Owyhee Flyer

Sunset

2012-01-14T18:58:00.000-07:00

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.

2012-01-14T16:17:00.000-07:00

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!

2012-01-10T19:35:00.000-07:00

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

2012-01-08T21:43:00.001-07:00

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.

2012-01-06T21:30:00.000-07:00

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.

Time for an update.

2011-12-30T00:02:00.000-07:00

Well Christmas is over and the New Year is approaching. I guess it is time to bring things up to date.

Dave was able to come home from the Hospital the day after his hip operation. Dave is of course Tami's husband. I was very surprised that they let him out so soon. After all they reconstructed his hip socket. I guess Buckaroo's are tougher than the rest of us. Tami at least was able to be overwhelmed at home rather than driving back and forth about 260 miles a day. Just one of the perks of being out of the rat race. Overall worth it.

As you can guess our hawking has gone into a holding pattern for a bit. Karen quite frankly isn't up to the rigors of Harris Hawking, and I can't handle two Harris Hawks by my self. The problem is Yogi and her default setting of hunting on her own. Pud would be just fine, but Yogi has a tendency to go off on her own, and is too big to share a T perch with Pud. It is just easier to not take them both hunting. I have tried Yogi on her own and it hasn't worked out. She tends to go off on her own without Pud there to focus her attention. The last two times I have tried it, she has ended up hunting Voles by flying off to any fence post around.

I did take Jessie out for some ditch hawking with Karen, and it too turned into a fiasco of the first order. The chance of getting the first flush right to the point that Jessie can get a Duck over land is fairly slim, and that day was no exception. She was a bit more selective, in fact to the point that I felt that she was refusing chances, but it is hard to tell. She could have just been waiting for a good opportunity. She finally ran out of steam about the same time I ran out of Ducks, and landed on the far side of the creek. I thought that I still had three Teal on the creek in front of me, and was prepared to wait, but she got up off the ground and flew as though she was going to remount, but she turned over and flew into the Greasewood. It was a bit strange as it looked as though she was after something, but I had not seen anything. I walked around for a bit, and then decided that I had better check on her.

When I crossed the creek and got to the fence, I saw her duck into the brush. When I got there I found that she had ground sluiced a Coot.

What a great flight that had been. Oh well, they all count one, especially to her. I went up to her, and she was on the fight, attacking me with beak and talon as soon as I bent down. I am not sure what was on her mind, but she was obviously feeling guilty and protective.

She really didn't like the taste of it either, and after trying pieces of it all over decided that she would rather eat the Pigeon that I had.

The weather after that got really cold, with the temps getting down into the single digits most mornings. My primary water source, a Frost free? faucet got so cold that I pulled the rod off of the buried operational part, so I am back to carrying water, until I can dig it up. The water line is about three feet down, so I was surprised that I had problems with it.

We have all had our Christmas, and a grand one it was too. Karen and I joined the ranch for Christmas dinner. It was quite a treat, with 5 kids, 9 adults and all the wrapping paper needed to make a Christmas for kids. Reuben had asked Santa for a BB gun, and Tami decided that was a good idea and got one for me as well.

Along with enough BB's to eliminate most of the Pack Rat population.

After Christmas we had a storm blow in that brought the temps up in the 50's, but it also brought a lot of wind. We had gusts yesterday at 36 mph.

It calmed down enough that I decided that it might be wise to use the down time to reacquaint Yogi to flying to the fist. The last time we flew her near the house she ended up at the Chicken house trying her best to become a Chicken Hawk, so I decided that I would fly her on the creance. Not a big deal. I was preparing stuff while she was sitting on her perch in the weathering area. I found a nice creance that was secured to a piece of PVC with shot in it for weight. I had already fed Pud and left her in the shop so that she would not be teased by me calling another bird, and not being able to respond.

I decided to fly her in front of the weathering area as the hanger blocked a lot of the wind, and we were out of sight of the Chickens. I got the creance and tossed the PVC part out, unwinding the string. Yogi saw the PVC and bated at it. I knew that I was in for trouble, but what was done was done. I got her out, tied her to the creance and started to walk to the fence to call her. She stood on tippy toes and took off over my shoulder and onto the creance. She would not leave it. She walked around with it in her feet, tugging and looking for the meat that just had to be there. She came a couple of times to the fist, bringing it with her, but would not leave it alone. I finally got Karen out to help me untangle her, and Karen kept it in her vest so that I could get something out of the lesson.

Today the wind again died down and I prepared to fly her to the fist again. I set her on the fence and turned around to walk back a ways and she zoomed past me to grab the creance again. I had not tied her to it this time, and I had not moved it even so much as a twitch, but it didn't matter. I had tossed it out a couple of days ago and that was good enough for her. The only thing that works is to let her decide that there was no food on it, so I walked into the house to get my camera, leaving her stumping around on the ground with it in her feet.

http://vimeo.com/34357369

She had gone to the fence by the time I got outside. When she went under the fence with it, I went back into the house to drop off the camera. By the time I got back she had gone up to the chimney on the hanger without it. We finished her flights with no more problems.

Jasper- Jessie - Dave.

2011-12-21T11:53:00.000-07:00

Tami came over around 2PM to fly Jasper. We have been discussing establishing some different areas to hunt Sparrows as the ones here are showing the effects of being hunted too often. They are learning, and with knowledge comes survival.

We did our best here, but most of the Sparrows had abandoned the area when Tami showed up, so we were left with a bagged Starling. Jasper was keeping vigil over us as we walked into the field in front of the hanger, and when he was in position, I yelled and tossed the Starling. He wasted no time in binding to it at about 35 feet and took it to the ground. Tami helped him with it and we retired to the shop to let him eat a bit, while I got Jessie's stuff together for her hunt.

I went over to the ranch at about 3:45 P and Tami, Reuben and I went down the creek to see if Jessie could come up with another Duck. Again she smacked two ducks, one of which was propelled into a large patch of Greasewood. She went down to try to get it, but could not get through the brush. I went to the other side of the creek to see if I could help her, but I wasn't sure which bush it went into. I had to resort to my telemetry to locate her, and by then she gotten impatient and thought that I had the duck. She made several circles around me, whiffing me with her wings, and once landing on my shoulder. I could do nothing to help her however.

She went back up, and although we tried, nothing worked out. About half way up the creek, Grace came running up yelling that Dave was hurt. Tami went to be with Dave and administer assistance. I walked back, gathered up Jessie and fed her.

When I got to the ranch house, Dave was in a chair, and in great pain. He had been working a horse, and his Dog apparently "heeled" the horse as he was going around the arena. As they came around again, either the horse remembered, or the dog did it again, and the horse bucked Dave off onto the frozen ground. This had occurred around 3:45 PM. He had lain on the ground for an hour or so before he could get to the fence. Every one was gone, but finally Sam got close enough that he could get his attention. They were able to get him on the tail gate of Sam's PU. Sam and Isabel got him into the house and in the chair. I got there around 5 PM. Tami had of course called the ambulance, but it was at least an hour out. Dave's dad, and a neighbor from Rome had also came in response to the kids call for help.

We were waiting for conformation that the Ambulance was on its way, when Tami got a call and was told that the "Life Flight" chopper was near the house, so we went out and used cars to indicate a landing zone. They were finally able to set down and the two Paramedics got him on a back board and we carried him to the chopper. They were soon airborne to St Alfonse in Boise.

He apparently blew out the socket on his thigh breaking his pelvis in three or four places. He still hasn't had surgery, should be soon however. Prognostication is good, but he won't be riding for a year or more.

With all that has happened and the necessary loss of my main helper, I will suspend the Harris Hawk's hunting for a while, and probably will not hunt Jessie until after Christmas.

I would like to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy holidays. I thank each and every one of you that follow this little blog for your interest and patience.

Puddy 16, Yogi 7.

2011-12-18T19:10:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it seems as if there is someone looking over my shoulder, checking to see if I am keeping to business. Probably my imagination.

Tami brought over Jasper this evening at about 1:30 P, but the Sparrows are getting too smart to be trapped in the Chicken pens and giving Jasper a chance to get after them. So after exausing all of our possibilities, we tied him to Jessie's perch in the shop with the intent to try to fly him after we got back from hunting the girls.

We took the girls to Arock to see if we could catch a couple of rabbits. The Jacks are either getting scarce with all the Eagle depredations, or they are getting smart. Both are probably in play. We found quite a few of fur piles, and the Jacks have started hiding, hard. Finally after a few chases that did not pan out, Puddy launched herself off Tami's perch and slammed into a Jack hiding in his form. Yogi joined in and secured the head.

You will notice that Puddy's wings are pinned by the bush. I had to pry the bush apart so that she could move up on the Jack.

This is a rabbit " Form", they will clear all the grass and sticks and sometimes they hide them inside a Sage Bush, but this one was in a clump of Sage. It just wasn't enough cover to keep Puddy from seeing it. It never got a chance to run. The interesting part of the whole thing is that this Rabbit had had a run in with a Harris Hawk last year.

That is his right ear, and as you can see it is split for about two inches. Either Sue or Peg got hold of him last year. You can run, and you can hide, just not forever.

After we fed the girls a bit, we started back to the car. It was pretty sparse for rabbits in the area that we were moving through, and we didn't see anything until we were right in front of the car. We started a Bunny and Pud slammed into a bush hard enough to make us all wince, but missed him. Yogi had stayed behind on a pile of rocks, and was far enough away that she could play no part in the chase. She finally caught up, and I decided to go just a bit further around an outcropping just in case.

As I neared the outcrop, Yogi took off and cut a sharp circle around the rocks. Pud went to the top of them to watch. When I got on the backside, I could see Yogi down in a crack in the rocks with her feet stuck in the hole and grabbing again and again at the Bunny. I looked in the front part of the rocks and could see the Bunny. All it took was to stick the end of the perch in the hole, and Yogi had something to hold onto.

She drug him out, and we had our second double where both of the birds caught something. We fed them up and made our way back home.

We took Jasper out again and got a fair number of chases, one of which, he caught a Sparrow in the rock pile, but lost him while trying to work his way out of the rocks. Tami had to feed him some cold Sparrow, the first in a long time.

I fed Jessie some Bunny to hold her over until tomorrow when we will try for Ducks again. Sometimes there just isn't enough hours in a day to do every thing that you want to do.

Just Falcons today

2011-12-16T18:17:00.000-07:00

Tami and I took the girls out yesterday to hunt, and the best they could do is pull hair, so they got very little to eat and a trip home. We had hunted them so long that it was too late to fly Jessie, so I fed her a Pigeon breast to hold her over for today. Tami has to deliver some horses to Ontario tomorrow, so the girls will not be able to fly tomorrow either. I fed them a Starling to hold them over.

Tami came over about 1:45 and she turned Jasper loose, but all the Sparrows and Starlings have been a lot more circumspect about hanging around the Chicken house. Jasper went over to his perch on the other side of the Chicken house, and I went inside to flush. Unfortunately there were a couple of Sparrows in the trap, and he wasted no time crawling through the fence to get after them. I picked up the trap, with Jasper hanging on the side, and was trying to capture one to take outside. The Sparrow settled the discussion by blasting out of the trap and through the wire of the pen. Jasper of course was after him and caught him at the bottom of the wire. Settled that I suppose.

I caught a Pigeon for Jessie, and loaded everything up, when Karen decided that she wanted to go. Fine with me. The area that I hunt on the ditch is actually just right for spectator viewing. We picked Tami up and were soon ready to release Jessie.

After a good look around and a rouse, she took off to get some altitude and check out the possibilities.

She soon located the largest concentration of Ducks on the ditch and we moved in for the flush. I walked up to the ditch and Mallards erupted every where. She turned over in a stoop and slashed a Mallard Drake, but he only bobbled, and kept flying. She came around again and I pushed some more out of the ditch. She smacked another Drake a bit harder and tore a stream of feathers out of him, but he didn't go down either and she chased him up the ditch all the way to the houses, but could not close on him.

She began to circle further up the ditch, where I am sure the large bunch that we had flushed right in front of me had gone. She continued circling there so long that I was concerned that she would tire before she came back to where we could do some good.

Ducks kept flushing out of the ditch in front of me, whenever they thought that they could make good their escape. I began to worry that when she did come back, it would be to an empty ditch, but she finally started my way. I started up the ditch, and a bunch of Teal got up. Jessie made a quick strafing run and slashed one of the Teal out of the air. She made a quick turn and I heard the Teal squawk, so I assumed that she had caught it.

When I got over there, she had jumped to the top of a Grease Wood bush. It was obvious that the duck was in the bush. I got down on my knees looking all through the bush, but could not find it. I was very concerned that the Teal would make its escape back into the creek, so I enlisted Tami's help. I put my vest in front of the bush to hopefully block the Teal, and went back for Tami. There was no reason for her to get wet, so I carried her piggy back across the creek. While I was crossing to get her, I saw Jessie bail off the bush. By the time that we got back, there was no sign of Jessie. I began to look in the bush, but could see neither her or the Teal. I stood up to change perspective and saw another bush move. I went over to look, and there was Jessie tucked so far in the bush that she was very difficult to see.

I went to the bush, and moved a whole bunch of stuff out of the way, so that I could see her and the teal. Peregrines are supposed to be unwilling to go into cover for game. Apparently Jessie hasn't read that book yet.

I pulled her out into the open so that she could eat, and tied her to my bag. I then carried Tami back across the creek to where Karen was standing.

I decided to let her eat the Duck rather than trading her for it. Teal are a lot more palatable than the other Ducks. Jessie for sure likes them well enough to actually eat more than the fat. She was quite happy with my decision.

When she was done, I hooded her, and put her in the car for the trip home. We will see how long it takes her to come down to flying weight again.

This is all she had left. I didn't have to pick this one, to my great pleasure.

Teal are the toughest quarry out there in the duck world. We normally do not get them here very much, for which I am thankful. The Teal will throw themselves to the ground to escape the falcons flight when ever possible, but this one didn't get the chance.

Back in the groove again.

2011-12-13T20:14:00.000-07:00

Yogi has not been putting in the required effort to actually catch rabbits. She has been going through the motions, but on the whole, she has been coasting. That is just not acceptable! I began three days ago, cutting her weight, and taking her out on her own. I wanted her to have no excuses or anyone to depend on. The first day did not last all that long. She refused several Jacks, so I took her home with no food other than the tidbits required to pick her up. She lost down to about 1125 Grams. The next day I took her out, and she didn't really want to hunt with me, but to go off on her own as she was used to doing while she was in the wild. That one didn't last all that long either. She lost down to 1100 grams. Yesterday I again took her out, and she was trying for all she was worth, but it was obvious that she needed some of the type of help that Pud could supply. On the whole, a thinking and unhurried Jack Rabbit is a safe Rabbit. About the only way that the girls catch one is to keep it unsure of where the danger is coming from. She came so close to catching one of the close ones that I was amazed that she had not in fact caught it. She again went off on her own to hunt. I called her back to the lure, only feeding her a bunny front leg, before taking her home.

Today Tami was able to go with me to help, so we took both birds. Pud is still a bit high, but Yogi was at 1120 grams. I expected Puddy to catch something pretty fast, but to my great surprise Yogi took off and climbed up a bit, then turning over, slamming through the Sage to stop a fleeing Bunny.

Puddy flew over to see if there was room for her to jump in, but Yogi had it pretty well covered, and I was able to interject the T Perch, and hold her off long enough for Tami to get a hand full of tidbits to placate her.

We went on after feeding Yogi a front leg. She was still quite anxious to hunt. Apparently the bunnies are not all that filling, at least front legs aren't. :-) We got a few more slips, and Yogi was giving it her all, while Puddy was sulking, and not trying at all. Yogi took a perch on the fence line, and didn't want to leave. I had to toss my glove up in the air to get her to come. Pud of course grabbed it. I finally got it away from her, and we turned away from the fence.

We had not gone too far when a Jack busted right beside Tami and Yogi. Yogi jumped high in the air and came down over some rocks and nailed the Jack. This time the front end was empty and Puddy wasted no time in jumping in.

We got them separated, by offering Yogi another leg. Pud also came off quite well with a leg from the Jack. I retired to the bushes to clean and skin the rabbits, as well as to rip the bunny apart for their meal. We were in the field about an hour. This is Yogi's first time to make a double, and both of these were caught without the added distraction of Pud as well. A few days of "tough love" and no food will change any raptors mind set. Even with the late start that we have had, they have caught 20 Rabbits. That is not a lot by any stretch of the imagination, but I am not "campaigning" them either.

Jessie was again at weight and anxious to have me pick her up to hunt, so after we got home, I did a few chores and at 4PM I went to get her. She was still down about an ounce from where I normally consider her ideal flying weight.

After much consideration of the last few days of hunting, my brain finally understood what she has been doing. I have been trying to hunt in front of Tami's house. There are generally one or two ducks in there, but the major flocks are further down the creek. Jessie, as all intelligent raptors are wont to do, will go to where the game is. It is much easier to see a large flock of ducks and go there, patiently waiting for her dumb shit falconer to come down there and flush them for her. What she has been doing is flying really high for her (3 to 400 feet) until she gets tired, then sitting down to do it again, and I have been up the creek without a clue, waiting for her to come to me. It is so obvious that I am a bit embarrassed.

The creek is called Crooked Creek, and for good reason. The area that the ducks prefer is a series of tight serpentine curves where the creek is a bit wider. Last night was better, but again, I missed seeing, because of preconceived ideas. I asked Tami to go further up the creek, and we would bracket them by about 100 yards. We would then either be in position to block them and to keep ducks in the air as well. Good ideas, but I still fell down. I turned her loose way too far from the creek, thinking that she was just enjoying the ability to fly. Not so! She kept circling one area, and while I adjusted, I didn't go far enough down the creek to hit them right. Instead I hit them in the middle and they choose to go down the creek away from Tami. While we got her some shots, they were not anywhere what she should have had. About the only chance she had was a head on shot with Mallard drakes. She once broke her leg by hitting a Drake Mallard head on, and I consider her smart to avoid that kind of thing. So again we wasted all her energy, and she had to come to the lure.

We had found a closer area to drive to that did not leave us a nasty walk through the Grease wood. This time, my brain was working a bit better, and I realized what she had been doing. As I walked down towards the creek, I could hear ducks down the creek, but she kept her circles tight in one spot. I adjusted and came in at the edge of her flight circles and flushed a pile of Mallards up the creek to Tami. She waved her arms and yelled, turning them inland. One separated out of the flock and was trying to cut back to the creek just in front of me. Jessie came out of her stoop on an interception course, dropping lower than he was and hit him a slight uppercut in either the head or the neck, knocking him out of the air with a whack. She turned a tight circle and landed on him. When I got there the ducks head was stuck in a Grease Wood Bush and Jessie was trying to drag him out. I helped her pull him to the open, and I kept him from beating her with his wings.

This is the first time in four years that she has hit one from the front. I know that she was frustrated with the past few days, and was not about to go home without a full crop.

After she had killed him and drank a bit of his blood, she began to pluck. I offered her a Pigeon and she was only too glad to trade. I secured her to my bag and left her alone to eat while I cleaned the duck. After I was done, I picked her up with absolutely no objections on her part and we walked back to the car while she finished the Pigeon.

Quite a day! I got one of my hawks to listen to me, and Jessie got me to listen to her.

Mystery Predator and Jasper

2011-12-12T23:38:00.000-07:00

Actually the predator is not that much of a mystery, but it sounded good, I thought. The Bob Cat returns! This morning after the day dawned rather weakly, I looked outside from all the windows as I tend to do, checking for signs of Cats and Coyotes. I looked in the back yard and there is a strange lump that was not there before this morning.

I couldn't make it out, so I put a coat on and went to see. Imagine my surprise to find that it was a Bobcat kill, that had been covered up as big cats are wont to do. I knew that Cougars routinely rake leaves and branches over their kills to keep other predators from finding and robbing their kills, but I did not expect the Bob Cat to do so in my yard.

It had eaten everything from the ears to the hind legs. It of course raked the guts out, but ate most of all the organs. I have to admit that I find this all to be somewhat amusing. At least so far that is. It has to be a young cat. I just cannot believe that an adult of some experience doing this kind of stuff. It is pretty bold, and I suspect pretty dumb to be bold enough to come and go with apparent disregard of the two dogs, and occasional people walking around.

Now I will admit that I was shocked at the amount of both Jacks and Bunnies that frequent this place after dark. I don't know for sure how far they come to feed on my yard and the hay by the corral, but some of them come from pretty far away, I think. If I try hard I can jump perhaps 5 Jacks within a 1/4 mile of the house, but there must have been close to 30 around the house the other night. That would make this place seem like a mecca for a night prowler like the Bob Cat. We have decided that if it sticks to Rabbits, we will coexist. Or rather we have decided to see how long it will stick to Rabbits.

This however, what with the covered kill in the yard would be the perfect time to build a "Machan" over the kill and wait up all night for it to come back. Too many stories of maneaters when I was a kid I guess.

Tami brought Jasper over for his evening meal around 1:30 P. Since I have been so remiss in my duties, I decided to carry the big camera for this outing.

Tami did her sneak through the corral again, and Jasper materializing over the loafing shed pinned a few Sparrows in the rocks behind the Chicken pen. I went into the pen as he was trying to get a clear shot at a hiding Sparrow. My appearance caused the Sparrow to bolt, which was a bad move. Jasper caught him on the flat rock in this picture, and they fell off in the fight. You can see his wing only.

He got himself somewhat straightened out, and flew up to another rock, where he killed the Sparrow.

You will notice he has the Sparrow in a strangle hold around the neck. The Sparrow by this time was already dead. It doesn't take him long with Sparrows.

Tami finally got close enough for him to see her and he was opening his wings waiting for her to call him.

He carried his prize to her fist to eat his meal.

My efforts with both the Harris Hawks and Jessie came to nothing but exercise. Perhaps tomorrow will be better.

Busy day!

2011-12-09T21:53:00.000-07:00

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.

Another try for Jessie

2011-12-07T20:30:00.001-07:00

Jessie finally caught her duck last night when it was almost dark, and didn't get to eat much before I picked her up. The Owls were hooting, and it was time for the day shift to retire. She was a bit low in weight last night, and only got enough Pigeon to bring her weight up a little bit. As they say "its an ill wind that blows nobody any good", so we had to go hunting again today. Oh well, its a tough job, but somebody has to do it.

First however Tami brought Jasper over for a Sparrow hunt here at the house. I am not sure what happened, but there were no Sparrows or Starlings here at either Chicken pen. Luckily I had a Starling that I had captured yesterday, and I decided to try something different this time. I put tape over the Starlings eyes, but did not pull any feathers.

We started walking out in the field in front of the hanger, and Jasper as is his habit took off to keep vigil above us. He finally got up in the air at a decent height, and I yelled and tossed the Starling. With their eyes closed, most birds have a tendency to fly high rather than a level "leave the area" flight. This one did just that, but Jasper was confused. ( I have noticed on all of his earlier flights at bagged game, that he never actually made any "air strikes", but chased them to the ground and then bound to them.) He didn't seem to know what to do, and stayed within a few feet of the Starling, but did not close with it. They rang up to about 250 feet or more, drifting down towards the creek of course. The Starling finally begin to get tired and started towards the ground. Luckily Tami and Isabel both have better eyes than I, and saw him finally grab the Starling just before they hit the ground over on the other side of the creek. Thankfully Starlings scream bloody murder when in the talons of a raptor, so they were able to follow the sounds of the assault in progress. I am not sure whether it was the different style of flight that threw him off, or if he is reluctant to close while in the air.

At 4PM I took Jessie over to the ranch to see if we could do a bit better than she did last night. As we walked out to release Jessie, I looked up to see a Starling flying for all it was worth about 400 feet up in the air. Right behind him and closing the gap was a Sharp shinned Hawk. I had already pulled Jessie's hood, and she watched the contest as avidly as Tami and I. It became obvious that the Sharpy was going to catch it. The Starling turned down and started stroking for all it was worth towards the cover of the Cattails. They disappeared at about the same time, but the conclusion was not clear to us. Jessie however took off after them, and the Sharpy vacated the area well in front of her. She lost interest and turned back towards us. I was sorry that I had not seen the flight before unhooding Jessie. If ever a hawk deserved its meal, that one surely did.

http://www.google.com/search?q=sharp+shinned+hawk&hl=en&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=ACjgTqX8N6iMigKKjoHgDg&ved=0CF8QsAQ&biw=1600&bih=797

Soon she was higher than she needed to be to ditch hawk, and we started towards the creek. Several ducks flushed and she couldn't get down faster than they could get back into the creek. We walked a bit further down and flushed some Mallards. She was in position, but decided to not hit the Mallard Drake. Not sure if it was because it was over the creek or because she once broke her leg hitting a Drake Mallard. Either way, she "whiffed" him. Another bunch got up and she knocked a Gadwall back into the ditch. By that time she had been flying and trying to get a duck over the ground for quite a while, so she flew to a fence post to rest a bit.

