Nov 17

This afternoon I weighed Hope, wondering just how much she had gained with all the Jack she had had to eat 2 days ago, and found, to my pleasure, that she had only gained an ounce or so. She was even calling to me in the dark when I had gone outside last night, so I was pretty sure that she wanted a repeat of her last meal. A greedy Hawk is God's gift to the falconry inclined. Anyway she only weighed 988 this time, and seemed to be convinced she was going to starve to death. So the hunt was on! Connie decided to go Hawking with me on my friend Richard's property. We left around 2 pm.  As a side note, Richard lives 23 miles from me and he is my second closest neighbor.  The other being 3 miles from me.

After a cup of coffee with Richard and the latest information on where the Jack's might be, we drove up the back road to an area that I had not hunted before. Since Rabbits are so scarce ( to me) I am always on the lookout for another spot that would support a Rabbit population. The first spot didn't pan out, so I drove back towards the ranch to a spot where I knew, some Jack's, called home.

I got out and asked Connie to drive the car along side as I went out in the Sage up against the hill. At our prior spot Hope had shown her eager and restless behavior at the first spot,by flying in a circle out and back to the perch. She rode with me for a while, but again flew to a Sage just in front of us, then busted off turning a complete circle and took off after a Jack that had been just behind the bush, she had sat on. He really had little choice in his direction of escape. Connie and I had restricted his movements to less than 90 degrees. He was a young one, and his next mistake was fated to be his last. He ran towards the hill just in front of him. When he got there the cover was really scarce. He chose to hide in the last Sage on the side of the hill. Hope flared straight up for about 15 feet, did a quick wing over and crashed through the thin Sage to land on his head.  

I have been hoping that She would perfect this technique for a long time. My first Harris rarely made one of these maneuvers without a rabbit in her feet. Hope's performance at this 

maneuver, so far, has been dismal. Not today!

Notice that the foot in the face is the bum one. Perhaps she will regain her full mobility.

Today was a pretty light day, primarily because Hope caught the first Jack that jumped. What ever, I'll take it. Only one mile and 6 10 ths, of walking.  Sounds good to me.

I fed her another head, and she chowed down pretty well. It may take her two days to return to normal this time.