I could learn to like this!

 The weather has been a bit interesting, especially the wind part. That is of course one of my problems with Hope, is that she isn't made for chasing Rabbits into a head wind. It was windy enough that several bulky but heavy objects were blown across the parking lot and into the yard. One of them an aluminum, truck tool box, big enough to span the width of my truck.

It was supposed to be windier later in the day, so I got out a bit earlier than normal, or comfortable. The wind was only about 10 mph. She can handle that, but at 15 or more she is at a disadvantage, because the Jacks run right into the wind.

Since the wind was due to rise later in the day, I decided to hunt here at the house. It's been about a week since I hassled this group, so it wouldn't hurt to hunt them again and I wouldn't have all that far to walk when we got blown out. 

I once hunted a group of fields intersected by canals, so there was a physical separation of the fields. I only hunted each section once a week. When I began I found that there averaged three rabbits for each chunk of ground. I had a Goshawk that was really really good. The first Jacks that I took out of those fields weighed in the 6 pound range. I found that as I took one of the dominant Jacks out of the field, a new smaller (less able to hold the territory ) Jack would move in. I hunted them all season and when I finished there were still three Jacks per field, but they now averaged 2.5 pounds. That experience has been repeated many times over the years, so I know that it is not just coincidence. That is also why I try not to hunt a field more than once a week.

 Hope weighed 992 again today.

 In the field by the house, I know from observation, where each Jack calls home, but between Pat and I, we have caught the ones that hang in easily noted landmarks, and nothing had taken up those particular spots yet, so I cut through the middle of the field. There is a path made by my quad, and it seems to hold a couple of jacks as a boundary. They typically use either their paths or natural ones, and I jumped today's rabbit by that path. Hope caught him instantly, about 20 feet away, and they rolled in a ball on the open ground. The Jack broke free and as he ran I could see his ribs showing, where the skin had ripped away. It was only a superficial wound in that, she had only grabbed hair and skin, not actual meat, and the skin had torn. Hope righted herself and again caught him before he had gone 20 feet. This time she had a substantial chunk of flesh that wouldn't tear away. I tried to get in front of him to grab him, and he broke out of the bush and dragging Hope behind him, ran into another Sage bush. This time she changed her grip to his neck, and held him long enough for me to help.

You can see where she first grabbed him.

 Today's flight 1200 steps total. I may have to go on a diet, or at least for a walk.

Nov 12th- a "quickie"

 It was 9 degrees this morning. Winter seems to be in a bit of a hurry this year, but as they say "The only thing that stays the same, is that every thing changes"! Perhaps December will not be as cold for a change.

I had to go out to the Hangar last night about 10 PM to get something, and I noticed that I had at least four Jacks mowing my lawn for me. I always skip the last time that it needs mowing just so the Jacks have a last feeding on it. By spring the rabbit pellets will be almost as tall as the grass. As well as almost as plentiful as the blades of grass that's left. Its nice to know that I have some in reserve to hunt if worse comes to worse.

I waited till about 11.AM before I got things ready to go Hawking. I don't know how Hope feels about it, but my hands get pretty cold holding the tee perch, so I gave it a chance to warm up a bit. I loaded her up in the Hawk box and with the dogs running in front, drove to the end of the runway to begin my hunt.

Hope weighed 992 this morning, and seemed pretty anxious to hunt. We were just getting started, when she flew off the tee perch, gaining a bit of altitude, and slamming into the ground about 60 yards in front of me. A Jacks death song followed the strike, followed by silence. When I got there, I found that she had him by the head, and he wasn't struggling at all. There was quite a bit of blood on the ground from his head wound. I broke his neck anyway, just to make sure  that he wasn't suffering any more than necessary.

 Now what am I going to do for the rest of the day? 1400 steps for the entire morning. :-/

Nov 10, a first for Hope.

 I am afraid that the title is a bit over blown. Yes Hope did catch her first Quail of her career, but in truth the success was more the fault of the Quail than in her prowess. What the heck, even the success that comes of Happenstance, is better than none at all. It all still counts as one. I have never taught her that she can catch winged quarry. She will try for them on the ground, but when they fly, she forgets about them. I have been content with that arrangement.

Jack Rabbits don't have horns, no matter what you have been told, so the only trophy that they possess is their tails. They pull off easily and don't stink so they serve to keep me honest. My memory banks are full of trivia so there is not all that much room for things such as how many rabbits my hawk has caught this year, so exaggeration can easily get away with me. By keeping the tails right in plain sight, they assist me in my quest to be humble.

I decided that a different angle would better allow comparison, so I put them both on the floor. As you can see at the top of the picture that I had an interloper, who himself aspires to be a great hunter, and was actively stalking what he perceived to be his prey.  The string on the right is this years count. The ones on the left is last years total. 

The Quail head may end up stinking for a bit, as the kitten has no problem sorting out the one tidbit that should be tasty. I had to choke the little sucker out to retrieve my trophy Quail head, just added today. 

Connie is off to the Valley this week and I am "kitten sitting". These two characters are of course charming, while still being challenging. However you need to keep a wary eye out, or they might attack when your back is turned.

