I know that I have not been keeping the chatter of the blog going, but really there has been nothing worth wasting your time with. So I will at least use this occasion to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and to hope that things will be better this next year. However being a curmudgeon at heart, I have my doubts that the next few years will do much that will make things easier for us all.
First a couple of Sun Rises for you.
I put Hope up for the year about the middle of November. Bud was teaching her bad habits since they were tethered within sight of each other. He is still throwing a fit every time that I go to pick him up. Then when on the fist he is so sweet that butter wouldn't melt in his beak. Hope however never saw that side of him. I am sure that she thought I either was or should have killed him as soon as we were out of witness range.
There was nothing to hunt her on without expending a ridiculous amount of fuel to get to a field that held a few Jacks. You need to understand that the nearest 4 + dollar fuel was about 120 miles round trip. I also began to worry that I was destroying two litters of Jacks that could have been born next year each time we actually caught an adult this year. So Hope is out in one of the enclosed mews with a heat tape perch to keep her feet warm.
I found that I misnamed Bud. I should have called him Corrigan, as in "Wrong way Corrigan" . (For those too young to know, look the name up on Wicci.) Every time that I put him in the air, he manages to be in the wrong place at exactly the right time, every time. Of course the Ducks do not help either as none of the ones that we have seen so far are interested in committing suicide.
It is true that he seems to think that Ducks are an interesting distraction, but he knows that I will feed him some delicious Quail just as soon as I get tired of his screwing off. I am afraid that I have been too soft on him.
This too is self inflicted of course. There is a "trueisim" that points out that "one must be smarter that the "shit" he is working with." Unfortunately I seem to forget that on occasion. Jessie was mistrustful of me in that she was always convinced that I secretly was plotting to steal her food. This was brought about by a clumsy incident where in I was paranoid about her actions after she had fed fully on a Pheasant. I was attempting to secure her jesses with a leash, and she decided that I was taking her food. She never forgot it in the 15 years that I had her. So to make sure that Bud didn't have that same problem I haven't let him fully feed on the bagged game that he has caught. I have let him chew on the neck, drink all the blood that he wants as well as feed on the brains of the victims, but he much prefers Quail, and thus is in a hurry to leave the Duck for them. As a consequence, Bud is only playing with his food.
A friend of mine, Bruce Haak, came over from Eagle Id. to fly his 12 year old Peregrine. Its been a slow year for every body, as the Northern Ducks really haven't moved all that far out of the North yet because of the mild weather that we have been having. Encroaching civilization has also inflicted a blow to hawking in Southern Idaho, and they are having problems to find fields that they are able to hunt.
His 12 year old Peregrine tends to fly really high, and that is a problem in that the places that I have to hunt. They are covered in little swampy braided creeks very close to the ponds that hold the Ducks. If she takes the pitch that she prefers, the Ducks can get to the swamps and creeks before she can get down to where they are. When Jessie flew these areas she took a 350 foot pitch that allowed her to smack her prey down on dry ground.
Today we had a sharp West wind of about 12 MPH and his bird stayed about 550 feet up. All the other puddles were frozen today, so there was about 30 Mallards on the "lake". She missed her first flush, but there was still about 15 Ducks on the lake. She flew off down wind to remount and when she came over the lake this time the Ducks flew in to the brisk West wind, and she took a Hen Mallard out of the flock.
Bud has been a pain to pick up, and I should have flown him yesterday, but he threw such a fit that I did not pick him up or feed him yesterday. So today he came to the fist, rather than throw his usual fit, so I gave him the rest of the Duck to eat, rather than his usual Quail. Hopefully he will look upon the next Duck that he sees in his sights with a slightly more interested attitude. I think the high today was just above freezing, and the rest of the week will be the same. I look forward to a more serious attitude towards getting to eat the next time we go out.
I am set up to began Cataract surgery on Monday, and I will get the other eye done on the 21st. So Hawking will suffer a bit for the rest of the month. Normally I would quit by Christmas.
Have a great Christmas and New year
This Sunset will have to be my Christmas gift to you.
May God bless you all!
