Oct 20th, tough sledding!

I didn't feed Hope all that much the last time, so on the 18th when I picked her up she only weighed 932 grams. Great I thought, should be a piece of cake. Quick trip. Not quite!

I had lost my magnet that I turn the transmitter on Hope's tail with and thought that I had lost my cup as well. So I decided to start at the spot of our last kill, with my next hunt, and hunt down the hill. Plus I would be changing up my approach, and perhaps throw the Jacks off. Well to make a long story a bit shorter, I walked my butt off while Hope did every thing she could think of to put a Rabbit in the bag. Nothing! Of course there were some close misses, and hair pulled a time or two, she even had one in her feet for a couple of jumps, but nothing came home with us. That's OK, a little lesson in what happens when you don't catch anything can be as valuable as success.

It had rained in the early morning and resumed when I left, so I was soaked clear through. Not a problem, my pants were covered in lots of nasty stuff anyway. So every thing went into the washer, and I spent the rest of the day sleeping and lazing around.

The 19th Hope weighed 913 grams. She was hungry and began a creaky vocal greeting when I fed Jessie. I had hoped that she would remain silent, but it can't be helped. She has to learn that to eat, she must kill. The only tidbits she gets is being picked up, and coming out of the box. I also toss a tidbit on the ground and give her one on the fist when I put her in the box after we hunt. So she got four tidbits the day before.

I decided to try another spot to see if the populations there were worth the drive to get to them. I have a friend who lives about 20 miles South who has lots of Jacks coming in to his Haystack. I had tried it in earlier years and found nothing in the Sage close to the ranch. This year appeared to be different. I found a small population of resident Jacks, and Hope pulled a hand full of hair out of one of them, but after two hours of trying and walking I decided that the populations that were eating his Haystack were coming from a long distance, not residents. I tried two different areas there, but nothing like what I need to be successful, or merit another trip.

I loaded her up for the third time and went to the ranch next door. She had a lot more Jacks to work with and although she tried, again pulling hair from two of them, just couldn't connect solidly. I spent another couple of hours walking back and forth, trying every thing we both knew, but couldn't make it happen. With three different areas in and out of the car, she got a total of 12 tidbits for 5 and half hours work.

Today dawned clear and quite cold at 30 degrees. I did my chores and weighed her, before putting her in her box. She weighed in at 896.

Karen and the dogs went with us today. I went to Arock and as usual, I changed up my direction of attack. This time I decided to spend more time and go through some of the areas that I usually pass by. It paid off, I was seeing a lot more Rabbits than I usually do. She was again taking the long shots that have little chance of success. We got a few that were closer and after a couple of close misses, she flew to the other side of a little depression about a hundred yards away. I thought that I would walk towards her and perhaps drive some Jacks out towards her. I looked up and she had flown to my left and chased off a Red Tail that was on a post at the corner of the field. First time I had seen that. I stopped and waited for her to return. When she did I decided to check a small area on the right side of the road, that I normally pass by. On the way a Jack jumped and she gave chase, missing him. I picked her up and again started that way. Another Jack jumped and I saw her stick her feet out and blow through a hole in the Sage after him. The hole was no bigger than the Jack, but she went through it feet first, wings out behind her, and her head thrown back. Missed him, but not by much, she got up again and made another strike at him which missed as well. Again I picked her up and within ten steps flushed another Jack that she chased up over the hill and across the dirt road. I walked in her direction and she flew back to the perch.  Karen later told me that she saw two other Jacks that snuck out of that patch. Pretty amazing as it was only about 40 feet around. We walked up to the top of the little hill that rimmed the basin, and within 30 yards flushed another Jack out of very sparse cover. He was only about 15 yards ahead of us and this time I saw her close and grab him right at the top of the shoulders. I guess she got tired of only getting hair and losing them. By the time I got to her she had changed up and now had him by the head.

I was rather amused and very pleased when I was killing the Jack, that she released one hold that she had and reached over my hand to grab him in the face. I will confess that I was surprised that she was deliberately avoiding grabbing me while I was "messing" with her Jack.

