Nov 20

 I flew Hope on the 18th by myself, here at the house as I have been doing lately. This day however her weight was about 1021 grams, and she flew like her tail was on fire. She actually pulled  wads of hair out of three different Rabbits but they all made their escape. It was pretty windy, and I eventually decided that it just wasn't going to happen.

Today while it was a bit colder, the wind however had not come up as of yet, so Connie and I loaded Hope into the Hawk box on the back of the quad and drove to the end of the runway to begin our hunt.

We walked pretty much all over the low hillside without getting a decent slip at a Jack. Although she did get her feet into at least one Jack, he tore loose. Most of the Jacks were flushing at about 100 yards, and those are pretty long odds, but she still tries.

We circled around almost back to the house without getting the kind of slip that we needed. I tried a different track than what I normally use and still could not get her a decent shot at one. When we got back to the quad, I didn't put her back in the box, but rather left her loose and called her to the Tee perch to see if she would ride the perch while I drove. She did somewhat, and I was pleased enough that she might just learn to hunt that way as well. She would ride for a bit, then take off to get closer to the dogs. As we got close to the "bone pile" (junk yard) she flew to it, then off after a flushed Jack that hides there occasionally. Also a miss, then back to me on the quad. I had Connie get off and walk in front to see if she could get a picture of her riding on the quad.

As I got close to the end of the runway, I asked Connie to take the quad while I crossed the fence to see if we could get a chance at the Jack that has been hiding along the driveway and up the road from the gate. I intended to cross the fence at the rock jack that braces the fence there. As I neared the Rock Jack, he burst from the back side of the Jack where he had been hiding. He was just too close to make it, as Hope burned him down in about 30 feet. This time she was able to grab him in the face as they were rolling from the initial strike.

 He weighed over 5 pounds.

I may have to explore the use of the quad. That would get me some more territory to hunt as well as the ability to cover a lot more ground than I can on foot. Today was three miles and we caught the Jack about 200 yards from the house.

Back to normal

 There was a little break in the advancing storms and winds yesterday. I think the temps got into the low 60's. I hunted in a tee shirt yesterday and was sweaty by the time we got back in the yard. Our "quicky" hunts were done wearing winter coats and gloves.

I had a visitor from Idaho come over to hunt with his falcons and to experience the other side of falconry. It was soon obvious that this hunt was going to be a bit different than the last two.. We had just barely gotten into the field North of the house, when Hope chased a big Jack around in a circle, then the Jack made his break while Hope was down in the Sage, running across the open field and on to the South side of the property. I no sooner got her back on the tee perch, and she was off across the bare ground of the field below the house after a Jack down there. That was actually where I didn't want to go. The brush and Greasewood are thick down there. She made two attempts at Bunnies that had no problem in getting into cracks and crevices, leaving all of us frustrated.

It seemed that there were not too many Jacks to try for, and all of them were busting from their cover at long range. Its a rare long distance slip that she can get one of them to make a mistake. She still tries however.

We had seemed to cover an awful lot of ground before she managed to get her feet on one. He however managed to scrape her off on a Sage Bush. There was a handful of fur, but nothing else to show for it.

Another mile or two and she snagged another one, that also got away before I could get there to help her. More hair and empty toes. My shoulder was really hurting from carrying the tee perch. We got to within 400 yards of the fence around the house. It began to look as though she was going to go to bed hungry. A  young and foolish Jack rabbit broke cover right behind us, and Hope burned him down in less than 30 yards.

I checked my phone and found that it claimed that we had walked 5.9 miles in our hunt. That should make up for the two easy days that we had earlier.

I was too busy to take any pictures, so I decided to make up for it with this mornings sunrise.

I woke this morning before 7 AM and could see that we were going to have a very nice sunrise, so I snapped these pictures as they developed.