Thanksgiving

The weather until yesterday has been quite windy, with storms all over the states. We were finally able to do a bit of Hawking with Jessie. I have discovered that the Ducks land on the lake to rest during the middle of the day. The Lake of course is the artesian spring that forms Crooked Creek. Its a bit difficult to get to due to a boggy piece of bottom land that you have to drive through or around. I had not felt that it was wise to try it until Monday. We got there at 1:30 PM. We had walked to a point just out of sight of the lake.  I was just getting ready to release Jessie, when the Ducks all lifted off the pond without any noticeable cause. I couldn't believe it! Since our options had just gone to nothing, I decided to go ahead and turn her loose in the possibility that one or two might have decided to stay for a bit.

Jessie climbed so high that I had trouble finding her. I guess I am not used to looking in that section of the sky. Once she got in position, we started over the hill only to find that the only thing left was Coots, which was not going to lift off the pond no matter what. I ended up calling her to the lure, and feeding her.

Tuesday was crap, with the wind howling like it can do here, so we went back to the Kite. I ran it up to about 500 feet and she worked her way up to it, in spite of the wind. It was good exercise if nothing else.

Wednesday all the storms blew out. I had a pair of new headphones for my plane to try out, so a test and recon was in order. The headphones worked really well, but I was very surprised to find that there were no Ducks at all on any of the ponds, the Creek or the lake.

This morning dawned with storm clouds, quite warm - 51 degrees- very little wind, so a flight was again in order. I was surprised to find that a new bunch of Ducks had come in overnight. The little pond that I really like was thawed out and full of Ducks.

I went to the Lake to check and found that my Coots were still there, but there was nothing else, so it was the pond.

I hustled back to the house and convinced Karen to come help me. I had to agree to vacuum the house when we go back just to get her to help, but she agreed. Its sad what one has to do just to get some help doing important things.

We loaded on up and headed over to the Ranch. A picture of the Steen's is a necessity of course.

The field where the little pond is, also is a feed lot for yearlings. The pond is in the far rear corner of that lot. There are feed bunks in about the middle. Karen and I walked up the road past the yearlings. Once we were safely past the heifers, I began to walk toward the back side of the pond, so that I could flush the Ducks away from the water.

I am sure that most of you have never had the odious chore of dealing with cattle. Cows have an inborn ability to foresee what you want them to do, and thus decide what course of action they can take to circumvent that outcome. I suppose it is some inborn instinct to combat predators, which of course is the way that you are viewed from a cow's perspective.

Well these critters decided that the best course they could take to accomplish that task was to run to the far corner of the lot. The fact that they had to run from behind me in a large and very noisy group to get around me and take refuge behind the pond, caused no hesitation on their part. The Ducks not wanting to be caught in the stampede, of course took off in mass to go to a quieter part of the ranch. There I was again, standing on the lip of a suddenly empty pond with a hawk on my fist.

I was considering crossing into the next field to go where they had set down in another little puddle.

Then I would have a whole new set of complications as you can see looking at me from across the fence.

At that time I got close enough to the pond to see that a Mallard Drake and hen had elected to stay in the pond. What the heck, perhaps this will still work. I turned Jessie loose and she started circling the pond. I decide to rush it, and at the same time the heifers saw Karen and turned back in my direction again in mass and in full stampede mode. Jessie was smart enough to know that if she grabbed one of the ducks, she would be right in the middle of a stampede. She wisely declined. I called her down to the lure.

Apparently from my posture, dejection is still the main emotion present here.

They say some days are diamonds, this one was Bullshit! courtesy of the heifers.

Two and three

After her last duck, where-in she ate all she could hold. I finally decided that she wanted to hunt and fly badly enough that her weight was not going to be a problem. She did weigh 910 grams, which is about an ounce higher than I really wanted. We had a day that we had to go to town, and I decided to feed her rather than take a chance that she would be too low for the weather. So that added a day or two to her layoff.

It has been pretty cold here, and I am too soft hearted to leave her out in the cold night, not being sure that she would have enough weight to keep herself warm. Yeah I know, the wild ones are sitting on the top of a telephone pole somewhere, and they manage quite well.

I have been helping Tami with Yogi, and have been willing to let Jessie go without hunting to try to get Yogi back on track. Today however there was just no excuse.