After the Jack quit moving, I gave her a front leg, and the rest of the tidbits in my cup. She moved off the Jack to eat while I took the Jack to clean. I gutted it and tossed the cleaned Jack to the ground for her to eat. She was not loath to comply. After what she has been through in the last three days, she needed a good feed. It will make her try all that much harder the next time she goes out.

While I can't say that she has learned all that much new these three days of failure, she has not quit, and there are slight flashes of awareness there. She has several times flared up to watch for the hiding Jack, and only bad luck has  prevented her from being successful at it. I do wish that she would shine some of the long range flights, and she showed some signs of that today, although I don't expect it to last. I am impressed with the fact that she will not give up. She has made somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 flights and misses over the last three days. It should give you some insight into what a feat it is for a young hawk to survive its first year, as well as awe that there are enough rabbits around to supply that many misses.

  

Oct 16th, Hope at Arock #8

I checked Hope yesterday and unfortunately she weighed 965. It has come to my attention that someone is feeding her too much. Again, she had to go two days without food.

The storms that are rocking the Oregon Coast are being felt even here, more than 400 miles away. We have had some pretty vigorous winds, but there are reasonably quiet periods in the mornings.

I took Jessie out this morning to the weathering area, and Hope was peeking around the partition, and even managed a hoarse squeak or two at me. I took her in to be weighed and found that she was 936 grams. Low enough to fly, but not as low as I wanted. I wanted to hurry and get it done before the winds could reach their anticipated forecast strength of 25 MPH at 9 AM. The important part was that she was wanting to go hunting.

Karen and the Dogs were going to accompany me again, and Karen was going to try to get some usable video of Hope. Its not all that easy if you are restricted to a vehicle.

I decided to go to Arock again for our hunt. The clouds were stacking up to the South, so East appeared to be our best bet.

We had a bit more wind that I would prefer, but she needs to learn how to handle it, since wind is a regular feature of this area. Our first rabbit was no more than 50 yards from the car, and she flew it as she would a Bunny. She really wanted it and gave it her all. Unfortunately it wasn't good enough and he got away. We made our way up country with a Jack breaking cover about every 50 yards or so. I lost count of how many Jacks were getting up, but it was a lot and all of them were out at least 80 yards.  She would still try, but a slip that long rarely works out for a young hawk. The only thing to do is to keep plugging along and hope that she gets a break or figures out how to combat it.

I finally sat down at the top of the hill. Karen could drive up until she was no more than 15 yards away and we could converse in normal voices. I caught my second wind, and began to walk on, but didn't get more than 10 yards along until she took off across the road just about 30 feet away and slammed into a Sage. A Jack ran out, but the other one didn't make it. I got there and was able to reach into the Sage and secure him. She had him around the neck, so I had problems getting a hold that would allow me to put him out of his pain. I finally grabbed him by the ears and broke his neck by stretching him. I then proceed to screw up the transfer much to my disgust. I left it in the video so that you could see how not to do it. I also managed to lose my magnet for turning off her transmitter and left my tin cup as well. Looks like I will be returning there in a couple of days.

You should be aware that I didn't cut the video of the death of the Jack, and due to the way that she had grabbed him, he had to linger longer than I would have preferred. I do the best I can to make it as quick as possible, but for a Hawk to eat, something has to die, and it is only pleasurable for one of them- the Hawk.

https://vimeo.com/187570272  password  -   owyheeflyer

Oct 13th - Hope

Tuesday would have been the day that I would have hunted again after her last success. However we had an appointment in town for a recall for the Subaru, so that day was shot. Wed I picked her up to go hunting and was surprised to find that in spite of not eating for two days she was still at 945 grams. I didn't think I had fed her that much, but apparently I didn't think at all. Oh well it's all good, and she has come through at that weight time and time again.

