Nov 23rd

My cousin, Lowell Davis and his lady, Nancy, were on their way back home after a few weeks in Death Valley. They stopped here for the evening. Due to the approaching storms and colder weather he wanted to winterize his travel trailer before he got into the snow zone at McCall.  It didn't take long before the chore was finished.  Since it was Hope's day to go hunting,  he and Nancy wanted to go Hawking again with Hope. So all four of us, (Connie was here as well) loaded up for the trip to Arock.

I went this time to the same field that she killed the last Jack in the first 5 minutes of the hunt. My theory being that we really didn't stir the field up all that much, so it followed that I could hunt it again.

The Sage is quite a bit higher than I like and we only managed 4 slips at Jacks, all of which managed to out maneuver her. After walking for quite a while, I decided to change fields.  We crossed the fence and walked about 100 yards when a Jack jumped about 20 yards away. She missed him on the first strike, but got back in the air and nailed him about 10 yards from the first attempt. She had him by the right front shoulder and he was taking her for a ride around the Sage with him trying to find something to scrape her off, but I got there first and grabbed him as he tried to get by me.

I was a bit close to the action, so Connie took a picture of me trying to take a picture.

As you can see he suffered some damage in the fight.

Nancy took a few pictures with her phone, and gave a bit more perspective.

This Hawk continues to amaze and please me every time I take her out. She is all business.

How tough can it get?

I've been busy with appointments and commitments and had to pass up one or two days before I could get the time to go Hawking. I still have a lot to do, but I decided that I could take a short break to take Hope out to try to contribute to her winter food supply, via her prowess as a huntress.

Things are changing a bit due to the approaching winter. The rabbits change their habits as well, and the last time Connie and I went to Arock it appeared that the Jack's were a bit more plentiful. I can't say for sure, but we found four down in what I would call the grassy part of the area that I like to hunt. To find four of them close to the beginning of the field was a bonus for us and it didn't take all that long for Hope to pick one of them off to add to our bag. I was gratified that we didn't have to spend all day trying to catch one. I decided to go back to Arock as I had not been there for at least a week.

I am leaving the dogs at home now. Josie on her last trip out, came up with a sore shoulder and was limping quite a bit. I ordered her some glucosamine and she is now doing better, but their foray's in to the wilds are over. She is getting up there in age, and I am on a bit more limited time. I really think that the only ones who benefit from going with me is them. The Jacks jump further out when they are there. That of course adds to Hope's challenges and difficulties. It was fun to see them work together, but she is more efficient without them. I actually prefer the more "stealthy" approach.

Upon arriving at Arock, I decided to try a field that I haven't hunted for several weeks. I parked and let her out of the box, and she flew to a Sage Bush at the base of a Lava mound just inside the fence. I walked over, climbed the fence and took two steps towards her when she jumped into the air and crashed into the grass about 10 feet from her. Immediately a Jack began screaming, and my hunt was over. She had apparent'y landed just a few feet from the Jack, who had squatted when I drove up. He never realized that her species is one of the few that can see prey that is sitting still.

At the beginning of August I added an app that is supposed to measure how much I walk. I actually wanted to check the distances of the Hikes that Connie and I were taking at Glacier Park. I decided to leave it on my phone when I began hunting Hope after I returned home. Some, perhaps too many were in the 4 mile range on some of those hunts. So I was actually putting in a lot more walking than I had originally thought. For instance since Aug 1st I have walked 211 miles taking 84 hours to do it. Today's hunt was 40 steps- round trip.

Nov 17

This afternoon I weighed Hope, wondering just how much she had gained with all the Jack she had had to eat 2 days ago, and found, to my pleasure, that she had only gained an ounce or so. She was even calling to me in the dark when I had gone outside last night, so I was pretty sure that she wanted a repeat of her last meal. A greedy Hawk is God's gift to the falconry inclined. Anyway she only weighed 988 this time, and seemed to be convinced she was going to starve to death. So the hunt was on! Connie decided to go Hawking with me on my friend Richard's property. We left around 2 pm.  As a side note, Richard lives 23 miles from me and he is my second closest neighbor.  The other being 3 miles from me.

