Here we go!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.