Best Day Yet

I took the Baron out to the nearby fields with my sponsor and a seeled starling. It could still see light and when it was released it flew straight toward the sun which was at a low angle and in the wrong direction. In that direction were horse corrals and houses. My bird sat and watched it fly off for maybe 10 seconds and I wondered whether he would go but he finally launched. By that time the starling had a 40 yard head start and was released about 10 yards from us. But the Baron flew it down and bound to it in the air about 10 feet up and they landed in the middle of the ooey-gooey horse corral about 100 yards away. The horses didn't like all the flapping and screaming from the starling so they moved to the far side and watched. I slipped and slid through the muck and recovered the Baron and his catch. He did mantle and made one hop away from me with the starling but when I came around to the front of him he settled down and let me help him.

Lessons learned:

1. Approach the bird on his prey from the front.
2. Release a prey bird further away from the buildings.
3. The Baron will work for his food.

My sponsor said the Baron did very well except for the waiting part at the start. He said I should bring his weight down a little while doing these first training flights to make sure he's sharp and to be able to train the right behavior. I had him at 108g and we will try him again on Monday at 105g. Then it's back to work for me and dark evenings for another month or so. :( It's been great to have this last week and a half of day time to work with the Baron.

I had told my sponsor of the flock of starlings I mentioned that he bated at in my last post and he was very surprised that they were so far away and that he was so keen to get at them. That got my sponsor thinking and he suggested we try training him on flocks of starlings like he would a merlin. He has been a falconer longer than I've been alive and he knows merlins very well. We'll see how gamey this little kestrel is and if he'll go for that sort of hunt. I'm game for training him to do whatever. I mean really, car hawking isn't in the repertoire of a normal kestrel so why not ringing flights on flocks of birds? Sure, a kestrel may not have the speed, but if he has the smarts to approach them correctly, he just might be able to cut out a bird from the flock. I'm excited to see what we can get this bird to do with my sponsor's knowledgeable help.

Flying Free

I took the Baron out this morning at 103.7g and was going to find a starling slip for his first free flight; something that would keep him focused. We drove all over and found nothing on the ground though he sure was interested in lots of things he saw through the window. A flock of starlings was zig-zagging over a field about 100 yards away and he bated toward the window. Good eye, boy!

We went home and I unleashed him in the back yard and he flew to me and the lure for his tidbits with no problem at all. Quick response every time. Later on in the day I took him out at 105.5g and he responded just as well. I'll keep moving his weight up and see where the breaking point is.

The starling trap was seeded with 5-6 yesterday afternoon and this morning there were at least 12 in it. Yay!

I finished the giant hood today and I think it'll hold up fairly well.

I also went out with my sponsor to help him flush ducks for his gyr/peregrine. He made 3 stoops but no catches. Those ducks are quick and smart. It was great to see his bird do its thing, though it was a little freaky to have a falcon zoom 5 feet away from my head toward its quarry.

Train the Trainer

You've heard of the blind leading the blind? Yeah, that's me training my kestrel.

The last few days were very discouraging with the Baron. I was trying to get him to respond to me outdoors but he wasn't very consistent and he wasn't doing well at ALL if he was on a perch higher than my head. Luckily I have a sponsor to train me how to train my bird. After getting online and whining to a fellow falconer and getting some spot on advice, I was able to get a hold of my sponsor who gave this advice. Don't worry too much about operant conditioning and all the psychology stuff. Just show the bird the food, get it on your glove, end of story. I was trying to get the bird to come to me without showing him food, then giving him food. He says that for larger birds that need more exercising with jump ups etc. you'd want an OC trained bird so you don't have to feed them so much to get in the amount of exercises they need. But with a little kestrel they get in enough exercise with regular hunting and feeding games and they rely more on ambush than speed of flight anyway.

So I took the Baron out this morning and had him responding immediately to food on the glove til I fed him 5 grams. This was in tiny tidbits about the size of a pea or smaller. It was such a relief to see him respond so well and to allow myself to accept this method of working with him. My expectations from reading what others had done were way too high. Were they possible to achieve? Sure, people have. Possible for a beginner like me? I guess not. :) And the "old fashioned" way works just as well.

Sigh of relief. My faith in myself and the Baron has been restored. Let's get some starlings!

I'm taking him off the creance outside tomorrow. Yeah. Pretty scary. But get this. Tonight I took his 5 grams of tiny bites outside and within 20 minutes he had gone through them flying back and forth across the yard. I have a couple of 7 foot, 3 inch diameter bean poles in the garden and he loves to perch on one of those. I go across the yard about 50 feet and just call his name and raise the glove and zoom he comes over, grabs the food, looks for more, then I toss him up in the air and he flies back to the pole. Immediate response every time. It was beautiful and one of my falconry highlights to date. <3

A few more things. One, I cut out the pieces for a giant hood today so I can take him to work and fly him at lunch break. We'll see how the weather does, though, it's supposed to hit 50 by Friday! I'm guessing that would be too hot in the car if not in the shade. I'll have to bring a thermometer with me and experiment and check it out.

I took the Baron out to the fields nearby to work with him and got a good first flight from a fence post. Then he just sat there and wouldn't come. I was facing toward the sun (luckily) and saw a shadow flit past near my feet. I looked up and saw a male kestrel flying around us in circles, checking us out. After a minute the wild kestrel screamed his alarm call and kept it up. I thought, boy, he's a cranky one yelling at my boy like that. But just then I saw another larger shadow go past my feet. I looked up and saw a Marsh hawk (Northern Harrier) flying by about 200 feet up. The wild kestrel took off after it to chase it away while the Baron flew in the opposite direction only to be pulled up short by the creance in the weeds. I got to him quickly and stood by him while the hawk flew off. Thank goodness for Mr. Cranky Pants kestrel that saved my bird. He was definitely a good luck bird and when I get to the point of trapping again, my next male will be called Lucky in his honor.