I went back to the field that I have been hunting in most of the time. It was a most interesting day! Hope performed at her usual level of competence minus the fact that she could not catch anything. She got so frustrated that she actually began hunting on foot after  missing rabbit after rabbit. In total she had 20 slips at Jacks with two of them being Bunnies. The level of pursuit at the Bunnies was really amazing, yet she came up with empty talons again and again. We had slips in heavy cover, and after I exhausted that area I went up the hill in the open and she had slips there that were nail biters, and oh so close, but failure after failure to get a talon on any of them. She had slips that she got up from a miss to strike again, miss and try again. She took slips that were in the two hundred yard range. She tried every thing she had learned and still wasn't able to make it happen.  After covering the field twice, an area of over a mile, I called it quits. She had gotten perhaps three tidbits the whole hunt.

This morning I went out to put Jessie on her day perch, and for the first time Hope was on the ground looking around the partition at me wondering when we were going hunting. A good sign. She rarely ever makes any sign that she wants any thing. She doesn't call, She doesn't bate. Its almost eerie that she doesn't act like any other Harris that I have had. Yet I have only to offer my fist and she is there.

This morning she weighed 925 grams. If you remember that is the weight that I consider to be her optimum flying weight. My only problem is that it is drizzling rain. The weather radar shows rain all the way to the coast, so I know that it is the best that is going to be right then. Hope, as with all Harris Hawks, is about as water proof as a pre-soaked drowned Rat, so I needed to choose well. The weather is also predicted to become much worse over the next 4 days, so its now or never.

I decided to hit the same field as yesterday as it was currently not raining here. 15 miles away it was raining, so I hoped that we could get it done before the rain came our way. Yeah, I know, but after all this is desert not the Willamette Valley. This is a big thing for us.

As always I try to keep the Rabbits off their game by attacking from different directions, so this morning I started in an area that I have never hit first. Karen dropped me off and drove to a vantage point that she would probably be able to see most of our efforts.

We had not walked more than 30 yards, when we jumped a Jack that ran down the hill into an area of very dense Grease Wood. She flashed up and over a big bush and slammed down behind it. The sounds of a Jack in distress followed. I hustled as fast as I could down there and around the big bushes into a little drainage that the Jack had obviously used many times before. The sounds were coming from inside a very large Grease Wood Bush. I carefully peered over the bush and could see a Jack straining for all he was worth trying to pull Hope off his hind leg. She wasn't about to give up, so I jammed my hand into the bush and grabbed the rabbit by the head, and killed him.

She had him by one hind leg and foot only. I was surprised that she had not lost him. I would say that normally she should have lost him, as she had quite a few times before. The Jack could not go further as she had a rear talon around a limb lying on the ground, that had stopped his escape. I think normally what scrapes them off is being pulled through a bush. I am often quite amazed that she doesn't hurt herself . These bushes are lethal, according to my bloody arms.  I broke enough limbs off that I could pull them on through and into the open.

Apparently she had either hit him as he entered the bush, or she had seen where he went in, and dove in after him, surprising him long enough to grab him by the butt. Half of his tail was missing, but when I saw her she had him by the back foot.

I pulled a front leg off after much effort, ( he was an old Rabbit and tough ) and gave it to her. She stepped off to eat it. I cleaned the Jack and pulled off a hind leg for later. Karen was still looking for me, and since I was down over a bit of a hill she could not see me at all. I eventually walked back up the hill to meet her. She was a bit disappointed at how fast it had all gone down, but I was all smiles.

I have attempted to explain the difference between flying weight and response weight. This was the perfect example of the two. Hope being an excellent representative of her species, demonstrates it perfectly. To all outward appearances  she was hunting hard yesterday and could catch nothing. She did hunt hard, and tried every thing that she could think of yesterday, yet in three hours of hard hunting, could not get her talons in any of the many rabbits that she chased. She has not yet learned how to fake it. As I have attempted to convey before, the effort that it takes for a Raptor to actually kill something requires a single minded willingness to go as fast and as hard as it possibly can. They may try and if the prey is not willing to make the same single minded effort to escape, occasionally catch prey when they are heavy. The main prey base for all raptors ( mostly) relies on the fact that some may not be in their top form. This of course is the "survival of the fittest" in its true form. To sum it up in its simplest form, a fat hawk is an exercise in futility. At 945 Grams, she would have broke off the chase when it ran under the bush. At 925 she went in after him. That is the difference.

