Exercising Jessie with the Kite.

 I have been trying to get Jessie some exercise when I can, but one thing or another always seem to get in the way. The Duck hunters that have the bird hunting rights on the Ranch were down this weekend, so Jessie and I stayed home, and waited until the birds had a chance to settle down.

The weather has been so nice that the wind has not been strong enough to fly the Kite, so every thing has conspired against us this year. Yesterday we did get a flight at some Mallards at the Ranch.  Jessie snagged a Mallard Drake over the water, but had to drop him to keep from going in the water herself.

Today I installed an automatic gate opener on the entrance to the place, and what with one thing or another spent most of the day working on it. The weather is changing a bit, and the wind began to blow by the time I finished. I decided that I would fly Jessie on the kite, and work on her muscle condition. Quite frankly I was too pooped to trudge through the Sage to do anything more.

I ran the lure on the kite up to 350 feet, she is too out of condition to do more. I talked Karen into running the video camera for the flight.

https://vimeo.com/79535232  password- owyheeflyer

The lure line is rigged with a fishing trolling release that is on a 8 foot line leading to a lure. The lure is garnished with the rear end of a Starling as a reward. The other end is tied to a small carabiner that is secured to the main kite line. That way when the hawk pulls the lure free from the quick release, it is able to slide down the line to the ground.

This method gives the hawk more exercise than it would actually get from just flying in circles waiting to chase what ever you flush, as well as teaching it that higher in the sky is better. If you take a hawk out, turn it loose and let it amuse itself by flying around you are teaching them to wander. That is not good! This is all business, the bird is in the right place for hunting, and the exercise can be as demanding as the bird can stand.

Lure training with the kite is something that is normally done at the start of the year to condition the hawk. Hunting is crappy right now and Jessie if not exercised and flown just becomes cranky in the extreme. This at least allows us to pretend we are doing something worth while.