A bit of excitement

A neighbor was missing 6 horses and asked me to check the desert surrounding his ranch to see if I could find them. I had intended to go flying today anyway as I wanted to check some areas for nesting Falcons. My other hobby is falconry, and I want to get a new hawk this spring for hunting.

No biggie, I can do both. I did find his horses and then proceeded to look for the Falcons. I landed on a Playa lake bed and proceeded to walk to the cliff that I wanted to check. When I returned, I turned on the Master switch, and no fuel pump clicking that I am used to. After checking and not being able to find what was wrong, I decided to start the engine and see if it would run. Keep in mind that I run my fuel line out of the tanks to a selector switch on the side of the pilot compartment. Then through a gascolator, up to a facett fuel pump then on the the pulse pump and to the carbs. about 4 feet lift.

 It started right up and seemed to have enough power to fly, so I decided to take off, circle the lake bed in case the engine quit. I got it off the ground and began circling, it seemed to be doing alright, but I knew that I wasn't going to be able to get all the fuel that I needed to fly the way that I normally do. I was about 5 miles off the main hwy, but there was a field tht had been cleared of Sage that cut off some of the distance. There was no way that I could get a trailer in there to get the plane out, without the possibility of getting in trouble with the BLM, as the area was listed as a Study area, and they do not want you to be making tracks in there at all. About the time that I decided that it wasn't going to quit the EIS warning light came on. I have the EGT's set for 1330 degrees, as the engine leans out to stop somewhere below 1500. The EGT's were showing 1420 and going up. I quickly throttled back and at 5000 RPM's it began to sink down to 1410. I circled a nother time and it stayed at that temp and I was still flying, so I decided to head to the Hwy, thinking that if worse came to worse I could make an emergency landing there and hope that no one ran me over afterward.

Now I am much too impatient to fly at that low a speed, and I wasn't sure that I could maintain altitude at the level, but it did, even though I felt that I was slowly sinking into the ground. I nursed it home, flying over the road and back to my strip with no problem, but I was pretty wet under the arms, and dry in the mouth when I did land.

The moral of this story is - Don't rule these pulse pumps out. They work better than you think.

Here is a video of the event.

https://vimeo.com/163326173    password- owyheeflyer

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Sunday drive

Its been a while since Karen and I have gone for a Sunday Drive. I had a choice, in that there was a possible Prairie Falcon that I wanted to check to see if they were still living there.  I could either do it fast in the plane or see if Karen wanted to go along. I was a bit surprised and pleased that she did want to go, so we all loaded up in the truck. Two Dogs and us.

This area had been burned in the "Long Draw and Holloway Fire" Three years ago.

 The fire had burned up to the road and been stopped by a really wide fire line. The ground on the other side of the road does not have any growth other than Cheat Grass. All the Sage is gone for about 90 square miles. That did not stop the growth of Tumble Weeds ( Russian Thistle) Last years Tumble Weeds are gone now from the burned area. Some of them are clogged into each of the little crevices and creases of the burned area, but the rest have blown into the Sage on the down wind side of the fire. You can see them choking the Sage here for about 100 yards into the Sage. The stuff burns like gas has been poured on it, so if there is another spark that gets into this stuff, it will be hot enough to make a really good fire, and burn the rest of the Sage that didn't go up the first time.

The terrain had changed since Karen was last in this area. She had not seen any of the results of the big fire except along the Hwy going to McDermitt.

We had to drive about 20 or more miles to get to the top of Rattle Snake Canyon. There is little life but Birds in much of this area. We did see a Coyote in the far distance, but he was hauling it out of the area. He must have been more than 800 yards off, but he wasn't taking any chances. Apparently he had been missed before.

 This area is called the Potomac Ranch. I think it was a "line shack" type of dwelling, but it shows the presence of kids, and there was an awful lot of stuff that had been in the house. It was built out of native stone, and mud of which there was plenty.

This is obviously some kids fort, built by taking advantage of a natural little cave. There is a trickle of water coming out of the rocks inside of it.

