First Jack of the year

 It has been stormy for the last couple of days. I fed Hope on the fist Sunday as it was forecast to be nasty for the next few days. Today however dawned clear and pretty warm, at least for January.

 Hope this time was down to a manageable weight. 1024 seems to be heavy enough that she can withstand the cold, but still be maneuverable enough to make the twist and turns necessary to catch a Jack.

I wanted to try the field next to the house, as it used to hold a fair number of Jacks. However since the Bobcat has been raiding the place, there were no Jacks in the part closest to the creek and the rim rock that borders it. I am not surprised. You can chase them over and over in the same spot with a hawk, but when a Bobcat comes calling more than once, its a bit like the ground has been sterilized, and it is no longer fit to hold a Jack Rabbit. They just leave and do not come back for a long time. We did jump a Bunny that beat Hope to the rimrock, but no Jacks were to be found until we started up the hill far away from the bottom part.

After we crossed the drive way up the hill, a Jack took off and appeared to not know that there was a Hawk bearing down on him. That is until the last second when he jumped to the side and clear.  I decided to walk down to the wind sock and cross the runway into the field below the runway. As we neared the wind sock, a Jack jumped and started off on a leisurely fashion down to the runway. He apparently had his head up his butt and Hope hit him hard enough that he went cartwheeling completely head over heels and she apparently lost him somewhere in the middle of that. He shook himself off and made his way to somewhere else, in a hurry. 

We started East from the runway, and another Jack jumped further out. She crashed into the Sage and we heard a short squeal of surprise, but she lost that one as well. In the last two hunts she has made contact with 6 Jacks that she lost. While she still has a good record of catches it is obvious that I would have spent a lot less time hawking if she actually had the use of two feet rather than just the one. That's alright, she is still the best Harris that I have ever seen if you measure her speed, willingness to hunt at any weight, field manners and any other thing that is measurable in hunting hawks. 

After we left the runway I traveled a bit different path than usual and it paid off with a Jack jumping nice and close. She smacked him and when I arrived she had both feet on his head.

It's pretty hard to see, but all that is showing is one unlucky rabbit foot.

It was pretty hard to kill him, because she had his head pretty well covered up. Its really amusing to me that as soon as I broke his neck, she stood up, ready for her cup of goodies. I used to be able to give her a chunk of food and she would walk off to eat it. Now she crawls up on the fist waiting to grab what ever I have in my hand. I think I liked the part where she walked off with the food better. I can just see the bandaids that are likely to be necessary with the other scenario.

2021 starting small

Sunrise in the Desert

Steen's

 New years day happened to be a normal day to fly Hope, and what could be a better way to start the new year than to go Hawking.

Hope is getting used to her new digs, and has learned that if she doesn't come to me, I don't come back until the next day. That is good, but it also comes with a down side. That is if she is even the slightest bit hungry, she will now come to me. Yes that is a good thing, but as I mentioned earlier there is a certain point that centrifugal force overcomes her ability to make the turns inside of the Jacks. The extra freight can sometimes make sharp corners impossible. In any case she came to me at 1064 grams. This is not to say that she slacked off, she flew her heart out, but was only able to pull hair a couple of times.

Personally I don't mind, heavens knows that I need the exercise, however Tami's sister, Tara and her husband George came down and I invited them to go hawking. Both are falconers, but due to very young children are not able to practice. 

Not having any idea what Hope would weigh, I invited them to go Hawking and they rearranged their schedules to go. Since time was a factor we went just on the other side of the Ranch. There are Jacks in there, just not that many. So here we go, 5 adults and three kids, one in a back pack. We put in about 3.5 miles, with Hope pulling hair twice, perhaps three times, but no pot of Rabbit at the end of the rainbow.

