Yogi is back in the groove again.

A cold front is blowing through and all around us is foul weather, with snow and wind. As is usual we got the wind, but no real moisture. It was a bit cooler however, and the Harris Hawks are noticing it.

Karen and the gal next door went to McDermitt, Nev. to pick up supplies, ( gamble ) leaving me here at the house to fend for myself again. They still had not returned by flying time for Jessie. Tami was assisting her husband Dave, so Jessie and I went to try our luck alone. I thought that I had a chance with the puddle that had held the Geese the other day, but on arrival found that a new bunch of weaned heifers were in the field and were as jumpy as first time alone heifers can be, so I tried the ditch. It was good exercise for Jess, but nothing flew over the dry ground, so it was lure time. No big deal, and part of the game.

Dave was missing an adapter for the stove that he is installing in their house, so we went to my shop to cobble something together that would at least enable him to start a fire in his new stove.

After that Tami and Isabel joined me for a bit of Rabbit hawking. The wind had come up and I discovered  that I had neglected to put my spare glove  back in my vest, after Karen had washed the lice out of it. Puddy at least was pretty puffed up, and not enjoying the cold cutting wind at all.

We got into the field and after a short walk, a Jack burst from cover, and Yogi nailed him before he had covered more than 30 yards.

 I tossed them their rewards after the Jack was dead, and while they ate, I cleaned the rabbit. I have not found any more diseased ones since the two that we found early in Oct. I am noticing that the girls are not catching any young ones any more. All the Jacks that we have caught in this field are at least a year old. Perhaps all the young ones died of what ever killed the two that I found. Perhaps I am jumping to conclusions too. It is just strange that all the Jacks are the older ones. Young is stupid, so if they were in the field it stands to reason that they would be the first to die.

We went on and had a couple more chases, mostly at long distance, and neither bird could manage to connect. We had walked up on top of a knoll that was mostly grass. Yogi was off after another long distance runner. Pud was riding with Tami, and suddenly she flashed off the perch and slammed into a lone bush, hard. She tore out a patch of hair, but apparently ripped out of the flesh as well. The Jack wasted no time in crawling into a rock outcropping. It was getting late and my hand was getting frostbitten, so we started back towards the part of the field that we had not hunted yet. Yogi as always was the first to see the Jacks, and the first to begin the chase. Puddy was just reacting as is usual. I am not casting aspersions about her, it is just that the lessons learned in the wild can never be taught to a bird raised in a pen. Yogi has one goal, and that is to kill something, and she never strays from that thought. She has the uncanny ability to know if the Jack is hiding somewhere, and will not leave until she has either caught him or lost him.

As we got into the part that we had not hunted in today, we jumped another Jack, and Yogi pounded into him, with Puddy close behind. She had hit him in the side and torn open his side with the force of the blow. Yogi, whether it is the size of her talons or the strength of her feet has killed more Jacks than any other hawk that I have flown. I cannot recall any other Hawk that has killed its prey by any other method than eating it to death. Generally they will tear open the flesh and the prey bleeds to death. Yogi rips big holes in the ones that she catches with her talons.

This time I tossed them their meals. Two Jacks are enough. I would prefer that each hawk makes a kill, but the last time I tried that Yogi caught four Jacks and Puddy still didn't catch anything.
I have just about run out of room in my freezer to store more Jack meals anyway. We still have at least 30 more hunting days before it gets really nasty. I have put about 47 Jacks in the freezer now. I am going to have to get creative if I am not careful.

Feast or famine

There is a storm front moving in for the rest of the week, and today was pretty windy. We had gone to town yesterday to try to get my computer problems (self inflicted of course) worked out. Jessie was still recovering from an overload of Duck fat, and the HH girls were overdue for a casting, ( Raptors require fur or feathers on a regular basis to clean their crop.) So I tossed Jessie a small chunk of Starling, and whole Starlings to the other two.

Tami was deep into school work for the kids, so Karen and I went to the ranch to fly Jessie by ourselves. We were to pick up Tami afterwards to fly the Harris Hawk girls, as Karen wanted to stay home to get some stuff done.

There was a large bunch of Mallards at the barn, so we got behind some loading chutes and installed Jess's transmitter, and turned her loose. The Ducks were only about 75 feet in front of us, but they fly up the creek if they can. I sent Karen out further to try to turn them when they flew that way. Of course that didn't work, and although Jessie tried, they were too close to water for her to do any good.