Today would have been the perfect time to double her on Jacks. She killed on the first chase, 50 yards into the field. If it had been a Bunny I might have been tempted. You see lots of people with Harris Hawks that do that, some to extreme numbers of prey. They for the most part live in areas that do not have Jacks available to them right next door, or have large numbers of breeding hawks to feed. I have a freezer that is already full of Jacks for the winter, and I have rabbits in my yard, so I can concentrate on developing the best game hawk that I can. There will come a time in her life that hunting will be her primary drive. Right now it is eating, I can wait.

The winds by this evening are supposed to be in the 35 MPH range. Hope will be just fine until it clears up.

Number Six

It would appear that I have a "Made Hawk" on my hands. It also appears that she is one of the exceptional Harris Hawks as well. While the training that she has received plays a big part of my satisfaction with her, the raw material is there in abundance as well. Many of the things that contribute to her ease of handling can be contributed to me, but the desire to hunt and the gentle demeanor are the result of intelligent breeding. Its difficult to give up a good Harris to a breeding project. Much easier to part with one who is a pain in the butt to handle. Not all behavior is learned, some is inherited. Sure there are exception, but then again how often does an exception occur. Not often enough to make it worth the effort.

Hope this morning weighed 943 grams. Thirty three ounces to those who do not do grams. That's big. I know for sure that her keel bone is an "inny". She should not be catching Jack Rabbits at that weight. Perhaps an older bird that has been intermewed would, but not with the enthusiasm that she shows. I should have to walk to where she lands after a miss to pick her up. I don't. She does not require a tidbit to return to the perch. I don't have to call her. She gives it her best shot each and every time.

I got up this morning when there was just enough light to be able to see a bit. There were six Jacks feeding on the lawn right in front of Hope. Its been 48 hours since she has been fed. You have to know that her thoughts were of the tortured variety. Yet she stood there on her perch, totally quiet, waiting.

I gave Karen the option of going along this morning and she jumped on it with eagerness. Unfortunately Karen isn't able to walk well enough to participate in the hunts, but some of them can be arranged to where she can follow along in the car or truck. Its long distance hawking, but it is still Hawking.

I have been hunting this field for at least a month, and in spite of more than a hundred Jacks being shot out of it, it still has enough Jacks there to warrant a hunt. The upper edge is bare ground that one can drive along a two track parallel to the area that I hunt.

Jacks are smart! They see patterns just as well as we do. The last three hunts I have been successful by hunting the top half that has a lot thinner cover. However on the last hunt, I had to go down in the bottom to get her one to catch. The bottom part by the creek is bigger. Grease Wood bushes in a very soft fluffy Alkali dust. There are paths and tunnels where the Rabbits run and take cover. The way that it usually goes is the Jacks are hiding in "Forms," ( Little depressions dug under some of the Sage and Grease Wood. )  and if their cover is good enough they will wait until you are by, and then possibly slip out behind you.

For the first 10 or 20 times that I hunted over there, beginning with the time that I was wounding Jacks for her, I hunted down through the bottom. Yes, each time I still had slips, they were just further and further away, and of course fewer. I would see the Jacks in the lighter cover, and then when I would turn to go where they were, they could run up the bare hills to hide up there. That way most of the available Jacks were taking them selves out of the danger zone before I got any where close.

So I switched to the middle part, and was quite successful all three times that I hunted it. I was seeing lots of Jacks, and Hope was getting a chance at them. Today it was obvious that the Jacks had adjusted their game plan. I was seeing nothing in the middle area. There were Jacks still busting out of cover and running up the hill far in front of me. Hope made a couple of attempts, but flying up hill for a couple of hundred yards doesn't leave all that much in the tank for a serious chase.

