Dec 2nd Still gaining weight!

 We have been getting colder and colder with each night that passes. Harris Hawks in their home territory rarely have freezing temperatures to worry about, and thus they are really not suited for this country. It dropped to 10 degrees last night, and will be getting colder. Hope has survived 15 degrees so far, and of course the higher body weight gives her fuel enough to combat the cold. I decided the last time I flew her that it was time to go inside at night. I do not need a hyperthermic Hawk. She of course does not understand why she cannot have the full run of the weathering area. I need to tie her to a perch, so that I can bring her in at night. She has been holding 1020 grams while spending the nights out. I started bringing her in the shop for the last two nights. The shop maintains 35 to 40 degrees.

It warmed up to 20 degrees by 11:00 AM, so I picked her up and put her on the scales. I had given her no more food than I always give her, but today she weighed 1041 grams. I guess she was burning a bit more to keep warm. I keep wondering what is her top weight? When will she just sit on the fist and watch the Jacks disappear into the sunset? Well apparently we haven't found it yet.  

Sue, ( my fishing buddy ) texted me, wondering when I was going hawking. I wanted to check another area to see if it was worth hunting, so after Sue arrived we drove out another dirt road at the ranch next door to see if anything lived there. After walking three different spots on that road, it became obvious that it wasn't worth the effort, so I drove closer to the ranch's hay fields, where I knew the Jack's frequented. I do not like to hunt the same field more than once a week if I can possibly keep from it.

Hope had been getting more than a little restless and tending to go off to see she could find some Jack's on her own. So when we got close to the ranch, we began to see a Jack or two. She had three slips in a couple of hundred yards, but wasn't able to connect due to the thickness of the greasewood. She kept getting knocked off course by her wings hitting the bushes. Then we found one that was in a bit more open area. He didn't make it.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

A paltry four miles today to get her dinner, and he was a fat one too. I may have to either compress the "Trophy tails" or get a longer piece of string.

  The string on the left is last years "trophies".

Nov 30

 Although I have done so before, it was quite a long time ago, so I will explain the difference in hunting styles of Falcons and Hawks.

Falcons generally hunt from  altitude in an interception style of flight. Peregrines "generally" ( quotes because there are no hard and fast rules.) hunt from high above. Their vision is such that they can be out of our human sight, or the prey's sight, and still be able to see easily any prey flying below. By flying high the element of surprise can be used successfully. The link below should give you some idea of how a falcon is hunted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emlJH0_tKQE

A Hawk however is hunted from the fist, a tree or a tee perch in Hope's case. 

https://vimeo.com/295275937                password-  owyheeflyer

I generally am too busy to take any pictures, so I have been depending on Bruce to take pictures for me. That is great, except for the fact that I didn't get the ones from Friday until today. So you will get two bunches of pictures today.

I had walked off and left her with her leg, and she came looking for me.

It was pretty cold today with a Cold Front was right over us when Bruce and I went out to hunt his falcons and I, to hunt Hope. The wind was honking right along.

We flew his old Falcon first on an artesian lake. The Ducks tend to go there in the middle of the day to rest, and while there are almost always Ducks there. There is not a good way to check for birds on the water and You never know what you are going to get until you show yourself. We have been trying different approaches to setting up the hunt, and have yet to settle on a good one as of yet. The problem is that we are so far away from where the falcon will come down with a Duck. The first time we flew her there, she attracted the unwelcome attention of a Golden Eagle. Both the falcon and Bruce are pretty nervous when we are there.

So we tried something different today in that Bruce went wide, while I stayed on top so that I could flush. The falcon had gotten to a good pitch and was circling the pond, when apparently some of the Ducks got nervous and decided to depart the area. Bruce had not even had the chance to get in position, and didn't know that his falcon had already knocked a Mallard down on the far side of the pond. The wind was howling and he couldn't hear me yelling, so I did my best, 76 year old run, (stumbling- bumbling ) around the long way to make sure that she had some protection. I found her in a small ditch wrestling with a Drake Mallard. 

After we got her fed and put up, we got Hope out and began working the Sage just down from the pond. I wasn't able to bring the dogs this time as a trapper is working the area, and there are traps all over the place.

