Winding down

 Puddy

Yogi

It seems a bit early, but this evening I put the Harris' in their winter quarters after their hunt. Things have been getting a lot tougher, and weather and wind are, more often than I would like, keeping us from hunting. It was showing 30 degrees on the truck thermometer, and Puddy was shivering while we were out.

I went to Arock today out of desperation, hoping that I could find enough rabbits that they could make a kill or two. Karen is in to baking for Christmas, Tami is building fence and school for the kids, so it was just me and the birds. It is a bit of a problem, as one of them has to follow along, and that is generally left to Yogi to do so. She tends to go hunting in the direction that she thinks best, which is not always where I want to go.

 We found a few Jacks, and Puddy even managed to catch one after a couple of hours and a lot of walking. It, however as was the last one they caught, not all that healthy. There is some kind of ?"pus pocket"? that some of the older ones have under their skin. They seem to have some kind of larva encased in it that gives me the creeps. The last one that they caught had what appeared to be some kind of eggs in the abdomen. I threw most of it away as I did every thing but the legs on this one.
The other day I found a Bunny in the horse corral that could not get to its feet and was bleeding from the nose and mouth. There was no obvious signs of injury to him. I also threw his body where none of my animals could get to it.  There is little reason to kill them if I cannot make use of their flesh. The survivors will soon be breeding. Perhaps we will have more next year. Things are tough enough as it is without us contributing to their reduction.

It has been a good year, and I have had a lot of fun, but it is time to put the Harris Hawks up. I will hunt Jessie a few more times until the breeder comes to get her.

Jessie

The weather is in between storms for a bit, so Karen and I took Jessie out to hunt. Not sure how long the break will last, so there was some urgency. We just finished two days of high winds, 49 MPH was the highest gusts.

We turned Jessie loose and watched her for hints on where the Ducks were holding. When she settled on an area of the Creek, we began moving in to see what she had.

 As we got close, Betsy again went on point, but before we could get any where close to the Creek, a Gadwall flushed with no apparent provocation. Jessie slammed him into the water, which was futile, and continued to fly. She was no longer very high, so our chances were reduced. We waited for her to get back up and into position, when some more Ducks again got up off the ditch. She again knocked another one into the Creek.

She then landed for a bit, and I attempted to get into a spot that I thought might hold some more Ducks. After she began flying again, we walked up the creek, but the creek was empty. Apparently the storms blew the resident Ducks out of the area. There did not seem to be very many at all on the Creek.

Oh well, she at least got to fly for a bit. When we got back home, I decided to give her a chance to take a bath. It was definitely too cold for her to bathe outside, so I put her on Puddy's perch and take the bath inside. I turned the heater on to dry her out when she finished.

You should have seen her eyes light up when I brought in her bath pan. She wasted no time getting in as soon as I poured the water.