Life on The High Plains: Better Blood, Beef on the Ground, and A Bird in the Hand!

It's been a busy week!!! Last Tues, David had his blood checked and his platelets came back at 26k. At 20k, a person can spontaneously bleed internally so the doctors were understandably concerned and asked for another test on Thurs. If he hadn't improved, then it would be off to ABQ for a platelet transfusion. Thurs, though, his platelets were up to a whopping (for him) 44k. That's basically the highest they've ever been for him. Me and him celebrated by going to Dairy Queen where I had a Blizzard for supper. I actually only blew my daily calorie count by about 50 calories, too.

David got to check his own blood! This is the machine that does it all.

On the falcon front, my goal this year was to take 2 birds- a peregrine and a prairie falcon. I want to fly them in different ways and I want the prairie to be a female (they're larger) and the peregrine a male. It's been harder finding prairie falcons this year than peregrines! I have 3 sites near me and 2 came up blank.

On Sunday, I visited my last hope and was greeted by a chick standing on the edge of the nest. Alas, there was only one. It's legal to take the sole chick, but the ethics of it bother me as the parents don't finish the nesting cycle and may consider it a failure. On Monday, I checked a new site where we saw a male flying around and screaming over a new cliff, but repeated visits have turned up blank. I really wanted to find birds, but after 3 h of seeing nothing and me climbing to the top of the nest cliff, I had to call it a dud.

The view from on high. VERY dry this year.

Portrait of The Artist As a Disappointed Falcon Seeker.

Monday night I decided to re-visit the single chick and make a decision on the take then. I wasn't too happy about taking the sole chick, but in the long run of the scheme of prairie falcons in the West, it wouldn't make any difference. I still wasn't happy about it, though.

But, before I could do anything, we had cattle to deal with. A truck with 84 fresh head arrived and once the ladies got back from Vacation Bible School, we put the new beeves out. The move went very well, with me on an ATV and Brianna riding my horse.

Cowdogs and a Cowgal.

The View from an ATV

We got all that done and then dealt with a minor horse issue. Seems that our geldings are a bit jealous of who gets to pasture with the mare. Sandyman (my horse) is out in the big pasture and we'd really like him in the small trap because it's easier to catch them for work. Ross is in the small pasture and we'd like him in the big pasture. B2 tried to switch but the two geldings immediately started fighting over the fence. So, we had to do a little re-re-shuffling.

Then, finally, it was off to the prairie falcon cliff. Upon arrival, I put my new spotting scope on the nest and whoa... there were two birds on the nest! I went up to 60x (I love this scope!) and really thought I could see a 3rd bird laying down on the nest. It would be unlikely for the parents to be sitting on the nest with the young at that age, so we almost certainly had at least 2 young. Hallelujah!!! I shouldered my pack with ropes and gear (24 lbs!) and started up the slope with B2 carrying a smaller pack. Tie-off points are scarce on the rocky slope and my plan was to tie to a rock I'd previously scouted, pound a stake for a 2nd tie-off, and then use B2 herself as my 3rd anchor. Our friend Shane joined us up on the slope and I put him to work, too, sitting on the strap tied to the rock to make sure it didn't pop off.

With all that done, over the cliff I went. Imagine my joy when I landed on the nest ledge and found 3 chicks. There were 2 males and 1 female and I grabbed the female and gently put her in my backpack. Then I rappelled on down to the bottom. Shane and B2 cleaned up the gear on top and joined us all on the bottom. Everything went perfectly and my shunt was great as I just let go and it locked me in place on the nest. I felt pretty comfortable on the rope.