The wind actually slacked off a bit as the front was mostly gone to the East. There didn't seem to be as many Jacks as I would have preferred, but we did find a couple. They were flushing pretty wild in front of us. We crossed the road going into an area that I really had not hunted very much. A  Short Eared Owl flushed about 20 yards in front of us, and for a while I thought that Hope was going to catch him. I am not sure if he just out flew her, but I suspect that she slacked off when it wasn't running on the ground. I was just as pleased that she didn't get her feet into him, because she would have been grabbed right back.

I have not taught her to fly birds by design. There are not enough opportunities, no Pheasant any more,      ( Not recovered from West Nile) and only this year am I seeing any game birds at all. So there didn't seem to be any point.

After a short mile and half walk, we got a fairly close slip at a Jack, and though she chased him a long way she did catch him, and I was off again doing my "Leap over tall Sage brush" routine again. (yeah right!) Hope was so deep into the Greasewood that I only found them by the Jacks screams. I broke his neck and started the process of getting her out without breaking something. I tried pushing the Jack back through the hole in the Greasewood. ( Jack Rabbits will dig out a tunnel under these thick bushes to hide in and to use as an escape route. Squirt through one of these bushes and the pursuer is stuck on the other side) Only this time he just wasn't fast enough. Hope got her hooks in him before he could get deep enough.

I went back to the other side and pulled him out, gave her the cup of tidbits, and collected the Jack to clean. I kept the liver and heart for her as well as another leg.

 

Nov 28th, Trifecta!

 Bruce Haak has been coming over here to hunt a couple of times a week. He has a 10 yr old Tundra Peregrine as well as a passage Tundra Peregrine that he is just starting. I have introduced him to Hope and a totally different falconry style. Bruce has always flown falcons, and to my knowledge has never flown a "short wing" ( Hawk ) Of course the styles are as different as they could be.

Both of us are officially "Old Farts" and as such, need to exercise as much as is possible. Walking is boring, but Hawking is not, so this is beneficial as well as a lot of fun.

It warmed up enough this morning around 10 AM to go outside, so we loaded Hope in the car and drove to Arock to begin. I had hunted there earlier in the week, and I wanted to give it another try. I had a field that I had not hunted in a month or more. I thought that more Jacks might have moved into the area, as it always seems to hold Jacks even when they are scarce everywhere else.

Connie is here for a couple of days and joined us. With Bruce on one side, Connie on the other and the dogs running in front we began our sweep of the countryside. Unfortunately we saw few Jacks and all of them were from a distance as they were flushing about 100 yards in front.Hope tried almost all of them, but she was at a disadvantage, and they all ended up with the Jack disappearing over the hilltop. We went about 2 miles up the hill in the one "Pasture", actually all Sage and Lava Rock, and other than a couple of exciting flights on Brush Bunnies, we never got a decent flush. The Bunnies are so fast and devious that she was not able to catch one of them before they went underground. 

One of the Bunnies flushed a good distance from the Lava, was really hot footing it to his Lava home, and it looked to me as though Hope had him by the next jump. The little "bastage" slammed on the brakes, reversed the field and jenked back. Hope at full flight actually turned a complete loop, no bigger than two feet in diameter, and continued after him on the same trajectory. He made it to the Lava and disappeared. When I got there she was about two feet down in the hole. I spoke to her and she managed to back out. She had spider webs all over her head. She looked a bit like a Goshawk with the spider eye stripes. She was really grumpy!

I changed fields trying to get a bit closer to the Alfalfa fields, hoping for a bit more action, and only got into more Bunnies. Now, Hope is probably the fastest female Harris Hawk that I have ever seen, but these Bunnies are really hard to catch. They really turn her on, but damn, they are tricky and fast as can be. They also don't seem to be in anything other than big Sage, so she has a problem finding a clear spot to get through to make a grab.  She went subterranean several more times, and had to be coaxed out of the cavern system that a Badger or Coyote had created in one spot. 

Eventually as we neared the end of the second field just down from where we started, a Jack jumped about 20 yards in front of us, and she burned him down in about the same distance. We were about 400 yards from where we started, but we walked 4 miles to get there. She got a full crop and was a happy camper.

