November 1st

 After a leisurely breakfast of Sunday Sour Dough Pancakes, the temps came up enough to venture out in search of breakfast for Hope. Connie is with me this weekend so I have some welcome company to share the day and to take a few pictures for you.

In order to get to the area here that seems to have the most Jacks, one has to do quite a bit of walking well before you find much in the way of flights. Yes there are at least three Jacks living within my fences of the runway, but I don't want to hassle them each time I go out to hunt, so the only choice is to get past that point before I take Hope out of the Hood box. The car tears up the soil a lot more than I am happy with, so here comes plan B.

The box sits at a bit of an angle, but not so much that it would be a problem. Hope weighed 967 grams today and was very interested in going hunting.

With Hope in the box, Connie on behind me, Josie in my lap, we trundled out to the end of the runway. Josie is getting up there, so she has learned that a ride is not a sign of weakness, merely an indication of intelligence. Brick is stronger, younger and much too big to find a spot for him to ride.

What I am holding in my hand is cuttings from a "Rabbit Brush" They cut the outer ends of the branch off and I am told the rest of it contains moisture. There is a lot of little bushes like this out here.

This is what it looks like when they "dine or drink" from the Rabbit Brush.

We got a couple of slips going over the hill, but they managed to out maneuver her. Then one took off down on the flat she gave chase and missed her shot at it. Josie of course went to help her, and we walked that direction as well. There had been an attempt long ago to form a small dam to catch some of the rain water draining off the hillside. I walked around the "dam" to get to her thinking that it might have taken cover close by. We did jump one on the other side of the dam where she couldn't see it. I thought that might have been the one she chased. She flew to the perch as I got near, and I circled the other direction. We hadn't gone far when a young of the year busted right at our feet. I actually got to see her catch this one.

I pulled them out of the brush, and put them down on the bare ground

I killed it, and she was waiting for me to give her something. I gave her her cup of food and then a front leg from an earlier kill. She has learned that I will give her something to eat, rather than feeding her off the body. So she waits for me to kill the rabbit, give her the cup of tidbits, then a leg or some other chunk of rabbit to eat. When she gets her food, she lets go of the Jack. She had done so when I gave her the cup. I was a bit tardy in getting her other piece, so she reached out and grabbed it by the head again looking at me like" what are you trying to pull"? When I presented the leg, she again let go of it. We both laughed, she wasn't about to let me have it without payment to her.

Instead of feeding her the rest of her meal, I calculated that we had about a mile and half to walk to the quad, so rather than give her the rest and have the hassle of trying to walk with her trying to eat, I would not feed her till I got to the quad. So she went back on the perch as we walked to the quad.

We did get a few more chances at Jacks, in fact she tore a ball of fur off a Jack before we got close to the quad, and then a "Timber Tiger" ( name given to those miscellaneous lizards,voles, and other undesirable, to the falconer, items that present themselves. By Toby Bradshaw)  broke from cover. It was a race between Brick and Hope as to who would make the kill of such a fine specimen. Hope was a blur, Brick, not so much.

 The day was lovely, and warm with brilliant sunshine. Hope got way too much to eat, and we were blessed to be able to walk 2.75 miles to get it all done.