Jan 12th 2021

 I normally would have hunted yesterday, but I had an appointment to get my Covid shot at the V.A. Clinic in Boise Idaho, Monday at 0745. ( The toughest part of that was a 4 am departure.) So when Hope killed her two Jacks on Sat. I gave her one of the heads to eat along with all the other chunks of Jack that she had with her normal meal. One needs to clean the raptor's system occasionally with either fur or feathers, and this was a good opportunity to do so.  I knew that she always gains weight when she has a head to eat, so I figured that I would be able to skip an extra day before I needed to fly her again. 

When I picked her up this morning she weighed 1041 grams. About 20 grams more than what she is the "hottest" at, but she was anxious. The storm that is forecast for this area was not due to arrive until the early afternoon, so we loaded up and headed out about 10 AM. I stopped closer to the Hwy in an area that I had seen quite a lot of tracks the other day with the fresh snow. There was not much indication that anything lived there, now,but I kept walking.

In the Sage flats here the Jacks have "cut" lots of branches off the Sage to eat. That seems to supply most of the food that they are eating at this time of the year. However I was not seeing any indication that they were eating it at the new spot. There is not much vegetation other than the Sage in this area, so I am a bit puzzled as to what their food supply really is there.

I was getting further and further from the car and had only had two long range flights, so I decided to cross the road and head back to the car, which was dwindling in the distance, with the intention of moving further up the road. Almost as soon as we started on the other side, she took off after one, much too far away to have much of a chance to catch it. I kept moving back towards the car, and she soon joined me. Within a couple of minutes one jumped close to us and she burned him down. The Sage was pretty dense, but small, and he was dragging her through bush after bush. The Sage wasn't all that big, so he couldn't scrape her off before I caught him by the head. 

  Since she was already heavy, and I gave her the liver to eat along with a hind leg of her previous catch. I am pretty sure that she is in no danger of starving to death anytime soon. The weather is supposed to be a bit crappy for the next little bit any way.