2013 Fall Falconry meet, Madras,Oregon

Since I had agreed to give Puddy away, it was only fair that I make the effort to go to the meet to get her new owner off to a good start. Karen and I were "charter members" of the club. The list of those members is now a very small one at this date. Three I think are all that are left. I have not been an active participant in the last few years, feeling that it was time for the younger members to have the major offices of the club. It was not going the way that Karen thought was efficient, so she had been one of the directors, and was hosting the meets for the year. I had already winterized the fifth wheel, but I figured we could run it dry, and if it became necessary I could do it again when we got back. So we loaded it up, and prepared to make the trip.

Karen at least was happy, as this cuts down on her work load by quite a bit. Plus she seems to miss me? What can I say? Our neighbor kindly agreed to take care of the critters for us.

We loaded up and headed out Thursday morning. Karen needed to do some shopping for the dinner on Saturday, ( she has never learned to say no, but then again that is one of the things that I liked about her.) We drove on a hwy to the East of Bend Oregon and set up camp in a ATV park for the night. ( All terrain Vehicles) Karen went shopping, and I took a nap.

 We had set up the screen tent to protect the birds from anything other than a direct attack.

During the night we were serenaded by the local Coyotes. I thrashed myself several times for not bringing my Coyote hunting gear. As we drove out of the area where we had camped, there was a really nice Coyote lying dead by the intersection. Apparently someone ran the stop sign at the four way stop, and he was in the "cross walk". Looked like a head shot, so again, remorse for my lack of foresight. :-/

We got up the next morning and drove the rest of the way to Madras where the meet was being held this year. As the day progressed the members began trickling in. Richard Hoyer (Puddy's new owner) came, and we took off around three PM to see if we could find something to chase. We hit 7 different fields and the Rabbits appear to be as scarce here as they are at the house.

Since there were few actual practicing falconers in attendance, we had quite a following. There were plenty of people, too bad there were not any Rabbits.

I brought out Puddy for the first time, and gave Richard a Tee perch, so that she would know that he was the one that she was supposed to go to.

The girls did their best, and followed along.

We began to make a drive, but it soon became obvious to all of us, especially Yogi, that this was a dry hole. She soon lost interest and went to the other side of the Hwy and sat on a hill side.

I finally accepted that it was a waste and then called them back to the truck so that we could move to another spot.

 It was necessary to use the lure to recall Yogi, and she flew right over Marilyn Gregory of "Dream rider photos" to come to me. All of these pictures of the birds flying are supplied by her.

 Puddy, not missing a trick, grabbed the lure and the tidbit on it as soon as Yogi came to the fist.

Neither one of them wanted to go back to the boxes, as that is generally the end of a hunt.

We drove over the hill to another spot to try, but it was no better.

We finally just gave up and went back to the fairgrounds.

Saturday morning, Karen and I furnished breakfast for all. The kitchen had every thing that we needed for a pancake breakfast.

 I cooked pancakes for a small donation to the club. We made $95. for an outlay of $16.00, not bad.

After breakfast, everyone loaded up for a Rabbit hunt (bunny) with the other Harris Hawks that others had brought. A couple of Bunnys were found hiding in irrigation pipes and that supplied the only "sport" in that arena. There was a small pond bordering the Golf Course, and I was offered the opportunity? to hunt it with Jessie. I went back to the fairgrounds to get her, and by the time that we were set up it was the middle of the day and the thermals were popping. Thermals and falcons, offer the same level of temptation that could compare to a topless bar and 16 year old boys.

I knew that she was hungry, but then again falcons don't necessarily hunt because they are hungry. They hunt because they want to kill something. It had been close to 5 days since she had flown. The sun was shinning, there was little to no wind, About 30 people for witnesses, what could go wrong?

Jessie stroked strongly into the blue sky, and the ducks were nervously muttering in the pond. Jessie climbed up to about 1000 feet or so, and I knew then that she wasn't going to play.She saw one of the offshoots of the Deschutes River Canyon, and it was like a magnet. She circled on the currents over it for about 30 or more minutes, finally going below my line of sight. I gathered up my stuff and with the two passengers that had come with me, went looking. She was of course on the other side of the Canyon where she apparently could not see me. We began driving into town to come back on to the the flat land farms on the other side. Of course when we got there, she had gone back either to the other side or down into the canyon. We went back there and finally called her up out of the Canyon. My hunting was done for the duration of the meet.