When we arrived back at the house, Connie stayed home while I went with Bruce to fly his birds. We went to the lake that spawns Crooked Creek, and his old Tundra killed a Drake Gadwall in a nice stoop. After feeding her, we went back to the ranch to see if we could find something for the young bird to hunt. We had tried her yesterday on the creek, but messed up the flush and she didn't stand a chance of catching one. She really tried her best but she couldn't overcome the head start that the Duck had. Ditch hawking is the toughest and the most frustrating thing you can ever try. They are never where you thought they were, and they never get very far from the water and dive back in the first sign of interest from the falcon.

I had a different spot that I wanted to try, so while Bruce was getting the bird suited up to fly, I did a little scouting. There is a little pond no more than 30 feet in diameter in the Sage at the South end of the ranch. I had assumed that it was frozen, but while I was waiting for Bruce to get set up, I watched a Duck fly into that area. I went ahead and "snuck" up to see if there was actually a Duck there. A little spot at one end was open ( It was about 10 degrees this morning) and I could see a Ducks butt, I backed out and was lucky that he did not see me.

We got into position and put the bird in the air. When she was in position we rushed the pond and a very surprised drake Mallard flew up trying to clear the Sage. She slammed into him, did a quick throw up, turned and slammed into him on the ground.

I have "entered" (first kill in captivity) many Hawks and it is a rare thing when it all works out  without some sort of screw up. This was perfect, and she will be well on her way to becoming a serious Game Hawk.

Seven miles today on our "Hawkatron". Crap, I need my Hot tub!

Nov 26- Happy Thanksgiving!

 The weather has been just perfect, bad weather- wind, snow, etc on the days that we don't hunt, then nice when we do. I like it! Quite unusual however.

Connie was supposed to have been here yesterday, but she wasn't able to make it yesterday, so Hope and I went hawking by ourselves.

 

The morning was nice and clear and the Steen's were glowing.

 I had decided to go to Arock to see if any of the local Jacks had moved into the area. It is Lava and Sage and near to some alfalfa fields, so it generally holds more Jacks that any place around.

I had asked Sue, the lady that found Jessie's body, if she wanted to go hawking with us, and she readily agreed. Sue was also going to share our Thanksgiving meal later in the day as well.

From the tracks in the small amount of snow on the ground, the population looked quite promising. There were lots of Jacks, but all of them were as wild as "March Hares" even in November, so all the slips we were getting were all long range. We also put up quite a few bunnies, generally when she was somewhere else, and she got very few good chances to score.

This one just barely beat her to the rock pile. She of course went in after him, but I am sure that he squeezed himself into the farthest corner that he could and pulled the hole in after him. 

We had covered parts of two fields in our quest to get a decent slip. She had crashed into many bushes, towered up as high as she could all to no avail, Then one of them finally screwed up and didn't get enough bush in between it and her. It was also the only close slip that we got. No time to plan, and she was too fast for it.

I had to untangle them to get it out to a point that I could put him out of his pain.

 The older more muscular ones are hard to kill. I try to stretch them enough to break their necks, as its less likely to break the Hawks toes or legs. This poor guy had to endure several attempts. 

We walked 3.4 miles total, and I lost track of how many Rabbits we saw. We also jumped three coveys of Hungarian Partridge in our travels.---Turkey time!

Nov 24th

 Last Sunday I went to Burns to help Connie clean her garage. I took Hope along so that I could also go hunting with Pat. Unfortunately the wind was howling ( only a bit of an exaggeration ) . There were quite a few Jacks in the field, and they almost all flushed a long way off.  Hope always went after them, Pat and Chilli were off somewhere else and it basically turned into my version of a cluster ****. 

Chilli was able to take advantage of a miss by Hope to snare the one Jack that gave us a close, decent flush. So, with Chilli getting a rabbit, I picked up all my marbles and went to clean the garage. Hope was carrying plenty of extra weight so she wasn't hurting for food. I hate hunting in the wind, it just adds another dimension of difficulty, and I try to avoid flying in wind that is in the teens. Harris hawks are just not suited to that type of flight.

Yesterday was also pretty crappy, so I didn't hunt then either. Today however was better and it was time to get out and catch some food.

The temperature was in the teens this morning with very little wind. I noticed a week or so ago that the rabbits seemed to be a little thicker close to the house early, so I put on some long johns and we tried the field by the house. I have taken quite a few of the residents there, but hadn't hunted it for a couple of weeks. We only found one Jack in there this time and he gave her the slip, so I came back in the yard and out the other side to hunt along the runway.

