Change in attitude

 I was so blown away by Connie's Cat following me through 1.7 miles of Sage, that I didn't mention my reason for stopping at that distance. The real reason was that Hope was screwing around and really wasn't trying as hard as she is capable of. My rule with her has always been that if she doesn't kill she doesn't eat. My routine is that I give her enough chances at live game that she could have killed something, if she really wanted to badly enough. The only possible exception would be if she was low enough in weight that she could be physically unable to put forth the energy to effect a kill. This is a little safeguard that will keep her from becoming unable to hunt due to physical weakness. Of course she will only get enough to sustain her for another day, but sooner or later she will have to catch something in order to get a full crop and "belly," that she of course wants.

Once Hope gets into the real swing of things, the only reason that we are in the field for that second Rabbit flush, is that she is not using her head. When she is switched on, nothing can escape her talons. She is that focused and that good. However, it is only natural that she would need a bit of a reminder as to how the game is played each new year.

Hope is maturing and with that maturity comes recognition of how her chosen quarry acts and reacts. Granted she has been slower at this that I liked, although it was my fault for allowing her to think that way. Harris's like to hunt, and will do so almost all day long, or at least longer than I am comfortable with. So I allowed her to keep banging away at the Jacks and there were so many that sooner or later one would make a mistake and she would catch him. Sunday was the first time that I heard Hope making the sound that means- " there is a rabbit close to me". I of course helped her get it running but she still missed it. Its a good start, it tells me that she is thinking.

I have been flying in the mornings due to the heat. She flew on Sunday and screwed around, I didn't feed her. She started the day at 970 grams. Monday we decided to take a quad ride up on top of the Steens at the NE end. I didn't get home till about 4PM. Hope would fly to the wire in hopes that I would take her out, every time I went by. After my dinner, that," I myself had caught",  I picked her up at 6 PM. I also allowed the dogs to go for the first time since Josie had scared her into turning loose of a Rabbit that she had just caught. This time I had a shock collar on them, so it was to be a second chance for the dogs. I had made a pretty big stink on the last incident, and Josie ( the culprit) knew it. She was staying close, where I wanted her and watching me closely.

I decided to hunt here just outside my fence, for one of the 7 or so Jacks that make this area their home. There is a chunk of Sage that covers most of the flat, and a rocky shallow canyon that cuts through it. If the Jack is near the edge of the Sage where the ground really slopes up enough that the Jacks can out climb her, then she stalls out and lands, and all she can do is watch the Jack fade from her reach with ease.

We cut along the upper edge of the Sage, and she quickly took off using her best speed. The Jack started to run up the hill, but she was too close,  when he broke cover she slammed into him raising a huge dust cloud. When I arrived at the scene, Josie was close and watching, I yelled at her and she immediately backed off. I was able to break his neck, and extricate them from the brambles and limbs to the clear ground. She was waiting for her tin cup and tidbits. I offered her a front leg from her last kill, and she took it without hesitation, leaving me with the Jack.

I think the total number of steps recorded on my phone was about 300, and I was done."Now that's what I am talking about"! If she continues on this trend, she is going to be a really, really great hunting hawk.