A rare day when every thing came together

Ron and Joyce, friends from Klamath Falls came over to do a bit of Rabbit hunting. They now live in McMinnville and no longer have access to Jacks very often.

Ron unfortunately seems to be coming down with the Flu. Of course that did not become obvious until they had arrived. Karen and I have both had our flu shots, so I guess we will see how effective they were. He was pretty sick the first night. They slept in the fifth wheel, and at first every thing was fine. The temps dropped down to 19 degrees overnight. When Karen and I changed the sheets in preparation for their arrival, we actually put what I thought was too many blankets on the bed. We told them they could throw them off if it was too warm. Well they didn't have to worry about that since the propane tank went empty sometime in the middle of the night. The fan continued to run while the heater tried to warm the trailer, but in fact was making it colder. Joyce came in the house feeling a bit like an ice sickle. I went out, changed tanks and finally got the heater running again. They were warm underneath all those covers except their heads and faces. Of course it was another matter getting dressed.

While we were waiting for the temps to come up a bit so that we could go hawking, I peeked out of the window in the dinning room and there was a Coyote standing about 50 yards off. I opened the window as quietly as I could and shot him with my 17 rimfire. He took off going towards the creek. The dogs and I went to see if we could find him. We crossed the fence and found him about 50 yards up the creek. So I spent the early morning skinning a Coyote in the hanger.

After I finished we loaded up the birds and headed over to the ranch to do a bit of hunting. I flew Hope first and it didn't take long before she was off chasing one in the distance. She made a couple of shots at him, but couldn't make it happen. She returned back to the perch and we continued on. In total we jumped 5 Jacks with her catching the 5th one flushed. Unfortunately I managed to forget to take a camera. Her weight this morning was 954 grams. She worked and tried a bit harder this time. She is improving day by day.

Ron was able to drive alongside us while we were hunting, so he got to see the whole thing without exhausting himself. When she finished her meal, we put her up and got Ron's Harris,Chili, out.

I had never handled her before and had only seen her once before in a hunting situation. She had also never flown from a Tee Perch. It took her about 5 minutes to see the advantage of the height, and she rode quite well. We finished what Hope and I had not covered, getting a few slips. She had one that she ripped a double hand full of hair out of his butt but he still got away. When we got to the end, we crossed the fence and began walking back. We had another flight at one a long way off, but ended up by the truck with no rabbit in the bag. Ron was flagging pretty badly by then, so I told him to wait by the truck while Joyce and I made a foray out a bit further. About the time that we had traveled maybe 10 feet, Chili took off and a cloud of dust and a scream followed soon after. Joyce being the fleetest of foot got there first and managed to stop the Jack with her foot. Chili wasn't letting go, but the Jack was dragging her along a bit.

I killed the Jack about the time that Ron arrived. I stood up and Ron bent down to take her up from the rabbit. He covered the rabbit with his vest and asked for the tidbits. I had transferred them to my tin cup, so when he got them he set the cup out from the vest. Chili wasted no time walking to the cup and began eating out of it as though it was a normal event for her.

I took Joyce to look at the Artesian spring that spawns Crooked Creek. 

We came back to the house and had a bit of lunch while I finished taking care of the Coyote that I had shot. When I came back in Ron wanted to have Joyce get familiar with his new Glock pistol. There was a Deer lying down in the field near the Sage, and I wondered what she would do when we began shooting. The answer is nothing. In fact several more came out of the Sage to see what was going on.

If you look close to the left of the Deer, you can see the Coyote coming across the field.

When we finished and came in the house I looked out in the field and all of the Deer had come out of the Sage and began feeding. Now we had shot about 25 rounds of 9 MM shells which are not quiet at all.

I got the camera and took a picture of them, and then noticed that they all were looking off to the North. I looked in the direction that they were looking and saw a Coyote walking towards them. I again opened the window, but the Coyote wasn't stopping even when Ron Whistled at him. She went into the Sage at the bottom which was out of my firing vision, so I went out to the shooting bench. she obviously knew where she was going, and came out of the Sage onto the path. I had the 22-250 this time. I finally decided that she wasn't going to stop, so I led her and touched it off. She disappeared and a loud whack from the impact followed. The Dogs and I got the quad and drove down to get her.

The dogs and I had surprised the first one nosing around by the weathering area, the other morning, so I was very happy to be rid of that one, but this female was a total surprise. All in all a pretty fruitful day. Its a rare thing worthy of celebration when anything goes right, much less every thing going right.

Ron and Joyce decided to sleep in the house tonight.

Thanksgiving 2016

I was supposed to fly Hope Yesterday, but the wind was ripping, and Harris Hawks aren't designed to catch Jacks in the wind. Jacks are much too smart to put themselves at a disadvantage by running with the wind. Since the top speed of a Jack is about 40 MPH, and a Harris about 45 MPH you can see that you will be bucking the odds. I gave her a bit of Bunny to let her know that I still care.

Dave and Tami as is usual had invited us over for Thanksgiving dinner, and her dad Ted, who I quite like, was going to be there with his wife. I email him and inquired as to whether he would be interested in going rabbit hunting with us while he was here. He informed me that he would, so we had made arrangements to go on Friday. However since I had skipped Wed, I had no choice but to take Hope out on Thanksgiving. He agreed to the change, with the stipulation that he had to be back by 11 AM so that he could start the Turkey. I assured him that we would not make him late for that job, and I would come by at 9 am to get him.

The Sunrise this morning was not disappointing.

Ted and Thayen posed for me.

I got Hope out of her box and we began our hunt. She flew a Jack that jumped quite a ways off, and flew him twice before she lost him and returned to the Tee perch. We had walked another 15 or so yards when a Jack jumped in front of either Ted or Thayen and took off for the fence.  Hope caught him in just a few yards. They were buried in a large Grease Wood Bush. She had pulled his tail off about 5 yards in front of the Bush, and apparently managed to grab him again higher up before they crashed into the bush. The bush was right up against the barb Wire fence, and I had to dig them both out of the bush. I had a bit of a problem killing him because he was so long that I couldn't get enough leverage to actually break his neck.

When I finally managed to put him out of his misery and he quit twitching, I gave her the cup of tidbits, and covered the Jack. I offered her the rest of her last Bunny, and she eventually stepped off the Jack. It was nice to have someone there to put the Jack in a shopping bag and in the back of my vest.

Hope was really cold this morning as it was 25 degrees when I picked her up. I put her on the scales to weigh her and she had a foot drawn up trying to warm it. I don't know if that was the reason that she wasn't fooling around this morning or not. If so I will be sure to go early in the morning the next time I go out. What ever the reason she wasn't taking no for an answer.

I kinda felt bad for her, she had just caught a nice hot blooded Jack and I give her refrigerated Bunny as a reward.

For whatever reason she is reluctant to give up the glove when

we finish up the hunt. She generally holds on to it the whole trip home.

I at least gave her the  still steaming liver for her vitamins for the day. Even with allowing her to finish a Bunny from the bottom of the rib cage and one rear leg, we were done and back to Tammi's in 50 minutes. Not bad at all.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

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.