Sept 29 - Its not over till the fat bunny sings!

I decided earlier that I would take her out this evening and see if watching the Jacks make their trek to the water in the last fading light would give her a kick to catch something to eat. Since Deer season is Saturday and some of the areas that I hunt are also hunted for Deer too. It would be nice to not have to hunt during all that.

After finishing the blog and dinner this evening and the shadows grew longer, I went out to get her. She weighed 920 grams. I walked out to the hot tub where the chairs are, and she thought that we were going to fly to the fist again.

I finally tossed my glove on the Hot tub so that she wouldn't fly to me any more, and she began to foot and toss the glove all over the tub.

Eventually I got her to sit on the fist and was watching the first Jack start down to the water. It was getting darker all the time, and he managed to make the trip to the water without interference from her. I got up and walked around the corner of the Rose bush at the front of the house. There were three Rabbits, two Jacks and a Bunny. As they broke and ran, she of course went for the Bunny. When she turns on, she gives the appearance that she might be crossed with a Gos. She has acceleration like I cannot recall with the other Harris's that I have seen fly. She had to fly out of the gate and turn to the left. She did so with enthusiasm, a loud bang followed. When I arrived she came out of the wood shed holding the Bunny. I killed it, and with much excitement on her part we retired to the hot tub to eat her fill.

Of course Karen bemoaned the demise of the Bunny. I informed her that was why we had protected him for so long.

Sept 29, 2016

Yesterday Hope didn't do enough to get fed. Grabbing a Coyote by the butt just doesn't count, and I would prefer she refrain from that in the future. It is pretty normal for a Harris hunting in her first phase to not realize fully the total effort it takes to catch Jack Rabbits.

The first phase of course is to establish that Jack Rabbits are to be the preferred prey. That is done of course by feeding them off of Jacks. Then it is necessary to show them that they can catch Jacks. That can be done by using a "Make Hawk", or if one is not available, a bagged Rabbit. That of course is hard to arrange. You can use a tame rabbit that is sort of the same color, but that still doesn't teach them that you really need to burn hard to catch the real ones. I prefer to wound them with a 22, if I don't have a "Make Hawk".

My first experience with Harris's was Babe and Fritz, offspring of the first breeding pair of Harris Hawks in Oregon. Babe was an over achiever of the species. Fritz wasn't all that bad either, and as a pair they were a unstoppable. When we started them we flushed Jacks and they chased what appeared to be hard, but they weren't catching them, so after a week of trying they quit. So did I, only it was their food that stopped. We would take them out, jump three Jacks, and if they didn't try, we took them home until the next day. After four or five days Fritz was too weak to fly, so I turned loose a bagged Pigeon for him so that he could regain some strength. We took Babe out hunting however as she still appeared to be strong enough to fly. She caught the first Jack that jumped. After that there was no question of not trying, and they went on to become a legend in my own mind, and I am sure anyone else who ever saw her fly.

So this is normal, and expected. I had hoped that we were past that phase when she caught her first one, since the effort required by her to do that, is what I am searching for. Now as I mentioned she has performed better than expected at a higher weight than expected. While I am willing to keep her as heavy as she can perform, its not mandatory. I am perfectly willing to "starve her till her eyes bug out" if necessary. Hopefully it will not come to that.

I talked Karen into coming with me today. All this has been killing her. She wants to go hawking so bad, but just does not have the stamina to do so. The area that I hunted today has a road right up the middle of it and most of the flights would be visible from the car. She was also able to get a bit of video of her flying. Since she was going to be in the car following, we could bring the dogs as well, and I could analyze the plus and minus of attempting to hunt with the Brits. They of course voted in favor of the idea, but I wasn't all that sure.

It seemed quite hot although it was only in the 70's, but uphill carrying way too much stuff had me sweating like a pig. Her first flight for a Jack was the best, but he ducked out the other side of a Sage as she crashed into the front of it.

I walked about a mile ( seemed like it anyway) up the slope with Jacks going left right and in front. She would chase, but most of the time looping around to me after deciding that she couldn't catch them.  She was hot, and it was apparent that a catch was unlikely, so I stopped at a lava lump to let her sit and let the dogs run. I had forgotten my squirt bottle, so I put some water in my hand with a tidbit, so that she would get a little bit of water at least. The dogs had a grand time running all over, and she paid them no mind at all.

I decided that it just wasn't happening and she needed to lose a bit of weight. I decided to walk back to where we started allowing the dogs free rein to see if they could be a positive in the hunt. It was a bit odd in that the rabbits seemed to prefer the North side of the road. There was little evidence that they had been eating any of the grasses and Sage on the South side of the road, while the North was chewed all up. I crossed over after a bit and started getting into Jacks again. One hid from the dogs and she got a chance at him, but she was at a disadvantage and couldn't make up the distance in the turn. Most of them were flushing a lot further out with the dogs than without. I had paused on a lava ridge watching the dogs working the area in front of me, when Brick went on point. I was pretty sure that Bunnies were in the areas near these rocks, and sure enough this one lost his nerve, and busted. Hope tried to take him from the side, but he tried harder than her and she missed.

