Maybe she's normal after all

My normal routine is to hunt Hope every other day. I tried to cut down on how much I was feeding her the last time she killed. However I am sure that I over fed her as usual, but most of it was Bunny, which doesn't have all that many calories. When she began calling to me the day after her last kill, I almost believed that I had indeed cut her food intake to a manageable level. That is, until reason took over.

The morning of the 18th dawned cool and lovely as is fairly normal for here.

So when I picked her up yesterday, the 18th, I expected her to be pretty hungry. She weighed 940 grams. OK so now she has learned to lie to me. That's OK, I am somewhat used to it.

I took her to Arock. I haven't hunted this field for more than a week. As I was getting her out of the car, I could see a Jack about 60 yards away,moving off into the Sage. I put her on the Tee perch and we followed his path through the Sage. He soon flushed and she gave chase. He hid and she circled back. I walked along the fence and we were jumping rabbits every few yards, but she pursued like she was going shopping. It did not take long for me to decide that today was going to be a short one, and she would be hungry when we finished. I made a big circle, still busting rabbits all the way back to the car. She was still not being serious.

This was really the first time that she has been this lazy. It is a normal, for most hawks, reaction. It however surprised me, as its the first time she has acted that way. When I took her out of the box at home, she was surprised that we had quit rather than gone to another field. We will see how she does tomorrow.

The evening sunset did not disappoint however.

Saturday Nov 19th.

This morning dawned cloudy and cold, 22 degrees. When I weighed Hope she weighed 910 grams. Lets see if she can be nonchalant after losing a full ounce overnight. The further East that I went this morning the warmer it got, all the way up to 27.

The Jacks were a bit more scarce this morning than they had been yesterday, but we still had enough to keep us interested. She was still having trouble catching one, but the enthusiasm was back. Almost all of the slips that we were getting were quite long ones. Those rarely work out, but we kept trying. changed fields hoping to find a few more Jacks. She is still flaring up, but somehow the Jacks are able to evade her. A couple of them resulted in her trying to run them down on foot after they had dodged the attempted strike from altitude. I think she needs to go higher.

What seems to work best for close slips is to of course use the terrain to try to get above and use the element of surprise. One of these resulted in jumping a Bunny. She missed this one, as the Bunny had a pretty long head start, and holes are every where. I began walking up a large outcropping, and Hope took off, flared up in the air and crashed back down. A Bunny began screaming. In truth I was not all that happy about it. Yeah I know, but a Jack caught is a real meal earned. Poor ole bunnies aren't much challenge for a bird Hope's size. In reality, I doubt that she gives a shit what I want.

There was one consolation however, in that one of her "throw ups" actually worked. Take a look at the pictures and you will see that catching this one wasn't all that easy. You may have to look close, but he is in there.

It looks a bit like she is stuck there. Her feet are

in fact only holding on to the Bunny.

I peeled the Sage back so you could see.

This time, I only gave her a front leg off the Bunny. She was a bit taken aback when I didn't give her any more. After she finished the leg, I started on back on the line that I had been walking. She eventually began to release the glove that always before had given her all the food she could hold, and started thinking about hunting again.

We got a couple more slips, and I couldn't fault her try or effort. The car was coming up, and I had one more spot that I thought might hold a Jack. He was there and she missed him by fractions,  then tried to run him down, but Harris legs are not designed for any thing other than sturdy.

When she turned to come back I had a Jack front leg for her. When she finished it and I turned to put her in the box she would not let go of the glove, so I took it off and put both her and the glove in the Hack box. When I got home after a 30 minute delay at Tami's house, she was still holding it.