Jessie's second day

Jessie is such a funny bird. I suppose that along with what she has been taught (sometimes inadvertently) along with the age she was taken from her mother, her behavior is a bit different from all the other Raptors that I have worked with. Most Raptors do not seem to have quite the personality that this one has. I can watch her as I approach her block and know that she is going to mess with my mind.

Above is the proof that she can be a serious and fierce hunter, but she has an independent streak in her a mile wide. She just can't help herself. This is our 10th year together, one would think that she would know the parameters by now.

Her serious flying weight is 870 grams. That translates to 30.5 oz. Big for a Tundra Peregrine. Most will hunt in the 26 oz range. When she killed the Goose above she weighed 32.5 oz. The weight range that raptors will still cooperate with their handlers is generally less than 1/2 oz. More than that and they have a tendency to not be serious and screw around rather than hunt. Attitude is the only thing that seems to work with Jessie.

This morning I went to get her and the routine go's like this. I wear my hawking vest that has all the stuff that I need, and she has seen it enough to know what it means. This morning she acted as though I was an intruder. I knew that she was hungry, since I did not feed her yesterday. She has been fed every morning for the last year, and she always meets me at the end of her leash to get her food. This morning she flew the other way when I began to reach down to pick her up. I let her go to the end of her perch, and gave her the opportunity to get on the fist and get fed. Nope! nothing doing. So I stand up and hang my glove back on the wall. Now she realizes that once again as has happened for 9 years, I am leaving and with me, goes her chance to eat, perhaps for the entire day. Now she wants me to pick her up, but of course that isn't going to happen. Like I said, she just can't help herself.

I came out later, no vest, no glove, but now she is begging forgiveness. Fat chance. I continue on to my exercise routine. I will feed her later in the day. Evenings are better anyway.

Finally around 4:30 PM I put on my vest and go into the weathering area. She is pumping her wings in anticipation. This time when I offer her my fist she steps up like a lady. I weigh her and find that she has dropped to 800 grams. She can go as low as 730, but I prefer not to. Weight is strength and calories is muscle. She needs all she can get, but we need to go through this dance every so often for some reason.

This time I am introducing our new dog, Brick, to the equation. We got him this spring and he is new to hawking. He is very obedient, and will learn very quickly what this is all about and how much fun it can be. Jessie has accepted him as ours, but being careful is warranted.

Its quite hot and it doesn't take Jessie long to decide that the lure is the place to be.

I call Brick to me, and give him the praise that he deserves. We watch together while Jessie eats her food on the lure.

A little praise and his enjoyment of the situation is quite obvious.

All Betsy wants is for Jessie to hurry up and leave the scraps to her.

This is her natural place to be when Jessie is on the ground. She is her protection until I can get there. Very necessary in a land of Eagles and Coyotes. Don't be fooled by Jessie's nonchalant attitude. She is better than a watch dog. Anything strange and she will voice her alarm and war cry. Her trust of Betsy has been earned and deserved.

As soon as Jessie abandons the Lure, Betsy is checking for the leftovers. Guts might not be what Jessie likes, but Betsy is not so picky.

After she is secured a trip to the shade is the next order of business. Frank the cat isn't about to be left out either, so soon the fam damily is gathered around the source of tidbits.

Yogi's turn

Today was Yogi's turn, and she had gained a bit of weight since our first time out. I guess that I am going to have to shoot a Rabbit or two to get us started. Apparently Coyote is a bit too rich for a bird with her metabolism.

I released  my frustration at not being able to hawk last year by Coyote hunting. Of course there is more to a Coyote than his fur coat. For instance one can glean 31 Harris Hawk  (molting) meals from an adult Coyote. It took a bit for Yogi to learn to like Coyote, but when you do not have a choice in the menu, one adapts. I am guessing that it is a bit strong, it does sure have plenty of calories in the meat. When I am only flying every other day, I like to reward my bird with a full meal. Apparently 4 oz of Coyote is a bit too much.

Yogi weighed 1150 grams this morning , up by 25 grams from Sunday. Since the object of today's exercise is to get some muscle on her, she doesn't have to be razor sharp, only fly a bit. She first checked out the Chicken pens to see if there was any easy stuff available. I finally had to drag out the lure to get her to join us.

She did make a couple of passes at Jacks that jumped in front of us, but she is nowhere ready to catch anything yet. She also made a pass at a Coot on the Creek, but she decided not to go swimming for him.

While we did not accomplish anything other than to reestablish the fact that we will now be hunting and reconnecting with us in that regard. We now need to get a lot of muscle built up on her so that she can catch one of these fleet footed critters.

Beginning conditioning.

It appears that there will be a hawking season this year. It is still very dry and almost none of the ponds have any water in them, but there will be hawking this year. It just remains to be seen what the quality will be. There is always the ditches for Jessie, who will be 10 this year. There appears to be a good number of Jacks this year, unlike 2013. We have about 15 that are helping with the lawn trimming. Last year I was afraid to kill even one Jack for fear of slowing the recovery of the species.

