Ditches and poor choices- again.

Today was Jessie's turn again, and after we had flown Tami's little Kestrel, Meg, I took Jessie out of the car and suited her up. We had noticed some Ducks in the ditch behind Tami's house. Dave had been feeding the Cows in the far field, and we waited for him and the dogs to clear. I watched to see if the Ducks flushed when he crossed the creek, but they did not. I had Karen and Reuben to help me flush, so I turned Jessie loose and let her get some altitude.

She is in the upper left corner of the above picture. We let her get a bit more altitude, and then ran at an empty ditch. The fact that my curses were not audible, didn't mean that they weren't there. I started down the creek as fast as my old legs would carry me. I finally did flush a Teal that told me by its anxious dive into the Tules again that Jessie was still with me more or less.

After I had gotten across the fence and about a 1/4 mile down the ditch I hit some Mallards, but they too decided that the ditch was a lot safer than the sky. I would flush, they would fly down the twisting creek and splash in before she could get to them. She will (almost without exception) not hit a Mallard at speed, but she will bind with one and fight it on the ground. Finally after what I figured was about 3/4 of a mile, grabbed a hen Mallard, but apparently lost it when they crashed into the Greasewood. By this time both our tongues was hanging out and she sat down in a Greasewood bush. I had dressed way too well and was wringing wet, so I gratefully tossed her the lure. I had done my job, even though it was an inadequate one. I had produced Ducks. She had done the best she could and stuck with me for more than 20 minutes. No one wins every time, not even Jessie.

JASPER

Jasper is still with us, but things are getting a bit tougher. I noticed him the other day and he was busy trying to get something to eat, and not getting much, at least that was my guess. I went out to lock up the Chickens for the night and when I opened the door to give them some food, there was Jasper inside the Chicken house. ( You may remember that the Chicken house was one of the main suppliers of Sparrow meat for him when we were hunting him. It is no surprise that if he felt it necessary to switch to Sparrows that he would remember where they could be found. ) He was not happy to see me at all, and neither were the Chickens that he was landing on in his panic. I opened the door and stepped aside so that he could fly out. He wasted no time in doing so. I finished my chore and went into the house to tell Karen of his adventures.

Karen went out to do her chores and when she returned told me that she could hear his "killy killy" alarm call, but could not find him. I decided to check the Chicken house again. There he was stuck in a bit of space under the eves. I reached in and picked him up, taking him outside and again releasing him again. He didn't want me to catch him, but he show no real sign of distress when I did. He has not gone back in again, but he is still here. 

We didn't even try to fly the birds over the Holidays. Just too bad in the weather department, and too much to do. The wind was howling the day before Thanksgiving and two pigeons had committed suicide by hitting the power lines, so everyone got a pigeon to eat, and I got to sit by the fire and read.

Jessie regained her flying weight first, so we took her out yesterday for Ducks. She was still apparently a bit too heavy as she managed to avoid at least 6 different presentations of Ducks before we ran out of Ducks and she ran out of energy. Oh well, her loss.

Today the Harris' got close to a hunting weight and we went to Arock, where we had found so many rabbits before. Unfortunately a hunter and his Lab (big feet, Lab is the best guess) had gone through the field leaving us little to nothing to chase.

Yogi managed to pull hair out of a poorly concealed Jack that happened to be imitating a rock. She had flown to a rock outcropping to get a better view, and decided that rocks were not hairy. When it left the area, it certainly was not as hairy as it had been because she pulled a bunch out of its butt before it left. Puddy took a patch out of another one that showed a bit of confusion for a time. Then finally Yogi pulled some height and nailed one that took too long to decide which way to run.

 Of course Puddy was right behind her, and this one had a broken neck when I got there.

 The guy with the gun and Dog had been every where, and we were finding very little in the way of Rabbits to chase, so we headed back to the car. As we drove away the sunset was quite striking.

Jessie and the Briar patch, and Jack Rabbit Hawking.

Karen and I took all the birds over to Tami's to hunt. We intended to hunt Jessie first and then the Harris'. Tami's sister, Tonya was down for a visit, and she decided to go with us. I wanted to see if I could get some video of Jessie catching a Duck, so the ladies were left the chore of flushing the Ducks. I walked to the side that the flight was likely to go, leaving them on the other side of a small pond to flush for me.

