Oh Deer!

Well, Its that time of the year again. Every thing is trying to fatten up for the coming winter, and for Deer the "rut" (breeding season) is close at hand. This is the only time of the year when the Deer show up here at the house. Contrary to popular belief, Deer are for the most part a pretty scarce commodity here in the desert. Yes there is generally a Doe or two that lives down by the Creek in the giant Sage brush jungle there. They come to have a protected area to raise their babies, and are generally very spooky and secretive. The only time I see Bucks is in the fall. The ranch below me used to sell tags to hunt the Trophy Deer that hang around the reservoir that pools on his ranch. I think that they have quit doing that, but when I first came here there was a guy that would fly in by Helicopter to shoot one of the big Bucks that lived there. He didn't want the meat, only the head and antlers.

This guy doesn't fit the "trophy" name for "bragging rights" but he is still about three years old and a decent buck that most hunters, who are hungry, would not turn down. I would personally just like him to go away.

He first showed up on the 14th about 5 in the afternoon. I shooed him off, and he went down to the creek to wait for darkness. I originally thought he was after apples, but its not apples that he wants. He wants the leaves and buds off the ends of the tree limbs. On a regular apple tree it wouldn't be a problem. My trees are dwarf Trees and one of the guy's can reach about halfway up the tree.

Yesterday he showed up in the afternoon, and I ran him off. 30 minutes later he was back again, and every 30 minutes after that. I peppered him with the shotgun, I shot him in the ass twice with a pellet gun, but I still had to run him off when I went to bed last night.

This is the result of his feeding after I went to sleep. Before you ask, I don't need any more venison in my freezer. I still have most of the venison left from the last Deer that I harvested during season. 

I am going to check the zero on my pellet gun today. His cohones are going to be in jeopardy when he next comes. I understand that Deer steers tend to grow some pretty spectacular antlers.

October 15, 2018

 The Steen's with a bit of snow.

Some Antelope between the road and the ranch.

I attempted to hunt Hope yesterday. When I weighed her she tipped the scales at 1,035 grams. That surprised me so much that I checked the scales to see if they were reading zero with nothing on them. They were, and her weight didn't change when I set her on them again. The last time she got anything to eat from me was on the 12th, and she should have been under 950 grams. I can only surmise that something made the mistake of getting inside the weathering area with her. She still came to me, and in fact had been calling, indicating that she wanted to go hunting. Normally she doesn't make a sound unless she thinks that I am going to pick her up. Well I didn't need exercise that badly, so I put her back in the pen and did other things.

I went out this morning to check her weight and found that she weighed in at 987 grams. Just to be clear last year she did not kill at any weight above 930 grams. Not that she didn't try, she was just too heavy to make the turns necessary to make a kill, and she actually didn't try as hard either. I have actually seen raptors that would not hunt if they were more than 15 grams over their "hunting weight". Apparently she has not heard this, and so doesn't know that she isn't supposed to hunt when she is overweight.

I decided to go in spite of the fact that she was chubby, reasoning that I really didn't have anything better to do, and the exercise might just help my chubby condition.

Just for grins I hooked up my airplane camera to a contraption that holds the camera on my chest in the hopes that I could get some shots that would be worth showing to you. You really do not understand just how much your eyes and brain compensate for your ungainly body movements, until you strap a camera on your chest. You don't walk, you waddle!

I was quite surprised with the vigor that she exhibited in chasing the Jacks that we jumped for her. For all intents and purposes she was lean and mean, doing her best to catch these elusive critters. The only time that her excess weight was noticeable was when she flew after one that took to the open, running up the 20 degree bare hillside. She tried, but it was just too much climb to keep up with him.

One of the shots that I did capture was of a Jack that was hiding inside a scrawny little bush in the open. The dogs missed him, but Hope saw him sitting still, and took off after him before he realized that he was made. She would have caught him too, but he ran through another scrawny little bush and she was too close to dodge, so crashed into it.

https://vimeo.com/295275937     password  owyheeflyer

The way that I hunt Hope is to gorge her when she kills. I then wait until she comes back down to weight before I take her hunting again. This works quite well as far as the bird is concerned, since I don't have to worry about regulating the amount of food that I give her, I just wait until she gets at a weight that I like, then we go again. It also has the advantage of saving me time and gas money           ( which is a problem since there is no close reasonable supply of fuel ) It also enables me to keep the hunting pressure at a minimum on a dwindling prey base. It also makes for a serious hunting raptor that knows if she doesn't kill, she doesn't eat. I can count on one hand the number of times that I fed her on food other than that she herself had killed in the three years I have had her. If she doesn't kill, I just go hawking again the next day, and with her being on the heavy side I could go for three or four days without feeding her if I had to. It gives you a hunting hawk that doesn't screw around.