We were doing our best to head them off for another flush, and I stopped to get an idea as to Jessie's location. I finally saw her out across the ditch flying about 300 yards away. As I watched to see if she was coming back, a bunch of Ducks and Geese took off from some water over there. The Ducks went straight, while the Geese curved to the left. Jessie went into a stoop and grabbed a Goose by the neck and they came tumbling out of the sky. She did not let go and they crashed into the ground very close to the horse remuda that the ranch keeps in that field. I started my best imitation of a run in her direction. Of course picturing her either getting stomped by a horse, or wing whipped by a Goose, either the one that she grabbed or its mate. ( That happens a lot with Geese. They mate for life and will fight for their mate)

It seemed to take forever to get there and I was pretty "wind broke" when I did. I was looking all around, and could not find her. I went to where the horses were milling about, thinking that she was the object of their attention, but she wasn't there. Finally Karen, who had even further to go than I did, arrived with the telemetry, and started scanning. The signal seemed to be every where, so I took it and turned the gain down enough to determine direction. I then found that we had both ran right past her. She was in a small ditch by the fence, and she had the Goose under control, still had it be the neck.

I finally understood why she was still alive and in control. The Goose was a Juvenile Tundra Greater White- Fronted Goose, and only weigh about half of a regular Canada Goose. The bird book says 4.8 lbs.

 Of course she had to scrape every bit of fat off it that she could get. This apparently tasted a bit better, and she actually ate a bit of the breast meat this time.

https://vimeo.com/53051554  Password is owyheeflyer  In the credits I called the Goose a Cackling Goose. I am not going to change it- too much trouble.

After she ate about as much as she could hold, I picked her up with a Starling and we made our way back to the car. Karen stuffed the Goose in my bag.

We got to Tami's as she was finishing up with her Kestrel. I kept feeling something tickling me on the side of my face, and kept trying to brush off the "feather" that was the culprit. Tami and Reuben joined us in the car and we went to the house to drop off Jessie and pick up the girls. I kept feeling a tickle on my face, so I took off my hat and found that the tickle was feather lice. Wonderful! Not that much trouble for me, but a definite pain for Jessie. She is going to have to endure it for at least a week   until I can get to town.

I wanted to hunt somewhere else to give the ranch spot a rest. One should never hunt them so hard that they change where they stay.

We went to the Pillars of Rome for another try. The wind was still blowing, and I wasn't too sure how that was going to work out for the girls. We got in the field and had walked quite a ways, seeing nothing. Finally Puddy took off after a fleeing Jack, with Yogi right behind. Puddy was going low and Yogi high. Puddy took a shot at him, but he dodged and apparently hid for a bit. Yogi caught the wind and was blown up about 60 feet high. She turned over  and came down in a corkscrew, slamming into the Jack and the ground. Puddy wasted no time in securing the head. As you can see they are pretty deep into this bush. I had to break it out so that I could retrieve them from it.

I had left my vest and bag laying on the ground at the house, and had borrowed Karen's. It didn't fit me very well, and I was not comfortable, so we decided that a lousey Goose and a Jack Rabbit was enough for a windy day.

I cannot figure Jessie at all. She thinks nothing of refusing to catch anything for days and even weeks, big small, nothing tempted her. Then she ignores Ducks and grabs a Goose and rides it to the ground. I have to admit, I am in awe of this bird. I have never seen her like before.

Finally all cylinders firing

 Sunrise Saturday morning.

Things have been a bit herky jerky this year. At the beginning Puddy doing nothing more than just waiting for Yogi to catch one, and only then committing to the chase. Then Jessie got pissed at me and just quit trying to catch anything at all, being quite content with just the lure and what it held for food. Yogi ran up quite a score even going so far as to catching four Jacks in one evening. I explored the possibility of retiring Jessie to a breeding project, and entertained the thought of just cutting her loose. Karen asked me to just feed her up for a while and see if that would get things back on track.

Well I did that for three feedings which covered six days. Then I took her down to what I considered her bottom line.

Let me explain a bit about a falcons thinking, compared to a Hawk. If you get a lazy hawk, chances are it is too heavy in weight. You cut their weight, and all of a sudden you have a hawk that is motivated to kill something. You do the same thing with a falcon, and the only result is worse manners. Falcons kill because they want to, and even if you do get one hungry enough to kill something, nothing has really changed. They are just not motivated the same way.