After a cup of coffee with Richard and the latest information on where the Jack's might be, we drove up the back road to an area that I had not hunted before. Since Rabbits are so scarce ( to me) I am always on the lookout for another spot that would support a Rabbit population. The first spot didn't pan out, so I drove back towards the ranch to a spot where I knew, some Jack's, called home.

I got out and asked Connie to drive the car along side as I went out in the Sage up against the hill. At our prior spot Hope had shown her eager and restless behavior at the first spot,by flying in a circle out and back to the perch. She rode with me for a while, but again flew to a Sage just in front of us, then busted off turning a complete circle and took off after a Jack that had been just behind the bush, she had sat on. He really had little choice in his direction of escape. Connie and I had restricted his movements to less than 90 degrees. He was a young one, and his next mistake was fated to be his last. He ran towards the hill just in front of him. When he got there the cover was really scarce. He chose to hide in the last Sage on the side of the hill. Hope flared straight up for about 15 feet, did a quick wing over and crashed through the thin Sage to land on his head.  

I have been hoping that She would perfect this technique for a long time. My first Harris rarely made one of these maneuvers without a rabbit in her feet. Hope's performance at this 

maneuver, so far, has been dismal. Not today!

Notice that the foot in the face is the bum one. Perhaps she will regain her full mobility.

Today was a pretty light day, primarily because Hope caught the first Jack that jumped. What ever, I'll take it. Only one mile and 6 10 ths, of walking.  Sounds good to me.

I fed her another head, and she chowed down pretty well. It may take her two days to return to normal this time.

What a difference a day makes

Over the years my hunting and training methods have of course changed. You can only stand the suffering from doing the same thing and getting the same result for so long. So I have changed the way that I interact with my Hawks, and gone back to the realities of Nature. That is - if you don't catch game, you don't eat. Hope has missed numerous times over the last two days where-in I have walked 8 + miles. I personally am willing to allow my hawk to get as fat as I am, as long as they can produce dead bodies at the end of the day.

Now I recognize the handicap that I have put on Hope by taking the dogs on our hunts. They for the most part do not make any of the slips better, in fact the opposite is true. The further the slip the more likely the Rabbit can make a plan and escape the "talons of death". ( Sorry, I couldn't resist ) Josie and Brick both do their parts extremely well, but the result is longer slips. After our hunt on wed she ended up with a sore shoulder, and it is still causing her some pain. I like having them hunt together, and her going to where Hope is holding a Jack, is a big plus, but it increases the difficulty in Hope catching Jacks because The Jacks tend to flush well ahead with the dogs in the field. Josie is getting up there for a Brittany. She is 9 this year, and most of my earlier Dogs have died at about 11 years. Josie is recently showing signs of advancing age, and has a tendency to limp after the hunts.

As you know the last two days have resulted in going home with nothing in the bag. I don't feed my birds now if they don't kill. Hope has been feeling the pinch, and today she was down to 964 grams.  Last year was this was the maximum weight that I allowed her to attain. We began this particular fast at 1045 grams. This year she thinks her throat is cut at anything other than 1000 grams. I personally am at a loss at her hunting so hard at such a high weight, but I'll take it. Today every time I went outside she was coming to the Weathering yard gate in the hope that I would come for her.

I decided to go back to Arock and this time leave the dogs at home. Connie and I walked quietly through the Sage, pausing every few yards. It took no time at all before a Jack burst from the Sage about 20 yards away. Hope was off after him and slammed into the sage with a mighty crash. That scene occurred two more times just as hard. It was obvious that she wasn't going to go home with an empty crop this time. We were very quiet and slow as we traversed the Sage. Our forth Jack burst from cover about 25 yards ahead of us but this time a Jack's death song was heard after her crash into the ground, then just as fast was cut off.