Lastly I spoke with "the starling guy" when he brought out my baggies and he has a couple of extra traps sitting around doing nothing. He said he'd rather they get used than sit there so I met him this morning and we put one up at a local dairy. He gets 80-100 starlings a day some days in the winter time. We'll see how well it works. But hey, it's free food for the Baron and I didn't have to build the trap. It's a humdinger of a trap, I tell ya. Very ingenious design. What a great guy to loan it out when he makes money on the starlings he catches. Chalk up another point for the Utah falconry community.

Bird food

Two days ago I thawed out a starling and set it up in the kitchen on the floor so it looked fairly convincing. Then I brought in the Baron with no leash and let him have a look at it from about 7 feet away. After his usual glance around the room to make sure nothing was going to get him, he launched at the starling and landed right on it and started plucking and going for the eyes to break in to the food. This tells me one important thing: he knows that starlings are made out of meat. Yay! I don't have to teach him that it's food. I was able to pull a leg from the starling and trade him the visible meat for the feathered bird. I did the same thing last night to increase the distance and improve on my trading off technique. I think we both did well.

I'm getting some pretty good mileage out of the starlings with him eating everything but the intestinal tract, beak, lower legs, and major skeletal structure. The skull is fairly thin and digests well so he eats most of it and of course what's inside it, and the neck, all without much casting the next day. I'm no dietician but I would imagine that amount of digestible bone would be giving him some nutrients that the meat alone wouldn't give.

Today I took delivery of 5 live starlings from a local falconer that has a few traps around the area. The live birds (commonly referred to as bagged game or baggies) are used to train the Baron on how to tackle a live and kicking starling. They are a little more active than the freshly thawed birds. I set one up in the back yard tethered to a weight where it would be out of sight from the back door. I then brought the Baron out on the creance on my glove and kept him from viewing the starling. When we were in position I turned around and let him see the prey. He looked around a bit and made sure nothing was going to get him and within 30 seconds he launched. The starling leaped up to fly away but of course was tethered. But even with all that wing flapping and frantic behavior, the Baron made a good grab and got the bird on its back with one foot on the chest and another on the neck. I quickly made in and held the starling still while the Baron tried to do a number on it, biting at the neck and eyes. The prey was quickly dispatched and the Baron got up on my glove to take a leg in trade for the rest of the carcass.

I do believe I have me a ready-made starling hunter. :0)

Braiding

The Baron has a taste for leather. Not in some kinky way, mind you, he just likes to chew on his jesses; constantly. I even bought some "Thum" stuff you paint on your kids' thumb or fingers to prevent them from biting nails or sucking thumbs. It didn't bother him at all on the leather. He did try to bite the brush and it got wiped through his mouth and he did a cartoon head shake and smacked his lips a little after that. But then he went right back to the Thum-coated jess buttons.

I have seen people use braided jesses made from synthetic fibers that seem to be more durable. Some people even use clothes buttons rather than tying a knot button. My problem is I have no idea how to braid and the internet is so big, I didn't know where to start. So I consulted my small circle of friendly falconers and found that Sandie (another DIY-on-the-cheap falconer like myself) knows how to braid stuff. *high-five* She emailed me copious quantities of instructional commodities which were very useful in teaching me how to get done what I needed. I was really surprised to be able to turn out very serviceable, though neon yellow, jesses in just 30 minutes including learning and false starts.

I have this spool of 500ft of neon yellow nylon mason line from Home Depot. I use it for everything: leashes, lure line, creance (it's on a reel and has a handle to wind it up), and now jesses. I think it's #18 line and when I measure the width it's about 1/16" wide. I think it was rated at 150lb breaking point, and though this kestrel is massive and manly, I don't think he'll be breaking this line any time soon.

I got the new jesses on him and he's tried to pull at the buttons but they're metal and flat rounded so he can't get much of a grip on them. (ha-ha sucka!) I'll keep watch on the braided parts and see if they fray or wear from his biting but I'm thinking they'll do fine. As I'm writing this I'm noticing that he's just sitting quietly on his perch where normally he'd be chewing and jerking on his buttons like crazy.

Going the Distance

This last weekend I left work early on Friday to have some light outside before dark and took the Baron out to the nearby field to work with him in the daylight outdoors. It was our first time doing that. I need to boost his (and my) confidence in working outdoors. The field didn't go too well. There were too many weeds catching up the creance (training leash). But it was a start. Saturday I stayed in the back yard with him and let him soak up the sun for an hour while having him fly to me now and then. He was rather distracted but didn't do too bad. He did try to fly off a few times though. Sunday we went out to the yard after church and I had him flying about 55 feet to me rather immediately at 105 grams. Not shabby at all. I was still rewarding him after each flight or two, so he stopped flying to me after 5 successes.

I spoke with my sponsor and another falconer friend about how to keep him coming after 4-5 successes and they said to vary the reward he gets so he doesn't get rewarded each time. This will keep him from filling up and being done. So I thought about it and yesterday I just exercised him by calling him to me and gave him no food. He did wonderfully! He flew right to me immediately each time I raised my glove. And his weight was higher than normal (108.8g), so he's doing great! After thirty minutes of that I let him eat the demon mouse. He really got defensive over it at first, he knew it was his usual prey and he was keeping it away from anybody. But I just sat on the floor with him and touched his feet and wings now and then and he kept his wings folded rather than spreading them out protectively (mantling). He only spread his tail a little and now and then would turn his back to me to eat in peace. I picked him up on the glove now and then while he ate so he knew I wouldn't steal his food.