I eventually felt sorry for the girls and we let them go back home to start their dinner chores while George, Connie and I stayed to continue hunting. We jumped a Jack that snookered Hope and ran across the road into a really small patch of Sage. It was the perfect set up. If, that is, he had flushed the way that he should have, but of course he didn't. I walked right by him with Hope on the Tee perch, he waited till we were about 20 yards away and cut back the way he had came. Hope had him in the butt, but he scraped her off in a Greasewood tunnel.  January Jacks have been pared down to the strongest and best, they don't give up easily.

We started back to the car thinking that we would load up and go over the hill to a different patch of Sage and continue our hunt.

With three young kids that were really curious about Hope, I confess that I had called her several more times than I would ever do by myself, so she had had a few tidbits here and there. It did not  affect her desire, but with some hawks it would have, it merely added to her difficulty in turning. As we were walking back to the car, Brick was pointing a pretty big mess of Sage. I told him to "get it" and he began rooting around in the bush, but couldn't get any thing to come out. Hope was watching from the perch on my shoulder, and when I kicked the bush, she slammed into the ground on Bricks side and came up with a mouse, which she promptly swallowed. Brick was still at it, and pretty soon a hawk's foot snaked out and came up with another mouse.

These are cell phone photo's so they are not all that detailed, but if you look close you can see a mouse tail sticking out of her beak.

We had hunted pretty hard, with heavy odds against us, eight people in the field, one kicking my heels, the other asking nonstop questions and one whining that she wanted to play in the dirt. Not to mention an obese Hawk. So two timber Tigers (Mice) in one hawking trip is not to be scoffed at. 

I am hoping for bigger and better things to come this year, for all of us. Especially for fun times like these.

One last time, with gusto!

Well here we are on the next to last day of the year. It has been interesting to say the least. However since  I live "just East of Hell" as one prospective lady friend told me, ( Hey Carole) the impact on me has been a lot less traumatic than it has the rest of the "civilized" world. Social distancing is just another "shitty day in Paradise", for the residents of my corner of Oregon. Still even at my age, with my days numbering less and less, it is good to see it gone. Hopefully the impact on all of you has been bearable, and that it will get better- soon!

Hope is getting used to her new living quarters and is slowly becoming more willing to come to me to go hawking. I had to get her down to 1020 grams before she came to me with the intention to stay on the fist. Today I have to do a bit of mucking out of the house, as Connie is coming to spend a bit of time with me, so I wanted to get our hunting out of the way.  It is also my intention to go to my neighbor's house to get a live trap so that I can possibly catch the Bobcat that has been killing Jack Rabbits in the yard at night. Its a 50 mile round trip. Of course I could have avoided the last minute clean up if I had been keeping up with things but I, as with most men, find logic to be optional. 

This is the longest that I have hawked since coming here. While most all of you have been told how terrible "climate change" is to the world, I have reveled in the fact that this is the warmest December that I can remember in this country. There is nothing to stop the wind with the exception of the poor souls that have to go outside for a living here, and it can get downright nasty with out any problem. Now its not really what I would call climate change, I still have to wear some of the advanced type of "long johns" that have come on the market, but at least I can avoid frost bite and still go hawking with a tropical type of raptor. If any of you have any say in what is going on, I could really use a couple more degrees in the mornings.

It was quite balmy this morning at 22 degrees, so I went out to see if Hope wanted to play one last time this year. She came to me with only one attempt to fake me out, but I pretended indifference, so she decided that she better take me up on my offer to take her hunting,  while I was still willing to let her. I know that sounded pretty glib, but you have to remember these creatures read body language like nothing else in the world. They are better than my dear ole Mother could ever be about reading weakness and guilt.

I put her on the scales and she was up to 1054 grams. That is the highest she has ever willingly came to me since I moved her. 

When I got up this morning at just before daybreak I saw a Jack and a Bunny in the front yard. After the Bobcat comes through and sends terror through the entire rabbit population there is not sign that Rabbits even live in this part of the country. It takes them about a week to forget what happened the last time they ate off my lawn. So I knew that I needed to get that live trap, because the night stalker will be back soon.