The pond that I flew last, was frozen solid, so the Lake was our best bet. After Karen got back from the mail, we loaded up and headed to the Lake.

Once she got into the air, I walked up to where I could see the Lake from the top of the hill. There was a pretty big flock of Ducks on it. She began to build a bit of altitude, and here came the Prairie Falcon. The sky was a bit bluer before I ran out of breath and cuss words. The Prairie crabbed with her once and again tried to crab, but Jessie rolled over and showed the Prairie her talons. The Prairie faltered a bit in her flight, and I decided to flush before the thing deteriorated even more.

A bunch of the Ducks broke from the Lake and Jessie smashed a Duck out of the air, but into the reeds at the end of the Lake. Jessie turned as fast as she could, but left the Duck where it fell, I am sure, because she couldn't see the Duck in the Reeds. She started building up altitude again, and another bunch of Ducks broke from the Lake and over the trees. Jessie followed.

I went looking for her, and found her with a nice Scaup. This is the first time that she has left any of the birds that she has struck, and gone back up to wait for me to flush again. I am not used to her thinking.

                                          I asked Karen to pose with her while she plucked.

                                                      Then of course, it was my turn.

Again, I let her eat all she wants. The darn things do not freeze all that well, and it is better that she eat all she can while they are warm and as tasty as they are likely to be. She of course peeled all the fat that she could find off it.

I gave her a leg to chew on while I walked back to the car. By this time she was having a bit of a problem bending over far enough to see what she was eating.

I will have another couple of days before we go out again. If it was all meat then she would be down pretty fast, but most of that is fat that you see sticking out in front of her.

Duck killing can be a very messy business, plus all that dry Duck requires something to wash it down with. Knowing that she likes to bathe after a kill, I started the heat in the shop, and drew her a nice warm bath. She wasted no time at all in jumping in.

 She looks a bit better and a lot cleaner now, so I picked her up and took her into the shop so that she didn't freeze into a ice cube.

                        She deserves a bit of pampering, and I am happy to supply it. She did well!

Update and Jessie's first.

I decided to impose on Tami, and so talked her into taking Yogi for the rest of the year. I don't want to do the walking necessary to give her the type of hunting that she needs. I don't need the impact on my foot.

We took Yogi out to a spot on the ranch that we had hunted her before. unfortunately we only found one Jack in our hunt. Its pretty scarce here. She did almost catch it however, so we were encouraged.

It snowed, (hard to believe, but that isn't a typo.) Tuesday we took her to Arock to see if we could get her jump started. There was about an 1 1/4 of snow there, so we could get a good idea of how many Jacks there are in that area. We found that there was a decent population there, but she could not make a connection. They are flushing pretty far ahead, and when they see her coming they hide, and she still doesn't know how to counter that. We did get one good close slip, and she was within inches of catching him, but in the end we went home empty handed.

We will be going out again tomorrow. Hopefully we can get one for her then.

I have been flying Jessie on the kite when the winds cooperate. Our last trip on the kite was with a 10 MPH wind, and it took her exactly one minute to climb 450 feet to grab the lure. I began to give Jess some pigeon to build some muscle and I of course over did it a bit, so I wasted one night compensating to get her weight back down a bit. Then there was two different days that we had to go to town, once for food and the other for Karen's 2000 mile check up. Then of course we had at least two days of really nasty weather.

Jessie has been pretty positive and trying to encourage me to pick her up. Some times I just can't, due to other commitments or the weather. I thought today was going to be another one of those weather days. The wind this morning was really howling, and spitting rain. However at 2:30 it just died. So I wasted no time in picking her up and heading over to the ranch.

I had weakened last week and took her over to a little pond there that had a "pile" of Ducks on it. When I flushed she knocked a hen Mallard into the greasewood.

Apparently a Teal chickened out and also dove into the Greasewood to escape the threat. She flew up as Jessie was turning to come back, and flew into the pond in front of me. Jessie was still a bit weak and landed on a post by the pond. While she was regaining her strength the Mallard recovered enough to fly off. The Teal of course managed to weasel out and escape, so we went home frustrated. At least Jess was.

Jess was begging to be picked up this evening, so I weighed her and found that she was well within her operating range. Karen was in the process of some desert making, so I loaded her in the car and we went to see what today would bring.

There was still a lull in the weather, but it was easy to see that it was going to deteriorate soon.