Tonight I gave him the same program. Long flights indoors to me with no food reward and I did it without the creance. So basically he was flying free but for the house containing him. Then I fed him his daily meal from the lure in 6-7 rounds. I would throw the lure within 5 feet of him and he'd fly to it and eat the food. If the meat didn't come right off the lure I would walk up and pick him up with it so he gets used to being picked up with what he catches. The last couple of bites on the lure I made him grab the lure as I swung it past him. Once he grabbed it with his foot from the perch, the other time he jumped to it as it was near the ground. I think he's coming along nicely.

I need to build his giant hood so I can take him to work with me and work outdoors with him at lunch time. I'm afraid that just going outdoors on weekends won't be enough to get him past the distractions and focus on me.

Lastly, I got video of Baron von Cuteness preening. It was the first time I saw him do it.

More training

The Baron is taming down very nicely but he's not moving along in some parts of his training as much as I'd like. He will let you touch him on his legs, feet, belly, chest, and beak. But don't try to touch his wings or back. He won't try to bite very often but he turns circles to avoid being touched and then will just fly off to get away from it if you insist. But normally he's just a fat puffball of a bird and fairly content to sit on his perch and rip at his jesses like mad.

I have taught him to tolerate the hood a little better. I put a piece of food in the hood and he ducks his head in to grab it and eats it. Then I (try to) put the hood on him and he doesn't fight it as much as he did initially; doesn't bite it, just tries to avoid it. If I miss, I put the food in again and give it another go. When I get it on him I don't tighten it up. I just leave it on a couple of seconds, tell him Good and take it off and hand feed him another tidbit. Did that 4-5 times in a row and it went easier and easier each time.

Today I got him used to a couple of new things. From day one I've been feeding him cut up bits of meat. It helps me to know how much nutritious food he eats versus filler (skin, feathers, bone, etc.). I have been trying to get him to eat a starling head for a few days now because I want him to get back to grabbing onto his food with his feet and taking bites of it, just like he was doing before we met. Not that I'm going to feed him that way often, but I want him to keep his natural eating method and not just expect to be hand fed tidbits every time. The other reason is that he's probably just been eating mice and grasshoppers all summer and may not "know" that birds are food. Today he finally latched on to the head and got the hang of it and gave his beak and neck muscles a good workout; one of the other benefits. Letting them work on tougher bits of food helps keep their beak, neck, and back in good shape. It's kind of like giving a dog a bone to occupy them but without over feeding. It's called a tiring.

The other new thing he finally caught on to was eating off the lure. I've been calling him to the glove each feeding and the last couple of days have put the lure on the glove with meat on the glove. Then moving to meat attached to the lure held out on the glove, and finally tonight I put meat on the lure and laid it on the ground just under his perch. He jumped down and ate from the lure, grabbing it in his talons and ripping at the meat just like he did the tiring earlier.

The one thing he's not doing so hot on is coming very far to me. The furthest I've gotten him to fly to me is about 6 feet. And after 3-4 flights he quits. It's kind of frustrating because I'm using feeding time to train him to fly to me and after 4 bites, he still has a ways to go on his meal. But I can't cave in and move closer just so he'll eat or he'll end up training me. I called my sponsor and asked what to do and he said after he eats that little bit he may be full enough to feel fairly independent and to just stop at that point and feed him up or find other things to have him learn while he's eating. Like eating from the lure, getting used to the hood; anything I can reward him for.

Lastly, he finally found his voice. I was hooking him to the perch today and was having a little trouble attaching the clip to the jesses. One of the jesses was free and the other I was trying to clip. He realized the one foot was free and was trying to pull the other away but it was held tight in my fingers. The mismatch kinda threw him off and he was really upset about it and he let us know with a high pitched call. Later in the day Bella (the dog) walked up to sniff at him and she was being very brave to do so because she's terrified of him. The Baron wanted none of it and let her know with his alarm call again.

Progress

During the Thanksgiving break I had 5 days to work with and be with the Baron. Now I'm back to work 8-5 and I have to give him a regular schedule so he can have some normalcy in his life. I've got him on a once a day feeding, giving him enough to burn through to the next feeding roughly 24 hours later. This involves calculating his weight loss per hour over the previous 24 hours and estimating his next 24 hour burn based on that number. Then I reduce that by a couple of grams since I'm still lowering his weight. So tonight he ate 15.2 grams of starling (about the size of a golf ball of meat) which should put him at about 111 grams by 6:00 pm tomorrow. With yesterday's estimated calculation for today at 6pm he was .5 a gram higher than I had estimated. Turns out his weight loss went down from his recent .84 g/hr to .77 g/hr. Of course, he spent the day in the mews instead of being handled and messing around so his metabolic rate was slower.

He was caught at 127.8 and today before feeding was at 113.5, losing roughly 2.6 grams a day. Tomorrow I'll reduce that to 1 gram a day until I reach his "hunting" weight; the weight at which he is most responsive and willing to interact with me for training and hunting.