After a bit we came to a little drainage that had some cover in it. I had seen several Jacks running up it from a distance, so I began climbing to get above it. One busted out about 75 yards away, and Hope gave chase. It was basically level, so she still had enough steam left to give him a run for his life. She was lined up when he made a sudden stop and turn that threw up a cloud of dust about knee high. She was making a grab for him at the same time, and just barely missed. She went to the ground, but came back up trying to close, but by this time he had way too much of a head start.

I kept climbing, and she came back to the Tee perch. When I got to the point that it petered out, I turned down hill. I could see all of the cover and didn't think we had any thing left in it. I was wrong however and one busted about 15 yards ahead of us. She burned him down in another 15 yards and rolled him in a cloud of dust. When I got there she had him with both feet to the head.

I dispatched him, and when he quit quivering I laid a front leg in between her feet. I then offered her the cup full of tidbits, and she ate all of the tidbits in the cup. She picked up her leg and, stepped off the Jack, and I retired to clean it. Once it was cleaned and bagged, I ripped off a rear leg for her when she finished what she had. Once she had most of the leg put away, we began our short walk to the truck where she finished her leg and was put up for the return home.

There are several points in a hawks training that are of importance. One of the most critical is the point where they are picked up off of game that they rightfully earned. There are more ways to do it badly than right. If you do it wrong badly enough it can result in the bird either carrying it off or at least dragging it away with her back to you and wings covering it.

A hawk when it has caught game, has put forth the ultimate effort to do so, and its natural instinct tells it that every other living thing wants it and will take it away if they get the chance. Now the falconer has just witnessed the very thing that he strives for, and he naturally wants to see it again and soon. He knows that if the bird eats too much it will not hunt again until the Hawk lose's that weight. How he takes it off game will determine how the bird reacts. Most Harris's will continue to do their best regardless of how clumsy he is. That doesn't mean that it is justified, at least not to me.

That is the main reason that I hunt every other day. It releases me from having to restrict the Hawks intake. As a side effect I don't burn out my hunting grounds, and I am old enough that the rest is welcome. Here in SE Oregon, the nearest fuel is about 50 miles away. My alternate hunting area is a 40 mile round trip.

Today was the easiest that I have gotten Hope off a Rabbit. There was a point that I needed her to have free access to a complete Jack so that she could realize where the food comes from. It doesn't take all that much of that, to get a Hawk to the point that she expects to have all of it and begins to drag it off to eat it.

A Hawk catching something as large as a Jack is really excited. Most will understand that if you help it goes much easier for them. Hope will concentrate on keeping her hold on a Jack's head. I grab the rear legs and stretch the Jack to break its neck if I can do so without endangering the Hawk. Once the Jack quits moving and the Hawk realizes its dead, they will recover, stand up and start looking for a place to eat in peace. I prevented that thought from forming by giving her a front leg from an earlier Jack. While she was thinking about that,  I stuck the cup with tidbits in front of her. She knows that it contains food, and she automatically began picking pieces of food out of it. It holds about an ounce of tidbits, so she transitions from escaping to eating without the nasty parts occurring to her. Since the rabbits head that she was standing on was a bit unsteady she moved off to the area in front of the rabbits nose to eat her front leg. I slid a Walmart bag over the Jacks head, and moved off to gut the rabbit. I pulled off a rear leg, put the rest in my bag. I then went to where she was eating and when she looked up, there was this great bloody gob of meat in my fist, and every one is happy.

Number Five

Hope this morning weighed 944 Grams. After the last trip that she caught a Jack at that weight, I no longer doubt her. However the hunts are likely to last longer since that much needed desperation is missing. You just try harder when you are really hungry. No one to blame other than me, so better get on with it.

The weather is improving for one last fling before fall really sets in. It was still 46 degrees when I got in the truck, so I wore a vest. When I arrived at the field, I wisely decided to leave it in the truck.