I walked down even with her and waited for her to rest a bit. Soon she took off again and we where back in business. I was trying to make my best speed down the creek to get in front of a bunch of ducks that had put in the creek. I wanted to pinch them in between Tami and I. I am getting too clumsy to walk and watch her, so I just do my best and she either is in position or not. Her choice. I flushed two Mallards in one of the curves, and while I thought there should be more, I didn't go back. I turned down the creek and soon heard Tami calling that she had caught one. The ducks that I thought should be there had tried to get past Tami, but Jessie smashed one into the ground, when it got too far out of the creek bed.

I unrolled my waders and crossed the creek to help her. She was having a pretty good fight with the duck, but she had it subdued by the time I got there. It was a Mallard hen. So I guess it was the creek that caused her to whiff the Drake. Normally she grabs the Mallards and smashes the Gadwalls and smaller ducks. A Mallard weighs more than Jessie does, and a wrong hit could injure her, but my guess is that she was pissed and wasn't going to let this crap go on any further.

After I helped her kill it, I clipped her up and tied her to my bag. I then offered her a Pigeon to eat, which she accepted. While she was eating I plucked the duck for a "wild duck dinner" for the ranch later this week. I generally don't eat what the Hawks catch, unless it is a Pheasant, but I found that smoked Duck is edible, and I wanted the folks at the ranch to taste something besides beef. A bonus for us is enjoying their company.

As usual, I forgot my camera. :-/

2011-12-06T21:34:00.000-07:00

Karen and I spent the night in Boise Monday, and returned today about 10AM. It was really cold when we left Monday at 7 AM. It was 4 degrees at the top of the hill, so I decided to leave the birds in the shop. Jessie could have handled the cold with no problem, but the Harris's would not have handled it that well. Tami agreed to come over and do the evening chores for us and check on the girls to make sure that they were alright. Sharron came over around 10 AM and picked up the dogs, so that Betsey would not be a dog sickle when we came back.

Karen had to have some out patient surgery, and we felt that it would be better to stay in town to make sure that her recovery had no complications. Every thing was fine, and she is recovering nicely with no problems.

All three of the girls were down to weight when I got back, so Tami came over at 1 PM and we went to Arock to see if we could catch a Rabbit. The girls are really showing improvement, and Puddy did not disappoint, and she soon had a Jack by the tips of her talons in one rear leg. She was up against a big limb, and was just about to lose it. Tami got there before me and used her perch to pin the Jack long enough for Yogi to get around in front and snake her foot through a small hole in the brush, shoving it right in its face. Perhaps I should say grabbing a foot full of face.

After Yogi stepped in, I stepped back and took a picture. I generally get so busy that I don't get any pictures. I then gave the camera to Tami with instructions to take anything that looked interesting.

I broke the limb out of Puds face so that she could stand up. It is a real wonder that she was able to hold on. If you look at the picture above, she can't have much to hang on to.

After I got the birds sorted out, I killed the Jack, and we gave Yogi a Bunny leg to chew on, and I tore off a front leg for Puddy. She actually let go and came to the fist quite easily this time. I let her take it to the bushes to eat, while we took Yogi on to try to catch another while she was eating.

Yogi did her best and made some great shots that were so close that it was amazing that she didn't connect. She is improving each and every trip. She is so aware of where the rabbits are hiding, and will not leave the area if the rabbit is hiding somewhere nearby. It is very interesting, yet at the same time it is aggravating. It is a wonderful survival technique that she has developed through her time on her own, but often it is better to just go on and jump another one. However, we most often do not get to do what is better.

We hunted pretty hard for the next two hours of so, but could not get the break that we needed. Puddy just doesn't try as hard with a front leg in her crop, and Yogi still hasn't perfected the twists and turns that she needs to connect. It is coming however.

We got back home and I did the chores, put on my waders, and took Jessie over to Tami's to try for Ducks. She was down about an ounce, and acted quite desperate. We turned her loose and she got up and into what should have been the perfect position. It is hard to run over broken ground and keep track of her, so I require her to keep herself in position when I start running. If she is out of position, then that's too bad. Well she apparently wasn't paying that much attention, and several nice ducks made their escape down the ditch. She came sweeping down and grabbed a Duck heading down the ditch, but apparently couldn't keep them both in the air long enough to reach dry ground, so she lost him in the water.
She was sitting on a fence post at the end of the field. We busted at least three bunches of Duck on the way there, and she just sat.

Apparently the Duck that she had her feet on, was somewhere in front of her, and she wanted it pretty badly. I finally got her back in the air. We crawled through the fence and started down the ditch. Another bunch of Ducks flushed and flew back up the creek. Jessie came down in a sizzling stoop and slammed one of the Ducks. She hit him hard enough that when he hit the water the splash came up over the tops of some pretty tall Cattails. She sat on the fence again, sulking. I kept on down the creek, and finally teased her into flying again.

Once she was in the air, Tami and I started down the ditch. We soon flushed another bunch of Ducks, and Jessie who was off to our left singled a Gadwall out and struck him with a terrific slashing blow that left him on his back with his feet waving in the air. She wasn't about to let this one get away.

It was almost dark by the time that she caught him. I gave her a Pigeon to eat while I plucked the duck. When I finished, I picked her up and we walked home. It was a good day, but a long one.

Behind again.

2011-12-03T21:04:00.001-07:00

Karen and I were off to Boise for a Doctor trip on Thursday the first. Tami and Isabel brought Jasper over around 2 PM for his hunt. Jasper has a routine where-in he first goes to the outside Chicken pens then to the captive pen and keeps an eye on the rock wall behind the pen. The Sparrows generally will try to hide in the wall, giving him a good shot at them. The first was no different than the others and Jasper soon had his wild Sparrow.

My regular computer apparently has a bad hard drive, so I am having to use the laptop and I do not do that well with it, so pictures are not available for his hunt.

The second was just too windy and nasty to even go outside. I fed the girls enough to get them by until today in the hopes that the wind would abate just a bit.

Today, Saturday, was cold as could be, but the wind has finally died down enough to hunt the Harris Hawks. First Tami came over with Jasper for his hunt. Unfortunately the Sparrows are becoming much smarter and were scarce as could be. After we exhausted all our options it was time to work on his "waiting on" flight, so I got a Starling from my reserve and not wanting another 350 yard flight and swim, I pulled 6 primaries from its right wing. When we started walking towards the open field, Jasper took to the wing and started climbing in front of us. As he reached about 100 feet, I yelled and tossed the Starling. He wasted no time in capturing it. If you will notice from the video that he is smart about making his grab on the Starling. Make no mistake, a Starling is well equipped to defend itself, and weighs just about as much as Jasper himself does. When we arrived, he had the Starling by the throat with both feet, thus keeping that Sharp beak well away from him. Tami helped him with holding and killing the Starling.
http://vimeo.com/33091144 Here is a video of the flight.

After he had a bit of a chance to eat, and I had a chance to get my stuff together to take the girls out for a long overdue hunt. Tami put Jasper on one of the inside perches to finish his meal, and I picked up the girls and weighed them. Pud was 850 grams and Yogi was 1160, so both were just right in my opinion for the hunt. I wanted Puddy to be a bit on the high side in the hopes that she would not be so hungry that she would be reckless and possibly get one or the other hurt.

We had just gotten into the field when a Jack jumped up in front of Tami and Pud. Pud burned him down in about 20 feet. Yogi had also taken off in pursuit at the same time, but climbed to about 25 feet or more, did a wing over and slammed into the Jack as well. She hit it hard enough that I could clearly hear the strike. A two pound mace with talons will give you a honest comparison. This time I was a bit worried, but while there was a terrific pile up, neither bird had anything in its feet other than Jack Rabbit.

Pud had grabbed the Jack by the Butt, and I am sure that it was dragging her around, right up until Yogi Slammed into his head. Of course once Yogi had the head, Puddy changed her grip to what was open on the head or the front shoulders.

If you remember one of the last entries talked about Puddy getting slammed into the Sage roots and knocked off. I suggested that she might grab and lie down while holding on. Both are doing just that, and both have either the head or the front shoulders. Yogi at one point had a Jack foot and hind leg on either side of her head. I was too busy to take a picture. I had to again kill the rabbit by stopping his heart. Since Yogi is by far the most sensible one, I had Tami come over to my left and offer Yogi a prepared chunk of meat. She stepped off with no problem and left me with the "excitable" one. She actually did a lot better than she has in the past, and I got her on a front leg with no holes in my hands. Highly unusual!

We left Puddy under a bush eating her prize and went on with Yogi, who had by this time swallowed the entire large chunk of meat that she had been given. We found a couple of flights, but nothing that was in our favor. I begin to think about where Puddy might have gotten to, so we circled around. She came up off the ground and flew to me. I think she was a bit confused that no one was around.

We were finding that the rabbits had abandoned that section of the Sage due to our hunting pressure, so we crossed the fence into another field that hadn't been hunted for quite some time. It was obvious that Pud had lost a bit of her edge, but Yogi was still in there as energetic as she had started.

Finally after Yogi and Pud had made two more Jack chases that had not worked out, we started a Bunny. Yogi was the first, and when the Bunny hid, Yogi began clawing for altitude and Pud made a shot that moved him from his hiding place. I did the best that I could, but I just ain't what I used to be. It avoided both birds, but Yogi was right on its butt when it took refuge in the rock ledge that was nearby. I saw where it went to cover. So I kept my eye on the spot. As I drew near, it changed what was obviously an insecure spot and tried for another one that had it undercover, but not out of my sight. Yogi flew to my perch, and was looking hard into the rocks and I could tell that she had picked him out. There was just a patch of fur, but it was enough for her to see. Each time I hunt with her, I am amazed at her ability to see hiding rabbits.

I asked Tami with Pud to come in above and block that avenue of escape. The Bunny bolted, but Yogi was ready and off the fist at his first move. She caught him just as he cleared the rocks, and Puddy slammed into him as well.

This time I was again worried, but the only thing in their feet was Bunny. This time it was Yogi who was the more difficult to get to release her hold for food. It makes sense, they know who caught it. I cut off the first Jack's rear legs and we each claimed a Harris and began the trek back.

Today was a real break through. heretofore we had caught one and then fed both birds up. We had tried to hunt some more, but had no success due to the fact that the birds were not trying as hard as they were before. this time I had a smaller reward for the one who had not caught the rabbit, thus she was still on her game. It takes a bit for the food to reach the stomach, and since there was less, she didn't feel as satisfied and still wanted to catch another. It is important that they don't quit hunting just because someone tags a rabbit. Today went a long way towards that knowledge.

There were several subtle changes in both birds today, that please me very much. Pud had lost several Jacks because Yogi had not helped her. The reason for that reticence was that Yogi was unsure if Pud was safe to help. You have to remember that both birds carry lethal weapons on both feet, and care and respect are needed in dealing with either one. Today they both acted without reserve, and both were respectful of the other. There was trust today, and that is the most important part of it. Because of that trust, both birds were working with each other for the real first time. When one missed or the Jack hid, the other would wait for it to bolt again. For the first time today I saw them make four (two each) different shots at the same rabbit by taking advantage of what the other one did. It is coming together.

Yogi is beginning to make more of an effort to stay with us, because she realizes that were we are where it happens. She has never required tidbits to come to us, she just hasn't come that far as often as I would like. She isn't where she needs to be, but is better.

Yogi for the first time got into her box without being forced to. She had not liked the box, and only got in there when she was forced to. Today she bated towards the box.

When we got home, Tami picked up Jasper and went home, while I picked up Jessie and got her ready to hunt over at Tami's.

We couldn't see any evidence of ducks in front of her house, so we went up the creek on the other side of the barn. I turned her loose and she decided that it was a really nice day to fly, and she did, only coming back to us when she was tired and her pitch had lowered to about 150 feet. We rushed an empty ditch. We started down the ditch and when she was out of position, flushed several Mallards. There was another bunch of them a bit further down that waited until she was far out of position to fly away. By this time she was out of gas, and sat on a post until I called her to the lure. Oh well, it wouldn't do to catch something every time I went out. Just isn't supposed to happen. It was still a very good day. Perhaps tomorrow afternoon.

I had thought that I was done for the evening, but the driveway alarm has changed my mind. Yesterday we had a bit of a mystery. When it is cold, I generally do not do morning chores until it warms up a bit. That is generally around 9:30 to 10 AM. I turned the dogs out, and when I went back in Betsy had a Jack Rabbit foot that she was chewing on. It was not frozen, so it was fresh. Karen said that she saw her in the garden. I went over to look, and found a pile of rabbit hair up against the garden wall, mush as though a hawk had caught it and hid to eat it as they are wont to do. The mystery was that there was no tracks other than that probably made by Betsy, and there was no blood. I could only surmise that a Coyote had gotten the Jack and carried the rest of the body off. Still didn't make sense however.

Then the driveway alarm which is set on the end of the hanger, went off at 9:15 PM. There should be nothing out there. I thought it might be one of the neighbors cows, so I went out to look with the spot light. We left the dogs in the house. When I got out there was no cow, but there was a Bob Cat hiding under the truck. It was a small half grown one, but that explains the mystery.

Jasper and Jessie

2011-11-30T21:31:00.002-07:00

We went to town yesterday and as we drove up Tami was just Starting to fly Jasper. It was just before dark and the Sparrows are a bit reluctant to go into the pens to roost until the last minute. I had a Starling in the outside trap, and since the Sparrows were so sparse, after we emptied every building and pen, we went out into the field. Jasper followed and went into a hover over our heads. I had pulled 5 primaries from the Starling, but Jasper didn't see it until it had a good head of steam, and was leaving the area with alacrity. He turned and was pressing it hard when they went out of sight of us over the hill. We ran over to the crest of the hill and could see nothing. Tami thought she could hear the Starling screaming occasionally off in the distance. There was a cow that was staring at a spot on the ground. On a hunch she went down the hill, forded the creek and finally found him all the way up against the hillside across the creek. The flight covered somewhere around 350 to 400 yards. The little guy doesn't have any quit in him at all.

The wind woke me up during the night, howling for all it was worth. The Harris's were down to weight, but flying them in a 24 MPH wind is just a waste. I waited until 4 PM but the wind was not going to quit, so I fed the girls some Jack Rabbit that will hold them over until the wind quits. Jessie however is a different story. She is built for the wind and enjoys it. She doesn't fly as high, but she will be right there in spite of the wind.

We had no idea if there were Ducks on the ditch or not, but I needed to fly her, and had food in my bag and on the lure if things didn't work out. Unknown to us Rosy and David had ridden down the ditch, flushing the ducks as they went.

All the kids came out to help flush, and we lined up in position. I turned Jessie loose and we waited for her to get her play out of her system, and settle down in position to take advantage of any ducks that I might flush. When she indicated that she was ready, we rushed the ditch, which of course was empty. Jessie showed no signs of wanting to stop, so we ran up the ditch hoping that we could find something further up. After about 75 to 100 yards I flushed four ducks that rose up into the air, but Jessie was too close, so they slammed back down into the water. My only choice was to keep running and hope for the best. The Ducks of course waited and took off when she was a bit out of position. She tried, but the wind had blown her far enough out of position that they had a chance to make it down past all the kids before Jessie could do more than scare the crap out of them. I kept up the best pace that I could, and finally flushed a single Gadwall. I yelled to let her know that there was another one in the air. She flashed by me and grabbed him about 20 feet in the air, but also about 20 feet from a Barb wire fence. I could see her hesitating trying to decide if she could get him across the fence or not. She wisely decided to dump down before the fence. They hit the ground just in front of the fence, but their momentum took them through the fence anyway. I waded the creek to help (really to secure her with her leash) and got her clipped up. I then traded her a Pigeon in exchange for the Duck.

As is usual I forgot to take a camera along with me. All the horses in the field that she had caught the Duck in, came over to see what was happening. The calves in the adjoining field also came over to stare. The horses bolted when she opened her wings, leaving her to eat her Pigeon in solitude. We stood on the bank freezing while she dined at her leisure. It was worth it.

Jessie shares with Jasper an intelligent desire to catch something. By intelligent I mean that both make things happen and position themselves so as to take advantage of any opportunity. If it doesn't work out the first time, they are willing to keep flying and trying. Jessie will fly until she is tired, then sit down somewhere. When she is rested, she will get back up in the air and resume the hunt until she does catch something. It is rare that I have to give up and swing the lure to call her back. As long as there is game, she is willing. She is a demanding mistress, requiring that I treat her with respect, never taking short cuts, but she is worth it.

Yogi strikes again.

2011-11-28T19:10:00.000-07:00

The girls were back down to hunting weight today, and Tami and Isabel came over to help with the hunting. It is so nice to have them to help. I could not do it without Tami and her lovely girls.

Again it didn't take too long in the field before Puddy grabbed a big Jack by the butt and he also scraped her off in the base of a Sage bush. If it had been just a straight pull, she would have held on, but again there was a low hanging large limb that she couldn't get through. I think she is going to have to approach it like a bareback rider and grab on and lay flat until its over. Yogi was right there, but she didn't even try to interfere, just sat on a bush and watched the whole thing. Not sure whether to mark it up to manners, or revenge. Again it took a bit of an edge off Puddy's aggression. Oh, she still tried, and she had some more close calls with the rabbits escaping by mere inches, but she didn't get her feet on any more. This Jack however left a lot of his coat behind. There was fur still floating in the air when we got there, and a double handful of fur on the ground.

Just as I began to despair, we jumped a close Jack. Puddy tried hard to get him, and succeeded in turning him. Yogi caught him as he turned. He didn't get very far at all, in fact his escape try could be measured in inches. This all happened within 15 feet of us, and by the time I got there she had him only by the head.

This girl has some of the biggest hooks this side of an Eagle, and the power to run them through bones.

Surprisingly Puddy did not rush into the fray, but stopped on the ground about 4 feet in front of Yogi and stayed there. I gave Tami a chunk of meat that I had prepared for just such an occasion, and Puddy gladly went to her fist to eat it. Maybe the girl is getting some manners? Nah! too early.

In the short time that it took to give the meat to Tami, Yogi had killed the Jack by herself. That is a blessing that I appreciate very much. Puddy has never done that with any of the Jacks that she has caught. She has killed some of the bunnies, but mostly I have to do it myself.

I pulled off a front leg for Yogi and picked her up with it. Isabel put the Jack in my bag for me. Yogi finished her front leg and left the bare bones and foot on my glove. When Puddy finally finished her chunk she came calling and flying to me, landing on my arm. She saw the bones of the front leg and had to grab that and take it to a bush to make sure there wasn't anything else on it to eat. I guess her manners didn't improve all that much.

We made our way back to the car, and Tami and Isabel took the girls after another Jack that Yogi had seen while I cleaned the dead Jack and prepared the rest of their meal. It still took us three hours on the hunt.

On a separate note, before I left for hunting, I injected Jessie's Duck that she caught yesterday with a mixture of Salt, Sugar, Worcestershire Sauce and water and put it in the refrigerator. When I got back from hunting, I put it in my Bradly Smoker and cooked it to 160 degrees. Karen had Turkey sandwiches for dinner. I tried to get her to taste it, but she refused. I am forced to admit that I ate every bit of it with genuine pleasure. The dogs cleaned up the bones and all that was left was a greasy spot. A big one! I may have to eat more.

Jessie and Jasper

2011-11-27T19:12:00.000-07:00

Karen and I took Jessie to Appendix Point to try for a Duck today. I was hoping that the pond would be thawed and there would be Ducks on it. About half of it was thawed and did have some Ducks, so I turned Jessie loose.

She was quite anxious to go and wasted no time getting up and over the pond. I flushed the Ducks and we both lost her in the flock that came up off the water. Ducks were milling every where and finally out of the flock I saw her with a Duck in her talons trying mightily to carry it to dry land. She was in front of the cliffs on the other side, and it became obvious to both of us that she wasn't going to make it. She dropped him into the pond and flew over to our side to land on the cliff behind us.

I called the dogs to me and ducked down behind the Sage to give the Ducks a chance to land again. Several of them did land and I looked up to see Jessie getting in position again. I waited until she was in as good a position as she could get, and flushed again. Again I lost her, and then there she was with another Duck in her feet stroking for the bank. This time it was closer and she landed in some really thick Rabbit Brush.

I went to look for her, but could not find her anywhere. I made three trips back and forth through it, and still could not find her. Karen came up with the truck and I requested the Telemetry receiver to cut down on the search. Josie was in front of me and quickly went on point and with her help I could see her.

Of course the little darling wasn't going to do anything to give her position away.

The Duck (Drake Gadwall) appeared to be dead, so I gave her a Pigeon to eat, and clipped her up.

I tied her to my vest and let her get on with her meal while I picked the Duck. I decided that I was going to try smoking this Duck in my smoker to see if my memory of how bad Ducks taste in correct. So while she ate, I plucked.

Tami called when we got home and inquired as to whether 99 grams might be too much to fly Jasper. He caught a Sparrow at 98 grams the last time. I told her that if his attitude was right to bring him over. If he doesn't chase, it is no big deal.

Tami and Isabel came over and we turned him loose. He wasted no time in going to the outside pen and taking a stand. We rousted one out of the pen, and Jasper chased him to and under the Pigeon house, then a skirmish on the rock fence. He lost the Sparrow in the rocks and went to the captive Chicken pen. I had a couple of Starlings in my trap, and I was hurrying to get them out of sight before he crawled through the wire to see if he could get one of them. I was worrying for nothing as he made a dive off the top of the pen and nailed a Sparrow on the back rock wall.

Tami picked him up and we retired to the shop to let him eat where we could be warm.

As I mentioned earlier in the year, weight is real important in getting a hawk to pay attention and hunt. However as I also pointed out attitude is just as much a driver as hunger. We had to keep this little guy at 92 grams when we started. He killed today with no fooling around at 99 grams. 7 grams to him is like several ounces to a bird like Jessie. When you love your job, it isn't work!

Yogi finally scores, Yea!!!!

2011-11-26T21:43:00.001-07:00

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.

Jasper never fails to please!

2011-11-25T19:16:00.000-07:00

Tami brought Jasper over around 4 PM to see if we could catch anything. His weight was up to 98, but his attitude was just right. He was in the mood for murder, as usual. When we started his weight had to be 92 grams. It has slowly risen to as high as today's weight of 98. It cannot be because of the colder weather, because he lives inside. It is because of his mindset. He wants to hunt!

The Sparrows were not in the outside chicken house. They have learned to delay their bedtime until it is almost dark. However they cannot resist the constant food supply in the captive Chickens pen. He started that way and flushed a Starling in front of him. He chased it down towards the creek, and back. As he neared the pen, he went into a hover over the pens. Tami and I both ran into the area to try to flush something to chase. He took off after a Sparrow in front of the loafing shed, and put it into cover in the rock fence there. Tami climbed over the fence and went to see if she could flush it for him. The Sparrow kept to cover and she found nothing. Jasper went to the top of the fence, so I tried to flush Sparrows out of the back of the loafing shed. I was apparently successful, and one flashed by him and around the corner with him in hot pursuit.

I started around the end to get inside of the pen to flush. Before I could get far, I could hear a Sparrow screaming. As I got in the pen, I could see him against the wire of the pen. The Sparrows think that they may be able to escape him by running into the rocks. He has become an expert spelunker and can run through the nooks and crannies as fast, scratch that, apparently faster than they can. I scrambled for my camera, but Tami was coming up on the outside and he turned and squirmed through the wire to the outside. The Sparrow was still complaining, so he paused long enough to break its neck. Tami stuck her fist out, and he flew to her with the Sparrow to eat. This time I was prepared and I captured it on video.
http://vimeo.com/32690780

Thanksgiving

2011-11-25T11:11:00.001-07:00

While the weather was warm for Thanksgiving, the wind, as has been the norm lately, was howling. Karen and I were invited to Tami's for Thanksgiving dinner, so we were free to entertain ourselves for most of the day. We attempted to fly Pud and Yogi here at the house. The Harris's have so much trouble fighting the wind, that I really didn't want to invest that much fuel on a lost cause, by driving to Arock.

The Jacks here at the house have been paying attention and had changed their routine enough that I was having trouble getting anything up for the girls to chase. It didn't take long and Yogi decided that she would default to what had worked for her in the past, and she went off to chase the Antelope Ground Squirrels that live along the fence line.

I sent Karen to get her and put her up, since I wanted to discourage that kind of behavior. Puddy decided that Yogi might be getting more than she was, so she abandoned me for Karen. Yogi up to that time had been trying to catch Chipmunks. Puddy decided that one of the Chickens in the captive pen just might be edible. The whole thing deteriorated from there.

