A sunrise for you.
Tuesday was supposed to be Hope's hunting day, and of course she knew it. I picked her up to check her and she weighed in at 970 grams. I decided to tie her back up and go to town to get some badly needed supplies. Like a new toilet!
Some dummy, I won't mention any names, managed to break the tank on our old one while trying to fix a floor seal problem. We had been having to use the one in the fifth wheel until we could go to town for a new one. With her weight at an all time high, it was time for town.
We got back with enough daylight left for a short trip around here with her. While we were making the long 260 mile round trip, I had done some thinking about Hope and her ability to miss Jacks. I came to the conclusion that while she was trying pretty hard to catch Jacks, she still didn't seem to be making much progress about solving the problem. I decided that she was being a bit careless about putting forth that "berserker" flight effort, because she knew that there would be lots of slips. The idea occurred to me that if she had limited slips, and was returned to her perch to contemplate another night without food, she just might begin to try to figure out how to succeed a bit oftener.
I have always flown Harris Hawks in a cast, and they are much more successful because the rabbit cannot watch both of them, thus the screw up factor is increased by leaps and bounds. :-) I have been lucky this year in that the Jacks are abundant beyond all expectations. Sooner or later one is going to make a mistake that she can capitalize on. The only problem is that the ratio of young rabbits is now drastically reduced. An old one just doesn't make all that many mistakes, however if you put in enough miles we can generally pull it out. I can always use the exercise, but it is time that she makes some mental progress, and it seems to have stalled.
So a walk around here would work out just fine. It would also allow me to take the dogs with me to see if they would be an asset or not.
I put collars (electronic) on the dogs, and put the setting on call. No pain, just a call back noise, and we started out down by the creek. I walked down to the pump at the end of the telephone poles, ( a bit more than 1/2 mile) without seeing anything for her to chase. We started up on the plateau before we saw anything. She gave chase, but I never saw it. When she came back we continued on for several hundred yards before jumping another one. She again tried and failed to connect. After another lengthy walk, we jumped another and she again did her best and again failed. I circled on back to the house spending a total of about two hours. We saw four rabbits, and on each of them she would miss, get back up and continue the chase if they were still visible. I walked on back and put her up for the night. As for the dogs, she didn't seem to mind them, but I could see no positive out put on their part. They had a tendency to work too far out for us, and after I called them in three times, I was tripping on them while we walked.
This morning she weighed 945 grams. I took her to another spot further up country to see if there were Jacks there in numbers enough to hunt. Sam next door is hauling water in there for the cows so it was a good prospect. As I drove in there, I spotted a Jack hiding in a bush just off the road. I stopped and took Hope out of her box, putting her up on the tee perch. I walked to within 15 feet of the Jack before he lost his nerve and ran. She turned her self inside out, but not enough to get her feet on him. We walked a huge circle looking for more but couldn't find anything. I loaded her back in the box and went to a spot closer to the Spring Field where I knew there were 10 or more Jacks living. I hadn't hunted it for a while, so I expected to get enough chances for her to catch one. If she was willing to put out the effort.
We began jumping Jacks right away, and she was busting her butt trying to catch them, but again, they turned just a bit too steep, and hid a bit too well for her to find them. She flew one of them 5 times on her own before she finally gave up. One of her flights was just 20 feet in front of me. She made a grab for him, but got a bit low and when she grabbed I think she got her feet in the dirt and rolled completely over in a cloud of dust. You know she is trying, and trying hard, but somehow she is going to have to figure out when to try and when to bide her time. I ache for her. She gives her all, and doesn't give up, time after time.
So any way we spent a total of about 3 hours, of which about an hour was in game. I took her back to the car, and back home still with no food. Tomorrow we will do the same thing, I will give her enough chances to make it happen, but limited in that I am not going to stay until she catches something. We will see.
When I got back home and got my nap out of the way, I drained the black tank on the fifth wheel. While I was working, the Deer that are sleeping down in the heavy Sage by the creek, came out to eat. They paid no attention to me at all. A pretty nice buck has joined the three that were here.
They all perked up, looking up past the hangar, so I knew someone was coming.
The big boy began walking up. That's the hundred yard target there.
A new group of girls have arrived. We are right in the middle of the Rut now.
Once he had greeted them he turned and beat feet back down to where the little fork was apparently putting the sneak on one of the Does.
This little guy is a small forked horn. The big boy stood up tall and wagged his head at him. He took the hint.
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The dogs tell me when they are moving around down by the creek, but they don't bother them, and the Deer ignore them for the most part. However when it gets dark, they eventually come up on the yard, then the dogs run them off.
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