This phase as I said is perfectly normal and will soon pass. Hope still has traits that please me to no end. I still hold fast to the belief that she will be well worth watching soon.

https://vimeo.com/184925621   (password)   owyheeflyer

Busy Day, not much accomplished

Today we were due to go to town. Another Doctor appointment for Karen. This one for her C Pap. Who says that I am not contributing to the economy. We have an early appointment, so I go early to do chores. I find that the peace of summer has slipped b y. There are two dead Chickens in front of the  Chicken house. One just the feet left, the other was missing the juicy parts and most of its skin. Pup Coyote! I was happy to see that one of them was a young Rooster that I was planning to get rid of anyway. Ah well, I knew it was too good to last. I had been lazy about locking them up at night.

We made our trip, getting some of the things that I needed for winterization and got home about 4:20. I had a quick snack and picked up Hope for an evening hunt. It is still hot, but today is her day. She was 930 grams, and had pulled her tail mount off her center deck. I decided that she wasn't going any where, so we went on.

Dave had told me of a field that he felt held a lot of Jacks, so I went there first. I found three Rabbits, and Hope pulled the tail off the first Jack that she flew. Unfortunately the tail was all that was left. The field was quite large and I covered it all. The Jacks come from quite a long way to get to their feeding areas. What might have a pile of rabbits in it at one time of the day or night, doesn't mean that they will be there all the time. Its like here. If I sit out by the pool when it is getting dark, I will count about 50 or 60 Rabbits. If I hunt it during the day, I may only see three or four rabbits in the surrounding fields.

I loaded her up and went to the dump field. I decided to be as quiet as I could be to see if I could get closer slips. We did get a couple, but she wasn't chasing as hard as I wanted.Finally I could see a Jack sitting between two Grease Wood bushes. I attempted to get closer, but Hope took off in that direction. I thought she was going after the Jack, but she was aiming to the left side of the bush. She crashed into what looked like a dark spot. I though it was a dead one lying there, but no, it was a Coyote apparently stalking the Jack. Hope jumped to the left and the Coyote jumped up in the air and spun around. I began yelling and running in his direction, trying to get my pistol clear. He decided to be somewhere else a little quieter. Fortunately for him, I did not see him again.

We got a couple more chases, but I was wearing out, and I still had traps to put out for the return of the Chicken thief. Tomorrow in the morning will be cooler, and she will have the night to think about the ones that got away.

Two Lizards and a Jack!

Unfortunately John and Nell continued on their trip today. Their stay never seems long enough. Its pretty nice to have someone to run around with,  and they are both great company. Of course their absentee ballots arrived today.

Karen took the neighbor to her Doctor today and left me on my own. I had thought to go back to Arock to try our luck over there, but with no fuel efficient car to drive, I decided to stay here and hunt over at the ranch.

Today was hot again, around 95 in the sunshine, so I waited until 5 PM to gather every thing up and go hunting. Hope was chasing pretty good, but still hasn't figured the Sage and Grease Wood out yet. I determined to walk all the way to the highway if I had to to give her the maximum chance to catch one. This time I began using the tee perch to launch her in the direction of a running rabbit and it seemed to work pretty well. She made a lot more chases today than she has so far. She was crashing the brush when we started, but appeared to begin holding off for a good clear shot. Of course the Jacks weren't into cooperation at all.

As we walked further down the creek the Jacks were peeling off and going up the bare hillside. At this point I began trying to wing another one as I really wanted her to have a reward at the end of all this effort on her part. It was hot as could be and she was flying long distances on some of the chases. She would come back to the Tee perch each time, no matter how far she had flown. Sometimes she had to rest a bit and she was breathing hard with her beak agape all the time. The nice part is that she didn't need to be recalled or given a tidbit at all. The only food she had gotten to that point was the two lizards that she caught. Unfortunately I wasn't doing all that well in winging one as they were not giving me any good shots close enough.

At the far end of the field, I followed three or four Jacks up from the creek to the bare hillside, where all the Jacks had been going to get away from us. When we got to the top, one busted back down towards the creek in a steep little drainage. Hope gave chase and tried to cut the corner on him and hit him from the side. He ducked behind a lone Sage and she missed. She got up and gave chase all the way down to the creek and lost him in the cover there. She worked her way back up the hill to me, and I completed the trek up the little hill to where we could see into the drainage higher up.

As I crested the hill she took off in afterburner and soon the lovely sound of a Jack in distress wafted up on the breeze. She had caught him after a short flight of about 30 yards and they were in the open. No Sage to pull her off with. I still approached slowly, but even though they were bouncing up and down quite a bit, I could see that she had one foot on his head. I grabbed him by the hind legs, and stretched him out to break his neck. I though I had heard it pop, but he was still showing signs of life, so I did it again and promptly pulled his head off in the process. A clear case of too much enthusiasm. Now here I am with a excited hawk with a Jack in one foot and a Jacks head in the other trying pretty hard to go some where quiet to eat. Luckily Jacks have long ears. I at least was able to hold on to one of the ears. It would have taken forever for her to completely eat the head. I can almost guarantee that she wouldn't have quit until she had finished it. I tried to give her a front leg to eat, but she was suffering from serious tunnel vision at the time. I finally had to give her a tidbit or two to get her mind on food again. I gave her a front leg and she stepped off the Jack and moved up a couple of feet to eat. I took the opportunity to clean the Jack, and cut off a rear leg. I sat a waited for her to finish the leg, and when she did she walked down to where I was and stepped up on the fist for the rest of her food. I sat and rested while she ate the hind leg. When she finished we walked on back to the truck, which seemed to be over the horizon. I sometimes think I am getting too old for this shit, but then again Nah!