Jessie- Always a challenge.

If you recall, on my post of November 20, I said that Jessie seemed to like me this year, but I wasn't going to hold my breath. It is as though I had a crystal ball, or rather an awful lot of experience with the devious mind of this creature.

Now don't get me wrong, I think that Jessie is the best falcon that I have ever had. When she works,  there is no doubt that she is going to make something happen. She fears nothing. She has killed Canada Honkers, driven Swans to the ground, just to escape her talons. When she is on, there are few equals. She is as steady as any falcon that has ever been trained. When she is good, she is really good, but alas she is not good without a fight.

Almost every one who sees her only sees the beauty of her form and coloring. There is no doubt that she is indeed a very beautiful specimen of her species. I loaned her to a guy in the hopes that she would breed and make some babies. Unfortunately she is old enough and was taken young enough that she no longer thinks of a male Peregrine as a mate. I had said some things about her that lead him to believe that she was a "spoiled b***h". He could not ever talk to me about her but what he said that he couldn't understand what I was talking about, she was a lovely falcon. A real sweetheart. She is all that and more, but she will do nothing the easy way, even though at 10 years old she knows more about this yearly routine of killing Ducks than I do. She really does not long for her freedom, She likes to be inside at night.

Last year I had to take her down to almost nothing to get her to behave. She killed her first Duck on her second flight. She did however, about three weeks into the season, decide that she didn't want to hunt any more, but she soon got over that. All last year, if she didn't kill, she didn't eat. I am not sure why I expected this year to be any different.

My observation is that falcons are very proud birds, and do not take easily to abrupt, rude behavior from anyone. Jessie is easily offended. I tried very hard this year to not offend her, and she reciprocated.

This year she has been all sweetness and a poster child for well behaved falcons every where. She has not required a telemetry transmitter at all this year, flying the kite with serious determination, at a much higher weight than she ever has. No signs of her normal tricks or tantrums. Then the wind quit blowing so we went hunting, not much else to do. She has so far knocked down at least three Ducks, and not attempted to close with them afterward. I decided that the area where I was hunting was the reason for that, so we went to the lake. There is a nice dry spot at the end that the birds like to fly over, that is perfect for killing them.

We have been three times with her knocking ducks down two different times, but not closing with them afterwards. I reasoned that they had been knocked into the swamp because I had flushed too early. Her weight was right at 900 grams, so I began to slowly take her weight down.

The weather has been below zero for the last two nights, and the other pond that I like was frozen over, so in the middle of the day the Ducks go to the Artesian Lake that feeds Crooked Creek. There was about a hundred Ducks on it. She was a bit low, but was high enough to kill a duck. Numbers do not intimidate her at all, so I wasn't worried on that account. I flushed and she smacked a Duck out of the air, but did not land. I only gave her half of a Quail.

Today she was down to the weight that she normally does most of her hunting at,- 874 grams. I decided this time rather than flush all the Ducks I would see what she was going to do, and help her if she seemed serious, but wait for her to show that she wanted a Duck. She flew around over the Ducks, and when some flushed she gave chase, and Karen thought that she heard her hit one, but she kept flying. We just stood up on the hill and watched. She lowered her pitch to about 100 feet and circled over the pond, giving a halfhearted chase when some flushed on their own, but never showing any sign that she wanted to catch one. We stood there for about 20 minutes while she screwed around. She landed on the ground once and in an old Red Tail nest the other time. I finally walked away and she followed to get her meal. She got half of a Quail breast and the leg that was on the lure. Of course she was pissed when she found that there was no more food. Tonight she will lose 20 to 30 grams, and we will see if she decides to work for food.

Alternative conditioning

The wind has died, and with it the chance to get Jessie in flying condition. Plan B of course is to take her to the field, since she will fly no further at home than is required to get me to throw the lure.

Karen and I took Jessie to the ranch next door. There is a small pond there that if approached properly, any Ducks sitting on it do not have a chance if the falcon really wants one. We left at 4 PM, giving us an hour and half of daylight. The last time I flew over the pond, it was jammed full of Ducks.

When I flush I go to this end of the pond so that the Ducks have to flush over land. To do so, I travel along the creek that is behind me. As I started along to get in position, a large number of Ducks flushed off the creek. The creek is difficult because there are plenty of places that the Ducks can get back into the water. At that point it rapidly turns into a Rat hunt that I do not have the speed and physical endurance to bring to a possible positive solution. 

I released Jessie and she flew up, but really not over the pond. Hoping that there would be something there, I rushed the dike. Empty! The ducks that had flushed earlier had gone in a couple of hundred yards further up the Creek, so off I went. The Ducks saw us coming and flushed well ahead of us. Jessie tried and splashed several of them back in to the pond. They only waited until she flew to the far side of her circle, and flushed again. By this time Jessie had been in the air for about 10 minutes and was getting lower and lower, finely she landed on a rock to rest.

I went back to the pond and Karen, and tossed the lure when Jess left the rock. She grabbed it and took it towards the pond, landing on the dike. Regardless of the out come, I was pleased with the amount of conditioning that she had demonstrated, and her desire and attempts to catch one of the Ducks. She had done her part, it was the human factor that screwed things up. I asked Karen to take a few pictures of her, and walked off without picking up the lure that she had left to come to the fist.

  

We made an attempt to get ready earlier in the day in the hopes that the Ducks would be using the pond for rest in the middle of the day. The wind again was down to nothing, so I had to go back to get my lure. I don't need it with the kite, but I do if we fly game.

This time I stayed away from the creek, so that I could fly it if the pond was again empty. It was in fact almost frozen over. I peeked back at the creek, and promptly managed to scare some of the Ducks off of it. I dodged back down and made my way to Karen, who I had left holding Jessie while I did my recon.

I put her up, and she took position by the Ducks and the creek. We timed our approach with her position over the Ducks. Finely they could stand it no longer and busted off the Creek. Jessie smacked a Mallard Drake out of the air into the willows. She did not go in after him, which surprised me a bit. She gives no quarter to the females, but is hesitant on the Drakes. She broke her leg on a Drake in 2006, and she is still a bit shy. Not always, but with it buried in the Willows and the beginning of the season, I could understand.

She soon landed on a rock to rest. Karen went back to the car, as she was cold, and the rest was just going to be a predictable waste of time. I wanted her to fly more, so that she could build more muscle, so we went up the creek. She was soon in the air following me, but though we went quite a ways up, found nothing to hunt. I now had my lure again, so I called her down.

She is doing quite well this year,( her 10th ) and while stronger than I had thought. If I was able to do my job, she would be catching Ducks. I have two more ponds here that I can fly, one of which will require her to be a lot higher than she is flying right now.

If the wind blows tomorrow, I will put the kite high enough that she will have to work her butt off to get it.