I have not been saying anything about Jessie in the few posts that I have done. Mostly because there is little to report on. She is not yet in hunting condition and hunting opportunities are scarce. All the Ducks here are residents, and they are few and far between. There are next to none on the Creek. The drought has reduced possibilities and ponds to almost nothing. It will not take much to drive the Ducks that are there to other places that I cannot get to them, so I am biding my time until some arrive from the North, and Jessie is in good physical condition. Mostly the latter.
Jessie is a bit slower this year to build muscle than in the past. She is 10 years old, and I am sure that affects her ability to build muscle. She also hardly flew at all last year. Most likely the biggest factor is that I have her shaved to a razor's edge. Its hard to build muscle without the fuel to form its growth. Jessie is a bit of a handful if she gets the chance, and has bulk to spare. She triggered the somewhat spartan treatment by her actions. I have kept her hungry and given her the full "Patty Hearst" treatment in the hopes that we can bypass her usual mid fall rebellion. So far so good, but this evening I decided to put another ounce of weight on her.
I condition her by flying her on the Kite. Wind is vital for this exercise, and it has been a bit more than iffy. The last time I flew her was two years ago, and it took us about a week to get her in condition. At the moment we are up to about 300 feet with the food, and about 3 weeks so far.
For those of you who do not remember, I will explain how it is done. I have a Delta type Kite that is designed to fly straight up. With an 8 MPH wind it will lift a fair weight up to whatever height that you want. There is a "stand off" that is made from a coat hanger, that attaches to the line. That forms a point to temporarily clip a fishing "down rigger" release that holds a short line with the food that is also clipped to the main kite string. When the falcon grabs the lure, the clip releases it to slide back down the line to the earth with the falcon. There is 1800 feet of line on my reel.
The beauty of this method is that the falcon gets intense exercise without any of the tendencies to fly off and explore. This also reinforces the fact that where you are is where the food or prey is. There is nothing worse than a good point by your dog on game and the falcon is off on the horizon playing grab ass with another hawk. That also goes for Ducks on a pond. Invariably when the falcon returns it is generally about telephone pole high and the opportunity is long gone. Most if not all falcons are one shot flyers. With a Harris, or Gos a reset is no problem. With a falcon you go home and try again tomorrow.
The start of the exercise routine is a bit slow to start. Then when they begin to put on muscle, you can raise the lure higher pretty fast. When we began it was taking Jessie about 5 minutes to regain her breath enough that she could eat. Now at 300 feet she is taking less than a minute. If the wind holds, then I will give her another week, before I take her to the Ducks. I asked Karen to video her performance today so that you could see how she is doing. Normally when she is in condition she can fly for about 30 minutes or more. She is good for about 5 right now.
https://vimeo.com/110735177 password- owyheeflyer
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