When I feed him he has to earn his food. Each bite is earned by jumping from the perch to the glove where the food is. Tonight I started out at 4 inches, then 8, to 12, and by the time his meal was done he was going a little over 2 feet which required some wing flapping to get there. He is also a lot more tolerant of us touching him. When I came home from work I promptly took him from the mews and my wife wanted to touch him and give him some water from her fingers. I really wondered how that would go since he hadn't been around people all day. But he did great. No biting. After I feed him I can rub his belly and feel his crop and he just looks slightly nervous but doesn't bite. Eventually he'll start side stepping to get away from it but not like he's too scared. He still doesn't like being touched from behind. He'll spin around in a circle really quickly to avoid that.

It's amazing to think that only 5 days ago he was completely afraid of people and wouldn't dream of letting anyone within 30 yards of him. I'm very proud of him and his progress. It's going to be a great partnership.

Skeksis?

Maybe I'll change his name from the Baron to the Chamberlain. Durn thing gave me the heebie jeebies.

Forget the starling. Find me a gelfling!

Fluffy Jail Bird Hops to Glove

That newspaper headline sums up today's stories. Earlier today the Baron was perched on my fist while I was on the couch. He started doing a lot of head bobbing and looking around the room. Then, while looking straight at me, he inflated like a dang puffer fish! Whoa! Totally freaked me out. I thought he was going for my eyeballs for sure. Turns out he just finally had become comfortable enough while on my fist to puff out his feathers and straighten things out. Later on and through most of the evening he was fairly fluffy looking, only slicking his feathers down again when the dog went past or some other nervous distraction occurred.

He's so fluffy, I'm gonna die!!

Now that he's more comfortable he's trying like mad to escape his jesses. He'll turn around on my fist so his back is toward me and start yanking on them for all he's worth, every now and then turning around to make sure I haven't caught on to what he's doing. "Is the warden looking?" Pretty sneaky. I wonder how long til I'll need to replace them.

Lastly, I did feed him a good amount earlier in the day but wanted to work on him hopping to the glove for food and taking food like a man vs. a baby. So I set him up on his perch and showed him the first tidbit and made him lean out for it. Success. Then I placed a piece on the tip of my thumb on the glove and separated it from the index finger a little so he could hop to the finger and eat from the thumb. I backed my wrist up to the perch and let him walk across like a bridge. He got that figured out so I put my hand about 3-4 inches away and after a lot of head bobbing and looking around the room he finally hopped to the glove and ate. I replaced him on the perch and did it again and he was successful another 7-8 times, jumping about a foot at the end. We'll see how he does tomorrow, but I think he'll get the idea. I'll have to attach a longer leash and see how far we can get tomorrow. All this and his weight was only 7 grams lower than it was when I caught him just 2 days ago.

Oh, one more thing. A brief update on Killer, the demon mouse. (See last Saturday's post if you don't know his background.) Moo went to say goodnight to the Baron, the gerbil, and the mouse. I guess she decided to try and pet the mouse. Bad idea. She came in with blood dripping down her finger. That mouse has thrown cheese off the menu and added raw meat. Moo demanded to be allowed to personally, and with extreme prejudice and malice aforethought, feed said rodent alive to the Baron when the time comes. And she's an animal lover.

What's in a name?

My daughter wanted to name him Shadow Fang but I turned that one down. I chose to call him the Baron (Baron Shadow Fang if you really want to I suppose). When I saw him sitting above the field 100 yards away yesterday, he looked so big and regal, like he owned the place. And after he came to the trap a couple of times he flew off to chase another kestrel away and that second kestrel was a good 100 yards away. That imperial behavior also added to the choice of the name. And of course you can throw in hints of the Red Baron and the Bloody Baron if you're a Harry Potter fan (my son's addition).

Today was Thanksgiving so that presented the opportunity to show the Baron off to family. Some were more interested than others and yet others were rather terrified. They prefer their birds dead on the table with cranberry sauce.

Since he hadn't eaten much yesterday I hoped that the Baron would chow down on kestrel chow pretty good today. He ate a little bit in the morning, a tiny bit in the afternoon, and horked down quite a bit in the evening. BUT. He will only take the food if I feed him like his mother would. If I present the food to him straight on from even an inch away, he may smack his mouth a little but won't lean forward to take it. But if I approach from above, he'll tip his head back, open his mouth, and grab the food and eat it. Tomorrow I'll be harder on him and require that he make an effort. That show of trust and willingness to interact with me is what will help him be tamed and trained. But for now I needed him to eat something as his weight was dropping too quickly for my comfort. Now he "knows" that he'll get a good meal from me so hopefully will anticipate it, and I'll make him work for it.

I kept him up til 11:30 tonight so he'd tame down a bit. While watching a movie with the lights down I was able to stroke his feet and belly, even as high as his crop without any reaction from him. But when the lights came on he went back to being a biter.

A funny thing about this bird. When I hood him he turns into a wet noodle. He lifts his feet up and his head flops over and he just falls off the glove. I finally did get him to sit on the perch and the glove hooded but he hangs his head down like he's scheduled for execution at dawn.You'd think that hood was made of lead. I'm guessing that'll improve with time as he gets used to it all.

Hang down your head, Tom Dooley.

Picked up a bird for Thanksgiving

Today I took Jared and Alex and went trapping. We saw 3 or 4 females and one male. I was reluctant to put the trap out on the females since I can't tell if their age until they're caught. We did get the trap out on a male/female pair and they approached the trap to get a closer look. Just then a train came by blowing it's horn and shaking the world. They were far away from the train and safe, but the sound sent them off a ways and they never looked back at the trap.

