Karen and I loaded Jessie in the car and drove over to Tami's to see if Jessie was going to be interested in Ducks this morning. She has steadfastly refused to catch a duck for some days and is getting thinner, but losing none of her resolve to not catch one. She seems to go through a two week period of this kind of behavior every year, but it is generally later in the season when she does. :-/

Tami's sister, Tara, and her fiance George are down from the Portland area. Both are interested in falconry, and Tara is in her first full year of a falconry apprenticeship.

We all loaded up and went to the barn with the idea of hunting some of the Ducks that hang around that are. They were there, so we put Jessie in the air, and she almost forgot her self and caught one, but it did a kamikaze dive into a really nasty bit of barn yard drainage, and she wisely declined.
She flew for quite a long time ignoring every Duck that we flushed, finally taking her rest on a far hay stack. I swung the lure for her, but she ignored that as well. Finally it became clear to me that she had no intention of coming, so I walked back behind the barn and out of her sight. That was entirely too much for her and she had to come see where I had gone. I walked back out and swung the lure for her, and she waited an appropriate amount of time before she deigned to land on the lure. She however did her best to carry it as far away as she could, but a board fence foiled her plans. She is such a Diva! spelled with a B of course.

We went back to Tami's and George saw a Coyote cross the field below the house. He got his rifle, and killed his first ever Coyote at about 220 yards. Since he was using his 300 Weatherby there was nothing left to skin.

Karen and I took her home, and the rest followed. We picked up Yogi and Pud and since Karen decided to do some house work, all loaded in the car to find a Rabbit field. Grace, Reuben, and Spike (Tara's son) came with us. I wanted to try another location, and after one dry patch of Sage, I bumped a Jack just feet off the road at the Pillars of Rome. I decided that we could do worse, so we all piled out and began our hunt. Yogi, who has been getting a lot more independent, took off up the hill on the other side of the road. At first we thought she had seen something, but it soon became obvious that the group of people might be a little large for her. She would not come to us and as soon as we caught up, she would fly on. I finally decided that I was going to put a transmitter on her so that I could eventually find her if she chose to not hunt with us. Once done we headed down the hill and left her to her own devices. She soon tired of that and began hunting with us.

We hadn't got very far into the field when a Jack jumped close and Puddy grabbed it in the butt. Yogi flared high and arrowed down through the bush and onto his head.

 I broke the brush apart enough to drag them into the open so that I could kill the Jack and get them off so that I could clean the Jack.

 I apparently managed to lose the light colored line that you can see hanging out of my bag, which was the leash and swivel needed to secure the birds when we were finished. I am not sure if I can find the right bush again, but I may try. I am getting very short on swivels.

After they finished their rewards, we went on through the field. We did get a few more chases, and Puddy did manage to pull a patch of fur out of another ones butt, but a low hanging branch knocked her off. There were a couple of close calls with the local Pheasant population, but nothing stuck.

After covering the entire field, ( about an hour) we gave it up and went on home. I found another leash and put the girls in the weathering area to put over their crop.

Tami, and Tara went on home to see if Tara's Kestrel was ready to fly. Karen and I went over to help out with that.

I am sorry to say that I didn't take a camera along, so I have no pictures yet. She is a nice little bird and is well trained and cared for. Tara is in the process of trying to get her entered on game. We started out of the house and she gave chase to some Sparrows by the barn. The resident male Kestrel is still hanging around the ranch, and of course he had to but in and make things as difficult as he could. Sheila ignored him for the most part. At first she was a bit hesitant to get really down into the brush with the Sparrows, but after finding and pinning a bunch in some Greasewood, ( The wild male actually helped with that as he was circling around overhead) She began really putting some effort into her attempts at them. At that point I decided that it was time to make sure that she caught one, so I attempted to plant a Sparrow in one of the bushes, but he busted out and she missed her chance at him. I had another and planted it at the edge of the field so that it would be forced out over the open and out of the Greasewood. She gave chase and lost it in a bunch of Willows by the barn. We got her up there and I kicked it out of the bush. It made a dash for the barn with her right behind. The tiercel made a shot at both of them, perhaps hitting her. The Sparrow was running around the wall of the barn on foot. Tara got her on the fist, and managed to get her to see the Sparrow. She took off after it again and it beat it for the Willow again. The Kestrel was in the bush and the Sparrow was trying to keep as much bush between them as possible. They did about 5 or 6 circles around and through the bush, finally Sheila cut him off and managed to catch him on the ground.

It was a great training exercise for the little bird. Hopefully she will have learned that she has to get in and get down and dirty while at it, and she has to push.