Chubby strikes again!

Connie came down yesterday to spend a few days, and go to town with me. Of course we didn't get back until very late.

Today is Hope's normal flying day. I tried to feed her a bit less on her last "instant" kill in the hope that she would lose some of that weight. In the 54 years that I have been handling raptors, I have never had one that didn't seem to care how much she weighed. Mostly what you notice is that their maneuverability and stamina is affected. Its a bit like a fat boy trying to run, they just can't seem to get all the parts going in the same direction. I have always said that its attitude rather than desperation that counts the most. Hope still continues to amaze me. At 1000 grams she was hanging on the wire and calling for me this morning.

I refused to go hunting on Tuesday when she weighed that much. Today Connie was with me, and we both like walking and hunting with her, so I decided that even if she couldn't catch anything the exercise would do all of us some good.

I drove out to the spot where she last killed, since I hadn't given this area any pressure for at least two weeks, and I was sure that there was still a bunch of Rabbits hiding there thinking that they were out of my normal hunting path. ( Jacks especially will alter their habits to avoid being chased by the Hawk, once they see a pattern in your hunting.) You have to alter your routes or soon you will see nothing, where there was once lots of Rabbits. The normal routine is that at first they will flush 100 yards ahead of you. Then after being chased by the Hawk every time they move, they will begin to change their resting places, the next is to start hiding. That is when they are the most vulnerable, as they don't have time to make a plan, that is if you can find them. If you give them time to think, they will beat you most of the time.

There is a storm coming in today with winds predicted in the high 30's beginning at 12 PM, so we got every thing done and in the field by 11:30. We walked over a little rise just about 30 yards from the site of her last kill. There was a little "swale" in the landscape, and I told Connie that there had to be a Rabbit in there. We kept standing there watching and finally a Jack lost his nerve and made a break for it. Hope overtook him in about 80 yards and he decided to take cover in a Sage Bush. She pulled up in a vertical climb of about 20 feet looking over her shoulder all the time. She twisted into a dive and slammed into the Jack. I did my best stumbling, bumbling, dash to help. When I arrived I could see Josie with her head in the bush, chomping on a Jack's butt.

This is also a new development that has been evolving for the last week or so. She has begun to watch Hope, and run to where she puts in, trying to find the Jack. So slowly, Josie has been watching and trying to help. I have been a bit hesitant about her help as I am afraid that she might jerk or try to shake the rabbit, when poor Hope is wrapped around a Sage bush.

One of the ways that Jacks can escape when caught by a hawk is to pull them through the Sage bushes and scrape them off. That is the main reason that Hope either makes the initial grab of their heads or changes her grip as soon as she is able. She used to lose about half of the Jacks that she caught through that same technique by the Jacks.

Notice that she has the left leg on the Jack's neck and the right one on the Jacks leg.

I have already removed two or three limbs in her face and neck, then gave her the cup.

She is lying on her side eating tidbits. I think she is beginning to understand this game.?

Not too sure who did all that, but this is a BIG Jack.

Well so much for the overweight hawk not being able to maneuver. I guess I will quit worrying about her weight for a bit, and just go hunting. The only bad part is I'm going to have to go  back to taking walks since I can't seem to get much exercise hunting. We should all be so lucky!  By 12:00 PM we were about halfway back home.