This time the "bum  foot was used and was holding some Rabbit. She obviously caught it by the butt and changed her grip to the head. She was eagerly looking for her tin cup. I gave her the cup full and then a chunk of the last Jack's back, leaving me the dead Jack. We moved on perhaps 30 yards, and waited for her to finish what she had. When she had eaten most of it, she picked it up in her beak and flew to the fist for the rest of her meal. I gave her the head and neck to eat. and as you can see a head is a substantial meal.

We only walked .83 miles this time and I for one was glad for the respite. If Josie was not having problems with her shoulders, I would stick with taking them along, and suffer the added mileage.

Walking my butt off- too bad it doesn't work on bellies:-/

Normally I would not write if a hunt was unsuccessful. There are no dead bodies in this post, and I will try to keep the bitching down as well.

I put in four miles and a bit more yesterday in a futile effort to catch an elusive Jack. Today I put in another 4 or more miles. I am already bemoaning the fact that Pat doesn't live closer so that we could collaborate. The Harris have a lot of try, but it is so much easier to have two of them working the Jacks.

I followed a whim yesterday simply because I didn't want to hunt the same old fields again, and went out "Skull Creek" road at Rome to an area that I remembered having lots of game the last time I hunted it many years ago, 2007 actually. Its all dirt road and the back way to Three Forks on the Owyhee River. I stopped at several different sites hoping to find enough Jacks to make a hunt feasible. I was surprised to keep running into Hungarian Partridge. All total I saw 5 different coveys of them. Only about 6 per group, but that is a pretty good deal, If you have a long wing. To my surprise and a little bit of shame, the dogs didn't seem to recognize them as anything unusual. A sad testimony to my lack of bloodlust for a shotgun hunting trip. Just don't have enough energy to do both.

I climbed up on top of a little pointed hill to see if elevation would be of help to Hope in her pursuit of the wily Jack Rabbit. Josie (my female brit) was with me and Brick was working the sage a bit down the hill. A Jack got nervous and broke cover about 125 yards away. Hope took off after him and Josie took off after Hope. Hope of course missed and got back up off the ground to a Sage. Josie in the mean time had caught up to the chase and ran a circle bumping the Jack again and took off yipping her excitement. Hope hearing her, took off and joined Josie trying to catch up to the Jack again. Of course that didn't pan out either. I was standing there watching all this unfold, and laughing my butt off.

So today we hunted again. Hope was a bit below 1000 grams, so hunting was viable. I went to my normal spot at Arock to see if we could catch something there. Brick my male Brit had some training by a genuine hard core Brit hunter and courses nice and close rarely going out much further than 50 yards. That close work is exactly what I need the dogs to do. Josie who can't remember if she ever had any training from anyone other than myself is off like a shot to the far reaches of the field, firing blanks and scaring every thing out of the country far enough a head that Hope doesn't stand a chance. At least she would like to. I called her back twice and she was still stretching it, so I called her back, picked her front feet off the ground and explained that I didn't want her to do that. It actually was just that. She is a very soft dog, so the correction was no more than that. She understood what I wanted and stayed in close, allowing Brick to work back and forth in close.

Actually I would most likely, I believed until today, be better off without the Dogs along. I feel sorry for them so I bring them along. Today I changed my mind.

I had noticed that Josie ran with Hope on her chases earlier, but today with the elevation of the terrain I could see better what was going on. I have always encouraged my Dogs to go to the Falcon when she was on the ground for some protection from Coyotes and especially Eagles. My Pointer used to do that, but she has since passed on, and now Josie is taking up the slack. To what extent I did not realize until today.

