A step closer.

The change for Yogi from having a partner, to hunting alone, has been a bit rough. She depended more on Puddy than I thought. It doesn't help that while Rabbits are better, they still have a long way to go before it is easy. I could use a bit of easy right now. I drove 52 miles one way to get her a chance at some Rabbits. Even with the price of gas going down a bit, we are still 50 cents above the national average for fuel. Just one of the handicaps of living in a rural setting. I am still not convinced that it is not worth it however. Sorry for whining.

There are upwards of 12 or more Jacks that feed on my lawn every night. I have no idea of how far they travel to do so, but I have not yet been able to find where they go in the day time. I took Yogi out here at the house the other day, and spent the better part of two hours walking all over with her. At a guess we covered two or three miles. We had four slips at Jacks. She missed all of them. I even went down by the creek to see if there was something down there. There was, sadly it was only Coots. They do not fly, they dive.

Yogi hasn't perfected her dive as yet, but it didn't stop her from trying. As you may have noticed, Harris Hawks do not have much in the way of water proofing. They live in the Desert, and every body knows" it doesn't rain in the Desert". I had a heck of a time getting her away from the Creek. She was convinced that she could catch one of them if she tried long enough.

I have been " turning the screws" to the old girl, as she is not trying as hard as it takes. Flying in a cast, she could hunt heavier than solo. The two hawks fed off each others energy and competitive spirit. Alone she is more inclined to going off on her own and waiting for something to show up. Needless to say, that pisses me off. Of course when I am in that frame of mind, she doesn't eat.

The only way that one can "discipline" a Raptor is through their food. She doesn't hunt, she doesn't eat. Sooner or later she will decide that she can wait no longer and put forth the effort that it requires to have something live in her feet. Of course that course of action requires some careful monitoring. One could end up with a dead Hawk, with too strict an application.

Our last several trips out, she has been pretty lazy about trying hard. I have been cutting her back. Thursday we went to Danner (52 miles- 104 both ways) and she just wasted our time. I didn't feed her squat! This kind of stuff is doubly anger inducing, due to the bone spur in my foot. I don't mind the pain, but I am a bit worried about what it is doing to the bottom of my foot. If there is a dead Rabbit at the end of the effort, it is worth it. Other wise, I tend to be a bit grumpy.

I didn't feed her the next day either, so this morning I had to either hunt her or feed her and lose the lesson that I am so desperate to get across. Naturally this morning was one of the few days that it has chosen to rain. Wind of 18 MPH is predicted for this evening. It was raining here at the house when I got up. We checked the radar and found that there was a rain cloud sitting on the spot that I wanted to go. The radar showed the clouds to be moving North, and since it was a fairly small rain cloud, I thought that it had a decent chance of moving off the area by the time I got there. I dithered a bit, then decided that I had to try even if we did get wet, I had to at least make the effort to give her a chance.

Every body here wants to get into the act. If I cut meat, I have an attentive audience.

It was 35 degrees outside, and spitting rain here. I did my chores in the near dark, and we headed out. She weighed 995 grams. 34.8 for those who resist change. In a cast of two she flew at 43 oz. I decided to go get some gas at Jordan Valley and stop at the field that I thought would give us our best chance on the way back.

The area that holds the Jacks is almost shoulder high, and a bird that doesn't fly smart is terribly handicapped. Yogi hasn't learned that as yet. We jumped several with no success. Wrong choices on her part every time. This picture by the way is not the heavy stuff. We ran several Jacks while covering a mile or more of Sage. It finally begin the sprinkle a bit, and I had left the tall stuff in the hopes that we could get a good flush where she had more opportunity to catch one. We started a Bunny and she was so close that she saw which hole it ran down.

Of course then I couldn't get her away from there. I did my best and cleared what rocks I could to see if there was any way that we could get it, with no success. She went back to the rocks at least three times. Then she checked every hole in every pile of rocks that she could find.

We were both getting a bit wet, when I decided to give it up. I was going to feed her enough to get her past a couple of days until the weather was supposed to clear. The car was in sight when she took off, made a pass at something in the Sage, threw up in the air high enough to turn over and slash down in the Sage. I heard a short squeal, so I took off to help, hoping that it was a Jack.

Unfortunately that was not to be, but what the heck she earned her keep this time at least. Of course this will only make her more insistent that she wait for the easy stuff, but at least she put out the effort, and I think I do remember asking the Gods to at least give us an even chance, even at a Bunny if there was nothing else. Who am I to scorn a gift from the Gods, no matter how small.

She got all she could eat, and we will continue our contest of wills another day.

