I'll most likely pick up a kestrel this coming winter but will leave the Cooper's hawk for a time when my life is a little less stressful.
A few parting shots... Adios!
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
A Hard Decision
The last few weeks I've noticed I'm not handling some of my normal life stressors very well. Was wondering why those issues were seeming to get worse. My wife pointed out that she didn't notice them getting worse but had noticed my ability to handle them was getting worse. So we put two and two together and it equals Ember. The amount of extra stress this bird adds is just enough to put me over my limit. Given that my normal stressors can't be given away and this is supposed to be a fun hobby, I made the decision to transfer Ember to another falconer. I with them both good luck and maybe I'll be able to tag along with them on a hunt once he's trained up.
I'll most likely pick up a kestrel this coming winter but will leave the Cooper's hawk for a time when my life is a little less stressful.
A few parting shots... Adios!
I'll most likely pick up a kestrel this coming winter but will leave the Cooper's hawk for a time when my life is a little less stressful.
A few parting shots... Adios!
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Ember
When thinking about names I kept having fire come to mind. I saw a car last week with a fire fighter symbol license plate and the license was EMBER. That stuck in my head so Ember it is.
He has lost most of his fluff and his tail is almost fully grown. He is showing three black bars and the fourth will be coming very soon. His tail was looking kind of grimy and gross, kind of like a teenage boy's hair when they don't shower often. Yeah. So recently while feeding him out in the yard I brought a pan of water and set him in it after he was done eating. He started drinking and dipping his bum in the water pretty quickly. He didn't take a full bath but he sure did want his bum clean. He dried off in the sun afterward and now his tail looks gorgeous. I'll be making the bath a regular meal time event for him. My kestrels never touched the water, but then I was working with them mostly in the winter so perhaps they would have taken it if it wasn't so cold.
My main focus with Ember now is to get him completely comfortable eating on my glove. Each meal is loaded onto the lure and I present the lure to him while he's on a perch in the yard. He jumps right to it and after a minute I pick the lure up with him on it and sit in a chair while he eats his meal. If I'm quiet and don't move around a lot he's fairly content. But if I talk to him while he is eating he chirps at me (which sounds cute but really is the equivalent of "Don't annoy me").
I recently gave him a whole thawed starling to give him the chance to pluck and tear into it himself. He did well and knows the drill so that's checked off the list. Bella thought it was very interesting and came over to watch. She's usually afraid of the birds because they can make a lot of fuss some times. But she couldn't resist the interesting smells I guess. Ember didn't have a problem with her being there either.
One thing I should document for future is how to avoid tangled jesses. He has longer jesses on while he's still in training so it's easier to handle him, but he gets tangled in them easily. They wrap around his legs and it's just a mess. My friend told me to get a piece of tubing and slide it up the jesses to pull them together so they are "shorter" though they still retain the length. So instead of the jesses making a V shape from each anklet to the clip, it's a Y shape. The shorter free ends make it so he doesn't get tangled and the swivel doesn't bounce in between his jesses and get tangled up as easily. The piece of tubing I used was three inches of the straw from my boss's Dr. Pepper. How's that for cheap ingenuity?
He has lost most of his fluff and his tail is almost fully grown. He is showing three black bars and the fourth will be coming very soon. His tail was looking kind of grimy and gross, kind of like a teenage boy's hair when they don't shower often. Yeah. So recently while feeding him out in the yard I brought a pan of water and set him in it after he was done eating. He started drinking and dipping his bum in the water pretty quickly. He didn't take a full bath but he sure did want his bum clean. He dried off in the sun afterward and now his tail looks gorgeous. I'll be making the bath a regular meal time event for him. My kestrels never touched the water, but then I was working with them mostly in the winter so perhaps they would have taken it if it wasn't so cold.
My main focus with Ember now is to get him completely comfortable eating on my glove. Each meal is loaded onto the lure and I present the lure to him while he's on a perch in the yard. He jumps right to it and after a minute I pick the lure up with him on it and sit in a chair while he eats his meal. If I'm quiet and don't move around a lot he's fairly content. But if I talk to him while he is eating he chirps at me (which sounds cute but really is the equivalent of "Don't annoy me").
