Making headway

 I enlisted Brenda in my quest to find a suitable area to hunt. She is not able to walk all that much due to a knee replacement from years ago that is now malfunctioning. Hopefully we will be able to get that fixed a little later this year. However the Oregon Canyon area that I have been hunting is serviced by a looong dirt road down through the middle of it. She can drive the car along as I trudge through the Sage looking for victims. The geology of that area is marked by what used to be a lake bed, so its flat enough that the winter runoff from the Mountains surrounding it has to evaporate rather than run off. The Sage is short and bristly as well as thick. There are rocks scattered all over requiring one to watch very closely where you put your feet. I hate to say this but I am finding I am not as surefooted as I once was.

The great part about having Brenda there is that I don't have to return to the car to change areas. I wanted to see if I could find a "hot" spot for Rabbits. As you can see there is a lot of country to check. I was especially looking for some smooth ground that had enough Rabbits to make it worth while.

Leah had been holding one hind leg up all day appearing to have tweaked it on one of her runs the day before. We took her along, but I wasn't going to allow her to run. She is driven so much that I knew that she would just aggravate it more. I didn't want to leave her at home, besides Brenda was the one who was going to have to put up with her hyperventilating while I was walking.

 I tried several different places along the road, but wasn't getting anything up for Hope to chase. So I decided to just do many different places. This is where having a driver was a plus. No backtracking required. There was a spot of very thick Sage and overgrown Grease wood that had several Bunnies that she chased, but couldn't get through. There was also an old shack with at least two Bunnies that hid in the subfloor. After trying one more spot that seemed to have no Jacks, I gave it up. Three miles was enough in that ankle breaking terrain, so I gave up. One of the things that I wanted to examine was if Leah was a help or was she flushing them so far out that it was making it harder for Hope to score.

If a Jack jumps within 35 to 50 yards from us, Hope's odds are about 75 percent improved. She almost always either catches it or there is hair left on the ground. She injured her right foot on a lava rock several years ago, and lost some ability in the process. It made it much harder to hold a Jack. They would strip her off by running through a hole in the Sage. She compensated by making head shots. Now she almost always goes for the head. They end up tangled up in a ball on their sides.

So after a three mile walk, I didn't find as many Jacks for her to chase. Hope didn't get much to eat, only tidbits. We returned home with me having walked 3 and some miles over some really rough terrain.

I got a tip from a neighbor last night that he had seen some Jacks on one of the roads a few miles down the Hwy. Leah was not limping any more so we headed out to give it a try.

The ground was so much better that I gave thanks for it. We had not gotten into the field more than a 100 yards when Hope took off after a Jack, slamming down about 200 yards away. Most of flights that long, end up with her missing, but this time she didn't come up to sit on the Sage. Leah has learned to stop and watch the flight, then rush to where she went down. I had been listening for screaming to indicate that she had been successful, and not heard anything. I marked the area as best as I could and started wandering that way. Leah was hanging around an area where I thought Hope had gone down. As I got closer I began to hear quiet little sounds. I was amazed that she had managed after all.

In these pictures I have already untangled them and broken his neck. so that I could find my phone and take some pictures without prolonging the Rabbits pain. When I had straightened him out, he kicked away from me and began jumping up and down. They went at least two complete back flips with her holding onto him. She had grabbed him by the face and he couldn't do more that a muffled squeak. He was a big boy. He supplied 6 meals after processing. Winter is coming and I need food for the times we aren't able to hunt. 

So I at last have the answer to the question of Leah's worth. She has made the team! Even though they are aware of us and flush further out, Just the fact that she causes them to move gives us more opportunity.

I tend to fly my hawks a bit fat. My only requirement is that they try. Most hawks hunt to eat. Harris Hawks hunt because they like it. There comes a point where they are too heavy to be agile enough to catch game. I have never during hunting season fed her if she didn't catch something. So I let her decide how much food she wants. When she kills she gets all she can eat. So we hunt every other day or till she kills something. In essence when she is so heavy that she can't make the turns, she goes hungry except for a few tidbits. A hungry hunter seems to be able to overcome what ever obstacle is presented to her.