Some days are easy, others are normal.

I ordered a new Samsung video Camera hoping that I would be able to use it with the plane. Today was nice, even though it was cool and overcast, so I dressed up in my winter flying suit, and rolled Dart out of the hanger. I kept the Drift on the nose in its usual spot and I mounted the new camera on the windscreen. The results were totally crap. I had bought a new class 10 video card, and the Samsung would not write to it. I landed and changed cards with the Drift, and each seemed to work. The results were still crap. It wasn't a total loss, however, I got in some fun flying and managed to confirm that there were Ducks in the little pond over at the ranch, as well as discovering a Bald Eagle  sitting in the trees at the Lake. Don't want to go there!

I gave Karen a short tutorial on the Camera, and we went over to the ranch for Jessie's hunt. Karen was supposed to see if she could get some video of her hunting. Well that didn't work out. Jess took her pitch and I flushed the Ducks. Jessie smashed one down in a puddle that was no bigger than 3x3 feet. There were three Ducks trying to hide behind each other in the little puddle. The two healthy ones made their getaway, while the one she hit flew over a fence into a bunch of reeds. I went over the fence to try to find it. Jessie decided to sit down nearby, reducing our chance of success to zero. I finally did find it, but it made its getaway. Karen got none of it on video. Oh well, it ain't easy.

We went back to the house and traded Jessie for two Harris Hawks. I wanted to try another of my spots that were good last year, and I intended to try to get some video. The camera is small and really not that "ergonomic", especially if you use it in your left hand while holding a Tee Perch in the right hand.

I shot a short video clip each time they flew after rabbits and thus had a whole pile of short clips to merge. I got enough ? semi decent video ? to make a plausible movie. The spot that we were hunting was almost empty of Jack Rabbits. There were some Bunny's, but very few Jacks. The ones that were there, did not want to go home with us at all. We ended the day with a hapless Bunny that chose the wrong hole to take refuge in. Yogi saw him go in and could see him in there. So nothing would do but to pull him out for her. I would have never gotten her away from there if I had not.

http://vimeo.com/53724474   password is owyheeflyer

We hunted for at least two hours, before dark and exhaustion finally forced us to stop. The one Bunny was all we had to show for it, unless you count all the fun we had doing it. Home and the hot tub awaited.

We had to go to town yesterday, and had to feed all three of the hawks a little food to keep a reasonable weight, since yesterday was their normal flying day. This morning all seemed ready to go flying.

Around 11 AM I finally gave in to Jessie's pleas, and we went over to the ranch to see if we could find something to hunt. It has been stormy and the Swans are filling the sky, so I was hopeful.

Dave had taken the excavator and ditched and drained the one spot that Ducks were visible when they were present, so it was going to be iffy at best. There are always Ducks present, it is just getting them in a spot that you can get them over the ground where Jessie has a chance at them. There is a little "handkerchief" pond along that same area that sometimes has Ducks on it. That was what I was counting on.

I gave Jessie to Karen to hold for me and began easing over to the pond to see if I could see anything on it. It is in the Grease wood and has a fairly high bank around it, so my chances were pretty good. After a very careful recon, I finally saw a Ducks head in the pond. I hurried back to Karen and struck Jessie's hood, pointing her into the wind. She circled the area, but didn't seem to be concentrating on the pond, so I decided that she might not have seen the Duck on the pond and was just looking at the ditch. We timed it so that she was a bit behind us, and then I rushed the pond. I was more than a bit surprised to find that it was holding about 30 Gadwalls. Jessie slashed down through the flock, and did a short "throw up", wasting no time in getting back on the Duck that she had knocked to the ground.

  I had to use the telemetry to find her, as she knocked it into the ground out of my vision. We settled back and let her get started eating. Gadwall's taste a bit better to Jessie than Mallards. Not quite so dry. I let her eat most of the neck, back and all the fat on both of those.

When it became apparent that she was going to have to roll it over to get anymore fat, I offered her a Starling. She accepted and stepped up on the fist, to my surprise. While she was eating that, Karen butchered the Duck, giving me both legs and both sides of the breast with the wings attached.

When Jess finished the Starling, I gave her the legs, one by one, then half of the breast as well as the heart.

She had to work at it, but she got around it all.

We went back to the house, and I sprayed Jessie with Hartz Mt Mite and Lice spray to counteract the Goose problem of last week. I also gave her a bath when we got home as she was pretty bloody, so I will probably have to repeat.

Yogi had been pretty low, ( 1100 grams) on Tuesday, and Puddy was heavy, so I took Yogi out here at the house and tried a couple of areas that we had not hunted as of yet. The first, across the hwy and across the creek, was a total waste of time. We walked for a long way and only jumped three Jacks, so I went back to the car and stopped at the top of the gravel pit and dropped down to the creek on this side of the Hwy. I am sure that there are quite a few rabbits holding there, but there is little cover, being mostly grass and low weeds.

We didn't jump anything down in the bottom, but Yogi chased and caught a Jack halfway up the hillside. Unfortunately it got away from her. We walked all over the rest of the hill without getting a close enough slip. I decided to go on home and just feed her enough to tide her over, but jumped a rabbit in a little bit of scrub by the road. She grabbed it, but it too scraped her off on a Sage, leaving her with enough fur and skin to convince her that she still had the Jack in her feet.