We drove around a while and didn't see anything. Finally saw another male by himself and he looked big! Through the binoculars I could tell he was a passage bird. We put the trap down and he went up and down on it a few times but then flew off to chase another kestrel. We saw him land again a couple hundred yards up the road in a tree so we drove nearby and put the trap out again. He took one flight right to the trap and within 5 seconds he was caught. Luckily he was away from the trap so Killer didn't gnaw on him. He only had one noose on his ankle so was very easy to take off the trap. And owing to the wonderful help of Bill last Saturday I knew what I was doing. So I hooded him, socked him, and called my sponsor. Turns out he's at the NAFA (North American Falconer's Association) meet in Vernal all this week. Gah! I was just a few miles from Bill's house so we drove over there and called his wife and said, "I'm in your driveway. I have a bird. Got a few minutes?" She was wonderful. Showed me how to jess the bird and how to get him to ride the glove. I only got bit once and that tiny bird sure can clamp down.

Now he's home and riding the glove just fine; no more just falling off the glove. He still bates now and then when someone walks by too closely. Now he's in his mews while I eat some food and recover from the adrenaline rush. I put a bath pan in there with him and he's already perched on the edge of it drinking. Yay!

With the jesses and an empty crop he weighed 127.6g

The trap actually works...on females

This week I redesigned my trap. I cut apart the one I had and turned it into a half barrel shape. I also added many more nooses and put hot glue at the base of each noose to make them stand up straight. It looks formidable. :)

It's kinda messy looking right now. I need to reset some of them, untangle others, and replace a few we had to cut.

I went out with my brother yesterday during lunch hour and we didn't see much, only two birds. The first landed on and around the trap a few times but never got caught. The second one didn't land on it at all, just hovered a few times. Stinkers. I went back to the same spot after work was over and tried the first kestrel again. He was on the same pole. He gave me the bird, so to speak, and landed on the rain gutter of a house and plucked up a mouse. The next bird was a female. She landed on the trap too but didn't get caught. After a few tries she flew across the street and grabbed a mouse from about 30 feet up a tree. What's up with mice and high places? Weird.

This morning I took my friend Chris and his 11 year old son out with me at 8am. We got the trap under 8 birds and each one at least made approaches to the trap. 6 of them landed on the trap but none of them got more than slightly snagged. You could tell they were caught because they'd go to fly up and jerk sideways, but they always got away. When we retrieved the trap you could see that 5-6 nooses had been tripped. We spent 3 hours doing that and came home with nothing.

While we were out I called the nice biologist lady who helped me last weekend to see if I could stop by and see the trap she uses. She said she had to take off soon but to come by later and she'd send her husband Bill out with me to trap. They're both falconers. So after lunch I went to their house and they looked the trap over and approved the design and nooses, etc. That was nice to hear, but at the same time frustrating because I didn't catch 8 kestrels that morning.

Well, we went out and put the trap under 2-3 males and they did the same thing they did this morning; landed on it, danced around, flew off. Bill was scratching his head; couldn't figure out why they weren't getting caught. We continued along and set the trap out under a female. She hit the trap very quickly after we set it down and right away she was caught! Full on, going nowhere, flapping on the ground caught! We quickly drove over and I congratulate myself that I didn't squeal like a school girl, pee my pants, or even run around like a chicken with it's head cut off. I fairly methodically got my gear out of the trunk of the car and walked over and laid the towel over the bird. It immediately stopped moving. She had her right foot trapped by the nooses with one toe stuck inside the edge of the trap, gripping the wire.

Enter the demon mouse from hell...

Well I don't know if this mouse remembered that his partner was eaten by a kestrel last week or if he just went psycho, but he proceeded to gnaw off the toe that was hooked on the trap. What?! He was so aggressive, I couldn't believe it. I gathered the bird up and held its wings to its side and the one leg while Bill tried to remove the nooses from the other foot. She had a death grip on the trap and wouldn't let go. And all the while we're having to shake the trap to get the demon mouse away from the poor kestrel's toe. Finally we had to stand the trap on end so the mouse would be down low away from the bird and we got her off the trap. We checked out her toe; it was bleeding a bit, but wasn't too badly damaged.We hooded her and put a sock on her and we weren't sure if she was passage or haggard so we decided to take her back to the house and ask his wife. She looked her over and said she was pretty sure she was a haggard so we took a couple pictures and let her go.

I know this one is blurry but I at least get to show off the hood I made riding on a kestrel.

And here she is ready for flight. Happy hunting!

We decided to head out again and see if we could get one we could keep. We drove around quite a bit and didn't see much until we came back closer to his neighborhood which, in my opinion, is Kestrel central. We saw another female and put the trap out and barely had time to turn the car around and look at the trap when she was on it and caught. Maybe it's a female thing; we sure weren't catching males. We took her off the trap and she was marked the same way as the last one we released so we let her go too.

Here she is still snagged on the trap. Luckily she didn't have hold of it as you can see Killer is waiting right there to bite whatever he can get his nasty teeth into. (bottom right under the tail)

Goodbye pretty lady.

Feeding the birds, three strikes, and a good contact

I went out trapping this morning and brought Moo with me. She's a good mouse loader/launcher. :) We drove out past the greenhouses toward the mink farm and spotted a kestrel on the busy highway. I've always worried about trying to trap on that road due to the speed and frequency of the cars. Well, we didn't have to worry long about it. As soon as we made our turn around to come back and drop the trap he disappeared. But the reason I mention this bird is its coloring. Instead of the black or dark brown looking streaks on its chest and belly it was more a ginger color. Very pretty! I call those blondes. I saw a female with that coloring at the Utah Winterfest last January and hoped to see one in the wild if not trap one.