I recently gave him a whole thawed starling to give him the chance to pluck and tear into it himself. He did well and knows the drill so that's checked off the list. Bella thought it was very interesting and came over to watch. She's usually afraid of the birds because they can make a lot of fuss some times. But she couldn't resist the interesting smells I guess. Ember didn't have a problem with her being there either.
One thing I should document for future is how to avoid tangled jesses. He has longer jesses on while he's still in training so it's easier to handle him, but he gets tangled in them easily. They wrap around his legs and it's just a mess. My friend told me to get a piece of tubing and slide it up the jesses to pull them together so they are "shorter" though they still retain the length. So instead of the jesses making a V shape from each anklet to the clip, it's a Y shape. The shorter free ends make it so he doesn't get tangled and the swivel doesn't bounce in between his jesses and get tangled up as easily. The piece of tubing I used was three inches of the straw from my boss's Dr. Pepper. How's that for cheap ingenuity?
Sunday, July 7, 2013
A late taken Cooper's hawk
Last Tuesday I headed out with my son and another of my sponsor's apprentices to collect a bird. I attached my ladder to a backpack (it folds into a 3 foot bundle) and we hiked to the nest location. It took us a while to find the tree again. I got us quite a ways off track so we just dropped our gear and worked our way around until we found the nest, then went back for the gear. This time the mother wasn't as aggressive with us, probably since there were 3 of us there.
We looked up into the nest and found 4 faces looking back down at us. The unhatched 5th egg I mentioned in the last post would have made 5. One of them was standing tall and a little higher than the others. He had the least fuzz on his head so we figured he'd be the one we ended up taking.
We set up the ladder and up went our agile friend to retrieve. After the ladder climb he went up maybe another 8 feet and the eyas (baby raptor) that was standing decided he'd had enough and he bailed out of the nest and into a branch about 8 feet from the trunk. (None of the other birds jumped since we didn't approach the nest any further.) Our climber wiggled the branch a bit and he jumped again, this time a little closer and on a separate tree that was very narrow. This turned out great because he was able to grab the tree and bend it toward him and grab the limb the bird was on. He got him by one leg and then the bird got him by the hand. Good trade. :) He had gloves on but not leather. He finally got him off the branch, still gripping a 4 inch twig and the glove and we tried to put him into the carrier. He had to slip the glove off and let the bird keep it, along with his twig. We packed up and headed home, got anklets on him and fed him a quick meal to top off what he had in him.
The next day was spent trying to find big cardboard boxes. We found a lot of boxes but none the size I needed (close to 3 feet square). We finally found a guy who had a box that a couch had come in. I took that home and cut out my own box pattern and taped it together 32" square. It has a couple of windows in it to let the bird see the family's activities and get used to people without being out on a perch. The perch would require that I restrain it and there's more chance of him damaging feathers that are still growing that way than being loose in the box.
The next day was the 4th of July and we packed the box in to Grandma's to hang out with us on the patio for BBQ and fireworks. What an introduction to people he had!
After a lot of headache trying to get him to eat food dropped into the box for him, my sponsor decided we should get jesses on him and feed him on the glove. I got jesses on him that night with the help of my patient wife and the next morning fed him on the glove. He wouldn't take food at his beak but when I tickled his toes with it he would bend down and rip at it and he finally got the idea and ate well. The next meal I gave him by dropping it into his box onto his perch and he ate it by himself. There have been no feeding issues since then. Now it's just making sure he has a good amount twice a day until his feathers grow out completely.
The jesses are attached to an extender and then to a short leash. The leash isn't tied to anything so he doesn't get too tangled but it's easy enough to grab the end of it when I go to pick him up. He's not the easiest bird to pick up because of the size of the box. I have to lean down into it and that makes him nervous. If he is calm enough I can put my hand down and try to back him on to it or he'll foot it (grab it with his foot to attack it) and since he has a hold of it I lift him up.
No name yet. I haven't given it a moment's thought. I may wait until he's at the stage where I am working with him more and see his personality and progress.
We looked up into the nest and found 4 faces looking back down at us. The unhatched 5th egg I mentioned in the last post would have made 5. One of them was standing tall and a little higher than the others. He had the least fuzz on his head so we figured he'd be the one we ended up taking.