The storms were just to the west of us and moving in. Tami was held up by school lessons for Thayen, so it was Jess and me. A good number for success. Success is limited by the number of witnesses, the more people the more likely that the bird will take that opportunity to make you look like a liar.

When Tami and I had come back from hunting Yogi, we saw a female Prairie Falcon sitting in one of the trees. I told Tami at the time that she would be a pain in the butt for Jessie, and would most likely ruin at least one flight until Jessie kicked her butt enough to make her move on.

As I neared the pond, I turned Jessie loose and walked on to the pond, in an attempt to let her get what ever altitude that she wanted, and not be tempted to flush early. As I was walking I was watching her, then I could see the Prairie coming to give battle. They are cranky at best and have a tendency to not want to share hunting areas, even on migration. Jessie is not confrontational, but does not take kindly to rude behavior. If pushed she can and will kick their butt. They cannot match her for speed or climb. When the confrontation finally comes about they generally move on.

The Prairie was getting close, but Jess was in position, so I rushed the pond, flushing the Ducks. Jessie whacked a Gadwall and drove him into the Greasewood. She wasted no time in turning around and going in after him. The Prairie Disappeared. It took me about 10 minutes to find Jessie and the Duck, but finally I heard it flapping its wings, trying to get away.

I offered to help her, but she threatened to attack me, so I just stood back and let her handle it. If it had been a Mallard she would have accepted the offer. She really didn't need any help as she had it around the neck, and the head soon fell off.

She loves to pluck, it seems like some sort of necessary behavior for falcons and they are really a bit unsatisfied if they are given bare food. I was quite content to let her make as much of a mess as she wanted.

As you can tell from the mess, she had a good time. You can also see what she likes the most on a Duck- the Fat! By this time she had relaxed enough that I could snap a leash on her. I let her eat until she stepped off the Duck.

This is what the Greasewood looks like. All of it is sharp needles and they all fester when you get stabbed with one. Unfortunately the pond is ringed with this stuff.

Decisions

I have kept Jessie on the kite in an attempt to get her in really good condition. I am at the point in my life where quality is worth more than quantity. We could go over to the ranch and kill ducks most any time, and while I have a limited number of days that I will hunt. A head count is not what I am after. After all if Jess catches a Duck it will be two or three days before I can fly her again, as I don't eat the Ducks, they are all hers. Too many calories in most ducks to just slough it off right away. If I am only going to be flying ponds, then she doesn't need all that much conditioning, since the flights all take place in a limited area. However Creeks and ditches are a different story. Something always goes gunny bag and it is up and down until they wear us both out. The ducks dive in the creek, then she has to wait for the old guy to catch up, then it is dive back in at another spot. Besides "long winging" is a spectator sport for the most part. It is best that she have the stamina to make it worth watching.

It will matter little how high I get her to go for the lure. She has a height burned into her mind already due to my impatience and unwillingness to wait for a higher pitch, but at least she will be strong enough to hunt without stress. She will normally fly as long as she can, then go sit down on the hill side somewhere and recover enough to do it all over again.

I have brought her weight up to the point of insubordination, 880 grams at this time. So she is building muscle each time she flies. Today I put the lure up to 400 feet. It took her two minutes to grab the lure. At least one of those she was playing in the wind at 75 feet. The wind was blowing about 15 MPH or a bit more. It was strong enough that the kite could hold her off the ground. She finally let go after dangling over the ground for a minute or more. She lit on the ground and I called her to the fist for her food.

The wind this morning was dead calm. I checked the weather and it stated that we would have a 9-10 MPH wind about 12 to 3 o'clock. It came up at one, so I wasted no time getting the kite in the air.

I may go for Ducks tomorrow, if the wind doesn't blow. It is about time anyway.

Yogi

I have decided that I will quit flying Yogi, at least for a while, perhaps for the rest of the year. There is little around the house or even close to the house to warrant even trying. About the nearest is abut a 100 mile round trip to get to where there are enough rabbits to even try hunting. Then there is the matter of my bone spur. 

