Planes and Prairie Falcons

The weather is slowly improving. Hopefully spring will get here before my woodpile is totally gone. The wind has even dropped some of the time.

While attending Tami's son, Reuben's birthday dinner, his dad Dave, was telling me about a falcon that he had seen on a nest ledge out in the desert. I was very interested, since it is so early in the year. I was very interested to say the least. Most generally Prairie Falcons do not lay even their first egg until the 6th of April. Dave had told me that he had seen 5 eggs in the nest. Of course all that preyed on my mind until I decided to go check it out. We had brought the sight up on Bing maps, so I had a good idea of where to look. Dave had some Cows that were hiding out in Crooked Creek canyon, so I decided to check them first and then go on to where I thought the Falcon should be.

https://vimeo.com/62824738 this is a 9 minute video of the flight. Password is owyheeflyer.

I held out for a couple of days, and then when the weather seemed to be getting better, I couldn't hold out any longer. I loaded the quad onto the trailer and punched the way point in the Garmin. I parked off the Hwy where the two track started, and began my journey across the Desert. One of the interesting features of this area are the rock cairns that are scattered around this portion of the Desert. The story is told locally that they were made by the early Basque Sheepherders that spent months out in the Desert at a time. Apparently they either built them out of boredom or to have something that made them feel as thought they were not alone. After bumping over 13 miles of two track road, I arrived at the end of the road where the rest would have to be covered on foot.

The nest was in a short cliff face where a Creek had gouged out the earth over the years since the lava had flowed down to the Owyhee River. It narrowed to a point and the depth of the cliff is only about 30 feet. The nest is located in an old Eagle nest, and is in plain sight.

http://vimeo.com/62968057   same password. owyheeflyer

I only spent about 5 minutes at the nest so that Mom could get back on the eggs. I was surprised to find some old Elk crap in the Sage as I walked across country. There was a lot of "Indian Bullets" lying around on the ground by the cliff face. Apparently times were better in the past, as I did not see any Rabbits to shoot at. I did see two groups of Antelope, but nothing else except some ground dwelling birds.

Desert up date, or A funny thing happened on the way to Spring.

We had one of the most prolonged cold spells here this winter, that we have had so far, but then it was crappy all over. So much for Global warming, but then again I guess that is the way that it manifests itself, according to Gore. We were mostly prepared, probably better than most, with this house having 18 inch thick stone walls. There were times however when I thought the stove was not working, and threatened to get a new one. That is until I looked around, and found that the one I had was at least as good as the new ones. I think we burned twice as much wood this year than last. It was a toss up for a while as to which would last the longest, the wood pile or the cold. Things are looking up however, and we might finish out the year with a stick or two left.

Of course all that prolonged cold manage to burst the pipe that supplies water to the out buildings. I had decided to get a new Sump pump to assist in emptying the hot tub and the pool. My last one had finally bit the dust, and the hot tub was getting a bit hard to control. The day that the new pump arrived, the pipe burst and flooded the cool room. Karen tried to get a drink of water before bed, and found that there was no pressure. I went down to the cool room where the pump lives, and found packages of toilet paper floating around the room like rubber duckies in a bath tub. The new pump emptied the room in 4 minutes. So for the rest of the winter, I had to fill up plastic buckets in the bath tub to water the Chickens and Pigeons.

Some poor hay hauler lost six large bales of Alfalfa on the road just below the turn off to the house. Two of them were intact, so Karen and I salvaged them with my car trailer and the winch on the quad. The bales weigh about 800 or more pounds each, so there was a lot of expensive hay for ole Ezra to fatten up on. Well it of course came with a price. -- Deer! They can apparently smell Alfalfa hay for miles. They drove us crazy until I fenced the hay stack with a hot wire. Of course the rabbits went under the wires, but then again, I didn't mind them. We had somewhere around 60 or so Jacks and Bunnies feeding off the hay. They are not anywhere near as destructive as a bunch of Deer, and they will be the mamma's and papa's of this years hunting supplies. They also had another side? benefit. They drew every Bobcat in the country to "Cottrell's fast food resturant". Since raw Bobcat hides were selling for about $525.00 each, it made it bearable. However the ranch yard looks like the bottom of a rabbit cage. The ground is covered with processed hay, otherwise known as shit.

