Can't catch her butt with either foot!

Apparently the last dumb bunny was indeed the last dumb bunny. I know for a fact that there were none in any of the places that we have hunted the last three days.

A friend, Toby Parker came over from the coast to spend a few days with us. He had wanted to be able to see Hope hunt. Careful what you wish for! Today she did put one in the bag, but it took three days to do it.

                                  The first two days Toby wasn't wearing that brace on his knee.

Not counting the driving time, this rabbit took us about 12 hours of hunting and walking to get it done. Its not that Hope wasn't trying. She was, so much that I felt sorry for her. She did every thing that she could think of and other than pulling a bunch of hair out of ones butt, she had nothing to show for it. We were lucky in that the weather wasn't all that bad, the wind did come up after noon on all three days. We hunted in 5 different fields with the same success in four of them. I decided that I needed to change tidbits yesterday, but other than that she had no rewards for all her efforts.

She was desperate at times, hunting on foot, launching off after dicky birds flushing.

Today I tried two other spots, and we were getting flushes, some so ridiculously long that I knew that it was a waste of energy and time. She kept crashing into bush after bush, and coming up empty each time. One of them was in the relative open, and she was just about an inch from his butt when one of her wings snagged a short piece of Sage no bigger than 5 inches off the ground, and flung her off course.

Today she launched her self off the perch flying across a long open area towards a patch of Sage. I watched and as she got there a Coyote flushed out of the Sage. Thankfully she veered off and came back to me.

We were walking around a large upthrusting line of Lava, when she flew to the top for a better perch. Toby called to me that a Bobcat was up there with her. I looked up as she opened her wings and the cat ducked under her no more than a foot away. My blood froze as I was sure that he was going to swipe her off the rock. He appeared to be a 3/4 grown, and apparently he was unsure enough that he didn't grab her.

By that time we had been hunting about three hours, and covered most of the field. I was heading back to the car as the wind was coming up. I was unsure what to do. I was actually ready to shoot one, just to make sure that she wouldn't quit trying. We were walking by the fence and were busting Jacks one after another, with her trying each and every one of them. She had gone after four of them in a short space, and wonder of wonders, she crashed after the fifth and I heard the Jack screaming. I approached the site carefully and could see the Jack stretched out fully with her holding onto his butt on the other side of the bush. I knew that if I got closer he would give that final burst that would most likely break her tenuous hold. Not willing to go through that, I shot him in the head from 15 feet away with my 22 pistol. There was no way that I was going to let that unlucky bastard go. While I appreciated his sacrifice, that was as fair as I was willing to be. We needed him, badly.  

This is his escape hole. It is Jack Rabbit sized. Hope was on this side, and the Jack was on the other.

                                          She was still holding on for all she was worth.

         As usual I gave her the cup full of tidbits, but she was wound pretty tight, and wasn't about to                                                                     give up her rabbit.

We sat down to rest while she ate every thing she could hold. Again it was an old Rabbit with quite a bit of fat inside its stomach cavity.

She is trying to flare up when they stop and hide. She has yet to succeed with it as of yet, but she will. It is the key to catching the Jacks, as when pressed, they all hide and then take off when she is out of position. One thing about it, I am getting plenty of exercise. I just hope that I can hold up long enough that she can figure it out.

Finally- a dumb one!

Hope was hungry this morning and I ignored her calling to me since it was raining. It was supposed to stop after noon, so I settled back with another cup of coffee to wait.

Around 11:30 it lightened up to the West, so I went out to get her. I think she had decided that I wasn't coming today. She weighed 924 grams.

I decided that I was going to try to kidnap Tami this morning. It appeared that the ranch was a little quieter than usual, so I reasoned that I might be able to tear her away. She has not been able to see Hope at all. Of course she had all kinds of thing to do, mostly school work with the kids, Goats to milk, etc. but I was persistent. I knew that she wanted to go, but was feeling that she shouldn't. I finally broke her resistance down, and we went to milking and other stuff. In 20 minutes we were ready to go.

I went to the pasture by the house that I had been hunting off and on all season. I was quite sure that there were plenty of Jacks still there, and if things got tight for Tami, she was only a few hundred yards from the house. I needn't have worried. Hope was like a coiled spring, and after a hundred yard walk, she flashed off after a running Jack. Tami only got the chance to say, "wow she is fast", when there was a crash and a screaming Jack Rabbit. We started towards her, but there was only one scream. I felt pretty sure that it had gotten away. The Sage in that area is pretty sparse, and it seems to me that she keeps a higher percentage when they stuff themselves into a Sage Bush trying to escape the demon on their butt.  We slowed to a walk, trying to figure where she was since there was no noise to guide us. A Jack scuttled away, and I said, yep, got away. I walked on a bit further looking for Hope, and found her in a bush holding a dead Jack by the head and chest.

I am not sure how she killed it, but it was quick. Perhaps the hind talon of the right foot pierced the brain there in the back where it is thin? When I skinned the rabbit, I could see nothing that I would deem a lethal wound on him.

I pulled them out of the bush and put the tin cup by the Jack's head. Hope reached over, picked it up by the rim and put it in a more comfortable spot for her to eat out of. Of course I was standing there with a dumb look on my face and missed the opportunity to record it. When she finished the tidbits, I gave her a front leg and scooted her off the rabbit. I slipped my handy dandy wally world bag over its head and retired to clean it. I brought the liver back with me and put it into her cup. When she finished that I offered her the fist and the Jack's head to chew on. The whole thing took about 20 minutes.

