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.

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.