I had no more than taken Hope out of the truck when several Jacks started running up the bare hillside about 200 yards away. Hope takes off after them and actually turned one of them back, but of course she was winded from having to fly uphill for all that distance before she could even try to make all the twists and turns needed to put one in the bag. He ran down into the Sage again. More of them began deserting the cover for the open and again and again she tried to catch them, only tiring herself out in the process.

We have had a female Prairie Falcon here at the House and at the Ranch that has been making her self into a pain in the butt. She is working herself up to being a Chicken Hawk. It doesn't help that my Old English Game Chickens are no bigger than a Hungarian Partridge. I had to scare her off yesterday to get her to leave them alone. Well she was hunting the field that we were in today. She was also strafing the Jack Rabbits when they got into the open.

One of the Jacks began running along the top of the cover, and Hope gave chase. It was another of those ridiculously long flights that she should have ignored. The Prairie started a power dive that I was afraid was going to actually hit her. She did not however, but Hope got the message, and was watching her. The Prairie showed no signs of quitting this little game, so I zipped her with a 22 bullet and she left. I found out later from Karen that she had gone over to the house to harass the Chickens.

Hope made a long flight after a Jack and had missed. She was sitting on a bush about a hundred yards away. I decided that I was still too hot, so I propped my Tee Perch in a bush and started taking my sweater off. Hope decided that she needed to come back and here I am with my sweat shirt half over my head. I ignored her and she detoured around and landed on the perch in the bush.

I lost count of the number of slips that she took, but we hunted hard for about 2 hours, making try after try. We had run all the Jacks out of the light cover that I felt that she had her best chance to succeed in, so I turned around and taking another line, went back through the cover again almost back to the truck. She had one chase that was below the level of the Sage, that she missed the Jacks butt by less than inches. Lots of them were oh so close. She never quit trying and trying hard. I circled back down towards the heavier cover and the Creek, with her missing two or three more. Some of these flights, she was getting back into the air again to make another shot. So she wasn't just going through the motions trying to find a cripple.

I combed through the heavy cover down at the creek and finally she started after one that jumped about 30 yards away. The Grease Wood was about three feet or more high and really thick. She made a feint at the Jack, then flew over and back into the large Grease Wood bush. Apparently the Jack was coming through a tunnel in the brush and she met him head on. They were buried in the Bush and I had to do some damage to my bare arm to get them out of the stickers.

I killed the Jack, and tried to get some pictures, but the little camera does not have a view finder, so I took lots of shots hoping to get one or two that I could use. I did, just barely.

This was all taking place in Alkali powder and I really didn't want her food covered in that stuff, so when the Jack stopped quivering, I offered her my tin cup of tidbits. I am pleased to see that she has no problem eating out of it. It also keeps me from having rotting meat in my cup when I go the next time.

This was the first tidbit that she had gotten in the whole two and more hours that we had been in the field. You see she doesn't require tidbits. She is concentrating on hunting. Good Girl! She promptly comes back to the Tee perch without me having to call her.

I fed her all my tidbits, and then gave her a front leg from an earlier victim as we walked back to the truck. When we arrived I set her on a wire spool with some food while I gutted the rabbit. I then gave her another front leg off the recent victim.

There is no doubt that she would find a way to kill sooner if I sharpened her weight up a bit more. About an ounce to be exact. However even though I have to work a bit harder for the same result, there is no shortage of rabbits to chase, and a lot of failure with her still getting a reward at the end of it has to be teaching her something. Make no mistake there is a lot to learn concerning Jack Rabbits. They are plenty smart. As long as she still chases hard, and tries hard I really can't complain about her weight. The abundance of prey this year is a real blessing. The odds are such, that sooner or later one will screw up. If I sense that she is stringing me along, be assured she will suffer hunger pangs for it. So as long as the aspirins hold out, i'm game.

That's what I'm talking about!

