Without even considering Covid, this has been one of the "shittier" years in my memory. Yes there are a few bright spots, but over all its been crap.
As most of you are well aware the fires this year have been terrible, not here for a change. Droughts all through the west, resulting in fires that covered the North west in some of the poorest visibility that I have ever seen and there just wasn't any relief at all. The norm here is 70 mile visibility. This year I couldn't see my neighbors house for most of the summer.
What is strange was that we had no fires locally, all of our smoke came from Calif. While it was hot here, it was not record breaking heat. No moisture either, so all the ponds are dried up back in the hills. That forced the real BLM (Bureau of Land Management) to round up some of the 1000 or so "Wild Horses", primarily because they and all the wildlife were dying of thirst.
I flew very little this year, because of the poor visibility. Without a GPS it was impossible. Now however the weather is a bit too cold for a plane with no heater.
I was looking forward to the Hawking season. It was going to be a bit of a challenge flying two hawks for the first time in 5 years, but it would keep me busy. So far for an entire month of effort, Hope has killed one Jack Rabbit. The rabbits are as scarce as I have ever seen them. The rabbits are cyclic and I thought last year was bad. Every place that held rabbits last year, has almost none this year. I don't think that I have seen even one Jack that I could say was born this year. I have walked 36 miles this month for one Jack Rabbit. If I can find three Jacks in an afternoon walk I count it as a great day. I put in three miles today and saw nothing. Poor Hope has begun to fly ahead of me in the hopes that she can see something to chase. I am seriously considering stopping flying her and just feeding her up for the year.
Bud however is actually coming along quite nicely. He has turned out to be quite reliable, and other than his frantic attempts to evade the dreaded hooding each time we go flying, he is doing quite well.
I on the other hand seem to have developed a tear in my retina, in my good eye of course. The other one developed bleeding in the 90's and had to be lazered which resulted in distortion and less clarity. I have an appointment on the 20th to see if they can fix this latest problem. I flew Bud this evening and could not see him for most of the flight. I wanted to serve him a Pigeon, and he landed by me before I saw him. He did fly quite high, just not over me. Other than that, I am just in great shape from all the walking.
The Raptor migration is in full swing. I have been trying to establish a flight of Homing Pigeons to help me teach Bud how to fly well enough to catch Ducks. I noticed last week that the Coopers that I had seen in the area, was working my Pigeons rather than continuing his flight south.
I went out to get a Pigeon for Bud and found a female Coopers Hawk inside, dining on one of my Pigeons.
Connie and I took her 8 miles South. I didn't have time to go any great distance, but the last I saw of her she was headed back in my direction. The next day she inspected the Drone as I was sending it up on the little ridge by the gravel pit for Bud. She hasn't been back to the house as far as I can tell. Hopefully her experience was traumatic enough that she will stay away.
Then two days ago I see an unusual Raptor sitting on the telephone wire out by the Chukar pen. I couldn't tell for sure what it was, due to my vision problem. As I neared the pen it flew over me and I could see that it was a Sharpshin Hawk. Its sibling had gotten inside the pen with the Chukars.
I tossed her out here at the house, as her food is Sparrows, so other than temptation, she isn't a problem.
I went over to the ranch yesterday hunting and saw either two Sharpies many many times, or there was about 6 of the little darlings over there hunting the willows for "dicky" birds.
Hopefully there will be some Ducks coming in soon, as Bud is close to being ready to hunt them soon.
