Its been a busy few days!

It has been a busy week, and I have gotten so far behind that I may have a bit of trouble sorting it all out. The sunsets have been few and far between, but when they do pop, its pretty spectacular. The following pictures were the progression and deepening of one of those nights.

The last of course is the Moon rise.

I drove up to Connie's house in Burns, Friday afternoon, so that I could help Pat Brewster put her new Hawk house together on Saturday morning. I arrived as Pat got off work and we all loaded up to go Hawking. This is the first time that I have taken Hope with me, since she would actually have a place to stay after we got the hawk mews up.

We tried a spot that had some Rabbits, but the Sage was a lot taller than she was used to and she didn't connect. There were not as many rabbits as I would have liked, and we soon had covered the field pretty good. We went to a new spot where one of Pats friends lived, to give it a try. We covered the Sage portion of the field, with a few chases, but no luck. We soon ran into a field that was nothing but "Rabbit brush" (actual name) It was pretty open, so I didn't think that we would find anything in it. The dogs were running all over the place and actually jumped a couple of Jacks that were pretty far out. Its been my experience that if a Jack has the chance to assess the situation, it will most likely outsmart Hope. Two of them did just that. The third was a bit too close when it flushed and was not so lucky.

If you look close you can see where she first struck him along the side. She sliced the skin open there and then changed to the head. Game over! 

The next morning Pat and I began work on the Mews and thanks to Sandy and Scott Morrison it went together easily, with us finishing around 2 PM. Hope got to spend her first night in it.

Sunday rolled around and I invited Suzanne ( a falconer living in Burns) to go hunting with us. We tried another area, but it unfortunately was pretty steep in places, and a Harris doesn't do all that well with steep climbs, which will always happen if once again the Jack has a chance to think. It was pretty windy which also stacked the odds against her. We got a few slips, but connected with nothing. It began to rain, so we went in search of flat spots that were not wet. (Harris Hawks have no waterproofing to their feathers.) 

We found a spot that looked good, and it happened to belong to Pats Boss, So we went to ask permission which was given. 

The wind was still blowing pretty good, and Hope was trying different things to compensate for it. We traveled one field that was a bit open, with her getting a couple of good slips, then started on the way back. We eventually jumped one pretty close and Hope slammed into the ground. I always listen for the scream to decide whether or not she was successful. It had run right in front of Connie and she yelled that hope had caught it. It didn't have much chance to scream, as it is hard to scream with your jaws clamped shut by two Hawk feet. Humming doesn't carry all that far.

When I gutted the Jack it was obvious that it had some sort of urinary problem, but appeared OK otherwise. No pictures, too busy again.

The dogs really like Connie, and Brick sees her as a dream come true. Josie horned in on the petting this time however.

I came home on Monday to find that I was now the owner of only one Chicken. The rest were scattered around in parts, here and there. I set up trail cams, and discovered the culprits was a Mother and half grown baby Raccoon. Just lovely! I set traps last night, but they went somewhere else to dine.

I checked Hope yesterday, (her normal day to hunt) and found that she weighed 1000 grams. I declined the exercise for one more day.

Today was pretty windy as well, but she weighed 974, worth the effort and fuel. I waited until the mail came so that I could make one trip. The wind had calmed a bit when I got to my field. I decided to hunt a different part of the property that I had not hunted for some time. I let the dogs out, and climbed the fence. I then walked to a small lava "lump", just because they are different enough from the rest of the terrain that Jacks seem to like them. The dogs were on the other end, not far away. As I got about halfway across it, a Jack jumped out of his form running straight for the barb wire fence. The dogs had cut off any other line of retreat. Jacks and all other game are well aware that the fences can either slow or injure the predator, so they use them when they can. Hope however has been around fences before and she is smart enough to not fall for that ruse. She was closing on the Jack, but flared up over the fence. The Jack decided to run back under the fence again, but she went up, over and back around to slam into him right at the edge of the fence. I was only a few feet away, and reached through the fence to grab his rear legs. She had him by the head, so I grabbed a leg to sort them out a bit. I was carrying two cameras, but the situation did not allow time to use either of them. Both the dogs and I were a bit disappointed that it was over so quickly. I even considered trying for two Jacks, but common sense soon prevailed and we went home like sensible people should. I don't have the prey populations to be making doubles.

On the way home I found a steel wheel barrow that had blown out of someones truck, lying along the hwy.  It was a little cramped, but it fit in the car. You would think that the driver should have noticed. Oh well!

I just got an email from a friend whose Falcon and dog injured themselves chasing Grouse. The falcon apparently will not fly again. With falcons, fences and Eagles are a real problem. Some falconers avoid using areas with fences for fear of the falcon hitting it. I have always done just the opposite in the hopes that once the raptor knows what fences look like they can avoid them. Perhaps I have only been lucky so far, but its a butt puckering time when the chase goes near one.