Sept 29 - Its not over till the fat bunny sings!

I decided earlier that I would take her out this evening and see if watching the Jacks make their trek to the water in the last fading light would give her a kick to catch something to eat. Since Deer season is Saturday and some of the areas that I hunt are also hunted for Deer too. It would be nice to not have to hunt during all that.

After finishing the blog and dinner this evening and the shadows grew longer, I went out to get her. She weighed 920 grams. I walked out to the hot tub where the chairs are, and she thought that we were going to fly to the fist again.

I finally tossed my glove on the Hot tub so that she wouldn't fly to me any more, and she began to foot and toss the glove all over the tub.

Eventually I got her to sit on the fist and was watching the first Jack start down to the water. It was getting darker all the time, and he managed to make the trip to the water without interference from her. I got up and walked around the corner of the Rose bush at the front of the house. There were three Rabbits, two Jacks and a Bunny. As they broke and ran, she of course went for the Bunny. When she turns on, she gives the appearance that she might be crossed with a Gos. She has acceleration like I cannot recall with the other Harris's that I have seen fly. She had to fly out of the gate and turn to the left. She did so with enthusiasm, a loud bang followed. When I arrived she came out of the wood shed holding the Bunny. I killed it, and with much excitement on her part we retired to the hot tub to eat her fill.

Of course Karen bemoaned the demise of the Bunny. I informed her that was why we had protected him for so long.

Sept 29, 2016

Yesterday Hope didn't do enough to get fed. Grabbing a Coyote by the butt just doesn't count, and I would prefer she refrain from that in the future. It is pretty normal for a Harris hunting in her first phase to not realize fully the total effort it takes to catch Jack Rabbits.

The first phase of course is to establish that Jack Rabbits are to be the preferred prey. That is done of course by feeding them off of Jacks. Then it is necessary to show them that they can catch Jacks. That can be done by using a "Make Hawk", or if one is not available, a bagged Rabbit. That of course is hard to arrange. You can use a tame rabbit that is sort of the same color, but that still doesn't teach them that you really need to burn hard to catch the real ones. I prefer to wound them with a 22, if I don't have a "Make Hawk".

My first experience with Harris's was Babe and Fritz, offspring of the first breeding pair of Harris Hawks in Oregon. Babe was an over achiever of the species. Fritz wasn't all that bad either, and as a pair they were a unstoppable. When we started them we flushed Jacks and they chased what appeared to be hard, but they weren't catching them, so after a week of trying they quit. So did I, only it was their food that stopped. We would take them out, jump three Jacks, and if they didn't try, we took them home until the next day. After four or five days Fritz was too weak to fly, so I turned loose a bagged Pigeon for him so that he could regain some strength. We took Babe out hunting however as she still appeared to be strong enough to fly. She caught the first Jack that jumped. After that there was no question of not trying, and they went on to become a legend in my own mind, and I am sure anyone else who ever saw her fly.

So this is normal, and expected. I had hoped that we were past that phase when she caught her first one, since the effort required by her to do that, is what I am searching for. Now as I mentioned she has performed better than expected at a higher weight than expected. While I am willing to keep her as heavy as she can perform, its not mandatory. I am perfectly willing to "starve her till her eyes bug out" if necessary. Hopefully it will not come to that.

I talked Karen into coming with me today. All this has been killing her. She wants to go hawking so bad, but just does not have the stamina to do so. The area that I hunted today has a road right up the middle of it and most of the flights would be visible from the car. She was also able to get a bit of video of her flying. Since she was going to be in the car following, we could bring the dogs as well, and I could analyze the plus and minus of attempting to hunt with the Brits. They of course voted in favor of the idea, but I wasn't all that sure.

It seemed quite hot although it was only in the 70's, but uphill carrying way too much stuff had me sweating like a pig. Her first flight for a Jack was the best, but he ducked out the other side of a Sage as she crashed into the front of it.

I walked about a mile ( seemed like it anyway) up the slope with Jacks going left right and in front. She would chase, but most of the time looping around to me after deciding that she couldn't catch them.  She was hot, and it was apparent that a catch was unlikely, so I stopped at a lava lump to let her sit and let the dogs run. I had forgotten my squirt bottle, so I put some water in my hand with a tidbit, so that she would get a little bit of water at least. The dogs had a grand time running all over, and she paid them no mind at all.

