Girls day out

The weather has stayed a bit more moderate and Sue and Peg are getting a bit more acclimated to the cooler weather. They are also carrying more weight than I would normally fly them. The snow has for the most part passed around us so far, so there was no reason to not hit the Sage for a bit of exercise. Both Tami and I have missed the excursions with the Harris's. The sky is very overcast with snow threatening, but there isn't much on the ground at Arock.

Both Peg and Sue were pursuing with enthusiasm, but other than piles of rabbit fur we weren't getting satisfaction. The rabbits have changed, in more ways than one. Until recently the only hawk that was getting kicked off was Peg. Today however, Sue had at least three get away, leaving lots of fur on the ground. She whacked one right in front of Tami, and she hit it hard enough that she flipped head over heels. Peg also pulled some hair as well. All of this is with the Jacks, Bunnies do not stand a chance to get away once they are caught.

The Bunnies were running hot and heavy, and escaping with monotous regularity. The girls apparently had missed the hunting as well, and were really turning on the gas.

Sue ripped through a bush hard enough to shed a few feathers with the Jack loosing some hair as well. Finally they got on one that they each missed several times. Finally Sue made another grab and far off in the distance I could hear a strangled scream. We made our best time getting there, but soon we saw Peg jump up on a bush. I thought that perhaps they had lost him. As we got closer, I could see Sue on the ground. That meant that she had him by the head. Peg will help if the head is clear, but steps back if Sue has the head.

If you recall, I mentioned that the rabbits have changed. If you will notice by the color of my ears and the location of my hands, I am doing my best to separate the Jacks neck. I don't know if it is just the fact that these guys have finally reached their full growth, or if they are getting tougher. ( or me weaker) Any way while I like to catch rabbits, I would prefer that their deaths be as quick and painless as possible. Breaking their necks is quick and used to be easy. Knives around hawk toes are a bit chancy, besides they bleed all over the place. The only other solution is suffocation. I hate that almost as much as the rabbit does. I finally was able to get the job done, but it wasn't easy.

As you can see it is no little rabbit. Through it all Thayen slept like the proverbial baby.

Ditch Hawking, again

Our weather has been a bit too much to fly the Harris Hawks, so I have been giving them just enough food to keep them ready to fly if things improve. If there is snow on the ground, one just as well stay at home. Sue will try, but Peg just stays with us without giving it serious effort. I don't blame them. They just aren't suited to cold with wet snow.

The storms while they for the most part go around us at least give us nice sun rises as a consolation prize. The first one was two days ago, the second this morning.

It was a bit nipply this morning at 15 degrees. I put Jessie out, but left the girls inside until it warmed up a bit more. Bruce called about 10:00 AM telling me that he was coming over. I went out and put the charger on the airplane battery just in case the weather held and I could fly the ditch and Lake to check on Duck locations. The last two times that I have flown Jessie on the Lake there was nothing but Swans and Coots. Neither of which are suitable falcon quarry. The Swans are huge and the Coots won't fly 99 percent of the time. I decided that we would have better luck on the Creek especially since we would be hitting it with at least three people to bracket the Ducks. Without enough people the Ducks only fly up and down the ditch, diving into the water to evade the falcons stoop. If you can bracket them, they have to fly away from the water and give the falcon a chance to catch one.

Bruce arrived at 1:30 and the wind was still manageable. I checked the battery and the engine fired up, so I rolled Dart out of the hanger and took off after the engine warmed up. There were Ducks all up and down the ditch in clumps here and there. I marked two of the best looking possibilities on my way to the Lake. The Lake had four Swans, and three or four smaller Ducks. The ditch looked the most promising.

After landing and putting Dart back in the hanger,  I checked my Starling trap. It was full of Starlings and I put one of them in my vest. We loaded Jessie and Betsy up and drove over to Tami's.