I decided to hunt here rather than taking the time and gas to go somewhere else. We walked about a mile before we started the first Jack. He was far enough away that I had a hard time in keeping Hope in sight. Thankfully Josie runs with her, so if the dumb assed Coyote who  thinks this is his territory tried something, she would at least distract him from his quest. She of course missed the Jack, for which I was thankful, so I didn't have to run my guts out to get there to protect her. We got a closer shot at a Jack, but she telegraphed her move and he avoided the strike. I walked on up to the top of the little hump, intending to stay at the edge of the heavier cover around the sides. 

A Jack stayed too long in his "form", ( a dug out area under the Sage) and she burned him down in a burst of hair flying in the air like a halo around them. I have seen clumps of fur pulled out of their butts when they pull away from her, but the light was just right I guess, and it looked like an explosion.

Its been funny to watch Hope on her kills. Jessie, My best falcon ever, would almost attack me if she thought that I might want her Duck, but Hope, as soon as I break the Jack's neck and it quits struggling, immediately starts looking to me for her cup of tidbits. If I am a bit slow she starts dragging the Jack off to a bush knowing that will cause me to produce her cup of pleasure. She will let go of the rabbit to get it and then today, step up on the fist for the front leg that I had intended her to eat somewhere else so that I could gut the Jack. This one only took 1.3 miles to complete our year.

One can only hope that this year is better, but being who I am, I will bet otherwise. I do wish all of you that wades through this blog, all of the happiness that you each deserve. 

Happy New year!

Dec 28, 2020

Apparently I fed Hope entirely too much Jack the last time, and it took me a few extra days for her to lose enough weight that she wanted to come to me. That's OK, its a bit tough to find as many Rabbits as I would like, and since I am doing this for her, who am I to complain when she doesn't want to thrash around in the Brush chasing uncooperative Jack Rabbits. She weighed 1034 grams yesterday, and she reluctantly came to me after a bit of coaxing. She has found that she gets one chance to stay on the fist, or its another day without fun or food, so she decided to stay.

I had decided to see what was happening with the Jacks that lived at Arock. I hadn't hunted there for quite a while, and it seemed to me that the later the winter, they would begin to sift into that area, so it was time to check.

There seemed to be a good population there, but they were all flushing a long ways out. We put in 3.5 miles chasing quite a few Jacks and getting made fools of by the local Bunnie population which seemed to be doing well. The little varmints are quick and very tricky and seemed to be able to pull a rock crevice out of nothing, just as Hope closed. I decided that she could be suffering from an an enlarged waist line, so we went home with no dinner, for her at least.

Today however was another day and she weighed in at 1020. Bruce came over from Boise, so we went over to the ranch to see if we could do a bit better at a lighter weight. In all honesty the Sage at Arock is quite tall and very thick. I am amazed that she catches any thing there at all.

The area that I hunted today was small greasewood with scattered Sage. We made a rather large circle without seeing any thing at all. As we approached the road through a rather small and sparse cover, a Jack jumped about 15 yards in front of us and she burned him down with no problem.

   As you can see the scant cover did not do the Jack any favors. One flight, one kill!

I wish all of you a Happy New Year, and hope that you are well. 

A Christmas Card

 Since losing Karen three years ago, there are many changes in my life. One of those is that other that the kids next door, I don't send out Christmas cards. Instead this is my card to you. The gratitude and affection that I feel for each of you is still there, just too lazy to buy cards.

Merry Christmas

It's been a pretty good year for me. Other than the loss of my hot tub (16 years old) it's mostly ran pretty smooth. Of course I am tempting fate by even mentioned that, but what the heck. The covid mess that so many of you have been suffering from, has been pretty quiet, so far, in this area where "social distancing" is a way of life. Hopefully the rest of the world will be able to go back to "normal" soon with the advent of the vaccine.