I decided that it just wasn't happening and she needed to lose a bit of weight. I decided to walk back to where we started allowing the dogs free rein to see if they could be a positive in the hunt. It was a bit odd in that the rabbits seemed to prefer the North side of the road. There was little evidence that they had been eating any of the grasses and Sage on the South side of the road, while the North was chewed all up. I crossed over after a bit and started getting into Jacks again. One hid from the dogs and she got a chance at him, but she was at a disadvantage and couldn't make up the distance in the turn. Most of them were flushing a lot further out with the dogs than without. I had paused on a lava ridge watching the dogs working the area in front of me, when Brick went on point. I was pretty sure that Bunnies were in the areas near these rocks, and sure enough this one lost his nerve, and busted. Hope tried to take him from the side, but he tried harder than her and she missed.

This phase as I said is perfectly normal and will soon pass. Hope still has traits that please me to no end. I still hold fast to the belief that she will be well worth watching soon.

https://vimeo.com/184925621   (password)   owyheeflyer

Busy Day, not much accomplished

Today we were due to go to town. Another Doctor appointment for Karen. This one for her C Pap. Who says that I am not contributing to the economy. We have an early appointment, so I go early to do chores. I find that the peace of summer has slipped b y. There are two dead Chickens in front of the  Chicken house. One just the feet left, the other was missing the juicy parts and most of its skin. Pup Coyote! I was happy to see that one of them was a young Rooster that I was planning to get rid of anyway. Ah well, I knew it was too good to last. I had been lazy about locking them up at night.

We made our trip, getting some of the things that I needed for winterization and got home about 4:20. I had a quick snack and picked up Hope for an evening hunt. It is still hot, but today is her day. She was 930 grams, and had pulled her tail mount off her center deck. I decided that she wasn't going any where, so we went on.

Dave had told me of a field that he felt held a lot of Jacks, so I went there first. I found three Rabbits, and Hope pulled the tail off the first Jack that she flew. Unfortunately the tail was all that was left. The field was quite large and I covered it all. The Jacks come from quite a long way to get to their feeding areas. What might have a pile of rabbits in it at one time of the day or night, doesn't mean that they will be there all the time. Its like here. If I sit out by the pool when it is getting dark, I will count about 50 or 60 Rabbits. If I hunt it during the day, I may only see three or four rabbits in the surrounding fields.

I loaded her up and went to the dump field. I decided to be as quiet as I could be to see if I could get closer slips. We did get a couple, but she wasn't chasing as hard as I wanted.Finally I could see a Jack sitting between two Grease Wood bushes. I attempted to get closer, but Hope took off in that direction. I thought she was going after the Jack, but she was aiming to the left side of the bush. She crashed into what looked like a dark spot. I though it was a dead one lying there, but no, it was a Coyote apparently stalking the Jack. Hope jumped to the left and the Coyote jumped up in the air and spun around. I began yelling and running in his direction, trying to get my pistol clear. He decided to be somewhere else a little quieter. Fortunately for him, I did not see him again.

We got a couple more chases, but I was wearing out, and I still had traps to put out for the return of the Chicken thief. Tomorrow in the morning will be cooler, and she will have the night to think about the ones that got away.

Two Lizards and a Jack!

Unfortunately John and Nell continued on their trip today. Their stay never seems long enough. Its pretty nice to have someone to run around with,  and they are both great company. Of course their absentee ballots arrived today.

Karen took the neighbor to her Doctor today and left me on my own. I had thought to go back to Arock to try our luck over there, but with no fuel efficient car to drive, I decided to stay here and hunt over at the ranch.

Today was hot again, around 95 in the sunshine, so I waited until 5 PM to gather every thing up and go hunting. Hope was chasing pretty good, but still hasn't figured the Sage and Grease Wood out yet. I determined to walk all the way to the highway if I had to to give her the maximum chance to catch one. This time I began using the tee perch to launch her in the direction of a running rabbit and it seemed to work pretty well. She made a lot more chases today than she has so far. She was crashing the brush when we started, but appeared to begin holding off for a good clear shot. Of course the Jacks weren't into cooperation at all.