I mounted the camera on a "camera stock" so that I would have a better chance of holding it somewhat steady. There is no view finder, so it is just point and shoot- then hope that you got some of the action.

Jessie set her wings, and the girls rushed the pond, flushing only two Mallards. Jessie came down in a stoop and the Mallard that she had chosen dropped to the ground without her even touching it. She came around to me, expecting me to do something. I had flushed a Mallard a bit earlier that had flown into a small 3 foot wide ditch at the edge of the Sage. Not willing to take no for an answer, I yelled encouragement to Jessie and ran as fast as I could to flush it. It had swam the opposite direction that I anticipated, so the flush was sadly out of position. The Duck flew up the ditch further. I wheezed and puffed in that direction, and tried another flush. They got up going further down the ditch, and put in before she could get to them. I staggered in that direction, yelling at Jessie, hoping that she would not set down somewhere. I finally hit the Ducks straight on and they flew over the Sage. Jessie smacked a hen into the Sage, but it got back up again before she could get back to it. I flew towards the ditch and crashed into a huge Wild Rose bush, with Jessie on its tail. I jumped over the ditch and went into the bush looking for the Duck. I was surprised to find Jessie some three feet into the bush herself, looking for the Duck. I pulled the briar's off her so that she could move and stepped over her looking for the duck. Luckily I had a right hand work glove with me, and I was parting and peering in the bush trying to find the Duck. I could not find the damn thing anywhere, so I went back out and around trying to see if it had gotten through the bushes to the ditch. By that time the girls had caught up. While I was updating them, I heard the Duck squawking. I went back around, and after peering all around and through the bush, I finally found Jessie holding onto the Ducks butt in the middle of the mess.

I parted the thorny vines enough to reach in and grab the Ducks Butt. Jessie had it with one foot, and was holding on for dear life. She was totally immobile, but she had enough grip to keep the hen from pulling free. For all I know the briar's had the Duck immobile as well.

I set her on the open ground and killed the Duck for her to eat. She ate some of the fat and plucked to her hearts content. I offered her a Starling and she climbed right on the fist. Karen and Tami butchered the Duck for me and we began the walk back to the car while Jessie ate. She ate the Starling and all the Duck she could hold.

http://vimeo.com/53817267  password is owyheeflyer

Then it was the Harris's turn to hunt. Again Tami and Karen were going to carry and handle the birds while I taped. We did not find many rabbits at all, doing a lot of walking for each and every slip. When the Jacks were bumped it was always at long range, and the flights were not very good, or productive. I guess I am going to have to do some driving to "greener" fields.

Yogi did finally catch one and between the two birds, killed it before I arrived. We hunted until dark and got a few more slips, but the Jacks are getting much smarter, at least the ones that are still surviving. What with Coyotes, Bobcats, Eagles and Harris Hawks, life is tough here, and no one gets to make more than one mistake.

http://vimeo.com/53818539  Same password.

Some days are easy, others are normal.

I ordered a new Samsung video Camera hoping that I would be able to use it with the plane. Today was nice, even though it was cool and overcast, so I dressed up in my winter flying suit, and rolled Dart out of the hanger. I kept the Drift on the nose in its usual spot and I mounted the new camera on the windscreen. The results were totally crap. I had bought a new class 10 video card, and the Samsung would not write to it. I landed and changed cards with the Drift, and each seemed to work. The results were still crap. It wasn't a total loss, however, I got in some fun flying and managed to confirm that there were Ducks in the little pond over at the ranch, as well as discovering a Bald Eagle  sitting in the trees at the Lake. Don't want to go there!

I gave Karen a short tutorial on the Camera, and we went over to the ranch for Jessie's hunt. Karen was supposed to see if she could get some video of her hunting. Well that didn't work out. Jess took her pitch and I flushed the Ducks. Jessie smashed one down in a puddle that was no bigger than 3x3 feet. There were three Ducks trying to hide behind each other in the little puddle. The two healthy ones made their getaway, while the one she hit flew over a fence into a bunch of reeds. I went over the fence to try to find it. Jessie decided to sit down nearby, reducing our chance of success to zero. I finally did find it, but it made its getaway. Karen got none of it on video. Oh well, it ain't easy.