 Richard's birthday was on the 18th. and his many apprentices from past seasons bought him a telemetry receiver and transmitter. At 80 years old his hearing is going and the telemetry will enable him to find his hawks with a bit less looking.

We were cooking dinner that night, So Karen and I with help from a few others prepared a Mexican dinner.

 We fed about 60 people for about $95.00, and had plenty left over.

At the business meeting that followed, the progress of the club was discussed, and surprisingly to Karen and I, we were awarded a lifetime honorary membership to the club.

The next morning we again supplied breakfast, and then we all cleaned the place, and departed for our various homes.

Puddy is now living in Corvallis Oregon. I did my best to tell Richard of her quirks, plus and minus. She is very free with her feet, and I guess Richard is wearing a few band aids by now.

Jessie's hunting partner finally gets it right!

As you may remember on the 20th, my birthday, I managed to lose control of the dogs, and flushed a whole passel of Ducks from the ditch, thus guaranteeing that Jessie would not have a chance of eating Duck fat that night.

Since I was expecting a couple of packages from UPS, Karen stayed at home. I decided to leave the dogs behind as well. They really are not that much help on the ditches, so if I take them it is more for their enjoyment than for any help that they can provide. If I was smart enough to teach them to bracket the ducks for me, then leap into the middle of them, and scare the hell out of them, they would be more useful. However a dog on the bank is nothing compared to a Peregrine in the sky. Just in case you were wondering, I am not that smart or patient enough to even try.

This time I let her lose before I got to the ditch. I watched her and she kept her circles just up from the fence where they were the other day. I walked up and busted a bunch of Mallards off the ditch. Jessie came whistling down and smashed a Drake on the other side of the ditch. She flared up and landed on the Duck. I discovered why the Ducks like this part of the Creek better. It is much deeper than anywhere else. I was wearing my wading boots, that unroll up to my butt, but I still got a little wet.

 When I arrived on the other side, Jessie was holding it by the neck, and it was trying to wing whip her, so I helped her with it.

 Once we got it killed, I tied her to my glove and let her have her way with it.

 As you can see, she had a good time. However all she ate was fat. If she got any Duck down it was a mistake. I have a hard time understanding how she can do that, but what the heck.

UPS and FED X had arrived and Karen met us at the truck, hoping that we had been successful, It didn't take more than a quick look to see that we were both happy.

Finally, a few Rabbits. Minus one of course.

Things have been a bit hectic here in the desert. Of course it is dryer than a popcorn fart. The weather has been just perfect if a little warm. Tough on hawking, but saving my woodpile, so I guess it isn't all bad. I am still at a total loss as to what has happened to the rabbits. Puddy will meet her new owner this coming Friday, and I feel a bit bad that I have not been able to get her in shape, but I just can't see beating all of us up and not finding anything to chase.

We had tried one of our really good fields in past years and saw only three Rabbits. There are some Alfalfa fields and we found Rabbits right around them. Not so this year. The fields, or rather "pastures" (Sage brush and Lava outcroppings ) that we went to today are bordering the fields near the Alfalfa, but further out. I have found that Jacks will travel fairly large distances to a food source. One would expect them to be gathered around a food source, with fewer and fewer Rabbits the further afield you go. Not so, they have territories just like all the other critters in the wild, and while they will tolerate those passing through, they are not allowed to stay. Just like every thing else, the biggest, gets the best.

The area that we went to today is about 1/2 mile or more away from the Alfalfa. We parked the rig and began to spread out to cover as much ground as possible. Jacks are pretty good at hiding, and it is necessary to make them too nervous to sit still. We jumped one right away, and he managed to escape just barely. Both girls were really trying hard, and I was a bit surprised that he managed to escape them both.

 The girls were both anxious to catch something, and would fly to what ever vantage point that they thought might put them in a better position. You will notice that Karen and I both have a camera that we are taking shots with. Hers was set on the "Sunset" setting, and the pictures were more true to life, and a lot richer in color. The one below is from her camera. The next is mine, set on "landscape".

