Widow 7/29/08
July 29, 2008
Location: Rattlesnake Ranch, Oregon
Cordi and I loaded up the two dogs, Maggie and Thistle, and Widow, and headed out early for Rattlesnake Ranch which is about an hour and a half from home. It’s a beautiful drive through the mountains and high plains. It’s fun to see all the deep canyons and then, rather abruptly, the road levels out into the great basin which goes on forever. As far as you can see it is flat grassland. This basin covers parts of three states, so it is quite large. During the winter we hunted JH on this ranch and found many jack rabbits, as well as tons of eagles, both golden and bald. My hopes were high, simply because, like I said, we had found plenty of jacks along the hillsides before. It wasn’t the greatest for JH but could be perfect for Widow. We arrived in good time, just past 10 am, which is the time the thermals start and Widow likes to fly. We drove in and Glen, the ranch manager, greeted us and basically told us we could go anywhere you gotta love that! The plan was to go right to where we had found jacks before, hike up the side of the hill, and launch Widow. Once she was airborne we would work the side with the dogs and see what happened.
The air was almost dead and Widow had difficulty finding any rising air. She flew back and forth looking with little success. She finally found some updrafts with the help of a turkey vulture and, just as she was getting up there, a Swainsons hawk stooped at her. When another joined in, Widow was in a panic and soon landed. After a good long while she got back in the air and we started to hunt. We worked a good section of the hillside and saw not one jack rabbit. So we changed plans and drove over to another spot on the ranch which is quite beautiful. It is a valley with mountains on both sides and plateaus with flat tops that are very high, 1,000 feet easily, and very dramatic looking. The entire valley looks, to me anyway, like prime jack rabbit habitat. There’s water, cover and food.
We walked out into the valley, working our way to the base of the hill with the tallest rocks and cliffs on it. We could see ravines and a pair of eagles circling the top. The breeze had picked up some and the closer we got to the base of the hill the stronger the wind got. I decided to launch Widow a little sooner than planned, mainly because I was tired of carrying her. She flew out over a hay field around the base of the mountain and disappeared to the other side. We continued to walk along the base as we had no intentions of going higher. Plus, I wanted to work the valley floor for jacks.
Widow reappeared on the side of the mountain, riding the wind and gaining height quickly. She worked her way up the hill, landing a few times, until she launched out and caught a thermal that literally took her straight up and over the mountain. Coming from the right side we saw an adult male golden eagle flying directly under Widow, looking up at her, interested in the jesses, I’m sure. He made one pass, jumped on the same thermal as Widow, and continued on his way. I called Widow down from the top of the mountain and she came in with a magnificent stoop from a great height. Widow launched off my fist again and headed in the same direction as before, flying around the mountain and disappearing. This time, however, when she returned she had a large first year female golden following her and this youngster was very sure Widow was carrying food (i.e. the trailing jesses). The young female followed Widow around for several minutes and on two occasions went in after Widow who really did not seem to care all that much. Cordi and I just stood and watched as Widow flew thousands of feet above us with ravens and wild eagles all using the same rising air. We saw no signs of jack rabbits in the valley.