We went back to the house and traded Jessie for two Harris Hawks. I wanted to try another of my spots that were good last year, and I intended to try to get some video. The camera is small and really not that "ergonomic", especially if you use it in your left hand while holding a Tee Perch in the right hand.

I shot a short video clip each time they flew after rabbits and thus had a whole pile of short clips to merge. I got enough ? semi decent video ? to make a plausible movie. The spot that we were hunting was almost empty of Jack Rabbits. There were some Bunny's, but very few Jacks. The ones that were there, did not want to go home with us at all. We ended the day with a hapless Bunny that chose the wrong hole to take refuge in. Yogi saw him go in and could see him in there. So nothing would do but to pull him out for her. I would have never gotten her away from there if I had not.

http://vimeo.com/53724474   password is owyheeflyer

We hunted for at least two hours, before dark and exhaustion finally forced us to stop. The one Bunny was all we had to show for it, unless you count all the fun we had doing it. Home and the hot tub awaited.

We had to go to town yesterday, and had to feed all three of the hawks a little food to keep a reasonable weight, since yesterday was their normal flying day. This morning all seemed ready to go flying.

Around 11 AM I finally gave in to Jessie's pleas, and we went over to the ranch to see if we could find something to hunt. It has been stormy and the Swans are filling the sky, so I was hopeful.

Dave had taken the excavator and ditched and drained the one spot that Ducks were visible when they were present, so it was going to be iffy at best. There are always Ducks present, it is just getting them in a spot that you can get them over the ground where Jessie has a chance at them. There is a little "handkerchief" pond along that same area that sometimes has Ducks on it. That was what I was counting on.

I gave Jessie to Karen to hold for me and began easing over to the pond to see if I could see anything on it. It is in the Grease wood and has a fairly high bank around it, so my chances were pretty good. After a very careful recon, I finally saw a Ducks head in the pond. I hurried back to Karen and struck Jessie's hood, pointing her into the wind. She circled the area, but didn't seem to be concentrating on the pond, so I decided that she might not have seen the Duck on the pond and was just looking at the ditch. We timed it so that she was a bit behind us, and then I rushed the pond. I was more than a bit surprised to find that it was holding about 30 Gadwalls. Jessie slashed down through the flock, and did a short "throw up", wasting no time in getting back on the Duck that she had knocked to the ground.

  I had to use the telemetry to find her, as she knocked it into the ground out of my vision. We settled back and let her get started eating. Gadwall's taste a bit better to Jessie than Mallards. Not quite so dry. I let her eat most of the neck, back and all the fat on both of those.

When it became apparent that she was going to have to roll it over to get anymore fat, I offered her a Starling. She accepted and stepped up on the fist, to my surprise. While she was eating that, Karen butchered the Duck, giving me both legs and both sides of the breast with the wings attached.

When Jess finished the Starling, I gave her the legs, one by one, then half of the breast as well as the heart.

She had to work at it, but she got around it all.

We went back to the house, and I sprayed Jessie with Hartz Mt Mite and Lice spray to counteract the Goose problem of last week. I also gave her a bath when we got home as she was pretty bloody, so I will probably have to repeat.

Yogi had been pretty low, ( 1100 grams) on Tuesday, and Puddy was heavy, so I took Yogi out here at the house and tried a couple of areas that we had not hunted as of yet. The first, across the hwy and across the creek, was a total waste of time. We walked for a long way and only jumped three Jacks, so I went back to the car and stopped at the top of the gravel pit and dropped down to the creek on this side of the Hwy. I am sure that there are quite a few rabbits holding there, but there is little cover, being mostly grass and low weeds.

We didn't jump anything down in the bottom, but Yogi chased and caught a Jack halfway up the hillside. Unfortunately it got away from her. We walked all over the rest of the hill without getting a close enough slip. I decided to go on home and just feed her enough to tide her over, but jumped a rabbit in a little bit of scrub by the road. She grabbed it, but it too scraped her off on a Sage, leaving her with enough fur and skin to convince her that she still had the Jack in her feet.

At 3:45 PM, Tami, Isabel and Reuben came over to hunt the girls. I wanted to drive to Arock to see if any of our old spots were holding any rabbits. We have been hammering it pretty hard here at the house and the ranch, and I wanted to let these settle down a bit. The rancher where we hunted last year had indicated that the numbers were down, but I needed to see for myself.

