I guess its time to do a little catch up. Harry (with the hacked falcon) came back to continue Breezy's education. I am working on getting Bud and Hope into hunting mode. As is usual there are the "normal" glitches that are both funny and irritating.
Harry's bird seems to have a delicate tummy and has thus been getting acquainted with the Idaho Veterinarians, while I manage, with a bit of help from the animals, to screw things up all on my own.
Two days ago I decided to toss a Duck for Bud. Falcons seem to be hard wired for upland game birds, yet are sometimes reluctant to take Ducks. Unfortunately Ducks are going to be the only things that I have here for Bud. It takes entirely too much gasoline to find a Chukar or Sage Grouse, so Ducks are the only thing I can afford.
As I have mentioned before I use a drone to take a lure up in the sky to both build condition and to "teach" Bud to fly high above me so that he can take advantage of that height to be able to catch anything that I flush. As with most things it is possible to overdo it to the point that the falcon thinks that his only job is to fly up to the drone and ignores wild game. To that point Harry and I have bought some game farm Mallard Ducks to enter our birds on.
Two days ago I tossed a Mallard for Bud and he basically chased it to the ground . He caught it about 100 yards from me. So he is getting a ride around the patch from a very disconcerted Duck, Two Brittney Spaniels are running around them wanting to get in there to help. I am not worried that either Josie or Brick will do the falcon any harm, however Bud appeared to be doubting their intentions. Of course when I arrive, panting as though I am having an attack, arms outstretched, fingers grasping at nothing in particular, do very little to reassure Bud, so he lets go of the Duck. I grab the Duck and for some dumb ass reason, decide that the best way to handle the situation is to wring the ducks neck. Bud takes one look and decides that he might be next and books for safer territory. He circles around for a bit until he thinks that I might have regained my senses and comes down to the lure. Wonderful lesson indeed. :-/
Today I decided that some of the problem is that he doesn't yet know how to hit stuff in the air and that he could do that better by having something smaller and more maneuverable such as Pigeons. I have in the past decided that I am not smart enough to use pigeons in my falcon training, since the scenario that every one but me uses is to toss a pigeon that is strong enough to get away from the falcon. When the hawk finds out that he can't catch it, he then comes back overhead at a higher pitch ( which is what you want ) and at that point toss a pigeon that cannot get away from him thus rewarding him for the higher pitch. Its all a very good plan, I just have never seen it play out that way for me. Either the hawk catches the darn thing in a tail chase that goes into the next county or is so tired when it quits chasing that it is only able to fly 25 feet high.
Harry had traveled to Christmas Valley to buy some Homing Pigeons that "are guaranteed" to be strong enough to "out fly any falcon" ever hatched.
Bud, when I weighed him this morning was a 1/3 of an ounce lower than I had so far flown him, so he was ready! I ran the drone up to 400 feet, and turned him loose. I have some young homers here in my loft, and one was out. Bud saw him and gave chase. He chased him for several circles and eventually came back over at a fair altitude. I tossed the ( strong ) Pigeon, and he ratted out immediately, trying to take refuge under Harry's Motor home. Bud is in the air circling for an opening, Brick and Josie are trying to catch him, Connie's calico kitten is also in the fray and coming closer that either dog or hawk. The pigeon leaves the vehicle and tries to get in the tree, the cat is right after him, then Harry goes in and makes a good catch against the windscreen.
Bud then began climbing back up for the drone and eventually gets enough altitude to grab the lure and drifts down to the ground. I go to where he is, the damn cat follows right along. Being such a "keen observer of wildlife", I can see that she is thinking that since she had so much fun chasing the Pigeon, the hawk might also be fun. I bent down trying to find a rock small enough to not kill the cat. When I had done so, I looked up to see the cat about two feet behind Bud. Bud merely looked over his shoulder, gave the cat a look that she totally understood. She then walked away as though she had only been kidding. There are differences between prey and predators. I threw the rock at her anyway.
Having so much fun doing that, I gather up Hope for her first real hunt of the year. I did take her out here for a two mile jaunt and only found one Jack Rabbit. The Jacks are still at a very low ebb in their population. Today we went to Arock (25 mile road trip). I did find 8 Jacks and four Bunnies, but they were all faster than we were. Since it was the middle of the day Hope got a lot of exercise trying to catch the little "racing lizards" in between the scarce Rabbits. We walked 3.6 miles, getting a lot of exercise, but no protein. After I left the Sage and was walking on a dirt road, Hope was following on the fence posts along the dirt track. As the car got closer she began flying up and landing on the road behind me trying to get me to do the right thing and give her something to eat. I just kept on walking, and as we got closer to the car she flew in front of me, and gave me the evil eye, telling me that it was time for some food, RIGHT NOW! I told you that I was a keen observer of wildlife. I gave her a chunk of rabbit and we went to Rome Station where I gave my helpers, Harry and Connie an ice cream cone.