I went out to get some more firewood yesterday, and Brick as is usual was busy sniffing all around the wood pile for the Bunny that uses it for shelter. Its funny that I have only seen him point one or two Jacks in the field, yet he is after this poor ole Bunny all the time. I have a few Bunnies that use the place here, but there really isn't enough cover for any kind of population to be present. I do not consider them to be other than an accidental prey item, and steer away from them if I can. Of course Hope and apparently Brick, does not share my generous attitude. These little guy's are pretty resourceful and have no compunction against climbing to get out of harms way.

Apparently it's warmer at the top of the stack.

I've been able to hunt for most of the fall without incident, and the minus weather that seems to normally plague us has not so far shown up. My freezer is full of Jack Rabbits to the point that I have been giving the Jacks that Hope catches, to Tami, for Yogi's consumption. I noticed this morning that Hope had broken a secondary feather while in the mews.

Bruce Haak has been coming over from Idaho to hunt his falcons, and has been doing quite well. I, at least, have some open water that holds enough Ducks for his falcons to fly.

My friend Sue, that lives close to Rome, observed quite a lot of rabbit tracks the last time that there was snow on the ground, so I agreed to go over there to hunt today. I was a bit sceptical as I had looked in the general area for huntable Jacks and really had never found the population high enough to hunt. Of course I had never been in the area that she was talking about, so I decided to go give it a try.

That ranch has some pretty big Alfalfa fields, and it was conceivable that some Jacks could be hanging around. Hope weighed 1004 grams this morning so I knew that she was going to be pretty hot if she only had the chance. It was 8 degrees this morning.

I picked up Sue and we drove out to the field that she had seen all the tracks.The Sage was pretty small and not all that close, so I knew that we were going to have a hard time of it. This is Eagle country, and a Jack would be a sitting "Jack" if a soaring Eagle was overhead. There was very little sign, hardly any rabbit poop or Sage cuttings to indicate that there was much of a resident population. Jacks tend to travel great distances to get food, such as the Alfalfa fields that this land bordered. So I was sure that they traveled through this area, but probably at night to get to the alfalfa nearby.

We made a large loop and were heading back to the fence at the edge of the road, when a Jack broke out of a small Sage bush that neither I or the Dogs saw or smelled when we passed by. Unfortunately for him we were much too close for him to have much of a chance to escape.

Fortunately she caught this guy, saving me from having to drive to another spot in Arock to hunt. I was very gratified that she was successful on the only flight that she made.

My wish is that all of you have a happy and safe Christmas and New Year!

Malfunction Jct- Dec 22nd

It's been a bit stormy lately and that makes for some Sun Rise and Sets that are worth seeing.

 

 I think that I have found Hopes current bottom line as far as weight is concerned. It only took seven days. :-/ Of course there were one or two malfunctions on my part.

What was happening is that she would come to the fist for a tidbit, but if I made any move to pick up her jesses so that we could go out of the doors on the mews, she would fly back off the fist. This behavior has been occurring since I put her in the enclosed mews. Rather than walk away, as I should have, I was worried about how cold it was and wanted to keep her weight up so that she could fight the cold.  I managed to catch her jesses at least twice. Once I got her out of the mews she hunted just as she always had. Our last trip out she was tipping the scales at 1072 grams. She flew as hard as she always had. 

After killing the Coyote on the 15th, I skinned and fleshed the hide as usual. For whatever reason I threw the chunks of fat that I cleaned off the hide on the ground outside the garage door. Connie and I were going to go hunting with Hope, so I picked up all the pieces that I could find prior to going out to get her. After some games on her part I managed to grab her jesses. When I weighed her she was tipping the scales at 1070. We had crossed over the fence and immediately jumped a Jack within the first 30 yards. He made a break right across the open field going to the hangar. Hope was doing her best , but he outdistanced her, and they disappeared  by the fuel tank. Hope was convinced that he was hiding there and was not interested in coming back to me, so we walked over there but could not find the Jack. Hope was on the roof of the Hangar watching intently. She flew down to the ground and found a 18 inch long string of fat that I had missed. Of course the hunt was over for that day. That was the "malfunction".

