Jessie gets to hunt again.

Today is a bit stormy, and the wind is blowing. The low pressure is making Jessie very unsettled and more aware of her hunger. All in the wild are acutely aware of the weather and either feel the need to move on their migration and to stock up on food. Us humans just want to throw another log on the fire, and perhaps pour a little whiskey.

When I went to get Jess this morning, she started in begging me to either feed her or take her hunting. I decided that we would give the ranch a try and see if there was any new visitors.  I have kept her weight in the lower range of her response weight, and while she doesn't like it, her manners are better that way.

After noon, I had no more excuses left, so I talked Karen into going over with me. The wind had picked up a bit more by then. I snuck up to the little pond in the Sage feed lot on the other side of the barn. This is by far the best spot on the entire ranch to "Hawk" Ducks. It is only about 30 feet across and sunk down below the level of the ground, with tall Sage all around. If one is careful, you can sneak up close enough to see if there is anything in it.

I turned her loose after confirming that there was at least a couple of Teal on the pond. When the wind is blowing like it was today, she rarely goes up very high, rather skimming and zipping around. When I turned her loose a couple of wading birds took off, making me wonder if I had actually seen Ducks on the pond.  She really didn't give me that much indication that there was any thing there at all. I finally ran up to the pond, and found that there actually was Ducks there. One Mallard, four or five Teal. The Mallard and a Teal left the pond, with Jessie in pursuit. She in my opinion did not try all that hard to catch any thing. The Teal were still on the water, and was scared enough to stay there with me crouching at the edge of the bank behind a Grease wood bush. When she came back over, I forced the Teal to leave and they swirled around just above the Greasewood jinking and dodging any attempt to catch one of them. Surprisingly there was still a Ring Neck on the pond.

These little critters are almost impossible to get off the water when a Falcon is in the air. I went to the edge, no more than 15 feet away, and the Duck only ran on the water to the other end. I began throwing rocks at it and it finally took off into the wind. Jessie came swooping in down underneath the Duck and scooped it up, carrying it over the fence and landing on the other side.

While the flight was successful, it had very little that falconers strive for. but as one of my departed friends once said when confronted with what falconers call a "Rat hunt",  "Dead on the ground, is still dead,  and still count as one."

As you can see from the neck in these pictures the Duck has been dispatched. Jessie broke the Ducks neck, but nerves are still firing, and the Duck can thrash her around quite a bit.

The diver Ducks bleed a lot, I suppose that it because they get most of their food under the water, but whatever the reason. She always looks like she has been bathing in blood by the time she finishes.

When we got home, I gave her some new bath water, and as usual when she gets bloody, she wants a bath. It doesn't matter how cold it is, she is going to get soaked. I waited until she was done, and sitting on her perch shivering, I picked her up and put her on her perch in the shop and turned the heater on.

Here is a short video of today's flight. You can hear the wind, and I did not try to narrate the video.

https://vimeo.com/79840770   password ( owyheeflyer )

It doesn't always work out the way that you want.

 I have been working hard here at the place. I installed an electric gate on the driveway. Its always a pain in the butt when the rancher next door turns his cows out. There is little feed for them, and the smell of my hay stack requires that we keep the gate closed. Karen and I both hate opening and closing gates. At one time someone who lived here had an electric gate, so the idea has been lying there rotting away my resistance. Finally Costco had a sale on the one that I needed, so there went some more of my "summer wages" It took me most of a day to get it installed. I had to load up my cutting torch in the quad trailer to rid myself of some of the earlier attachment points. Everything seemed to be working satisfactorily, then the wind came up yesterday. I was a bit surprised at how much resistance a 20 MPH wind can cause. I had to adjust the "closing force" to counteract the wind.  Then I spent some time wiring the hanger with some flood lights so that I can see the area that I skin Coyotes.

I decided that it was time to do a bit more hunting, so I set my inner alarm for 5 AM. When I woke this morning, I grabbed a couple pieces of toast and headed to Bogus Creek.

I got there just as the Sun began to light up the sky. Coyotes were howling their greeting to the Sun down the creek towards the line Shack. The wind was also blowing that way, so I decided to go upstream to a couple of little springs, and try my hand there.

                                The moon set as the sun rose in the sky.

The normal set up to call Coyotes is to find an area that has some Coyotes, find a good field of fire, facing into the wind, with your back to something to block your outline. Now I am new at this, and the learning curve is pretty steep. As they say, " Even a blind Hog finds an acorn now and then", and I have been pretty lucky so far, and an accurate flat shooting rifle will go a long way to even the odds. Now someone who has never matched wits with Willy C might think it is a piece of cake. Not so!

The last Coyote that I called got suspicious out about 200 yards, and the rifle turned the tables for me. I have been told that one should have both a rifle and a shotgun when calling. Well I don't want to carry a shotgun along with all the other stuff that I carry.

The longest area of visibility was down wind, and about 100 yards maximum. In front of me I had about 75 yards before Lava domes cut off the view. I started the call, and about 5 minutes into the series, I could see a Coyote coming on the run, straight at me. I tried to get the rifle up, but the scope was set on 9 power, before I could readjust, a 3/4 grown Coyote ran up to the decoy, realized that it was a fake, turned and ran back the way that he came. Disappearing just as fast as he appeared. The descriptive term- "Bear Cub with mittens" comes to mind.

I had to laugh at the mental picture of what my reactions had been. I hoped that he would stop somewhere out there to look back, but he never did. I then cut to a "Coyote pup in distress" call, hoping that would make him look. I was scanning the area, and saw a large full grown Coyote cross the creek below me. He was obviously headed down wind to see what his nose could tell him. I had to turn over on my belly to try to bring the rifle to bear on him. I kept thinking that he would stop to check things out, but he never did. He dipped over a little ridge between us, and when he peeked over, he was about 60 yards out, and directly downwind. I never saw him again. Coyotes 2, pilgrims 0.

I went down the Creek towards the line shack, and stopped in a few places to call, but apparently all were sound asleep somewhere else.

I had been looking forward to calling at the shack, as I was sure that it was the spot to redeem my morning with, but I never saw a thing.

All was not a loss however. I find as I get older, I tend to loose things on occasion. Knives have been the obvious age indicator for me. For a while I was losing them on a regular basis. I even attempted to counteract this tendency by buying cheap ones, two at a time. Well this morning I discovered that I am not the only klutz running around without adult supervision.

So I spent the morning looking at Sun Rises, Moon sets, not seeing another soul, but seeing vast distances, and beautiful vistas. Finding that I am not the only one who can't keep a knife. Not to mention the exquisite pleasure of being outsmarted by Willy Coyote.