Richard Yturriondobeitia, (A good old Basque name, I just had to spell that out for you. ) runs a trap line each fall. I always shoot a few Coyotes that are forgetful enough to cross the pasture ? below the house. I hate to waste anything, so I started taking them to him. He insisted that he would give me half of what they brought for sale at the end of the year. Well, who am I to blow against the wind? When the Bobcats began showing up, I got pretty happy at the thought. Then he wanted me to start skinning the Coyotes, well it isn't as hard as it seems, but I wouldn't call myself an expert yet. I took the cats to him to skin, because I didn't want to screw them up. I did take one of the cats back to have it tanned. It was worth more to me that way than money. It is now hanging in the living room.

I decided that I would splurge and buy a varmint rifle, since I was having fun with all this. I bought a Savage package rifle, model 11-111. It came with a 3-9 Nikon scope, and it was fairly reasonable. Not actually what I wanted, but in 22-250 cal. was just right for desert shooting. I was actually quite hesitant to buy a Savage. When I was growing up they produced mostly junk for guns. I was told by several people that they were under new management and their guns were some of the most accurate available on the market today. As you may be aware, guns of any type or ammo for that matter are very hard to get. Obama sure has caused a run on guns and ammo.

I managed to buy the last one that Cabela's in Boise had in stock. I had to go to another store to get the ammo for it. It had a synthetic stock on it, but I didn't mind that since I could tape bullet drop charts on it and not hurt the stock at all. It did shoot well, and I killed a running Coyote at 204 yards with my first shot. I later shot a group at 100 yards to see how it grouped and shot a 1/2 inch 3 shot group. Outstanding to say the least.

Then last Thursday Cabela's got in a shipment of powder, and I made a special trip to Boise just to get the type that I wanted for loading. That same evening the varmint bullets that I had ordered came in, so the next morning I planned to work up a hand load for the gun that would be my varmint load.

I have been doing this since the 70's and am well equipped for it. The powder was H380, which is supposed to be one of the best for the 22-250. The powder can label recommended 41 grains of powder for the 50 grain bullet that I intended to shoot. My loading manual showed 36.9 as a minimum and 39.6 as a max for that size bullet. I choose to load 37 grains of powder and work up to more to get the grouping that I wanted. I loaded 3 rounds, and the first one blew out the primer. I thought that it was a faulty shell case, and shot another one. That one was hard to remove from the gun after it was fired. I foolishly shot the last one, and it stuck in the barrel. This shouldn't have happened as I was four grains below what the company recommended. I checked the scales and every thing, but it was all correct and as I had intended. I decided to cut the amount down to 35 grains. When I fired the gun the next time, it blew apart in my hands.

I was quite lucky. The only thing that came in my direction was the chip that hit my glasses and made the little star in them. I would have lost my eye for sure if I had not been wearing them.

I have of course been in contact with Hodgdon powder company, and will be sending them bullets loaded with the powder. It was made in Jan of this year, so it was new. Savage Arms is sending me boxes to send the gun to them to check. I have no clue as to what they intend to do about the gun, but I know that I made no mistake in my loading process.

Tree's giving birth, and flying Squirrels.

Karen and I were in the hot tub the other night, and she asked if the fence was shorted out. With the electric fence that keeps Ezra from doing a "walk about" running around the field sometimes manages to get close enough to a post that it will short out and you can hear it Snap. Well, I listened hard, but the sound even though it could be called a "Snap", it was a bit too low in pitch. I got out of the tub any way and went out in the dark to watch and see if I could see the spark. I could not, so the next morning I made a trip around the fence and could find no visible problems. Then yesterday afternoon was nice enough that we were sitting out on the deck in the sunshine reading. I could hear the snap again, so I went to check around the "Cat house" for a possible short there. Nothing! Today I was out by the tub, and I heard it again. I went by the front of the house to listen, and it was coming from the Pine tree. The cones were opening and the seeds were being scattered with the snap. :-/ New one for me. The Pines at our other house were so tall that you couldn't hear them doing it.

I opened the dining room window today to let Frank (Cat ) in the house. As I was closing the window I heard a bang on the roof and a Antelope Ground Squirrel came to rest in the side yard. It was quite dead. I craned out of the window and saw the resident Red Tail Hawk circling around the house. It landed in the tree by the cat house.

