This bird doesn't lose weight easily. She was only a gram and a half lower this evening. I suppose with such a small bird it's better to be a little high instead of low, but geez. Slow progress.

This time I planted a tethered sparrow baggie in a field I hope to hunt this fall. The weeds are about knee high and it's near an intersection with lots of noisy distractions. She did great, the crunchy tall grass didn't bother her at all, I walked around the edge and set her on a branch just above my head. It took her a bit to turn around and see the lure 20 feet away but once she did she was on her way and followed it down into the grass and let me pick her up again with no problem. Back on another tree branch and another smooth but slow lure call.

I spent a few minutes walking in a circle and moving toward our baggie. For some reason the sparrow went straight up and kind of hovered about 10 feet above the ground and Ruby quickly bound to it and tried again to carry it off to the nearest tree, reached the end of her creance and circled back landing almost at my feet. I'm pretty sure that was a coincidence but it was still pretty convenient. Every other baggie she has caught has been in ankle high grass or shorter and I expected her to try to carry again but once she hit the ground she stuck there.


I gave her a second to break in and pushed down a section of the tall grass. She looked around and decided the back if my hand looked good and hopped over with her now opened sparrow.



Just as she finished her sparrow, three fire trucks went screaming by about a quarter mile away. She tried to look but I think the grass was too tall and she finished on the lure with no problem.



We are on the right track, it's just taking a longer time to get there than I hoped.