We parked and climbed the fence at one of our old spots, and they began to chase rabbits. The Sage is a lot higher than they have been hunting recently, and they had rabbits running every where. Poor ole Reuben was almost run over by a seriously scared Jack Rabbit. Yogi would no sooner land on the perch, when another Jack tried to move out of the way. We were amazed at the number of slips that we were getting. Finally one screwed up and Puddy nailed it. The screams were soon muffled

 when Yogi slammed into the fray. With the two birds there is rarely if ever one that gets away. Which ever hawk that is left grabs the rabbit before it can scrape the hawk off its butt. This rabbit was huge, probably the biggest that I have seen this year, and would have had a good chance to get away.

 I am not sure what happens to the ones that do get away as we have not caught any that showed signs of having been caught before, so I am not sure what happens to them. Perhaps they totally change territories the scare is so bad, or perhaps they are weakened enough that they fall prey to Coyotes. They have to be sore as can be and handicapped as well for quite a long time.

I gave each part of a front leg to eat as a reward. Puddy decided to eat hers in the safety of Karen's feet.

 After they finished, we continued our hunt, with Jacks going every where. Finally we jumped a Jack, with Yogi giving chase. Puddy strangely stayed on the perch. We were all looking at her wondering why she had not joined the chase. Suddenly she slammed into a bush right beside where we were all standing. Tami was right there and was trying to grab the rabbit as he was trying squeeze out of the other side of the bush. Finally I grabbed it by the head and moved it out of the bush. Yogi had landed and ran up to my right rear. When she saw the head she flashed out a foot and grabbed it in the head, her talons going on either side of Puddys toes. I was amazed again that they do not grab each other. I just wish they would extend the same courtesy to me.

 We gave them the rest of their meals, and when they finished we leashed them up for the walk back to the car.

 It was getting dark, and we were rewarded with a nice sunset as we walked back to the car.

This is the two Jacks that we caught, both last years rabbits, and were as fat as they could be. Notice how much bigger, (longer) the one Jack is compared to the other. I didn't weigh him, but he had to be in the 6 or 7 lb range, the other is average. Both had layers of fat around their kidneys.

Waiting for Ducks

Well today it is winter, cold wind blowing out of the South West and temps of 14 degrees this morning. The snow all melted as the ground hasn't dropped enough temperature yet for it stay, for any length of time.

Karen and I picked up Jessie to see if we could find something to hunt over at the ranch. I decided to try the lake, as I had not been there for a long time. The predominate type of Ducks present at the ranch now is Mallards, which are the local birds. The Gadwalls and Wigeon have not come in yet. Not sure if the wind is the wrong direction to get them here, or the Northern storms have not been severe enough to drive them South.

When we got to the Lake, we had to wait for the local Golden Eagle to put some distance between us before I was going to turn Jessie loose. When the wind blows the Eagles are able to hunt seriously, and that is when they are the most active and visible.

I turned Jessie loose and after she got up in the air, her flight over the lake was not promising. She didn't act as though there was anything there. Oh well it was a beautiful day, and she needed to fly any way.

 Unfortunately there were only two Divers, Buffleheads, on the Lake. I did managed to get one of them off the water and to fly over the trees. Jessie went after him, but I think he dove into the swamp on the other side of the trees. In any case, Jessie came up empty. I checked the area, and finding  some thing to flush for her was not an option.

I walked back up the hill, untangling the lure. She knew that the only other option was the lure and she came to me for the lure. I tossed it on the ground and she settled to eat. The dogs were happy to just run around checking things out.

Tami was supposed to come over when she finished helping Dave with the Cows, but at 5 PM, I was pretty sure that things hadn't worked out, so Karen and I went to fly the Harris' here at the house.

I turned both the girls loose since all the Cats and Chickens were already put up. We got out of the weathering area, and I tossed Puddy in the air, and Yogi took a perch on the power pole. Puddy saw a Jack in the front yard and started off after him. He cut in behind the "cat house" with Puddy close behind. He cut through the corral and apparently lost her somewhere in there. The two of them flew out to the property fence and took a perch on one of the fence posts there. Karen and I started that way. Yogi spotted a Jack hiding around the horse trailer, but she missed him. He ran out of the yard and into the Sage outside the fence. Yogi took off after him, but he lost her in the Sage. We got through the fence and Puddy decided that she wanted a ride on the T perch. I had not gone more than 20 yards, when Puddy took off after the same Jack. He managed to dodge her, but Yogi swept around the corner and rolled him in a cloud of dust. Puddy joined in and the fight was over. Yogi stuck a talon all the way into the Jacks lungs, and he was dead before I could figure out a way to break his neck.