The wind picked up to a reported 24 MPH out of the S SW. Jessie was at a weight that she should be successful, so I took her over to Tami's at 3 PM. Tami had been keeping an eye out for Ducks on the ditch in the field behind her house, and there were a few there, so we formed a battle plan to get them to fly over the ground. Her brother and a guest from Italy were both young enough to be fleet of foot, so they got the part of the plan that required running.

We lined up by the fence and I turned Jessie loose. She was swept away by the wind, and she spent about 10 minutes playing low over the fields with the wind. She is designed for the wind, but even for her this stuff was a bit strong, and she showed it by not getting much higher than 100 feet, and dipping down to just over the ground, then back up. She finally satisfied her desire to fly and came back to us, making a circle over the ditch and when she came back around at about 100 feet, I yelled and off we went. The ducks flushed and tried to go up wind, but TJ, Tami's brother cut them off and they swung away from the ditch. I was watching the ducks get higher and higher, with no sign of Jessie anywhere. Then out of the corner of my eye I could see her streaking just over the reeds after them. She had dived down close to the ground using her speed to come up in under the flock. She rocketed up from ground level and forced a Drake Gadwall to try to climb to escape her attack. He had no chance and she bound to him at about 75 feet in the air. She turned over and glided clear of the large Cattails.

We all waded across the creek and walked to where she was with the duck. I didn't want to go through with the 5 day wait for her to come down in weight after stripping all the fat from this duck, so I offered her a Pigeon to eat instead. She accepted the exchange, and I secured her to my vest, and stepped back to allow her to eat.

David, Reuben, Tami, TJ and Grace kept us company while Jessie finished her meal. I talked TJ into taking the Duck, so they retired to pluck it out of sight of Jessie.

After she finished her Pigeon, I took her home and changed out of my swamp clothes. I returned back to Tami's for a great Thanksgiving meal. As is normal there was way too much food, that was way too good to not eat.

Jasper #13

2011-11-23T17:55:00.001-07:00

Tami and Isabel came over with Jasper at 3 PM. It was still a bit windy, but warm. We are getting the Jet Stream coming up from Ca. and the temps were around 50 degrees. My girls are too heavy to hunt, so Jasper was all we had for entertainment.

Jasper first tried the outside chicken pen, but there were no Sparrows in there at all. He then went to the captive pen, but there seemed to be no Sparrows there either. Tami went into the loafing Shed and I went into the pen to see if we could find something. Jasper was crawling around the rock walls of the loafing shed, and I was looking in the rock fence to see if any were hiding in there. Jasper had managed to get into the shed by accessing a gap between the rocks and the roof. I found a Sparrow hiding in the rock fence outside of the chicken pen. I rousted him out, and he flew to the shed. Jasper saw him and the chase was on. The Sparrow tried to get into cover in the wall again, but didn't make it. Jasper caught him right in front of me.

He has caught the Sparrow, you can see that his wings are still spread. He killed the Sparrow and then got himself gathered up again.

He drug the Sparrow up on the rock and totally ignoring me, he was working his way around to where he could see Tami. I was standing within three feet of him inside the pen.

He didn't like the spot that he was in while he was on the rock, so her crawled out further. Bobbing his head watching Tami. She asked if she should try to call him, and I told her to give it a try.

As soon as she held out her fist, he again flew to her fist to eat, carrying the Sparrow with him.

Yogi, and Jasper

2011-11-20T19:50:00.000-07:00

When I put the girls out this morning, Yogi was the only one that was in flying condition. I called Tami to see what her schedule was going to be like, as it was Jasper's day to hunt. They were going to be weaning calves today, so she was going to try to hunt after they were done. I decided to go hunting with Yogi early. By the time I got back they should be ready to vaccinate the calves, so I would go over to help, as Rosie was on the coast for Thanksgiving, and they were one person short. I am not that much help, but every little bit helps sometimes.

It was 16 degrees this morning but by 10 AM, it was up to the low 20's and Yogi and I took off for the field. I had wanted to take Yogi out by herself to perhaps shoot a Jack for her, so that she would understand that they were possible for her, and good to eat. Puddy had caught two in her presence, but she had not actually gotten her feet on one yet. With Puddy around that wasn't likely either.

When we got into the field she chased some Jacks for a while, then we got into an area with lots of Bunnies, and she chased those with vigor, but quit chasing the Jacks. I finally got a chance at a Jack, and hit him high in the abdomen. She had been off chasing a Bunny, so I had to go get her on the fist. I approached the wounded Jack. She saw him, but of course he wasn't acting right, so she was hesitant. Then the Jack took off, and she decided that he was worth chasing, and she soon caught him. He was still fresh enough that he gave her a good fight. She was very excited.

With her big feet and talons, it took her no time at all to kill the rabbit.

After it was dead, I gave her a front leg, and cleaned the rabbit while she ate. After she finished the leg I had given her, I gave her the heart and liver as well as a back leg. She was quite full by the time she finished. I put her in her box and we drove home. Upon our arrival I was glad to see that she has quit getting car sick. I put her up and went over to the ranch to do what I could with the calves.

My contribution is to put a fence post in behind the calves as they run them into the chute to wait their turn in the squeeze chute for their vaccinations.

After Tami put her horse up, and got the kids squared away, she came over with Jasper for his evening flight. We turned him loose and were soon chasing Sparrows back and forth from the Chicken pen to the loafing shed. We had run all the Sparrows out of the Chicken pens, and Tami went into the loafing shed to run the ones out of there that had taken refuge there. She busted one, and Jasper was in hot pursuit. They both hit the wire of the Chicken pen. Karen was trying to find where Jasper was, when we heard the scream of a Sparrow. Tami jumped over the fence and found him in the nasty weeds with the Sparrow.

She was telling us that he was jumpy, and acting as though he was going to fly with the Sparrow. She asked me what to do, and I of course told her that it was her bird, her judgement. I gave her my camera to take a few pictures for me.

He worked his way out of the weeds to this rock, and was sitting looking at her. She was standing about 10 feet from him, worrying that she was going to crowd him into "carrying." ( The term meaning that the Raptor flies off with its prey to eat it where you can't get to it, one of the worst habits in a hunting hawk.)

He kept looking at her, so she offered her fist with a chunk of breast on it, and the little sucker did in fact carry. The only thing is, that he carried it to her fist to eat it. I of course busted out laughing, her worst fears were confirmed, and all her worries came to nothing.

She has adopted my habit of letting a bird eat all it wants when it catches something. This little guy has never had anything taken from it. If he catches it, he eats it. He is very fond of brains, she holds the beak so that he can get to the parts that he likes. In his mind, there is no better, safer place to eat other than her fist.

I have flown some of the best falcons and hawks that this world has to offer. I would be proud to be able to to claim him as my own. He is as good or better than most of the fancier members of his species. Most falconers, whether they be newby's or very experienced, overlook the Kestrel as a "Mouse Hawk", and a beginners bird. Most new apprentices choose the bigger, thus more desirable Red Tail Hawk, as a more fitting hawk to start their falconry career. That in itself is fine, if they have the situation that will favor the hunting style that these birds require. Most apprentices do not have that situation. We do not have the area here that would allow the Red Tail to have an even chance to catch something. The Kestrel however can be hunted in this high Desert, or in the center of the city. It is as much of a challenge to catch a Sparrow with a Kestrel as it is to catch a Duck with a Peregrine. A Starling rates right up there as a prize that is as much a match for the Kestrel as a Sage Grouse for a hybrid. The only thing that an apprentice has to prove is that they are capable of training a hawk to hunt, and keep it alive and in good condition, not how big the quarry. They all count as one!

Puddy - #12

2011-11-19T20:56:00.000-07:00

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!

Winter seems to be here

2011-11-18T19:49:00.000-07:00

I had wanted to fly both Jessie and the girls today, but Jessie is still coming down from all the duck fat that she ate. She weighed in at 933 grams. She will fly at that weight after she has been hunting for a while, but the wind was howling at 29 MPH with higher gusts. Didn't need that. The Harris's could not handle that much wind, so Karen and I went out to feed them on the fist in the shop. While we were in there a snow squall blew up from the West and had the ground covered in a matter of minutes. So when we were done, I went back in the house, threw another log on the fire, got out my "blanky" and pulled out a book.

Tami called around 4 PM and asked if I was up to hunting with Jasper. The wind had finally died, and it wasn't snowing at the time, so I embraced a break in the boredom. By the time that she got here, we had another snow squall marching through. After a short wait, it quit snowing again.

Jasper after surveying his chances, took off for the free range pen, and flushed a Sparrow of his own and they were off. It evaded him in the rock fence, so the Starlings in the Chicken pen captured his attention. They were filtering out through the gaps in the wire in all directions. I went into the pen to force them to the back end, but he seemed to have forgotten his last flight and stayed on top of the pen. Finally we were down to one Starling, and he chased it towards the creek. It soon outdistanced him, so he went up to the power lines. He sat for just a few seconds and came off the wire and sat on a post by the Pigeon house trap door. Tami observed that there were a lot of Starlings inside the Pigeon pen. I said that I would go flush them out, and started in that direction.

Jasper was not in the mood to wait, and dived through the open trap, before I could do more than say, "Oh Shit" the sounds of a screaming Starling came wafting out of the house. I ran up to render assistance because there were about 50 Pigeons in there as well. It was at first hard to see him since there were so many Pigeons in there milling about. Then when I did see him, I had to take a picture, since I had thought to bring a camera this time. The white Pigeon to the left side of the picture was thinking about getting in on the action, so I couldn't waste much time.

I have had large falcons refuse to fly into a flock of Ducks or even Pigeons because they were afraid of being mobbed. Apparently this little warrior doesn't think that way at all. The front of the pen is wire, so there was no concealing the fact that there was a whole mob of Pigeons in there. The only ones surprised was the Starling and the Pigeons.

After he killed it we retired to the relative warmth of the unheated hanger to let him eat his meal.

Full day of hunting

2011-11-16T23:07:00.000-07:00

Tami agreed to come over today around noon to hunt Jasper and help me with Pud and Yogi. I wanted to take the girls out to one of my regular fields and further their relationship in the field.

We decided it would be best if we flew Jasper so that he could be eating while we were hunting the girls. He is very slow when he eats, and that would cut down on the time that she was gone.

Tami turned him loose and he checked the yard to see where the birds were hanging out. He finally flew to the A frame, and I went back to their normal escape hatch to block. One of them busted out right in front of him and the chase was on. It took refuge in the loafing shed. Tami went to it and I went to the chicken house, where the flight would most likely end up. As I neared the chicken pen, Jasper came whizzing out after the Sparrow, and landed on top of the pen. There were Sparrows all along the back rock wall, and I went to flush. When I got in the pen there was a Starling still in the pen. He made a flight to the front then the back and started squeezing out the end where they normally get out. As he was clearing the pen, Jasper met him and they tumbled down into the weeds with the Starling screaming bloody murder. Tami and I got there at about the same time, ( she had much further to go) and she went to help him. I was worried about the Starling's formidible beak, but Jasper had his beak inoperable since he had a talon in his mouth. Tami went to help him and I ran ( figuratively of course ) for my camera.

This little guy really cracks me up. There is no fear, nor hesitation in him at all. He is all business when you take him out of the box. You will notice in this and the following photo's that he has hold of Tami's finger. He was still in killing mode and her finger moved. He has it in a "death grip". I had to pry his talons out of her finger. She mentioned that it didn't hurt nearly as much as when Puddy grabbed her while I was gone.

We opened up the brain for him and waited until he had the breast opened, then sat him on Jessie's inside perch to finish his meal while we hunted the girls.

It was Yogi's first time in a giant hood and I must say that she was an unwilling participant. She rattled around a bit at first. She seemed OK when we got to the field, and sat on a Tee perch while we started. We jumped a Bunnie the first few yards from the car and both birds were after it. Yogi after her first try at it went to the top of a telephone pole that was close by. We jumped it again and Pud took a shot at it, then Yogi came sailing off the pole and put in a really great shot of her own. The Bunny had seen enough and retired to his hole until things got a little quieter.

The whole trip was like that. The girls tried hard, but the closest we got was a foot full of fur that might have included the tail. We chased Bunny after Bunny, as well as Jacks, Pheasant, ( that one was really close) and Quail for 3 full hours. Yogi showed some insight into a bit more advanced hunting techniques than Pud. Pud even started copying some of them. Once Yogi gets into shape and gets used to the differences of the terrain that she is hunting in, things will get serious. They worked their butts off, and as the evening got a bit later the Voles started coming out. Yogi's first official kill was a nice Vole. ("Timber Tiger" ) She is quite fastidious when she eats. Pud wanted to help, but I kept her at bay with the Tee Perch.

My guilt in keeping Tami out so long finally kicked into overdrive, and we went back to the car. Pud has seen that routine before and flew off so that I couldn't put her up. Yogi followed suit, so I called Pud to a chunk of Jack. I then gave her to Tami to feed while I called Yogi. I gave Yogi the bottom part of a Jack's hind leg. There is no way to hold one in your fist, so she soon had control of it. She felt that it would be much nicer to eat it on the ground. I insisted that she eat it on the fist. Finally after two tries to go to the ground, she dropped it. I bent over to get it, and Yogi growled the way that pissed Harris's do, and bit me on the ear. It was so funny that I couldn't stop laughing. She then ate her food while I laughed all the way to the car. Tami said that it was scraped a bit, but I didn't bleed. If she had wanted to hurt me she would have used her feet.

I will take her out again tomorrow to see if we can get a Jack in her feet. They did really well together. They shared the same perch a few times, and learned to watch the other for clues when game was afoot. When they learn to use the other to set up shots at game, things will start happening.

Jessie's turn

2011-11-15T19:40:00.001-07:00

While Jessie was ready to hunt yesterday, I wasn't. Karen was not feeling well today, so I loaded the dogs and Jessie into the truck to see if the week long layoff was going to be a problem.

I drove back to appendix point to see if we could catch something there. The pond is quite big and not at all easy to catch a duck on, but it is relatively close. Only ten miles across the Desert. The only redeeming feature is that it is remote enough that the ducks will often set back down if pressed by the hawk, or even if the hawk is off somewhere else chasing other ducks. Its a long way to the next water, so the incentive is there for them to return. Normally Jessie will fly them as long as she can and then set down on the cliffs to rest, then get up and go again.

After I parked and checked the pond, which was full of ducks, I got both her and the dogs ready with transmitters and collars. I turned Jessie loose and she started climbing. I didn't expect much from her as it was only her third flight of the year, and she had been idle for at least a week. However Jessie apparently didn't share my thoughts and continued to position herself to her best advantage. I flushed the ducks and they busted out the end of the pond. Jessie slashed through them sending one of their number tumbling out of the sky. Unfortunately it was at the edge of the water. She went back up as the ducks were milling around, making sure that they were over the water for as long as they could. The dogs and I were in plain sight, but we were the least of the ducks problems, and thus ignored. Jessie continued to circle trying to position herself to her best advantage. I again flushed the ducks, and she slashed another one out of the air, but this time into the inlet part of the pond. She continued to circle the pond, but the ducks would not fly off the water with her so close. Finally she sat on the top of the cliff to watch. The ducks continued to circle and many of them splashed back into the pond.

Jessie surprised me by again taking to the air after sitting for only about 3 minutes. She again got into position, and I flushed them again. This time she held her strike because they would not go over the land. Finally when she was out of position, a bunch of them made their break down the valley, and Jessie flew after them in a very determined manner. She didn't show up for the longest time, and I started back to the truck for the telemetry to track her down.

I looked up and saw her making her way back to the pond again. This time the ducks were stacked up against the end of the pond. When I flushed she wasted no time in slashing a drake Gadwall out of the sky and into the short stuff at the end of the pond. She was really honking on and her outward run took her really high. I worried that she wouldn't be able to get back on him before he got back into the water. No worries, apparently he didn't know which end was up, and she had him with no problem.

Betsey always stays with Jessie, giving her protection from any other predators. I cannot tell you how great that is. It is nothing that I have taught her, she just does it.

I held the Duck while she dispatched it, clipping one of her jesses and sat back to let her eat all she wanted.

Betsy always stays right there with her while she eats.

Jessie likes Ducks, but only the fat that they carry. She plucked and ate for at least a half an hour. I have decided this year that I will not hurry her. She knows what she wants and it is Duck Butter. Nothing else will do.

After she ate for at least 35 minutes stripping the duck, I carried her back to the truck.

This is the extent of her feeding. If she got any red duck meat in her crop, I can almost believe that it was by mistake.

When we got back to the house, I filled her bath water. The outside temps were 47 degrees, but Duck is dry stuff, and she is quite fastidious. When she saw me walking towards her with the bucket of water, she began pumping her wings in anticipation. She plopped into the water as soon as I quit pouring.

I recently had a conversation with a man concerning how often I fly my birds, and whether I allow them to eat what they catch. I gave a quick answer, but didn't have time to explain fully what I believe and think. It is my habit to allow the hawk to eat all it wants, when they catch something. Now to be sure it will take a while for them to lose enough weight that they are "sharp set" and willing to again hunt.

There are two ways to fly a hawk that basically comes down to the "Stockholm Syndrome", and the "nice guy" routine. In the first, the food is strictly controlled, only giving enough to be sharp the next day at hunting time. In the latter the bird is allowed to eat large amounts and only flown when their weight comes back into hunting range again.

I have chosen the "nice guy" approach for several reasons. The first is that I am physically unable to hunt Jessie on Ducks and then take two Harris Hawks out for several hours beating the brush every day. Even if I could, the amount of rabbits that I would accrue, would cause wastage. There is also the effect that would occur to the habitat that I hunt, not to mention the cost of the required fuel to do so. I also feel that my approach is the one chosen by the raptor whether it be wild or captive. I don't know about you, but two bites of Cheese cake and leaving the rest is not an idea that I would embrace willingly. A hawk in "high" condition will not put forth the effort that is generally required to catch either a scared Duck or Rabbit. However a hawk that has fasted for a day is quite willing to fly as hard as it has to in pursuit of something that it knows that it will be able to eat all it wants.

The second reason is that game when pressed continuously will either change their habits, or leave the area entirely. That goes for Ducks as well as Rabbits. I need to have game in plentiful amounts when I hunt and I try very hard to not fly the same ponds or fields more than twice a week if possible. Even with me being the only falconer in the area, that is a big challenge. When the ponds freeze up things really get tough, I am limited to one pond that doesn't freeze and a creek. Hit them too hard and you will soon find that the only ones there are you and the hawk.

Now having said all that, I admit that Jessie is spoiled, and I did it. In the last years I have fed her up, but I have not just sat back and allowed her to have her way with the prey. What I did was pick her up as soon as I could and hold her while she ate what I gave her. She has also fought me because of that. It is a fact that I have only marginal patience for standing around, waiting for a hawk to eat. Primarily because I have never had the time to stand around. Now that I am retired, there is little reason or incentive to be anywhere other than where I stand at the time. If I am clumsy in snapping her jesses up, she will not hesitate to defend her quarry.

This year as an experiment I am only helping her kill it, snapping her up while she is distracted, then stepping back and letting her eat as she wishes, only picking her up when she has a full crop. So far she is responding positively, and is much easier to handle. We will see.

Even with only flying Jessie today, I still spent 4 hours in the field.

Kolb Fly-in at Nauga Field.

2011-11-15T11:58:00.000-07:00

In 2009 we had a fly-in here that was attended by a couple of "good ole boys" from Louisiana. It was a bit of an experience for them with the difference of altitude and wind, as well as the limitless horizons. They also have a fly-in at Star Hill, La. I had never spent any time in La. and decided that I would try to attend, both as a pay back, and to load a little guilt on them so that they would come back West. John Bickham is actually the one responsible for my entry in the Blogging world. http://owyheeflyer.blogspot.com/2009/06/rock-house-fly-in-may-18-2009.html He documented his trip out West on his Blog and I decided that I could use that to keep my sister and friends updated on my then new experiences in the Eastern part of Oregon.

I decided last year that I would fly commercially to La. to attend the fly-in. Last year due to the weather it was cancelled. This year it was scheduled for early Nov. and I was committed, whether I wanted to or not. I finally made my reservations, deciding that I might be able to go through all the bullshit that is involved with flying on a commercial jet one more time.

The trip there, other than a 2 AM start was not that bad and JB met me at Baton Rouge Thursday morning. The weather was a bit cool, and windy but otherwise quite nice. The strip is at a "Camp" and at least four of us were going to sleep there. Gary Haley was already there having landed with his Highlander earlier in the day.

I guess Hunting and fishing camps are pretty common in La. and this one was quite nice. It is a Deer camp with all the facilities that one could want. The people all around were very nice and quite a kick to be around. It was a bit quieter than normal however as Duck season was just opening up and most of them had gone to Venice for the opening. The ones left behind more than made up for the loss. The camp is owned by Mr. Ronnie Morgan, quite a character, with unlimited stories to entertain with. Both he and his dog have a bit of a "drinking problem", ( not enough beer) but neither are belligerent about it. Ronnie seemed to have good manners, but you had to watch Brutus or he would be sticking his tongue down in your beer bottle trying to get as much beer as he could. Anything left on the ground was fair game for him.

The planes and folks started trickling in, and soon the place was hopping. Sandy, JB's lovely wife, worked her self relentlessly to keep us in Southern food. It was all great stuff, and I am sure that most of us gained a bit of weight on the trip. I have an allergy to black pepper and they even changed to red pepper to spare me the suffering that black pepper causes. It worked too, the food was still great and I had no ill effects what so ever.

The planes kept trickling in and soon we had a good crowd.

Of course most of the conversation centered around flying and planes.

We had a camp fire each night to sit around.

JB had obtained a small pig and cooked it in a "Cajun Microwave" for several hours. It was very tasty and very tender.

Ms Dorothy took several of us on a tour around the local area to see some of the history of the town. It is on the Mississippi River and there are swamps and wet spots all over the place. Of course there are Alligators living in them as well. This one was floating on top when we first saw him, but submerged all except his eyes when we got out of the truck.

All too soon it was time to leave. JB dropped me off at the Baton Rouge Airport to begin my trip back home. Unfortunately the gal at the ticket counter claimed that she could not check me all the way through to Boise. My return would take me through Los Angeles, and I had a premonition when I booked the trip. Unfortunately I was right, and there was no room on my schedualed flight. After a long time the lady at the counter got a flight the next morning on another airline. She also gave me a voucher for a hotel and a $15.00 voucher for food. Since it was LA the burgers were $20.00

It has been a long time since I was in LA and the only thing that has changed is that the smog didn't seem to be present this time. There were still plenty of "wing nuts" to go around. A fairy tale land for the cynical people watcher.

The toughest part was getting Karen squared away with the new plan. Thankfully I was able to contact a friend in Boise who drove to the airport and rescued Karen, giving her a place to stay for the night. ( Two hour drive from home, and her night vision is getting bad) We got in touch with Tami and Sharon next door and they took care of the hawks and dogs. Every thing worked out, and while the trip was fun, I am glad to be back home.

Here we go!

2011-11-14T20:56:00.000-07:00

I just got back from a trip to Louisiana today at noon. I went to a Kolb Fly-in to return the favor and to visit with flying friends. I will post it later, when I get the time.

Karen and Tami took care of the birds while I was gone and they did an excellent job. All three birds were at the right weight to hunt. ( you have no idea how rare that is) I decided to just feed Jessie and take her hunting tomorrow, since I wanted to put Puddy and Yogi together for the first time. Tami was coming over to help, and she is much more fleet footed than I am. If things went to pieces she would have a chance to get there before too much blood was shed.

Karen's vest buckle broke and she was having trouble with the Tee perch so Tami carried which ever one wanted to sit with her.

Puddy had a serious case of "Momma's girl" syndrome and was screaming her head off and not paying any attention to anything other than Yogi. I first carried Pud, and after a while Yogi flew on to the same perch that Pud was on. There was a bit of a surprise on Pud part, but nothing happened and I began to relax. Even though Pud was distracted, Yogi had her head on a swivel and was soon off after a fleeing Jack. Pud flew to where she landed after missing the Jack that she had chased. Yogi, basically ignored her, and Pud soon flew back to Tami. I tried to call Yogi to the Perch, but Pud knowing the game would beat her to the punch. I countered by just offering Yogi the perch and when she stepped on it, gave her a tidbit. Unlike Pud, Yogi has manners and does not bloody the hand that feeds her. Yogi had chased Jacks three different times while Pud was still acting like a baby.

We cut back trying to find the Jack that Yogi had chased, and soon Yogi was off on a rather long chase that ended with her landing on the Chicken Pen. We have been concerned that she would take one of the free range chickens that have the run of the place, but her attention was riveted on the ground at the chicken pen. I asked everyone to head that direction.

Within a few paces the Jack lost his nerve and broke cover. He soon ran into Karen and Pud and changed directions across the end of the runway. Yogi had taken off as soon as he began his run and was doing her best to catch up. Pud having her competitive nature aroused was not to be outdone, and hit the afterburners, flying under her and for once in her life doing a "Hail Mary" grab right under the barb wire fence. We were all cringing and worrying that one of them would hit the fence. Pud is aware of them, somewhat. We were all relieved that neither one hit the fence and the scream wafting up from the weeds was a prayer answered.

