Shadow is still on a creance outside. I've been taking him to work with me this last week and going out at lunch time to work with him outdoors in daylight. Since we're in the dark season it's about completely dark when I get home and I can't get anything much done with him. Shadow responds well in doors at a higher weight but taken outdoors at the same weight and he ignores me completely. I've been targeting his weight outdoors and I'm getting pretty close. Yesterday I took him out and he flew immediately when I raised my fist and called. I take him to a different park or a different part of a park each day. That way he doesn't get comfortable in one area and give the false impression that he's well behaved. The park we went to was one we'd never gone to before and there were cars driving by and people walking on the sidewalk so it's a pretty good indication that he's very close to being off the creance.
The one thing that's missing is the lure. I haven't done well at getting him made to the lure yet. I think I'll try to just feed him with the lure for the next week or two and see if he'll transfer his food expectation from me to the lure.
My sponsor gave up his peregrine hybrid and is trying to trap a merlin. He's gotten tired of the scarcity of quarry in this area and wants to get back to catching wild game. I went trapping with him last weekend and though we saw two merlins, a prairie falcon, two cooper's hawks, and a sharp-shinned hawk, we caught nothing. I need to check in with him and see how the trapping is going. If things work well for him with merlins I'll have a fresh resource for learning merlins in the near future if I decide to go that route.
I heard that the cooper's hawk I turned down is doing great and catching pigeons and quail left and right. I'm a little envious but I know I wasn't ready for it.
