The weather is improving for one last fling before fall really sets in. It was still 46 degrees when I got in the truck, so I wore a vest. When I arrived at the field, I wisely decided to leave it in the truck.
I had no more than taken Hope out of the truck when several Jacks started running up the bare hillside about 200 yards away. Hope takes off after them and actually turned one of them back, but of course she was winded from having to fly uphill for all that distance before she could even try to make all the twists and turns needed to put one in the bag. He ran down into the Sage again. More of them began deserting the cover for the open and again and again she tried to catch them, only tiring herself out in the process.
We have had a female Prairie Falcon here at the House and at the Ranch that has been making her self into a pain in the butt. She is working herself up to being a Chicken Hawk. It doesn't help that my Old English Game Chickens are no bigger than a Hungarian Partridge. I had to scare her off yesterday to get her to leave them alone. Well she was hunting the field that we were in today. She was also strafing the Jack Rabbits when they got into the open.
One of the Jacks began running along the top of the cover, and Hope gave chase. It was another of those ridiculously long flights that she should have ignored. The Prairie started a power dive that I was afraid was going to actually hit her. She did not however, but Hope got the message, and was watching her. The Prairie showed no signs of quitting this little game, so I zipped her with a 22 bullet and she left. I found out later from Karen that she had gone over to the house to harass the Chickens.
Hope made a long flight after a Jack and had missed. She was sitting on a bush about a hundred yards away. I decided that I was still too hot, so I propped my Tee Perch in a bush and started taking my sweater off. Hope decided that she needed to come back and here I am with my sweat shirt half over my head. I ignored her and she detoured around and landed on the perch in the bush.
I lost count of the number of slips that she took, but we hunted hard for about 2 hours, making try after try. We had run all the Jacks out of the light cover that I felt that she had her best chance to succeed in, so I turned around and taking another line, went back through the cover again almost back to the truck. She had one chase that was below the level of the Sage, that she missed the Jacks butt by less than inches. Lots of them were oh so close. She never quit trying and trying hard. I circled back down towards the heavier cover and the Creek, with her missing two or three more. Some of these flights, she was getting back into the air again to make another shot. So she wasn't just going through the motions trying to find a cripple.
I combed through the heavy cover down at the creek and finally she started after one that jumped about 30 yards away. The Grease Wood was about three feet or more high and really thick. She made a feint at the Jack, then flew over and back into the large Grease Wood bush. Apparently the Jack was coming through a tunnel in the brush and she met him head on. They were buried in the Bush and I had to do some damage to my bare arm to get them out of the stickers.
I killed the Jack, and tried to get some pictures, but the little camera does not have a view finder, so I took lots of shots hoping to get one or two that I could use. I did, just barely.
This was all taking place in Alkali powder and I really didn't want her food covered in that stuff, so when the Jack stopped quivering, I offered her my tin cup of tidbits. I am pleased to see that she has no problem eating out of it. It also keeps me from having rotting meat in my cup when I go the next time.
This was the first tidbit that she had gotten in the whole two and more hours that we had been in the field. You see she doesn't require tidbits. She is concentrating on hunting. Good Girl! She promptly comes back to the Tee perch without me having to call her.
I fed her all my tidbits, and then gave her a front leg from an earlier victim as we walked back to the truck. When we arrived I set her on a wire spool with some food while I gutted the rabbit. I then gave her another front leg off the recent victim.
There is no doubt that she would find a way to kill sooner if I sharpened her weight up a bit more. About an ounce to be exact. However even though I have to work a bit harder for the same result, there is no shortage of rabbits to chase, and a lot of failure with her still getting a reward at the end of it has to be teaching her something. Make no mistake there is a lot to learn concerning Jack Rabbits. They are plenty smart. As long as she still chases hard, and tries hard I really can't complain about her weight. The abundance of prey this year is a real blessing. The odds are such, that sooner or later one will screw up. If I sense that she is stringing me along, be assured she will suffer hunger pangs for it. So as long as the aspirins hold out, i'm game.
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