Nov. 23rd, 2022

 I have been to four of my normal hunting spots, finding enough Jacks to make hunting worth while. I have been keeping Hope in the shop on a perch that I put in there for bad weather. She is doing well, and becoming acquainted once again to the discipline required to be called a "Falconry Bird". Almost two years of no close contact erodes the manners of even the calmest bird. Brenda and I took her out yesterday at 1100 grams of body weight, and while she did well, her desire to follow me soon wore off.  We checked another area at Arock, finding quite a few Jacks. She even pulled a fist full of hair off of a Jack that jumped right in front of us, but she began to think about going off on her own, so we came home. 

 Today she weighed 1031 and had regained her focus. Brenda and I took her to the far side of the ranch next door to see what the Jack population was in the Greasewood field. Its an area on the beginning of the vast Sage flats that eventually goes up to the Steens Mtn.

 

While Brenda is a bit mobility impaired, she still enjoys going with us and either following along or watching from the car. She is still enthralled with the scenery and is very happy just to look at it. In my first post I forgot to tell you about her dog, a little Yorkie that she had for 13 years.  We had left her at home with Josie and Brick three different times with no problems. I leave the main door open so that the dogs can go in and out as necessary through the "doggy door". "Charley" was very attached to Brenda, and would meet us when the driveway alarm went off, signalling our return. Our last trip, she was nowhere to be found.

Our house is down over the hill and not visible from most of the State gravel pit. I think that she heard a car pull into the pit to pee, as a lot of people do, and went up there thinking it was us coming home and someone picked her up "possibly" thinking that she had been dumped. It was pretty tough for Brenda for a while, but Brick is doing what he can to sooth her and get a little lap time as a bonus. Its a pretty tough situation for her.

Jacks are interesting creatures. It is thought that their "home territories" are about 2 acres, however they are reputed to travel up to 10 miles for food or water. So an area can be covered up with Rabbit tracks but they are mostly passing through. Mostly their travel is a leisurely meander, the key is to be there when they are traveling through. I was pleased to see that there were a few "trails" through the area, and some Sage cuttings.

I once hunted a small two- three acre field in Klamath, that held three Jacks. The field that had the Sage (cover) was bordered by a large canal, and the rest by open ground. The first Jacks that I caught weighed in the 5-6 lb weight range. I only hunted this spot once a week. At the end of the season there were still three Jacks in there, but they now weighed 2.5 to three pounds. As I killed one of the residents, another would move in to take his place getting smaller and smaller as the competition was removed.

I considered leaving the dogs at home, again wondering if they helped or hurt. Poor ole Josie at 12.5 has a growth on the base of her tongue, and wheezes like a freight train as she runs all over around and in front of us as we walk. As you have probably noticed the "Jackass" Rabbits got their names by their oversize ears. As you would guess their hearing is excellent, the better to hear the Coyotes. It is possible that the noise generated by the dogs allow the Jacks to concentrate on where they are, and thus hold still thinking that the danger has passed, only to be surprised by me following along quieter.  Yeah some times the dogs do bump into one and he flushes a bit further out than I would like, but Hope does have wings and can catch up pretty quick. The problem is the amount of time that the Jack has to form a plan. I assure you they do have a plan. Hope's odds improve exponentially the shorter the "slip". Within 20 yards is almost sure death, 50 yards is a 25 % chance. So far the two Jacks that we have caught were young of the year. The big ones have all gotten away so far.

We didn't go hunting till after the mail had been delivered, so in my opinion it was the slack time of the day for traveling Jack Rabbits. We ran three Jacks before she caught the forth one. It jumped about 30 yards out and when she slammed into the ground behind a large Greasewood, I heard a short squeak. I ran down there to help if needed, and found that Hope was bracketed by both dogs. She had the rabbit pretty well covered up.  Brick was smelling over her shoulder to see what she had caught. She paid no attention to either of them. She had caught it by the head, and it was going no where. She allowed me to kill it, I gave her a chunk of meat and she moved off to eat it. All in all we only walked a mile and half. Not as much exercise as I needed, but I will take it.

I was concerned about Hope's right foot. If you remember she "Stone bruised" her right foot pad. Over the winter that talon had folded over when she sat on her perch in the mews. I was concerned that it might have atrophied and was a danger to her foot pad. Now that I have her out of the mews and on a smaller perch, it doesn't fold over as much, and she used that foot to grab the rabbit by the head.

My friend Pat Brewster has also started hunting in her area in Burns,Or. She has a female Harris Hawk as well. She also has a new dog, a German Shepard that she is using this year as her hunting companion. She has had problems with Coyotes coming to the natural Rabbit calls. Most of the Sage there is a lot taller that what I am used to, thus the Coyotes don't see her until they are right up on her. Her bird has finally decided that "Wren" is not going to cause her problems. As you can see from the photo's she is having to deal with snow.

 

Shepherds make great hunting companions. I had one in the 80's that shared a Volkswagen with Karen, myself and a Goshawk that rode unhooded on the back of my seat so she could look out the window. I suspect that this one is better trained than any of my dogs.

Oh, my boy - Bud has refused to come to me for four days. Maybe he is catching Mice?