As you know I have been cutting her way way back on her food. Sunday I had driven out to the rabbit field, and she did little to nothing to make the trip worth while. I fed her nothing and took her home. I did not fly her Monday, and Tuesday morning we had a storm coming in. It was raining here at the house. I checked the radar weather and it appeared that I could have a reasonable chance of not getting both of us wet for at least a little while.  I drove into Jordan Valley to get some gas, then back tracked to the field. While there is a reasonable number of Rabbits there, they are staying in shoulder high Sage.

We walked for at least two hours, with her not really making any serious or effective shots at Jacks. Now if she was smart enough to be really serious we could have caught a Jack and I would have been happy. As it was she just wasted my time, and pain. I worry about the possible damage that I am doing to my foot with the bone spur, and quite frankly I am not willing to chance doing possible damage to it for no reward or reason. So I will look for a breeding project for her.  

Jessie's conditioning

I have not been saying anything about Jessie in the few posts that I have done. Mostly because there is little to report on. She is not yet in hunting condition and hunting opportunities are scarce. All the Ducks here are residents, and they are few and far between. There are next to none on the Creek. The drought has reduced possibilities and ponds to almost nothing. It will not take much to drive the Ducks that are there to other places that I cannot get to them, so I am biding my time until some arrive from the North, and Jessie is in good physical condition. Mostly the latter.

Jessie is a bit slower this year to build muscle than in the past. She is 10 years old, and I am sure that affects her ability to build muscle. She also hardly flew at all last year. Most likely the biggest factor is that I have her shaved to a razor's edge. Its hard to build muscle without the fuel to form its growth. Jessie is a bit of a handful if she gets the chance, and has bulk to spare. She triggered the somewhat spartan treatment by her actions. I have kept her hungry and given her the full "Patty Hearst" treatment in the hopes that we can bypass her usual mid fall rebellion. So far so good, but this evening I decided to put another ounce of weight on her.

I condition her by flying her on the Kite. Wind is vital for this exercise, and it has been a bit more than iffy. The last time I flew her was two years ago, and it took us about a week to get her in condition. At the moment we are up to about 300 feet with the food, and about 3 weeks so far.

For those of you who do not remember, I will explain how it is done. I have a Delta type Kite that is designed to fly straight up. With an 8 MPH wind it will lift a fair weight up to whatever height that you want. There is a "stand off" that is made from a coat hanger, that attaches to the line. That forms a point to temporarily  clip a fishing "down rigger" release that holds a short line with the food that is also clipped to the main kite string. When the falcon grabs the lure, the clip releases it to slide back down the line to the earth with the falcon.  There is 1800 feet of line on my reel.

The beauty of this method is that the falcon gets intense exercise without any of the tendencies to fly off and explore. This also reinforces the fact that where you are is where the food or prey is. There is nothing worse than a good point by your dog on game and the falcon is off on the horizon playing grab ass with another hawk. That also goes for Ducks on a pond. Invariably when the falcon returns it is generally about telephone pole high and the opportunity is long gone. Most if not all falcons are one shot flyers. With a Harris, or Gos a reset is no problem. With a falcon you go home and try again tomorrow.

The start of the exercise routine is a bit slow to start. Then when they begin to put on muscle, you can raise the lure higher pretty fast. When we began it was taking Jessie about 5 minutes to regain her breath enough that she could eat. Now at 300 feet she is taking less than a minute. If the wind holds, then I will give her another week, before I take her to the Ducks. I asked Karen to video her performance today so that you could see how she is doing. Normally when she is in condition she can fly for about 30 minutes or more. She is good for about 5 right now.

  https://vimeo.com/110735177     password-   owyheeflyer

A step closer.

The change for Yogi from having a partner, to hunting alone, has been a bit rough. She depended more on Puddy than I thought. It doesn't help that while Rabbits are better, they still have a long way to go before it is easy. I could use a bit of easy right now. I drove 52 miles one way to get her a chance at some Rabbits. Even with the price of gas going down a bit, we are still 50 cents above the national average for fuel. Just one of the handicaps of living in a rural setting. I am still not convinced that it is not worth it however. Sorry for whining.

There are upwards of 12 or more Jacks that feed on my lawn every night. I have no idea of how far they travel to do so, but I have not yet been able to find where they go in the day time. I took Yogi out here at the house the other day, and spent the better part of two hours walking all over with her. At a guess we covered two or three miles. We had four slips at Jacks. She missed all of them. I even went down by the creek to see if there was something down there. There was, sadly it was only Coots. They do not fly, they dive.

