October 26th

 We went out, last evening here at the house, to hunt after waiting all day for the wind to slow a bit. I waited till just before dark, about 6:15 here. It was a lot colder than we are used to, either of us. We jumped 6 Rabbits total and all of them were tricker and faster than she could muster. It wasn't  that she had slowed, it was more like the Jacks were on amphetamines. I gave her the contents of my tidbit cup for dinner.

Of course it was about 11 degrees this morning and she was hanging on the wire every time I looked in her direction. About 1 PM I loaded her and the dogs in the car, and drove to the end of the runway to begin our hunt there. If you remember from my flying videos there is nothing to the North of me, other than Sage. At that point, if hunting, I am at the point that I would normally turn around and hunt back. This way I could get into new territory, and new Rabbits.

The Jack populations are a real disappointment, at least to me and all the other falconers in this area. However they are there, you just have to walk further to see them. That's OK, this is our fitness routine. Its much more interesting than a "Peloton".

I was quite pleased to see that there were a lot of cuttings in the Sage. I realize that Jacks get around a lot more than anything else inhabiting the Sage, but even so for the amount of cuttings, there appeared to be a fair population of Jacks      .https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-tailed_jackrabbit      The link is about the easiest and complete way to inform you of their habits. One of the articles I read about them stated that they eat about a pound of grasses and shrubs each night. So they tend to get around, a lot.

We walked about 9 tenths of a mile from the end of my property and jumped 6 Jacks, five of which evaded her. Other than for a change of scenery I really don't have to leave the area around the house. There aren't a lot of them, but they can be found and caught if she works hard enough.

You can see from this picture that her right foot doesn't work as well as it once did. ( the fist is closed, and that seems to be the real problem with it, its that it does not open as well as it should. ) She still had it by the head with her other foot, and that is how she keeps them from getting away. If they can get their feet free they can sometimes break her grip. That left foot is a blur however, when she uses it.

Its good to be back Home again!