As we walked further down the creek the Jacks were peeling off and going up the bare hillside. At this point I began trying to wing another one as I really wanted her to have a reward at the end of all this effort on her part. It was hot as could be and she was flying long distances on some of the chases. She would come back to the Tee perch each time, no matter how far she had flown. Sometimes she had to rest a bit and she was breathing hard with her beak agape all the time. The nice part is that she didn't need to be recalled or given a tidbit at all. The only food she had gotten to that point was the two lizards that she caught. Unfortunately I wasn't doing all that well in winging one as they were not giving me any good shots close enough.

At the far end of the field, I followed three or four Jacks up from the creek to the bare hillside, where all the Jacks had been going to get away from us. When we got to the top, one busted back down towards the creek in a steep little drainage. Hope gave chase and tried to cut the corner on him and hit him from the side. He ducked behind a lone Sage and she missed. She got up and gave chase all the way down to the creek and lost him in the cover there. She worked her way back up the hill to me, and I completed the trek up the little hill to where we could see into the drainage higher up.

As I crested the hill she took off in afterburner and soon the lovely sound of a Jack in distress wafted up on the breeze. She had caught him after a short flight of about 30 yards and they were in the open. No Sage to pull her off with. I still approached slowly, but even though they were bouncing up and down quite a bit, I could see that she had one foot on his head. I grabbed him by the hind legs, and stretched him out to break his neck. I though I had heard it pop, but he was still showing signs of life, so I did it again and promptly pulled his head off in the process. A clear case of too much enthusiasm. Now here I am with a excited hawk with a Jack in one foot and a Jacks head in the other trying pretty hard to go some where quiet to eat. Luckily Jacks have long ears. I at least was able to hold on to one of the ears. It would have taken forever for her to completely eat the head. I can almost guarantee that she wouldn't have quit until she had finished it. I tried to give her a front leg to eat, but she was suffering from serious tunnel vision at the time. I finally had to give her a tidbit or two to get her mind on food again. I gave her a front leg and she stepped off the Jack and moved up a couple of feet to eat. I took the opportunity to clean the Jack, and cut off a rear leg. I sat a waited for her to finish the leg, and when she did she walked down to where I was and stepped up on the fist for the rest of her food. I sat and rested while she ate the hind leg. When she finished we walked on back to the truck, which seemed to be over the horizon. I sometimes think I am getting too old for this shit, but then again Nah!

New field

As I mentioned before the field that I had been hunting was played out. That is there were only as many Rabbits in it as there should be, rather than so many that it boggled the mind. The other fields that we tried did not have enough in them for a young hawk carried by a gimpy old man, much of a chance of success. It was time for some new country. The fields that I had been hunting was mostly Grease Wood, which as the name suggests, is nasty. Stickers that poke through your pants, I can't imagine diving head first into one of them.

I called Phidel Larrusea (Basque ) at Arock to see if I could still hunt his ranch. This morning John and I went over there to see what kind of populations they had. The Sage there runs from chest high to knee high. I think we saw about 30 total while we were there, plus about 5 Bunnies. Bunnies wind Hope up like the energizer Bunny Hawk. Of course she still hasn't a clue how to catch a dodging Jack much less one of those hyper bunnies. What turns her on is that they run like hell, while the Jacks just lope along waiting to see what we are going to do. Loping at this time is not one of her big turn on's. I decided that four trips with no real reward was enough justification to wing another one. Or at least try. Not all that easy with a pistol, so nothing is guaranteed.

We had several slips on Bunnies and she made a shot or two at some of the Jacks with no success. I was afraid that she was actually going to catch one of the Bunnies if we kept jumping them, so when we got into a bigger concentration of Jacks, I managed to wing the second one that I tried for. Hope slammed into him when she saw him. I intended to let her have her way with him until I saw that he was a senior citizen carrying all the nasty things that old Jack Rabbits get. He had a fist sized lump just off his back bone, pus pockets in his front leg, and who knows what all else. The back leg appeared to be only Jack Rabbit meat, so I cut one off and between it and the food that I carried, I had enough to fill her to the point that she couldn't take another bite- literally.

A "make hawk" would be ideal, but one does what one can. She will get it. No doubt!

