What a difference a day makes

Over the years my hunting and training methods have of course changed. You can only stand the suffering from doing the same thing and getting the same result for so long. So I have changed the way that I interact with my Hawks, and gone back to the realities of Nature. That is - if you don't catch game, you don't eat. Hope has missed numerous times over the last two days where-in I have walked 8 + miles. I personally am willing to allow my hawk to get as fat as I am, as long as they can produce dead bodies at the end of the day.

Now I recognize the handicap that I have put on Hope by taking the dogs on our hunts. They for the most part do not make any of the slips better, in fact the opposite is true. The further the slip the more likely the Rabbit can make a plan and escape the "talons of death". ( Sorry, I couldn't resist ) Josie and Brick both do their parts extremely well, but the result is longer slips. After our hunt on wed she ended up with a sore shoulder, and it is still causing her some pain. I like having them hunt together, and her going to where Hope is holding a Jack, is a big plus, but it increases the difficulty in Hope catching Jacks because The Jacks tend to flush well ahead with the dogs in the field. Josie is getting up there for a Brittany. She is 9 this year, and most of my earlier Dogs have died at about 11 years. Josie is recently showing signs of advancing age, and has a tendency to limp after the hunts.

As you know the last two days have resulted in going home with nothing in the bag. I don't feed my birds now if they don't kill. Hope has been feeling the pinch, and today she was down to 964 grams.  Last year was this was the maximum weight that I allowed her to attain. We began this particular fast at 1045 grams. This year she thinks her throat is cut at anything other than 1000 grams. I personally am at a loss at her hunting so hard at such a high weight, but I'll take it. Today every time I went outside she was coming to the Weathering yard gate in the hope that I would come for her.

I decided to go back to Arock and this time leave the dogs at home. Connie and I walked quietly through the Sage, pausing every few yards. It took no time at all before a Jack burst from the Sage about 20 yards away. Hope was off after him and slammed into the sage with a mighty crash. That scene occurred two more times just as hard. It was obvious that she wasn't going to go home with an empty crop this time. We were very quiet and slow as we traversed the Sage. Our forth Jack burst from cover about 25 yards ahead of us but this time a Jack's death song was heard after her crash into the ground, then just as fast was cut off.

This time the "bum  foot was used and was holding some Rabbit. She obviously caught it by the butt and changed her grip to the head. She was eagerly looking for her tin cup. I gave her the cup full and then a chunk of the last Jack's back, leaving me the dead Jack. We moved on perhaps 30 yards, and waited for her to finish what she had. When she had eaten most of it, she picked it up in her beak and flew to the fist for the rest of her meal. I gave her the head and neck to eat. and as you can see a head is a substantial meal.

We only walked .83 miles this time and I for one was glad for the respite. If Josie was not having problems with her shoulders, I would stick with taking them along, and suffer the added mileage.

Walking my butt off- too bad it doesn't work on bellies:-/

Normally I would not write if a hunt was unsuccessful. There are no dead bodies in this post, and I will try to keep the bitching down as well.

I put in four miles and a bit more yesterday in a futile effort to catch an elusive Jack. Today I put in another 4 or more miles. I am already bemoaning the fact that Pat doesn't live closer so that we could collaborate. The Harris have a lot of try, but it is so much easier to have two of them working the Jacks.

I followed a whim yesterday simply because I didn't want to hunt the same old fields again, and went out "Skull Creek" road at Rome to an area that I remembered having lots of game the last time I hunted it many years ago, 2007 actually. Its all dirt road and the back way to Three Forks on the Owyhee River. I stopped at several different sites hoping to find enough Jacks to make a hunt feasible. I was surprised to keep running into Hungarian Partridge. All total I saw 5 different coveys of them. Only about 6 per group, but that is a pretty good deal, If you have a long wing. To my surprise and a little bit of shame, the dogs didn't seem to recognize them as anything unusual. A sad testimony to my lack of bloodlust for a shotgun hunting trip. Just don't have enough energy to do both.

I climbed up on top of a little pointed hill to see if elevation would be of help to Hope in her pursuit of the wily Jack Rabbit. Josie (my female brit) was with me and Brick was working the sage a bit down the hill. A Jack got nervous and broke cover about 125 yards away. Hope took off after him and Josie took off after Hope. Hope of course missed and got back up off the ground to a Sage. Josie in the mean time had caught up to the chase and ran a circle bumping the Jack again and took off yipping her excitement. Hope hearing her, took off and joined Josie trying to catch up to the Jack again. Of course that didn't pan out either. I was standing there watching all this unfold, and laughing my butt off.

