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