Friday, April 13th

Jasper has apparently decided that this is his home. Depending on his successes he is either close to the house or at least visible in the distance. He will allow me within 10 feet or so to him before he moves to a more remote perch.  The other day Karen and I found him inside the Chicken pen, sitting on the doorway of the house. Apparently he had gone in after a Sparrow, and was either waiting where he would have the advantage if one came in to eat, or he had forgotten how to get out. I believe that he was waiting inside on purpose. He was quite well hidden, and appeared to be content with where he was.

I went back to the house to get a thawed Starling, but when I went inside with him, he flew to the far corner and began to Kak in alarm at me. He was in the wrong corner to get out, so I pushed him to the side that he would be able to get out of the wire. He crawled through the wire and flew up to the power line. I tossed the Starling into the horse corral in front of him as I left. I watched and he flew down and got the Starling.

A few days later I made another trip up the runway spraying weeds, and saw him sitting on the fence bordering the runway. He paid no attention to me at all. On my trip back, I noticed that he was sitting on top of the house that I had put up for him. Since then in the evenings he can be seen sitting on the roof of the Kestrel house. I cannot say if he is going inside at night or not, but at least he is using it. I can only hope that a female will wonder by and think that he has a viable nest site.

He has actually been spending more time here around the house lately, and it obviously supplies most of his food. After all it is the local feeding spot for everything from Sparrows to Mice. I have noticed at least one molted feather under the power pole by the house. He is in no way bothered by either us or the dogs, but he does maintain his own space. Yesterday he was sitting on the Chicken pen in the morning and the evening, but he didn't seem to be all that hungry, so I did nothing, figuring that if he was really hungry, I would be able to tell from his actions.

It was a bit cool this morning when I went out to feed. Josie let me know that my live trap had Mice in it. I picked it up and found that I had at least five Mice in it. I flipped one out for Josie to play with. She took it to the middle of the runway and driveway to play with it. She still wants to play rather than kill them. I noticed that Jasper was sitting on the fence at the top of the runway. I yelled and waved my hat at him, tossing it up in the air, as I had done when we were serving him bagged game. He did not come in my direction, so I put the trap down and let the Chickens out. When I looked up, he was no longer on the fence. I looked around and saw that he had been sitting on the rock jacks by the gate. He then flew to the top of the hanger. I got another Mouse out and tossed it in the air towards him. He took off and rather than come towards me, he was flying full speed at Josie. Josie was sitting down watching me. Jasper zipped behind Josie within two feet, snatched up the Mouse without slowing down a bit and flew to the rock jack.

I called for Josie, and she turned to pick up her Mouse. It wasn't there! She had no idea that Jasper had stolen it, without her realizing it. She ran all over the area with her nose to the ground, and just could not believe that it wasn't there. I finally got her to come over to me and get the one that I had tossed. Everyone was happy, and I had my first laugh of the day.

This is not the first time he has taken one of her Mice. Josie was playing with one that I had tossed for he, when Jasper showed up on the power line. Josie had wallowed it to the point that it was quite content to just sit still and endure. Josie saw me and came to me, leaving the Mouse humped up and not moving. Jasper swooped down, picked it up and flew to the corral gate to eat it. As I have said more than once, the boy is smart! Hopefully he remains alert and agile as well.