Sunrise Saturday morning.
Things have been a bit herky jerky this year. At the beginning Puddy doing nothing more than just waiting for Yogi to catch one, and only then committing to the chase. Then Jessie got pissed at me and just quit trying to catch anything at all, being quite content with just the lure and what it held for food. Yogi ran up quite a score even going so far as to catching four Jacks in one evening. I explored the possibility of retiring Jessie to a breeding project, and entertained the thought of just cutting her loose. Karen asked me to just feed her up for a while and see if that would get things back on track.
Well I did that for three feedings which covered six days. Then I took her down to what I considered her bottom line.
Let me explain a bit about a falcons thinking, compared to a Hawk. If you get a lazy hawk, chances are it is too heavy in weight. You cut their weight, and all of a sudden you have a hawk that is motivated to kill something. You do the same thing with a falcon, and the only result is worse manners. Falcons kill because they want to, and even if you do get one hungry enough to kill something, nothing has really changed. They are just not motivated the same way.
Jessie did kill the Gadwall last week, and I did let her alone until she got tired of dry duck, and came to me for a fat Starling. She was back down in weight and ready to fly on Friday evening. I took the dogs and Jess out to the Lake to try again. Unfortunately there was nothing on the Lake at all. She flew well and came to the lure. I was quite disappointed, but the lake is not one of those places that you can tell if there is ducks on it before you turn the hawk loose. Fortunately when the migrants are in, it usually has something on it all the time.
Tami and her Mother came over later in the evening and we hunted here at the house with the Harris'. We walked my butt off, and finally at last light Puddy slammed into a old Jack by the driveway. It was too dark for my camera to get a viable picture.
Yesterday I took Jessie over to Tami's to try again, but first we gave Meg, Tami's little Kestrel, another lesson. She is very jumpy and showed no interest in feathered quarry, being quite content to eat bugs and Mice. We are in the process of showing her that birds are a possibility and since she is quite jumpy and likely to carry, working with her on a fishing pole. Her one feature that works in our favor is that she really likes tidbits. When she has a bagged bird in her feet, she will stay for a tidbit, so we have been tidbiting her as much as we can, and she is slowly responding. It is still not a sure thing for her, so we are going very slowly. She will never develop the confidence and desire of Jasper however. ( He is still here)
After we got Meg fed, I noticed that there were ducks on the ditch right by Tami's house, so we turned Jessie loose right there to see what we could do with the opportunity. Jessie took a good pitch, and we did our best to get a clean flush, however there was a bog right in front of Tami, so she was a bit late to the ditch, so the ducks flew up the ditch. Jess came down and smacked a Hen Mallard to the ground in front of the ditch, but it got back in the water before she could get back to it. She sat down on a Hay stack and contented herself with the lure yet again.
Today all three birds were at their optimum weight, so at Three PM I loaded every one in the truck and headed to Tami's. Meg's lesson today was the fist and the lure, so we headed out to the ditch with Jessie to see if we could get things together for a change. This time there were no Ducks at the Barn, so I turned her loose and was hoping that there would be some Ducks at a little pond out in the Greasewood a ways. It generally holds one or two most times, and I was hoping that this was one of them. She took a pretty good pitch and seemed to be centering on the end of a ditch close to the pond, so I focused on the ditch. Thankfully there was a little group of Mallards in the reeds there. She was hanging pretty tight, so when they decided to go, she was coming back right over them from the front. She turned into an outside loop and slammed into a Hen Mallard taking her down in to the Willows at the edge of the Marsh area.
She allowed me to pick her up and take her to some flat ground where she could eat. I just let her do as she wished, since it is unimportant how often she flies, just how well. She proceeded to pick every bit of fat off that Hen's back. She really doesn't care all that much about the meat, but she does like the fat. It took her about 45 minutes before she would consent to leaving the Duck.
Then it was the HH's turn. We had a bit of trouble finding any rabbits close for quite a long time. We finally found the area that they were hiding in, and soon Puddy had one by the butt, and Yogi on the head. Yogi again killed it by herself. That is very unusual, and it is the second that she has killed without my help. (Hawks just grab, and eat their prey to death. Death generally comes from loss of blood.) Of course if I was to compare the length of her talons to human size, we would be talking a 12 to 14 inch knife. The Jack was an old one, quite fat and nicely healthy. I gave each a chunk of their last kill to eat while I cleaned rabbit.
We again picked them up and began again. We had not gone far, when Yogi saw another one. They took turns trying to catch it, but it anticipated every move that they had and escaped. Yogi was sitting on a bush, looking around. Puddy came back to Tami, and we began again. I was trying to get Yogi to come to me, but she was not interested. Finally she took off and crashed into a bush about 15 feet in front of her, and came out holding onto a Jacks head. Puddy honored her kill. I secured the Jack, killing it. I wanted the birds to have a casting, and I had brought a couple of Starlings with me to feed them at the end of the day. ( I forgot to get a picture of this one too.)
Puddy grabbed hers and flew a bit off to eat it. ( Yogi with her also big mouth has been eating her chunk, and then trying to get Puddy's, so she has been taking her food off a ways and out of temptation) Apparently she couldn't find a spot that she liked and kept changing positions. Tami was watching her while I was cleaning the rabbit. She could see Puddy jumping around where she had last gone. Something was strange, so I started that way, and ran a Coyote off that was apparently trying to catch her. I assume that he got her Starling, but not her. I am not sure what would have happened if it had been Yogi. I am not sure that Yogi would not have attacked him. That is a scary thought. I don't think it would have turned out well.
So finally it appears that things are finally aligned as they should be. Don't hold your breath!
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