The stuff that Pud caught it in is some tough stuff. It is about a 1/4 inch thick and very hard and brittle. You can see from the picture that Pud is really buried in it. I had asked Tami before we even started that if one of them caught anything to run as hard as she could to get to them in case of a fight. I was pretty sure that Yogi would not start anything but Pud is rude at best. It is just that she is like a two or three year old kid. They need to be taught to play nice. Tami had the Jack by the head when I panted up to the scene, and Yogi has stopped where she could see, but she had not butted in to the action.

After I killed the Jack, and cleared a bit of an area so that Puddy could stand up, I tore off a front leg and tossed it to Yogi. She walked up to get the leg and retired to a clear area to eat her prize.

I ripped off the other one, but Pud is not so easily convinced that a leg is anywhere the equal of a whole Jack.

I finally got her to go off to eat her leg, and I put the Jack in the bag.

After Yogi finished the leg that I had given her, I gave her the rest of her meal to eat while I put her leash and swivel back on. You will notice that my hand is leaking a bit from the time spent with Puddy.

Soon Puddy finished her leg and came to Karen for the rest of her meal.

Both birds got a good feed as well as their introduction to each other. I got a chance to relax and go back hunting as though I had never left, thanks to Karen and Tami's excellent care.

Yogi and Jasper

2011-11-09T19:04:00.000-07:00

We took Puddy out today to hunt and she was at weight, but for whatever reason just wasn't putting much effort in her chases, so I got pissed and took her home with no food.

I picked up Yogi and her weight was 1260 grams. I activated her telemetry, and we took her out here at the house to see what she knew and was going to do. She is not familar with the Tee perch. She rode the perch until a Jack jumped quite far out, and she gave chase, but when he hid, she flew back to the yard and took a seat on one of the trucks. We whistled and called, and she flew the 150 yards back to us. She is very much out of shape, and not very strong. She stopped at least twice on the way back. She gave chase to every Jack that we jumped, but they had no real problem evading her. We walked quite a bit, and she was quite interested and into hunting. Just going to need to get her in shape so that she can catch some of these rabbits.

Yesterday Karen and I called her back and forth for tidbits, and when I felt that she had flown enough, I threw the lure on the ground between us. She did not hesitate at all and landed on the lure. She was a bit protective of it, but not that much. Today I called her again to the lure by throwing it high in the air. All in all we were both very pleased with her actions and reaction today.

Tami brought Jasper over about 5PM, bringing her husband Dave and ranch hand, David with her. Dave has been hearing about how Jasper has been doing and finally came along to see just what was up. He was pretty sure that he would jinx our hunt by coming along. Apparently Jasper didn't feel that way, and took a stand by the Chicken house. A Sparrow decided to evacuate and Jasper gave him incentive to fly fast, chasing him past the other Chicken house and down towards the Creek. Jasper finally decided that he wasn't going to catch him, and turned back towards us. He went into a hover over the chicken house, then turned over into a steep dive after a Sparrow hiding by the rock fence. There were a bunch of Starlings inside the Chicken pen that suddenly wanted to be somewhere else. Jasper decided that a bunch of Starling was much more interesting that a Sparrow hiding in the rocks. He took off flying towards where they were trying to get out. I went into the pen to flush one out for him. The next thing I know he flashed past me, inside the pen and grabs a Starling that is trying to squeeze through the wire. This summer I put one inch chicken wire over the pen but there are some areas down low that are not covered. Jasper knows how to get in the pen, and apparently has no problem remembering how, even during hot pursuit. He had reached through the wire with both feet and had both of them around the Starlings neck. He was hanging upside down holding the Starling and the Starling was screaming bloody murder. I reached up and grabbed the Starlings legs. Tami came in and unwrapped one of his Jasper's legs so that I could pull the Starling back through to our side of the wire.

Unfortunately none of us was carrying a camera to record this. While I was holding on to the Starling, Jasper was busy sticking his head through the two inch mesh and killing the Starling. He was not about to let go of anything for any reason.

I believe that is number 7 of unassisted kills for him.

Life is good

2011-11-07T20:29:00.000-07:00

Karen and I agreed to do a raptor count for the East Cascades Audubon Society, when we were in Klamath and now that we live here on the East side, do one here. We had a fairly free day so we loaded up early this morning to get it done for November. Since Puddy didn't kill yesterday, we decided to take her along and I would try one of the other fields closer to Jordan Valley.

The count is down a bit, because a lot of the raptors have already made their way past here to warmer climes. We still found 44 Redtailed Hawks, 14 Kestrels, 13 Northern Harriers, 16 Golden Eagles, 15 American Rough legs, 2 Ferruginous Hawks, 7 Prairie Falcons and 2 Coopers Hawks. We also saw Coyotes, Deer, Pheasants, ducks, Geese, Swans, and Antelope.

The area that I had intended to hunt had more snow than I cared to subject Puddy to, ( They absorb water much too easily to be effective in it. ) so we went back to my original spot. There were a pile of cows in there, but I decided to hunt it any way. Karen decided to stay in the car while we hunted.

The Bunnies seemed to be a bit more plentiful than I had noticed before. Perhaps it was due to the fact that the cows had either eaten or trampled most of the ground cover. Pud was after one in the first 75 yards. They are a real pain to hunt, because they stop and hide, then run the other way and if your hawk hasn't seen that maneuver a lot, they are left sitting on the ground wondering what happened. We finally ran the first one into a hole, and moved on. Just over the first hump we flushed a Jack, and Pud grabbed him just as he got into the Sage. There were a couple of screams, a flurry and he was loose and making time out of there. We jumped and chased several more Jacks and Bunnies, when one of them was a bit slow, but very lucky and only left a foot full of fur behind. Pud was getting pissed. I went to another part of the field, and we had a couple of tries at Pheasant. Close but no cigar. Finally she made this horrific pounce just in front of me. Another Vole bites the dust. This one didn't seem to be that big, so I had hopes that she would still want to kill something.

We went on to another part of the fields and had several chases on Jacks, but the Sage in this field is almost shoulder high, so the outcome was almost preordained. I started back and came to an area that generally holds Bunnies. By this time the Vole had hit bottom, and she was chasing Bunnies a lot better than she was the Jacks. We ran one Bunny back and forth through the tall Sage for 15 or more minutes with her just inches behind, until he finally found a hole and pulled it in behind himself.

I decided that we were not going to get anything and started my trek back to the car. At this point we had been hunting hard for an hour and 45 minutes. On the way back, I was walking one of the little two tracks in the field, when Pud jumps off my fist into a bush along the road behind us. No one was more surprised to hear a Bunny screaming than I. She had managed to see him hiding in the bush, and hit him before he could react. Life is good, for some of us at least.

The trip back to the car was much nicer with a bit of game in my pocket.

She finished her meal, and we continued on with our count and trip back home.

This morning when I put the birds out in the weathering area, I offered Yogi a tidbit when I picked her up off her night perch. She cheeped and twittered when she saw the meat. She had no problem remembering where tidbits come from. After I had put Pud on her perch in the shop this evening, I went back to Yogi and offered her a tidbit on the fist. She flew to the fist with no hesitation at all. I weighed her and found that she weighed 1250 grams, ( 43 3/4 ounces ) That is huge. I had given Karen a bunch of tidbits earlier. I tied a creance on Yogi. When Karen came out, she offered her fist with the tidbit on it. As soon as she whistled, Yogi jumped to her fist. As soon as she ate that one, I whistled and offered my fist. We flew her back and forth between us until she was coming about 20 feet each way. She never hesitated a bit. I finally called her to a Bunny hind leg to finish her meal. When it was all over I weighed her again and found that I had given her 3 and 1/3 ounces of meat. We will see what she does tomorrow.

Tami came over at 5:45 PM and it was Jasper's turn. This time his weight was right on at 95 grams. He has killed at that weight almost every time. He got his bearings and went right to the chicken house, this time sitting on the other side, where all the Sparrows generally come out of the house. I went to the door and he went to the back and sat where he could look in their escape hole. I opened the door and three Sparrows made a mad dash for the hole. According to Karen and Tami he caught the Sparrow in self defense. The Sparrow bolted and ran right into him, and they both came off the side of the house, but Jasper landed on top.

Jessie gets it together

2011-11-06T18:56:00.000-07:00

With the first day of normal time, (time change) I wanted to take no chances so we set off at 12 PM with Pud and Jessie. I put Jessie in a Giant hood for her own protection. I didn't want Pud to decide that she looked edible when I let her out of the hood or tried to put her back in, so Giant Hoods for everyone.

Pud has been calling every time she sees anyone for a week or so. I have been thinking about it, and while most "screaming" is initiated when the bird is seriously deprived of food. Pud has been screaming at more than 5 ounces over the weight, that I had to take her to get her to even fly to me. So the only thing that stands out is that she didn't scream until she started killing stuff regularly. Oh well, she will eventually quit, even if it takes a moult to do so.

We took Pud to the field at Arock and started out through the Sage. I have been noticing less and less rabbits in the areas that I normally hunt, and have come to the conclusion that I have driven them to the fields that we haven't been hunting. Pud flew at almost all the rabbits that jumped, but just wasn't committing the way that she needs to. She did tear a handfull of fur out of ones side, but just couldn't hold on. We put in at least two hours of tramping through the Sage, before I called it quits. I will take her out tomorrow to see if she can do better.

There were ducks in one of the ponds that I fly on the way back out of Arock.

So Karen and I got into position with Jessie. I finally gave her a bit of a boost, as she seemed quite content to see how long I could hold her over my head. Since she isn't in that good of shape we walked up on the pond on her second pass over the pond. The ducks got nervous and ignoring Jessie started off the pond. Jessie picked one out and slashed it into the ground below the Dam.

She "threw up" in the air and chased him down on the ground. When I arrived she was almost buried in the tall grass. I secured the duck, then Jessie with her leash, then I started clearing the weeds so that she could finish the Duck.

I just sat back and let her do her thing.

The storm that had been threatening, finally arrived and started with snow pellets. Karen decided that she would wait in the car. I sat there while Jessie ate as much of the fat that the Gadwall was packing, and a little bit of the meat off the breast. Finally the pellets changed to flakes, and it was time for us to go.

As the storm intensified we pulled into the yard. I put Pud and Jessie up for the night, and went in to change shoes. My feet were frozen. After I warmed up I went out to see if Yogi remembered where tidbits came from.

She recalled quite well, and took the first one eagerly. I gave her another one, then started calling her to the fist. She eagerly jumped as far as her leash would allow as soon as the fist was offered. I then called her to a Bunny hind leg to finish her lesson.

First day off the balloon

2011-11-05T20:39:00.000-06:00

It snowed yesterday, most of the day. We ended up with a couple of inches on the ground. I am not ready for this shit yet. Poor ole Jessie hasn't even gotten a chance to taste Duck yet, and with the snow and cold, the end is fast approaching. Next year I guess I am just going to have to set a date to take her up even if she hasn't finished her moult. She always gets started on being broody and wanting to lay eggs. If they are broody they stop moulting, until the hormones move on past that stage. I managed to keep her from laying eggs, but not the broody part.

She still isn't as fit as she should be, but if I don't start now, there will be no hunting at all this year. She also generally doesn't like the snow, but I decided yesterday that I would fly her on the balloon one more time. The storm fronts kept blowing through, so I took out the balloon first. The wind had it about 20 feet off the ground, so I took it off and got the kite. When I hooked up the kite, the wind quit. So I got the balloon out again. Karen at least was enjoying it. I ran the balloon out 400 feet, and turned her loose. She flew it well and I decided that we would go hunting today.

I put her up for the night and got Yogi out of the weathering area and took her for a walk.

She is still convinced that the dogs are really Coyotes in disguise, and wants nothing to do with them.

I weighed her before I took her out and found that she still weighed 1260 grams. quite a horse. I tried offering her some tidbits but she paid no attention at all. Fairly confused I decided that she still wasn't low enough to eat.

This evening at 3:30 PM Karen and I loaded Jessie and the dogs in the truck and started out for our first Duck hunt of the season. I had a couple of ponds in mind that were back in the Palomino hills. It is about 18 miles up the road and then a couple of miles back in the hills. We got to the first one and I carefully snuck up on a empty frozen pond. The same unfortunately for the next one as well. We made the trip back and decided to try the lake at the ranch next door.

I tried a different approach on the Lake in the hopes that the ducks would flush over the ground and have difficulty getting back to the safety of the creek. The dogs and I made the approach and I turned Jessie loose. She sat on the fist for what seemed like an eternity. When she finally flew, she went to a nearby rock and seemed to be perfectly happy sitting there. I finally got tired of it and walked up to her offering my fist to her. That will get her to fly every time. She knows if she does come, she will go to bed hungry. She took her position over the pond and we found nothing but two teal and a pile of Coots. I looked for her and she was back on the rock. I called her to the lure and we went home.

An auspicious start if there was ever one.

After putting her up for the night, I turned my attention to Yogi. I didn't weigh her, but I offered her a tidbit on the fist from her perch. She ignored it totally. I picked her up on the fist, and walked out of the weathering area. I again offered her a tidbit, whistling as I did so. She showed no recognition of what I was doing. I took a tidbit and stuck it in front of her beak. She dodged and avoided it and my finger. That puzzled me more. She is an enigma, she is stone tame, gets on the fist with no attempt to avoid. Does not bate and is interested in her surroundings when she is carried, but seems to not know anything about coming to the fist for food.

I finally decided that she actually did not know anything about being fed by a human. I tried again to get her to take a tidbit with no luck. I put a piece of meat on my glove and she stepped on it as she moved on the fist. I clinched my fist, and she looked down. I put another piece of meat on her toes and squeezed my fist again. She looked down, studying the meat, and finally reached down and picked one of them up. She swallowed that and went for the other. I then fed her the rest of the tidbits that I had, whistling on each one. Once she knew what was happening, she willingly ate each one that I offered. I put her back on her perch and put a bunny leg in my fist. I whistled and put it close enough that she could reach it. She took a few bites and I put my fist close enough that she could step up on the fist. She took a couple of bites and then swallowed the entire leg. She has a big mouth to go with the rest of her big body.

I can only surmise that she has never been trained at all. I cannot visualize what came before she started harassing campers. She is dog tame, yet seems to have never been fed on the fist. To be that tame, she should have been handled by humans, yet she apparently knows nothing at all.

Yogi

2011-11-03T19:00:00.000-06:00

The heaviest Harris that I have ever flown was 32 ounces. That is 912 grams. She later in the year would fly at weights up to 36 ounces, but while she would remain with me, she would rarely come to the fist at that weight. It remains to be seen what Yogi's final flying weight will be. She is however the biggest Harris that I have so far seen. She is indeed a very strong bird, time will tell what kind of a hunter she will be. If Pud and Yogi do get along and work together, as Harris's normally do, one can compliment the others style and ability to become a serious force for the rabbit world to deal with.

I talked to Justin again last night, to assure him that she had arrived in good shape. He had her in a flight pen for at least a month, and when he picked her up, she did have juvenile secondaries and flight feathers. She has since completed her moult. As you can see from her cere and feet, she has had very good food in the time that she has been flying free. Most likely bugs, and lizards with an occasional bunny thrown in. Apparently she had come on tough times when she began "harassing" campers, thus the Mantling and screaming behavior that Justin witnessed. She, at her current weight, does not feel that desperate now. It remains to be seen what her behavior will be as I get her to flying weight.

The picture here shows the difference in size. So far there has been no reaction from Yogi, while Pud is screaming a bit more even without the influence of Yogi. I am bringing Puds weight up with the colder weather, Perhaps I will bring her even higher over the next few days to see how much she can tolerate. It seems to be natural for captive bred Harris Hawks to be vocal. Thankfully it is merely annoying rather than debilitating as in Peregrines or Prairies. Pud has been calling even with most of a Bunny in her crop.

If you were wondering if I knew that Yogi Bear was a boy, yes I did. One of the things that I learned early in life is that things valued too much, often could not live up to expectations. Fancy names could not change inadequate performance. Most often the fancier and more pretentious the name the lousier the hunter. Besides, I can think of no female that made a living holding up tourists. Names are tough, it needs to be something that can be said as if it were a "cuss word", or in admiration depending on the circumstances.

New bird

2011-11-02T21:22:00.001-06:00

About a month ago I received a call from a falconer in Southern Utah concerning my post to the lost hawk forum in NAFA ( North American Falconry Assoc.) When he was describing the bird it was pretty obvious that it wasn't Peg. It seems that the bird, a mature female, had gone up to some campers and was begging for food. They apparently fed it some Ham. This occurred in Northern Arizona which is not Harris Hawk habitat. Justin is also a rehabilitator, and the Arizona F&W apparently call him for problems with Raptors. He was asked to check the situation out, and although he looked, he could not find her. The next day she apparently "treed" some (more timid) campers in their trailer and wouldn't let them out to cook Breakfast. This time Justin found her and offered her some Bunny on his fist. She flew to him, and he put her in a box and took her home.

Justin asked if I would be interested in her. He had tried to find her owner, but could find no one that had lost a Harris Hawk. She had no band, or any "furniture" on her legs at all. When he picked her up, she had not moulted all of her juvenile feathers, so he thinks that she is a second year bird.

I of course told him that I could not take her without a band on her legs, but if that could be resolved, I would take her. She had caused enough problems for the Arizona F&W that they called me, and agreed to band her with a fed band. I sent Justin a crate and she arrived in Boise today.

We put jesses on her, clipped a transmitter receptacle to her tail, and weighed her. She weighed 1317 grams, 46 ounces. Compared to Puddy's 29 ounces. She is a monster. She doesn't appear to need to take off that much weight to get to flying weight. She tolerated our handling quite well, and accepted a Jack Rabbit leg to eat afterward. She however is upset about the dogs. She will get over that in time.

Since she was harassing campers and their food baskets, I decided to name her "Yogi".

As soon as I got her squared away it was time to fly Jessie. The wind was howling again, so I left the kite at three hundred feet. That would put the lure at two hundred. She had to work at it. The wind was whipping out of the South at 20 MPH.

The above picture is what it looks like and the bottom picture is trimmed so that you can see a bit better.

Unfortunately I had my finger over the lens when she grabbed the lure and began to bring it down.

Puddy Tat continues to amaze!

2011-10-31T19:58:00.000-06:00

There is a weather front moving through today and overall its pretty miserable outside. Jessie was up to 876 grams, which is her low flying weight, but the wind is steady out of the north at 14 MPH and I just didn't want to fight either the Balloon or the kite, so I opted to feed her a Sparrow and wait for tomorrow. She should lose a bit of weight, but I at least fed her something.

Pud weighed in at 855 grams, which is higher than I have ever flown her, and with the wind, I didn't feel like a trip to Arock was warranted. I felt that she would be too low if I held her over another day, so I decided to fly her here at the house and give her enough that she would still lose down to what I consider her flying weight which is about 830 grams. Harris Hawks are not built for the wind, so I was sure that with the small amount of rabbits that I would find we wouldn't get anything done at all. Pud had been calling every time she saw me, so I knew that she thought she should be fed.

There are anywhere from 25 to 30 rabbits, both Jacks and Bunnies that mow my lawn every night, but they apparently come from a long way off because the best I have done walking through the Sage here is about three Jacks. I didn't think that we were going to get anything other than exercise.

The wind was so strong that she had a hard time sitting with her back to the wind, so she rode the perch looking over her shoulder, facing into the wind. We did jump a Jack on the bench outside our fence, but with the wind she didn't get much done. I dropped down over the rimrock and ran into covey after covey of Quail, but she made no move to chase any of them. I know she caught one on her first flight, but it was running rather than flying, and I am sure she thought it was a lizard.

I skirted the rimrock thinking that we might jump a Bunny, but there was nothing other than Quail. We crossed the creek and did find one Jack, but he soon gave us the slip by running into the wind. I decided that we were pissing (pun intended) into the wind, so I started back. I crossed the creek again and walked towards the rimrock down there hoping that I could find something for her to chase. She took off and made an effort after something that I never saw. I kept the perch down so that she would stay there rather than come back to me. She turned and flew up on the short rimrock that skirted the Sage. I walked all around, beating the bushes trying to flush whatever it was. I had not seen anything leave the area, so I was pretty confident that it was hiding in the Greasewood and Sage. I had just about beat every bush, when she took off again flying up over the rimrock and the fence at the top. She lost it again and sat down on the rocks. I went up there and she took off again flying back the way she had come and really slammed into a Greasewood bush at the bottom of the rimrock. The sound was a lot like that a bullet makes when it hits something. I stopped to listen for the scream, but there was no sound other than the wind howling over the rocks and Sage.

I made my way down to where she had gone in and was very surprised to see her in the middle of the Greasewood bush on a Bunny's head. No wonder he couldn't make a sound.

As you can see my mouth is still hanging open. She now has 4 Jacks, and 4 Bunnies. As I have said many times before, Bunnies are much harder to catch than are Jacks, yet she continues to catch the rascals.

Jasper scores again.

2011-10-30T20:32:00.000-06:00

A couple of days ago I modified the Chicken house again to give Jasper a little better chance at the Sparrows that want to roost there. There had been two 10x10 chain link panels leaning up against the peak of the building that gave the Sparrows a head start, because Jasper could see them, but couldn't get to them. We took them down and wired them together at the top and moved them out from the building and left them sitting as an "A " frame about 5 feet away from the building. The Sparrows are now in jeopardy as soon as they crawl out the hole in the peak of the building.

When we tried it two days ago, it was too early and there were no Sparrows in the building at all. So we were forced to fly bagged Sparrows. As we were sitting there feeding Jasper, it began to get darker and the Sparrows were flooding into the building. Today I suggested to Tami that she wait until dusk to come over to hunt.

While we were waiting for Tami to come over, Karen and I flew Jessie on the balloon. I ran it up to 250 feet and turned her loose. The Pigeons were out, and when she took to the wing, they did as well. She is getting stronger, and I could see the difference in her flight. I told Karen that we were going to have to look sharp as she was going to try for a Pigeon. Sure enough she cut one out of the flock and turned it on. They went down in the creek, and I was sure that I was going to have to go down there to retrieve her, but the Pigeon wasn't as dumb as it looked and he came out of the creek with a lead and beat it into the Pigeon house without missing a wing beat. The rest of the flock did their best to stay above her and kept flying. She had done all that she was capable of and started trying to get enough altitude to grab the lure. She was struggling, so I felt sorry for her and pulled it down about 25 feet so that she could get it.

When she landed on the ground with the lure she was really panting. It was obvious that she had given all she had. Her recovery however was pretty quick, and she was soon eating the pigeon leg that I had put on the lure. I sat down on the ground and waited for her to finish, and come to the fist for the rest of her meal. Karen and the dogs also joined us and we all sat in the dirt until she finished her meal. Tami drove over from the ranch and joined us as well.

After I put Jessie up for the night, we sat out in front of the hanger watching for the Sparrows to go to bed. Soon we decided that we had enough to start our hunt. We had Reuben sneak around the back of the Chicken house and block the hole at that end. Jasper took off after a Sparrow that was hanging around the Pigeon house and the hunt was on. There are not adequate words to fully describe the hunt that followed. The little guy needs to glow, because he is so quick that it is almost impossible for one person to keep track of the little guy's flights and location. We kind of stationed ourselves at strategic points to reflush the Sparrows and keep track of him. He put so many Sparrows into cover that I cannot remember the actual number. He would put them into cover, we would flush, reflush, again and again. He had them taking refuge in the kennel, under the pigeon house, in the horse leanto. He even went into the pigeon house once looking for a Sparrow.

He would come to the Chicken house, sit on the peak, I would run a Sparrow out, and the chase was on. Here, there, in, out, under, and back for another one. Finally he sat on the Hanger, after a long chase. We were watching him laughing at the Pigeon who didn't want to share the roof with him. We were waiting for him to come back to us, when he took off the building did some kind of fancy wing over,or something and slammed into a fleeing Sparrow, taking him to the ground behind the tractor. Tami let him kill the Sparrow and then picked him up to let him eat as we sat in the hanger watching the evening light fade to darkness. I am not sure how many flights we watched. Upwards of 15 or more I am sure. The little guy never doubted that he would be successful, never slowed. He has a heart as big as any Eagle that ever lived.

On a roll!

2011-10-29T21:00:00.000-06:00

Tami and Reuben went with us today to hunt Puddy. Tami hasn't had much of a chance to see her hunt. The last time was when she killed the Vole, so I was hoping that she would get a good chance at a Jack this time.

She still hasn't gotten used to hunting in the evening and she thinks her throat is cut by the time I pick her up at 1 PM. Her weight was 835 today and she has started occasionally screaming when she sees me walk by. Today for the first time she gave a couple of calls as we were driving out of the yard, she was in her box. That is new.