I picked up Jessie for the first time on Saturday. Her weight was about right at 835 grams. I just need to get her back in the groove of flying. After all she has sat for two years now without any real hunting. I put her on a creance to call her to the lure for her meal, and she did quite well. Of course she hates the hood, but that is normal. I let her eat her meal on the lure and then called her to the fist for the rest of her meal.

I picked up Yogi on Sunday, and Karen and I stood about 20 feet apart and took turns calling her back and forth to each other. She did very well when she discovered that there was a tidbit involved in each flight.

She is of course very out of shape, and didn't take long to land on the chimney to rest. She did quite well. Once she regains some of her normal strength she will be her normal rascally self.

Its been a fairly interesting year so far. We have hosted two fly-ins, which were a lot of fun. I did not work any this summer. The fires were such that they had enough crews to handle them without calling the company that I work for. That was good and bad, but I will live.

I seem to have a bit of "old age" creeping up on me. I have something wrong with my right foot, such as a bone spur, that is causing me a lot of pain when I try to walk. I have an appointment this Friday to get it checked out. It won't bother me with the falcon, but would be a serious problem with hawking Rabbits.

Finally, Spring is here.

Spring seems to have finally arrived. While we have had a pretty mild winter, with little problems other than a relentless wind. It still seemed to take forever to arrive. Perhaps it only seemed that way because I have been looking forward to this year with a bit more than my usual impatience.

The first event that seemed to never get here was the arrival of one of my childhood friends. My father was a minister in Sandlick, W.Va. for four years. Bill Lynch was my main friend and mentor the four years that we lived there. We moved away and lost track of each other until a few years ago. He had gone to Michigan and I to the West.

I began to think of him more and more, and finally decided to contact him. I found his email address and after a few telephone calls, invited him to visit. Karen and I just returned him to the airport yesterday. We had a great visit, and it was as though 57 years had not passed since we had last "run" together. Our relationship to me at least, was as comfortable as it had ever been. However the contrast between what I remembered and reality was pretty funny. Two old codgers trying our best to even wade a creek without falling down, and all the time the pictures in our minds were of two graceful fleet footed rascals jumping from rock to rock at a full run in the creeks of rural W.Va.

 Somehow the weather got better and the wind stopped for a while, just as Bill arrived. All of a sudden sunburn was more of a threat than frost bite. We took advantage of the change by visiting one of my favorite fishing holes. The water year here is down from what is perceived as normal, so the River was low enough to fish.

                                            15 inch trout

We caught Trout, Bass and Catfish all in the same hole. The trout are a bit thin, but the Catfish and Bass were fat.

                                Bill's first Western Channel Catfish.

                                This one measured 24 inches exactly.

Bill has a bad back, so I got to clean the fish. Actually that is normal. I always clean the fish. We had enough for a nice fish fry and enough left over for five additional meals.

We had a great visit, and hopefully we can do it again. It would however be nice if those two sun browned boys that my mind sees were a little closer to reality.
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Each year here in the high Desert is an adventure. I guess that is one of the attractions for me. It is never boring! This year it is Mice.

Every thing seemed to be "normal" at the beginning of August last year. We had Jack Rabbits all over the place. The Quail were plentiful. Then it was as though we had stepped into another dimension where there was no wild life at all. The Rabbits and Quail disappeared. All wildlife seemed to have died. There was little water, so few of the Ducks even stopped here. It was bad enough that I fed the hawks up and did not hunt them for fear of killing the few critters left that might eventually bring forth the next generation. Well I did not need  to worry about the base layer of the food chain. The Mice are booming.

We have two house cats that spent most of the winter with little in the way of distractions. Well that has changed. I first noticed the increase in Mice during our trip in the fifth wheel, and set a few traps. We changed the mattresses around from the Motor home to the Fifth Wheel, and I spent a night in the Motor home to check the comfort level. The Mice had discovered a roll of toilet paper and unraveled most of a roll on the floor for various new beds and nests. It was still in the holder on the wall too. I bought some poison and some traps to try to get them under control.

It soon became clear that the poison wasn't working all that well, so I bought traps where ever I could find them. The full reality of the situation finally became clear the morning that I found a pile of shredded papers from the side pocket in the car. Then I found mouse crap on the seat of my plane. That was the final insult. The war is on.

I began an all out assault on the rascals. So I set traps in the car, Motor home, Fifth wheel, and the plane. I caught 8 in the car, five in the plane, and about 14 or more a day in my various traps.

                                                The nights catch.

                                          Some of the trap line.

                                                The water trap.

I use ultra sonic devices in all the places I can, such as the attic and behind all the refrigerators and freezers, and while they don't nest there they do traverse those areas. The water trap works quite well, and I caught five Mice in it last night. I have to remember to replace the Peanut butter trail to the jump off point each night. The dogs like Peanut butter as well as the mice.

I had been feeding the Mice to Yogi, the Harris Hawk, just to get rid of them. Plus they are a natural food item for all hawks. Since I was not really serious at that time, I only had enough to supplement Yogi's normal food. Jessie being a bit of a Princess, was only getting Quail. I noticed that she was acting as though she wouldn't mind a Mouse or two as well. So when I got serious about the Mouse problem, I had more than Yogi could eat. I offered one to Jessie and she thought it was great, so Mice are now on her menu as well. I am saving about $2 a day by feeding Mice to the birds. Its not quite lemon aid, but one does what he must.