I tried to toss it in the front yard for him, but they cannot see anything that does not move, so he eventually flew off to try his luck elsewhere. I am not sure why the hawk dropped him, he obviously did not intend to do so. I am also not sure whether the hawk or the fall killed the Squirrel. Food is hard to come by, I hope he does better in the future. Puddy Tat enjoyed the Squirrel.

Frank and Josie.

Josie just loves the cats, and Frank loves her right back. With the good weather the cats are enjoying the outdoors very much. Frank, for whatever reason likes to dig. He made quite a hole in the garden, and played in there most of an afternoon. Yesterday he started digging out by the weathering area, and dug up a "Matchbook" Car. Quite a nice one too.

One of Josie's favorite things are Mice. When I find one that has been caught in one of the buckets, I toss it out for her and she spends a long time tormenting it to death. She turns them loose and then catches them again. I gave her one this afternoon and noticed Frank following her around, hoping that she would screw up. Of course she never did, but hope springs eternal I guess. The hole that Josie is standing in was dug by Frank.

I spent the afternoon fixing the broken pipe. It had been spliced so many times that I had to build a new one. It fed the far pens, and the sprinkler system as well as the Cat house, as I later found out. I tested it and none of the new stuff leaked, but the pressure was a bit lower than I thought it should be. Later I discovered that it was broken where it went into the cat house. Sigh!

Winter in the Desert

This year has been quite a bit like our first winter here. With the exception that the cold has stayed a lot longer. The temps have not been that severe, merely -9 at the coldest, but it has seemed to have been forever. We are burning almost a wheel barrow load of wood each day, and so far I seem to be burning about twice what I did last year. Hopefully the temps will moderate a lot in the near future.

We had some snow that began on Christmas Day and there is still some of it hanging around. I am not sure that the temps have gotten above freezing more than twice since then. Every thing is feeling the extra pressure to keep warm and to do that requires a lot of food as fuel to take the place of the wood stove. The rabbits have been doing quite well with our hay stack now that the Bob Cats have been removed. There are a pile of them each night and some days, crowded around it. The rabbit turds are every where, and starting to pile up around the hay stack. As you can see from the picture above one learns to put wire around the fruit trees if you don't want them stripped of bark. The old Juniper is past hurting as it has been dead since before we moved here. It was explained to me, by Karen, that it is a bird perch, and there fore immune from the fire.

The Quail at this time of the year are hard pressed to find enough to eat, and we generally start a bird feeder when the weather gets colder. It seems that there are nothing but House Sparrows and Starlings here right now, so we haven't put one up. We are putting out feed for the Quail however. It didn't take long for the Rabbits to decide that some of the corn was pretty tasty and join in.

Jasper is still around and I have been feeding him occasionally. Not every thing that he needs, but just enough that he can survive if he doesn't catch anything else. The mouse population seems to be rather lower than is comfortable for the raptors. The resident male Kestrel at the ranch next door managed to freeze himself to a metal truss in their barn. Unfortunately he didn't make it. So I decided that it was time to feed Jasper if he needed it.  When hunting is good, he doesn't show up at all, but when he flies up on the Telephone pole or into the tree, I take it as a hint that some food would be nice. I have been cutting a Starling in half for him, since he can't eat a whole one before it freezes solid. I didn't have one thawed yesterday and he was hinting pretty strongly. I started one thawing, but decided to cut off a chunk of the Harris Hawk's food  ( fresh Coyote) and see if he would come to that. It took a bit to find a place that he would be able to see it above the snow. He was sitting on the Telephone pole.  I tossed it in the yard, then turned back into the house. By that time I had the bird thawed and went out to give it to him. As I stepped out of the door, I could see him on the hack tower and he was eating the meat that I had earlier tossed.

This is the time of the year that being retired has paid big time. I generally do a lot of reading when the weather is bad, and I have been getting the most out of the Malheur County "on line library" and my Kindle.