We set up the ladder and up went our agile friend to retrieve. After the ladder climb he went up maybe another 8 feet and the eyas (baby raptor) that was standing decided he'd had enough and he bailed out of the nest and into a branch about 8 feet from the trunk. (None of the other birds jumped since we didn't approach the nest any further.) Our climber wiggled the branch a bit and he jumped again, this time a little closer and on a separate tree that was very narrow. This turned out great because he was able to grab the tree and bend it toward him and grab the limb the bird was on. He got him by one leg and then the bird got him by the hand. Good trade. :) He had gloves on but not leather. He finally got him off the branch, still gripping a 4 inch twig and the glove and we tried to put him into the carrier. He had to slip the glove off and let the bird keep it, along with his twig. We packed up and headed home, got anklets on him and fed him a quick meal to top off what he had in him.
The next day was the 4th of July and we packed the box in to Grandma's to hang out with us on the patio for BBQ and fireworks. What an introduction to people he had!
After a lot of headache trying to get him to eat food dropped into the box for him, my sponsor decided we should get jesses on him and feed him on the glove. I got jesses on him that night with the help of my patient wife and the next morning fed him on the glove. He wouldn't take food at his beak but when I tickled his toes with it he would bend down and rip at it and he finally got the idea and ate well. The next meal I gave him by dropping it into his box onto his perch and he ate it by himself. There have been no feeding issues since then. Now it's just making sure he has a good amount twice a day until his feathers grow out completely.
The jesses are attached to an extender and then to a short leash. The leash isn't tied to anything so he doesn't get too tangled but it's easy enough to grab the end of it when I go to pick him up. He's not the easiest bird to pick up because of the size of the box. I have to lean down into it and that makes him nervous. If he is calm enough I can put my hand down and try to back him on to it or he'll foot it (grab it with his foot to attack it) and since he has a hold of it I lift him up.
No name yet. I haven't given it a moment's thought. I may wait until he's at the stage where I am working with him more and see his personality and progress.
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Moving On
The middle of June was the end of my two years as an Apprentice. I put in my request for the upgrade to General. I still haven't heard anything back but I'm going forward as if things are fine. They almost never get back to me on things; they are very understaffed it seems.
Meanwhile, my sponsor hatched a plan to have me take a Cooper's hawk brancher. His idea is that the young bird will not have developed its own hunting style yet so will be more apt to take to my style of hawking. It will also be old enough to not imprint which avoids a lot of problems if you're not prepared or experienced enough to work with an imprint.
So the last month I've been wandering around different canyons and foothills looking for likely places that a Cooper's hawk nest would be. Until today the most I had found was 3 old nests and a lot of nothing otherwise. The main problem is that so many people these days are posting no trespassing on their private property. In the past it wasn't that way but with all the law suits and liability issues people want to be covered. I can understand that. So in order to work within the law I've used the Utah County parcel maps online and identified the land owners and called a few to try and get trespass permission. The one big win was a mining company that owned a large swath of the foothills with lots of good trees. They were kind enough to allow me access. I only had a short time to explore one corner of their property and didn't find anything.
Last week I started working on a hood for the new bird. I got about half way done with it and had to let it sit. My wife at one point told me "You know, the reason you haven't found a bird is because you haven't finished your hood yet." Hmm. Ok. So I finished the hood Thursday evening. Today is Saturday.
My sponsor had been telling me about a spot of land he kept seeing that attracted his eye as a good Cooper's nest spot. I finally asked him to point it out to me today since I just couldn't figure out where he was talking about. It turns out it's not too far from home, has a fairly steep slope to climb up a series of deer trails (thank you deer!), across a meadow, and down the other side into a ravine or small canyon. Here's the fun part. I came off the meadow and just started down the slope when a female Cooper's hawk busted out of the tree tops yelling (kak-kak-kak-kak) at me all the while. Surprised the heck out of me! I was looking over the trees down in the canyon and she kept circling the area about a hundred yards wide and yelling the whole time. I continued walking toward the center of the circle she was flying and she got more and more agitated, flying closer to me and landing a few times nearby to yell at me. Knowing that the Cooper's is one of the more aggressive nest defenders I picked up a 4 foot branch and held it over my head and waved it around like a flag when she came by. Once she flew straight at me and only veered off about 5 feet away after I waved my arm at her. Mercy! Once I got down under the canopy she stopped coming at me and just circled around without yelling; but any time I was visible from above she let me have it.