The nest area was down stream from the crossing. The dogs are only too happy to get out and check all the smells.

A Red tail Male flies up on the cliff to check us out.

 A Kestrel dive bombs him all the way across the Canyon, and takes a perch close by, so that she can show him her displeasure at his presence should he fly again. There are a pair of them, and they are getting ready to nest as well.

We saw 8 Antelope on our trip, and most wanted to race. For whatever reason an Antelope on the left side of the road will, given half a chance be determined to run in front of you to get to the other side of the road. Almost every time! Once they start in parallel with you, it is going to happen. I have seen them from as much as 1/4 to 1/2 mile away run like hell to get across the road in front of you. It defies logic. If you slow down they will as well. You stop, they stop. Mash on the gas and they run all out, but come hell or high water, they are going to beat you to some imaginary point across the road.

 This guy was no exception. He was just standing on the up hill side of the road. He is a good one, quite a bit better than what you see during hunting season. I took his picture, and then he started moving. Faster and faster until he could cross the road to run up the hill on the other side. I once tried to out run one on my quad. I can go a bit faster on these two tracks than in the truck. But top speed is only 50 MPH and they still beat me across the road. Once there, they stop to watch you go by. I wonder if they would die of shame if you did manage to beat them.

This is what the burned area looks like. It will be 40 or 50 years before it manages to grow any of the normal Sage back, if then.

Oh, I almost forgot, there was nothing there except some Ravens.

Owyhee Canyonlands National Monument?

This will be a little different from my normal post. This one isn't about an adventure, its about something a lot more serious. I am at a bit of a loss as to how to describe it. You see a bunch of environmentalist  seem to think that the Owyhee's should be turned into a National Monument. The proposal is to take 40 percent of Malheur County, 2.5 million acres, an area bigger than Rhode Island and Maryland combined and turn it into a tourist trap.

As you are aware through the many video's that I have sent you this is a land that is currently little traveled. You may also have noticed that its all quite lovely and unspoiled. That is the siren call of the people that want to lock it up so that no one will actually be able to see it. I don't suppose that they have stopped to think that the reason that it looks that way is because the people here have taken care to make sure that it was protected, and cared for. Actually the real goal is to remove the cattle from the land. The thinking is that if there were no cattle every thing would be just great. I am afraid that thinking is seriously flawed, but so ingrained that thought processes are just stopped.

There was a ballot sent out to the residents of Malheur Co to determine whether or not we wanted a Monument designation. It was rejected 90 % to 10%. The only problem is that our population is less than any one of the big cities on the West side of the state. So the people affected by this designation will have no say in the decision.

All of the public land in the west is controlled by the Bureau of Land management. It is subject to the "Taylor Grazing Act of 1934- National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968- Endangered Species Act of 1973- Federal Land Policy and management Act of 1976- Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 as well as the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970. Besides all that bureaucracy getting in the way of getting anything done, they have no money. To the West of us is an area called Beatty's Butte. There are "Wild Horses" there. The herds are supposed to be limited to about 280 head. The BLM wasn't doing anything with them, they had no funds. They were finally forced to reduce the herds there by some 1500 horses.

The really sad part of all this is that the proposal was first put forth as a great advertising campaign by Keene Shoes of Portland Oregon. You know, hiking shoes for traveling through the pristine National Monument of the Owyhee Canyon lands. Sadly I have two pairs of those shoes. I cut the name off them and will be mailing them to the CEO with instructions. Just in case you would like to join me his address is:

Kirk Richardson
C/O Keene Footware inc.
515 N>W> 13th Ave
Portland,Or 97209

I am sure that all of you have other things that concern you, but if you get the time and inclination it would be nice if you could write, send an email to your congressman and Senator and tell him to make them leave us alone. This designation is not needed or called for.

High Desert Storms

Its March 11 and we had the earliest thunder and lightning since we have been here. Every thing here is magnified apparently by the vast vistas that we are treated to. The Sunrises are magnificent, the sun sets, no less brilliant. Thunder and lightning are generally reserved for the late summer.

