Decisions

I have kept Jessie on the kite in an attempt to get her in really good condition. I am at the point in my life where quality is worth more than quantity. We could go over to the ranch and kill ducks most any time, and while I have a limited number of days that I will hunt. A head count is not what I am after. After all if Jess catches a Duck it will be two or three days before I can fly her again, as I don't eat the Ducks, they are all hers. Too many calories in most ducks to just slough it off right away. If I am only going to be flying ponds, then she doesn't need all that much conditioning, since the flights all take place in a limited area. However Creeks and ditches are a different story. Something always goes gunny bag and it is up and down until they wear us both out. The ducks dive in the creek, then she has to wait for the old guy to catch up, then it is dive back in at another spot. Besides "long winging" is a spectator sport for the most part. It is best that she have the stamina to make it worth watching.

It will matter little how high I get her to go for the lure. She has a height burned into her mind already due to my impatience and unwillingness to wait for a higher pitch, but at least she will be strong enough to hunt without stress. She will normally fly as long as she can, then go sit down on the hill side somewhere and recover enough to do it all over again.

I have brought her weight up to the point of insubordination, 880 grams at this time. So she is building muscle each time she flies. Today I put the lure up to 400 feet. It took her two minutes to grab the lure. At least one of those she was playing in the wind at 75 feet. The wind was blowing about 15 MPH or a bit more. It was strong enough that the kite could hold her off the ground. She finally let go after dangling over the ground for a minute or more. She lit on the ground and I called her to the fist for her food.

The wind this morning was dead calm. I checked the weather and it stated that we would have a 9-10 MPH wind about 12 to 3 o'clock. It came up at one, so I wasted no time getting the kite in the air.

I may go for Ducks tomorrow, if the wind doesn't blow. It is about time anyway.

Yogi

I have decided that I will quit flying Yogi, at least for a while, perhaps for the rest of the year. There is little around the house or even close to the house to warrant even trying. About the nearest is abut a 100 mile round trip to get to where there are enough rabbits to even try hunting. Then there is the matter of my bone spur. 

As you know I have been cutting her way way back on her food. Sunday I had driven out to the rabbit field, and she did little to nothing to make the trip worth while. I fed her nothing and took her home. I did not fly her Monday, and Tuesday morning we had a storm coming in. It was raining here at the house. I checked the radar weather and it appeared that I could have a reasonable chance of not getting both of us wet for at least a little while.  I drove into Jordan Valley to get some gas, then back tracked to the field. While there is a reasonable number of Rabbits there, they are staying in shoulder high Sage.

We walked for at least two hours, with her not really making any serious or effective shots at Jacks. Now if she was smart enough to be really serious we could have caught a Jack and I would have been happy. As it was she just wasted my time, and pain. I worry about the possible damage that I am doing to my foot with the bone spur, and quite frankly I am not willing to chance doing possible damage to it for no reward or reason. So I will look for a breeding project for her.  

Jessie's conditioning

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