Tough times on the Jack Rabbit front!

I have decided that I need to sharpen Hope's desire to eat. She is still trying what she thinks is her best. She is a perfect example of how a Hawk should interact with her handler, ( with the exception of looking over my shoulder ) but she needs a bit of desperation that so far seems to be missing.

Not quick enough with the perch

 At least I am assuming that is the reason for all her misses. Today was supposed to be the day that I could prove or disprove that reasoning, but of course the day dawned with a wind in the high teens, which pretty well spell "screwed".

The Jacks don't like the wind either, since it screws with their ability to hear, so they tend to be harder to find on windy days. I was stuck however, Hope's weight was 870, since she hunted at 960 last year,  her current weight should give her lots of incentive. Being a "pessimistic realist" I was pretty sure that I was wasting gas, but perhaps Hope could spring eternal, like the saying goes.

The clouds were awe inspiring in their configuration and especially their mass. Anvil, lenticular, and   Cumulonimbus  all towering over the entire desert. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad in Arock. It was!

Hope and I walked the Sage, and managed to see perhaps three Jacks, but they were far ahead and she didn't stand a chance. She was fidgety and investigated every crevice, and kept flying to forward bushes as though she was impatient. I was trying every ploy that I could think of to get us some slips, but nothing I was doing was working at all. Finally she flew to a little Lava ridge, and I turned to go across the road. Karen was driving the car so I stopped to talk to her. I kept wondering what was holding Hope up, she normally is quick to get back to the perch and me. I whistled, and put a piece of meat on the perch. I whistled again, and here she came, but was carrying something in her beak. She landed on a bush close to us, so I whistled again and she flew past us to sit on a rock. She was carrying a rabbit skin in her beak. It was quite supple and fresh, which surprised me. The last time we had been there was at least four days ago, and the rabbit that I skinned was a long way from the spot that she had found it.

It was obvious that she was going to eat it, and equally obvious that even if I took it from her our chances of catching something in this wind was remote at best. So I let her pluck it. It was time for a casting any way. When she got down to the dregs of it, she flew to the fist to finish. I gave her a front leg and called it good. Sometimes you have to make the best of a situation.