Hazel

I took the day off of work yesterday to look for the Baron. I went out a couple times in the morning and on starting my first pass I realized I was just fooling myself. It wasn't a despairing feeling but more like facing facts. I saw a few male kestrels but they were the same ones from the day before; none had anklets on. On my second round I saw the same kestrels as before but still no Baron. In one quarter-mile stretch I saw three kestrels, two males and a female, which got me thinking, "Gosh, there sure are a lot of kestrels around here. I could probably trap one pretty easily."

I had told myself that I would wait until February to trap a new bird to have ready for spring when the starlings will be on the ground. I told my sponsor of my plan and he suggested that I not wait; that it takes a while to get a bird fully trained. He also said he would loan me his telemetry equipment until I can afford to buy some.

So...

I drove out to my starling trap to fill the water and asked my iPhone to find me a pet store nearby. There was one that was due to open in thirty minutes so after checking the trap I drove to the store and waited for it to open. They had mice; little gray mice. Woot! I bought two, called my brother-in-law and invited him to come with me since he had offered to help me search for the Baron.

We drove back near my home and saw a male kestrel, not the Baron. We put the trap down and I'm not sure he saw it as he flew off shortly after. We drove further and were only two streets from my house and my brother-in-law spotted a female on a fence post near the road. It was 12:08 pm and I had to pick up my wife from work by 12:30 and it was a ten minute drive to reach her. We dropped the trap on the side of the road and backed up a little ways. She flew past the trap within ten seconds of waiting and perched on the street sign. After another short wait she flew down to the trap and tried to scare the mice out of it. When they wouldn't move she got more aggressive and jumped on top of the trap and back off and on and off and started footing the trap like crazy. She then lost her balance because she had both feet tangled and she tried to fly off but she was caught. It wasn't even 12:15 yet. We moved in quickly and got her off the trap, hooded and socked her, then drove off to pick up my wife arriving only five minutes late. Talk about drive through service! :) She weighed 126.2 without any gear. The Baron weighed 127.8 with anklets and jesses. So roughly the same size.

The Baron took 30 minutes of swinging onto the glove to get him to learn the trick. This girl took a couple of hours. She constantly bated away during those couple of hours. I finally took her into the bathroom with no window and closed the door almost all the way. Then she would stay on my fist. I would slowly open the door to get her acclimated to things and walk out but as soon as she saw light at a window she bated toward it even with the blinds closed. The Baron never bated once. Hard to believe, but it's true. Sure, he'd fly off the glove to get away from being touched, but not just cuz he wanted away from you otherwise. This girl is also a big time biter. The Baron would bite as a last defense but she leans toward you to bite as an offense. However, to her credit (or maybe to mine having gone through this already) I was able to get her to hop to my glove tonight for her food and was able to feed her with my fingers. She still wants to bite the heck out of my glove and I don't dare put my fingers near her without food, but it's progress.

If I spot the Baron in the next week or so, I'll most likely retrap him and let this one go. We'll see what opportunities arise and how this girl is doing by that time.

I first started looking at witchy names for her since she's been so nasty compared to the sweet little boy Baron, but I think she'll tame down fairly well. The family likes the name Hazel. There was a witch Hazel I remember from Bugs Bunny cartoons and the name is also descriptive of her coloring, comparing it to the hazel nut shell.

Not quite getting the concept