I had attempted to hunt Hope yesterday, but she did not seem all that interested. I did change hats, and I am not sure if that is why she chose to not stay on my fist, but return to her perch, It didn't matter. We didn't go hunting.

Today she was anxious to hunt. The wind is due to come up and we are supposed to have a bit of snow, so I went out a bit earlier than usual. She got a flight while I was still walking to the fence, but missed. I crossed the fence and hadn't gone very far when I heard a Coyote yipping an alarm call not very far away. Well that was just great, having to hunt a field that has been worked by a Coyote is not one of the best ways to find an unwary victim, especially since it kept up a constance warning yipping at us. We did find at least two highly motivated Rabbits to chase, with no success, even while the Coyote was yelling his fool head off.

I was zigging and zagging all over the Sage, when Hope launched off the Tee perch and slammed into the ground. Two Quail flushed out of the skimpy Sage, and then two more as I approached where she was crouching.

 

This was the first time she has actually connected with a Quail, usually they are in pretty heavy cover. there is not a lot of chance to see the Quail in her feet, as she kept her back to me. She had a few tidbits to reassure her out of the cup then jumped to the fist with the Quail when I held out my gloved fist.

The wind was coming up and I could not find a reason to continue. Our deal is, when she catches she gets to eat. It was time for me to live up to my end of the bargain. I traded her some Jack for the Quail, and we began our trip back to the house. She got her fill of Jack Rabbit, and I will have Quail for dinner.

Nov 7th

 Winter still hasn't fully closed its fist on us yet, but you can see it coming. Yesterday afternoon it was a bit breezy ( wind in mid 20's ) but still not too cold. There was a small sprinkling of rain last night, and as the day progresses its getting darker and darker. I just got the last of my winter wood, and I have made a small start on splitting it. I hope to get a bunch more done today.

It doesn't look as daunting with two and half rows split.

I went out to get Hope this morning to go hunting before the work started. She was very anxious and hanging on the door urging me to get a move on. I was therefore surprised to find that she weighed in at 1024 grams. I weighed her twice, and decided that she must be converting some of that fat to muscle, or she has been having visitors (mice) in her pen. I thought about it and since the only other thing that I had to do was split wood, I decided to go hunting. 

Since I am hunting here I have transferred every thing to my quad, to minimize the damage to the runway. She is in a box after all and other than a bit of noise, every thing is the same. Josie hopped up onto my lap and we trundled off to the end of the runway to start. Saves me about a mile and third walk, so its worth doing. and that way I don't burn all of my hunting area by hunting the same 3/4 of a mile every time. The key is to switch it up and not hunt the same patch time after time.

I wasn't really sure what she was going to hunt like, but I needn't have worried, she was even hotter than the last time we went out. She put up the same rabbit five different times, covering three hundred yards, and he still got away. After walking over the hill and down the other side, chasing three different Jacks in the process, we finally got a close slip of about 40 yards. She burned it down in no time. 

Well fun's over, time to go to work.

Nov 5th- still fat- still hunting!

 After my last hunt with Hope, at a weight that I considered pretty heavy, I was hoping that she would lose a bit more weight for today's hunt. Its not that she didn't do well, she did, she just shouldn't have. There should be a point somewhere that she is just too portly to make it around the necessary corners so that she can catch Jacks. Jacks are not easy for any Hawk. They are smart and damn fast. I guess we still haven't found it. She again tipped the scales at 990 grams this morning. I'm not complaining, the fact that she wants to hunt so much is a real plus for me.

I had a little company this morning, one of them was the gal that found Jessie after she died, and has become my fishing buddy. She had a friend with her that had never seen a Hawk hunt before. 

I wasn't sure that Hope was going to come to me, willingly, as I suspected that she might be a bit chunky. No worries, as soon as she saw me in my hunting uniform, she was plastered to the chain link of her weathering area. Still 990 grams. I thought that she was so heavy that it wasn't worth the effort to go anyplace other than around the house, as I thought that she wasn't going to do all that much and I didn't want to waste every ones time. We had other things to do, so rather than put in four or five miles trying to find a Jack that was stupid enough that a fat Hawk could catch it, so my old grass fed ( lawn mowers) Jacks, could at least show them how she would normally hunt without expending most of the day getting back to the house. I have at least four Jacks that call the Sage around my house, their home, and they have eluded Hope at least four or five times so far.

As we walked to the fence to go into the Sage, Josie busted a Jack just outside the fence. Hope put in two shots at him that were oh so close, but not close enough. We walked on across the Sage and a Bunny busted out on full afterburner for the edge of the "cliff" that edges the creek, and  she lost him in the rocks. She was right on him, but couldn't get a clear shot through the Sage. I think she also had a shot at a Jack down by the creek before I got there. 

We turned back towards the House and a Jack broke cover, pretty close to us, and she burned him down.

She never fails to amaze me. She is still only using one foot to hold these guy's, but we haven't lost one this year at all- so far.

I added some photo's that were not available to me until yesterday. They were taken on the third of Nov.

