Day 13, ready to fly

Yesterday I flew Hope to the fist three times and then gave her the rest of her meal. 3 oz total. She weighed 884 and this afternoon she weighed 900 grams. She still has a good metabolism for a Harris Hawk.

After feeding her I was checking the computer and there was a boom a bit like a house blowing up. I looked at the sky and it was clear to the South East, but overhead there were some nasty clouds building.

 If you click on the pictures they will expand to full size.

 You can see that from the house the storm wasn't visible.

In the morning yesterday we had a rain storm that dropped 1/2 inch of water on the ground. Highly unusual for us. It then cleared up until late afternoon then this blew up and dropped another 1/4 inch. Great news for us. It did more for my runway than I could have done with 20 full water trucks.

I am going to town for supplies tomorrow, so my intention was to feed Hope all she could eat today, and fast her tomorrow. I picked her up off the perch and tied a creance on her swivel so that I could walk and fly her from different objects. I took her out to the shop to weigh her, and she topped out at 900 grams.

Karen's cat Tiger was outside, unknown to me. I rolled up the creance one handed which I had left on the lawn. The cat soon found the loose end. I called hope a short little hop and she came with no hesitation. I walked to the other side of the hanger and had to pry her off my first finger of the glove. Something tells me that 900 is a bit low for her. I finally got her loose and called her again with no hesitation. I walked to the corral and set her on the feed bunk, stepped back about 12 feet. Again she did not hesitate. I set her down again and turned to walk back and tripped over the *&%$#@*** Cat. Now the last thing I am interested in is trying to separate a Cat from from a hungry Harris Hawks toes all by myself. I of course yelled at the Cat, who of course ignored me. All he can see is the lovely string that I am dragging around with me. I finally stepped closer to the hawk and called her. John was in his chair snoozing, so I woke him up to get the Cat and stick him in his 5th wheel until I finished with Hope. I then called her about 18 feet to a Jack hind leg for the finish to the lesson.

I will not feed her tomorrow and on Wed if she is down close to 900, I will probably fly her loose.