 It was getting dark and the wind had a pretty nasty cut to it, so after they finished their reward, I tossed them the rest of their meal.

 One of the guy's that I know had said in regard to how well the girls were doing on game, that " he could do that well if he could hunt in his yard".  I had thought it funny, as this is the first time that we have caught a "Yard Bunny". I don't have to drive 40 miles a day to hunt, but it still takes as many miles walked as when I did.

I often forget just how big Yogi is, until I see her on either Karen or Tami's fist.

She is a real sweetheart though, and remarkably gentle.

Yogi is back in the groove again.

A cold front is blowing through and all around us is foul weather, with snow and wind. As is usual we got the wind, but no real moisture. It was a bit cooler however, and the Harris Hawks are noticing it.

Karen and the gal next door went to McDermitt, Nev. to pick up supplies, ( gamble ) leaving me here at the house to fend for myself again. They still had not returned by flying time for Jessie. Tami was assisting her husband Dave, so Jessie and I went to try our luck alone. I thought that I had a chance with the puddle that had held the Geese the other day, but on arrival found that a new bunch of weaned heifers were in the field and were as jumpy as first time alone heifers can be, so I tried the ditch. It was good exercise for Jess, but nothing flew over the dry ground, so it was lure time. No big deal, and part of the game.

Dave was missing an adapter for the stove that he is installing in their house, so we went to my shop to cobble something together that would at least enable him to start a fire in his new stove.

After that Tami and Isabel joined me for a bit of Rabbit hawking. The wind had come up and I discovered  that I had neglected to put my spare glove  back in my vest, after Karen had washed the lice out of it. Puddy at least was pretty puffed up, and not enjoying the cold cutting wind at all.

We got into the field and after a short walk, a Jack burst from cover, and Yogi nailed him before he had covered more than 30 yards.

 I tossed them their rewards after the Jack was dead, and while they ate, I cleaned the rabbit. I have not found any more diseased ones since the two that we found early in Oct. I am noticing that the girls are not catching any young ones any more. All the Jacks that we have caught in this field are at least a year old. Perhaps all the young ones died of what ever killed the two that I found. Perhaps I am jumping to conclusions too. It is just strange that all the Jacks are the older ones. Young is stupid, so if they were in the field it stands to reason that they would be the first to die.

We went on and had a couple more chases, mostly at long distance, and neither bird could manage to connect. We had walked up on top of a knoll that was mostly grass. Yogi was off after another long distance runner. Pud was riding with Tami, and suddenly she flashed off the perch and slammed into a lone bush, hard. She tore out a patch of hair, but apparently ripped out of the flesh as well. The Jack wasted no time in crawling into a rock outcropping. It was getting late and my hand was getting frostbitten, so we started back towards the part of the field that we had not hunted yet. Yogi as always was the first to see the Jacks, and the first to begin the chase. Puddy was just reacting as is usual. I am not casting aspersions about her, it is just that the lessons learned in the wild can never be taught to a bird raised in a pen. Yogi has one goal, and that is to kill something, and she never strays from that thought. She has the uncanny ability to know if the Jack is hiding somewhere, and will not leave until she has either caught him or lost him.

As we got into the part that we had not hunted in today, we jumped another Jack, and Yogi pounded into him, with Puddy close behind. She had hit him in the side and torn open his side with the force of the blow. Yogi, whether it is the size of her talons or the strength of her feet has killed more Jacks than any other hawk that I have flown. I cannot recall any other Hawk that has killed its prey by any other method than eating it to death. Generally they will tear open the flesh and the prey bleeds to death. Yogi rips big holes in the ones that she catches with her talons.

This time I tossed them their meals. Two Jacks are enough. I would prefer that each hawk makes a kill, but the last time I tried that Yogi caught four Jacks and Puddy still didn't catch anything.
I have just about run out of room in my freezer to store more Jack meals anyway. We still have at least 30 more hunting days before it gets really nasty. I have put about 47 Jacks in the freezer now. I am going to have to get creative if I am not careful.