A little easier, #14

It was a bit nippy this morning, 27 degrees. I wasn't all that interested in going out, but the wind is supposed to come up this afternoon, so I forced myself to leave the comfort of my coffee and the warmth of the house. ( I spoil pretty easy it appears.) Of course it was 9:30, so I wasn't all that brave.

Hope's quiet days went with the warm weather, and while she has not perfected the Harris Call, she was doing her best. I was pretty sure that she was close to starvation, so guilt was forcing me to get going. I am leaving Hope outside all the time, but she is sheltered from the prevailing wind, so its not all that bad. She was still feeling the effects of the below freezing temps. With as much as I feed her, I can use all the help that cold temps can provide.

I picked her up and put her on the scales. 936 grams, apparently she isn't starving. That's OK, its only necessary for her to think that she is.

This morning I found that the rabbits had changed their location in response to the pressure that I have been putting on them the last few trips. I feel that Hope has a better chance of catching a Jack with less places for them to hide, and the area that I went through is pretty thin cover. The last three times there were lots of Jacks hiding there, but not this time. We had to walk into heavier cover before we even saw one. She got about 6 slips in the heavy Sage with no success. She is still working on the flare up to try to locate their hiding spot, but she still hasn't put it together as yet.

We covered quite a bit of ground with a smaller than usual number of slips than usual, but about half of them were a lot closer than they have been. Her success rate is increased by a closer slip. After all a Jack can turn upward of 45 MPH, where she is full speed in about 15 feet, plus the Jacks don't have a chance to learn what she is going to do. I therefore do my best to sneak up to areas that the Jacks cannot see me due to the terrain, but she is in sight of the area due to the tee perch.

I popped up over a small rock ledge and a Jack busted about 15 feet in front of us, and she managed to barely grab him in the Butt before he could make it around the first bush. Her hold was pretty iffy at best, but she kept grabbing higher with every turn around the bush that he made. When I skinned him his buttock was ripped from the knee to the hip all the way to the bone.

                                    I forgot to take a camera, so I had to shoot this one with my phone.

All in all this one took about 30 minutes to the catch. There wasn't as many slips either. I fed her most of the Bunny that she caught Monday. Its too soon to tell if she is getting better or just lucky. This Jack was last years model as well. He was pretty fat, and not all that small.