Owyhee Dam

 This is Owyhee Dam from the top. In the distance to the right you can see the "Glory Hole". It is the concrete colored thing. Its purpose is to provide a quick relief if the water gets so high that it might top the dam. As you can see from the pictures that the water is actually about 20 below the level that it should be. The reservoir's purpose is to provide irrigation for the "Treasure Valley". That would be Vale and Ontario Oregon. Both of which are a major producer of food stuffs. Onions are one of their biggest crops. The altitude is about 2500 feet and the growing season is very long.

The impoundment is quite long, and I would guess at 30 to forty miles. My favorite fishing hole is just up above the actual lake, where it is still a stream. The Owyhee River provides drainage to Nev, Idaho and Oregon High Deserts. It also flows North to dump into the Snake River at Adrian Oregon.

The dam was finished in 1929. It is about 400 feet high and about 500 feet across at the bottom. It is the first dam to ever have an elevator. It was built to test the design for Hoover Dam, and was the tallest dam until Hoover was built.

It is snugged in between two rock cliffs, and actually not all that wide at the bottom. 

As a reward for our services to the School kids, the adults were offered a tour of the Dam. I was very surprised when Karen decided to go along. She is very claustrophobic, thanks to an older brother that liked to lock her in closets occasionally.

I did not use a flash on any of the pictures inside the dam, primarily to save peoples eyes from the flash.

We are about 150 to 200 feet into the insides of the Dam and I was amazed that Karen was still handling it. For crying out loud, she gets nervous driving through tunnels! You don't suppose its my driving rather than the depths?

She appeared to be fine, until the guide wanted to show us what maintenance was like when the power goes out. 400 feet underground is quite dark. He kept talking and leaving the lights off for what seemed like a long time. I had put my hand on Karen's arm when he shut off the lights to try to prevent a runaway, if I could. When he turned the lights back on, she announced that she would wait outside.

                                 There is a power plant with the dam. 

These are the valves that open various chutes throughout the dam to control however much water is required. These things are about 3 feet through.

There are four observation platforms in the dam face. Two almost at the top and two close to the bottom.

This little ski slope houses the three large 4 or 5 foot tubes that really let the water out.

                          This is the tubes and the valves that open them.

Inside that room are some cracks in the structure that have developed over the years, and the pins that allow the workers to measure them to see if they are growing.

This little feature allows one to climb to the top of the dam if other avenues do not allow. The guide assured us he had never tried it.

                              This is one of the higher observation ports.

There were a lot of Carp feeding in the water around the base of the Dam. This one was a really old one about 4 feet long and covered in moss.

This is the escape for the water than goes into the "Glory Hole" that I showed you in the first picture. When it is active it is a giant whirlpool, and very impressive.

Owyhee Field Day

One of the ladies that we have come to know in Jordan Valley coordinates a field day for fifth graders at the various schools. This is not just one or two schools in the area. It covers schools both from Oregon and Idaho. The size of the schools varies from 20 students in one or two room schools, to large metropolitan areas. I guess she knows a sucker when she sees one, and she was relentless in the understated guilt that she laid on me, and of course I agreed.

The date was April 31 to May 1st at Owyhee Reservoir. We were given a half brother to Josie, our Brittney. His name is Brick, and he is 1 1/2 years old.  It was a given that we would have to neuter him. I arranged the surgery at a vets office that was on our way to our campsite. We dropped him off, and continued on to our site. It is at a campground that also houses the Dam personal. The road into the area is a bit more rural than I would have thought. We of course had to drive through Idaho to get there. I am sure that you have heard of various sites, as in- "You can't get there from here". The road there was built in 1927 or 1928. I am sure that it was a bit of a challenge to build at the time. I went back to get Brick later that day.

I am molting the two girls on the block, so it wasn't all that much problem in dragging them along as the stars of the show. The programs were quite varied and I am sure, interesting to the kids. There was everything from Fur trapping to wild horses to gold panning. I am sure it was much a more interesting day than sitting in a class room. The program covered two days of demonstrations to 15 kids at a time. FFA teens were the guides for the kids. There was about 600 or more kids that went through the programs.

I put together three short video's that covered the aspects of hunting with Falcons and Hawks, and the rest of the time was taken up with questions and petting Yogi. Of course the hit of the show was that wonderfully patient sweetheart, Yogi. Almost all wanted to pet Jessie, but I explained that we just didn't have enough band aids to cover the wounds that were bound to occur.  Not all of the kids got to go to all the presentations, but Yogi allowed 120 kids, their guides and various parents and teachers, to pet her.

It was a bit cold at first, but the classes didn't start until 10:AM, and the two days were the very best days thus far this year.

The only time that there was any panic was when Yogi made a really clever sneak attack on poor ole Brick, the new dog. After that we put him in his kennel to keep him safe.

He's trying to recover from it all this evening.