the quarry to try to take cover. He has been discovering the consequences of not catching anything, and he hates it. Tami says that he is restless all night when he misses.

 Well he won't be restless tonight.

 Tami offered her fist to him, but the wind was still howling and if he had turned around he would have ended up on his beak. He is looking, but held his ground.

 When she reached down to get him, he still didn't turn around, but sidestepped up on the fist.

We retired to the shop to get out of the wind so that he could eat.

Yogi, catching up!

We first gave Jasper a chance to catch a Sparrow, but unfortunately, he was unable to make it happen. As soon as he opened his wings, the Pigeons all flew, and with them the Sparrows. We has some good chases, but no cigar. He once went up about 150 feet and was circling over top of the Pigeons. I kicked the wall and flushed out a Sparrow. Jasper turned over and was just about a foot behind it when they went around the "cat house". Unfortunately the Sparrow took cover and the flight ended up right in front of us in another rock wall.

We ended up calling him to the fist and letting him sit in the box to contemplate his failures while we hunted the two Harris's.

I loaded them into the back of the Subaru and drove down to the end of the runway to save us a bit of an unproductive walk. Puddy was up to 887 grams while Yogi was down to 1100. Not sure whats up with Puddy, since I consider 840 to be her flying weight, but I am having trouble getting her down that low. Yogi sheds weight like crazy and I have to watch her weight, so that it doesn't get too low. Perhaps it is just that the girl has put on muscle.

I had expected Puddy to be a bit sluggish, but she was anything but. The first Jack that jumped, Puddy was after in a flash and a quick wingover brought a squeal from the Jack. Unfortunately Yogi wasn't close enough to help and the Jack made his escape. We walked quite a bit before we got another chance at any of them.

After a rather lengthy search we had a couple of close slips, and Yogi was really trying hard, but she still has not perfected her technique and although many of them were extremely close, she still wasn't getting it done. Puddy also was burning up the Sage, slamming into the brush and the ground equally. Finally one busted out fairly close to us and Puddy crashed into the ground just on the other side of a Sage bush, followed by Yogi. After Yogi went in, the rabbit screamed once, then the screams were cut off abruptly.

 The one that gets its feet on the rabbit first is almost always on the rear end, since that is the closest thing to grab. That leaves the rabbit momentarily with the front end scrabbling to pull free of the demon on its butt. The other hawk will grab the head quicker than the rabbit can say "Oh shit", which makes the screams quite muffled.

 While this looks like a wreck, and an extremely dangerous situation, it has not been so far. Those feet are flying faster than a rabbit or a man can begin to react, but the accuracy is just as amazing as it is fast. So far neither has so much as scratched the other, but they are a tumbled mess to all appearances.

If you enlarge the picture above you can see that Yogi has ripped a four inch slash almost down to the bone in the Jacks leg. She has one of the Jacks legs on her left side and her right leg up between the Jacks legs and into his belly. In the meantime Puddy has both feet and all eight talons buried in the Jacks head.

I attempted to give Puddy a front leg from an earlier kill, since the Jack rightly belonged to Yogi, but Yogi volunteered to take it. She walked off a couple of steps to eat her reward, leaving me to convince Puddy to let go. To my great pleasure, she did so with little encouragement. Reuben and I went off a bit to clean the Jack. Reuben kindly offered his knife to clean it with.

We gave both birds all the rabbit that they could eat. Yogi, ever the Lady, daintily ate her food on Tami's fist, while the youngster bolted every thing she could get down her throat as fast as she could.

Jasper - #20

Tami and Isabel came over today to hunt Jasper and help me with the girls here at the house. Jasper has had a dry spell, due to Dave's injury and our education program for the Sparrows here at the house. However one made a fatal error in judgement today. It hid under my old Ford truck, and I saw it hide. Tami rousted it out and it tried to scrape Jasper off on the fence wire that you see between Jasper and myself. It failed to understand Jasper's knowledge of fences and his determination. Tami got over the two fences between us and called him to the fist. He happily carried his Sparrow to her.

We have not hunted him very hard, averaging 3 to 4 flights a week. Of course lately there wasn't even that for at least three weeks. Perhaps now we can hunt him a bit more regularly.  If we lived in an urban setting it would be easy to kill something every time we went out. It would merely require a car trip to the local fast food place, roll down the car window and pick him and his kill up. Fast food joints are a bit scarce around here. If and when the wind picks up a bit we will start some kite training for him just to learn how, and to see how much more efficient he can be from a height.

Puddy was a bit heavy today after all the food that she stuffed down at the end of our last hunt, but she would still try. Yogi was about right, so when Jasper finished his Sparrow, all of us started for the Sage on the other side of the fence. They have progressed to the point that they are a lot of fun to fly. Neither one expects tidbits to come to the fist or the perch. Yogi shows her wild influence in her ability to see rabbits. Puddy will chase whatever jumps up, but once she misses it, she will soon return to the perch to wait for the next chance. Yogi often "goes on point". She knows if they are hiding or if they have left the area. If she is left on her own, she will stay there until she finds it. I generally prefer to try to find another one that might not be so smart, but have found that I had just as well go see if I can push it up for another try. So far we have almost always jumped them, but have yet to catch one on the the second or third try, but what the heck, it is exciting as all get out.

