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.