Falconry meet

Since Karen is a Director for Eastern Oregon, attending an Oregon Falconers meet in Madras Oregon was not an option for me. Quite frankly at first glance, I have outgrown this kind of foolishness. Its kind of an "old school" type of thing I guess, or my "curmudgeon" gene is out of control. Then I meet some of the young ones that just cannot wait for the day that they are old enough to take their falconry test. I personally would not have guessed it, but I seem to like giving what ever meager knowledge that I have gathered over the years. Maybe I just like an audience that is too young to know that I am full of it?

Like most journeys the possibility of problems always exist. The further north we went the worse the weather was. The weekend was forecast for rain and wind. Lots of wind!

I took both Jessie and Yogi with us even though neither was either willing or able to hunt yet. We did pretty good this time. The only thing that we ( I ) forgot was my electronic varmint call, and the thumb drive with the hawking videos that I wanted to show. I finally found a varmint call in Riley,Or. Our intention was to leave a day early and do a bit of night hunting for Coyotes around Bend,Or.

The wind and rain came up as we started on Hwy 20 East. I had Yogi in a Giant hood and Jessie was sitting unhooded on a portable perch on the bed of the fifth wheel. When we got to the spot that we were going to camp, I discovered that the "Escape window" by the bed had escaped somewhere along the road there. The window blinds were fairly seriously destroyed. I went in expecting to see a totally deranged Peregrine Falcon. Even though there was a lot of water all over the computer, TV and bed, Jessie just seemed to want to know if I had anything to eat.

It was still raining, and I was trying to get the fifth wheel set up. I closed the door to the truck and only later found that I had locked the keys in the truck. God, I love being an old fart. At one time my mind was as sharp as one gets, now it is just an adventure.

The key that I had hidden somewhere in the frame of the truck, either no longer exists, or I have forgotten where I hid it. Same result however. We did get lucky in that Karen had kept her phone in her pocket. We had a comfortable place to stay out of the rain while we waited for the AAA guy to unlock the truck. One good aspect of this misfortune was that I didn't have to worry about locking the keys in again, as Karen thoughtfully reminded me every time I got out of it.

It was simple to get into the truck. The guy just took a wedge, drove it into the top of the door, and then took a wire and pushed the unlock button. I am going to have to include a wedge in my camping stuff I guess.

I found that it did not matter that I had left my Varmint call at home, as there either were no Coyotes in that area, or I did not fool anyone with the call that I purchased at Riley.

The falconry meets are designed to give all the falconers in the state a chance to meet, hunt, and mingle. It is supposed to be accompanied by a business meeting as well.

Karen had gotten roped into hosting the meet although it was five and half hours away from us.( At one time I didn't mind the fact that she could never say no. Now it seems to be a bit different.) The club furnishes the main course for the evening dinner. We will normally have between 40 and 60 people attending. She asked me for ideas. This is the main fund raiser for the club for the year, so I suggested Burgers, and as a bonus I agreed to cook sourdough pancakes for breakfasts. So after we had made a trip to Costco to buy supplies, we went to Home Depot to buy some plastic and Gorilla tape. A half roll of tape later we were waterproof again.

A former apprentice brought his Harris hawk to the meet as well, so we went off to see if there were any Rabbits around. Yogi hunts well with other Harris's so that would give her some incentive to get with the program. We found an area that had not been overrun with other falconers, but the Sage was waist high and so thick that there were tunnels rather than trails. We did jump a couple of Jacks, and I swear that I heard a rabbit squeal for a short time after Yogi went in the cover after it. If so she lost it just as fast as she caught it. We went on for a bit, with Ron in the bottom of a little gully, and I had kept the high ground. His bird started a Bunny, but it cut back giving Yogi a chance at it. This squeal was short as well, but it only stopped because the Rabbit died just as fast as she touched it. That girl has some big strong toes. For a change Yogi got all the food that she could hold.

Our dinner went quite well. George Meadows, Tami's sisters husband, helped me with the grilling of hamburgers, and we had food on the table in short time. Everyone brought some item to accompany the meal, so we had lots, mostly in the form of Carbs, but what the heck- everyone needs a sugar high once and a while.

Our meet place was at the county fairgrounds, so we had a kitchen and a nice room for our meeting. They were also renting one of the other halls for a Mexican wedding reception, so along with colorful dresses, we had a whole passel of little kids running amok. I put Yogi in the giant hood and Jessie back in on the kitchen table for safety. I have a chunk of carpet that I use for her portable perch, and at night she goes on the table, and in transit she is on the bed. I apparently was in a hurry when I did so.

I do not know where this towel came from, but it went into the garbage after she finally gave it up. Bored hawks are a lot like bored kids. They generally find something to get into.

I had to give her a stuffed Bunny that we had found somewhere, to get the towel. I then gave her some Rabbit to eat in exchange for that. So in essence both of my birds got a Rabbit at the meet.