Earlier I purchased an electronic Predator call to help with the boredom and the Coyote population on the days when the weather is a bit more moderate. Since my friend, the trapper, is interested in the hides, I have a renewed interest in shooting more of them. I have in the past just thinned the ones that are working the area around the house. Now with an actual use for them, the interest is intensified. One of the problems that ran into was the damage to the hide when I shot them with my (Deer rifle) 243. When they were just shot for their nuisance value it didn't matter if I blew the entire other side out of them. Now that I am skinning them, those large holes are a bit more of a bother. I decided that I needed another gun just for that job. Well, with the run on guns after the re-election of Obama, the prices and  demand is way up and it is hard to find a gun anywhere. Since I reload I decided to see if I could find a bullet in 243 that would do the job. I decided to go to a smaller bullet that would go faster and see if I could find one that would not exit a Coyote. I have had two of my candidates loaded and ready to go for some time, but the weather has had me holed up inside. I did go out to make a set, out a bit from the house the other day, and stayed until I was numb, but with no success. The pack just sat and howled at me, rather than come in.

Yesterday while I was doing chores, Josie started barking and running down towards the creek. I knew that there was a Coyote down there, so we called her back and I checked out of the window every now and then. Sure enough, soon there was a Coyote in the field. Unfortunately it was only about 100 yards from the house, and I didn't allow for the closeness, so the bullet hit her in the spine.

She dropped of course and the hole wasn't all that bad considering. Apparently more testing will be required.

I got her skinned out and took the meat off the legs and what was left of the back strap, for hawk food, and then took the remainder up to the gravel pit for the clean up crew. ( Ravens and Eagles) When I arrived I found that someone had shot a large male Coyote up there and had left him. I loaded him up and took him to the house to thaw enough that I could skin him. He was a bit of a chore, but I got it done.

Winter has arrived!

Winter has arrived with a passion. First the winds that were too strong to fly anything less than a Peregrine. Then there were no thawed ponds, and very few Ducks came down this year. Then after the winds calmed a bit the snow and the cold temps made anytime outdoors pretty miserable. Its only saving grace was the beauty.

On the 27th of December I took Jessie to her new owner. He lives on the other side of the state, so we met halfway. If she raises babies this year, I will get one of her babies to began it all over. If not then I will get her back this spring, and we will hunt together again.

The fog rolling in at dusk lent a chilling perspective to an already chilling sight.

The snows piled up to an impressive ( for this area ) four inches. Snow that stays very long is a bit unusual in this country. It started on Christmas day. Our usual minus temps were delayed until just this last week. If things work as they usually do, the temps will began to rise in a couple of weeks, but in the meantime things are going to be a bit rough around here.

The parents of the next generation of Rabbits have been making full use of the Hay stack, and our "ranch yard" is nothing but a giant Rabbit track.

The Quail also pick up a bit of greenery for their diet as well.

The temps are hitting -11 or more each night. So far so good. Every thing is holding up quite well. Last year my frost free faucet that I use to water the birds managed to freeze up, and nothing is more miserable than having to carry water.

Tara, ( Tami's sister ) and her fiance George came down for New Years. Tami and Tara had wanted to hunt their Kestrels in a cast. Unfortunately it was so cold that neither bird felt like hunting at all.

I made the mistake of not bringing a hat with ear flaps and I soon had numb ears. Its no wonder the poor little birds were a bit reluctant to get enthusiastic about the idea.

They tolerated each other quite well, but spent most of their time fluffed up and hoping that someone would take pity on them, and take them inside where it was warm.

The desert as usual has its own beauty, and while it may not suit you, it satisfies and soothes my soul. Of course it doesn't hurt that since I am retired I can just say "Screw it, I am not going outside"!

Winding down

 Puddy

Yogi

It seems a bit early, but this evening I put the Harris' in their winter quarters after their hunt. Things have been getting a lot tougher, and weather and wind are, more often than I would like, keeping us from hunting. It was showing 30 degrees on the truck thermometer, and Puddy was shivering while we were out.

I went to Arock today out of desperation, hoping that I could find enough rabbits that they could make a kill or two. Karen is in to baking for Christmas, Tami is building fence and school for the kids, so it was just me and the birds. It is a bit of a problem, as one of them has to follow along, and that is generally left to Yogi to do so. She tends to go hunting in the direction that she thinks best, which is not always where I want to go.

