Nov 20- 21

On the theory that there is no such thing as too many pictures of a Sunrise or Sunset, I am going to include every one that I witness. I will however promise that I will not repeat a posting of any of them. Each one will be a new one. The ones below are from the 20th.

I am awestruck each morning as the Sun rises with one more

lovely day. Perhaps its because I have time to enjoy it and

have another cup of coffee. Maybe not!

Hope got pretty short shrift as far as food went the last time out. I entertained thoughts of perhaps taking her out again, but decided to wait for afternoon if I did decide to go. A couple of friends from Klamath Falls stopped by and relieved me of that chore, and quite frankly it was better that they did. It began to sprinkle a bit by the time that they left. Hope, I felt would be better for waiting and perhaps lose a bit more weight.

This morning, she was pretty desperate, or at least seemed that way. She weighed in at 914 grams. I was anxious to see if this would give her some incentive to really burn after the Jacks. So far I have seen nothing that would indicate one weight is better than any other. It is tough however to get her down below 900 grams, and she appears to hunt just as hard at 965 as 914. I really haven't had the nerve or resolve to take her into the 800's.

The Steen's had a bit of cloud cover this morning.

It had rained a bit more than I had thought overnight, and there was fog in the low spots and along the river. 

The field that I wanted to hunt was out of the fog, so I parked and we began. We had a chase first thing out of the car, and it was a close one. She made a shot at him, missed and took off on foot chasing him, then to the air to make up the lost ground, and she made two more shots at him with no results.

Then the intensity of the chases seemed to begin to diminish a bit. She did make several more shots from altitude, but generally on the wrong side of the Sage. I began to think that she isn't really seeing them just going blindly into the last spot that she saw them. That would account for all the misses.

She made a couple of really long flights that resulted in a turn around and return when they took cover. Then she began to do that on the close ones. They would hide and she would turn and return to the Tee perch. It took about three of those to piss me off to the point that I began walking back to the car. I really had quit hunting and was just going to the car in the shortest line possible.

The population of Jacks is such that we were seeing them way out in front of us here and there. She went off on her version of speculation. I just kept walking and she could come with me or not. In short, I was PISSED, and not slowing down. We were about 1/3 of a mile from the car when I started. She had just come to the perch after a longer than normal, for her, wait, when a Jack jumped right at our feet. She caught him within 15 yards.

To say I was surprised, would be an understatement, however the close ones always elicit full on pursuit. The surprising part was that I had already been over that ground and there was no noticeable difference in the amount of game, as well as one of them allowing us to get that close. 

I killed the Jack, and gave her the rest of the last Bunny she had killed. I have a hell of a time getting the Jacks in my bag each time, but it is a welcome frustration. After I had every thing secured, we walked on back to the car while she ate. The Bunny that I had given her included the head, and she had a nice long feed. This time she was quite satisfied with the way that she was treated.

Jacks have a couple of differing ways to deal with hunting pressure. The first is to run as soon as they are aware of you. Some of them do it each and every time. If every time they run, a hawk begins chasing them, some of them eventually start hiding. Some will lose their nerve and bust after you have gone past them. These are the ones most likely to end up in the hawks talons. Others will hold and then after you are far enough away, sneak out the other direction. The way to combat that is to stop every 15 or 20 yards. Most will lose their nerve at that point.

Of course they also learn your patterns and began to hide in other parts of the field, so one has to change up your method of traversing the hunting area. They will also hide in deep cover, and once busted out of that will change and hide in little pieces of cover that is otherwise out in the open. Its all an exercise in strategy, yours and theirs. If all else fails they run like hell and hide when necessary.