Catch up

Jasper's house

 John and I got busy and put Jasper's house up in a permanent and better location. He often sits on and I suspect spends the nights, sitting inside the wind sock on the Hack tower. I had thought to put the house on the tower, but with a Barn Owl using it to nest in, I felt that he would do better just a bit further away.

John left this morning for points East. He wanted to get home in time to vote. As is usual it was sad to see him go, he is the perfect guest, or rather part of the family. The dogs, cats and neighbors love him. He just fits in. 

HARRIS HAWKS

After John left, I loaded up the Harris' to meet Tami at the ranch. Since our old places don't seem to have the Rabbits that we like for hunting, we need to find others to fill in the gaps. Rosie has been seeing quite a few on the East side of the barns. It was pretty cold this morning and we were all a bit overdressed. Reuben who went with us really piled on the clothes, and "long johns". I am not sure how he did, but I, just with a coat and vest had a full stink going by the time we finished.

Our beginning was not promising at all. There is so much water all over that we had to walk from the barn. We got a hundred or so yards from the barn and the girls were following along nicely. Rosie had to go wrangle the horses in so that they could ride, and Yogi got spooked at the quad. She flew back to the trees around the barn, and wouldn't come back. There is a juvenile Red Shoulder Hawk living there and she was screaming her head off at her, and Yogi was cussing her back. Puddy finally came to us out in the field, but Yogi wasn't going to move. After Rosie got the horses in and settled I went back to get Yogi. She finally came to me and we walked all the way back again to try to hunt in the grease wood. We jumped a Bunny, but he was able to give them the slip with ease.

The Coyotes are in evidence every where. We saw three while on our hunt. A lot of the area where we were forced to walk because of the irrigation water, was either very rocky or mostly devoid of cover. Puddy as usual was a bit high and Yogi a bit lower than I wanted. We saw a few Jacks but they were flushing way ahead of us. Finally we topped over a hill and started down into a wash with some rim rock on both sides. Yogi took off from the perch heading towards a rock jack and after a Jack that was hiding behind it. Yogi missed her first grab, but Puddy did not and caught it right under the barb wire fence. Yogi went in to help, but didn't get straightened out in time to keep it from breaking away from Puddy. He left a very large patch of hair behind, and a very grumpy Puddy Tat. This was the first Jack that she has actually managed to put enough effort into that she got her feet on it first, and she was damned well not happy about losing him.

We went down into the wash, and soon jumped a Jack, that both girls tried for, but the Greasewood was very think. I don't like to hunt in that stuff as it is dangerous and nasty at best, but we were getting desperate.

  As we got into the deep nasty stuff, we jumped a Jack that both birds missed, but Yogi wasn't ready to give up, and went back to the rim rock where the Jack had last avoided her. I told Tami that I hated to back track, as I was pretty beat and hot at the time. I forced myself to go back, as Yogi is rarely wrong when she does that.

We got close and the Jack bolted. Yogi made a shot at him, but Puddy managed to get her feet on him first. Yogi slammed into him as well, grabbing him by the head and cutting off his screams. I gave them each a front leg to eat, and Reuben and I cleaned the Jack and put him in my bag. I also took off my coat and stuffed it between my vest and the bag.

Puddy decided that she liked the Rim rock and soon took a perch on it so that she could see better. She was also getting a bit independent as the leg that I had given her was pretty big. We ran a few more Bunnies, but the holes were too thick and the cover too dense.

 Yogi doing a bit of prospecting.

 You can just see her tail.

Finally we came out of the Greasewood and into a lot better cover. The Jacks liked it as well as we began to finally jump a few of them. It had been pretty sparse for a much longer time than I liked. Unfortunately the legs that I had given each one had hit bottom, and we had been at it for about 2.5 hours. They were getting tired. They finally began to perk up a bit as we kept jumping rabbits and they were getting up closer to us all the time. Finally one jumped about 20 yards in front of us, and it was too much, Yogi managed to get her talons into his butt and Puddy joined in before the dust had a chance to even start.

 I secured the Jack, and then managed to get enough room to break its neck.

  I offered Yogi another front leg, and she stepped off the rabbit. We had to give Puddy a hind leg to get her off so that Reuben and I could clean this one. Tami secured Puddy and after Yogi finished her leg, I also gave her a hind leg to eat while we made our way back to the ranch and the truck.

In that one field, we found what we had been looking for. There were plenty of rabbits and the cover was such that the birds had a good chance to catch something. Reuben estimated we walked four miles, and from the way I was leaving drag marks in the dirt, he could have been right. It was worth it though.