Progress

The next day after the Bunny, I picked her up and she had gained insignificant weight from it. The wind has been howling and unfit to try to fly an inexperienced Hawk, so I decided that waiting until almost dark and trying to ambush one of the Jacks that trek through here in front of the house every evening was a much better idea.

The first evening she again was convinced that we were going to revisit flying to the fist training. She would fly to the hot tub, or the top of the house so that I could call her. It finally occurred to me that with the Tee perch she might get her thoughts realigned to hunting. It worked pretty well. She settled down and began watching. We had three or four flights but none of them matched the excitement of the Bunny flush. She also mirrored that lack with empty feet and finally an empty crop.

Last night she was 895 grams and was quite hungry. I brought her out on the Tee perch, but she again began thinking up ways to get me to feed her. She made a flight across the creek after something, I assume a Jack. She turned and flew back to me, and I gave her a tidbit. That turned out to be a bit of a mistake as she flew to the ground searching for any possible tidbits that might have fallen. She searched under the rose bush. Picked up a chicken turd and tested it for food value, gagging and finally giving up on it.

I, in desperation thinking that the wind might have died a bit, started out into the Sage behind the house to see if there was any thing there we could chase. She did chase another Bunny, but was unsuccessful with that one. It quickly got too dark for her to hunt so she went to roost with no food again. I was positive that I now knew that her real flying weight was around 900 grams and that tomorrow would be the day that she killed again.

We still had wind this morning, but it was at least manageable. At 10 AM I loaded her in the truck and we went over to the field that had been so good to us these last two months. Her weight was 902 grams.

I took her out of the truck and right away saw a couple of Jacks in some sparse Sage. I walked that way and they began hopping off. I threw her and she just landed on a pile of lumber. She came back to the Tee perch, another hopped out and as it topped over a small hill she went after it. She followed for quite a ways and then crashed into a Grease Wood bush. I didn't hear any screaming, so I continued on my way. Another Jack jumped pretty close to us and she took off after him, another jumped under her, and she broke off and flew after him. He gave her the slip, and although she got up into the air again, she wasn't able to catch him. The gang at the ranch rode into the bottom part of the field to gather the Cows in this lot, so I was glad that I had chosen to stay high in the field on a different tack that I normally ran. We walked on a bit further and again two Jacks flushed pretty close, and she flew one down in a matter of yards. Not enough cover for it to scrape her off. When I got there she had again grabbed it by the butt, but within two bounces had its head in the other foot.

I killed it, and put one jess in the swivel and tied it to my bag. She was still pretty stoked, so I gave her a couple of tidbits to rearrange her mind, then pulled off a front leg and gave it to her. She let go of the rabbit, and I retired to clean it. When I got back I again gave her the Jack. She wasted no time in reclaiming it and began eating the liver and other goodies left in the carcass. I left her to decide what she wanted to eat, and satisfied myself with taking pictures.

I had come to the conclusion that I had made a basic mistake that would have shortened the last period of her training. I should have on the first and possibly more "bagged Rabbits', have let her feed on the bodies until she was stuffed. This was a clear case of my favorite saying- "The hurrieder you go, the behinder you get".  I have long ago lost the urge to out do every one in the world that has a hawk. I would rather catch half of the game that every one else catches if most of my hunts are successful. I rarely ever try to take doubles unless I am flying two hawks in a cast. My reasons are that there will be more rabbits left in the field, and my hawk puts more effort in catching the first one because she knows that she will be able to eat all she wants when she does catch it. I want my hawk to know that she does not have to hide what she catches from me and that she can trust me.

By taking her off the Rabbits that she "thought" she had caught, and giving her a full meal off a previous rabbit, she came to think that the food only came from the fist. The Rabbits that I wanted her to catch were not as important as the fist was. Yes, she wanted to catch them, but not as badly as she would have if she had been allowed to get her fill of warm fresh bloody meat. Really, at my age, do I really want to go out and pound the hills to dust every day? Bad knee and all? Not likely, I will take quality over quantity at this stage of my life, thank you. If it takes her an extra day to get her weight back down, that means that I can do some of the things around the house that need doing before the winter arrives.

You will please notice in the pictures as she begins to eat, that she pays me no mind at all. She does not mantle and try to protect her food from me, she eats with her wings closed and tucked tight.

I mentioned that the Cows were being gathered to move to another pasture. They were going to go quite a bit away from where we were at, but as they got closer, she became aware of them and crouched down on top of her Rabbit. She didn't mantle, she just laid down on it.

This was a new one for me. She couldn't see them from her position, but she could hear them. After they had gone, I reached down and gave her a tidbit, and she stood up and began eating again.

As I have said before, she is going to be a good one. It was really nice to be able to see the flight and see that long leg reach out and snatch that Jack back to her. This is the beginning to a beautiful friendship.