So today we hunted again. Hope was a bit below 1000 grams, so hunting was viable. I went to my normal spot at Arock to see if we could catch something there. Brick my male Brit had some training by a genuine hard core Brit hunter and courses nice and close rarely going out much further than 50 yards. That close work is exactly what I need the dogs to do. Josie who can't remember if she ever had any training from anyone other than myself is off like a shot to the far reaches of the field, firing blanks and scaring every thing out of the country far enough a head that Hope doesn't stand a chance. At least she would like to. I called her back twice and she was still stretching it, so I called her back, picked her front feet off the ground and explained that I didn't want her to do that. It actually was just that. She is a very soft dog, so the correction was no more than that. She understood what I wanted and stayed in close, allowing Brick to work back and forth in close.

Actually I would most likely, I believed until today, be better off without the Dogs along. I feel sorry for them so I bring them along. Today I changed my mind.

I had noticed that Josie ran with Hope on her chases earlier, but today with the elevation of the terrain I could see better what was going on. I have always encouraged my Dogs to go to the Falcon when she was on the ground for some protection from Coyotes and especially Eagles. My Pointer used to do that, but she has since passed on, and now Josie is taking up the slack. To what extent I did not realize until today.

The way that it always goes is that when the Jack realizes that we are in the field, they take off about 100 to 200 yards ahead. Hope (springs eternal, couldn't resist) and gives chase. There is plenty of time for the Jack to make a plan and they will usually make a feint that suckers her in, sidestep and take off leaving her sitting on the ground. Today I could see that Josie would arrive shortly after Hope made her shot, run a circle around her, generally jump the rabbit again. Hope also noticed that, and began to take advantage of it and was getting more shots in at the rabbit. Then I noticed that when Josie would jump the rabbit again she would take off after it yipping at every jump. Hope also understood that Josie had eyes on the Jack and there they would go over the horizon, Josie yipping and Hope pumping for all she was worth trying to catch up. When the chase was over, Josie would come back to heel, almost, until the next chase. I kept saying to myself that I needed to record their cooperative behavior but found my self with my mouth open grinning like a fool, not taking any pictures. The serious Bird hunters will be proud of me. Brick has also learned to point Jacks. So far its only where they have been, now if I can get him to expand and point where they  actually are, I will be far ahead of the game. So to sum it up I have taught two of the best bird dogs to chase Rabbits and to point them as well. At least, I think its a good idea!

On my way back Hope did a wingover behind a large Lava "lump", and when I got there, was no where to be seen. I looked all over since there were many cracks and holes under it. I could see not a sign of her nor hear her. I told the dogs to find her, and Brick went over to a hole, stuck his head down and whined. I could see nothing, but I whistled and here came Hope out of the hole like a tunnel rat, and came to the fist. "Good Boy" Brick!

As we drug our butts back to the car, both Dogs left me as soon as the car was in sight and laid down in the shade waiting for water. Hope flew to the gate and sat on the post, while I brought up the rear. When I got to the car I raised the back door, and Hope started to me. I wasn't ready so she landed on Josie's back while I fumbled with my glove. We all had a drink and went home to rest up for another day.

Picture Candy

It is the time of the spectacular Sun Rises and Sun Sets. First the Sun Rise.

This was Monday morning

Now the Moon Rise

This was Monday night

This was the Sun Set Tuesday evening.

Burns Falconry Meet

I have not attended many of the Oregon Falconers Club falconry meets in the last few years. I left that to Karen. I have felt that it is time for the newer generation to shape the club in their own image. I had my time, and I was content to let them run it as they wished. Karen is gone and the meet was in Burns Oregon only 100  miles from here, so it seemed a bit churlish to not attend. There are many things that I do not agree with, but that can be easily be attributed to the crankiness of advancing age- possibly? I  actually had a good time, and have the feeling that the new officers just might be on the right track. So I am glad that I took the time to go. My main bitch was that the officers did not include the membership in the day to day business of the club and it was becoming a bit to yuppie, (catered dinners, and unnecessary expense) Most of the membership are common dirt poor types, due to their chosen lifestyle of falconry. You can either be rich and famous or happy, but poor. Rarely both at the same time.

