Eagle Journal

Hello everyone,

Today was our first day with a guest in the field and I was a little concerned about how JH would fly. Those of you that are long time readers know that JH has issues with guests in the field. Widow, on the other hand, I figured would be fine. Goes to show you, you never take birds for granted.

JH:

With JH the only way to introduce someone new in the field is to gradually work into it. I have the guest stand a good ways off to the right so JH can give them the once over and get comfortable with them. It’s very important that they make no sudden moves, wave their arms or throw sticks, rocks, bottles, because I have had people do all of these things. And if that happens they’re done; JH will not hunt around them, period. In fact, he just might fly off and sit on a hill until they leave! It takes him a while to warm up even if he’s OK with you. A good example is if a jack flushes on the right and goes near any guest JH won’t even flinch. But sooner or later he can’t resist and starts hunting, as he did today. Oh, and he’s not beyond going after someone either!

Going into the pole field JH was looking at our guest, Vince, a little intently but seemed all right. Now, I’m in somewhat of a dilemma here if I know that JH is looking at a guest in a manner that suggest he wants to eat them should I, a) not say anything and hope that JH turns his attention back to jack rabbits, or b) say something to the intended victim in hopes that they flush and I get a flight. Just kidding, I wouldn’t do that, unless ..well, never mind. We walked the pole field, saw some jacks but nothing in range, so we headed for the big hay field.

Eagles are an amazing bird As we walked through the hay field we didn’t flush one jack. Heck, the farmer should be happy about that, we didn’t see one. In the beginning JH was looking close, say, 20-30 yards ahead, but after it was clear nothing was happening, he adjusted. He was now hunting 100 yards out, the same thing he did last year hunting in Wyoming. As we walked along, sure enough, we started to see some jacks slipping out the far end of the field, and so did JH! A good 200 yards out in front of us we saw a jack making its way towards a large patch of wild grass that is growing around a telephone pole. The rabbit was running along the lower edge of the tall grass heading out to the far end of the hay field. JH was now up on his toes looking as tall as he could, watching the jack rabbit. He rolled off the fist and flew low, just over the top of the alfalfa hay, steadily building speed. We could see the jack as it came out into the open, running along the dirt, heading for cover. JH was most of the way there and was hauling. Up until now his wing strokes had been full rotation, deep strokes but now he started to take shorter, quick wing strokes. We just stood and watched as JH closed in on the now freaked out jack rabbit that was trying to get into the tall grass. We saw the jack start to disappear, head, shoulders, midsection, and bang. JH arrived with attitude, slammed into the back end of the jack rabbit and jerked it, not a tug or a pull, but jerked the jack rabbit out of the tall grass! I don’t think Vince had ever seen anything quite like that. We hunted out the rest of the field, heading back to get Widow.

Widow:

Dear Widow! From the second I unhooded her she was not happy with Vince. She would not hunt at all! All she wanted to do was get away, which is fine because she is going to be released, but I was very surprised at how she reacted. So I rehooded her and we went home ..end of day. It would have served no purpose to continue hunting. It would have just led to frustration on Widow’s part as well as mine. Usually they come back with a renewed focus the next time they are hunted.

Hope all is well,

Joe

P.S. It’s 108’ as I write this at 6:22pm!!!!