Jessie did kill the Gadwall last week, and I did let her alone until she got tired of dry duck, and came to me for a fat Starling. She was back down in weight and ready to fly on Friday evening. I took the dogs and Jess out to the Lake to try again. Unfortunately there was nothing on the Lake at all. She flew well and came to the lure. I was quite disappointed, but the lake is not one of those places that you can tell if there is ducks on it before you turn the hawk loose. Fortunately when the migrants are in, it usually has something on it all the time.

Tami and her Mother came over later in the evening and we hunted here at the house with the Harris'. We walked my butt off, and finally at last light Puddy slammed into a old Jack by the driveway. It was too dark for my camera to get a viable picture.

Yesterday I took Jessie over to Tami's to try again, but first we gave Meg, Tami's little Kestrel, another lesson. She is very jumpy and showed no interest in feathered quarry, being quite content to eat bugs and Mice. We are in the process of showing her that birds are a possibility and since she is quite jumpy and likely to carry, working with her on a fishing pole. Her one feature that works in our favor is that she really likes tidbits. When she has a bagged bird in her feet, she will stay for a tidbit, so we have been tidbiting her as much as we can, and she is slowly responding. It is still not a sure thing for her, so we are going very slowly. She will never develop the confidence and desire of Jasper however.            ( He is still here)

After we got Meg fed, I noticed that there were ducks on the ditch right by Tami's house, so we turned Jessie loose right there to see what we could do with the opportunity. Jessie took a good pitch, and we did our best to get a clean flush, however there was a bog right in front of Tami, so she was a bit late to the ditch, so the ducks flew up the ditch. Jess came down and smacked a Hen Mallard to the ground in front of the ditch, but it got back in the water before she could get back to it. She sat down on a Hay stack and contented herself with the lure yet again.

Today all three birds were at their optimum weight, so at Three PM I loaded every one in the truck and headed to Tami's. Meg's lesson today was the fist and the lure, so we headed out to the ditch with Jessie to see if we could get things together for a change. This time there were no Ducks at the Barn, so I turned her loose and was hoping that there would be some Ducks at a little pond out in the Greasewood a ways. It generally holds one or two most times, and I was hoping that this was one of them. She took a pretty good pitch and seemed to be centering on the end of a ditch close to the pond, so I focused on the ditch. Thankfully there was a little group of Mallards in the reeds there. She was hanging pretty tight, so when they decided to go, she was coming back right over them from the front. She turned into an outside loop and slammed into a Hen Mallard taking her down in to the Willows at the edge of the Marsh area.

She allowed me to pick her up and take her to some flat ground where she could eat. I just let her do as she wished, since it is unimportant how often she flies, just how well. She proceeded to pick every bit of fat off that Hen's back. She really doesn't care all that much about the meat, but she does like the fat. It took her about 45 minutes before she would consent to leaving the Duck.

Then it was the HH's turn. We had a bit of trouble finding any rabbits close for quite a long time. We finally found the area that they were hiding in, and soon Puddy had one by the butt, and Yogi on the head. Yogi again killed it by herself. That is very unusual, and it is the second that she has killed without my help. (Hawks just grab, and eat their prey to death. Death generally comes from loss of blood.) Of course if I was to compare the length of her talons to human size, we would be talking a 12 to 14 inch knife. The Jack was an old one, quite fat and nicely healthy. I gave each a chunk of their last kill to eat while I cleaned rabbit.

We again picked them up and began again. We had not gone far, when Yogi saw another one. They took turns trying to catch it, but it anticipated every move that they had and escaped. Yogi was sitting on a bush, looking around. Puddy came back to Tami, and we began again. I was trying to get Yogi to come to me, but she was not interested. Finally she took off and crashed into a bush about 15 feet in front of her, and came out holding onto a Jacks head. Puddy honored her kill. I secured the Jack, killing it. I wanted the birds to have a casting, and I had brought a couple of Starlings with me to feed them at the end of the day. ( I forgot to get a picture of this one too.)

 Puddy grabbed hers and flew a bit off to eat it. ( Yogi with her also big mouth has been eating her chunk, and then trying to get Puddy's, so she has been taking her food off a ways and out of temptation) Apparently she couldn't find a spot that she liked and kept changing positions. Tami was watching her while I was cleaning the rabbit. She could see Puddy jumping around where she had last gone. Something was strange, so I started that way, and ran a Coyote off that was apparently trying to catch her. I assume that he got her Starling, but not her. I am not sure what would have happened if it had been Yogi. I am not sure that Yogi would not have attacked him. That is a scary thought. I don't think it would have turned out well.

So finally it appears that things are finally aligned as they should be. Don't hold your breath!