A step closer.

The change for Yogi from having a partner, to hunting alone, has been a bit rough. She depended more on Puddy than I thought. It doesn't help that while Rabbits are better, they still have a long way to go before it is easy. I could use a bit of easy right now. I drove 52 miles one way to get her a chance at some Rabbits. Even with the price of gas going down a bit, we are still 50 cents above the national average for fuel. Just one of the handicaps of living in a rural setting. I am still not convinced that it is not worth it however. Sorry for whining.

There are upwards of 12 or more Jacks that feed on my lawn every night. I have no idea of how far they travel to do so, but I have not yet been able to find where they go in the day time. I took Yogi out here at the house the other day, and spent the better part of two hours walking all over with her. At a guess we covered two or three miles. We had four slips at Jacks. She missed all of them. I even went down by the creek to see if there was something down there. There was, sadly it was only Coots. They do not fly, they dive.

Yogi hasn't perfected her dive as yet, but it didn't stop her from trying. As you may have noticed, Harris Hawks do not have much in the way of water proofing. They live in the Desert, and every body knows" it doesn't rain in the Desert". I had a heck of a time getting her away from the Creek. She was convinced that she could catch one of them if she tried long enough.

I have been " turning the screws" to the old girl, as she is not trying as hard as it takes. Flying in a cast, she could hunt heavier than solo. The two hawks fed off each others energy and competitive spirit. Alone she is more inclined to going off on her own and waiting for something to show up. Needless to say, that pisses me off. Of course when I am in that frame of mind, she doesn't eat.

The only way that one can "discipline" a Raptor is through their food. She doesn't hunt, she doesn't eat. Sooner or later she will decide that she can wait no longer and put forth the effort that it requires to have something live in her feet. Of course that course of action requires some careful monitoring. One could end up with a dead Hawk, with too strict an application.

Our last several trips out, she has been pretty lazy about trying hard. I have been cutting her back. Thursday we went to Danner (52 miles- 104 both ways) and she just wasted our time. I didn't feed her squat! This kind of stuff is doubly anger inducing, due to the bone spur in my foot. I don't mind the pain, but I am a bit worried about what it is doing to the bottom of my foot. If there is a dead Rabbit at the end of the effort, it is worth it. Other wise, I tend to be a bit grumpy.

I didn't feed her the next day either, so this morning I had to either hunt her or feed her and lose the lesson that I am so desperate to get across. Naturally this morning was one of the few days that it has chosen to rain. Wind of 18 MPH is predicted for this evening. It was raining here at the house when I got up. We checked the radar and found that there was a rain cloud sitting on the spot that I wanted to go. The radar showed the clouds to be moving North, and since it was a fairly small rain cloud, I thought that it had a decent chance of moving off the area by the time I got there. I dithered a bit, then decided that I had to try even if we did get wet, I had to at least make the effort to give her a chance.

Every body here wants to get into the act. If I cut meat, I have an attentive audience.

It was 35 degrees outside, and spitting rain here. I did my chores in the near dark, and we headed out. She weighed 995 grams. 34.8 for those who resist change. In a cast of two she flew at 43 oz. I decided to go get some gas at Jordan Valley and stop at the field that I thought would give us our best chance on the way back.

The area that holds the Jacks is almost shoulder high, and a bird that doesn't fly smart is terribly handicapped. Yogi hasn't learned that as yet. We jumped several with no success. Wrong choices on her part every time. This picture by the way is not the heavy stuff. We ran several Jacks while covering a mile or more of Sage. It finally begin the sprinkle a bit, and I had left the tall stuff in the hopes that we could get a good flush where she had more opportunity to catch one. We started a Bunny and she was so close that she saw which hole it ran down.

Of course then I couldn't get her away from there. I did my best and cleared what rocks I could to see if there was any way that we could get it, with no success. She went back to the rocks at least three times. Then she checked every hole in every pile of rocks that she could find.

We were both getting a bit wet, when I decided to give it up. I was going to feed her enough to get her past a couple of days until the weather was supposed to clear. The car was in sight when she took off, made a pass at something in the Sage, threw up in the air high enough to turn over and slash down in the Sage. I heard a short squeal, so I took off to help, hoping that it was a Jack.

Unfortunately that was not to be, but what the heck she earned her keep this time at least. Of course this will only make her more insistent that she wait for the easy stuff, but at least she put out the effort, and I think I do remember asking the Gods to at least give us an even chance, even at a Bunny if there was nothing else. Who am I to scorn a gift from the Gods, no matter how small.

She got all she could eat, and we will continue our contest of wills another day.