I arrived on Thursday, and having a dear friend as well, a lady friend within several blocks of each other, I had a leg up on every body else. I stayed at Connie's and went hawking with Pat Brewster. Since Hope has such a wide response weight, I starved her for a couple days, down to a lower weight that would give me a larger margin of weight gain so that she would be able to hunt all three days of the meet without shorting her on her kills. We started out at 940 grams, only 60 grams  (2 ounces) above her real flying weight, and ended up weighing 1148 when we finished. That is of course with her full crop at the next morning of the day after the meet. I would venture that most Raptors do not hunt well even two ounces above their normal flying weight. Hope is a champ even among her own species.

Pat and I hunted in a cast those three days and it was a lot of fun. That is the two birds were hunted together, and cooperatively. That increases the survival difficulty of the Jack Rabbits by a couple of hundred percent, as the Hawks soon learn to take advantage of the other Hawks "set ups". When one misses the other has a free shot that often will end in a catch by the other Hawk who has positioned herself to take advantage of the miss. I ended the three days of hunting with three Jack Rabbits in the bag for Hope. Pat I believe had two.

The one who caught the butt of the Jack is the one who actually caught the Jack,. (Hope)

The one on the head is the back up that keeps the first from getting taken on a ride.

Pat and I, sorting out the tangle and rewarding the victors.

The deer are moving in. I am seeing them in the yard and the creek. These are taking a nap by the creek.

The Moon rise

The Sunset.

The "hurrieder I go the behinder I get :-/

There doesn't seem to be any balance in life. Most times, I seem to struggle to do anything interesting, then I am swamped, and too busy to put anything to print.

My first cousin stopped by the house on his way to a Southern US vacation.  I requested that they stay for a while so that I could show them the desert . We have been trying to squeeze every thing we can in before he has to resume his journey. We visited Leslie Gulch Saturday, came home and took Hope out for a hunt.

I didn't want to drive all over after driving all day so we went across the road to hunt at the Ranch. I forgot to take my phone with me, so I have no idea how far we walked. The Rabbits were scarce so we covered quite a bit of ground before Hope connected with a Jack. I wasn't about to quit without a kill, so we kept trudging on. When she did connect we had gone far enough that the car was hidden by the curvature of the Earth. If it had not been for Hwy 95 going up over a hill we might still be looking for the car.

I finally got to see for myself the mobility of Hope's foot that she injured last year. It doesn't do all that much. She held the Jack with her left foot and the right was just sticking out along side of the Jack with the "ponces" (toe's) pointed straight out. It wasn't even holding any of the Jack.

Knowing how insecure her grip is, and that we lost most of those that she caught in the butt, I didn't waste any time in getting a grip on the Jack. That of course meant that my bare arm looked as though I had been petting a Porcupine. Grease wood doesn't take that long to get your attention.

I gave her the head to eat as we began our journey in the general direction that the car should have been. The head slipped out of both our grips and fell to the ground. Hope of course made a grab for it and only succeeded in using that bum foot to grab my arm. That long talon didn't have any problem at all in sinking into my arm, slicing it for about two inches. Not a big deal other than I really don't like  feeding a hungry hawk with all that blood covering my bare arm. A hand full of dirt soon solved the problem. We eventually did make it back to the car- obviously!

The next day we made a trip that included Jorden Craters, Baptiste's grave site, and "Rattlesnake" cave. ( Lava Tube).

We walked all around the crater,  admiring all the different Lava flows, and chutes. We even saw a Green racer on the path. Apparently it was cool enough that he was slow enough to observe. On the way back, Lowell asked me about the Deer in this area. I related to him that it is rare in the extreme to see a Deer anywhere other than at a ranch's Hay fields. As we topped a little hill we were both blown away to see a huge branch antlered Bull Elk running in the open grass land with no cover over 12 inches. It is Elk season and some one other than us spooked him. We actually began to feel sorry for him, he ran so far. Of course I had no camera.

Yesterday I talked them into staying long enough to go to the top of the Steen's Mtn. The day turned out to be one of the more pleasant days on the mountain. The tourist were all gone and we had the Mtn almost to ourselves, the road was great, no wind and the sky was remarkably clear. Since it is one of Connie's favorite places I had no problem convincing her to join us for the day.

