2019 going to be a year of "tough Sledding"!

After due consideration and a lot of miles, I have come to the conclusion that its going to be a tough year. You would think that with all my seniority in this job I could get a break every once and a while, but nooooo. Not a chance, but enough whining. I will just call it my new exercise program, and get on with it.

Yesterday John Hauck and I drove down to Oregon Canyon to see if there was any truth to a statement by an acquaintance that there were a lot of Rabbits in the Sage down there. There are always pockets of Jack populations here and there, and it was my hope that this would be so again. However, as almost all of the uninitiated tend to think that two Jacks in the drive way are "lots of Rabbits", I was skeptical but I needed to look to make sure.

Oregon Canyon has two ranches in it. One is Tree Top, a huge holdings in at least two states if not more. The dirt road in the  Canyon goes behind Blue Mountain and on through to the White Horse Road. I know that it is an area sometime frequented by Sage Grouse, as well as Rabbits. I ran the dogs twice in likely spots and walked in two others and didn't see a darn thing. Jack Rabbits are very interesting creatures. They will travel pretty long distances to feed and actually do not need water all that much. So they could be coming from far away pockets at night to feed on their hay and Alfalfa fields.

Giving up on the area we went across the hills heading to another ranch on the Whitehorse Road. On the way we found a fresh road kill on the "two track" dirt road. I stopped to check it and it was still a bit warm and not all that damaged. Food is food, so I picked it up. Aside from being in what I thought was an unlikely spot, the only traffic up there is the rancher in a 4000 gallon water truck that comes through once or twice a day. Life is like that sometimes. When you least expect it, out of nowhere something knocks you flat. I had hunted that spot before with the hawk, and it was not what I would call a productive spot, so we kept going. Probably the only resident, and the victim of as unlikely circumstance as one could find.

When we got to the ranch I did jump three rabbits, but none of them were caught. I put in three miles through the Sage for three Jacks. We came home empty handed.

Today I went by my self back to Arock. I had a spot there that I had not hunted yet. While I did not expect many Rabbits, there were more there than I had located so far. The Cheat Grass is just below the knee, and while I count that as a plus when flying after them. The weeds have to be causing them problems keeping track of a fast flying hawk. The only problem is that the Rabbits seem to avoid that kind of cover, so it just signals to the Rabbits that "something this way comes", and they beat feet as soon as they decide that it isn't Horses or Cows walking. That in return elicits a far off chase by Hope that has little chance of success. If Jacks have time to plan and think, they will come out on top almost every time. Jacks have three basic methods of avoiding being caught. The first is to run far and fast when they are aware of danger. When that gets them chased each and every time they begin using the second which is to hide. The third is to change the places that they hide.

At first they will be scattered all through a field of Sage. All human hunters tend to follow the same trails and patterns when coursing a field. The Jacks notice and start hiding in the places that you do not walk. So at first they are all over. Then they go to the far corners, then they go to the most unlikely spot in the field, hiding behind or under the most unlikely  spot in the field. So one has to pause every few yards, causing the ones hiding in plain sight to lose their nerve and make a run for it. If they are close enough that they don't have time to plan, Hope will catch them.

I left my dogs behind today. I just cannot get Josie to stay close enough. She is a fantastic dog, that has 10 years of experience, but she just runs "too big" to do me any good. My male Brick, stays within 25 yards of me, but I am not going to leave Josie home and take Brick. Not fair, so both suffer. In times of plenty there are enough opportunities to make up for the longer slips at Jacks. Josie will help the Hawk, if she catches one by the butt, and Hope isn't put off by them at all. I just don't have enough Jacks to take any longer flights than necessary.

Another of my problems is the high grass, and my car. I do not want to park over any of the grass, so that means I have to choose my parking carefully. Last thing I want is a fire caused by my car. Then it also has "Eyesight", so if there grass or sage behind me it locks up the brakes. Makes it a bit interesting turning around to leave.

I parked about a half mile from the field that I wanted to hunt. We saw nothing all across the field. I climbed over the fence and had not gone very far when a Jack busted and hope was after him. She missed him in two attempts. I went to where she was and we soon jumped another one and this flight ended with the Jacks death song. I had problems finding them, because I couldn't hear them. Hope always tries for a head shot, and it's tough to scream with your mouth clamped shut, so I had to calm my breathing so that I could hear the grunts the Jack was making.

As I was cleaning the Jack I noticed that he had a very large pocket of Tape worms on his side. I'm not sure how much that contributed to his being caught, but most of the prey that Raptors catch is handicapped in some way or another. Not sure if a healthy one would have gotten away, but having a large pus pocket on your side couldn't have been a plus. ( These are "dog tape worms" and do not affect Raptors at all)

The foot seems to be working quite well. You will notice that she has an ear wadded up in that foot.

Sept 24 Hope's second

The Sun rise this morning was quite dark. I had expected the day to be clear and calm, but not at Sunrise. It got better as the day went along.