I noticed this storm building, and began snapping pictures. I took this leading edge of the storm and came back in the house to see if the image did the real thing even a slight representation of what my eyes could see. Of course the comparison not as dramatic. I am not good enough to make that so, but what I had was not all that bad.

This is Idaho, where the storm is going. It will be pretty interesting by the time it arrives in Boise. There of course a wind front along with it. It began to develop even further, so I grab my card out of the computer and decide to watch it until it unfolds completely.

After it enveloped us, the thunder and lightning began to flash. The storm only lasted about 15 minutes. It dropped 4 tenths of an inch in that time.

Happy New Year!

Well a new year is upon us again. Hopefully this one will see a return to some common sense, but I'm not holding my breath. I just saw a blurb on TV about new laws going into effect for the new year. In Illinois they now have pill bottles with a combination lock system on Oxycodon bottle cap. Sigh!
This a link, but you will have to highlight it and right  click on view.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ct-locked-pill-bottles-0903-biz--20150902-story.html

We are starting out with a cold snap. This morning was minus 13 @ 6 AM. Thankfully I really don't have to be any further from the fire than another trip to the wood shed.

Sunrise at -11 degrees

There was a bit of ice crystals in the air, resulting in a "Snow Bow" as we sat down to breakfast.

If only people were as bright as this mornings sunrise.

December 24, 2015

As you can see, Christmas has come to the Desert. We are finally getting getting a white Christmas. We have been dry for quite a long time. So far we have gotten at least twice our normal rain fall for the year. 4.5 inches is our average and I think we got that in November. I am hopeful that all the aquifer reservoirs are back to normal. All of the ponds or "dug outs" are designed to gather the run off from seasonal springs that with normal winter water levels, flow most of the year around. These numerous little ponds supply water to support much more varied wildlife than one would imagine. The desert only looks empty.

Jessie

An update is due for Jessie. I have decided that the year is a bust and better left behind. I have been flying her on the Kite to keep her condition up to snuff. That is, when the weather cooperates.

 The 42.5 is straight line wind, not a gust. The kite that I have is a good one, but anything over 15 MPH is an awful lot of hassle. The last time we tried to fly her, the wind was hitting 17-24 MPH. Jessie took off, flew around a bit and landed on my shoulder. I couldn't blame her. The wind has not abated in the slightest. I will most likely give her another chance next fall. She has flown for me for 11 years, and been an awesome falcon, taking every thing from Geese to Sage Grouse. Her parents
died at 12 and 13. That doesn't mean that her attitude will be any different, but if you go by a comparison she is about 80 in people years. If she would rather not hunt, I don't have a problem making a ?pet? out of her.

In the spring I will either get a hybrid Peregrine/ Gyr from a breeder that I know or take a young Prairie Falcon from the wild. I am getting up there as well, so I am not sure that I can find an eyrie that I can get my old wrinkled ass into to get one. It wouldn't do to fall off a cliff out in the outback. My biggest fear here is being the object of a search party.

Karen and I are doing quite well considering, and enjoying ourselves tremendously in the process. We would like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas, and hope that you all are doing as well as we are.

Jessie

In the time since I last posted, I have slowly reduced Jessie's weight downward to bare minimum. It has had no effect on her as far as hunting.

A Raptor's body is unlike ours, in that their metabolism is hundreds (depending on the species) of times faster than the human body. Most if not all have no real fat on their body and the muscle is the fuel that allows them to hunt and stay healthy. Thus a hawk that misses prey and does not eat, loses muscle until it can no longer make the pursuit necessary to obtain food. Hawks hunt according to their weight. A fat hawk is not fast enough, cannot turn fast enough and therefore does not catch prey that is healthy. Once it loses enough weight to be in peak physical condition, the prey that was too fast yesterday, does not stand a chance on the day when her weight is right. What you strive for is to have the hawk or falcon in peak physical condition. Their mind and body both needs to be at its peak.

