An unintended mile post

 

Every one came over to the house this morning for our Rabbit hunt. We went into the field behind the hack tower and began our drive. Yogi took a perch on the fence line while Puddy rode with Tami. We had not gone very far, and a Jack broke cover in the fence and choose to run across the open field towards the house. Yogi had landed almost on a post almost right on top of him, so when he made his run for it, she was right there. I thought well that one is a waste! I didn't take in to account Yogi's state of mind. She hasn't caught anything for at least a week. She has helped, but has not been the initial aggressor. I was yelling and rooting her on for all I was worth, but even so I could not believe that she was right on the Jacks butt and closing. (I have paced a Jack at 45 MPH) The Jack tried to turn inside her, but she was too close and too determined. She reached out a long leg and had him. They were jumping and flopping. Puddy by that time had caught up and slammed into his head.

I took the opportunity to take a picture, that was not in a bush.

I gave each a chunk of Jack front leg as a reward for their catch. Each went off a bit to eat their food, and I bagged the rabbit.

As you can see, there was nothing for the rabbit to hide in, but the open field chases are the hardest of all pursuits.

We went back into the field and continued on our way. We had not covered much ground when Yogi again took off after a Rabbit. Puddy was a bit slow on the uptake. Yogi made a feint at the rabbit, but it dodged her. She turned around as Puddy also made a feint at the rabbit. Yogi had gotten up a bit and did a wingover from about 10 feet and the scream of the rabbit told us that she had scored again.

 When we got there I was surprised to see that Puddy was off to the side watching. The reason became quite clear, as Yogi had grabbed the rabbit by the head.

I gave Yogi a chunk of front leg, and and number two was in the bag, and we were still withing 200 yards of the fence around the house.

I decided that I wanted for Puddy to catch one, so we decided to continue. We really had just started,  and George was really getting into it.

We continued on for a bit and Yogi decided to go off hunting on her own. I tried to get her to come to the perch, but she wanted me to follow her, and it just doesn't work that way. We left her  and soon Puddy took off after a close Jack and grabbed him in the butt. Unfortunately her pardner was goofing off a hundred yards back and she got kicked off. She was a bit grumpy about that. We continued on, and Yogi decided to shadow us. I was just explaining to George that Harris' were the only Hawk that I was aware of that could see a sitting rabbit, when Puddy flashed off my perch and slammed into the ground not more than 15 feet in front of us. I was quite surprised to see a Jack come bolting out of the dust cloud and beat feet out of the area. Yogi tried, but had been too much out of position. Yogi was still trying to be independent, and we jumped another Jack, and again Puddy grabbed one in the butt after a heroic effort, but her hold was too tenuous to keep him. Yogi had had enough, and rejoined us as we began our circle back towards the house.

We topped over the hill leaving Tara, Karen, Grace and Isabel pestering a hapless Bull Snake. Yogi could not resist a 200 yard slip at a fleeing rabbit. It of course was unsuccessful. We finally caught up with her, and she regained her perch. As we started up a small rise, a Jack busted in front of us, and Puddy gave chase. She made a shot at the rabbit and missed, Yogi did not. This one didn't have a hawk on its head for a short period of time, so Puddy filled the position.

  I managed to kill the Jack, and Yogi accepted her chunk of meat and retired to the nearest bush to eat it.

I have to admit, I was quite surprised that Yogi had caught three Jacks in one outing and was doing it with a fairly substantial chunk of meat in her crop. I had never had a hawk that I caught three head of game with in the same day, so when I held up the trophy tail for the picture, I was pretty much in awe of this hawk.

Puddy however was getting frustrated and did not want to give the Jack up. She was doing her best to ignore the chunk of rabbit that I was offering, so I picked her up with the whole thing and again gave her the meat. She couldn't hold both, so I was able to  put her on the ground and go clean the rabbit.

Karen needed to go get the mail, so she headed off for the house, and the rest of the field was anxious to visit an old turn of the century homestead down by the creek. We were close so we headed that way.

Somehow I forgot to take any pictures, but the shack was a "Soddy". I was more interested in seeing if I could find some of the Bunnies that had to live there. We soon found one and Puddy really slammed into the Greasewood after him, but missed. We were a bit behind time, since we had been in the field for about three hours at that time, so we headed home.

I didn't want to carry the birds on the fist, so we were still technically hunting, and they were riding on their perches. The road curved around a small rise with a bit of rubble on the top, and without warning, Yogi again took off the perch after a close flushing Jack, and slammed into his head before he had covered more than 20 feet. Puddy again honored the kill, and stayed back. We didn't take a picture of the forth one for what ever reason. I gave Yogi another chunk of meat and gave the Jack to George for his own consumption later.

I decided that enough was enough and we fed the girls the rest of their meal, and made our way home.

Every one went home, and I started chunking up Jacks for the girls winter molt food. Even with giving an entire rabbit away, taking two meals worth off of one of the rabbits, I ended up with 14 meals off the remainder, and enough parts and pieces for tidbits and rewards for the next hunting day.

After Karen came back and I finished my food chores, we drove over to the ranch to fly Tara's bird Sheila.

There are a lot of Sparrows around the house so we began our quest. Sheila has not yet caught her first head of wild game, and after her last outing were quite hopeful.

The wind was whipping by this time, and while it posed no problem for her, it did make her want to fly into the wind and stay high either in the trees on the barn. The resident tiercel Kestrel seems to be a bit cranky about sharing hunting areas with her and has been a problem for us. He slammed her into the barn, bruising her leg the last time, and was doing his best to do so again.