Since we are right at the beginning of the rut for Deer

The "boy's" were courting.

 Alvord Desert- From 9700 feet

 Kiger Gorge

Connie, Nancy and Lowell

 Lowell eating a drink

 A view of the Burns side of the Mountain.

While we packed a week into three days it was well worth it. I think we drove about 481 miles in the three days, but the treasures of the High Desert are pretty well hidden, and worth the effort it takes to find them.

Catch up again.

The 7th I took Connie to Boise to get the cataracts in her left eye removed. Then the next day we had to go back for them to check the results, and they were good. The hunting and events during that time were a bit hectic, so there wasn't much for me to write about. The 23rd we went back for the right eye, and it too was successful. We got to go hunting a couple of times in between, but things are pretty tough.

Tuesday we went to Arock to hunt and for what ever reason we didn't find very many Jacks, but did jump a couple of Bunnies. Bunnies are always tough because they are so fast and elusive, as well as not far from a hole.

Hope is under the rock trying to find the Bunny, 

Brick is trying to help. Connie came up about this time, tripped and she and Brick bumped heads. Now she knows why his name is Brick, Its for his head!

We walked quite a while, but could never find many Rabbits or connect with the few that we did find.

Tuesday night Connie and I were in the Hot Tub, when Josie began barking. Unlike Brick, Josie doesn't bark unless there is something there, so I got out, got a light and went to investigate. She was at the Chicken house. I looked in and there was Momma Raccoon and the other kit that I hadn't gotten when they were in the Grapes. I shut and locked the door and went back for a gun. I decided on my 22 pistol with the red dot sight. I however didn't change lights and kept the big and bulky spot light. 

I opened the door again and Mom was looking at me from behind one of the feed barrels, so I popped her in the head, Josie rushed Mom and started biting and trying to shake her. The baby made a run for it and having trouble holding the spot light and pistol shot three more times at the baby. By this time I was empty, and went back to the house for another clip. I then went back and made sure that all were dead, perhaps a bit more vigorous than necessary.

Connie sitting in the hot tub is listening to the small war that had broken out and by the time that the last shot was fired, began to believe that there had been a Coyote invasion, and I was being overcome. I blamed it all on the bulky spot light however. Nobody, not even Josie, ever thought that I would need that many shots for just two varmints. I was beginning to wonder myself. I can't say for sure just how many shots that it took me, but there was at least one misfire that took up some valuable time, not to mention the toll that it took on me, running around in just flip flops. 

Connie of course shared the story with the guy's and gal's that were working on her other eye. Not sure if I was the hero or not, my guess - Not! 

Today, the 25th is the first day that I have had for a while to go hunting. I went over to the Ranch and the back field that is full of Greasewood. Connie was taking a nap, so after I got the mail I went back to the Greasewood field to hunt. Hope was actually down in weight as I hadn't fed her much or often while all the stuff was going on. She was actually down to 988 grams and I had hopes that it wouldn't take too long to catch one.

Well, that didn't happen. She flew her butt off getting up three and four times to try again and again, but there were no mistakes made by the Jacks. It was taking an awfully long time in between Jacks and I was getting further and further away from the car. I think we flew about 6 Jacks before she made a desperate grab on a big old Jack.

She had him by the butt. She was stuck in the Greasewood on the other side,

so I just shot him in the head with the pistol. Josie then went in and finished him off with a bite to the middle of the shoulders. I cleared away a lot of the bush, but it was still too tangled to get her and the Jack out.

Then I began to try to extricate her from the bush, but couldn't. I could not just pull the Rabbit back towards her, her feet and legs where too wrapped and tangled to do so.

I eventually gave her the cup and a front leg from a previous kill, so that she could unwrap herself from the bush. 

The Jack was an old one, big and tough. I was surprised that she was able to hold him until I got there. Perhaps she is getting better with that foot.

After cleaning the Jack and getting a hind leg for her to eat, I started back to the car, which by that time was a very small dot. Josie came up lame and I tried one handed to find the burr in her foot. Nothing that I could find. Keep in mind that I am holding an eating hawk on the fist and trying to clear her foot with the other hand. I kept on walking. Josie at times seems to need me to check her feet for her and there is not always something in them. She however kept insisting that there was something wrong, but again one handed I could not find anything. She kept up with me three legged for a while and then just sat down while I kept walking back to the car. It was at least a mile away the last time I saw her.