We parked the car and had traveled about 75 yards when she took off flying over some really big Sage, but didn't find the rabbit, so she circled and landed back on the perch. Karen was near and I directed her into the Sage to see if she could jump the Jack. She wasn't having any success so I joined her. We had just about covered the patch, when the Jack jumped just off my left arm. Pud was off and slammed into him between bushes.

Talk about stopping a Jack with your face. All I could see was a screaming Jack sticking out of a bush, so I pounced on him. Poor old Puddy was stuck behind a bunch of Sage branches with the smallest an inch in diameter. I had to break and up root a goodly portion of the bush to get her out. She was not letting go.

I just broke her a path and pulled her out and into the open. She didn't want to let go even for a skinned front leg. It took quite a while to convince her that if she took the leg that I had given her, she could eat it at her leisure.

She finally let it go and I cleaned it and cut off a back leg and kept the head for her to eat.

The whole hunt took about 10 minutes from beginning to finish. It seemed to take forever for her to get so full of rabbit that she couldn't eat any more. We were back home in less that two hours having driven 40 miles.

Jessie is up to 250 feet on the balloon and her strength is returning. She only took about 5 minutes to regain her breath today.

Third Jack for Puddy

2011-10-27T19:26:00.000-06:00

Due to the colder than I am willing to tolerate weather, we are now hunting in the afternoon. Pud was not happy when I tied her to her perch this morning. She screamed her displeasure as I walked off and left her.

At 1:30 PM I picked her up and found that she weighed 830 grams. Should be just right for her. Still hungry but strong. I decided to change fields to see if we could catch some of them off guard. We wrapped Karen's knee to see if some support would help her ability to walk. She does just fine on even ground, but rabbits don't live on even ground.

There were not as many rabbits in the first part of the field, and she only got three flights for the first 1/4 mile. The ones that she did get however were a very close thing for each of the Jacks that she chased. She was hitting the brush and I swear her talons were leaving scratch marks on their backs.

We had just got into the area that we normally hunt in that tract, when she took off after a Jack that was quite a ways out. She didn't get a chance at him, and had just returned to the perch. I took a few steps and a Jack busted close by. She burned him down, grabbing him in the butt as he was going around a bush. I was concerned that it might pull away from her, when I saw another flurry and his screams were choked off by a big foot across the face. He was well under control by the time that I got there. We had been in the field about 20 minutes.

Unfortunately neither of us brought a camera. Pud was pretty excited about this Jack. I am not sure if the loss of her last one had anything to do with it or not, but she was very reluctant to take a front leg in exchange. She finally took the bunny leg that I offered her. I gave Karen another one to call her to if she finished before I managed to clean the Jack. She ate her front leg and went to Karen for another one. I finally finished cleaning the Jack and cut off a hind leg to finish her meal with, and was none too soon. She was looking for me by the time I got half way there.

I let her eat the rear leg while I walked back to the car. She was unable to eat all of it, but only left the tough part.

While we were walking back to the car, we noticed a lot of black smoke coming from the area around the guy's house that owned the property we were hunting on. Unfortunately somehow a fire started in one of his sheds, burning it all down. Two tractors, a Quad and who knows what all else was lost. One of his neighbors had arrived just before we did, and he and I did what we could to keep it from spreading.

When it was under control, we left and came on home to fly Jessie. Her weight was just were I wanted it to be, ( 850 ) so I ran the lure up to 220 feet on the balloon. This is twice as high as she has had, but still within her capabilities at this stage. I turned her loose and she flew down by the creek looking for lift and made 4 pretty big circles, pumping all the time. When she began to tire, she came up to where we were and grabbed the lure, drifting down the line to the ground. It took her about 10 minutes to get her wind back enough to eat. When she finished the pigeon leg that I had tied on the lure, she came to the fist for the rest of her meal. She should be ready for Ducks by the end of next week.

Bunny!

2011-10-25T16:01:00.000-06:00

The morning dawned colder than it has been since last Feb. I sat the Patio Tomato back under the porch last night, but it was not enough. Twenty Four degrees is a bit much for Tomatoes I guess. I stalled until the temps climbed up into the low 30's before I even ventured out to do the chores. Karen decided that she was well enough to go with me, so I took my time getting ready, letting her believe that I was being considerate.

Pud was actually down a bit lower than I had intended, coming in at 812 grams. My choices were to feed her something and throw another log on the fire, or hunt her until she showed signs of being too low. I chose action, since the temps had climbed above freezing.

She flew out and landed on the rock jack at the corner of the fence as normal, coming to the perch after I crossed the fence. There was a Jack hiding in the Sage not 15 feet in front of us and she crashed into the brush after him, unfortunately just a bit behind. She was actually crashing brush much better today than she had, not because of her reduced weight, actually more because of her increasing experience. She chased almost every rabbit that jumped, near or far.

I watched some Pheasants fly into the Bull Thistles down by the alfalfa fields, so we wandered that way just for the heck of it. I crossed the creek and into the tall Sage, she took off and slammed into the Sage after something. I saw a Rooster Pheasant running away from the scene, so I tried to cut it off. It headed back in the Sage, and Pud came back across the creek and did her best Coopers imitation racing through the Sage tunnels a heck of a lot faster than I would have thought she could do. Unfortunately the Rooster had enough and busted out for safer ground. Pud stood there for a bit, then a hen that she had run past without seeing, took the other exit out of the scene of the action as well.

We went through a sort of hot spot that held both Jacks and Pheasants without touching anything. Pud was more serious, but still had her moments of trying to find the perfect spot to crash into a Jack. We took a couple of breaks for Karen, or at least Karen sat down and Pud and I walked circles around her looking for that one rabbit that would go home with us. The Eagles are gathering for the fall migration and we had three hanging on the thermals over us. It seemed that every where we turned there was an Eagle, and fur patches on the ground. We have a lot more competition than I would like.

Just about the time that I decided that I was going to have to take Karen back to the car, Pud took off after a Jack that topped a little hill and we could hear him screaming. I hurried in their direction, but the Jack broke loose as I got within sight.

you can see the hair in the grass where she had caught him. Unfortunately she was trapped on the other side of the main stem of the Sage bush, and he pulled free. She was a bit cranky about that.

This is the first time that Karen has been with us in a long time, and apparently Pud missed her. She kept trying to fly to her so often that I gave Karen my glove so that she would be able to land on her fist. I threatened to take it back as it was getting to be a distraction for her.

As Karen stopped to rest a third time, we jumped a Jack and Pud gave chase. She slammed into a bush with an audible thump and then got up off the ground to take another shot at him, slamming into another Sage. Even though she missed it was the first time that she has made another attempt at game in the same flight. Things are looking up. That is what you want to see in a hunting hawk, the refusal to take no for an answer. Those kind of birds are the ones that succeed.

As we walked on towards the car, a bunny jumped and Pud flashed off after it. She did a wing over and a thin scream floated back to us.

It was unusual that she caught this one so far from cover. That is not normally the case. The bunny's are sneaky little critters, that are much more difficult to catch than Jacks.

She was really excited. It had torqued her jaws quite a bit to loose that Jack, and she was going to hang onto this one no matter what.

She got the rabbit and I got my trophy, both of us are happy.

We took our time going back to the car. I had given her a Jack rib cage with heart and lungs to keep her occupied while I was cleaning the Bunny. When she finished with that I gave her the bunny's rear leg to eat. When she finished that I gave her the head to work on while we walked to the car. She had not finished by the time we arrived so we sat in the sunshine and talked while she dismembered the skull. When she finished, I opened the door to her box and she willingly jumped in for the trip home.

We spent four hours hunting this beautiful fall morning, with me enjoying the company of the woman that I love and a hawk that is showing more promise every trip. My heart sings with gratitude.

Jasper strikes again.

2011-10-24T23:39:00.003-06:00

We had a cold front come in today, so it was cold
( not acclimated yet) and quite windy. Jasper was ready to go at 95 which is his best weight. He was also very upset and cranky all evening yesterday, and Tami says that he gets cranky when he doesn't catch anything. It might sound funny to you, but he was restless all night. In discussing last nights flights, I told her that sometimes, failure, especially when they have had plenty of chances can improve their determination to catch something when they next fly.

This time I gave my HD camera, that I use on the plane, to Karen to see if we could get any of his flight on video. Unfortunately there is no telephoto and he is just a spec with the naked eye, much less a wide angle fixed lens. As soon as he was taken out of the box, it was evident that today was another day, and he was serious. More so than I have ever seen him. As soon as he was out of the box, and he got his bearings, he took off after some Sparrows around the pigeon house. He had them hiding all over the place, with individuals squirting out at any opportunity.

Today was destined to be different. I had gone out this morning and used expanding foam to seal all but two escape routes out of the free range Chicken house. There are piles of Sparrows that spend all day in the house eating all the feed that they can stuff down. Before, they were all squirting out the roof line all around the building, and Jasper had one chance to score, and then we were out of Sparrows and chances. There is a large screen leaning up against the building on one end that shields the Sparrows from his attempts to catch them when they come out that side of the building. I wasn't sure how it was going to work out, but he would at least have more than one chance to make something happen.

After chasing the Sparrows that were hanging around the other Chicken pen, he went back to the Free range pen, and we started pushing them out. Reuben was blocking the other escape route, so the only way out was under Jasper. It was hectic and one of the most amusing "Rat hunts" that I have participated in for a long time. I was all for sticking him in the house with them, but he would not stay on Tami's fist long enough for me to get it done. He kept going to the top of the building, cranking up into a hover, back on the building, back up in the air. The wind was really howling, but he is made for the wind and I think had the advantage over the Sparrows. Finally one tried to make a break for freedom and he cut off its escape and forced it to try to make it to cover. That was the wrong move, Jasper is not afraid to go anywhere when he is in pursuit. When the Sparrow tried his maneuver, Jasper was about 75 feet in the air, and he dove to the ground after it down by the horse trailer. Tami found them right in the middle of a large Rabbit bush.

One of the things that cause the most grief, hunting smaller quarry, is when the raptor decides that he wants to carry his prey where you can't get to him. Tami has done an excellent job with him and he has never carried. One of the things that she does to insure that behavior, is that she has never taken food away from him. If he gets it in his feet, it is his. When his weight is right again, then we go flying. It has paid off big time for her. If you turn up the sound you can hear her telling me that he never tried to pull away or anything. He knows that it is his and no one will take it.

http://vimeo.com/31063575 will take you to the video. I made no effort to do anything other than cut it to length. No labels, no credits.

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After Jasper had all the Sparrow that he could hold, we brought Jessie out to get her exercise. The wind was whipping right along so I used the kite rather than the balloon. Today I put the lure up a hundred feet. I struck her hood and she looked around for a bit to get her bearings, then looked up confirming that the sound she was hearing was the kite string humming in the wind. She took to the wing, making one wide circle then coming back to try to tear the pigeon leg off the lure, lost it except for a foot full of feathers, tried again before the lure hit the ground, with the same result. Then landed on the lure, resigned to the fact that she was going to have to eat it in my presence. You see I have not been as successful in my handling as was Tami. She came to the fist after and finished her meal. I am bringing her weight up so that she can build some muscle. It is yet to be discovered how much of that she will allow before she starts taking advantage. She knows the game, but so far she is only playing because she has to. Hopefully she will get into the game, and we can do something about the Duck population.

Blasted Voles and Eagles!

2011-10-23T23:53:00.000-06:00

Things have been working against us lately. Tami and Grace went out with Puddy and I for the first time hunting on Friday. The last time she saw her fly, Puddy was trying unsuccessfully to come to terms with my requirement that she fly to me before I would feed her. She was so impressive that I was trying to decide who I would give her to, just to get her out of my hair. It was a bit of a surprise the change that had occurred in her attitude.

Pud was on the high end of her response weight, but she was chasing every thing that moved, and was getting a little more serious with each flight and miss. We had traveled over about half of the field, when Grace flushed a probably record book Vole out of one of the bushes, and Pud was after it in a flash. She was like a "whirling Dervish", feet were flying all around trying to catch this wonderful prize. The hapless Vole was no match for her and she soon had him under control. As I said he was very large for his species, and Pud relished each and every bite. She came to the perch after she finished, and we beat our heads against the proverbial wall for a while, trying to get her to catch something before that Vole hit bottom. She still tried, but her desire was no match for the Jacks, so we decided to call it a day. I had to resort to the lure to get Puddy on the fist so that I could put her up for the trip home. She wanted more to eat, but couldn't catch it, and she had seen this routine before, and didn't like it. So of course she was too heavy to go out on Sat. morning.

The Oregon Falconers Association were having a meet in Burns over the weekend. Karen is one of the Directors, so she of course had to attend. Tami and her sister Tara wanted to go. Tami was worried about taking Jasper to the meet and did not intend to take him. I dismissed all her reasons for not taking him, telling her that the opportunities for birds for Jasper to fly was much too good to pass up. I suggested that she take him to the fairgrounds as there are always lots of Sparrow hanging around the barns and stalls. She reluctantly agreed to take him along, in spite of her misgivings. Of course she thought that he was too insignificant to take to a falconry meet. She arrived at the meet at about 3PM. I did not attend, so Karen took over my duties as a sponsor and here is her account of Jasper's hunt.
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Larry asked me to write up Tami's first foray to an Oregon Falconers Assoc. fall meet as an Apprentice with a bird. She was the second apprentice at the meet with an American Kestrel. Jasper's weight was on the low side and she was concerned that he might get too low to hunt, so she asked if she should give him some food to bring his weight up. After discussing it with several of us, she felt it would be a good idea to give him something to eat to calm him down, as we planned to fly him later in the afternoon. When he gets to weight, he gets the Kestrel version of "Yarak" and just cannot sit still. There were several people who wanted to see him fly. I let her decide where to fly as there were several suitable spots. She decided to go to the Harney County Fairgrounds. Others had found plenty of Sparrows in the open barn. At 4:00 pm our convoy left for there. I counted cars following us but didn't tell her as her butterflies were working overtime. When we lined up to enter the barn I counted 13 people. We discussed how to do the flushing, with Tami and I going down the center of the arena and the rest dividing up to go down the stall area on each side of the arena. This would leave Tami and I as the only ones who would get to see the kill,but no one had a problem with that.We started down the arena with several sparrows standing on the top of the walls that were about 8 feet high. We told them to keep walking as there was lots of activity. I told Tami to keep up with the flushers. We were getting close to the end when Jasper decided that he had the best shot and rocketed off after one. He flashed over the wall hot on ones tail, the sparrow with him right behind it came up and over the wall scrabbling down the wood almost to the ground when the sparrow decided he could scrape that little fury off by diving into a pile of gates stacked against the end wall. The next thing we hear is a sparrow screaming bloody murder. I told Tami to get close to the gates in case Jasper needed help. The two of them fell down through gaps in the gates. When it looked like the sparrow might win I told Tami to reach in and grab the sparrow. Sure glad she is small as it was hard for her to get to them, which she did with great success. He was glad to get out of the gates where he could work on his catch. Trent Seager told her go ahead and finish the bird, She let Jasper eat his fill. The whole hunt took about 20 minutes.

Before we went into the barn Tami and Tara were getting her backup birds out of the carrying box when one got loose and headed for the front of the car. We closed all of the doors and Tara climbed in and attempted to catch it. It got under the seat. After the flight Grace was helping me put the two we had back in the carry box when one of them got loose in my car. This one didn't hide under the seat, it went into the heat vent. My bird was seen today trying to get out, so I left the windows down all day.

At our meet dinner we give out pins for those who bring birds and are successful in taking game. As meet chairman I got to give Tami the only pin for taking game at this fall meet. There were 2 Peregrine falcons,2 Goshawks, 2 Coopers hawks, 3 Harris' hawks, 2 Redtail hawks and the 2 American Kestrels. This the only time that a Kestrel has got the only game pin at a meet put on by OFA. She definitely deserves a big "atta boy, girl"!

Karen
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Today Tara and Grace accompanied me hunting Pud. Her weight was just right and she was putting in some serious efforts in the brush. She was not fooling around and intended to have rabbit for dinner. She had made about 5 tries, getting just a bit closer each time. We circled around a big Lava mound and she flew off the perch to the ground at the end of the Lava. At first I couldn't tell what she was after as she was mantling in an opening in the Sage. As I got closer, I could see the big bloody patch with rabbit hair scattered all around. One of the Eagles that hunt the fields here had killed one of the Jacks and of course left enough of the carcass for Puddy to think that she needed to go no further than right where she was.

Of course I had no intention of taking it away from her. I let her eat for a while, then offered her some tidbits and a front leg that I had intended to be her reward for killing one of her own. She came up to the fist and we made our way back to the truck, foiled again!

Tami, Tara, and the kids came over at 4 PM to fly Jasper. I had about 6 Sparrows in the trap, so I caught them up and had them in a box in case we needed them. We first spent about 10 minutes chasing Sparrows in and out of the chicken house. It was a lot of fun, the Sparrows were trying to make their escape in some of the wire around the chicken house and we had a couple of close calls, but the Sparrows one by one managed their escape, so Tami and I decided to give Tara an idea of what the little fella was capable of. We walked to the field at the end of the hanger and Jasper cranked up and began circling us at about 125 feet, just like the big boys. I let a couple of Sparrows out of the box and Jasper gave chase, forcing one of them to the ground in my old John Deere tractor. He was in and out of the motor, through the front wheels, around the back tires and into the motor again. They both stopped a bit in a stalemate, trying to get the other to break first and commit to a plan. Finally the Sparrow managed to make his escape leaving Jasper trying to find him in the motor. When he decided that it was gone it was back up in the sky circling again, waiting for whatever would happen.

All in all I released 3 bunches of Sparrows for him to chase. None of them were hampered in any way. They did all escape, by varying degrees of narrowness. Jasper was circling at heights of 150 or more feet, and stooping after the Sparrows with all the style that one could ask of the finest Peregrine ever flown. This is the second time that he has circled rather than hovered, and today for the first time, he came over when I waved my hat at him. I of course served him a Sparrow to chase when he did, so he will remember what the waving hat means. Today I started three feeding stations out in the field. If the Sparrows find them before the Chickens do, then we will have some game to hunt, and his ability to "wait on" will pay off big time. After the last Sparrow was gone, he took a pitch again, and was even a bit higher than before. I suggested to Tami that she should give him the lure as we have not thrown the lure for him in a long time. She garnished it and made the first swing. As soon as he saw it he turned over in a stoop. Tami yelled and tossed it up in the air out in front of her. He kept tucked in the stoop until he was about a foot off the ground. He popped out his wings and tail and came to a gentle landing on the lure. It is good that he sometimes experiences failure. It will make him more determined the next time he flies. It is also an opportunity to reacquaint him to the lure again as well.

Sadly, those attending the meet in Burns were surprised at what one of these little guy's can do. They saw little of what this little guy is capable of, but what they did see was enough to impress them apparently. Tami told some of them that he "waited on", when they asked how she hunted him, but she didn't think that they believed her.

Today was Jessie's turn to fly free for the first time this year. I have finally starved her into temporary submission. I put the balloon up about 100 feet with the lure at 50 feet. She did well, binding to it on the first circle, coming to the fist for the rest of her food after finishing what was on the lure. Although she did well, she didn't fool me. She is just waiting for the right time to get even.

Lightning strikes again!

2011-10-19T12:56:00.001-06:00

It seems the weather is just what Pud needs, she lost all the weight that she put on from the rabbit on Monday, and was actually a bit lower than I had anticipated. I had fed her until she couldn't choke down another bite the last time, but she still managed to put it all over. There is nothing like the bite of autumn winds to make a hawk get serious.

The temp in the field was 38 degrees, but at least the grass wasn't wet. I let her out of her box and as usual she flew to a nearby rock jack while I got over the fence.Once I was in the field and walking, she joined me on the perch, and we began our search. We hadn't gone too far when a Jack jumped and she was off. He used the fence to slow her down a bit and then eventually lost her in the next field. She rejoined me, and we continued zigging and zagging through the Sage, trying to find one that wanted to come home with us. It took her 5 tries at the various Jacks before she got a clear shot at one. She crashed into the brush but still didn't get her feet on it. This was better, she wasn't just following looking for an opening, she was trying to make one.

She had gone to one of the large rock outcroppings to get a better view, while I worked the Sage in front of it. I turned away, and she soon flew to join me. Her feet no sooner touched the perch when a small Jack jumped in front of us. She hit the perch and was off after him, but missed. She came back to the perch and we had gone no more than 15 feet when the Jack jumped again. She burned him down in 20 feet catching him in the butt right in the middle of a Sage bush. I was a bit more confident this time, and pushed him back towards her. She soon changed her footing to his head, and he was in the bag. As you can see from the picture I was right over top of her. We finally got the Jack dispatched, and I gave her a front leg. She carried it off a few feet to eat, while I went to clean our prize. When I returned carrying a rear leg, she slammed into my fist holding the original leg. I thanked the Gods and the Jack for his sacrifice and we made our way back to the car and my still hot cup of coffee. The whole thing had taken about 30 minutes. Now I don't for a minute believe that it will be easy from now on, but one thing is for sure, she is on the right track, and will improve each time I take her out.

I have had several requests concerning Jasper and his exploits, so here goes. We have been forced by circumstances beyond our control, to resort to bagged game, and I don't consider that to be noteworthy. I am not being a snob, but falconry is by definition hunting wild game. Our problem is made worse by our very isolation. The trees, and marsh areas surrounding the ranch are inhabited by an unknown number of Owls. Mostly a bunch of Barn Owls, and a pair of Great Horned Owls. All of which intimidate the heck out of a small 3 oz bird. When you have the only cover and trees for miles around, it has a tendency to draw every raptor in the area. All of the Sparrows congregate around Tami's house, and Chickens. One flight is about all one gets before the Sparrows take refuge in the tree where the Owls are. So Tami brings him over here at the house and we get maybe a couple of slips at the Sparrows around my Chicken house and then they all take refuge in the Cattails down by the creek. If we lived in suburbia, it would be no problem, we would just stick him in the car and drive down by the Dairy Queen and get it done.

So we generally do our best to get him as many flights as we can at wild game, and then work on his following and waiting on. If he does well, I toss him a Sparrow or Black bird.

Yesterday, we ran the Sparrows around the Chicken and Pigeon house until he saw a Black Bird inside the Chicken house that was in my trap. The hunt was over at that time. He was running around on top of the wire trying to get inside so he could catch it. Karen was closer so she went into the pen and caught the Black Bird. She brought it to me, but Jasper was still trying to get inside. He wasn't listening to any suggestions that he come to Tami's fist, so I waved it at him, and he was soon on my head looking for it.

All the Sparrows had left the area, so we walked out into the field by the hanger. Jasper wasted no time and was soon in a hover over our heads. I wanted to plant the bird rather than toss it, so I was shaking the bird around while holding it in my fist. This makes them dizzy and they will stay where you put them for a while. I had just turned to ask Tami, where the rascal was, when he slammed into my fist with all the force that 3 ounce's can bring to bear. He bit me on the knuckle, trying to dig the bird out of my hand. The only thing sticking out of my hand was the tail feathers, but that was enough.

Tami called him to the fist for a tidbit, and he soon took off to again hover over us. I tossed the Black Bird and for the first time, he slammed into the bird in the air right in front of us. He then popped out his wings, and parachuted to the ground fighting the bird all the way down. He soon gained control with a bit of Tami's help.

It is a real shame that we have so little access to suitable game for him as he would really shine if he had the chance. I cannot complain with anything about him or the way that he has been trained. The little guy qualifies for the title of "Hunting Hawk" in every sense. There is no foolishness about him. When you take the leash off he is in hunting mode and will do what it takes to catch something. The fault is ours alone in not being able to give him the slips he needs.

The key to successful falconry is to get a bird that is suited to the game and terrain that you have to hunt. Novices are restricted to Red Tails and Kestrels for the first two years. Neither of which are suited for either the game or terrain here. Red Tails just don't have the acceleration or agile turns required to catch Jacks without a tree or some other height. The Kestrel we have found is also at a disadvantage here as well. This is one instance where I would allow a novice a Goshawk for her apprentice period. We have ducks in excess all year around, Quail are in great abundance. We will just have to struggle along until next November when Tami will be a "General" falconer and can have what she wants.

Day four

2011-10-17T13:58:00.002-06:00

What is behind bush number 1?

This morning was foggy, so I put off my departure to the rabbit field until 10:AM. It was still foggy here at the house and extremely foggy in Rome, but it was clear over the Lava field where we hunt. The temperature was 38 degrees. I had returned to the house after starting, to get a coat, but when I got to the field and found the sun shining I decided to leave it in the car.

