Jessie finally relents.

Tami and I decided to hunt early today, she, because her Mother was coming, and I, because I was going to have to hunt three birds. A lot to do and not enough time in the day.

The wind was supposed to come up later in the day, so at 2 PM I drove over to the ranch and Tami, Isabel and I walked out to the field with the Harris'. Both girls were anxious, but the rabbits had seen them before and were busting a long ways out. Yogi was taking slips that were as much as 200 yards out, all to no effect. We made a circuit of the field and finally Puddy grabbed one. Yogi wasted no time in anchoring the Jack. Since we were on short time, we walked back to the entrance of the field hunting as we went. They had a couple of other chases, but were not able to connect. I tossed them their meal on the ground, and after they finished, leashed them up and went back to Tami's house.

Meg, Tami's Kestrel, was ready to fly, so we got things ready. We called Karen, who had stayed home to get the car ready for the upcoming falconry meet in Madras this weekend. She agreed to come over and bring the dogs, so that we could hunt Jessie when we finished with Meg.

We flew Meg free yesterday for the first time. Tami called her to the fist several times, and I had a Starling on a fishing pole to give her her first bag. Meg is quite jumpy and is going to be a bit of a problem with wild game. When I flicked out the bird, she was unsure and did not seem to realize that it could be a food item. After a bit of studying, she gave chase, but missed. She flew back up to the fence, but the bird was still there. I think she made three attempts before she finally made contact. The bird was giving her quite a tussle, but she would not allow Tami to help. Tami stayed back and let her wallow it around until she finally killed it. Meg was still ready to bolt with her prize, so I split a dried weed and had her put a tidbit in the split and offer it to her while she was giving the food call. Well that seemed to be different. Tami stayed kneeling down in a very awkward position and fed her tidbits until Meg finally allowed her to help with the bird and feed her tidbits.

 Today she was back at weight and we wanted to continue our lesson. She was actually a bit lower in weight than yesterday. Meg wanted to fix that situation and sat on a fence post scanning for bugs of any type. I flicked the Starling that had volunteered for today's lesson out, and today Meg wasn't wasting any time. At the first wing beat, she was off and after the bird, who had attempted to take refuge under my feet. They did a couple of loops around my feet and Meg caught him right where she is in the picture. I didn't dare move, but she paid me no mind at all. They were wrestling around in the hay in front of me, and Tami and I agreed that she should help her, if she would allow it.

Tami met no resistance from Meg at all, and was able to kill the bird by crushing its skull. She gave her a tidbit, and opened the skull for Meg's favorite part of the meal. Tami clipped her leash up and continued to feed her tidbits as she ate. I was very pleased to see that the reaction today was totally relaxed and she showed no desire to flee with her prize.

Karen had shown up in the meantime, so we left Tami with the tedious part of falconry, and went to see if Jessie had seen the light.

Jessie was down to 780 grams, and had begged me to pick her up as I was getting the Harris' out of the weathering area. I had not intended to take her out until later in the evening, and quite frankly wasn't looking forward to it at all. She managed to make me feel guilty, so I picked her up and took her with me.

Karen and I drove to the Lake, ( beginning of Crooked Creek) with two happy dogs. Betsy fogged up the car with her constant panting. Its been a while since they had been able to go hawking and they had missed it a lot.

The wind had picked up a bit, but it was still flyable. I turned Jessie loose out of sight of the lake and we began our walk to see what we had on the water for a choice. Jessie began to get her pitch and here came a Prairie Falcon who resented her presence at her favorite spot. She made a few feints at Jessie, who responded by making a grab at the Prairie. The Prairie took the hint and decided to go somewhere else for a while.

When I could see the lake, my heart sank. There were only a couple of smaller ducks at the far end by the reeds. I was pretty sure that this was going to be another disappointing flight. Even if Jessie did want one of them, the odds were stacked against her. The dogs happily ran at the water and apparently flushed a couple of them. Jessie gave pursuit, but she was out of position and they cut back through the trees and back over the water. They decided to  not land because of the dogs, and as they attempted to climb out over the reeds Jessie clobbered one of them back into the water. She hit him hard and he landed in the water upside down. Curse words never left my mouth, but they were there. I walked down   towards the Lake, and for some reason the clobbered Duck lifted off over the reeds and he and Jessie disappeared behind the trees.

 I am not sure if the dogs flushed him, or he just wasn't thinking straight, but whatever the reason, I was very thankful. She needed no assistance, and I wasn't going to give her any even if she did. I sat and watched her eat, while the dogs explored every nook and cranny ( muddy nasty spot) at the lake.

I let her eat for a while, and then offered her a Starling, and she stepped on the fist like a ??lady??.

Hopefully her snit has passed and she will get down to business. She is a great hawk when she wants to be, and when her mind is right, nothing is safe. Even so I was seriously considering getting rid of her.