At first she wasn't showing much in the way of interest in hunting, but soon decided to get into the game. We went to the Greasewood patch below the barn and managed to pin some of the numerous Sparrows in there. She took a stand on the Hay stack out of the wind, and Tami, George and I began pushing some Sparrows at her. She gave chase to one and just barely missed catching him before he took refuge in a bush. She returned to the fence line, and Tami pushed it out, and again she was hot on his tail, putting him into another bush. This time she gave chase on foot. He managed to elude her and since she had tried so hard, and we were out of Sparrows in the Greasewood, I decided that a bag would be in order.

Tara put her on one of the fence posts and I rustled in the bushes and somehow a bagged Sparrow made a break for it. She was after it with a passion. The Sparrow was doing its best out across the open pasture and she was right on its butt. She made a grab for it, but missed. She recovered and grabbed it after another 10 yards. All the time that little rascal of a wild tiercel was doing his best to interfere. Tara and George went to run interference. Before they could get there the scamp tagged her on the ground, and she picked up the Sparrow and made a break for the fence. She landed on one of the fence posts, while the wild one was making repeated shots at her. She flew again and closer to me and the Greasewood patch. She landed on a post just at the edge of the field, and the little bastard flew down and knocked her off the post. She got up and flew past me to the middle of the Greasewood and ran into the bush with her prise.

 Tara picked her up from the bush and gave her a safe spot to eat her catch.

 We of course felt compelled to celebrate our adventures with a small libation.

I am quite pleased with the way that Tara has brought this little bird along. She handles well, and it is only a matter of time before she is catching wild game. The zeal with which both she and George pursue falconry is very satisfying. Both are going to be good falconers.

Karen and I dragged our tired butts home and put them in the hot tub where we could sooth some of the aches and pains away.

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.

A strange and disquieting day

We loaded up and made the trip to Tami's to hunt both sets of hawks. I have been carrying my rifle with me for the numerous Coyotes that are running all over. This morning one ran across the drive into the ranch and into the Sage across the road. I stopped the truck and got out and waited. He stopped about 200 yards out. I took the shot, but it was far enough out that I of course lost the picture in the scope, so I didn't know for sure whether I got him or not. Karen didn't see him when I shot. I was sure that I could not have missed, so we drove down there and looked. We couldn't find him, but jumped a couple of Jacks while looking.

We went on, picking up Tami, and drove to the barn to try for some Ducks with Jessie. There was a pile of mixed Ducks on the pond below the barn, so I put Jessie in the air. She took a good pitch over us, but seemed more interested in flying than catching. We gave her several chances at Ducks, and she ignored them all. I finally called her down to the lure and she went into the box to wait for the Harris' to hunt.

I had managed to leave the Tee perches at home, so we all drove back over to the house to get them. When we were coming back I decided to see if the Jacks were in numbers enough to warrant hunting them where the Coyote had been. I thought that we could hunt and I could renew my search for the Coyote. We managed to jump two or three Jacks, but not enough to interest me, so we headed back to the truck. Yogi and Pud took off after a Jack that ran up the hill. Puddy came with us, but Yogi stayed. On the way back our path dissected where the Coyote was lying. We went on to the truck, but Yogi had not joined us. We could see her on the ground and she was hopping around, but refused to even come to the proffered lure. I drove down there and could see her hopping around with her wings out. As I closed the distance I could see that on her flight back, she had seen the Coyote and she was now attacking the thankfully deceased Coyote. She would feint, strike, then fly off and turn to do it again. I think I mentioned in an earlier post that she had apparently had some personal encounters with Coyotes when she was in the wild. She is the strangest bird.

We then loaded up and went back to the barn to hunt in the field that we had found so many Jacks before. We carried the hawks across to the field beginning to eliminate interference from a Red Shouldered Hawk that seems to think he owns all of that area.

 Yogi did not want to be carried and was bateing continuously. We finally got close to the gate to the field, and I told Tami to turn her loose. There was the remains of a little overflow pond that was drying up by the road, and Yogi crashed into the water. Tami didn't know what to do about it and was as surprised as I was. I said that maybe she was thirsty, and walked back to see what was going on. She was running around and footing at something in the pond. I asked if there were minnows in the pond, and Tami replied that there was. I walked to the side that she was on, and tried to get her to get on the fist before she decided to bathe. I flushed the minnow and she quickly caught it and ate it, before I could get a picture. That's a new one for me.

 
We found a few Jacks and they gave chase, sometimes hard and sometimes not. We were not seeing the numbers that I would have liked and so we were trying different areas and seemed to find that the rabbits were choosing the more open areas to hide in. Puddy flashed off my perch and slammed into something on the ground in front of us. When I got there it was a Jack and she was on its head. It wasn't fighting, because it was already dead. I gave her a prepared chunk of meat and took the Jack to check it out. The eyes were clear and not clouded over at all, but the Jack was dead before she got it. No visible evidence of anything wrong, nose and coat were fine. I buried it and we went on.

After a couple more chases that were infuriatingly close, they flew after a Jack that slipped them both, and they took perches on some of the Sage. They both declined to come, and then I saw Puddy again take off and looked like she was chasing something on the ground. We went over there and she had found another dead one. Same appearance as the other. The fur was warm from the sun, but very tough to peel, and the flesh underneath was cool. I gave the birds some chunks of meat, and we left. I am puzzled and a bit spooked. I guess I will have to find somewhere else to hunt.