 We found a few Jacks, and Puddy even managed to catch one after a couple of hours and a lot of walking. It, however as was the last one they caught, not all that healthy. There is some kind of ?"pus pocket"? that some of the older ones have under their skin. They seem to have some kind of larva encased in it that gives me the creeps. The last one that they caught had what appeared to be some kind of eggs in the abdomen. I threw most of it away as I did every thing but the legs on this one.
The other day I found a Bunny in the horse corral that could not get to its feet and was bleeding from the nose and mouth. There was no obvious signs of injury to him. I also threw his body where none of my animals could get to it.  There is little reason to kill them if I cannot make use of their flesh. The survivors will soon be breeding. Perhaps we will have more next year. Things are tough enough as it is without us contributing to their reduction.

It has been a good year, and I have had a lot of fun, but it is time to put the Harris Hawks up. I will hunt Jessie a few more times until the breeder comes to get her.

Jessie

The weather is in between storms for a bit, so Karen and I took Jessie out to hunt. Not sure how long the break will last, so there was some urgency. We just finished two days of high winds, 49 MPH was the highest gusts.

We turned Jessie loose and watched her for hints on where the Ducks were holding. When she settled on an area of the Creek, we began moving in to see what she had.

 As we got close, Betsy again went on point, but before we could get any where close to the Creek, a Gadwall flushed with no apparent provocation. Jessie slammed him into the water, which was futile, and continued to fly. She was no longer very high, so our chances were reduced. We waited for her to get back up and into position, when some more Ducks again got up off the ditch. She again knocked another one into the Creek.

She then landed for a bit, and I attempted to get into a spot that I thought might hold some more Ducks. After she began flying again, we walked up the creek, but the creek was empty. Apparently the storms blew the resident Ducks out of the area. There did not seem to be very many at all on the Creek.

Oh well, she at least got to fly for a bit. When we got back home, I decided to give her a chance to take a bath. It was definitely too cold for her to bathe outside, so I put her on Puddy's perch and take the bath inside. I turned the heater on to dry her out when she finished.

You should have seen her eyes light up when I brought in her bath pan. She wasted no time getting in as soon as I poured the water.

Mystery solved

Well here is the answer to my mystery of Friday. I was pretty sure that a Bob Cat was responsible for the Jack Rabbit in the hot wire. However I didn't think that he would be back for a week or so. Especially after he got his nose burned with the wire.

It snowed a bit this evening. I had turned to dogs out to pee around 9 PM, and Josie ran out the door and as soon as she hit the yard she started barking as though she had seen something close. I got the spot light thinking that I would be seeing Deer, but there was nothing. I later found this cats tracks right outside the door. I think Josie almost ran right into him.

Karen and I settled down to watch the final day of the NFR. For some reason I decided to see if the Deer had come up to the stack. I went to the back bedroom and tried to shine the light on the hay. The reflection of the windows made it tough to see clearly, but I finally saw an animal on the top of the Alfalfa bale. It looked like a Cat, but I couldn't tell for sure. I got Karen and my rifle. We went outside and I had her shine the light on the hay stack. It didn't take long to decide that this was not one of our outside Kittys.

It appears to me that he caught another Rabbit as it went up to eat some of the Alfalfa. There was hair and a bit of blood under the hot wire, as well as "scuffle" marks.
However I couldn't see any indication that he was able to keep or eat the rabbit.

The picture above shows where the cat had lain long enough to melt the snow. I think he grabbed a Rabbit and got into the hot wire again, only this time he ended up inside the enclosure. I also think that every time he tried to get out, he got zapped. Either that or he decided to get comfortable while he was waiting for a Rabbit to come into range.

They are lovely creatures, but they don't belong in my yard. We have been pretty lucky in that we have only lost some Pigeons to them. It could have been a lot worse.

He is actually pretty heavy. Karen was trying to take a picture of him out by the hay stack. Of course she couldn't see through the view finder, and I am trying to hold him up long enough for the camera to focus, I am starting to grunt by the time the picture finally snapped.

Daylight has come, so I went out to work out the way that events unfolded prior to my interruption.


Here is where the Cat caught the Jack Rabbit.

He killed it, and then brought it under the wire, coming towards the bottom of the picture. You can see some blood spots just under the wire.

He brought it around the loading chute and ate it at the beginning of the chute.

After he finished, he buried the guts and a few other remains behind the wall.

The part that I find interesting is that after killing and eating one Jack, He walked back through the hot wire to take a nap on the hay stack, perhaps waiting for desert? Who knows? I am surprised at how brazen these cats are.