The tall grass that is every where, was really wet, and it didn't take long for me to get that way as well. The rabbits the last time we were there, were being really sneaky and hiding, so I moved slowly keeping my eyes open for a chance to shoot one if I had to. As I said in my last post, I was starting to feel sorry for her and was worried that she might get discouraged and quit trying. I have seen it before, and it took a lot to change the situation. Of course I was going to give her as many chances as I could before I made it easy again.

Her weight was the same as yesterday, so my guess on the amount of food that I gave her to counter act the calories she had burned in yesterdays efforts, was right on. She was still doing her inexperienced best to catch one of the sneaky critters. They were hiding in the thick Sage and then sneaking or busting out when she committed herself on an attack. Each time I was angling for an opening, but I wasn't going to shoot unless I could be sure of pinpoint accuracy. If you have never hunted Jacks, you cannot know how hard it is to get such a shot at 15 yards or less.

I was mixing up my routes of travel as it doesn't take long for a Jack to profile ones travel habits, and start hiding in areas that you don't walk. It was paying off by us rousting out Jacks that had successfully avoided us in the past. Pud got several close slips at the sneaky critters and was making some serious committed shots at them in spite of their cover, and seemed to be right on the verge of getting her feet on one of them. I had just gotten finished combing two out of a pocket of cover normally not covered, when she took off after one that was at least 80 yards out. She of course was not able to catch up with it and took a perch on some rocks.

By that time I was starting to get seriously heated up. I kept the tee perch in my left hand so that she would not come to me. I walked to where I had last seen her, trying to flush the hiders out of cover so that she might get another shot. I dropped every thing and peeled out of my vest, rolling it up to put in the back of my bag. When I finished, I looked for her, but didn't see her. That is not that unusual as she is dark and blends well with the Lava.

I put the perch up in the air, which is generally enough, but no Puddy materialized. I started looking around for her. Faintly far off in the distance I heard a Jack Rabbit singing its death song. At first it didn't register. I thought of the various Eagles in the area, and the Coyotes, but the coincidence was a bit much so I started as fast as my now clumsy feet would take me in the last direction that it had seemed to come from. I was worried that if the rabbit quit screaming, I wouldn't be able to find her. She really likes the head and has killed almost every rabbit that she has gotten her feet on.

There was a small Lava outcrop back around the corner from where I had been standing. I got around the flow and could again hear the rabbit. Finally I saw a Jack sticking out of a bush. Only that, no sign of what had it, but it had to be Puddy. If you will notice in the first picture there was a hole in the rabbits head. I was not about to go anywhere near that rabbit. The last thing that I needed was for it to get so panicked at my wild eyed approach that it might tear out of her feet. This had to end in success for her. Since I couldn't see her and could see the other side of the rabbit, no problem!

After I shot the rabbit, I still couldn't see Puddy. I had to peel away the brush layer by layer to uncover her.

You will notice the rather large amount of blood on the Jack's hind legs. That is from her talons. The entire rear of this Jack was torn up and so blood shot that it looked as though he had been shot. I guess there wasn't anything to worry about as far as him getting loose. I would still do it again however.

I pulled her out of the brush after I uncovered her, and started giving her tidbits. She soon relaxed and I gave her a front leg saved for that purpose. She took it off under a bush to eat, and I took the Jack to clean. When she finished the leg I gave her, I called her to the fist for one of the hind legs to finish her meal.

I walked back to the car while she ate the rest of her meal, with tears in my eyes, almost overcome with gratitude with the way that it had all worked out. I have denigrated this hawk like no other that I have ever had, and it is an unquestionable truth that she has deserved it. However in spite of all her slowness and lack of maturity, I have maintained that if she ever came around she could be as good as any of them. I guess we will see over the next few months.

She still has a lot to learn, and a long hard road ahead to become what I call a hunting hawk, but she has a start. It only takes hard work and time in the field.

Third day

2011-10-16T23:03:00.000-06:00

Pud was down to 813 grams today. Karen is still gimpy, so I left her behind to do my chores and headed out to the field.

Pud allowed the first two Jacks to go unmolested, but soon started chasing any and all rabbits that flushed in front of us. Most of the flights had no chance since she wasn't crashing the brush, merely trying to line up on them much as a novice trying to land on a narrow runway. We walked for two hours solid, with her flying off after the rabbits, turning around and flying back to the perch. I rarely have to call her, or even pay attention to her once she lands after a chase. If I have seen the rabbit leave the area, I just walk on and she comes to the perch before I have gotten very far away. In all actuality if she caught something occasionally, I could not ask for a better hawk.

She tried so hard and often that I felt sorry for her today. It was special and a bit amusing to be out on a fine fall morning walking though the Sage to the raucous territorial boasting of the Rooster Pheasants across the valley. Geese gathering for their southward migration forming tentative Vee's in the skies as they moved from night time resting ponds to day time feeding areas. I even had a passage juvenile Coopers Hawk fly right in front of us to check out the weird Hawk that was hanging out with a man. She sat on a rock 30 yards away watching us until her attention, fickle at best, took her off to find something to kill. Today was a special day at least for me. As we walked along, I talked to her, telling her what was required for her to be able to make a living. I can't say whether or not she listened. She did try, and didn't want to quit, even after two hours or more.

After I arrived home, it was Jessie's turn. She has been quite restless sitting on the indoor perch, and of course rebellious as well. She was down in weight a bit today as I didn't feed her yesterday. I took her outside on the front lawn and tossed the lure. She ignored it for a bit too long, so I brought her back in and secured her to her perch. I again took her out an hour or so later, and sat her on the fence while I tossed the lure to the ground in front of her. She finally flew down to it, grabbing the food that I had tied there. She sat for about five minutes before she started eating. After she finished she hopped over to look over the fist, and again rejected the offering that I had for her, deciding to show her contempt by trying to fly away. I retaliated by hooding her for the night.

One of the problems or side effects of living in an area so remote, and removed from what is called "civilization" is the lack of comfort stops, or even places to get off the road. There is little to no cover anywhere, so driveways and gravel pits, when the roads in to them can be seen, are places often chosen for that sometimes unforeseen and unwelcome necessity when it arises. The ranch drive way across from us is often the target of such emergencies. The gate to the road is only closed when they are weaning calves, and it is a bit disgusting to have to walk around someone's less than thoughtful deposit generally right in the middle of the road. Off in the Sage it wouldn't be so bad, but they rarely do more than get behind the car. It is also amusing to me how unprepared most people are. Too used to having someone else handle their little inconviences for them I guess. I have been amused to notice that the preponderance of them tend to use their socks to tidy up afterwards. Since there is almost always two of them lying in the aftermath, I have wondered if the job was that big, or if they don't want to explain why they are only wearing one sock. Do they take them off first or hop around after the fact trying to get them off. Perhaps that is why they use two rather than one. I had thought that the phenomenon was specific to the ranch next door, but when I stopped at Rome to buy gas the other day I noticed a pair of socks in front of their shop by the gas pumps. Funny they all seem to be brown?

The count down begins

2011-10-15T13:29:00.001-06:00

Oct 14th. first serious day.

Karen and I took Pud to Arock to see if she would be able to catch anything. Her weight was 840 grams. We got there a bit later than I would have preferred, and it didn't take long for me to shed my sweatshirt. Pud actually did better than I thought she would. Of course the few Bunnies that we encountered were flown hard, but Bunnies are much harder to track and catch than are the Jacks. Their smaller size of course makes them much more appealing, but it is deceptive, because they stop, start again, hide and all those things blow a young hawks mind.

We walked a lot! Poor Karen's knee is bothering her again, and the rough terrain doesn't help at all. Pud actually made some pretty exciting tries for Jacks. Once she managed to turn inside a Jack but only hit him in the ears, and he squirted out the other side and was gone.

Actually I was quite pleased with her. She is going to make it, if I can hold out long enough. She is much more excited by the ones that flush close to us, and run hard. We had one hop to within 15 yards of us, and she just watched it. She got into the middle of a large covey of Quail, but couldn't connect with any of them.

When I finally started feeling sorry for Karen, we made our way back to the car. All in all Pud probably didn't get more than 10 tidbits. She hopped into her box and we came on home. She screamed her frustration when I tied her to her perch without giving her anything more to eat.

Then it was Jessie's turn to see if she could remember what it was like to work for her food. She remembers, but she isn't admitting it. I tried to call her to the lure on the creance. She tried to fly off.
After she landed on the lawn, she came back to the lure. After she finished the half of a Quail breast, she walked over to the fist, looked at it and turned to try to fly off again. Less food, more time, she will come around.

This evening around 6:30 I picked up Pud again. I tried putting her on top of the house to ambush the Jacks when they came in to mow the lawn. Well they didn't come in, so I called her to the perch when it started to get seriously dark, and we walked a big circle outside the fence. She had two chances at Jacks and did her best, but it wasn't quite good enough. We will go out again in the morning and see if she can make it happen tomorrow. Again she got no more than 5 or 6 tidbits.

Oct 15, New day.

Karen decided to stay home this morning, so Pud and I got to the field at about 8:30 AM. There were plenty of Jacks in the field. Pud managed to ignore almost all of them. Finally after at least 8 had wandered off, and we had stood on the top of a little rise watching one just 20 yards in front of us eat for 5 minutes or more, she decided that another one might have merit. Of course she got nowhere close to him. All in all I walked for at least an hour, flushing Jacks at fairly regular intervals. She had chances at Jacks, a few Bunnies, and a hand full of Ducks on a handkerchief sized pond. We will go out again in the morning.

I arrived back home and rolled out the plane for a trip to the Alvord. There was supposed to be a bunch of planes from Nampa going there over the weekend, and since I had not flown much at all this fall I thought that I would fly over to see what was going on.

This is the first year in my memory that the Alvord still has water on it. It is normally dry by the middle of June or earlier. Not this year for sure.

The Aspens are beginning to turn up on the mountain, the snow level has been down to about 7000 feet here recently, although most of it has melted off.

Unfortunately there were only two planes on the lake, so I didn't even land. The weather this weekend was as good as it ever gets in the fall. Winds were calm, temps were supposed to be mid 70's. There was a group of wind Sailers a little further down the lake bed. I'm afraid that they are in for a dull day, as the wind is only forecast for about 6 MPH.

I turned and headed for home across the desert with a bit of a tail wind. As I got over the ranch next door I could see the crew separating calves for shipping this coming week.

Looks like I am the only one to get to play today.

Pud finally caught one

2011-10-11T22:32:00.000-06:00

I decided that I wasn't going to bag Pud any more. After her last trip I seriously considered not flying her again. She has done that badly. I mulled it over for a couple of days and decided that I was going to not reward her any more. She was going to have to give me something to prove that she was worth the effort and time. I decided that I was going to take her out hunting and if she didn't catch something then I would not feed her more than tidbits. I would take her out in the evening and mornings until she caught something. Feeding her only enough to keep her alive.

This morning she was down to weight, but the wind was howling, and due to pick up to 18 or more MPH as the day progressed. I didn't want her to start out low, so I fed both her and Jessie a Sparrow each. The idea with Jessie is to get her weight down to the point that I can start flying her, and for Pud it was to keep her weight up. Karen and I split the rest of the two cords of wood that would keep us warm this winter, so it wasn't a total loss.

The wind finally died down about 6:30 PM, so I picked her up from the weathering area and found that she was 835 grams, well within her response range. It is a mystery as to where all these rabbits that dine on my lawn in their multitudes each night, actually live. I started off across the runway and crossed the fence, moving through the Sage paralleling the field where they all seem to come from. I made a full circle of about a mile and saw three Jacks, and Puddy saw two Bunnies. I was surprised to see her really burn after a Jack, but he managed to avoid her. She seemed to be quite a bit more serious than I have ever seen her. She rarely really tries to close with Jacks, but the one flight that I saw tonight was serious.

I crossed the creek well below the house and walked back to the road crossing on the creek. It was starting to get pretty dark, and the moon was well up by the time that I got even with the corral. We hadn't jumped anything at all on the flat where the house sits. As we neared the fence at the end of the corral Puddy took off really burning it and crashed into a Sage hard. I had seen nothing, but a thin scream proved that she had.

I had prepared myself for a long ordeal to get her to actually catch something. I would have preferred that she catch a Jack, but I wasn't about to complain about any catch that she made on her own.

Apparently in the dim light the Bunny never saw us. No matter, I was happy and Pud was absolutely ecstatic.

I was quite pleased when she looked to me as I got a hand full of tidbits out of my bag and offered them to her. She quite willingly took them from my glove with no effort to try to foot me. I exposed the rear legs and back of the bunny. She immediately opened the abdomen, but made no objections to me disposing of the guts. I let her eat until she was over the initial adrenaline rush. I picked her and the rabbit up and made my way to the hanger where I could sit down while she did her best to get around as much of the bunny as she could.

She still has no regard for her feathers, but hasn't broken any more of them lately. I guess I am going to have to imp some in soon.

Pud update

2011-10-06T23:25:00.000-06:00

Well summer is over. There will still be some nice weather, but it is time to secure the air conditioner and clean the soot out of the chimney. Perhaps Pud will start burning some more calories and get with the program.

I tried to fly her last night as her weight was at 820, which is what I think she flies best at. Alas some one told the rabbits, and they stayed away in droves. This morning was supposed to be very windy, and while it wasn't that so much, it was pretty nipply at 39 degrees. John stayed under the covers out in his 5th wheel home, and I had to do some yelling at Josie to get him to stir enough to turn on his furnace, so that he could get up. We finally straggled out of here around 10:15 or so. Puddy was now down to 800 or a bit less.

As in the last few times at this weight, she was a bit slow to come to the fist. I would have thought that at a low weight I would have to scrape her off the fist, but she is just not as responsive at 800 grams. I had decided to go to the fields by the Alfalfa fields in the hopes that there were more Bunnies that she could chase. So far she is excited about Bunnies, but not Jacks. I just want her to catch something, I am not particular at this stage. The rabbit numbers are way down, bunnies more so. All the Jacks there, are really gun shy, and jump way out in front and do not stop at all. The lighting today with the rain, and cloud overcast made visibility really bad.

We did jump a few Bunnies and Pud put in some shots that had all of us cheering for her. The sad part is that the Bunnies are about twice as hard to catch as the Jacks. by the end of the day she even put in some tries on Jacks. We had walked all of the fields on that side pretty thoroughly with no chance for me to help her. It was obvious that she wasn't going to be able to do anything on her own. Karen was getting pretty tired, so I asked her to take the truck and meet us on the other side of the fields. A distance of about a mile. I just didn't want to walk back after we either got something or gave up. I was pretty sure that neither John or Karen was interested in that walk either.

Once we got away from the fields that had been shot, we started seeing some Jacks. Pud made a few more chases after Jacks, and after one of them, took a perch on one of the Lava outcroppings. While walking towards her in the hopes of flushing a Bunny in her direction, I finally got a chance at a Jack and hit him. She of course chose this time to be reluctant to come to me. When she did, the Jack had disappeared. I started working in circles, she went back to the rocks. Finally I saw what I took to be another young Jack. This one was close enough that I could get a good shot at his butt. I hit him where I wanted to, but Pud again did not want to come to me. I finally got her to come to me with the promise of large tidbits. The Jack was still able to move quite well, and she finally saw him. She wasted no time in grabbing him. At least this one wasn't "road Kill". She was pretty excited, and after I got them sorted out, I finished the Jack by breaking his neck. I gave her all my tidbits, and opened the fur on the Jack. She wanted to drag him to a bush, so I gave her a front leg off a previous kill. She was finally able to disengage her feet from the Jacks head, and she went into a bush to eat her prize. I took advantage of the time to clean the Jack and get another front leg. By the time I got back she was looking for some more food, and came to the fist for the other leg. When I cleaned the Rabbit here at the house, I discovered that it was the one that I had shot earlier. I had hit it in the abdomen just in front of the rear legs. They are tough little critters.

We then had a relatively short walk to the truck and Karen. Pud ate while we walked. When we got to the truck, Karen retrieved the liver and heart for her to eat. When she finished that, she had no more room for any more food.

I will be extremely glad when this phase of the training is over. It is by no means sporting, but it is very necessary. In the wild she would be able to watch her family group chase and capture game. She would be able to perfect her skill in flying in cover and the strikes necessary to be able to make her own kills. They learn a lot by watching. That is where Peg would have been invaluable. The process is called a "Make Hawk". Peg would have shown her the intensity required to actually catch rabbits. She would have helped Peg with the securing of the Jacks, and thus developed the skills necessary to survive. With Peg gone, I am left with the onerous chore of trying in my limited way to teach her these skills. The only thing that I can do is to provide her with as many opportunities to get her feet on Rabbits as I can, and hope that she will figure out how to do it on her own. She seems to me to be extraordinarily slow developing. Perhaps it is the distaste of this phase that makes it seem that way. We put in about three hours today.

Jasper's Second wild kill.

2011-10-04T22:51:00.000-06:00

Today was a bit hectic. Karen, John and I made a trip to town for the monthly shopping resupply for the house. We got back about 4 PM. I called Tami to see what she wanted to do regarding Jasper. I wanted to make sure that he got a chance at some Sparrows this time. Tami and the rest of the crew at the ranch had about 115 calves to vaccinate before any hunting could even be attempted. I wanted to hunt at the ranch since there were lots of possibilities for Jasper there. John and I went over to help out so that we could be ready to hunt as soon as the work was done. I took 5 Sparrows with me to use if necessary. He hasn't made any effort at the Sparrows here at the house, chasing Meadow Larks, Black Birds, and Quail, but for what ever reason, dismissing Sparrows as viable quarry.

The calves have been separated from their mothers and held in a corral. Tami, on horse back, was pushing them into a chute where they could be immobilized, vaccinated, and ear tagged with an ID chip.

Reuben was keeping Dave Supplied with tags, Rosy with the syringe's, Isabel and Sam were keeping the calves coming. My job was to stick a post in behind the calves in the chute to keep them from going back.

We finished about 7 PM, and Tami put her horse up and met John and I at her house. Jasper was really restless and ready to go. It was a bit late, but we took him outside to see if any of the Black Birds were out by the chicken pen. No such luck at this late time, so we went out to the willows behind the garage. There were a few Sparrows there and we started pushing them, to try to get them flying. Jasper was beginning to take notice of what we were doing, and eventually started taking an active part in the chase. We exhausted all the possibilities at the house and made our way down to the new barn. There were a couple of Sparrows in one of the Willow patches there, and Grace, Tami and I started trying to get one of them to break cover. Jasper had taken a perch on a pole in the middle of the small patch of Willows, ignoring the three of us encircling him, kicking the weeds and shaking the Willows. After a bit he saw the Sparrow on the ground running, and dove off after him. Tami was little help since she was laughing so loudly at him trying to bust through the weeds running after the Sparrow. Finally the Sparrow busted and took refuge in another small bit of Rabbit Brush about 20 yards away. Grace fortunately saw where he went, and we flushed him out of there. Jasper zoomed after him so fast that he took refuge in another bush within 15 yards. Jasper bounced off the bush, but took a perch on it, and was peering down into the bush. He soon dived off and had it on the ground.

As you can see this was no skimpy girly cover, at least for a Kestrel. Tami pried the weeds apart and secured both of them and the second kill was in the bag. Tami didn't seem to be that excited.

Yeah right!

I am totally blown away by this little hawk. Tami has done a superb job with him. He requires little in the way of tidbits, she has only to hold up her hand and he is there. He totally ignores the field of beaters as they try to get him quarry to hunt. He is 100 percent try.

Catch up!

2011-10-03T23:56:00.000-06:00

There really hasn't been that much going on, at least not that much note worthy. At best I am teaching Pud to be a serious "roadkill" hawk. She is chasing Bunnies pretty hard, but doesn't know how to make a connection with them. There seems to be fewer of them this year as well.

One of my fields has been pretty seriously shot out by the land owner. The rabbits were just getting too thick for his alfalfa crops. I can't blame him, but it wasn't what I needed. The area that we are hunting in these two pictures borders his fields on the other side. It however is being hunted and used by five Golden Eagles, so it isn't carrying the amount of rabbits that it did last year either. There would be no problem for a hunting Hawk to make a kill in a fairly short time, but that is easier said than done with a new bird that seems to be slow developing. We are still able to find enough rabbits that I can cripple, (lately kill) for her.

It however does require some rest stops in the action periodically. Pud leaves little to be desired as far as hunting with us. She doesn't require constant tidbits to stick with us, or even come to the fist. It appears that 820 grams is a good weight for her. She is the most active at that weight, flying in front of us to the various outcroppings, and not hesitating to come to the Tee Perch or fist which ever is offered.

She made at least two serious tries for Bunnies, crashing into the brush. Of course with her experience or rather lack of it, it will be a while before that bears any fruit. She would score sooner with Jacks if she chased them with the same vigor.

I finally got a decent chance at a sitting Jack, but while the shot looked good, when we walked up there I was looking for the Jack in front of us. I couldn't see any movement. Pud fell off my fist to the stone dead Jack behind the bush I was standing by. Oh well, it goes like that sometime. This time when she started trying to drag it off, I held on to the rear legs, and got a hand full of tidbits. I would offer her one, and as soon as she swallowed it, I would give her another. I did that until all my tidbits were gone. Then I offered her a front leg from the last kill. She grabbed that and let go of the Jacks head so that she could eat the leg. I took the dead Jack to clean it and removed another front leg to give her when the other one was gone. I returned to her before she finished the first one, then when she started to look around for the rest of the Jack, I offered her the next one. She jumped to the fist and we began our trek back to the truck. By the time that we got to the truck she had a seriously bulging crop.

That evening Tami brought Jasper over. We planned to release Sparrows until he caught one. She turned him loose and we tried for a bit to get him to chase some of the numerous Sparrows in my Chicken yard, but he was interested in other things and soon took a pitch of a 100 or more feet over the hanger. I went into the pen to catch the Sparrows in my trap. I caught four and stuffed them into a sock. There was a full grown Quail in the trap with them. I decided to take him to where Jasper was flying to release him.

Jasper was still up there hovering and working his way back toward us, and I tossed the Quail up in the air about 15 feet high. ( "It seemed like a good idea at the time" ) The Quail did not open it wings other than to break its fall before hitting the ground, then started running towards the dog kennel. Some one yelled here he comes! The quail ducked through the chain link fence, and Jasper flew into the chain, trying to get through. At the time I was thinking, "what the hell does he think he is trying to do". I went around behind the kennel and ran a 2x4 under the box to flush the Quail out. It ran into the kennel again and then tried to go out the left side of the kennel. I heard someone say, "he got him"!

When the Quail got halfway through the links, Jasper flashed around the pen and grabbed the part sticking out. The poor quail was in a chain straight jacket and couldn't fight back. Jasper was wasting no time and was digging for the brain with his beak.

It appears that when Jasper saw me coming out with the Quail in my hand, he started a dive towards us. When I tossed the Quail it was intimidated by his stoop and refused to fly in favor of escape on foot. It also appears that if I toss it, Jasper will do his best to catch it. While totally amazed at what occurred, I was still bummed by not being able to toss a Sparrow for him so that we can actually start hunting things that he can catch and hold. Oh well it goes like that sometimes. (have you seen that sentence before? )

This afternoon, John and I decided to go back to one of my fishing holes that I had lost a fillet knife the last time we went fishing. Since today was going to be the last warm day for a while, perhaps the rest of the year, it was a good choice. We arrived and parked the truck and about 5 feet behind the truck there was my knife lying in the road. So far so good.

We rigged up with my usual "never fail" spinner, but neither of us could get a strike. Finally I decided to try some of the plastic worms used in a "Carolina rig". I flipped it out and on the first cast caught a nice Small Mouth Bass. I told John to change, but he was stubborn, so I caught another on the next cast, and he was convinced.

The water is a bit nippy, but you get used to it after a while. The temperature of the water had the bass on the bottom of the river and the worms were just what they wanted. We caught our limit of them and went on home to raise our Mercury levels a bit. ( They recommend that you only eat fish from the Owyhee once a week or less due to the naturally occurring Mercury in the water. )

With our levels fully topped off, we took our naps and listened to the news with our eyes closed. Finally Josie insisted that I go do the evening chores, and on my way back I see a Coyote in the field down by the creek, just standing there watching the house and all the goings on. He paid no attention to me or the dogs, which was a mistake. He doesn't live here anymore.

Puddy update and Jasper gets a bit better

2011-09-27T23:11:00.000-06:00

I have been taking Pud out to the rabbit fields and showing her plenty of Rabbits. She sometimes chases the Bunnies, and occasionally puts a little effort into it. However four days ago, I wounded a Jack for her and she really never even tried for it. I left her without food for two days, then she did the same thing the next time I took her out. I brought her home and left her without food for another two days. She finally lost down to 790 grams today. She does not lose weight seemingly at all. She stayed the same weight for two days and never got any food from me other than tidbits to put her out and back in at night. Maybe she is eating mice during the days in the weathering area. Even at that weight she does not act really hungry. She comes well to the fist, and will follow, but shows little incentive to feed herself.