So we headed out toward West Mountain and I was blabbering on about something useless and not paying attention when Moo yells "Kestrel!" and flings her arm across my face to point. Sure enough, on top of some low pine trees there was a fat boy sitting there. So we turned around and dropped the trap with two mice in it and backed away. Within 30 seconds, fat boy comes gliding down to the trap and is all over the area; down, up, down, up. I'm wondering what the heck he's doing, when he ups and flies to the top of the tree again -- with a mouse in his claws!?!? What the~?!

I grab the binoculars and sure enough, he's got a white and black spotted mouse and he's nom-noming away on it. I yelled: "He's got our mouse!" Moo grabs the binocs and looks at it and yells: "He's eating it's head! And the tail is just flapping in the breeze!" We were laughing and yelling for a little bit wondering what the heck happened. Turns out that the bottom of the trap has been smooshed a little over time and the door flap doesn't match up with it too well anymore. So when she set the trap out, the cage bottom arced and left a gap for the mice to get out. Meanwhile, fat boy flies off with mouse #1 because here comes another kestrel trying to steal it from him. We drove up to the trap to see if the other mouse is still there and it was under the trap, outside of it. So Moo gathered it up and reloaded the trap. While we're doing that, fat boy flies back and lands maybe 25 feet from us and wants seconds. Either that or his prize was stolen from him and he knew where to find another. So we set the trap down and accommodated him, backing down the street a little ways to watch.

Right away he swooped down and landed on the trap and sat there for a little bit. Then started moving across the top of it, scratching at the mouse below. I hoped that would get him but no, he didn't get snagged. He ended up flying off the trap and landing on the fence and then started feeding on bugs. So we drove up and grabbed the trap and drove off. Strike one.

We turned the corner and there were two kestrels, a male and female. We laid down the trap and drove off to watch and the female flew down and landed near the trap to check it out. Then she hopped on top of it but didn't move around much and finally flew back to the fence. Strike two. After a few minutes she landed back near the trap, then on top of it. Danced around a little bit, but didn't get caught. Then started bug hunting again. Strike three.

Well I was done after that. I've had a nasty cold the last few days and was feeling like crawling into bed with some cold medicine. We picked up the trap and there was this big truck coming up behind us so I waited to pull into traffic and let her pass. After she passed she stopped in the road ahead of us and as I waited and then began to go around, she waved out the window to us. So we stopped and she comes over and I'm expecting some PETA speech and she says "There are some red tails that perch just down the road here." Turns out she works for the DWR and is a wildlife biologist. She helps with the air force I think she said, helping clear the flight paths of birds, so she does quite a bit of trapping of raptors. She gave me some pointers on the trap and asked if I wanted her to hold a kestrel for me next time she traps them. She traps them and releases them near her home. I don't know in how long a period of time, but she's released over 30 kestrels in her neighborhood. Turns out we has our trap down just across the street from her house. We exchanged numbers and she told me to come by next week and she'd bring home one of her traps she uses often to show how it's made.

Now the dilemma. Do I take a kestrel from her that she traps? Very tempting. Does it make me less of a falconer? I don't think so and I hear tell of it often enough. It's no different than someone slapping down $1200 for a peregrine from a breeder. Would I be missing out on the experience and knowledge gained from trapping it myself. Of course!

I think I'll try a little trap redesign and continue trapping. I really do want to see this thing unfold from start to finish. But if I still haven't gotten anything by Christmas, I may just break down and ask for a pre-trapped bird from Santa. However, I'd still keep trying to trap a bird even if I'm just going to release it so I can learn and gain experience from it for the next time I need to trap a bird.

All in all, we had a great time of it today. We fed a kestrel, got three trap hits, and made a good falconry contact.

Slow going

Life has been busy but I've gone trapping a few times in the last few weeks. No luck yet but it's a learning experience. As the snow arrives I'm hoping for better luck. I have until March 31 to trap so I'm not worried, just impatient.

Starting again

Since the passing of my sponsor required me to find a new one, I haven't been trapping. I did find a new sponsor the week after and he is of the mind that I'm a big boy and can trap a bird without him hovering over my every move. So I've been waiting for the current conference I'm attending to come and go and then I'll take it up again. Hopefully this Saturday or Monday I'll catch something. The weather has turned colder lately and I've seen the kestrels moving away from their nesting areas so it should be easier now to catch one.

On a very sad note

I called my sponsor, Bret Hicken, tonight to ask about going trapping on Saturday and left a message as nobody answered. A minute later I got a call back, from his son. He told me that his dad passed away last night from a heart attack. Of course I was shocked and dismayed and sad for them and all those things. Hard to believe when you see someone recently and then they're gone a week later.

Of course this means I'll need to find a new sponsor. I called a falconer who lives close by that knew my Bret to make sure he heard the news. After that conversation he let me know he'd help out as best he could and we'd talk about apprenticeship in the near future. We'll see what works out.

Meanwhile, I hope Bret's family is well and able to carry on in peace.

The one that got away

After taking some time off to let the weather get cooler it was time again this morning to give it another try. Luckily the cat woke me up at 5:30 so I was fresh and ready to head out early. Ok, I slept in a little more after that and got out by 7:15. I headed out toward the mink farm and was excited to see 3 kestrels all together on the wires, two males and one female. I saw one of them chasing starlings in a field nearby so figured they were hungry enough. Though I wonder if the one chasing starlings (female) was the mother; not sure if the young'uns would know to hunt birds yet. In fact, at one point I saw the two males hopping around in the road like lesser birds, eating bugs. tsk tsk

Compare this male's chest with the one on the background of the site. The lighter color of this one is a pretty good indicator that he's a passage (first year) bird. The darker breast on the other means he's a haggard (adult plumage).