After that she began to get cagy about me trying to catch her jesses. Of course that made me a little cranky, and I began to get more than a bit tired of the insurrection. I decided that I was done playing games, and if she could catch enough mice to feed herself, I would wait until she ran out of them. Of course it helped that we were having an unusual warm spell, and she didn't need to have as much food to keep as warm as usual. 

I would go out each day and offer her a tidbit, and she would grab it and fly back to her outside perch. I would give her three chances and then leave her to think about it. She was still flighty yesterday, and I walked away. Today she seemed to have a change of mind and was calling to me when I walked out. She weighed 1004 grams, she did not try to fly off.

The wind has been howling all day and up to 30 MPH at times. I thought that it might slack off by about 4, so I waited and got lucky. It dropped to about 5 MPH so off we went. The last two times I have hunted here, the rabbits have been a bit scarce. Today was no exception, and we walked about a mile before one jumped, fortunately right in front of us. He tried to cut across from right to left, and Hope had him before he had covered 15 yards.

 He was a big one and those are generally last years rabbits. I gave her a front leg from a previous kill and walked back towards the house. When she finished the leg, she flew back to the perch and we hunted on our way back home. We only saw one other Jack on the trip back and he managed to escape.

I needed some packages of meat for future flights so I cleaned this one rather than freezing it whole. As I skinned him I began seeing tape worm clusters. I was amazed that he was carrying so many but was still in good shape with quite a lot of fat. I have never seen so many on one rabbit before.

I have never seen them on the organs before. I can't imagine how that felt. we may well have done him a favor.

Hopefully The weather will remain warm and I can bring Hope back to her normal space in the weathering pen.

 

   

Dec 15

 Today was supposed to be my normal hunting day with Hope. The weather has been pretty ?warm? figuratively speaking. It was 19 this morning, so I haven't been worried about Hope freezing to death.

We had a really nice Sunrise this morning, and with the snow supposed to start after noon, there was plenty of clouds to color the canvas of the clouds.

After a leisurely breakfast, Josie got my attention with her quiet "burf's" that she uses when she is warning me that there was an intruder down by the creek. I looked and looked where her nose was pointing, but could not see anything. I got the bino's and began scanning the brush and Cattails by the creek. The first thing that I saw was a Magpie. They usually follow Coyotes in the hopes of getting a few scraps if they kill something. It took a lot longer for me to actually see the Coyote, even with the Bino's. I told Connie and she eventually saw it too. I got my rifle and stood in the doorway intending to use it for a brace if I could ever find it again. Its 300 yards to the creek and the Coyote was in and out of the brush, never giving me a clear shot. As soon as my hand got numb it decided to go somewhere else. I managed to stop her, with a quiet yell, long enough to get a shot off. I was by that time surprised that I actually didn't wobble off the target too far to do more than scare her. 

Connie and I retrieved her with the quad and I hung her up in the Hangar,  then I tried to get Hope on the fist to go hunting. I really wanted to see if being out in actual snow in her new housing situation would convince her that snow was normal. I was hoping that she would go ahead and hunt as she normally did. Nope! she wanted some tidbits , but really still didn't want to come to the fist. I eventually managed to lure her close enough to get one of her jesses so that I could at least weigh her. I won't be able to hunt until Thursday so I wanted to know what she weighed.

 The last time I flew Hope, I didn't feed her as much as I normally would, so I expected to see her a bit lower in weight this time. Surprise, Surprise! she weighed more than when I put her in there - again!  1080 to be exact. Apparently the Mice are still in good supply. Until she cleans out the supply, its going to be a bit hard to go hunting again.

We were both dressed for the cold, so we decided to at least go for a walk so that we and the dogs would get a little exercise. 

While there is no one here to pass Covid to Connie found that the mask kept her nose warm at least, while we sat on the bench at the end of the runway.

The tracks in the snow seemed to indicate that there was loads of Jack Rabbits using the runway, but I think its just one really tired ole Jack that keeps running up and down and across the runway giggling while he contemplates the cussing I will do when I can't find any thing to hunt.