UpDate - Jessie and other stuff

I am still scratching my head concerning Jessie. The Ducks on the Lake finally wised up and are now resting elsewhere. Yesterday I went to Tami's house, picked up Reuben and we went to the ditch behind their house. There were Ducks there, and its a good flushing situation. Jessie was at what I consider her low end weight. I turned her loose and she sat on a hay stack. I finally got her to fly by walking out in the field. She would not get very high, but I flushed anyway. She knocked a Mallard to the ground, but did not close. I flushed again and she knocked a Teal to the ground and didn't go in after it either. The Mallard flushed and even though she was out of position, caught up to it and grabbed at it, but did not connect.

All of this is weird behavior for her. I am left wondering if she does not feel good enough to grapple with them on the ground. I am about to believe that at 10.5 years, she just might not want to fight a Duck on the ground any more. She obviously knows that eventually I will feed her at least a little bit.
I gave her a whole Pigeon and will not take her out again until she hits her low end weight. If she still resists grappling with a Duck we will call it for the year, and I will look into a replacement for next year.

We had some really early cold weather and snow. We were below zero for almost two weeks. It actually snowed about three and half inches and it stayed on the ground thanks to the cold snap. This is the earliest that it has gotten below zero since we came here.

These are some Cedar Wax Wings that got lost and came through here.

This is a nice set of antlers that I found last year and stuck on top of the wild hog skull.

Makes a nice perch don't you think?

 When the snow came, the Quail really ganged up on the Chicken food.

   

Just guessing, but it seemed that there was over a hundred.

A great Blue Heron stopped by for a visit.

To counter the boredom, I am varmint hunting again. I skinned and dried the Raccoon that I caught, for later sale. I really had not gone out to do any real calling or hunting while I was working with Jessie. So I have been working up to it slowly.

On one of our trips back from the ranch I went around the back side of the gravel pit. Karen had seen a Coyote hanging around the end of the runway and we had seen a Coyote at the gravel pit. Earlier a  trucker had dumped a large pile of Red Delicious Apples. He apparently was overloaded and the scales were open, so he got rid of the excess. The Coyotes were eating the apples even though they were frozen as hard as rocks. Over the next two days I killed two youngsters there. The Coyotes ate every one of the apples left there even though there must have been several hundred pounds of them.

The ranch next door had a Cancer Eye Cow that they put out of its misery. The only problem was that it was 325 yards from the closest spot that I could get to shoot at the Coyotes that came to dinner. I can make that kind of shot with a proper rest, but a fence post isn't good enough, at least for me. It took two days before they found the Cow. Now three days after discovery there is almost nothing left. I finally got tired of it and drug the cow to a bit better spot.

I went over this evening at about 4 PM with a seat and my camo. They were working calves down in the corral, which is in sight of the Cow or at least the spot in the Sage where it is. Finally they began to wrap it up after the sun went down behind the Mountains. A large male Coyote walked right by me no more than 20 yards away and headed down to the carcass. My camo is the loose leaf type, and apparently works really well. He went to where the cow used to be and then worked his way back to the carcass. I waited until they all got on their horses and left the area to go home. I shot this guy right on the point of the shoulder and he dropped right in his tracks. There is no blood on either side of the Coyote. The bullet is perfect for selling hides, no big holes, with luck I won't even have to wash this guy. This bullet, if it hits a bone, explodes without coming out the other side. This guy is chunky too.   He was really impressive when he walked by. 

Still resisting

Jessie this afternoon weighed in at 852. I hoped that she would take the hint and get with the program. Unfortunately that was not to be.

There was a Prairie Falcon sitting on the fence line going to the Lake. I was pretty sure that would spell a mess with it interfering with Jessie if she did want to catch something. Thankfully that did not happen, as the Falcon flew off to the North, and we never saw her again.

I turned Jess loose and she showed signs that she was going to hunt this time. She took a fair pitch over the pond, and I began to walk down towards the Ducks. She was right over the pond for about 5 circles, Then as I neared the pond she flew wide, and some of the Ducks seeing their opportunity, slipped out of the far end. Jessie made a long sloping attack, but was too late to get one over the dry ground. She eventually tried to grab one in the butt as it was going through the trees surrounding the pond.

She just fooled around after that, flying low and strafing the Ducks on the water. We stood on the hill and let her fly until she got tired and sat down. She took to the air several more times, but never really showed that she was wanting to do any thing.

She eventually started circling me, so I gave her the lure, feeding her a Quail leg and half of a breast. We brought her home and put her on her inside perch. Several hours later I gave her the back and the guts of the quail. She will again lose some more weight, I just don't want her to lose too much. We were -4 last night, and will likely be the same tonight.

I am not sure why I didn't just do all this in the first place, but hope and stupidity springs eternal.