 The Lava outcroppings made good vantage points, and they take advantage of them when they can.

In total we managed to jump about 8 Rabbits in an hour walk. Finally Yogi started after one, and it of course doubled back under her. There was only one problem, Puddy was riding on my Tee perch, and she saw the Rabbit before he knew that there was two birds in the area. She slammed into him, and as usual the Jack tried to scrape her off in the Sage bush. Yogi cinched the deal by grabbing him in the butt on the other side of the bush.

 You might find it hard to believe that there are two Harris Hawks and one Jack Rabbit in that tangled picture.

 Puddy has the head, and Yogi on the other side of the bush has him in the butt.

This is the Yogi side of the bush. She just grabs and lays down. That way she can exert more pressure, and doesn't get kicked or drug through the bush as easily.

This is the two of them eating their reward, side by side while I take care of the Jack. They are eating Coyote, as that is about all I have for food this year. It is a bit funny in a wry sort of a way. Yogi hates Coyotes, so she might even prefer the taste, but neither of my dogs, Betsy or Josie will eat the meat. They like Rabbit, but will not eat Coyote. Frank our obese Cat thinks they taste good. The other one, Tiger, will not eat it either. Harris Hawks will eat Carrion if there is nothing else, so I can't see wasting "ole Wiley", just because I want his hide. Jessie will not eat it however.

Karen and I had a pretty good hunt. It was warm enough that we had to strip down to our Tee shirts, and even then I worked up a sweat, but who is complaining. It could be a lot worse, a Jack in the bag, both Hawks and falconers healthy. It really doesn't get a lot better.

Alternate hunting

Normally my hawking gives me an outlet for my blood lust, but things are far from normal this year. We took Jessie out yesterday in the hopes that she would find something to hunt.

The ranch next door is my best chance, I should say, my only chance to find some Ducks. The migration really has not set in as of yet, so the birds that I have available are the residents.

When I hunted there a couple of days ago, I found a bunch of Gadwalls in a little gravel pond that can best described as puddle. It is in the same field where the ranch's remuda is kept. Their horses are not like most horses, these come to you when you enter the field prepared to be caught up and used. Jessie really doesn't pay much attention, but it can be a bit of a pain when you are trying to call her down. I had helpers this time to distract the horses.

I was stuck this time, it was the pond or nothing. The rest of the creek had a pile of Cows in the fields on either side of the Creek. Cows are not at all interested in seeing anyone in the same field. They seem to have a guilty conscience, and are quite sure that you have evil intent concerning them and stampede in the worst possible direction.

I turned Jessie loose, and it soon became obvious that the pond was empty this time, and she was flying quite wide of the pond. She did get a lot of exercise however and eventually went to sit on the hay in a Stack yard in the next field.

While Tammy, Tara and George distracted the horses, I went to the far end to call her. The little darling at the first part of the season, always wants to be cute. Well, its her idea of cute. This consists of trying to see if she can rip the food off the lure by hitting and grabbing it at full speed as she rips by. Eventually she will quit that, but she tries any way. Even if she does manage, she will fly back to the lure when she finishes what she stole. Having seen this routine before, I always make sure there is something in the garnish on the lure is sturdy enough to withstand this kind of treatment.

Well she hit it twice, hard. She didn't get anything however, and tiring of this, I tossed the lure in front of a big pile of Greasewood, so that if she did try to carry it, she would land in the Greasewood. Well this is as familiar to her as her routine is to me. Plus she lost sight of it and landed instead on a fresh pile of horse shit. Unfortunately no one was able to record that for prosperity. She soon recognized her mistake and ran over to the lure.

As you might remember I have always had trouble picking her up off the lure. I am sure sometime in the far past, I have pushed her a bit too much and created the indelible thought in her little brain that I really do not have her best interests to heart, and even though I have just given it to her, my actual ambition is to take it away from her and eat it myself.