Yogi hasn't perfected her dive as yet, but it didn't stop her from trying. As you may have noticed, Harris Hawks do not have much in the way of water proofing. They live in the Desert, and every body knows" it doesn't rain in the Desert". I had a heck of a time getting her away from the Creek. She was convinced that she could catch one of them if she tried long enough.

I have been " turning the screws" to the old girl, as she is not trying as hard as it takes. Flying in a cast, she could hunt heavier than solo. The two hawks fed off each others energy and competitive spirit. Alone she is more inclined to going off on her own and waiting for something to show up. Needless to say, that pisses me off. Of course when I am in that frame of mind, she doesn't eat.

The only way that one can "discipline" a Raptor is through their food. She doesn't hunt, she doesn't eat. Sooner or later she will decide that she can wait no longer and put forth the effort that it requires to have something live in her feet. Of course that course of action requires some careful monitoring. One could end up with a dead Hawk, with too strict an application.

Our last several trips out, she has been pretty lazy about trying hard. I have been cutting her back. Thursday we went to Danner (52 miles- 104 both ways) and she just wasted our time. I didn't feed her squat! This kind of stuff is doubly anger inducing, due to the bone spur in my foot. I don't mind the pain, but I am a bit worried about what it is doing to the bottom of my foot. If there is a dead Rabbit at the end of the effort, it is worth it. Other wise, I tend to be a bit grumpy.

I didn't feed her the next day either, so this morning I had to either hunt her or feed her and lose the lesson that I am so desperate to get across. Naturally this morning was one of the few days that it has chosen to rain. Wind of 18 MPH is predicted for this evening. It was raining here at the house when I got up. We checked the radar and found that there was a rain cloud sitting on the spot that I wanted to go. The radar showed the clouds to be moving North, and since it was a fairly small rain cloud, I thought that it had a decent chance of moving off the area by the time I got there. I dithered a bit, then decided that I had to try even if we did get wet, I had to at least make the effort to give her a chance.

Every body here wants to get into the act. If I cut meat, I have an attentive audience.

It was 35 degrees outside, and spitting rain here. I did my chores in the near dark, and we headed out. She weighed 995 grams. 34.8 for those who resist change. In a cast of two she flew at 43 oz. I decided to go get some gas at Jordan Valley and stop at the field that I thought would give us our best chance on the way back.

The area that holds the Jacks is almost shoulder high, and a bird that doesn't fly smart is terribly handicapped. Yogi hasn't learned that as yet. We jumped several with no success. Wrong choices on her part every time. This picture by the way is not the heavy stuff. We ran several Jacks while covering a mile or more of Sage. It finally begin the sprinkle a bit, and I had left the tall stuff in the hopes that we could get a good flush where she had more opportunity to catch one. We started a Bunny and she was so close that she saw which hole it ran down.

Of course then I couldn't get her away from there. I did my best and cleared what rocks I could to see if there was any way that we could get it, with no success. She went back to the rocks at least three times. Then she checked every hole in every pile of rocks that she could find.

We were both getting a bit wet, when I decided to give it up. I was going to feed her enough to get her past a couple of days until the weather was supposed to clear. The car was in sight when she took off, made a pass at something in the Sage, threw up in the air high enough to turn over and slash down in the Sage. I heard a short squeal, so I took off to help, hoping that it was a Jack.

Unfortunately that was not to be, but what the heck she earned her keep this time at least. Of course this will only make her more insistent that she wait for the easy stuff, but at least she put out the effort, and I think I do remember asking the Gods to at least give us an even chance, even at a Bunny if there was nothing else. Who am I to scorn a gift from the Gods, no matter how small.

She got all she could eat, and we will continue our contest of wills another day.

Falconry meet

Since Karen is a Director for Eastern Oregon, attending an Oregon Falconers meet in Madras Oregon was not an option for me. Quite frankly at first glance, I have outgrown this kind of foolishness. Its kind of an "old school" type of thing I guess, or my "curmudgeon" gene is out of control. Then I meet some of the young ones that just cannot wait for the day that they are old enough to take their falconry test. I personally would not have guessed it, but I seem to like giving what ever meager knowledge that I have gathered over the years. Maybe I just like an audience that is too young to know that I am full of it?