I was a bit disappointed this morning when I picked Hope up and weighed her. She tipped the scales at 945 grams. I tried every way that I could to get the scales to be more reasonable, but the weight stayed the same. Oh well, I need the exercise any way, perhaps, I reasoned, she will get lucky and find a young dumb one. I really didn't expect her to catch anything.

A friend from the Rail Road had come down to help me get a generator set up for emergencies, so we hopped in the truck and drove over to the ranch. After I got the truck stopped, I looked over and there was a young dumb one just 15 yards away, watching us to see what was going on. I eased out, ignoring the Jack and hoping that he would continue to sit there. I got Hope released from her leash, and picked her out of her box. I looked up, and found that it had moved. Not all that far, so I tossed Hope in his direction. The Jack ran, and Hope totally surprised, followed and took a shot at him, but he ducked and stalled her out. I remember thinking CRAP! this was all I needed, an overweight Hawk that is going to waste the trend that we had begun with the last hunt by giving her free rein with a whole Jack to eat.

You see, just like every thing else, success breeds success. Falconry is built on positive reinforcement. Success gives confidence, and success only comes with a Hawk that knows that she can catch anything and will not take no for an answer. That frame of mind comes from the falconer making sure that the Hawk has all the odds stacked against the prey.  A fat Hawk normally will not put forth the effort needed to catch a Jack. With almost any other hawk I would have bagged the trip, but Hope isn't acting like any other Hawk that I have handled, so I decided to give it a try. What the hell, I needed the exercise any way.

After she missed the Jack I turned and started across the field. She soon landed on the Tee perch, and we continued up the little rise in the ground. She peeled off back the way that we had come and made a fairly long flight after a Jack that had slipped out behind us. When she returned, she flew right in front of Dick, much to his amazement, and landed on the Tee perch. We walked a few yards more when she again took off in pursuit. I was surprised to see how far the slip actually was. She flew about 150 yards before she slammed into the brush, and a faint scream wafted back to my amazed ears.

I ran as fast as my old butt would take me, flushing another Jack as I ran. Dick thought that was the one that she had chased, but I knew better.

I was pleased to see that she still had the Jack, and then could see that she had a foot in his neck as well. He wasn't going any where. I killed him as soon as I could get my dropped jaw closed, and drug him into the open.

I pulled a front leg off and gave it to her as a distraction.  After I gutted it, I again gave the Jack back to her. Hell if she is going to hunt that hard weighing 945, I darn sure am not going to get stingy on her. This calls for a celebration.

She began eating on the neck, where I had pulled a bit of skin off when I killed it. Fine with me. I let her eat until she had severed the muscle surrounding the neck, then slipped a Walmart plastic bag over the rest of the Jack, and put it in my vest. I let her eat most of the head, and then began giving her the tidbits that I had prepared since they wouldn't last for another two days. Its nice that she will eat from the fingers without risking said fingers. She also eats nicely from my little cup.

I am having a bit of trouble with my back, so I soon got tired of standing around waiting for her to finally finish the head. I picked her and her head up and made my way back to the truck.

Since this is the dump, there are some benefits to hunting there besides lots of rabbits. Ahh, life is good!

Progress

The next day after the Bunny, I picked her up and she had gained insignificant weight from it. The wind has been howling and unfit to try to fly an inexperienced Hawk, so I decided that waiting until almost dark and trying to ambush one of the Jacks that trek through here in front of the house every evening was a much better idea.

The first evening she again was convinced that we were going to revisit flying to the fist training. She would fly to the hot tub, or the top of the house so that I could call her. It finally occurred to me that with the Tee perch she might get her thoughts realigned to hunting. It worked pretty well. She settled down and began watching. We had three or four flights but none of them matched the excitement of the Bunny flush. She also mirrored that lack with empty feet and finally an empty crop.