I did not blog about it, but this is the second encounter with Bob Cats this fall. I first noticed that we had a Cat working the house in June. I kept finding the tracks around the house, and other than some spots of Rabbit hair left from one of her kills. Some in the shadow of the house itself. Then we started finding some of our Pigeons in the kill spots. Then finally as we were sitting in the house, me reading, and Karen on the computer, one of the house cats sitting in the window. A loud thump against the glass brought me and a spot light outside to see what was going on. I found a large Bob Cat standing under the window, looking at me from about 8 feet away. I called Karen to come see, and the Cat moved back to about 12 feet and was standing there watching us. Of course by that time I could see that this wasn't going to turn out very well for us and our critters.

This one was a female. I had a hard time believing that she would try to kill our house Cat while we were right there. The TV was on, but she ignored all that and the Dogs on their trips outside. We will see if things will calm down a bit now, and since Jessie is fat, and the Harris Hawks will not hunt in the snow, I guess I will take a couple of sleeping pills ( Betsy and Frank ) and wait for better weather.

Jessie's turn

The weather is getting down there and the wind is whipping. Jessie however wanted to fly, and was at her perfect weight of 870 grams. She was begging me from the time that I put her out this morning, to go hunting. Finally at 1:30 PM I decided that I was going to have to keep my word and take her out to see what we could do.

Tami was in the middle of shipping Cows, so it was just Karen and the dogs. We drove up as close as we could get, and I decided to see if I could locate a bunch of Ducks in the hope that we could bracket them and get a good flush for a change. I walked down to the Creek and found what I thought might be a few Ducks floating on one of the curves of the Creek. I went back to the truck and as I did, the Duck that I saw, got up and flew up the ditch a ways. I decided that we would just turn Jessie loose and let her figure out where the Ducks were.

I turned her loose and she settled on an area of the creek that was about a hundred yards or more up the creek from the spot that I had intended to rush. She did not leave that area, so Karen and I started up the ditch to get in position to rush the area that she was circling over. I finally left Karen at the lower end of her circles, and I went about 50 yards further up the Creek. As I was hurrying up the creek, I noticed that Betsy had gone on point towards the Creek. I knew then that she was smelling the Ducks. This is the first time that I could say that she was actually pointing  Ducks. I decided that she had a much better chance to know where they were than I, so I praised her and told her to find them. She moved closer to the creek and actually a bit behind where I had intended to hit the creek.  I told her to get them up. She flash pointed again, so I pushed her to flush. She hit the ditch right in the middle of a large bunch of Mallards and got them off the water.

Jessie flashed down from my left and leveled out to slash through the flock. I could not see what happened as she was lower than the bushes that I was trying to see through. She never came up, so I assumed that she had caught one, but the question was where, since the creek curled around again, leaving a small point to my right.

When I got around the point that I was on, I could see her fighting a Duck on the next little point. The dogs and I jumped into the Creek and started wading across. Josie had some trouble getting out of the water, so I gave her a boost and scrambled up the bank myself to go help Jessie.  The point was only about 10 feet wide, and they had fought almost all the was across it. Only the fact that Jessie had both a piece of Greasewood and the Ducks neck in one of her feet, Kept them from rolling into the water.

I helped her kill the Drake, patted and praised the dogs for their exceptional help, and settled back to wait for her to get around all the Duck that she could manage. Karen and Betsy went back to the truck to get out of the wind, leaving Josie, Jess and I out in the wind. This Duck is still one of the locals. There was little fat on the Duck, so I knew that it had not come down through the Corn fields of the North. Jessie peeled all the fat that she could get off it, only eating the meat to get to the fat.

 It is a bit surprising to see dogs that have to be forced into a warm swimming pool, willingly jump into this cold creek and swim across without a thought.

It was very nice to actually catch something again. It is tough to do on a regular basis on ditches and Creeks. No matter that the Dogs and I hit the Ducks head on, they still flew right up the Creek. If she had slashed the Duck instead of just grabbing it, we would have gone home empty handed again. If she had not grabbed some Greasewood inadvertently, she would have lost it in the Creek again.

It is true that Jessie is a bit of a handful, but it is also true that she is a bird of a lifetime. They do not come with this much drive and desire very often. I do not know if I will ever again have a Falcon with  half of the ability that this girl has. It is time to give her a chance however.