Bruce was up first and after getting Jinx ready we walked to the back of Tami's house and made our plan. There was a bunch of Ducks on the ditch just down the creek from her house. Bruce turned Jinx loose and we waited until she was showing signs of wanting to play. Our position was perfect and we hit the Ducks perfectly. They started lifting off and Jinx swooped down and snatched a Gadwall out of the air right in front of us. Bruce found a spot shallow enough to wade and went over to pick her up.

The cows that were in the field had decided that they needed to be some where else. There was a possibility that they disturbed the next batch of Ducks that I wanted to fly with Jessie.

After Bruce fed Jinx, we put Jessie's transmitter on and put her in the air. She hasn't flown for a few days and it was a really nice day, so she spent some time trying to get some lift off the rising hills behind the Creek. A female Prairie came in to visit, but left without causing too much of a disturbance. Jessie just wasn't coming overhead, just circling back behind us. Finally she began to get tired and came up, but not where I hoped the ducks would be. I thought then that they had moved, and sure enough the creek was empty. We began to move down the creek, which is almost a sure way to not get a decent chance at a Duck. Jessie was back over behind us trying to get some lift when a Golden Eye came flying up the creek. Not sure how, but from all appearances had not seen Jessie. Well, Jessie saw him and turned on the power cutting between him and the Creek. Just as he began to approach the Creek, she reached out a long leg and gathered him in, flying hard enough to clear the ditch and the Cattails on the same side of the Creek that we were on.

Reubon was with us today and perhaps for the first time got to see birds taking something. He got a comfortable seat by Jessie and watched her as she ate.

After she had broken in and had eaten some of the Duck, I walked up with the Starling, and she couldn't leave the Duck fast enough to get to me. Bruce ripped a wing and half of the breast off the Duck and after Jess finished the Starling, I gave her the half of Duck to finish her meal. It is supposed to storm again tomorrow, so she will have time to get her weight back down to normal.

This is the first time that I have seen a Golden Eye here, although Bruce says that they have them in Boise. Today was great. The weather was perfect, no wind to speak of, and actually warm enough to be tolerable. Both birds were able to take a Duck, and we were alive to see it.

Visitors

The weather has continued to improve. It will be warmer, but we are supposed to get a lot more snow over the weekend. Oh well, at least is isn't that bone chilling near zero stuff. Hopefully the wind will stay down as well.

I got a call from Bruce Haak this morning. He was freshly back from the NAFA meet in Kansas. He had flown in yesterday on a commercial flight and was anxious to get his Falcon over something to hunt. I told him to hurry on down and we would be able to get his bird a slip at the Lake. With all the cold weather everything is frozen over. Actually the weather in Boise was worse than ours had been as they had snow cover. We at least had no snow. I had planned to take the girls out to catch rabbits at Arock, but plans were changed to accommodate Bruce. We could always hunt the girls on the ranch, even though there are few rabbits living here. We were only required to show them some rabbits, it was up to them to catch them. I felt that we should be able to turn up a couple at least.  The only real fly in the ointment was that the ducks only use the lake to rest during the middle of the day, then leave in the early afternoon to feed in the creek that flows out of the Lake through the ranch. Bruce didn't arrive until 2:30 PM.

We hurried to the Lake and finally put his bird in the air. She is a sister to Jessie from a different year, the only other difference is that Jessie flies at a heavier weight, and is cranky. Having her lighter would not improve her attitude at all, probably only make her meaner. Bruce had the parents of both of these birds in his breeding project and was nice enough to give me an opportunity to fly Jessie.

After Jinx was in position, we moved up to the Lake, unfortunately we were a bit late and the only thing that it held was one duck and two Coots. The Duck snuck out while Jinx was checking other portions of the Creek, leaving only the Coots. Bruce went to the far side and started kicking around in the reeds where the Coots were hiding, finally kicking them out and towards the end of the pond where I was standing. I waved and yelled and they decided to leave the pond and go down the ditch that held water. Jinx swooped down and scooped one of them out of the air.

That has to be the first time that I have ever seen a Coot in a position where a Falcon could even have a chance at catching it.