Falcons are different in that weight does not play that big a part in their hunting success. It is attitude that is the primary influence. That is not to say that a Falcon with an empty stomach is not motivated to catch quarry. An empty stomach can be a real motivator. Pared down to basics the part that concerns falconers is that a Hawks attitude can be modified to be a better hunter by weight control. Whereas a Falcon will react favorably up to a certain point, but the peak performance depends more on the birds attitude. A Hawk with an empty stomach and at peak physical condition is intense and will hunt better. If you keep withholding food It will continue to try to catch something until it gets too weak to hunt.  A Falcon that has been treated the same way will, once the peak condition has been reached, only have worse manners and will not fly as well.  A falcon that is too fat will sit on poles or in Jessie's case the ground. One that is too weak will do the same thing. One that feels good and is keen to hunt will revel in flight, one that is too low will not want to fly, thus sits.

I have known this lesson for as long as I can remember. I have also known that the reason that Jessie is not catching stuff is more in her mind. The problem however is that I do not know the reason that she was refusing to close with prey that she had knocked down out of the air. Both her mother and father died at 12 and 13 years old. This is her 11th year of hunting. I have considered that she just doesn't want to fight with the Ducks on the ground. Yet her physical condition appears to be no less than it has been in years past.

Of course this post is read by some falconers as well as just interested people. The first advice that you get is that she is too fat. The guy that had the project that she came from has more experience with this particular species of Peregrine than I, and all the birds that he has had do not weigh nearly as much as does Jessie. Of course if they all had the same experience they all might have the same weight range. I however still believe that Jessie is just a bigger bird than they are, while I also believe that her experience and time with me perhaps allows her to carry more weight. As in the paragraph concerning weight and attitude, what she thinks has more influence on the outcome than her weight.

So even knowing all that I have put in print here, I began taking her weight down, by shorting her on her meal at the end of unsuccessful flights. The last time that I flew the Lake she flew at heights that I had difficulty finding her again after taking my eyes off of her. She wasn't more than 400 feet or so, but it was still hard to find her. She again knocked a Duck down but did not close with it. She only got a leg and half of a Quail breast. I next flew her at Tami's house on a bunch of mixed Ducks on the creek. She sat on the hay stack and only flew when I approached the creek. She knocked down at least two Ducks and did not get either of them. She also never got higher than 50 feet. I cut her further. Again the same behavior, same height. The third time I flew her was a repeat of the previous trips. I cut her still further. I finally decided that I was wasting my time by going over to the ranch, so I turned her loose her at the house and began walking up the creek. She flew around my head trying to get me to offer her some food. As I turned to go to the house, I jumped a Jack Rabbit. She gave chase and eventually crashed through a Sage bush trying to catch it. Peregrines just don't do that. I took her home and fed her a Quail and a Starling. Her weight was 802 grams. Her "normal" flying weight is 870 grams. The next day I fed her half of a pigeon without flying her.

Today she weighed 860 grams, she of course still thinks that she is starved. I put the kite up and raised the lure to about 375 feet. I picked her up, weighed her, hooded her, and took her out in the yard and turned her loose. She began mounting up after the kite. At about that time Karen discovered that the lure had been shaken off the down rigger snap that secures it to the stand off stick on the line. After a string of cuss words I retrieved the lure with the garnish on it. I looked up in time to see her grab the stick that normally holds the lure and then let go. The only thing I could do was yell and swing the lure. She did not see me for a bit, so I was in the process of securing it to my weighted lure, when I heard Karen say "Holy shit!" By that time Jessie had grabbed the lure off the ground. It of course popped out of her feet, and she turned and landed on it again. Apparently her stoop was pretty spectacular. I had to be content with being able to pull it all back together.

I have decided that I am going to be content with flying her on the kite until a bit later in the season if at all. If she wants to "retire", she has earned the right. I will most likely give her a chance a bit later and will probably try her again next year. I have also decided that it is time to get another falcon. I will either get a hybrid Peregrine/Gyr or perhaps get a young of the year Prairie falcon next spring. I have some experiments that I want to try any way. If Jessie wants to fly next year we will do so.