First Jack of the year

 It has been stormy for the last couple of days. I fed Hope on the fist Sunday as it was forecast to be nasty for the next few days. Today however dawned clear and pretty warm, at least for January.

 Hope this time was down to a manageable weight. 1024 seems to be heavy enough that she can withstand the cold, but still be maneuverable enough to make the twist and turns necessary to catch a Jack.

I wanted to try the field next to the house, as it used to hold a fair number of Jacks. However since the Bobcat has been raiding the place, there were no Jacks in the part closest to the creek and the rim rock that borders it. I am not surprised. You can chase them over and over in the same spot with a hawk, but when a Bobcat comes calling more than once, its a bit like the ground has been sterilized, and it is no longer fit to hold a Jack Rabbit. They just leave and do not come back for a long time. We did jump a Bunny that beat Hope to the rimrock, but no Jacks were to be found until we started up the hill far away from the bottom part.

After we crossed the drive way up the hill, a Jack took off and appeared to not know that there was a Hawk bearing down on him. That is until the last second when he jumped to the side and clear.  I decided to walk down to the wind sock and cross the runway into the field below the runway. As we neared the wind sock, a Jack jumped and started off on a leisurely fashion down to the runway. He apparently had his head up his butt and Hope hit him hard enough that he went cartwheeling completely head over heels and she apparently lost him somewhere in the middle of that. He shook himself off and made his way to somewhere else, in a hurry. 

We started East from the runway, and another Jack jumped further out. She crashed into the Sage and we heard a short squeal of surprise, but she lost that one as well. In the last two hunts she has made contact with 6 Jacks that she lost. While she still has a good record of catches it is obvious that I would have spent a lot less time hawking if she actually had the use of two feet rather than just the one. That's alright, she is still the best Harris that I have ever seen if you measure her speed, willingness to hunt at any weight, field manners and any other thing that is measurable in hunting hawks. 

After we left the runway I traveled a bit different path than usual and it paid off with a Jack jumping nice and close. She smacked him and when I arrived she had both feet on his head.

It's pretty hard to see, but all that is showing is one unlucky rabbit foot.

It was pretty hard to kill him, because she had his head pretty well covered up. Its really amusing to me that as soon as I broke his neck, she stood up, ready for her cup of goodies. I used to be able to give her a chunk of food and she would walk off to eat it. Now she crawls up on the fist waiting to grab what ever I have in my hand. I think I liked the part where she walked off with the food better. I can just see the bandaids that are likely to be necessary with the other scenario.