Oct 30- Hope

 It warmed to 29 degrees by 9 AM, so I shamed myself into going hunting. Getting to be a wimp I guess. my main problem is holding a cold pvc pipe that makes up my Tee Perch. So I went through my supply of gloves until I found one that was warm, but supple enough that I could handle my Tee Perch without my fingers going numb. 

The dogs really get depressed when they are not able to go hunting with me. Of course with company and a strange hawk not used to my dogs, they are not going to get to go. I am always amazed that two dogs sleeping in different parts of the house, who have to be yelled at to go outside before bed, can hear the insignificant beep that their shock collars make when activated. I can't remember when I last activated the function that would deliver a shock to one of them, but I do use the call function that just beeps rather than shocks. Josie is my main problem in that she wants to range out till she finds something. I don't know how many dog trainers bust their butts trying to get their dogs to range further and here I am pulling my thinning hair out trying to keep Josie in close :-/

Hope was up a bit in weight, ( 970 ) but she seems comfortable and still anxious to hunt. I decided to hunt here, again. Fortunately there are just as many Jacks in the Sage around here as there are 25 miles away, so I get to save some gas and time.

Hope had slips at 5 different Jacks, some three or four different times before she connected with one. It decided to cut back behind us, but Hope was too fast for him. 

Checking my phone when I got back, I found that we had only walked 2.57 miles. Not bad for just out of the back door of the house.

A visit by my friend Pat

 Some 20 - 30?  years ago Karen and I sponsored a gal from Burns, Oregon. She wanted desperately to become a falconer and wasn't getting any help. At that time women seemed to be having problems with male falconers taking them seriously. Karen of course, having faced some of that same stupidity, would have waded through hell and high water to help any woman to enjoy this sport if she wanted to. I had no problem either, I like "spunky" women! Pat did complete her 2 year apprentice ship, getting guidance from two falconers, and has proven her ability and expertise many times over. She, of course, is a Master Falconer now.

Pat came down to visit and to hunt with Hope and myself for a couple of days. She has now retired and has a bit more time on her hands. Harris Hawks are smart and social enough that you can put them into a field and they will hunt together. A bit shy and cautious but soon will work together as a team to capture the willey Jack Rabbit.

Monday Pat hunted in Burns, and I hunted here at the house. Her Hawk- "Chilli" ( not to be confused with Connie's Cat) had dinged a wing feather right at the tip of her wing, and was unable to finish her hunt. Hope killed a Jack here. When Pat got here that evening. We snipped the feather off so that it wouldn't screw up her flight, by sticking out at a weird angle. 

Pat hunted alone Tuesday morning, as I had fed Hope entirely too much to hunt her again so soon.

The next morning as soon as it warmed to 30 degrees, we went out to the Sage just outside my fence. Chilli wasted no time at all in catching one of the Jacks that has successfully eluded Hope every time she has flown it.

Today, (Wed.) both have had time to put their food over so we could hunt again. As we got in the field from the Hack tower we jumped about three Jacks and there were Rabbits and Hawks every where, several big clouds of dust and disappearing Rabbit butts. I think there were at least four Jacks all clustered in an area of 50 yards. We both had a good chuckle at the Hawks getting snookered by the sheer number of Jacks. They however were also primed and ready now.

Hope's first with an assist by Chilli

Hope zipped in and took a Jack that had managed to avoid Chilli's strike., and we had one in the bag. Hope had caught it by the butt and Chilli followed up by grabbing it by the head. This was one that I didn't have to kill as Chilli had killed it before we got there. She either has a better grip or was able to get her talons in the right spot. Suits me I am not all that wild about reaching into that sort of meat grinder with my tender little hands. Chilli did manage to stick one talon into my hand anyway. She was nice about it and didn't do too much damage, and I do heal fast.

Her meager reward for her quick thinking.

Her second Jack.

We walked on, some times getting flights and sometimes not. Chilli took a shot at a Jack that jumped pretty close and missed. Hope finally saw it when it was about 80 yards off and took off in pursuit, trying to catch up. Pat and I were both very surprised when she managed to catch it. It was far enough away that I had trouble finding her. Since Chill had gone to help, She of course grabbed it by the head, closing its mouth so that the best it could do was humm and I couldn't hear the muffled screams. Pat had them located so we were soon able to help them with it.

After we got the birds picked up off the Jack we started back towards home. We jumped a Jack and Hope was hot after it,  a Prairie Falcon came from nowhere and decided that she was jealous. She took a shot at Hope just as she was closing the distance on the running Jack. She showed no signs of leaving our birds alone, so I zipped a 9 mm round by her head. She then decided to retire from the field. All too often Coyotes want to help your bird with that pesky rabbit, so its best to be prepared for all contingencies. 

By that time Hope was a bit confused as to why I wasn't feeding her, since she had caught two Jacks already. We were down at the end of the runway, so I decided to break off and go on home so that I could feed her as we walked back.

Occasionally a Jack will hide, and an experienced Hawk will land on a nearby bush, pinning it. Hope isn't there yet, but Chilli is. Hope normally makes a "hail Mary " shot at it and while she is on the ground the Jack changes zip codes.  Chilli was after one such that was hiding, and she and Pat soon tracked it down and Chilli had her own Jack.

If you read that link that I supplied you with in my last post you might have noticed that Jacks eat up to a pound of food each night. This one seems to be a bit of an overachiever. Look at all the fat he has accumulated this fall.

We put in 4.9 miles, on our trek today. A Jack for Chilli, Two Jacks and one Leopard (lizard ) for Hope. Sorry about the loss of the picture of her Leopard kill, unfortunately she swallowed it before I could get my camera out to archive the capture.

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!