At 3:45 PM, Tami, Isabel and Reuben came over to hunt the girls. I wanted to drive to Arock to see if any of our old spots were holding any rabbits. We have been hammering it pretty hard here at the house and the ranch, and I wanted to let these settle down a bit. The rancher where we hunted last year had indicated that the numbers were down, but I needed to see for myself.

We parked and climbed the fence at one of our old spots, and they began to chase rabbits. The Sage is a lot higher than they have been hunting recently, and they had rabbits running every where. Poor ole Reuben was almost run over by a seriously scared Jack Rabbit. Yogi would no sooner land on the perch, when another Jack tried to move out of the way. We were amazed at the number of slips that we were getting. Finally one screwed up and Puddy nailed it. The screams were soon muffled

 when Yogi slammed into the fray. With the two birds there is rarely if ever one that gets away. Which ever hawk that is left grabs the rabbit before it can scrape the hawk off its butt. This rabbit was huge, probably the biggest that I have seen this year, and would have had a good chance to get away.

 I am not sure what happens to the ones that do get away as we have not caught any that showed signs of having been caught before, so I am not sure what happens to them. Perhaps they totally change territories the scare is so bad, or perhaps they are weakened enough that they fall prey to Coyotes. They have to be sore as can be and handicapped as well for quite a long time.

I gave each part of a front leg to eat as a reward. Puddy decided to eat hers in the safety of Karen's feet.

 After they finished, we continued our hunt, with Jacks going every where. Finally we jumped a Jack, with Yogi giving chase. Puddy strangely stayed on the perch. We were all looking at her wondering why she had not joined the chase. Suddenly she slammed into a bush right beside where we were all standing. Tami was right there and was trying to grab the rabbit as he was trying squeeze out of the other side of the bush. Finally I grabbed it by the head and moved it out of the bush. Yogi had landed and ran up to my right rear. When she saw the head she flashed out a foot and grabbed it in the head, her talons going on either side of Puddys toes. I was amazed again that they do not grab each other. I just wish they would extend the same courtesy to me.

 We gave them the rest of their meals, and when they finished we leashed them up for the walk back to the car.

 It was getting dark, and we were rewarded with a nice sunset as we walked back to the car.

This is the two Jacks that we caught, both last years rabbits, and were as fat as they could be. Notice how much bigger, (longer) the one Jack is compared to the other. I didn't weigh him, but he had to be in the 6 or 7 lb range, the other is average. Both had layers of fat around their kidneys.

Waiting for Ducks

Well today it is winter, cold wind blowing out of the South West and temps of 14 degrees this morning. The snow all melted as the ground hasn't dropped enough temperature yet for it stay, for any length of time.

Karen and I picked up Jessie to see if we could find something to hunt over at the ranch. I decided to try the lake, as I had not been there for a long time. The predominate type of Ducks present at the ranch now is Mallards, which are the local birds. The Gadwalls and Wigeon have not come in yet. Not sure if the wind is the wrong direction to get them here, or the Northern storms have not been severe enough to drive them South.

When we got to the Lake, we had to wait for the local Golden Eagle to put some distance between us before I was going to turn Jessie loose. When the wind blows the Eagles are able to hunt seriously, and that is when they are the most active and visible.

I turned Jessie loose and after she got up in the air, her flight over the lake was not promising. She didn't act as though there was anything there. Oh well it was a beautiful day, and she needed to fly any way.

 Unfortunately there were only two Divers, Buffleheads, on the Lake. I did managed to get one of them off the water and to fly over the trees. Jessie went after him, but I think he dove into the swamp on the other side of the trees. In any case, Jessie came up empty. I checked the area, and finding  some thing to flush for her was not an option.

I walked back up the hill, untangling the lure. She knew that the only other option was the lure and she came to me for the lure. I tossed it on the ground and she settled to eat. The dogs were happy to just run around checking things out.

Tami was supposed to come over when she finished helping Dave with the Cows, but at 5 PM, I was pretty sure that things hadn't worked out, so Karen and I went to fly the Harris' here at the house.

I turned both the girls loose since all the Cats and Chickens were already put up. We got out of the weathering area, and I tossed Puddy in the air, and Yogi took a perch on the power pole. Puddy saw a Jack in the front yard and started off after him. He cut in behind the "cat house" with Puddy close behind. He cut through the corral and apparently lost her somewhere in there. The two of them flew out to the property fence and took a perch on one of the fence posts there. Karen and I started that way. Yogi spotted a Jack hiding around the horse trailer, but she missed him. He ran out of the yard and into the Sage outside the fence. Yogi took off after him, but he lost her in the Sage. We got through the fence and Puddy decided that she wanted a ride on the T perch. I had not gone more than 20 yards, when Puddy took off after the same Jack. He managed to dodge her, but Yogi swept around the corner and rolled him in a cloud of dust. Puddy joined in and the fight was over. Yogi stuck a talon all the way into the Jacks lungs, and he was dead before I could figure out a way to break his neck.

 It was getting dark and the wind had a pretty nasty cut to it, so after they finished their reward, I tossed them the rest of their meal.

 One of the guy's that I know had said in regard to how well the girls were doing on game, that " he could do that well if he could hunt in his yard".  I had thought it funny, as this is the first time that we have caught a "Yard Bunny". I don't have to drive 40 miles a day to hunt, but it still takes as many miles walked as when I did.

I often forget just how big Yogi is, until I see her on either Karen or Tami's fist.

She is a real sweetheart though, and remarkably gentle.