Eagle Journal

Hello everyone:

We found a better link to the town of Vale, Oregon and replaced the one we had on the website; the other one was, well, a little depressing.  Vale does have some redeeming qualities, one of which is the murals that depict scenes from the Oregon Trial days that are painted on many of the town’s buildings. So take a look under the lodge tab.

Widow:

Widow is in very good condition, flying up and down and all around the hill, but still not doing a whole lot of soaring.   I’m still working on raising her weight but that seems to be taking its sweet time, not sure why? Could be all the flying she is doing. Now that I think about it that is probably the cause; if she was just sitting on a perch I’m sure her weight would jump up quickly.

I did observe something that I have seen other eagles do in the past and find it interesting. In the wild the thing that attracts attention is movement, a tail flick, an ear twitch, or wing flap. A good example of what I mean is a friend of mine was flying a young red tail this summer. The bird had already caught a ground squirrel, and he was eager to get back out in the field and hunt his bird again. His backyard backs up to a golf course which has hundreds of ground squirrels running everywhere. He told me that he could see squirrels feeding on the grass everywhere he looked and, since these squirrels are very accustomed to seeing people, he figured this was going to be easy picking for his bird. He got his bird on the fist and started walking out on the greens. He said his red tail made one slight wing adjustment while still on his fist, one squirrel saw the wing movement, sounded the alarm and, boom, they were all gone! When Widow is sitting on the ground on the hillside and just wants to fly she jumps into the air and takes deep, full wing strokes. But when she is going after a ground squirrel from the same hillside she does not jump into the air, she spreads her wings just over the tops of the grass and, without flapping, runs off the hill like a glider. No wing flap means no eye-catching movement. Interesting even Widow, with very little, if any, ground squirrel hunting experience, somehow knows this. Pre-wired in her brain is the knowledge that movement will attract attention.

JH:

Jack hammer is still growing in at least 7, possibly 8, feathers — tail feathers, secondary feathers, and primary feathers. Despite all this he is in very nice condition, as I’m sure you’ve realized from reading what he has been doing. He has a long season ahead of him. Long after Widow will be shut down JH will still be flying. First we hope to go to Wyoming sometime in late September or early October to hunt white tail jacks. That will be a tune-up for the upcoming IEAA meet in Garden City, Kansas and then on to the NAFA meet in Nebraska from there. There is also the Oregon Falconers meet in October I think, and probably one in Idaho which we would like to attend. A lot of hawking yet to come!

I did not get out into the fields until after 10:00 am, late by my standards, and was wondering if I would find any jacks at all. The big hay field is at the most perfect height, 4-6 inches; just enough hay to offer cover but still wide open which means fast flights. The wind was blowing pretty strong; JH was having some trouble staying on my arm. No matter, I worked the field paying no attention to wind direction. I had walked for 15 or 20 minutes and worked my way out into the middle of the field. JH was hunting — he was looking everywhere, at any and all dark or light spots that could be a rabbit. Scanning way out over the field in front of us JH suddenly stood as tall as he could. I love that .he spotted something? Just as quickly he was gone, flying crosswind, building speed and height. Looking in the direction he was flying I could see ears just as they disappeared. JH went into high gear, flying over the canal, banking downward. JH just kept driving all the way in and slammed a jack 850 yards away! I walked it off figuring one yard for each step, 850 of them. JH was not in a sharing mood. In fact, as I was trying to get him to step off he came at me and tried to hook me in the leg what a horrible eagle! I got him to give up his jack, got everything under control, unhooded him, and stood there for a moment.

JH will tell me when he is ready to hunt again with a roust, and once that is done he is ready. So off we went. Maybe 20 steps and right in front of me a jack exploded from cover like a sprinter running a 100-yard dash. This jack ran as straight as an arrow, never wavered one bit, ears pinned the entire time. It had to have been only milliseconds from the time the jack flushed and JH reacted. It was the most bazaar thing because my eye picked up the movement of the rabbit at the exact same time that I felt JH reacting and he was gone! JH powered off my arm and his wings were a blur, flying right after the jack. I could see them both ..the jack was, for a few yards, still accelerating, but then even the great speed of the jack rabbit was nullified. The jack was in full burn out and JH, still building speed, just flew down the jack rabbit speed on speed! I am sure that my attempt at describing this flight falls short. This was clearly the most impressive flight so far, and that jack rabbit was clearly running at its top speed with nothing in the way to slow it down. I called it a day and fed up JH.

Hope all is well,

Joe