Nov 3rd

The last time I hunted Hope, I decided that she needed some fur to clean out her crop. ( Raptors hold food in their crop, thus it can get a bit slimey and nasty if not regularly cleaned ) The castings are what accomplishes that. However this time I chose to give her a Rabbit head to do that. Rabbit heads contain a lot more food that one would think, and she generally gains weight when she eats one, as she eats every thing but the teeth.

So it wasn't much of a surprise when I picked her up yesterday, that she was a bit chunky. 990 grams, a full ounce more than her last flight. She still seemed ready to hunt, so off we went. The Jacks were not letting us within 100 yards so we has some pretty long flights, which of course are mostly going to be failures. 

Brick, who is quite happy to include every thing in his hunting routine, started rooting in a smaller Sage, scaring out a really small (perhaps a Shrew) critter, which Hope beat him to. That went down the hatch. It was really small so it didn't amount to much more than an appetizer. Then not too further along, Brick somehow managed to root out a Kangaroo Rat. Of course Hope caught it. That one took a bit more time and had a lot more mass to it. She was really liking this hunt. All those little sweet little morsels, just running around that didn't even kick her or drag her through tall bushes. The 70 degree weather was conspiring against me. Not only was I sweating, it was warm enough for the smaller critters to be out and busy as well.

The terrain turned into a lot larger and thicker Greasewood and Rye Grass. Hope slammed into an exceptionally dense mess down by the creek and didn't come back up. I went to look and had a hard time finding her. Eventually, I found her under a dense mess of limbs with a Bunny in her feet. She had it by the head, so it wasn't making any noise at all. I killed it and gave her a front leg to eat.

This area was once the site of one of the early ranches, or homesteads that were scattered through the area. Its appears to be a pretty "hardscrabble" type of an outfit.

From there we took the straightest line to the house. The hunt covered 4.94 miles. One bunny and two "Timber Tigers", or "incidentals" which ever you prefer. If I count each and every kill, we are racking up a score this year. :-/  

November 1st

 After a leisurely breakfast of Sunday Sour Dough Pancakes, the temps came up enough to venture out in search of breakfast for Hope. Connie is with me this weekend so I have some welcome company to share the day and to take a few pictures for you.

In order to get to the area here that seems to have the most Jacks, one has to do quite a bit of walking well before you find much in the way of flights. Yes there are at least three Jacks living within my fences of the runway, but I don't want to hassle them each time I go out to hunt, so the only choice is to get past that point before I take Hope out of the Hood box. The car tears up the soil a lot more than I am happy with, so here comes plan B.

The box sits at a bit of an angle, but not so much that it would be a problem. Hope weighed 967 grams today and was very interested in going hunting.

With Hope in the box, Connie on behind me, Josie in my lap, we trundled out to the end of the runway. Josie is getting up there, so she has learned that a ride is not a sign of weakness, merely an indication of intelligence. Brick is stronger, younger and much too big to find a spot for him to ride.

What I am holding in my hand is cuttings from a "Rabbit Brush" They cut the outer ends of the branch off and I am told the rest of it contains moisture. There is a lot of little bushes like this out here.

This is what it looks like when they "dine or drink" from the Rabbit Brush.

We got a couple of slips going over the hill, but they managed to out maneuver her. Then one took off down on the flat she gave chase and missed her shot at it. Josie of course went to help her, and we walked that direction as well. There had been an attempt long ago to form a small dam to catch some of the rain water draining off the hillside. I walked around the "dam" to get to her thinking that it might have taken cover close by. We did jump one on the other side of the dam where she couldn't see it. I thought that might have been the one she chased. She flew to the perch as I got near, and I circled the other direction. We hadn't gone far when a young of the year busted right at our feet. I actually got to see her catch this one.

I pulled them out of the brush, and put them down on the bare ground

I killed it, and she was waiting for me to give her something. I gave her her cup of food and then a front leg from an earlier kill. She has learned that I will give her something to eat, rather than feeding her off the body. So she waits for me to kill the rabbit, give her the cup of tidbits, then a leg or some other chunk of rabbit to eat. When she gets her food, she lets go of the Jack. She had done so when I gave her the cup. I was a bit tardy in getting her other piece, so she reached out and grabbed it by the head again looking at me like" what are you trying to pull"? When I presented the leg, she again let go of it. We both laughed, she wasn't about to let me have it without payment to her.

Instead of feeding her the rest of her meal, I calculated that we had about a mile and half to walk to the quad, so rather than give her the rest and have the hassle of trying to walk with her trying to eat, I would not feed her till I got to the quad. So she went back on the perch as we walked to the quad.

We did get a few more chances at Jacks, in fact she tore a ball of fur off a Jack before we got close to the quad, and then a "Timber Tiger" ( name given to those miscellaneous lizards,voles, and other undesirable, to the falconer, items that present themselves. By Toby Bradshaw)  broke from cover. It was a race between Brick and Hope as to who would make the kill of such a fine specimen. Hope was a blur, Brick, not so much.

 The day was lovely, and warm with brilliant sunshine. Hope got way too much to eat, and we were blessed to be able to walk 2.75 miles to get it all done.