Jessie's turn

The weather is getting down there and the wind is whipping. Jessie however wanted to fly, and was at her perfect weight of 870 grams. She was begging me from the time that I put her out this morning, to go hunting. Finally at 1:30 PM I decided that I was going to have to keep my word and take her out to see what we could do.

Tami was in the middle of shipping Cows, so it was just Karen and the dogs. We drove up as close as we could get, and I decided to see if I could locate a bunch of Ducks in the hope that we could bracket them and get a good flush for a change. I walked down to the Creek and found what I thought might be a few Ducks floating on one of the curves of the Creek. I went back to the truck and as I did, the Duck that I saw, got up and flew up the ditch a ways. I decided that we would just turn Jessie loose and let her figure out where the Ducks were.

I turned her loose and she settled on an area of the creek that was about a hundred yards or more up the creek from the spot that I had intended to rush. She did not leave that area, so Karen and I started up the ditch to get in position to rush the area that she was circling over. I finally left Karen at the lower end of her circles, and I went about 50 yards further up the Creek. As I was hurrying up the creek, I noticed that Betsy had gone on point towards the Creek. I knew then that she was smelling the Ducks. This is the first time that I could say that she was actually pointing  Ducks. I decided that she had a much better chance to know where they were than I, so I praised her and told her to find them. She moved closer to the creek and actually a bit behind where I had intended to hit the creek.  I told her to get them up. She flash pointed again, so I pushed her to flush. She hit the ditch right in the middle of a large bunch of Mallards and got them off the water.

Jessie flashed down from my left and leveled out to slash through the flock. I could not see what happened as she was lower than the bushes that I was trying to see through. She never came up, so I assumed that she had caught one, but the question was where, since the creek curled around again, leaving a small point to my right.

When I got around the point that I was on, I could see her fighting a Duck on the next little point. The dogs and I jumped into the Creek and started wading across. Josie had some trouble getting out of the water, so I gave her a boost and scrambled up the bank myself to go help Jessie.  The point was only about 10 feet wide, and they had fought almost all the was across it. Only the fact that Jessie had both a piece of Greasewood and the Ducks neck in one of her feet, Kept them from rolling into the water.

I helped her kill the Drake, patted and praised the dogs for their exceptional help, and settled back to wait for her to get around all the Duck that she could manage. Karen and Betsy went back to the truck to get out of the wind, leaving Josie, Jess and I out in the wind. This Duck is still one of the locals. There was little fat on the Duck, so I knew that it had not come down through the Corn fields of the North. Jessie peeled all the fat that she could get off it, only eating the meat to get to the fat.

 It is a bit surprising to see dogs that have to be forced into a warm swimming pool, willingly jump into this cold creek and swim across without a thought.

It was very nice to actually catch something again. It is tough to do on a regular basis on ditches and Creeks. No matter that the Dogs and I hit the Ducks head on, they still flew right up the Creek. If she had slashed the Duck instead of just grabbing it, we would have gone home empty handed again. If she had not grabbed some Greasewood inadvertently, she would have lost it in the Creek again.

It is true that Jessie is a bit of a handful, but it is also true that she is a bird of a lifetime. They do not come with this much drive and desire very often. I do not know if I will ever again have a Falcon with  half of the ability that this girl has. It is time to give her a chance however.