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.
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