I dropped the gerbil baited trap and turned back and settled in to watch. Maybe one minute after the drop one of the males dropped down and hovered about 3 feet above the trap, then dropped down onto it. And sat there. And the gerbil sat there. And the kestrel still sat there. (They're both supposed to run around in a frenzy. The gerbil to get away from the bird, the bird to grab the gerbil and more importantly get his feet tangled up.) Perhaps they conversed in a way only hunter and prey can communicate.

Kestrel: You will be my breakfast, little rodent.

Gerbil: Fat chance. Go eat a bug.

Kestrel: What are these weird fuzzy things sticking up all around me?

Gerbil: *chuckle* You'll see.

Kestrel: Wait, what? My feet are tangled! I'm outta here! *hop flap*

That's where my heart skipped a beat. He had sat so quietly on the trap, no running around and footing at the gerbil so when he hopped I didn't think much of it. I kept waiting for him to move across the trap toward the gerbil. Then he hop-flapped again. The third hop-flap finally got through to my brain that he was caught in the noose and I started the car and pulled into the road. I was too far away for him to get spooked by the car but coincidentally, right as I started car he flew off the trap, right back up to the wire. I'm guessing that since he didn't run across the trap he wasn't tangled enough and when he just hopped straight up and down, the noose opened up and let him loose. If he had panicked and kept the pressure on the line, he would have been caught. *sigh*

I backed into my waiting spot again and waited. (That's why I call it a "waiting" spot. I wait there.) Well, after a little more looking at the trap, he flew down to the road and started pecking at bugs again like a dang chicken.

I drove around and found a couple other kestrels but nothing with a good setup for dropping the trap and none were looking hungry by then. The sun was up and warming everything and the bugs were on the move. Maybe next weekend we'll try again.

Labor Day

I figured I'd go out to try trapping first thing this morning and get the birds when they're hungry. Luckily my daughter's cat woke us up at 4:24am and I didn't get back to sleep til 5:30 so when my alarm went off at 6 I was ready to greet the day.

I got out at 6:40 and went to the places I had seen kestrels earlier. Nobody was around. I drove out near West Mountain and saw quite the bird menagerie. On a 4ft rail fence there was a red-tailed hawk perched. Twenty feet from the hawk was a male kestrel in a small fruit tree, and below them about twenty feet into the pasture were two cock pheasants. I'm not sure if the red-tail was scoping them out for breakfast or just dreaming but I didn't get to find out since as I blundered onto the scene the kestrel and pheasants scattered. I got a quick glance as the kestrel flew past and the morning sun on him just lit him up like Christmas! He was so beautiful, but not playing the trapping game. I headed back home to run some errands and do stuff, and just as I was pulling into the neighborhood saw a pair of kestrels on the very last power line. But I was about late for where I needed to be and passed them by.

I went back out to trap with my wife around 5pm. We drove to where I had seen the pair of kestrels and magpie on Saturday. They were there again sans-magpie. We drove right past them and dropped the trap and looped back around to a place where we could watch. That gave the birds time to come back to the wire. After 5-10 minutes the male flew down to the trap! I repeat FLEW DOWN TO THE TRAP! I about peed and managed to giggle like a school girl. This was the first official interest in the trap in my short career as kestrel trapper. But... (Yes, Pee Wee, everyone has a but.) ...he veered away when he got about 4 feet from the trap and went to land back on the wire. About 5 minutes later the female did the same thing. After that, they each took turns flying down and nabbing grasshoppers on the side of the road. Right across from the trap with two juicy meat-filled mice.

I called my sponsor and he wasn't around. I called a falconer that lives in my little town and he gave me some advice. He said that the appearance of the mice and the trap were scaring the kestrels since they weren't natural looking. Kestrels like their mice brown or black as a normal field mouse would be. These black and white marbled mice were just too strange for them. He suggested taking a black marker to the mice. No really. He said that. Also he thought that the metal color of the trap was too unnatural for them. He suggested I paint it brown or green or even black to at least make it a color that would be seen in nature. That will be a little work since I don't want to get the nooses painted because then they wouldn't slide very well. I'll see what I can do with a magic marker and a can of brown spray paint this week. I've also promised my boys a dollar for each live brown field mouse they can trap in the field at the end of our road.

After that conversation and waiting a few more minutes we picked up the trap and headed home. On the way we stopped by my sparrow trap and laid out some more seed and added water to the water cup. Still no sparrows in the trap. It's kind of a theme with me.

As we were driving the last little bit home we passed the same pole I did this morning with those to kestrels and they were there again. My wife tossed the trap out and we circled the block to come around and watch and within a few minutes the male buzzed the trap, veering away at the last second like the other two did earlier. But it still had the same affect on me. School girl giggles. My poor wife. However, instead of him flying back up to the pole, he landed on a nearby yard light; lower and closer to the trap. The female then took her turn and also landed lower and closer. Then they each took one more flight at the trap and headed back up to the pole. Their next flights were to catch grasshoppers in the field underneath them.

And so we went home, not as discouraged as on other days because we at least saw interest in the trap and got a reaction out of them. I'll paint the mice and trap and try again later this week. I'm guessing with newly tinted bait and trap, plus colder weather slowly creeping in I should get something this month. I'm trying to set a realistic expectation for myself rather than thinking I'm going through the express lane at Kestrel-Mart.

Mechanics

You may be wondering what a kestrel is, how you trap it, etc.

Kestrels used to be called sparrow hawks. They are the smallest falcon in North America. Wikipedia can tell you more about American Kestrels.