After we got back to the cars, Tami and I hustled to the area where I wanted to hunt. We Got the girls out and began walking the Sage. In total we jumped four Jacks. Peg got her feet on one, but it strained her through the Sage breaking her grip. Finally as we started back to the car a Jack jumped near Bruce and I and started up the hill away from us. Sue gave chase and grabbed him in the butt as she over flew him, flipping both of them in a full circle in the air. The Jack tried to pull her through a small bush, but it was too small. I circled around in front of him causing him to turn to the right. She reached around the bush and grabbed him in the head, and it was all over.

We fed them up as soon as I got the Jack killed. I didn't want to catch any more Jacks at the ranch. They are scarce enough as it is, and I really need the populations to improve so I won't have to drive so far next year.

Nov 24th, clear and cold

The wind finally stopped, but the cold that comes with a Jet Stream out of interior Canada makes it really miserable. The wind, sometimes up to 35 mph, was thankfully during a warmer trend than we are now contending with. Most of the country around was at or below zero this morning. Today however dawned clear and very crisp. We had 7 degrees here at the house. I left all three birds on their perches in the shop yesterday because of the wind. I could have stuck Jessie outside, but there was no point.

The ranch was shipping cattle this morning, so Tami and I decided to go hawking after noon. It makes more sense any way when it is this cold. All the ponds are now frozen solid, and the only place that there are ducks is at the artesian lake on the ranch, and the creek coming out of it. The ducks here on the ranch feed on the creeks in the morning and evenings, so the best time to hit it is in the middle of the day. The only problem with that is that there is sometimes Geese on it as well. Jessie last year killed two "honkers" off of the lake. I would prefer to not tempt her again as sooner or later one is going to kill her.

I took Betsy with me today to help out. Curly was good at finding and flushing ducks out of their hiding places. Betsy's speciality is staying with Jessie and her presence is a deterrent to anything that might want to attack Jessie. Eagles are my prime concern.

We turned Jessie loose at the fence and began our walk to the Lake. I had forgotten some of my equipment, and returned to the truck. By the time I got back to Tami, I couldn't see Jessie. Finally I located her up about 4 or 500 feet. We hurried on to the Lake, and what with watching where I was going I lost sight of her. When we got close, neither one of us could find her in the sky. I pulled out the receiver and from what I could tell she was up there somewhere, higher than my vision could find her. I have no clue how high she was. Finally I gave up and just started walking to the Lake. There was a group of about fifty Geese on the Lake that flew first. Jessie came rocketing down and thankfully did not grab any of them. There was also a Tundra Swan on the Lake as well. It stayed on the water and watched. Jessie kept fooling around trying to catch ducks that were flying down the creek, and screwing around. She made several tries, but either couldn't or didn't hit any of them. By this time we were down to three Teal next to the reeds at the end of the Lake. They flushed our direction, but Jess was out of position once again. The Swan finally took off and headed South West. Jessie was flying in that direction as well. We walked back to the top of the hill with me tying a Pigeon leg on the lure to call her down.

In retrospect, I should have sat down and waited for her to get back up again,  she will usually catch something on one of the subsequent flushes.

When we got to the top of the hill I was calling for Betsy, since she was nowhere in sight. Finally I heard her barking way off to the South. We looked and found her circling a large white object more than a quarter of a mile away in the Sage. Now I will be the first to admit that I didn't see any of this as it was happening and I can only guess what happened, but soon Jessie came from that direction to land on the lure. Betsy was out there running circles around the Swan, just like she did the last time that Jessie took a Goose. Why was the Swan on the ground after flying only a quarter of a mile from the pond. Why would it land in the Sage. I'm not sure that it could take off from the Sage. They generally have to take a running start to get airborne. I believe that the little stinker drove the Swan to the ground, and Betsy was out there trying to help her with it. I will be the first to admit that she has more guts than brains, so it is more than probable that is what happened.

