# 25

The morning dawned cold and colorless for a change. It was 9 degrees with a wind chill of -4. It would appear that I am going to have to put Hope inside at night. She seemed fine, but she isn't designed for it.

Karen and I have agreed to do a Raptor count in this area for Dec,Jan and Feb. each year. We kind of enjoy it as long as the gas isn't running 4 bucks a gallon. We decided to take the Dogs and Hope along with us. The Dogs because we would be gone most of the day, and Hope because it was another hunting day. Dare I say two birds with- Nah!

The snow has been hitting all around us, and the Mountains are lovely.

Steen's Mtn.

South Mtn. Idaho 

Owyhee Highlands, site of the fire last year.

Our route takes us through Jordan Valley, and around some of the side roads there. It is a 159 mile trip. We saw 64 different Raptors, Red Tails, Golden and Bald Eagles, Rough leg Hawks, Prairie Falcons, Sharpshin Hawks, Northern Harriers, Kestrels and two Great Horned Owls.

There were a lot of other critters, especially Deer. Karen counted 120 in just one field. If I was to guess, we saw well over 400 Deer today.

Just outside of Burns Jct the two white feral Horses were feeding.

This is the first time I have been able to see them without the plane.

They normally stay behind the Hill that you can see in the background.

We were able to get a picture of a Coyote mousing in one of the fields.

Just outside of Danner I took Hope out of her box to see if she could catch something today. She weighed 964 grams when I picked her up, so she should be able to turn with the Jacks today. We walked for quite a while and while she had many close calls, she could not get her toes into anything.

After walking over most of the area that I normally hunt, I put her in the box and we went on with our count leaving her to think on the reason that she was still hungry.

We continued our count into Arock and stopped at another of the fields that I have hunted in the past years. They have over grazed the property and it doesn't hold as many Jacks as it used to, but the Bunnies are thick and there are a few Jacks left there. ( Its private property, and I guess they can screw it up if they want to.) The Jacks and Bunnies were still holding all the cards, and I was wearing out. I made what was intended to be one last swing through some stuff that I hadn't hunted yet, and a Jack made the mistake of running across the open. When pressed he tried to take cover in a totally inadequate Sage. She grabbed him by one hind foot and held on. She was in behind the main stem holding him with her left foot. When I came up he swerved to the right and she grabbed him in the head with the right one, and soon transferred both feet to the head.

I was close enough on at least three attempted strikes from a height, that I could see her get stopped by the Sage limbs just before her toes would have made contact. Her aim was right on, but the bush was too thick. Ah well if it was easy, there wouldn't be any Jack Rabbits.