Two Lizards and a Jack!

Unfortunately John and Nell continued on their trip today. Their stay never seems long enough. Its pretty nice to have someone to run around with,  and they are both great company. Of course their absentee ballots arrived today.

Karen took the neighbor to her Doctor today and left me on my own. I had thought to go back to Arock to try our luck over there, but with no fuel efficient car to drive, I decided to stay here and hunt over at the ranch.

Today was hot again, around 95 in the sunshine, so I waited until 5 PM to gather every thing up and go hunting. Hope was chasing pretty good, but still hasn't figured the Sage and Grease Wood out yet. I determined to walk all the way to the highway if I had to to give her the maximum chance to catch one. This time I began using the tee perch to launch her in the direction of a running rabbit and it seemed to work pretty well. She made a lot more chases today than she has so far. She was crashing the brush when we started, but appeared to begin holding off for a good clear shot. Of course the Jacks weren't into cooperation at all.

As we walked further down the creek the Jacks were peeling off and going up the bare hillside. At this point I began trying to wing another one as I really wanted her to have a reward at the end of all this effort on her part. It was hot as could be and she was flying long distances on some of the chases. She would come back to the Tee perch each time, no matter how far she had flown. Sometimes she had to rest a bit and she was breathing hard with her beak agape all the time. The nice part is that she didn't need to be recalled or given a tidbit at all. The only food she had gotten to that point was the two lizards that she caught. Unfortunately I wasn't doing all that well in winging one as they were not giving me any good shots close enough.

At the far end of the field, I followed three or four Jacks up from the creek to the bare hillside, where all the Jacks had been going to get away from us. When we got to the top, one busted back down towards the creek in a steep little drainage. Hope gave chase and tried to cut the corner on him and hit him from the side. He ducked behind a lone Sage and she missed. She got up and gave chase all the way down to the creek and lost him in the cover there. She worked her way back up the hill to me, and I completed the trek up the little hill to where we could see into the drainage higher up.

As I crested the hill she took off in afterburner and soon the lovely sound of a Jack in distress wafted up on the breeze. She had caught him after a short flight of about 30 yards and they were in the open. No Sage to pull her off with. I still approached slowly, but even though they were bouncing up and down quite a bit, I could see that she had one foot on his head. I grabbed him by the hind legs, and stretched him out to break his neck. I though I had heard it pop, but he was still showing signs of life, so I did it again and promptly pulled his head off in the process. A clear case of too much enthusiasm. Now here I am with a excited hawk with a Jack in one foot and a Jacks head in the other trying pretty hard to go some where quiet to eat. Luckily Jacks have long ears. I at least was able to hold on to one of the ears. It would have taken forever for her to completely eat the head. I can almost guarantee that she wouldn't have quit until she had finished it. I tried to give her a front leg to eat, but she was suffering from serious tunnel vision at the time. I finally had to give her a tidbit or two to get her mind on food again. I gave her a front leg and she stepped off the Jack and moved up a couple of feet to eat. I took the opportunity to clean the Jack, and cut off a rear leg. I sat a waited for her to finish the leg, and when she did she walked down to where I was and stepped up on the fist for the rest of her food. I sat and rested while she ate the hind leg. When she finished we walked on back to the truck, which seemed to be over the horizon. I sometimes think I am getting too old for this shit, but then again Nah!