Oct 6th, Hope Number 8

It rained lightly, just like we need it, all night. Things are beginning to look a lot better. Perhaps some of the roads that have been pounded to talcum powder can begin to solidify.

Today was Hope's hunting day, so after breakfast Connie and I loaded up and drove to Arock for a quick hunt. It sprinkled all the way there , but thanks to a small opening in the clouds it stopped when we arrived at our hunting spot. Hope was what I considered to be quite heavy still, but thanks to a low pressure system, wanted to hunt, really intensely. She even resorted to flying ahead to where the dogs were nosing around over and over. She is usually quite content to wait on her perch for something to run.

We were not finding anything at all in the usual spots. I decided to circle around the Lava outcrops and circle back around towards the car. Halfway around she took off on a high flight towards the Lava then a wing over from a height, and a Jack's death song wavered on the air.

This is her trademark grip. The fight is over this way. They cannot drag her through the brush, they do not get away, no matter how long it takes the fat guy to lumber up to help.

Road trip- Stone House Road.

Connie gets her kicks going to remote areas that she has seen on a map. One of those places was the Stone House Road, off the Mann Lake road that goes below the Steen's Mountain. I too have looked at this little road that goes to the top of the Eastern most part of the Steens, and wanted to explore it as well. I just haven't succumbed to the temptation yet. Connie had four days off from work, so it was a good time to do it before winter closes in.

Of course the day before she arrived it rained like crazy. The first time in a really long time. I worried a bit that the road might have gotten too much rain to drive on. It was very foggy this morning locally but we decided to go on and give it a try. The closer we got the less fog and clouds were covering the mountain. The ground also seemed to be quite firm, so off we went.

The road was pretty bumpy, but the truck handled it quite well.

 Quite obviously the roads namesake.

This was the top. The terrain flattened out, but there had been a lot more rain here

as the road was goey, so we turned around and headed back down the Mountain.

We saw very little wildlife, only a covey of Chukar, and a few migrating raptors flying under the clouds and fog.

Catch up

Its been a while, but there really hasn't been anything to comment on that could hold your interest for more than a few seconds. In fact this is still the case, but at least I will affirm that I am still here. I did give up face book again, hopefully for the last time. I just don't need all that drivel in my life. Of course there are some that post things that are of interest and worth seeing. Just not enough.

Things have settled down from the fly-in and every one has gone home. Once again my friends kicked in to more than pay for all the food that we ate and the left overs as well. Electricity bill was a bit higher , but that was taken care of as well. Its always a lot of fun and I was especially grateful for all of Karen's friends that came for her return to the Mother of all, the Earth. She will always be a part of this place, and may her benevolent blessing be upon all who come here. The following link is her final flight.

https://vimeo.com/289348449    password    owyheeflyer

I decided to start Hope, my Harris Hawk about a month earlier than I usually do. I was thinking that it might be fun for some of the visitors to see her hunt. Well that was wishful thinking. I was so busy that I barely had time to go to bed. Not to mention the fact that the rabbit population has crashed and they are hard to come by. My hawks are usually my entertainment, this year they are my exercise equipment.

Hope has caught 7 Jacks so far. Part of that is that I haven't been able to stick to my every other day routine this year due to other commitments, but also to her refusal to adapt to different conditions, and a diminished population of Jacks..

The year that I started her was the biggest rabbit year that I have ever witnessed. We, friends and the kids from the ranch next door took over 200 rabbits out of one 50 acre field. Hope would get one slip after another and all she had to do was keep trying and she would score. So she developed a straight following flight and crash into the jack technique. Well if they are stacked up in a field just waiting for you, then that technique worked quite well. There was enough of them that dumb ones were in the majority. So now in a two or three mile walk you might find 6 jacks your odds of one of them being dumb enough to die has been seriously reduced.

She has learned one thing however and that is to grab the head when at all possible. She got strained through enough Sage bushes last year to change that.

Connie and I hunted her Saturday and eventually caught one after a pretty long and mostly uneventful hike. So far she is almost always catching young ones. The older survivors from last year are managing to baffle her with bullshit almost every time. The thing that screws her over almost every time is when they stop in a bush. She will flare up about 10 feet and then sail down beside the bush, where upon the Jack will dart out the other side leaving her flat footed on the ground. I had one female that would keep climbing, looking over her shoulder until she located the Jack, and then crash into the bush and out the other side on the rabbit. I keep hoping that Hope will learn this, but not yet. sigh!

She is behaving like the poster girl for the breed. I couldn't ask for anything more. I don't have to call, tidbit, or wait for her. She stays on the perch until she sees something to fly after, and returns without delay. She is always anxious to go hunting, even if her weight is too high for her to put forth the effort that it takes to close the deal.

I flew her yesterday at 978 grams, and I knew she was too high. I didn't have anything better to do, so I went anyway. We managed to get her about 11 slips and she tried hard (to all appearances) but just couldn't close the deal, so I brought her home hungry. Today she weighed 943 (still too high actually) and we went walking here at the house. We walked for two hours and she got 11 chances, most so close that only a millimeter separated the Jack from her talons, but that was all the difference in the world to their survival. This one didn't make it.

                                  Notice where she has him. He can't fight , jump or drag her anywhere.

These are some of her other catches:

I'm not sure how this year is going to turn out. Normally there was the reason of increased populations as encouragement to drive to some of the better hunting spots. Google has kindly tracked me and my movements and I discovered today that I spent 60 hours in a car last month. Gotta cut back!