The type of trap I use is humane to both the bird and the bait. If all goes well, neither animal will be physically harmed. I can't speak for their mental condition. The trap is called a bal-chatri trap. Again, Wikipedia can tell you more details. And you can watch one in action with a beautiful male kestrel on YouTube.

Here is the trap that I made. It's about 12 inches square and 2 inches deep. Horseshoes weigh it down and fishing line is used for the nooses.

First real trapping day

My sponsor scheduled to go trapping with me Saturday mid-morning. We met up with no mishaps in time and got to it. We drove around for 1.5 hours and didn't get a chance to put the trap under anything. The birds just weren't to be found. We did see one or two but they took off and didn't look back. Typically they'll fly off and circle back to where they were perched when you drive by. These birds weren't typical I guess.

We both had errands and chores and such so we agreed to meet up in the early evening to try again.

My calls and messages to meet up were unanswered by the time we needed to get out and I finally decided to just go out by myself. I was quite nervous about that but my desire to get a bird and annoyance at another missed appointment got me out the door.

I drove to where I saw a male kestrel earlier that day and found him again. He was perched on a pole up on a hill which started right near the road. He was on the left and so I needed to drop the trap on the right side of the road in order for him to see it. Since I was by myself I had to drive past the bird a ways and turn around to be able to drop it out the left side. After the first drive by, the kestrel took off. I decided to drop the trap anyway. I drove past and turned around again to watch with my binoculars and see if he would come back to his perch. After 5 minutes or so he did. I waited for him to see the trap and while looking at it with my binoculars I realized that it was tilted at an angle such that the kestrel wouldn't really see much of it and surely not the mice inside. So I drove to the trap, repositioned it, and drove off again, scaring the kestrel in the process. I watched and waited and saw him show up again on the next pole down the line; one with no view of the trap. After a few minutes he was joined by a female and they sat there all fat and fluffy-like. Meanwhile, another bird did get interested in the trap. A magpie. I waited to see what it would do and if maybe this would get the kestrels interested. But after the magpie started poking at the mice, I had enough and went to rescue them. I didn't want to catch a magpie or have the mice damaged.

Next I drove to where we had gone the first night and saw the male flying around, calling out as he flew around the fields. He had no intention of landing so I drove on.

I found the spot my sponsor had taken me to earlier in the day. About this time I got a call from my sponsor that he had to go up to Salt Lake and got stuck in traffic on the way home. He was on his way out to find me now.

Meanwhile I saw a female on a wire nearby and thought I'd give it a try. I really want to start with a male but I thought that if the female hits the trap, I can at least have the experience of catching a bird and releasing it from the trap and handling it properly. Then I could let her go and keep trying for a male. Or I may just decide to keep a female. Who knew?

Well the setup couldn't have been more perfect. She didn't bump (fly off) as I slowed underneath her and dropped the trap about 20 feet past her. That was very surprising. I drove off 100 yards and watched and waited. After a few minutes she gathered herself to fly and I thought she was going for the trap. She ended up just flying down the wire to land directly over the trap. She spent a few more minutes inspecting it from above. After another 10 minutes of that a male joined her and she lost interest in the trap and they just hung out on the pole, not giving the trap another glance. My sponsor had arrived during all this and we decided that since the valley was in shadow at this point and it seemed all the birds were full and ready for bed, that we would make our way home and look along the way. We saw a few red-tailed hawks but no more kestrels.

False starts

September 1st I planned to go with my sponsor to begin trapping. I was bonkers all day at work; couldn't focus and was totally excited. It turned out that his schedule was fuller than he expected which made us late getting out and we had maybe 30 minutes before dark. He was to get some sparrows from a guy he knew and this guy hadn't started trapping any yet. So my sponsor suggested grabbing a bunch of large grasshoppers for the trap and call him right back. My boys and I ran outside and found 5 largish hoppers and called him back but there was no answer. He called back quite a bit later than I hoped but we went out.

We drove to where I had seen a couple of kestrels hanging out during the last couple of weeks. I got in his car to drop the trap under a power pole where a male was perched. I left my daughter and son in our van on the road and took the keys with me. When we turned his car around to go drop the trap, the bird was long gone. And it was about dark. So we decided to call it quits. I got out of his car and he drove off and he was gone about 300 yards when I realized my keys had fallen out of my pocket in his car. I ended up calling my wife to bring the spare key out.

Before he left, my sponsor said that the next day he was sure his schedule was clear and we'd go out earlier. I went to the pet store on the way home from work and picked up a couple of black and white mice. I called and called my sponsor and left messages and he finally called me back after dark that night and said family had come into town.

Altogether not a good beginning to the trapping experience. And the level of communication between sponsor and apprentice leaves much to be desired. He's just not the type of person to be tied down to a phone or time schedules.

In the beginning...

...the earth cooled. Then last October I was driving home with my youngest boy and we saw a kestrel flying along-side the car. I told him what little I knew and when we got home we looked them up online. While looking at videos of kestrels doing their thing, we found one of a guy using a kestrel for falconry. For some reason this immediately drew me in.

For the next couple of weeks I searched the web to learn about falconry and if it was something I might realistically do. After lots of thought (and consultation with my wife) I decided to start down the road to becoming a falconer. This would give me a chance to learn more about kestrels and be a part of what they do.

I found many falconry web sites and learned what I could. I visited the Utah DNR web site to find out the regulations and requirements. I purchased books and study guides to prepare for the written test. I even began making equipment. I found someone who was willing to sponsor my two year apprenticeship and got everything ready. I passed the test in June and got the mews and equipment inspected and received my license and trapping permit.

And so begins my two years as an apprentice falconer.