Yogi is slowly evolving in her flying style. Puddy goes straight for the rabbit following every twist and turn and slamming into either the ground, a bush, or the rabbit if she gets an opening. Perhaps if she learns to take a bit more care of her tail, she might be able to make some of these 90 degree turns that the Jacks are pulling on her.  Yogi cuts them off and has been making slams into the ground at right angles to the fleeing rabbit. So far she has missed, but I bet there are a lot of them with all the hair scrubbed off their bellies. They counter this attack by squatting. She has also been experimenting with the throw up flight when they go to ground. Unfortunately so far she hasn't consistently gone high enough or learned to look over her shoulder as she climbs. She is getting there, and will either perfect this technique this year or the next. These rabbits are the toughest, and smartest of the bunch. All have survived constant predation by Golden Eagles and  Coyotes all year long. They are rolling in fat, and are big, strong and very smart.

Karen walked with us for most of the hunt, and we all had a great time. Unfortunately no rabbits were harmed in this exercise. Well Puddy pulled a patch of hair off one of them, but nothing serious.

Finally a chance to go hunting.

 Sunrise over the desert.

Things have been a bit screwed up over the holidays, and I just holed up rather than try to work out the logistics of hunting by myself. Tami and I have hunted Jasper a bit recently here at the house, but the Sparrows are wise to our tactics, and so far it has been a draw. We are in the process of getting some more sites usable, but haven't had a lot of free time to get them operational yet. I really want to explore some kite training for the little guy, but the wind has been so calm that it will not support a kite. I know, hard to believe, isn't it? I thought that I would be able to fly it the other day, so I drug every thing out and started running the kite up in the air. I got up about a hundred feet and one of the walls of my reel came off and we had a 1000 feet or more of kite string to untangle. It only took about 3 hours.

Tami and Grace assisted me with the girls here at the house two days ago. I am finally doing some hunting on the rabbits that have spent the fall mowing my lawn. We went out in the Sage north of the house and found a few Jacks. Puddy even pulled hair on one of them, but there are no dumb ones left. While I haven't hunted them, the Eagles do on a regular basis. Dumb ones are scarce this time of the year.

Tami was off to Boise to get Dave's staples out today, so I asked Karen to go with us here at the house on a rabbit hunt. She agreed, and we picked up the girls and climbed over the fence. There is a bit of a hillock or hump in the ground about a 1/4 mile out that seemed to hold the most Jacks the last time Tami and I went out there, so we made our way there. Tami spoils me a bit since she is so fit, while Karen with her heart afibs isn't getting enough oxygen to keep up. I made her promise to remind me when I forgot and went too fast. She mentioned that she had forgotten to bring a camera, and I told her that we were now guaranteed to catch something.

We were doing pretty good, and had a couple of chases where the girls where taking some pretty good shots at the fleeing Jacks, but nothing connected. We started our way up on the hump when the girls both took off after different rabbits. Yogi landed on a Sage bush quite a way out, but Puddy came back to me and landed on the perch. I started that way as I was sure that one of the rabbits had hidden somewhere near where they had lost him. I had covered about half the distance when one of them lost his nerve and broke cover. Puddy gave chase, and Yogi much further out, started an interception course and was climbing all the way. Puddy made a shot at him, but missed. Yogi continued on and then folded into a twisting dive and soon the welcome sound of a Jack Rabbit in pain floated back. Puddy whipped up off the ground and went in to help.

I got there as fast as I could and saw the front end of a Jack straining to pull away. I grabbed him and broke his neck, then began to look for the other hawk. I could only see Puddy. She had a limb between her legs and the branches in her face. I reached up to attempt to clear it and found that Yogi was under her wing, but they both had the rabbit in the middle. There they were, their heads side by side and their feet were also side by side. Karen was a bit surprised that they were working so well together on the kill without fighting.

I gave Karen a front leg, that I had carried just for this type of situation, to give to Puddy. She for once willingly let go of the Jack to consume the leg. Perhaps it was the fact that she was stretched way out of shape, or perhaps it was the Sage bush stuck in her eye, but whatever, she was quite nice and better than she has ever been.

I gave Yogi another one and she stepped off the Jack. I took it out of the way and cleaned it, cutting off both hind legs the feed the girls with once they finished their other pieces of meat.

I asked Karen which hawk she wanted to carry, Yogi or Puddy which is about half a pound lighter. She chose Puddy, and we started the almost half mile walk back. Pud is lighter, but she is much more clumsy, and difficult to feed. She has no clue the best way to eat on the fist, or for that matter what her feet are doing. We stopped and laughed at her quite a bit before we got back home.

Its a shame, Karen is finally getting to the point that she is able to hunt a bit, but she is scheduled for a hysterectomy the 12th of this month. That will take care of the rest of the winter for her. Since she has never had children, the easy way to do that is out, and the recovery time is 6 weeks or more.

 Sometimes the sunsets and sunrises are just too much to resist.