Last night she was 895 grams and was quite hungry. I brought her out on the Tee perch, but she again began thinking up ways to get me to feed her. She made a flight across the creek after something, I assume a Jack. She turned and flew back to me, and I gave her a tidbit. That turned out to be a bit of a mistake as she flew to the ground searching for any possible tidbits that might have fallen. She searched under the rose bush. Picked up a chicken turd and tested it for food value, gagging and finally giving up on it.

I, in desperation thinking that the wind might have died a bit, started out into the Sage behind the house to see if there was any thing there we could chase. She did chase another Bunny, but was unsuccessful with that one. It quickly got too dark for her to hunt so she went to roost with no food again. I was positive that I now knew that her real flying weight was around 900 grams and that tomorrow would be the day that she killed again.

We still had wind this morning, but it was at least manageable. At 10 AM I loaded her in the truck and we went over to the field that had been so good to us these last two months. Her weight was 902 grams.

I took her out of the truck and right away saw a couple of Jacks in some sparse Sage. I walked that way and they began hopping off. I threw her and she just landed on a pile of lumber. She came back to the Tee perch, another hopped out and as it topped over a small hill she went after it. She followed for quite a ways and then crashed into a Grease Wood bush. I didn't hear any screaming, so I continued on my way. Another Jack jumped pretty close to us and she took off after him, another jumped under her, and she broke off and flew after him. He gave her the slip, and although she got up into the air again, she wasn't able to catch him. The gang at the ranch rode into the bottom part of the field to gather the Cows in this lot, so I was glad that I had chosen to stay high in the field on a different tack that I normally ran. We walked on a bit further and again two Jacks flushed pretty close, and she flew one down in a matter of yards. Not enough cover for it to scrape her off. When I got there she had again grabbed it by the butt, but within two bounces had its head in the other foot.

I killed it, and put one jess in the swivel and tied it to my bag. She was still pretty stoked, so I gave her a couple of tidbits to rearrange her mind, then pulled off a front leg and gave it to her. She let go of the rabbit, and I retired to clean it. When I got back I again gave her the Jack. She wasted no time in reclaiming it and began eating the liver and other goodies left in the carcass. I left her to decide what she wanted to eat, and satisfied myself with taking pictures.

I had come to the conclusion that I had made a basic mistake that would have shortened the last period of her training. I should have on the first and possibly more "bagged Rabbits', have let her feed on the bodies until she was stuffed. This was a clear case of my favorite saying- "The hurrieder you go, the behinder you get".  I have long ago lost the urge to out do every one in the world that has a hawk. I would rather catch half of the game that every one else catches if most of my hunts are successful. I rarely ever try to take doubles unless I am flying two hawks in a cast. My reasons are that there will be more rabbits left in the field, and my hawk puts more effort in catching the first one because she knows that she will be able to eat all she wants when she does catch it. I want my hawk to know that she does not have to hide what she catches from me and that she can trust me.

By taking her off the Rabbits that she "thought" she had caught, and giving her a full meal off a previous rabbit, she came to think that the food only came from the fist. The Rabbits that I wanted her to catch were not as important as the fist was. Yes, she wanted to catch them, but not as badly as she would have if she had been allowed to get her fill of warm fresh bloody meat. Really, at my age, do I really want to go out and pound the hills to dust every day? Bad knee and all? Not likely, I will take quality over quantity at this stage of my life, thank you. If it takes her an extra day to get her weight back down, that means that I can do some of the things around the house that need doing before the winter arrives.

You will please notice in the pictures as she begins to eat, that she pays me no mind at all. She does not mantle and try to protect her food from me, she eats with her wings closed and tucked tight.

I mentioned that the Cows were being gathered to move to another pasture. They were going to go quite a bit away from where we were at, but as they got closer, she became aware of them and crouched down on top of her Rabbit. She didn't mantle, she just laid down on it.

This was a new one for me. She couldn't see them from her position, but she could hear them. After they had gone, I reached down and gave her a tidbit, and she stood up and began eating again.

As I have said before, she is going to be a good one. It was really nice to be able to see the flight and see that long leg reach out and snatch that Jack back to her. This is the beginning to a beautiful friendship.