The way that it always goes is that when the Jack realizes that we are in the field, they take off about 100 to 200 yards ahead. Hope (springs eternal, couldn't resist) and gives chase. There is plenty of time for the Jack to make a plan and they will usually make a feint that suckers her in, sidestep and take off leaving her sitting on the ground. Today I could see that Josie would arrive shortly after Hope made her shot, run a circle around her, generally jump the rabbit again. Hope also noticed that, and began to take advantage of it and was getting more shots in at the rabbit. Then I noticed that when Josie would jump the rabbit again she would take off after it yipping at every jump. Hope also understood that Josie had eyes on the Jack and there they would go over the horizon, Josie yipping and Hope pumping for all she was worth trying to catch up. When the chase was over, Josie would come back to heel, almost, until the next chase. I kept saying to myself that I needed to record their cooperative behavior but found my self with my mouth open grinning like a fool, not taking any pictures. The serious Bird hunters will be proud of me. Brick has also learned to point Jacks. So far its only where they have been, now if I can get him to expand and point where they  actually are, I will be far ahead of the game. So to sum it up I have taught two of the best bird dogs to chase Rabbits and to point them as well. At least, I think its a good idea!

On my way back Hope did a wingover behind a large Lava "lump", and when I got there, was no where to be seen. I looked all over since there were many cracks and holes under it. I could see not a sign of her nor hear her. I told the dogs to find her, and Brick went over to a hole, stuck his head down and whined. I could see nothing, but I whistled and here came Hope out of the hole like a tunnel rat, and came to the fist. "Good Boy" Brick!

As we drug our butts back to the car, both Dogs left me as soon as the car was in sight and laid down in the shade waiting for water. Hope flew to the gate and sat on the post, while I brought up the rear. When I got to the car I raised the back door, and Hope started to me. I wasn't ready so she landed on Josie's back while I fumbled with my glove. We all had a drink and went home to rest up for another day.

Picture Candy

It is the time of the spectacular Sun Rises and Sun Sets. First the Sun Rise.

This was Monday morning

Now the Moon Rise

This was Monday night

This was the Sun Set Tuesday evening.

Burns Falconry Meet

I have not attended many of the Oregon Falconers Club falconry meets in the last few years. I left that to Karen. I have felt that it is time for the newer generation to shape the club in their own image. I had my time, and I was content to let them run it as they wished. Karen is gone and the meet was in Burns Oregon only 100  miles from here, so it seemed a bit churlish to not attend. There are many things that I do not agree with, but that can be easily be attributed to the crankiness of advancing age- possibly? I  actually had a good time, and have the feeling that the new officers just might be on the right track. So I am glad that I took the time to go. My main bitch was that the officers did not include the membership in the day to day business of the club and it was becoming a bit to yuppie, (catered dinners, and unnecessary expense) Most of the membership are common dirt poor types, due to their chosen lifestyle of falconry. You can either be rich and famous or happy, but poor. Rarely both at the same time.

I arrived on Thursday, and having a dear friend as well, a lady friend within several blocks of each other, I had a leg up on every body else. I stayed at Connie's and went hawking with Pat Brewster. Since Hope has such a wide response weight, I starved her for a couple days, down to a lower weight that would give me a larger margin of weight gain so that she would be able to hunt all three days of the meet without shorting her on her kills. We started out at 940 grams, only 60 grams  (2 ounces) above her real flying weight, and ended up weighing 1148 when we finished. That is of course with her full crop at the next morning of the day after the meet. I would venture that most Raptors do not hunt well even two ounces above their normal flying weight. Hope is a champ even among her own species.

Pat and I hunted in a cast those three days and it was a lot of fun. That is the two birds were hunted together, and cooperatively. That increases the survival difficulty of the Jack Rabbits by a couple of hundred percent, as the Hawks soon learn to take advantage of the other Hawks "set ups". When one misses the other has a free shot that often will end in a catch by the other Hawk who has positioned herself to take advantage of the miss. I ended the three days of hunting with three Jack Rabbits in the bag for Hope. Pat I believe had two.

The one who caught the butt of the Jack is the one who actually caught the Jack,. (Hope)

The one on the head is the back up that keeps the first from getting taken on a ride.

Pat and I, sorting out the tangle and rewarding the victors.

The deer are moving in. I am seeing them in the yard and the creek. These are taking a nap by the creek.

The Moon rise

The Sunset.