I have found it best to stay back a bit, and let her eat the garnish on the lure and then offer her the rest of her meal on the fist. George thought that her running style is cute, so her wanted to video it. He used his Smart phone so the size of the picture is a bit different. You can see her attitude when she decides that George is a bit close. It is also interesting to note that situations such as that triggers not the instinct to flee, but to fight.

 https://vimeo.com/77189128

password is : owyheeflyer

We still do not have a decent place to hunt Rabbits. I have therefore decided that I will give Puddy Tat to a fellow that lives on the West side of Oregon. He has huntable populations of Eastern Cottontails there. I will Keep Yogi at least for the time being. The State Falconry meet is the 24th of the month and I will take her there and give her to him then.

So now with time on my hands, I have decided that I well do a bit of Varmint hunting. Coyote hides brought an average of $40.00 each, with Bobcats bringing $525 last year. The guy that has taught me how to skin Coyotes  and Cats can manage the job in about 15 minutes. I am down to about an hour and half so far.

I gave my trapper friend the furs and the dead Coyotes that I got over the season and the deal was that I would get half when he sold the furs. I cleared $730. However I suspect that he was a bit more generous than he really needed to be. I bought a varmint rifle and the other stuff that an "elderly kid" felt necessary to pursue this new hobby. Of course I blew the first one up if you remember, but the company felt guilty and gave me another. I am sure that you might find it hard to believe, but the gun was actually faulty.

Well it just so happens that Oct is a good month to start. The Coyotes are wearing their winter clothes. So far I have two.

With as many Cows as they have at the ranch it is inevitable that some will die from various mishaps, or eat something that is poison and die. When they do it doesn't take long for the Coyotes to take advantage of the windfall. When the population is high they can clean up a full grown Cow in as few as three or four days. The last mishap occurred as they were preg. testing the Cows. One of them would not go through the chute, balked and started to jump the chute walls, changed her mind and ran into the wall and broke her neck. With 300 or more Cows to do, they just pulled her out in the Sage to a bone yard.

George and I went there this morning at day break to see if we could get one of them.

  This guy was chewing on the neck, and didn't see us. He never got out of his tracks.

As you can see he is holding a lot of beef in his tummy.

I spent the day skinning, fleshing and washing hides. Oh well it takes my mind off the political bullshit going on.

The last Jack standing?

 Today was Puddy's first day in the field. While she is a good hunter and well behaved as far as response, she gives the appearance of a slow learner. I got her near her normal flying weight, and decided that she was going out, ready or not.

I did not need to worry, she knew immediately what was going on, and willingly jumped in the giant hood as soon as she was given the chance.

We decided to try one of the ranches that was complaining about rabbit predation on his hay stacks last winter. Apparently his problem is now solved, since we found no sign of any rabbits in the hills surrounding his ranch. After a bit of driving and a lot of walking with no sign of any Rabbit populations at all.

I decided to go to the Pillars of Rome where the possibility of game was a bit higher. I generally do not like to hunt there because of all the Greasewood there. It is pretty nasty stuff, and a thorn in a wing joint is not high on my list of things that I like.

We got out and began walking,  Puddy acted as though we had been hunting all year long, and jumped up on the Tee perch, and stayed with us, intently looking for something to chase. Finely after a rather long trudge through the Greasewood, we veered over to the Sage to see if something was living there.

Karen bumped a Jack that lost his nerve after she had passed him. His break for freedom was cut short by a very serious hawk named Yogi. Puddy had also taken off when she flew, and went in the Sage as well. Soon the sound that we generally hold our breath for, when the hawks go into cover, came floating back on the wind.

As usual the first hawk on the scene grabs the first chunk of Rabbit that is available- the butt. The rabbit will then dive into a Sage Bush, trying to scrape off the demon that has sunk 8 talons into its butt. Things then get much worse because the other bird then grabs it by the head and all is lost at that point. There is no further chance of escape.

I had to pull the limbs of this Sage from between Puddy and the Jack. You can see where the danger lies if this had been Greasewood. They cannot slow, nor brake their headlong flight when chasing Jacks, if they do, then they miss. Nothing but an all out effort will get them their food.

As soon as I took control of the rabbit, Yogi began looking for her meal. That didn't stop her from trying to pluck it, but she was waiting for the sound of cellophane as well. In order to not dry out the meat that I carry for their reward, I either wrap it in cellophane or put it in plastic bags. I was trying to open the package with one hand, while holding onto the rabbit. Yogi was about to come looking for her reward, when I finally gave it to Karen to get her some food. She immediately abandoned the Jack to Puddy and I, grabbing he chunk of meat and moving off a bit to eat it. Puddy also let go when Karen tossed her chunk in front of her. I cut off a hind leg each to finish their meal.