I went out to get Hope at 8:45 AM and she surprised me by tipping the scales at 970. My first thought was that I was wasting my time, by I didn't seem to have anything better to do, so John Hauck and I loaded up and trundled off to the Rabbit fields.

She didn't fly as if she was too heavy however, but all the slips we were getting was of the long range variety. The Jacks when you first begin to hunt them tend to flush as soon as they are aware of you. This however elicits a chase from Hope, however futile, but soon they begin to hold longer in an attempt to not be chased. This works to our advantage, because when they do flush close to her they really have less of a chance to plan an escape strategy. While not as fast as a Goshawk, Hope still has a surprisingly fast 50 yard burst, and will burn down most of the Jacks that flush within 30 yards.

I only had to walk a mile and half before she caught her second of the year.

So far she has not to my knowledge lost anything that she has grabbed. all are head shots however, but she tries really hard to make that kind of a catch every time. Makes life easier for me.

This was the first time that she has made a "throw up" looking over her shoulder and then actually catching the Jack where it is hiding. When a Harris masters that technique it is hard for a Jack to escape.

Finally a new season with Hope begins.

Its been a bit of an anxious year. Hope, if you remember, slammed her foot into a rock at one of the places that I hunted last year.

Her last flight was about November 17th. I noticed that she was a little gimpy, then the foot began swelling. There was nothing visible, just swelling. I decided that it was a Stone Bruise and there was nothing to be gained by taking her to the vets, so I treated it as best as I could, mostly antibiotics driven in with DMSO. There is little blood flow in their feet and it is one of the hardest things to treat.

I kept her in for a long time, cutting off her cuff on that side. I then turned her loose in the weathering area for the rest of the hunting season as well as the winter. She favored it for quite a long time. It appeared to me that her ability to open it to grab something was quite a bit reduced. It eventually got to where she would grab her food with it and sometimes dropped it when she would try to take it to her perch. She however began to stand on it and the swelling has gone down completely. I wondered  if she was going to be able to hold a fighting Jack Rabbit.

I began cutting her feed supply the middle of August, and it seemed as if she had suffered a brain injury and totally forgot where her food came from. It took more than a week and half of nothing to eat before she regained her memory and came to me for food. The only thing that I could notice about her foot was that she seemed to have difficulty opening it completely.

I had several Jacks and Bunnies taking advantage of the grass in the yard, so I knew that at least some of them survived the winter. When I began taking her hunting here around the house I could only find four of them and no Bunnies. Of course she was as flabby and out of shape as I am and the four that we did find were too cagey to be caught. I hunted here around the house for at least three times not ever finding more than 3 or 4 rabbits no matter how much we walked. Connie and I went to Arock to my "go to" spot and found that the dead grass was almost knee high and there was almost no Rabbit trails in any of it. You can tell the populations by the small little beaten paths in it. They are about 5 inches wide and are quite noticeable. We walked better than 3 miles that day and had 7 flights that she of course missed. With all the high cover and her weak muscles it was more of an exercise routine than hunting. Her memory had of course returned and was as good as she had ever been.

My friend Pat came down with Chilli ( another Harris Hawk, new to her ) to hunt this last weekend. She had been anticipating this trip for a long time. Unfortunately Chilli jammed a feather that was just coming in and still in the blood, and her wing hurt too much for her to be able to hunt. I had chosen to fly at another of my honey holes, that have always produced Jacks, but it too did not have any stupid Jacks in the few survivors that we found in 3 hours of tromping. I did not feed Hope anything more than the tidbits used that day. She had started the day at 927.

This morning she was 912 when I picked her up. Pat and I went back out to give it another shot. This time I tried another one of the great spots in the past years, and managed to jump one Jack. We changed to another field, that has shoulder high Sage in it. We jumped 3 Jacks and Brick, my Brittany even actually went on point. When I walked up to the bush, out came a Pygmy Rabbit that streaked out and promptly went down a hole.  I was so pleased that I gave him a treat when we got home. Normally when a Rabbit notices that they have been seen, they bust and run. This one stayed long enough for the dog to point him.

After walking that field we went back to the one that Connie and I had hunted on Thursday. Pat and I had only walked about 50 yards when a Jack lost his nerve and broke to the right. We were close enough that he didn't have time to formulate a plan, and stayed in the open a bit too long.

If you look closely you can see that the right foot didn't totally open up and is barely sticking in the Rabbits head. The other however is strong enough to hold the Jack. I thought that she had grabbed one on Thursday, but it was over on the other side of a lava hump and I only heard what I thought was a short squeal. and she was sitting on a bush when I could eventually see her. So time will tell how much she is hampered by the foot, but it is also obvious that she is still capable of catching Jacks. She will just have to sharpen her aim.

This is the third year of bleak numbers of Jacks. It will be difficult to say the least, but we will give it our best shot.