Tami and I dropped Betsy and Jessie off at the house and picked up the Harris Hawks. The temps had warmed up to 24 degrees, and I felt that they would be able to handle the temps. When we drove into the Sage to where we intended to hunt, Tami pointed out a Golden sitting on one of the rock outcroppings. She flew when the truck neared and I didn't think any more about her. The girls were off chasing a Jack that refused to be caught even though they were relaying him pretty good. Tami yelled that the Eagle was coming back. The girls were both on the ground and really vulnerable. The Eagle was coming down from quite a height and she was in a full serious dive. I ran yelling and screaming at her, and she thankfully broke off her attack, and flew to another part of the area. That was the first time that any of the Eagles had even showed any interest in us. It was a Juvenile and probably was blown in on the storms.

We had some really great chases that were happening really close to us, but while they were exciting, the rabbits were winning. One Bunny that they were chasing was looking over its shoulder watching the pursuing hawk and ran straight into a Sage bush, knocking it back on its butt. It recovered fast enough to still make it to its hole before the hawk caught up. Sue was working on her "towering stoop" and she was really putting the scare into the Jacks. I am not sure but what she pulled hair from more than one. One that was close to me, was grunting like a little pig as he twisted and dodged. I had determined that when we caught one we would leave, as I wasn't sure how much of this cold they could stand. Peg was beginning to show some effects of the cold as we finished our circle back to the truck. At last a Jack jumped close by and Peg slammed into him with Sue close behind.  We wasted no time in feeding the girls all they could eat and putting them in the truck. I'm not sure how long I will be able to fly the girls if this weather doesn't break. I had hoped to be able to fly into January, but this cold is hard on them. Sue was shaking with the cold as we were feeding her. 

Stormy skies are here again.

Well it looks as though the easy times are gone for the year. We have been treated to some weather over the last week or so that has been putting a bit of a crimp in the life style that we would like to lead. Of course it is worse almost every where else, even 10 miles either direction. Ah well, some one has to be spoiled, it might as well be me.

Hunting the Peregrine is no problem with the wind and the snow. The only difficulty lies in the ponds freezing all the ducks out, but I have an edge here, in that the artisan pond on the ranch where Tami lives does not freeze. No matter the temperature. The Harris Hawks are a different matter however. Coming from the Southwestern deserts, there is no reason for water proofing on their feathers, so snow is out of the question. They also don't seem to have the weatherization that is required to withstand the wind and cold. So these cold and snowy days are really tough on them, and I don't hunt them in those conditions.

I haven't hunted them for quite a while because of the stormy conditions. The snow is mostly gone here, so I put them in the truck thinking that if nothing else I would let them fly as much as they could stand after I flew Jessie.  The temps this morning was 31 degrees and the wind was howling, so I put off hunting until around noon. The wind was bad enough that it wore out most of the light snow that we had. I had decided that I would take Jessie over to the Lake on the ranch since the ducks like to go to the lake to rest after their morning feed, then hunt the girls on the way back. The rabbits are scarce, but if nothing else it would mean that they would get a chance to fly for a bit.

The wind really kicked up by the time that we got in position at the lake. Jessie didn't even look around when I struck her hood. She just launched into the air. The wind was blowing about 25 with gusts to 35. She really didn't take that much of a pitch, but she hung around the pond. I flushed one group of the ducks that were on the pond, but she was too close and they weren't about to go over dry land, and they splashed back down. The wind was just too much and although she tried every thing she could, they either splashed back into the pond or the ditch leading out of the lake. I finally called her down to the lure, and we called it quits.

We took the girls out of their boxes and figured that we would if nothing else, walk a bit and if they showed signs of distress, feed them up for the day. The wind was really strong, and it seemed as though we were walking in a vacuum. The cover there is mostly Grease wood and it appeared that the few rabbits that used to live there had moved out. We walked a large circle of several hundred yards without seeing anything. I decided that enough was enough and started back to the truck. We had ventured down close to the fence that enclosed the pasturage of the ranch, a Jack jumped up and sprinted across the wind. Both birds were after him as soon as he moved. Sue caught up to him and rolled him, but he kicked loose. Both girls were in hot pursuit and caught up to him in another 20 yards. Sue took a shot at him, and he ducked around a Grease wood bush, but Peg was there as well. He ducked her, but by that time Sue was back and had him by the head.