Today I shot a Jack no more than 80 yards from the truck. Unfortunately I flinched and hit it in the chest rather than the butt. It was still twitching when I got there with Pud. She looked at it with some mild interest, but did not offer to go down on it. I looped my leash around its legs and drug it around her, but got no response. Finally I tossed it by the rock she was sitting on in disgust and intended to try for another. It landed with its belly up and I guess looked enough like carrion that she hopped off the rock and walked over to look closer.

I just sat down and let her do as she chose with it. She drug it into a bush so low that she could do little with the carcass. Finally after 10 or so minutes she started trying to eat the ear. She couldn't get any traction to tear into the scant flesh of the head under the bush, so after 15 or more minutes, I went over to open the Jack. Of course she footed me for my efforts. I let her eat all she could hold. I am not sure that it will improve her attitude or desire, but at least I won't have to fool with her for a few days.

I noticed today that she had broken another tail feather either on the perch or today in her struggle with a dead Jack. Sometimes I despair of her ever achieving the title of Hunting Hawk.

Tami brought Jasper over last night, but there was no wind so he was less interested in flying in a hover. He also showed little interest in the Sparrows, taking off to try to catch a Meadow Lark up in the field by the runway. He took a perch on the top of the hanger, and sat for a while. Tami called him to her and one of the Black Birds that I was trying to hide in my vest escaped. It had a good 50 yards on him, but her took off after it and finally put it in down at the creek. They both went into cover at about the same time, so we were worried that we might have trouble finding him. Fortunately he did not catch it and soon was winging back in our direction. He went into a hover right in front of us. I pulled out another Black Bird that did not have any feathers pulled and tossed it. He stooped after it, scaring it badly enough that after ducking over John and Boyd's head it ran into Boyd's airplane.

I was more than a bit surprised at his ability to press the Black Birds hard enough to force them to cover, since it was not handicapped at all.

Jasper Scores!

2011-09-23T22:50:00.003-06:00

Tami had brought Jasper and all the kids over to the house. A friend, Boyd Young from Utah had come to visit with John Hauck and I yesterday. He had agreed to take the kids flying in his Kolb. I cannot take passengers, and things had not worked out in the past to give them a flight. Grace especially wanted to fly, just to see what it was like, so she was the first to go.

Then Isabel got her chance to go up.

I believe Isabel was scooting back in the seat a bit on this landing. There of course was no problem, but the first landing in an aircraft with that much visibility can be a bit exciting. Reuben, when he got out of the plane from his flight had a grin that stayed most of the day, as did the rest of the family.

Finally Tami got her chance to see the ranch from the air. Boyd was generous enough to take all the kids for a flight. He enjoyed the grins of pleasure that the kids had, the hugs went a long way to make a memorable day for all of us.

After the flights were over, it was time for Jasper to get to do a bit of flying. Heretofore Jasper had ignored Sparrows. We had been giving him only Black Birds because he was less likely to carry them, and after something that size he should be willing to take anything. It apparently doesn't work that way however, so I had a Sparrow on the fishing pole for him. There was no wind and he wasn't that anxious to fly as he was quite a bit heavier than his normal flying weight. Finally I just flipped the Sparrow out and yelled for him. He wasted no time in grabbing it and killing it. He was a bit flighty, but with the line we kept him in the area. We let him eat the rest of the Sparrow. I felt that we would probably have to give him several flights at Sparrows and then he would probably consider them as fair game as well.

Tami brought Jasper over this evening weighing 94.5 and chomping at the bit to go flying. I only had one live Sparrow, and we were concerned that he was going to carry if he did kill a Sparrow, so I went out to the Black Bird trap, and brought two of them to use for bags.

Tami turned him loose, and he flew to the Motor home antenna. We intended to go out of the driveway to see if we could get some action on the various birds hiding in the Sage. As we drew even with the Motor Home, Jasper flashed off the antenna and made a quick turn by the little utility trailer. He was after a Sparrow. There was a smattering of feathers floating down to the ground as he took a stand on the side of the trailer. I told Tami to go around behind the trailer to flush the Sparrow. The Sparrow could not stand the pressure and tried to make a break for it. Jasper however was a bit faster and he caught his first wild head underneath the rear tires of the Motor home. He was pretty excited and looking for escape routes, so I told Tami to crawl in front of the tires to see if she could get him before he decided to book. She had to part the weeds with her hands, but was able to give him a tidbit and then secure the Sparrow. I asked Karen to get a camera while I returned the Black birds to the trap.

I was lucky that Karen had told Tami to stay there with Jasper, so I was in time to get a picture of Tami's best feature. I won't repeat what she said to me. It is sometimes surprising to me how some women don't appreciate our point of view.

Tami crawled out of the weeds, still carrying a few, but with one of the biggest grins that I have seen for a while.

Jasper of course wasted no time in digging into his favorite part.

This little guy is quite a warrior, and about as gutsy as they come. Every thing that has occurred with him from the time of his capture to his handling to this point has been without mistakes. Tami, as well as Jasper have progressed at a pace that cannot be less than very satisfying.

Sponsoring an apprentice can be a demanding process. The process takes two years. It can be fun or it can be very, very disappointing. In my 48 years of falconry, I have sponsored quite a few people, some were so transitory that they left little impression. At least three of them were so dismal that I never finished their apprentice period. All but three of them eventually decided that falconry was too demanding to continue. Of the remaining three, two are female. Last year I had decided that I was done with sponsoring apprentices. The cost had gotten a bit high in emotional disappointment. I am glad that Tami changed my mind. Like Boyd's statement regarding payment in grins in exchange for the flights. The joy and pride that Tami has shown with Jasper, is payment in full.

Jasper and Pud, two days combined

2011-09-20T22:36:00.003-06:00

Pud is still coming down in weight tonight, so we will fly her tomorrow. Jasper however was ready to go. My friend John Hauck is back from Alabama for his fall visit to the West, and seeing Jasper work in person was quite a different experience for him. He is used to Jessie and the Harris Hawks, and Jasper so little, with such big courage, was a big surprise.

We turned Jasper loose and he followed us towards the gate this time rather than go to the top of the hanger. This is the first time that he has done so. Tami called to him to come with us and he cranked up into a hover right over us. I could not resist and I tossed him a Black bird that was hampered a lot less than those that he has been catching. He flew it hard, but wasn't able to keep up with it. He took it at least two hundred feet in the air, and went into another hover. The only problem was that he was over the yard rather than us. I yelled and waved my hat at him. He came towards us without losing any of his height. I tossed a bird that was only slightly more handicapped than the first, but with his height, he drove it to the ground under the Motor home. We were all just a bit agog at his flight, and we made our way to him in a leisurely fashion, thinking that he had caught it. When we got there Jasper was running around under one of my small trailers. While we watched, he turned and looked up in the spring and wheel area of the trailer. He jumped up in there trying to catch the bird. It however crawled out over the tire and made his escape.

The way that I handicap these birds is to pull primary feathers out of one wing. The bird can still fly, some quite well, but it slows them just enough that if Jasper does it right he can catch them. If they get away then the feathers regrow in a couple of weeks or so, and they are no worse for wear. The idea is to help him develop a style that will enable him to catch birds rather than mice and Grasshoppers. Of course his confidence has to be developed in such a way that he will try to catch them. If he believes, he has plenty of ability to make it happen. As I have said before, Falconry is expanding on the things that the bird does naturally, and convincing them to allow you to help and watch.

When the bird escaped we were left with the decision of what to do next. I suggested that Tami might take the opportunity to refresh his lure awareness. While Tami was walking off far enough to call him, he took off and climbed up to about 150 feet. It took me about 2 seconds to hot foot ( yeah right) as fast as I could for another Black Bird. He stayed over Tami for quite a while, and had just moved to another spot still higher than I had seen him. I chucked the bird and yelled. He started his stoop, but since it was a head on flight, he wisely turned in behind the bird and drove it into the ground under John's 5th wheel.

As we were feeding him another friend, Boyd Young, flew in from Brigham City Utah.

Wed. Sept 21

Puddy was down to 800 or so grams this morning, so we all loaded up for the trek to the rabbit field. I am not sure whether or not 7 people in the field bothered her or not, but her performance was not what I had expected. She put in a hard chase on a Bunny, but when I shot a Jack that was slowed but still able to run a bit, she didn't seem to show any interest at all. We followed it for several hundred yards, but she only made one half hearted attempt at it. I had to finally shoot it in the foot to get her to grab it. It took her no time at all to kill it, so I am not sure what was in her mind.

After we got back home, John, Boyd and I loaded up the quads on the trailer and went fishing. This is the third time that I have been fishing all year because the water was so high. It is still high and the trail that we have to use to get to the hole, had suffered a fair amount of water erosion. The road goes down a natural gully and it was apparent that a large amount of water ran down it this year.

We managed to catch some Small Mouth Bass, and of course some Channel Cats.

Tami and the kids came over for a fish fry and Reubon and Grace swam in the pool. It was a bit cool, but it didn't stop them from getting in at least one more swim for the year.

Puddy still heavy, we go hunting anyway.

2011-09-18T15:10:00.000-06:00

Pud was still at 821 grams today, and what has been fat, but her attitude was starved, so I decided to go anyway. It is no wonder that she is feeling neglected as her last hunting day was on the 15th. Then she had only eaten Bunny, which is the celery of the rabbit kingdom.

When I let her out of the box, she went to a fence post and even though I called her quite close up, she declined to come. We walked off and left her sitting there. As I got further away she showed more interest, but still declined the offer of a tidbit. Finally she couldn't stand to be left behind and flew to the perch with no coaching on my part. Soon a Bunny flushed and she gave chase. Not very effective, but a chase non the less. She stayed with us, only flying when either a Jack or a Bunny flushed. She is still flying like a baby, but she is improving, and made several impressive flights at the elusive rabbits. She also tried for Quail a couple of times, but she still doesn't have the flight requirements mastered as of yet.

The grass is extremely high, and rabbits are not as plentiful in Arock this year, but she tried every chance she got and stayed right with me every step of the way. As I was beginning to give up hope that I would get a chance at a Jack, we finally found one that apparently had not heard about my prowess with a pistol.

She was on the Tee perch when I shot, and this time, she only flinched. She saw the Rabbit and wasted no time slamming into him.

The rabbit screamed when she grabbed it and this time, she didn't get scared, just excited. It did not take her long to kill the Rabbit.

The buzzards didn't take long until they were circling over head.

I secured her, and skinned some of the rabbit. I sliced open the chest, hoping that she would get into the chest cavity.

We took the opportunity to catch our breath.

Unfortunately she seems drawn to the guts. I guess she likes spaghetti.

Then as we were walking out, we picked up some curious locals. The dark one with the blase amused himself by blowing into the end of the perch. The others were intrigued by the hollow sound.

If Karen started to lag, the horses would push her with their noses. Puddy was not amused and wanted me to go faster.

As we were driving out, a large dark falcon flew overhead. It was the size and with the naked eye the color of a Raven, but the wing beat was definitely different. I was sure that it was a Peregrine when it took a stoop and a bunch of Black Birds along the road side. I was having a hard time keeping up with her until she found the kettle of Vultures, and stopped to harass a few of them.

There was also a Golden Eagle flying with the Vultures in the thermal. I was wishing for my large camera, but you make do with what you have.

I guess that it is time that I set the record straight. I earlier said that I had not seen a Harris as dumb as this one. I saw the dumb one the other day when I went into the bathroom. As Pogo said, "we have met the enemy and he is us." Puddy is showing that she just might make something out of herself. She took three days to come down from a meal of Bunny, I can't wait to see how long it takes her to come to weight with a meal of Jack in her crop. Oh well, I guess that means that I can go fishing I guess.

Puddy's still fat, Jasper steps it up.

2011-09-17T23:18:00.000-06:00

Poor Puddy is just too efficient. She is still more than an ounce over weight, so she has to wait another day without food. So I spent the day doing things that needed to be done here at the house. I worked on the wood shed, stacked wood, found the problem with the airplane. Needs a new Mag. Fixed a screen so that Puddy doesn't have to sit and watch Jessie eat. Finished a book that I have been reading.

Tami, Grace and Tami's brother TJ showed up with Jasper. He was down to 94.5 so I put a couple of Black Birds in my pockets. The plan for today was to get him away from his comfort zone in front of the hanger. We went over behind the chicken house hoping that he would chase some of the Sparrows that are thick there.

This time I put the video card in the camera and took one of Karen's headbands and secured it to my head. The mount was made for a helmet so it is tilted a bit, and there is no sound. It also is wide angle, so some of the best action is lost in the distance, but it will at least give you some idea of what the little guy is doing.

He ignored the Sparrows all together. This has caused me some concern for quite a while. I know that he has made several shots at Meadow Larks, and did so again tonight, but he has not been chasing Sparrows. I had thought that he was just chasing the ones that we tossed because they where handicapped. Imagine my surprise when he took off after a Black Bird that he saw at the Chicken house. Then it hit me, he doesn't know that he can catch Sparrows. I only catch Black Birds here, my wire is too big to hold Sparrows. We are going to have to find some Sparrows to give him, so that he will know that they are on the menu as well.

He chased the Black Bird down in the creek where it evaded him in the Cattails. He went up on the wire as we were walking down there. We stopped and he went up into a hover and I threw him an unhindered Bird. He chased it for several hundred yards, staying remarkably close to it. I was surprised that he could do so well. He eventually broke off the chase, and went into a hover out in the field in front of the house. He was quite a long way off, and I tried waving another bird at him. Of course he made a bee line straight at me, so I tossed the bird when he got close. He made a grab for it, but it evaded his talons and they both hit the Cattails at the same time in the creek bottom.

We went down with Tami prepared to wade the creek to get him, but he was halfway up in the Tules, so she called him. He couldn't fly since it was too tight, so he dropped to the ground and walked to the edge and then flew to her.

I went to get more birds, and we continued out in the Sage and grass outside of the fence. Jasper took off and went over the open ground to hover, and eventually sat on the fence. He took off from the post and slammed into the ground, flushing a Meadow Lark. He went up into another hover and I tossed a Black bird. He chased it and went back into a hover when it got away from him. I tossed him one that he could catch and and streaked across the sky catching it in the weeds.

Quite frankly I was surprised by his flight today. We are hoping that he will come to understand that where we are is where the action is. We are going to have to get him a few Sparrows to catch. He flew four birds today, and he flew them all harder than I thought that he would, and with more ability than I thought he possessed as well.
http://vimeo.com/29205474 Will take you to the video.

Another step!

2011-09-15T12:20:00.001-06:00

Even though Puddy weighed 810 grams this morning, we decided to take a chance a try to get another rabbit in her feet. It is important to keep the successes coming once you start. I turned her loose in the yard to test her response before we made the drive to the spot that we are hunting. While she was slow, she still came after "thinking" about it.

Once we got to the field and I turned her loose, she sat on a fence post while we walked away. She ignored us for a while, but at the edge of her ability to see us, I waved a glove at her and she flew to Karen on the Tee Perch. She rode with her for quite a way while I looked for Rabbits. They were a bit scarce to my liking, but she did began to hunt and once made an exploratory flight after a running Jack. I circled around them at the edge of a Sage covered point and found a Bunny that thought that he was hidden. I decided that one more Bunny wouldn't hurt her, so I popped it in the butt. Karen walked up and Pud plowed into it as soon as she saw it move.

She again went right for the head and killed it in no time at all. Not wanting a repeat of the messy handling of the guts again, I pulled the skin off the legs of the Bunny, to give her a place to start eating.

She calmed down a lot quicker this time and seemed to be waiting. I gave her some tidbits, and that got her started eating.

After she had eaten for a while, I pulled off a front leg, and gave it to her. She took it and turned around allowing me to clean the Bunny. Before she finished, I had the front end of the Bunny ready for her to finish her meal.

Things are beginning to look up a bit regarding her attitude and actions. She is still very footie and any time your hands get into range, she is going to poke holes in it. If she kills Jacks, I can always heal.

Jasper

We were getting hazardous wind warnings here at the house, so I called Tami to suggest that she come over early to avoid possible problems. It was windy, but within the abilities of Jasper. She turned him loose and he immediately flew out into the field and into a hover. We continued walking towards him, and he soon tired and went to the hack tower to rest a bit. We continued our current path out into the field, and I started calling to him, encouraging him to take to the air. He took off and flew directly in front of us and up into a hover. I chucked a Black Bird and he immediately started a dive after it. The Black bird flew with the wind for a bit, then as Jasper closed the bird took evasive action and they both hit the ground. The Black Bird bounced up and flew into the wind over our heads. Jasper used the wind to regain altitude thus air superiority, and the Black Bird broke and tried to scrape him off on my legs. It didn't work and Jasper caught him about a foot off the ground and they ended up in a small tumbleweed. It was then that I remembered that I had fixed the problem with the video camera. Oh well "pobody is nerfect" Maybe tomorrow.

Puddy makes a giant step!

2011-09-13T12:39:00.002-06:00

Bribery in the form of breakfast at Rome served to get Karen to accompany me to Arock to try to finally get a Rabbit that Puddy could catch. Once I finally was able to come to grips with the fact that she is going to be an 800 gram bird, she has been slowly making the adjustments necessary to be able to eat. One of my problems is that she is so footy, that you cannot get a bare hand close to her without having four puncture wounds in said hand. I finally solved that problem with the bill of my hat under her beak so that she cannot see the hand. Once I could feel her keel it was obvious that she wasn't that big a bird. She has been very slow to mature as well. I suppose that is normal for a Harris Hawk, but apparently not to my thinking.

I was a bit dismayed at the height of all the vegetation at Arock. The Cheat grass is knee high, and there seemed to not be as many rabbit paths as last year. Karen was carrying Pud on the Tee perch, and she was free to fly. Her weight this morning was still at 800 grams, so she has been on skimpy rations for about two weeks. After we had walked a couple hundred yards into the field, she began to want to do a bit of prospecting on her own, and flew to one of the rock piles. Karen put a tidbit on the perch and Pud came as soon as it was offered. Karen saw a Jack bust out behind us, and Pud flew to another rock that has been a haven to the Bunnies in the area. I decided to circle the Sage in front of it to see if I could drive a Bunny towards her. I had not gone very far when a Jack jumped and circled out through the Sage. I attempted to get a view of him, but a Bunny jumped out to my left. I circled around and saw the Bunny frozen just a few feet to my left. My pistol has a red dot sight that even my old eyes can see, and I popped him in the butt. I stuck up my fist and whistled for Pud. She came immediately to the fist, and after she ate her tidbit, I walked up to the area that I had last seen the Bunny. He moved and she immediately pounced on him. No hesitation!

To say that all of us were excited is an understatement. I just stood back and left her with the Bunny. I had not intended to start with Bunnies, but a benefit of a Bunny is that I didn't have to get in there to help her at all. The Bunny was no contest for her at all, so Karen and I just left her to figure out what the hell she had in her feet and what to do with it.

She soon killed it with her constant footing and grabbing, then the only thing left was for her to get over the excitement of having caught something alive. It took her more than five minutes for the adrenaline to subside in her body. To say that she was torqued is a total understatement.

She is very hard on her feathers, because she has no clue as to what they are doing. She ate almost a quarter of the Bunny before she closed her wings. She never ever closed her tail. I had to imp a center deck feather into her tail after the last time we flew her. I fully expect her to be the rattiest Harris Hawk in captivity before the year is ended.

Once the Bunny was dead and she recovered enough to stand up, she had no idea what to do with her prize. She made some tentative nibbles at the fur, trying to figure out how to open this thing. I finally offered her some tidbits on the glove and was able to pull some fur off the legs without getting some new holes in my hand. Once she saw the meat, she of course footed it, then began eating. She knows nothing about guts and soon had a mess going that had us both making disgusted noises. That would be Karen and I, Pud was " happier than a pig in shit". I let her eat most of one side before I even secured her jesses. She finally got into the rib cage after I bared some more flesh for her. In all she ate one half of the Bunny before she could hold no more.

When we got back to the car, I found a spray bottle and tried to clean her feet of some of the gore. After I got her cleaned up I opened the Giant hood and wonder of all wonders, she hopped in of her own accord. Things are looking up and for the first time, I have hopes that she will be a hunting Hawk.

I paid my debt of breakfast to Karen with pleasure. Since I seem to do most of the cooking it is doubtful that Karen was the only one to benefit

Frustration runs rampant

2011-09-12T21:32:00.000-06:00

Sometimes things go so easy that you just can't believe it. Then the rest of the time things are normal, and like pulling teeth. Either I am feeling sorry for myself, or things are a lot more normal than is comfortable. Pud is at the stage that she needs to have a rabbit in her feet and all she can eat. She has learned her lessons of where the food is, and to stick around. I have been trying for about four days to shoot a rabbit for her. Most of my difficulty is due to my restricted vision in my shooting eye, and the rest seems to be Karma run wild.

Karen and I took Pud out this morning, thinking that I would change up on the Rabbits and catch them off guard. I took my rifle with the iron sights. Probably my first mistake, I have trouble getting down on the sights. Its a bitch getting old, but better than the alternative I guess. We found nothing that would sit still long enough to give me a chance at it. Karen was holding Pud on the fist, and not letting her fly. She jumped a Bunny at her feet and Pud tried to fly after it. After that nothing happened and I put her on her perch for the day.

When Tami came over she was telling me about all the Rabbits on their drive way. After we flew Jasper, Karen and I loaded up Pud and went over there. We all walked until dark and I had one chance at a Jack that I repeatedly missed. I intend to go out tomorrow morning to my old Jack field to see if things will improve.

Jasper was up to 96.5 and Tami wasn't sure how he would do, but again he was more and more anxious as time to hunt drew near. Tami had turned him loose and I went back into the hanger to get my new movie camera. When I came out of the hanger he was already in a hover over Tami, waiting and watching. I started running out to where they were and he broke his hover and went up another 10 feet or so. When I got close I yelled and tossed the Black bird. The bird started climbing and heading for the creek. Jasper made a dive at the bird, but it dodged the stoop. Jasper turned and made another which the bird also dodged. Jasper hit the ground and bounced up after the bird. The bird tried to scrape him off on my legs, going on the right side but Jasper cut him off by going on the left side. Another miss by Jasper, but each was closer and the next try he had the bird and the fight was on. Unfortunately the camera batteries were dead, so words will have to do.

Pud actually is improving.

2011-09-11T22:51:00.000-06:00

I have kept Pud to 800 grams, and she is beginning to see the light. Karen and I were left to our own resources tonight. I have been flying Pud late to take advantage of the added incentive to eat before it gets dark. Tonight however was pretty nasty with a storm brewing with quite a lot of wind.

I wanted to wing a Rabbit to give her a chance to see that they can be tasty, but of course there were no volunteers. Karen was carrying the Tee Perch, I was packing a pistol. Pud actually stayed close to us without actually coming to us for a while. I would call her, give her about 15 seconds to respond and then move on. Finally she decided that the only way to get fed was to go to one of us. I gave Karen some tidbits to garnish the Tee Perch, and soon Pud was riding the perch. We jumped a small Jack that just would not give me a shot. I cannot swear to it, but Pud flew over the area where I saw it running, could she have been checking out the possibility of chasing it. I have convinced myself that she was thinking about giving chase.

Pud kept up with us, sometimes flying to nearby fences or to the ground in front of us when there was no close perches for her to sit on. When it finally got too dark for me to see Rabbits, I stuck out my fist with a chunk of Rabbit on it and she wasted no time flying to me. It is going to be tough, but I think she may make it after all.

Jasper still improving!

2011-09-10T22:20:00.000-06:00

Jasper weighed 94.5 grams, and was excited and ready to fly. Tami turned him loose and we started out into the field. He had been really fidgety, wanting to get started. Last night the Say's Phoebe strafed him when he caught his bird. This evening she was sitting on the rock jack as we were walking out. I suggested to Tami that she turn Jasper loose and see what happens. He actually flew towards her, but it was quite obvious that she was in full strength, so he just landed on the rock jack. The Phoebe didn't contest the spot. We continued on out into the field, and Jasper was flying to Tami, back to the jack, then to my head, on to Tami. As we got out to the runway, he took off and flew into the wind and into a hover. As soon as he did, I yelled and chucked a Black Bird. He did not hesitate and tried to take the bird in a head on flight. The bird ducked and they did two or three whoop te do's before he drove it to the ground and grappled with it there.

You will notice that you never see the head on these birds. He grabs them by the head, thus keeping them from biting him and keeping them from getting away. They still put up a pretty serious fight with their feet as well.

Tami helps him as soon as he has control. There is no need to prolong the birds pain and misery longer than necessary.

You will notice that he is lying on his side, while holding the bird by the head. That keeps him out of the danger zone of the bird, and with his wings spread, it can't get up.

Time for desert, the brains.

Discussion time- did you see?, reliving the flight and his performance.

