The weather is making its inexorable march to winter, and I have been busy getting stuff ready for the cold weather to come.
Hunting has been rather sporadic at best, and I seem to have lost count as to what I have done recently. My last two hunting trips have been unproductive due to weather and runaway weight gain. I have given up on trying to fly Hope on the basis of what she weighs, since it really doesn't seem to matter all that much. She likes to hunt and will still do her best without the need for weight control. The only way that it seems to matter to her is if she is so heavy if the "G" factors are too high for her to make the twists and turns necessary to catch a rabbit running for its life. My last trip to Arock was that way. We had six slips at Rabbits and all were able to turn inside of her.
Wednesday I loaded all the critters into the car and we went to Burns to both hunt and assist Connie in getting my fifth wheel ready for winter. Pat (a friend and 20 years ago apprentice) met us outside of Burns to do a bit of hunting with her and her Harris Hawk. Unfortunately a nasty front was moving through and we were fighting 15 MPH winds. Jacks are smart enough to run right into that kind of wind and some of the flights were going 3 or 4 hundred yards because it took that long for the Hawks to catch up to them. Needless to say it did not turn out all that well for our Hawks and we eventually gave up in frustration.
The Deer have moved back into Burns, and were lying around all over the suburban area. I was trying to give the dogs a chance to crap, and these four were curious.
I had intended to fly Hope on my way home, but gave up as the wind was still howling. Today the weather was better, but is supposed to be crappy for the next three days, so in spite of Hope weighing 1000 grams I decided to go over to the Ranch to see if we could find one there that wanted to go home with us.
The area that I was hunting is rather sparse Greasewood with a lot of Alkalie. It is basically a travel area for the rabbits to go to a large natural spring area that has good grass in it. The Rabbits go there in the evening and travel back into the Sage for protection.
After quite a bit of walking A Jack jumped and began its run, with Hope after it. A raven dove down on her as she was chasing the Jack. I am assuming just for fun or what ever goes through Ravens minds. Hope never got a good shot at it and went to a fence post to rest. When I called her back the Raven again came back to harass her. A couple of 22 rounds across its bow soon convinced it to go somewhere else.
After walking another couple of hundred yards a young Jack jumped right beside us and made a run for the fence, with Hope gaining with every wing beat. I cringed when she got to the fence as I was sure she was going to hit it, but instead she flared up and over doing a wing over into the Jack on the other side. Josie was right behind her and ran down to where Hope was tussling with the Jack, but only paused and kept going. I had expected her to join (make that Butt in) but she did not. When I got there I could see that Hope had it by the head. Jo will crunch them if she has them by the butt, but nothing was sticking out for her to bite. He was all wrapped up under Hope. She wisely decided to keep going.
I killed the Jack, gave her the cup full of tidbits, then a partial hind leg to eat while I cleaned the Jack.I kept a front leg to finish her meal as we made our way back to the car.
As is my habit, after I cleaned the rabbit, I began walking back to the car, leaving her to eat what I had given her. I climbed back over the fence and started back. About 20 yards the other side I stopped to see what her progress was. When I did she picked up the remains of her leg and started flying to me, right at the barb wire fence. When she got to the fence she folded her wings and sailed right through as if she was a Gos threading pine boughs. Again I was expecting her to be flailing on the wire with feathers going every where. She didn't touch a thing! With a sigh of relief we walked on to the car.
She does know about fences, as she has been hunted around them from the very first. However I still hold my breath when she approaches one.
After we got home, I parked in the hanger as is my habit, and was unloading the car. Josie began barking wildly at the front of the car. Expecting a Coyote or something equally dangerous, I stepped to the front where I could see.