I had worried about them getting rusty and slacking a bit with them not hunting much, but if anything it made them try harder. It doesn't get much better that one up, one down.

I was quite happy to call it a day, and feed them their meal.

Curly and Indy!

 Photo by John Hauck

In a lot of ways this has been one of my better years. In the area of hunting companions it has been pretty tough. We mourn the passage of Indy and Curly, two of our hunting dogs. Indy had been with us for 18 years. Really quite unbelievable that she would last that long. She was of course pretty feeble for at least a year, so her passing was expected.

Indy was a real sweetheart, lovable as could be, but terribly camera shy. I could rarely catch her off guard enough to take a picture of her. The above was taken by Larry Bourne while she was distracted by my bird.

We got Curly when Indy was 8 years old with the thought that when she died he would be in his prime and I would still have a pointer able to assist me with the hunting. Of course she stuck around for much longer than that.

Curly was one of the most fiercely independent dogs that I have ever had. He had such a drive to hunt that it was hard to keep him at home. A shock collar with a one mile range helped me to overcome that. He really began to shine when we moved to the high desert. His prowess this year with the Pack Rats was remarkable, but his main value to me was Duck hunting with the falcons. He had no compunction about diving into the water after a duck that refused to fly with a falcon over head. The size of the water made no difference. He could be counted on to find the ducks where ever they hid. Of course being a Brittney, lovable came along with the package.

It really didn't matter what you wanted to hunt, Curly was up for it. I guess the shocking part of his passing was that he didn't look his age, and I wasn't ready for him to go.

Jessie again.

The wind stopped sometime in the night, and it was cold. Jessie was down in weight enough to be nice and was imploring me to take her hunting. I got every thing done at the house and Karen agreed to come along. Tami was helping at the ranch today as they were shipping cattle. There was snow falling a bit north of the pond.

I have been having trouble spotting where Jessie and her victims had been ending up as the pond at Appendix Point is quite large and the Sage at the far end is pretty big, so I decided to go up on the cliff to flush. There was quite a large bunch of ducks on the pond again.

Betsey likes these days when it is only Jessie that is hunted. It means that she can go along, and does she ever like that. She hyperventilates something terrible. There is nothing that one can do to stop it, so we have just learned to ignore it, mostly.

 I turned Jessie loose and Betsey and I started around the hill to get into position. Karen had included the walkie talkies today so I was able to ask where Jessie was. Karen informed me that she was sitting on one of the cliff rocks on her side of the pond. Betsey and I took a seat to wait her out. Soon Jess was taking a pitch over the pond. When she leveled out, we walked down towards the edge of the cliff. There was a whole flock of ducks and they busted out the other side. Jessie came sizzling down and smacked a Mallard into the ground. They however are a tough bird, and he floundered his way back into the water before she could get turned around to catch him. Jessie then changed course and flew towards the end of the pond at about twenty five feet. I lost sight of her and assumed that she had sat down on my side of the hill to rest. She didn't show and I couldn't see her, so I decided that I would just call her to the lure. Well, she wasn't there. I had the telemetry with me so I started trying to find her. The signal kept coming from the Sage at the end of the pond. Again I had trouble pinpointing her position. I tried every variation that I could try and I could not find her. Standing in the road the signal pointed out across the sage. Walk out there and it pointed back towards the hill. I spent at least a half an hour trying to find her. Finally I turned the damn thing up with all the elements out and stumbled on her, tucked under two Sage bushes.

She had eaten all the fat off the breast of the Gadwall that she had somehow caught. I guess she intimidated him badly enough that he just gave up. She shouldn't have caught anything with the way that the flight unfolded, but as I have said before- "The girl makes things happen".

I shouldn't have been able to pick her up at all, and if she had done anything other than pick fat, she would be sleeping under the stars. Probably pissed at me for not bringing her in the shop where it is warm.

I changed Satellite providers for my email today. A product of the "recovery act". I get monthly service for $39.99 rather than the $52.00 that I had been paying.