A really nice Kestrel, and as I told Tami later, I can find no fault with the way that she has handled him. He is a gutsy tough bird.

Tami let him eat all he wanted. Tomorrow is Fair day and the kids are anxious to see the sights at the fair, and perhaps get on a few rides while they are there.

Puddy weighed the same as yesterday in spite of all the mice that she scrounged off the lawn. I find it a bit interesting as she cannot see a large red tidbit that I throw on the lawn in front of her, but can pick out a piece of carrion in tall grass.

Even though she was the same weight, she called her baby food call for the first time today. Not a lot, but she has been totally silent until today. I was pleased to notice that she looked for the bunny tonight in the Rose bushes. He wasn't there tonight. I was hoping to see a Jack Rabbit close enough for me to shoot, to see if I could convince her that they were good to eat. Unfortunately every time I saw one, she was somewhere that she couldn't see it if I did shoot it.

We all got a big laugh when she flashed down into the lawn for what she thought was a mouse. Turned out it was a dog turd however. It didn't take her long to drop it.

She is slowly improving, now I just need to get her on rabbits.

Jasper takes the next step, Pud actually gives chase.

2011-09-09T22:00:00.001-06:00

Tami brought Jasper and three of the kids over for his flight tonight. He was at 95 grams, a bit high, but he was acting ready. She turned him loose and tried to get him interested in some of the Sparrows in my Chicken pen. Too soon I guess for that, he was wanting to go to the field where we have been flying him. We worked our way over there, and he soon ran the pigeons off the hanger and took his post. We walked on out into the field, and he soon came to Tami's fist. It didn't take long before he launched himself into the wind and went into a hover. As soon as he did, I tossed a Black Bird out under him. He wasted no time turning over and binding to it. This time I took my little camera with me. It doesn't take as good a picture, but it may be better than my descriptions.

Tami helped him kill it, secured him and sat back to let him have his favorite part. The brains.

We went back to the yard to let him finish his meal. Thayen amused himself by rumaging through my bag.

After he finished his meal, we put him in the shop and I weighed Puddy. She was at 802 grams. Better, but not that much better.

We tried calling her back and forth, but she was quite slow, so I told Tami to go on home, since she was irrigating this evening.

I ignored Pud who was sitting on the chimney. Before Tami left, Pud flew down to the dead tree in the yard. I thought she was looking at a dried up Black bird wing that Josie had left in the yard. Pud flew down to the grass and was pulling on something. I went to see what it was. It seems that Josie had left a dead Vole lying in the yard, and Pud was chowing down on it. Oh well! Josie had caught it earlier when I was working on a wind screen by the Motor home. I called her to the fist when she finished, and started just walking around. I stood on the edge of the walk at the pool waiting to see if any Jacks were going to come up. Pud flew to the Chimney again. I again ignored her. She eventually flew to the rock jack on the far side of the Motor Home. I continued to ignore her. She then flew to the chimney, then to the fence close to where I was standing, then she started hopping a bit closer. I continued to ignore her. She finally in four hops got to within three feet of me. I offered her my fist, and she wasted no time getting on it, and eating the small tidbit there.

A little progress after all. I walked around the front of the house hoping that one of the Bunnies that use the yard was there. No luck! She flew to the fence, I walked around to see if I could flush one her direction. She flew to the yard and was eating something. Another mouse, apparently left there by the Chickens who had carried it over from where I emptied my automatic mouse trap at the hanger. Again I called her to the fist after she finished. We walked around the house heading towards the pool again. I turned the corner and there not 8 feet away was a half grown Bunny.

Well Karen was in town and I am getting desperate, so I stopped. Pud watched, turning her head this way and that. The Bunnie kept on eating, moving a bit closer. Pud watched. Now I really enjoy those little guys, but sometimes sacrifices have to be made. Pud wasn't willing. He eventually hopped off behind the hot tub. We walked on. I decided to check behind the corrals and the mews to see if there were any Jacks there. Pud flew to the hay bales, and eventually flew on out to where I was and took a perch on one of the bird houses. I tried to call her, but she declined the offer. I returned to the house and pool where I could see several Jacks further out in the field. Pud came to me, and I noticed that the Bunny was at the edge of the rose bushes. I walked that way and wonder of all wonders, she took off after the Bunny. He looks so dumb, but generations of genetics told him the right way to go and Pud hung up on some supports for the roses and the Bunny was gone. It didn't matter to me, she actually chased a rabbit, and the cute little darling was still alive, so no alibi was needed.

I let her scrounge around in there looking for him, and when she came out the other end, called her to the fist. We walked around the house, and she took a perch on the Motor home. Soon she flew down to the yard again. You guessed it, she found another mouse that the chickens had left in the yard. Enough was enough, I picked her up afterwards and put her to bed. I doubt that she is going to be in much shape for flying tomorrow, but it was still a good evening. I guess I am going to have to do a doggy poop and mouse patrol before I fly her.

Pud gains weight, Jasper gets serious!

2011-09-08T22:28:00.000-06:00

Jasper was down to weight tonight, and Tami, Reuben and Karen took Jasper out to see if they could find any birds on the ground by the Hack tower. I went to get a Black bird out of my Starling trap in the chicken house. I tied fishing line to the birds leg. ( Thanks Randy for the suggestion) and started towards them. Jasper tiring of finding nothing to chase there, took off, circled up into the considerable wind and started hovering, looking for something to catch. Since he was right in front of me, I tossed the Black Bird out and yelled at him. The bird was tied to my fishing pole, which was in free spool, and it took off towards the hanger. Jasper did not hesitate, but used the wind to cut off the Black Birds escape, and after some interesting dodging and diving, caught the bird. This was the best that he has done so far. I am sorry that there are no pictures, but I have my hands full just trying to set things up.

This is the first time that he has given chase to a bird that is flying. He has refused birds that were so handicapped that they could barely maintain flight. Now if we can encourage him to take a height and hover, which is their normal hunting pattern, I can toss him birds to chase. This will then set up hunting situations for wild game, which is of course the goal.

Unfortunately Pud did well enough that I over fed her last night. It really doesn't take much, as she has a really slow metabolism. She weighed 805 grams tonight. I tried to call her to the fist while I was fairly close to her. She avoided the fist and flew to the gate about a 100 yards away. I tried to call her, but she just sat there. I swung the lure and tossed it in the yard. She flew to it without hesitation. She is hungry enough to be clutchy with the lure, but not enough to come to the fist. I only fed her a minimum amount and put her up for the night. I will restrict the use of the lure from now on. She knows well what it is for, and that is all I need.

Back home again, Pud improves

2011-09-07T23:03:00.000-06:00

I received a call from a fella in Joseph, Oregon, that he thought Peg had killed one of his tame ducks Friday. The area where he lives is just over the hill from the lake where we lost her. I was finally able to get in touch with him on Saturday, and I suggested that he check Google to see what a Harris Hawk really looked like. After checking he called me back and said that for sure it was Peg. So I bit the bullet, and started refurbishing my trapping equipment just in case that I could actually catch up with her.

Monday morning I loaded everything that I thought that I would need and hit the road for a 6 hour drive to Joseph. The area is geared towards tourist with a lot of foundry's for the artist that have flocked to the area. It is a pretty little town and a very pretty area.

Of course the area that I was in was Ranch country, with a lot of wheat, alfalfa, and hay crops. The fella that called me, Charlie Phillips, is the iconic rancher. A weathered face, large walrus mustache, wire thin with Suspenders, slouch hat and a western shirt buttoned tight to the wrists, and the throat. A quiet talking man with a dry sense of humor, and a pleasure to be around. He was building fence when I met him. He worked at it all day by himself, but when he finished it was "pig tight and bull strong." He gave me permission to dry camp on a place that he leased the land.

By camping in the corral, the cattle that he ran on the place would not be able to get into my camp stuff. I drove the roads in the valley all day long. Seeing Red tails, Swainson's, Northern Harriers, A Sharpshin, but no Peggy.

I found it a bit surprising that there seemed to be little in the way of small game. I saw no Quail, or for that matter any birds other than Black Birds. There seemed to be no Rabbits, but there was plenty of Columbian White Tailed Deer. A few Mule Deer were still resisting the invasion of the White Tails.

There are quite a bit of places for sale in the area. Here is one that caught my eye. It is the Crossed Saber Ranch. Two houses, 7 irrigated parcels, 1823 acres total, but only 6.5 Million.

I liked the barn. The houses were not much, but the barn looked interesting.

I put in a day and half driving all the roads looking for Peg, but Charlie told me that the Red Tails were harassing her, so she probably moved on. There was really nothing there but mice and Charlie's tame ducks. If she has made it three weeks, then she is not in much danger of starving to death. My only real hope of getting her back is for her to get caught in someones Chicken pen and he calls the F&Wildlife rather than clubbing her in the head.

Karen and Tami had been working Pud while I was gone, by calling her back and forth to each other. I thought that was a good idea, since Pud likes to think about flying rather than just doing it. Jasper was fat tonight, so it was just Karen and I. Pud was down to 783 grams ( 27.4 oz) tonight. She seemed to be eager to eat. We called her to each other from about 50 yards apart. When Karen called her and she seemed to start thinking about it, I would boost her up in the air, and wonder of all wonders, she would actually fly to her. I guess I just wasn't ready to accept that she might be a 26 or 27 ounce Harris Hawk. A bit puny actually.

When I had fed her all I dared, I left her with Karen and walked back towards the yard, swinging the lure and tossing it to the grassy part. She didn't have to think about it, and slammed into the lure. Much better.

Pud too fat, Jasper and close shave.

2011-09-03T22:53:00.000-06:00

This is just part of the landscape crew that takes care of my lawn each night and morning. I counted 12 total. Perhaps you can understand why I need a hawk to keep them under control. Unfortunately she is too fat to fly tonight. It appears that her flying weight will be somewhere in the middle 700 gram range. She weighed 810 tonight, so another night with no dinner.

Jasper however was down to 92 grams tonight. We flew him yesterday at 97 grams, and he behaved well enough, just wasn't inspired to chase Black birds, so he didn't get much in the way of dinner either. Tami's mother,brother and sister was down for a short visit, so we had a full house for tonight's flight.

She called him a few times to the fist, and he once landed on Tami's mother's head before he flew on to where the food was.

I had the Black Bird hidden under a coffee can, with a string to it so that I could release the bird without being any where around. Jasper took off the fist as Tami walked into position, and most of us either thought that he was going to a new perch or after a Grasshopper. Imagine our surprise when he crashed into the weeds on top of a wild bird hiding in the field. Unfortunately he got kicked off and it escaped. We were all standing around with our jaws dropping, and Tami was in severe danger of hyperventilating. When he came back on the fist and Tami calmed down, I pulled the string on the can, and Jasper gave chase after watching to make sure that it wasn't going to fly off. The bird was pretty scrappy and he had a pretty good fight to subdue it. Tami, moved in to give him a hand by killing it.

Tami held him and let him finish his meal while the gallery took advantage of the pool. I eventually built a campfire and we all sat around and listened to Elise tell Ghost stories. She is five and has quite an imagination.

Now to be completely honest, The last time I flew a Kestrel was in 1963, and I didn't have a clue what I was doing then. I could not say for sure that I am much better off today. So far Jasper is quite willing to take birds on the ground. I guess we will have to try to figure out how to get him to chase them when they fly. He could easily catch any of the ones that I handicap, but so far doesn't chase them. I guess we will keep handicapping them, and eventually he will get so sure of himself that he will give chase. Especially if he goes hungry a time or two.

A bit of an improvement.

2011-09-01T21:35:00.000-06:00

Jasper was too fat to fly tonight. Apparently we were too lavish in our gratitude for his flight, so we were left with Puddy to fly.

I put Pud out in the shop where the big girls stay, last night. She was a bit tricky to pick up this morning, but I got it done with a minimum of hassle. I picked her up and weighed her about 30 minutes before Tami was to arrive, and she weighed 837. I thought that I would give her a chance, prepared to not feed her very much if she didn't work out. She did quite a bit of studying trying to figure out why I was sitting in a lawn chair instead of calling her.

When Tami arrived we started walking over to the Sage on the other side of the property. I set her on one of the rock jacks, and called her to the fist. After an appropriate amount of thinking, she flew to the fist. I gave Tami a chunk and Pud surprised me by flying to Tami. It was only a couple of feet, but it was an improvement. I called her back to my fist, but of course she had to think about it for a while. We walked to the fence and I sat her on a post. I crossed over the fence, and Tami was coming through the fence, when Pud decided that she was scared and flew in a large circle finally ending up on the door support post for the hanger doors. I tried calling her, but she just sat. We kept on in the direction we were going, with me stopping occasionally to call her. I swung the lure and tossed it in the air to try to tempt her to come. Nothing! We walked on around and down into the creek area, not getting that much further away, but we were still 200 yards from her. Finally down in the bottom of the creek I stuck up my fist and whistled. She began to think about it, bending and moving around. She finally took off and came sailing down to us. A covey of about 30 Quail busted out in front of her, but she ignored them and kept coming. She was obviously going too fast for her own comfort and zipped over the fist. Touching it, but not stopping. She continued flying and flew another 100 yards to the rimrock on the north end of the property. I called her again, but she ignored us. I pulled out the lure and called her while swinging it. She took off and was coming, but I threw it too soon, and she couldn't see it even though it was in fairly short grass. She continued on trying to find a place to land, finally sitting in some short grass on the other side of the creek. I again swung the lure and tried to call her. I got her to start by throwing the lure up in the air. It of course landed in some tall grass, and she flared before I could clear it and put it where she could see it. She landed on the hill side about 40 yards away. I tried calling her again, but she stayed put. We walked up the fence and finally crossed still trying to get the lure somewhere she felt she could get it. I finally threw it right in front of her and she was able to see it well enough to commit to it.

Tonight as dismal as it all may sound was a vast improvement for her. She has finally conceded that she has to come to me to eat. Her reluctance to land on the fist while flying so fast is normal. She really doesn't know how to fly or how to control her flight much beyond very basic stuff. The fact that she has to see the lure, rather than knowing where the general area is and look for it is also normal. I didn't feed her very much and she should lose a bit more weight, so she should fly a little more eagerly tomorrow. Now if I can get her over her fear of Rabbits. :-)

Jasper's second bag, and Puddy finally gets hungry enough to come to the fist.

2011-08-31T22:47:00.000-06:00

Today has been a fairly interesting day. I decided to check a couple of ponds to see if they had water. I told Karen that I would be gone for a couple of hours and told her that I was going to check Palomino Flats. I found that both ponds there had water and ducks. As I started back, the Dodge died. Water in the fuel again. I tried to drain the water, but it would not restart. I managed to make the mile and half walk to the highway in time to catch a ride with one of the Hwy dept trucks. Traffic is not that heavy on Hwy 78, so I felt quite lucky. I met Karen at the mail box at Burns Junction, and waited for an hour and a half for the mail lady to finally get there. We then went to the house to get tools to change the filter. We drove all the way out there, and found that I had left the wrench in the shop. We drove back again, got the wrench, and I spent the next hour cussing and bleeding from multiple sharp edges placed to inflict maximum damage on any idiot dumb enough to work on a dodge truck. It still wouldn't start, so we went home and I called AAA to get someone out there to tow it home.

While I was waiting for the tow truck to get to the house, I was puttering around in the shop. I could hear occasional high pitched squeaking. I have had one of the free range chickens that insisted on setting eggs. I let her sit. Of course the other chickens laid eggs right on top of her, so they were not set at the same time. Finally two of the eggs hatched, and since this hen is not one of my best mothers, she took the two that she had and left the eggs. She managed to kill one of the chicks, but I had two more hatch, so I gave them to her. She lost another one, so that made two. I gave the remaining two eggs three days to hatch, them gave up on them and put them in an egg carton in the garbage can in the hanger about three days ago. I finally checked the garbage can and opened the carton. The two eggs had hatched with no incubation other than the ambient temperature . ( How hot was it? ) I couldn't believe it. Since Mom was out in the yard with her older chicks, it was obvious that these new hatched wasn't going to be able to keep up. I fixed a box for them, gave them food and water. One of them promptly drowned itself in the water. It was a standard chick water bottle. Sigh!

The tow truck finally arrived and we took off to get the truck. Batting a 1000, I left the keys at the house. Karen brought the keys to us a bit further up the road. We finally got the truck home for me to worry about later.

Tami brought Jasper over to fly. He had eaten all the Black Bird that he could hold yesterday and still lost a couple of grams of weight. Great, that meant that we fly him again today. She let him loose in the parking area, and called him to the fist a couple of times. He took a perch on top of the old chicken house, and from there he made his first wild kill, a Grasshopper. He regained his perch and flew to Tami, as she was walking away. He again regained his perch and the next time he flew, it was to my head. He stayed there for a while until Tami called him. I flipped out a black bird that I had not handicapped enough, and he gave chase. When he saw that it could fly, he veered off to the top of the hanger. If he had kept after it, he could have caught it. His reaction was nothing out of the ordinary, and he will soon learn that he can catch those kind. I got another Black bird and handicapped it a bit more. He wasted no time grabbing this one. Tami made in to him and helped him kill it. We put him in the shop to finish eating while we picked up Puddy.

She finally got on the fist, and was weighed at 810 grams. About a three ounce reduction in weight. One of the little bunnies was eating on the lawn, and over Karen's objections I decided to see if Pud would go after it. The cute little thing is so tame that we walked to within 6 feet of the bunny. Pud saw it, looked at it, watched it hop away, with no effort to pursue.

I took her out to the hay bales hoping that she would remember that she had flown to me from them. I sat her on the bales and after quite a bit of contemplation, she flew to the perch. I called her again, and again the long wait, and she flew to the perch again. This time she managed to knock the meat off the perch, but would not go down to the ground to get it. I attempted to get her to fly back to the bales. She took a detour and ended up on the fence in the yard. I decided to reinforce the lure and call it a day, in the hopes that I could feed her less, and she would lose more weight. She actually came to the lure quite quickly.

In the 47 years that I have been doing this I have never spent so much time with a bird and gotten so little in return. I sent off for a capture permit for a wild bird today.

Puddy update and Jasper entered to game.

2011-08-30T22:49:00.000-06:00

I put Puddy outside in the weathering area Monday morning. I tried to get her to jump to the fist so that I could weigh her and if she acted right, fly her. In the evening when I put Jessie up for the night she again refused to come to the fist. I left her in the weathering area overnight. She got no food. This evening I again went in and tried to get her to jump to the fist for a tidbit, she again refused, same treatment. Perhaps tomorrow evening she will see fit to at least come to the fist so that I can feed her.

Tami and Tara brought the kids and Jasper over after dinner. Karen volunteered to be the lifeguard for the kids while we flew Jasper. We turned Jasper loose and Tami called him to the fist a couple of times. He showed no hesitation at all. We walked out into the rough on the other side of the runway, and while Tami, who was about twenty yards away, walked to meet us, I slipped a Black Bird out onto the ground. Jasper immediately gave chase and soon caught it, taking it to the ground to fight it out. He soon gained the upper hand and had control of the bird. He paid no attention to either Tami or anything other than the bird that he had in his feet. Tami killed the bird and let him start to feed. Since he seemed to not be concerned by her presence, I advised her to try to pick him and the bird up to finish his meal. He made no objection at all and finished his bird while we watched the kids swimming in the pool.

Tami has done an excellent job with this Kestrel. It has been a source of amazement to her the difference between a December bird and one from a family group. It is a bit like two different species. The young birds have no bad habits, no preconceived ideas of how to do things. A much easier, much more fun proposition.

Puddy, on a diet again.

2011-08-28T22:38:00.001-06:00

I tried to fly Puddy free again last night. She was awful. She was at 870 grams. Not much higher than the last time that I flew her, so she can go without for a few nights. Perhaps soon she will get the idea.

Tami and her sister Tara, came over tonight with Jasper, and of course the kids. The kids were to swim after we flew Jasper. Tami has had some scares with Jasper in that there are a pile of Barn Owls in the trees both at their house and in the trees around the houses. The little guy is on edge all the time. She was reluctant to turn him loose because of the way that he had acted last night. Here, however he did not make a bobble, coming either before or as soon as he was called.

Tami has been concerned that he wasn't made to the lure well enough to come to it in an emergency. I suggested that she increase the amount of food on the lure. Tonight she used half of a Starling breast and the wing. Nice and visible. He had flown to one of the rock jacks in the yard, ready for another call. Tami threw the lure in the yard, he took off immediately but of course the creance caught on a weed, so he diverted to her head. She jerked the line loose, and as soon as he had the slack, he flew to the lure.

While he ate we discussed today's lesson. Jasper showed none of the unease here at the house, that marked all his flights at the ranch. We decided that she would bring him here when work at the ranch allows to continue his lessons.

Tami, and Tara

Jasper finished his meal while the kids were swimming in the pool.

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Today the Firestar, Dart, proved its worth. There is a set of springs that have the appearance of being bottomless in one of the fields that the cattle are kept in at the ranch. Most of the cows stay out of them, but occasionally one of them blunders into one of them. If they are not found in a timely manner of course they eventually die. When the weather allows I generally fly over it to check. Most of the time there is nothing there, but today I spotted what I first thought was a calf in one of the potholes. It took me about four passes to decide that it was a full grown cow, but only her head and a bit of her shoulders were sticking out.

Dave, Tami's husband, took the catapillarTractor out to pull her out. That is about the only thing that will travel over the swamp and has enough guts to pull a stuck cow out of that mess. She was so tired that Dave had to prop her up with the blade. When he went back this evening to check on her, she had gotten up and moved to another part of the field.

Bumbling, stumbling, Sigh!

2011-08-26T22:54:00.001-06:00

Still going through the baby stage I guess. I tried yesterday to give Puddy a bagged rabbit. She is apparently not ready to even consider that a Jack might be something that she wants to get close to. In fact she was afraid of it. I did get her to eat off it, but nothing about the exercise sunk in or made any impression.

Tonight as I was doing my evening chores, Josie chased a half grown bunny into one of the Black sewer pipes lying in the loading chute by the corral. Great, I thought, a small Bunny rabbit is just what she needs. I hurry back to the house, put Jessie up on her evening perch, leaving Puddy tied to her perch in the weathering area. The weathering area is 10X24 feet long, covered and enclosed by Chain link. I had Karen check that there were no holes in the far end that the Bunny could get out of. I then put my hand over the end of the pipe, and stick it up in the air so the bunny can't get out. I shook the pipe until I slide the bunny out towards Puddy. The bunny runs like heck to the end of the weathering area where she is sitting. She flares her wings in surprise, the bunny makes a hard right and squirts through the chain link like its a 10 foot hole and disappears under the motor home. Sigh! Seemed like a good idea at the time.

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Tami's corner

25 August 2011

Tonight Jasper weighed 90.5 grams. I changed up as we talked about and went behind the barn to fly him. He responded really well and every time he flew to me I moved to another spot. Although I couldn't get too far away from him due to the weeds and other obstacles hanging up the creance, he flew to me every time I asked without dallying. He is starting to leave my fist to choose a landing spot as I start to a new location, instead of me always having to set him somewhere. After calling him to me several times, he flew to the top of the gate post. I tossed the lure for him, and he got on it without hesitation. Using a larger piece of meat as you suggested seems to have drawn him much better. It took him a while to eat the wing and breast off the lure as he systematically plucked every single feather off the darn thing. We averted what I considered a near crisis, but which didn't seem to be such a big deal to him, when the cat sauntered over to see what was going on. I tossed a rock at the cat as he drew near which did nothing but spur him on to Jasper all the more quickly. I hurried over to Jasper, sure that I was going to spook him off the lure or, even worse, the cat was going to get him. By golly, if he didn't just mantle a little as the cat got close and I slipped up and stood over him, shooing the cat away. He never even tried to leave.

26 August 2011

Dave and the three oldest kids are up at camp for a few days starting more cows home, so I have to stick pretty close to the house to keep track of the two little ones. Tonight Thayen wanted to come help me and he followed me along as I walked around the house flying Jasper too me from different spots. He was very responsive even with a busy two year old running hither and tither. When we got to where I have flown him the most, in the driveway where there are no weeds, I tried to get farther away from him, but he would fly to me before I could get very far. A good sign, I guess. We worked our way back around the house and he flew up on the chicken house roof. I considered this a good place to end the lesson, so I threw the lure out for him, but he didn't come down. Too far out with him being up on the roof, maybe? I retrieved it and swung it again. He started to fly and I tossed it, but although he sort of made a movement like he was going after it, he was too close to me and landed on my head. Again. He jumped off my head on to the lure, but it sure makes me feel like the bumbly amateur that I am. Sheesh. He continues to come to me well from the lure, but I sure would like to see him get on it more quickly.

Take Care,
Tami
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Don't worry about it Tami, apparently you caught the "bumbly amateur " part from me. Sigh!