When I got to the car I loaded up and went back to see if I could find her. I retraced my walk across the field whistling and calling for her, with no success. After retracing a lot more of my steps than I wanted, I went back to the car, and she was there. I gave them water, and of course a bit too much, so she threw up in the car. No biggie! Deserved it I guess. My phone showed that I had walked 3.62 miles.

Oct 18th,2019

We often get rare birds migrating through this time of the year. From Clark's Nutcrackers to White winged Doves, but this one seems to me to be the most unlikely of all. It is an Eastern Blue Jay that stopped by to dine on the remains of my Grape vines fruit.

The weather is making its inexorable march to winter, and I have been busy getting stuff ready for the cold weather to come.

 Hunting has been rather sporadic at best, and I seem to have lost count as to what I have done recently. My last two hunting trips have been unproductive due to weather and runaway weight gain. I have given up on trying to fly Hope on the basis of what she weighs, since it really doesn't seem to matter all that much. She likes to hunt and will still do her best without the need for weight control. The only way that it seems to matter to her is if she is so heavy if the "G" factors are too high for her to make the twists and turns necessary to catch a rabbit running for its life. My last trip to Arock was that way. We had six slips at Rabbits and all were able to turn inside of her.

Wednesday I loaded all the critters into the car and we went to Burns to both hunt and assist Connie in getting my fifth wheel ready for winter. Pat (a friend and 20 years ago apprentice) met us outside of Burns to do a bit of hunting with her and her Harris Hawk. Unfortunately a nasty front was moving through and we were fighting 15 MPH winds. Jacks are smart enough to run right into that kind of wind and some of the flights were going 3 or 4 hundred yards because it took that long for the Hawks to catch up to them. Needless to say it did not turn out all that well for our Hawks and we eventually gave up in frustration.

The Deer have moved back into Burns, and were lying around all over the suburban area. I was trying to give the dogs a chance to crap, and these four were curious.

I had intended to fly Hope on my way home, but gave up as the wind was still howling. Today the weather was better, but is supposed to be crappy for the next three days, so in spite of Hope weighing 1000 grams I decided to go over to the Ranch to see if we could find one there that wanted to go home with us.

The area that I was hunting is rather sparse Greasewood with a lot of Alkalie. It is basically a travel area for the rabbits to go to a large natural spring area that has good grass in it. The Rabbits go there in the evening and travel back into the Sage for protection.

After quite a bit of walking A Jack jumped and began its run, with Hope after it. A raven dove down on her as she was chasing the Jack. I am assuming just for fun or what ever goes through Ravens minds.  Hope never got a good shot at it and went to a fence post to rest. When I called her back the Raven again came back to harass her. A couple of 22 rounds across its bow soon convinced it to go somewhere else.

After walking another couple of hundred yards a young Jack jumped right beside us and made a run for the fence, with Hope gaining with every wing beat. I cringed when she got to the fence as I was sure she was going to hit it, but instead she flared up and over doing a wing over into the Jack on the other side. Josie was right behind her and ran down to where Hope was tussling with the Jack, but only paused and kept going. I had expected her to join (make that Butt in) but she did not. When I got there I could see that Hope had it by the head. Jo will crunch them if she has them by the butt, but nothing was sticking out for her to bite. He was all wrapped up under Hope. She wisely decided to keep going.

I killed the Jack, gave her the cup full of tidbits, then a partial hind leg to eat while I cleaned the Jack.I kept a front leg to finish her meal as we made our way back to the car.

As is my habit, after I cleaned the rabbit, I began walking back to the car, leaving her to eat what I had given her. I climbed back over the fence and started back. About 20 yards the other side I stopped to see what her progress was. When I did she picked up the remains of her leg and started flying to me, right at the barb wire fence. When she got to the fence she folded her wings and sailed right through as if she was a Gos threading pine boughs. Again I was expecting her to be flailing on the wire with feathers going every where. She didn't touch a thing! With a sigh of relief we walked on to the car.
She does know about fences, as she has been hunted around them from the very first. However I still hold my breath when she approaches one.

After we got home, I parked in the hanger as is my habit, and was unloading the car. Josie began barking wildly at the front of the car. Expecting a Coyote or something equally dangerous, I stepped to the front where I could see.

Brave puppy!