Eagle Journal

Hello everyone,

Shortly, Cordi and I are planning on going up to our ranch in Vale, Oregon to check on things and I plan on taking JH along to fly him up there. That should be interesting — traveling with an eagle is always an adventure. I’ll post some journals about it.

Today I went to the small hay field first, walked in, and flushed a jack. JH launched but had a good amount of ground to make up before the rabbit would make the fence. No sooner had he left the fist than another jack was up and running behind him. JH went barreling in and pulled up at the last instant, his momentum carrying him way up in the air, over the fence, road, and everything. As JH made the turn to return to me he saw a second jack coming out of the field and went after it. The jack was crossing the dirt road as JH was closing in. I could see the jack go over the road and off the far side with JH flashing right behind it! Then, just as fast, there was JH, running back up the far side of the road looking around like where did he go?’.

I then crossed the street. You know, I’m so looking forward to hunting up in Oregon where I won’t have to walk out of one tightly fenced field, across a city street, and enter another tightly fenced field, but that’s what I did going into the speed field. The vegetation in this field is weird; it almost looks like some kind of cabbage, maybe a distant cousin. Whatever it is, it’s strange and does not grow in any other fields that I have seen. It has big green leaves and only grows a foot tall. Each plant grows as an individual with some space around each plant. This coupled with the way the ground is table-top flat and very smooth, gives the jack rabbit a decided advantage. I had walked down one side of the field and was turning back to cover the second half. Up until then I had only spotted one jack running way out in front, heading for the fence and the streets beyond. JH was sitting dead still on the glove like a statue. I swear sometimes he can sense when a jack is near. Whenever he gets like that I know something is going to happen! I made the turn and on my left a jack exploded from cover no more than ten feet away. I saw the jack running across in front of me, left to right, at a high rate of speed. As the jack crossed in front of me JH came unglued. He came off the fist so fast, with such power, it made me laugh out loud.

Here’s what I saw Because of the low, green vegetation I could see the jack running with its ears pinned and taking huge strides, back legs coming up past its nose, eating up the ground in front of it, accelerating fast. JH came off the fist and dropped low, flying just over the top of the cabbage plant things. His wing beats were a blur, each stroke turning over at a rate that seemed impossible for a bird his size. Not only was he closing on this jack rabbit, it was with such power that it was a little scary. The jack still had its ears pinned and was trying to use the plants as cover, but JH closed so fast that all the jack rabbit could do was run. As the rabbit darted around a plant JH overtook it and the force of the blow sent both JH and the jack flipping in the air, coming to rest in one of these cabbage plant things. That flight took twenty feet, unbelievable.

I then went to the field from hell and unhooded JH as I was crossing the train tracks, another thing I won’t miss. I don’t think I’ll see too many train tracks in Vale, Oregon. I went up the bank, a rabbit flushed, and JH had it that fast. So I fed him his meal and went home, still replaying that first jack flight in my head. It was a nice drive home.

Hope all is well,

Joe

Pic 1:  JH in the cabbage plant thing on his jack rabbit

Pic 2:  JH on jack #2

Pic 3:  JH enjoying his meal