It was a much smaller Rabbit, and he made a mistake. I thanked the Gods for him and his sacrifice. Sometimes it goes that way.

Oct 23rd #10

Even after her gorge on the 20th, when I went out to get her on the 22nd she weighed 923 grams. Great I thought, shouldn't take all that long today. I wanted to try a couple of other spots to see if they were holding enough Rabbits to make the 45 minute drive worth while.

Our first stop was Antelope Reservoir. I had noticed in years past that there seemed to be a few Rabbits there, but had never hunted it. There were indeed a few, but only a few. The ground was miserable to walk on, all uneven from Cow tracks and other stuff. We had a few slips, but there was nothing there that I wanted to spend all that much energy on. After about an hour or so, I put Hope in the box and started to drive down to the camp ground to turn around. I began to see some cover that I did like, and took her out again for another fruitless walk.

The reservoir normally covers all the bare area that you can see, but since it is intended for irrigation, it is drawn down pretty low.

We then decided to try on the other side of Danner at a private airstrip that I had hunted before in the past. It holds both Jacks and Bunnies. The Bunnies are tough because of the Lava and all the Badger holes. I have never seen any other area so covered in Badger diggings and holes any where. It makes for a very good population of the Western Brush Bunny, but darned hard to put one in the bag. You have about 20 feet to get it done or they are gone.

I am not sure why Hope is having so much trouble catching Jacks here lately, but whatever it is, I sure wish that she would get it figured out. I spent at least an hour and half walking all over that area, jumping Jack after Jack and she just couldn't get it done. All of the few short slips that we had were so close that it was painful, but long or short the answer seemed to be the same. The Jacks were just that little bit better.

Karen and the dogs were in the car trying to follow along. I began to feel guilty, along with discouraged, so I told Karen to go back to where we came in and wait for me. I decided to make one last drive up towards that and if she didn't catch something we would quit until tomorrow. Hope had several slips while I was walking up there, but again just couldn't make contact with the Jacks. When I got to the car, Karen told me that Josie, my Brittney had been watching the strip of brush between the runway and the road. She was pretty sure that there was a Jack hiding in that strip. I told Karen to follow along the road and I would walk it. Before we ran out of cover ( it was about 15 feet wide and a 1/4 mile long. ) I jumped 12 Jacks out of it. Hope still jinked when she should have zagged, and it was obvious that we were going home without a Jack in the bag.

  

Hope weighed 894 grams this morning, and was quite anxious to get my attention. I decided to try a new area again today. This one is on the West side of the ranch next door. It is a Sage flat that is a transition area bordering on a cattle pasture with a lot of springs and grass. It is about 1/2 mile from the pasture. I have found Jacks there in years past, but the numbers were not all that high, as well as I had other spots that were better so I never hunted it much.

I have had several years of observation concerning Jack population areas. For instance here, on any given day 30 to 60 Jack Rabbits travel through the field below me to drink water in the evening. Lots of them eat the lawn around the house, but during the day you would be hard pressed to flush more than 6 Rabbits within 1/4 mile of the house. Perhaps there are more, but one thing for sure there are not 30 to 60 Jacks living around the house. I checked the internet for papers and studies of the Black Tailed Jack Rabbit and found that the normal home range of a Jack is about 40 acres, but that they will travel up to 10 miles for forage.

So no matter how good the food supply is for Jacks, such as Alfalfa fields, all the Jacks using it do not live there, most commute there from the surrounding country side. Timing is very important as to when you hunt, as well as the location.

This area that I hunted this morning was one of the fields that they travel through to get to the food and the water. There were rabbit trails all over this area. Some were about two inches deep, and all were covered with rabbit tracks. It was still prime habitat, as well as an avenue to the food source, so it was a good bet in the middle of the morning, but probably prime just before dark.

It was much the same as the last few days, lots of tries, with no success. We were sometimes jumping them two at a time, and at least twice, the Jack she started after was not the Jack that she made the shot at, but again, it just wasn't happening. Finally after more than an hour she made a shot at one that ended in a cloud of dust and a squeal. I hustled up there and possibly caused her to lose it. It managed to pull away from her just as I got there. Sigh!

We made another wider swing around the area, and it seemed that the closer that I got to the pasture the fewer Jacks I saw. I walked back towards the car, thinking that I had just about had it.  We got up to the fence and had two more slips at Jacks, with her crashing into the Sage as hard as she could. I decided to make one more swing before I quit. We kept jumping Jacks, and she kept trying. Finally we managed to jump one right in front of us and I saw it dodge 90 degrees just as she got there. Her talons raked through the hair, but not deep enough to get the Jack. This was perhaps 20 feet in front of me. She got back on the perch and we continued on. I had decided to go back to the car and decided to go along the skimpy cover next to the hill. A Jack was hiding in a single bush, and he waited just a bit too long to run. Hope nailed him within 10 feet. This one wasn't getting away. He was a big boy, with lots of fat on him, and apparently in his prime. Just goes to prove that every one has a bad day.

After killing the Jack and giving her the tidbits from the cup, I gave her a front leg to chew on while I cleaned the Jack. The cup also made a good place to put the liver for her. She was able to eat it without getting it all full of crap and sticks.

I then gave her the head to eat, tied her to my bag and relaxed while she worked on the head. When I was rested and she had about all of the meat she could get off the head, I offered her a hind leg and we walked to the car. Tired but happy.