After my last hunt with Hope, at a weight that I considered pretty heavy, I was hoping that she would lose a bit more weight for today's hunt. Its not that she didn't do well, she did, she just shouldn't have. There should be a point somewhere that she is just too portly to make it around the necessary corners so that she can catch Jacks. Jacks are not easy for any Hawk. They are smart and damn fast. I guess we still haven't found it. She again tipped the scales at 990 grams this morning. I'm not complaining, the fact that she wants to hunt so much is a real plus for me.
I had a little company this morning, one of them was the gal that found Jessie after she died, and has become my fishing buddy. She had a friend with her that had never seen a Hawk hunt before.
I wasn't sure that Hope was going to come to me, willingly, as I suspected that she might be a bit chunky. No worries, as soon as she saw me in my hunting uniform, she was plastered to the chain link of her weathering area. Still 990 grams. I thought that she was so heavy that it wasn't worth the effort to go anyplace other than around the house, as I thought that she wasn't going to do all that much and I didn't want to waste every ones time. We had other things to do, so rather than put in four or five miles trying to find a Jack that was stupid enough that a fat Hawk could catch it, so my old grass fed ( lawn mowers) Jacks, could at least show them how she would normally hunt without expending most of the day getting back to the house. I have at least four Jacks that call the Sage around my house, their home, and they have eluded Hope at least four or five times so far.
As we walked to the fence to go into the Sage, Josie busted a Jack just outside the fence. Hope put in two shots at him that were oh so close, but not close enough. We walked on across the Sage and a Bunny busted out on full afterburner for the edge of the "cliff" that edges the creek, and she lost him in the rocks. She was right on him, but couldn't get a clear shot through the Sage. I think she also had a shot at a Jack down by the creek before I got there.
We turned back towards the House and a Jack broke cover, pretty close to us, and she burned him down.
She never fails to amaze me. She is still only using one foot to hold these guy's, but we haven't lost one this year at all- so far.
I added some photo's that were not available to me until yesterday. They were taken on the third of Nov.
Great action photos of both bird on the wing & prey on the run!
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