We weren't seeing much there either, but I was committed this time. I walked a big circle and she chased two Jacks, that were able to avoid her. Both were long slips and she was unsuccessful with both of them. I began to think I was going to have to get in the car and try some distant pastures, when one jumped at the edge of an opening, close to us. She nailed him in about 15 yards.

I was too busy taking care of the rabbit to take pictures, so we did our "Hero shot" after we got back home.

I wish you all a happy and safe Thanksgiving!

Nov 20

 I flew Hope on the 18th by myself, here at the house as I have been doing lately. This day however her weight was about 1021 grams, and she flew like her tail was on fire. She actually pulled  wads of hair out of three different Rabbits but they all made their escape. It was pretty windy, and I eventually decided that it just wasn't going to happen.

Today while it was a bit colder, the wind however had not come up as of yet, so Connie and I loaded Hope into the Hawk box on the back of the quad and drove to the end of the runway to begin our hunt.

We walked pretty much all over the low hillside without getting a decent slip at a Jack. Although she did get her feet into at least one Jack, he tore loose. Most of the Jacks were flushing at about 100 yards, and those are pretty long odds, but she still tries.

We circled around almost back to the house without getting the kind of slip that we needed. I tried a different track than what I normally use and still could not get her a decent shot at one. When we got back to the quad, I didn't put her back in the box, but rather left her loose and called her to the Tee perch to see if she would ride the perch while I drove. She did somewhat, and I was pleased enough that she might just learn to hunt that way as well. She would ride for a bit, then take off to get closer to the dogs. As we got close to the "bone pile" (junk yard) she flew to it, then off after a flushed Jack that hides there occasionally. Also a miss, then back to me on the quad. I had Connie get off and walk in front to see if she could get a picture of her riding on the quad.

As I got close to the end of the runway, I asked Connie to take the quad while I crossed the fence to see if we could get a chance at the Jack that has been hiding along the driveway and up the road from the gate. I intended to cross the fence at the rock jack that braces the fence there. As I neared the Rock Jack, he burst from the back side of the Jack where he had been hiding. He was just too close to make it, as Hope burned him down in about 30 feet. This time she was able to grab him in the face as they were rolling from the initial strike.

 He weighed over 5 pounds.

I may have to explore the use of the quad. That would get me some more territory to hunt as well as the ability to cover a lot more ground than I can on foot. Today was three miles and we caught the Jack about 200 yards from the house.

Back to normal

 There was a little break in the advancing storms and winds yesterday. I think the temps got into the low 60's. I hunted in a tee shirt yesterday and was sweaty by the time we got back in the yard. Our "quicky" hunts were done wearing winter coats and gloves.

I had a visitor from Idaho come over to hunt with his falcons and to experience the other side of falconry. It was soon obvious that this hunt was going to be a bit different than the last two.. We had just barely gotten into the field North of the house, when Hope chased a big Jack around in a circle, then the Jack made his break while Hope was down in the Sage, running across the open field and on to the South side of the property. I no sooner got her back on the tee perch, and she was off across the bare ground of the field below the house after a Jack down there. That was actually where I didn't want to go. The brush and Greasewood are thick down there. She made two attempts at Bunnies that had no problem in getting into cracks and crevices, leaving all of us frustrated.

It seemed that there were not too many Jacks to try for, and all of them were busting from their cover at long range. Its a rare long distance slip that she can get one of them to make a mistake. She still tries however.

We had seemed to cover an awful lot of ground before she managed to get her feet on one. He however managed to scrape her off on a Sage Bush. There was a handful of fur, but nothing else to show for it.

Another mile or two and she snagged another one, that also got away before I could get there to help her. More hair and empty toes. My shoulder was really hurting from carrying the tee perch. We got to within 400 yards of the fence around the house. It began to look as though she was going to go to bed hungry. A  young and foolish Jack rabbit broke cover right behind us, and Hope burned him down in less than 30 yards.

I checked my phone and found that it claimed that we had walked 5.9 miles in our hunt. That should make up for the two easy days that we had earlier.

I was too busy to take any pictures, so I decided to make up for it with this mornings sunrise.

I woke this morning before 7 AM and could see that we were going to have a very nice sunrise, so I snapped these pictures as they developed.