Running out of Rabbits

Today was the third day for Hope on her own, and the first that she didn't at least get some hair in her toes. There was one field at the ranch that was just lousy with Rabbits, but the pressure on it has taken its toll. As near as I can figure about 150 rabbits were taken from that field. It is no stretch to say that all the dumb ones are dead, and I really need a dumb one now. She has caught three now but was kicked off all three.

She still impresses me by her willingness to come to me without thought of reward. Most often when she flies at a Jack, even if it takes her a hundred yards or more, she will turn and fly back to the Tee perch. We had several flights at the field that I have been hunting and the only excitement was an incident with a shotgun shell.

She flew off the perch and down under a bush. I first thought that she had gotten a lizard. Then I could see the purple shotgun shell. She was footing and biting it, but there just didn't seem to be much nourishment there at all. Perhaps she was trying to tell me that I needed something that was more effective than my 22.

After we had covered the entire field, I decided that I needed to keep going, and check some of the other fields in the hope that there would be more rabbits than I was finding. I walked another one only finding one rabbit that she chased, but it soon outpaced her. I managed to avoid a dead Calf that had been pulled up there for the Coyotes. Thankfully she was far enough away that she didn't realize that there was at least four hundred pounds of available meat that she could crawl up into. After I finished the field, I looked back and saw a Coyote sitting on the hillside waiting for us to leave.

 
I tried one more field, and we got a couple of pretty good slips, just not enough of them. I again packed the Virb camera on my shoulder, and didn't get any usable footage at all. Not to mention that I dropped it four times, so I think I will give that one up.

She did make a kill however, but lizards are so small that they don't do all that much to satisfy the appetite.

Road Trip and steep learning curve.

John and I have been planning a trip to the top of the Oregon Canyon Mountains for at least two years. One thing or another always seems to get in the way. We had originally planned to make the trip on Tuesday when the weather was a lot better, but Karen had an appointment available at the last minute to see about her new friend - the Shingles. It appears to be a mild case, but that term is relative. We decided to go Wed even though it promised to rain.

The lighting was miserable so the pictures left a bit to be desired. It was also a "draw" Deer tag area, and the hunt was still on. The road to the top was pretty nasty and the Deer hunters had polished the tops of a lot of the rocks in the road.

The wind was a bit raw at the top so it didn't take us all that long to enjoy the view and start back down.

You can faintly see Coyote Lake

When we got back home, I picked up Hope for her hunt. The day before she had managed to grab two Jacks at Tami's field, but couldn't hold on. They both pulled her off in the Grease wood bushes. She had weighed 940 or so. She had flown well and had no hesitation at all. I had introduced her to the Tee perch, and she had become fairly used to it. She was a bit confused as to who had the food, trying to land on John several times. We eventually ran all the Jacks up the bare hillside, so we quit with her only getting tidbits as food.

This morning I weighed her and she had dropped to the 920 weight range. The weather is due to deteriorate, so I decided to fly her here at the house. She barely missed a Bunny that "squirted" through a Sage Bush leaving her with twigs in her feet. She had several flights on Jacks out in the Sage by the house, but was unable to connect. I crossed over the runway to the field North of the house and she finally managed to catch a Jack about 70 yards away from me. I was concerned as to whether or not she would be able to keep it, and was disappointed to see it pull away from her as I arrived. That is always a critical point with the young hawks. They generally manage the catch as the Jack plows into a Sage bush. The Jack is almost always caught by the butt. The rabbit then tries to pull loose by dragging the Hawk through the Bush. All it takes is a "wild eyed, heavy breather" coming up on the other side to spur the Jack to make one final effort to get away. I may have to try to stay far enough back to see if she can consolidate her hold. I fed her a bit of back bone that I had cut most of the meat off of for tidbits. I will take her out again in the morning and see if we can do better.

Her speed still impresses me. She is fast, and pretty darn good for a young hawk just trying to catch stuff.  In the first half of a introduction to a Tee perch, she rides it well, and better still comes back to it from where ever she ends up after a chase to continue hunting. She will take a tidbit if offered, but that isn't what she is looking for. Today it wasn't necessary for me to call her after a chase. When I begin walking away, she comes and lands on the tee without me calling.