Like most journeys the possibility of problems always exist. The further north we went the worse the weather was. The weekend was forecast for rain and wind. Lots of wind!

I took both Jessie and Yogi with us even though neither was either willing or able to hunt yet. We did pretty good this time. The only thing that we ( I ) forgot was my electronic varmint call, and the thumb drive with the hawking videos that I wanted to show. I finally found a varmint call in Riley,Or. Our intention was to leave a day early and do a bit of night hunting for Coyotes around Bend,Or.

The wind and rain came up as we started on Hwy 20 East. I had Yogi in a Giant hood and Jessie was sitting unhooded on a portable perch on the bed of the fifth wheel. When we got to the spot that we were going to camp, I discovered that the "Escape window" by the bed had escaped somewhere along the road there. The window blinds were fairly seriously destroyed. I went in expecting to see a totally deranged Peregrine Falcon. Even though there was a lot of water all over the computer, TV and bed, Jessie just seemed to want to know if I had anything to eat.

It was still raining, and I was trying to get the fifth wheel set up. I closed the door to the truck and only later found that I had locked the keys in the truck. God, I love being an old fart. At one time my mind was as sharp as one gets, now it is just an adventure.

The key that I had hidden somewhere in the frame of the truck, either no longer exists, or I have forgotten where I hid it. Same result however. We did get lucky in that Karen had kept her phone in her pocket. We had a comfortable place to stay out of the rain while we waited for the AAA guy to unlock the truck. One good aspect of this misfortune was that I didn't have to worry about locking the keys in again, as Karen thoughtfully reminded me every time I got out of it.

It was simple to get into the truck. The guy just took a wedge, drove it into the top of the door, and then took a wire and pushed the unlock button. I am going to have to include a wedge in my camping stuff I guess.

I found that it did not matter that I had left my Varmint call at home, as there either were no Coyotes in that area, or I did not fool anyone with the call that I purchased at Riley.

The falconry meets are designed to give all the falconers in the state a chance to meet, hunt, and mingle. It is supposed to be accompanied by a business meeting as well.

Karen had gotten roped into hosting the meet although it was five and half hours away from us.( At one time I didn't mind the fact that she could never say no. Now it seems to be a bit different.) The club furnishes the main course for the evening dinner. We will normally have between 40 and 60 people attending. She asked me for ideas. This is the main fund raiser for the club for the year, so I suggested Burgers, and as a bonus I agreed to cook sourdough pancakes for breakfasts. So after we had made a trip to Costco to buy supplies, we went to Home Depot to buy some plastic and Gorilla tape. A half roll of tape later we were waterproof again.

A former apprentice brought his Harris hawk to the meet as well, so we went off to see if there were any Rabbits around. Yogi hunts well with other Harris's so that would give her some incentive to get with the program. We found an area that had not been overrun with other falconers, but the Sage was waist high and so thick that there were tunnels rather than trails. We did jump a couple of Jacks, and I swear that I heard a rabbit squeal for a short time after Yogi went in the cover after it. If so she lost it just as fast as she caught it. We went on for a bit, with Ron in the bottom of a little gully, and I had kept the high ground. His bird started a Bunny, but it cut back giving Yogi a chance at it. This squeal was short as well, but it only stopped because the Rabbit died just as fast as she touched it. That girl has some big strong toes. For a change Yogi got all the food that she could hold.

Our dinner went quite well. George Meadows, Tami's sisters husband, helped me with the grilling of hamburgers, and we had food on the table in short time. Everyone brought some item to accompany the meal, so we had lots, mostly in the form of Carbs, but what the heck- everyone needs a sugar high once and a while.

Our meet place was at the county fairgrounds, so we had a kitchen and a nice room for our meeting. They were also renting one of the other halls for a Mexican wedding reception, so along with colorful dresses, we had a whole passel of little kids running amok. I put Yogi in the giant hood and Jessie back in on the kitchen table for safety. I have a chunk of carpet that I use for her portable perch, and at night she goes on the table, and in transit she is on the bed. I apparently was in a hurry when I did so.

I do not know where this towel came from, but it went into the garbage after she finally gave it up. Bored hawks are a lot like bored kids. They generally find something to get into.

I had to give her a stuffed Bunny that we had found somewhere, to get the towel. I then gave her some Rabbit to eat in exchange for that. So in essence both of my birds got a Rabbit at the meet.