I was quite pleased to find a Jack for them to chase, and grateful for his sacrifice. If I can't find a decent population of Rabbits, I will most likely quit hunting rabbits for the year.

I will likely give Puddy to a falconer in the Western part of the State because of the scarcity of game here. I am toying with the idea of sending Yogi to a breeding project, but I have not managed to reconcile myself to that as yet.

Hard times for Hawking

Its not looking at all good for this seasons hawking. It is the second year of what is probably a "normal" drought here in Southeastern Oregon. Almost all the back country ponds are dried up. None of the little marginal springs have water, and the normal feed that the desert provides is very scarce indeed.

We did have almost an inch of rain at the beginning of Sept., but it all soaked into the ground and very little made it to any of the little "drain water" ponds. The rain did however give us a little boost with the Cheat Grass, but it is very localized, and not very thick.

We held around 60 Jack Rabbits here at the house over the winter, but at this time I have only seen two here at the house. The Bunnies ( Cottontail ) seem to be close to normal, but considering where they live and the cover in those areas, they are not a viable hunting prospect.

We pulled the Harris Hawks out of the mews anticipating a fun year, but so far I have not found any game for them to hunt.

 We first tried here at the house. Yogi and I walked for about an hour and half and saw one Jack Rabbit. Next I tried the Danner area, ( a 40 mile drive ) There were a few Bunnies, and we saw two Jacks.

  We then tried the 12 Mile area, off the Whitehorse Road, and Yogi saw one Jack Rabbit in an afternoon of walking. Over the winter the Jacks made some serious inroads into my friends Hay stack, but we couldn't find any of them. I have one more place to try, and if it doesn't produce, we are faced with the prospect of putting the birds back in the mews and feeding them for another year hoping that it will be better either later or at worst, next year. I have no idea what happened to them.

I began cutting Jessie's weight at the same time as the Harris Hawks. I had put her into a breeding project at a friends house, thinking that she would lay eggs with no problem. I was surprised to find that she accepted the male, but it was a platonic relationship only. Apparently she is a bit imprinted, and only loves me? Yeah, right! She spent from January to about April in the breeding chambers. I stipulated that if she was not successful, I would get her back.

I finally got enough weight off her to be able to turn her loose to try to build some condition. The dogs are loving it, and at least they look forward to the days that she flies. I am unable to get any helium for my balloon so I was just turning her loose and hoping that she would build a little muscle. After the first flight, she started sloughing off. The last flight here at the house, she made one circle around and landed on the hanger. It was pretty obvious that she knew what we were doing, and would rather just eat and get it over with. Karen and I started walking down to the creek, and she took off and held position over us. Much more like it, and released us both from the boredom of building condition.

Since it was obviously a waste of time, we loaded her and the dogs up and went over to the Ranch to see what Ducks were available. I was not optimistic that much was going to happen. I have stated before and most likely will again, that ditch hawking is the best and shortest route to frustration that exists.

We stopped and borrowed a fax machine from Rosie. She told me that a little pond in the horse pasture had a bunch of Ducks on it this morning. I carefully checked it, and found that there were still some Ducks there. I put Jessie in the air, and waited until she was in position and we rushed the pond. I was very surprised when Jessie cut through the flock, snatching a Gadwall on the way through.

 They ended up in a Greasewood bush, and I had to extricate them.

 As you can plainly see, the little darling is trying to decide whether or not to attack me for my troubles.

 As usual, being a connoisseur of all things wild, the only part of a Duck that she likes is the fat. I can't say that I blame her, I don't much care for Ducks either, but she caught it, she has to eat it.

   Just for grins and to get something inside besides all that fat, I tossed her the Starling that would have been her meal if she had missed. She much preferred it to the taste of Duck.  I let her eat all she could hold while I looked over the ditches near us. Apparently the little pond held all the ducks close by, as there was none on the section of Creek close to our position. Thanks Rosie!

She finished as the sun set behind the Steens Mountain.