I found the tree at the base of the slope. The nest is about 25 feet up and it's fairly climbable if you can get past the first 8 feet or so. I was really tempted to climb it but with the mother around and being alone, I didn't want to chance a fall from the tree. Plus I'm scared of heights. >.< So took a few pictures and headed home to recruit some help. I'll go by on Tuesday and see how they are progressing. If they're close enough I'll take one then, otherwise I'll target Friday.
Meanwhile, my sponsor hatched a plan to have me take a Cooper's hawk brancher. His idea is that the young bird will not have developed its own hunting style yet so will be more apt to take to my style of hawking. It will also be old enough to not imprint which avoids a lot of problems if you're not prepared or experienced enough to work with an imprint.
So the last month I've been wandering around different canyons and foothills looking for likely places that a Cooper's hawk nest would be. Until today the most I had found was 3 old nests and a lot of nothing otherwise. The main problem is that so many people these days are posting no trespassing on their private property. In the past it wasn't that way but with all the law suits and liability issues people want to be covered. I can understand that. So in order to work within the law I've used the Utah County parcel maps online and identified the land owners and called a few to try and get trespass permission. The one big win was a mining company that owned a large swath of the foothills with lots of good trees. They were kind enough to allow me access. I only had a short time to explore one corner of their property and didn't find anything.
Last week I started working on a hood for the new bird. I got about half way done with it and had to let it sit. My wife at one point told me "You know, the reason you haven't found a bird is because you haven't finished your hood yet." Hmm. Ok. So I finished the hood Thursday evening. Today is Saturday.
My sponsor had been telling me about a spot of land he kept seeing that attracted his eye as a good Cooper's nest spot. I finally asked him to point it out to me today since I just couldn't figure out where he was talking about. It turns out it's not too far from home, has a fairly steep slope to climb up a series of deer trails (thank you deer!), across a meadow, and down the other side into a ravine or small canyon. Here's the fun part. I came off the meadow and just started down the slope when a female Cooper's hawk busted out of the tree tops yelling (kak-kak-kak-kak) at me all the while. Surprised the heck out of me! I was looking over the trees down in the canyon and she kept circling the area about a hundred yards wide and yelling the whole time. I continued walking toward the center of the circle she was flying and she got more and more agitated, flying closer to me and landing a few times nearby to yell at me. Knowing that the Cooper's is one of the more aggressive nest defenders I picked up a 4 foot branch and held it over my head and waved it around like a flag when she came by. Once she flew straight at me and only veered off about 5 feet away after I waved my arm at her. Mercy! Once I got down under the canopy she stopped coming at me and just circled around without yelling; but any time I was visible from above she let me have it.
I found the tree at the base of the slope. The nest is about 25 feet up and it's fairly climbable if you can get past the first 8 feet or so. I was really tempted to climb it but with the mother around and being alone, I didn't want to chance a fall from the tree. Plus I'm scared of heights. >.< So took a few pictures and headed home to recruit some help. I'll go by on Tuesday and see how they are progressing. If they're close enough I'll take one then, otherwise I'll target Friday.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Well, that's interesting
After many attempts at getting Shadow Fang to car hawk, he still just wasn't getting it. His progress was intermittent and inconsistent. So rather than continue to put stress on the both of us, I hatched a plan that would get us each closer to our individual goals.
Hazel had actually caught a wild bird car hawking. I just didn't have her weight where it should have been to keep her with me and the call of the wild was louder. Hazel went back to her normal territory a couple blocks away. Why not just trade birds?
I started fattening up Shadow at the beginning of last week and started trying to trap Hazel the same day. Each time I saw her she was on a mouse. Let's face it, she's a good hunter. I had a hoop trap and a sparrow; the same setup I trapped her with in December to remove her gear. But this time around she would sit and watch me set up the trap and as soon as I brought out the sparrow she would take off. Weird. I made several attempts on President's Day and again the following Saturday. Nothing. Not even a sign of interest. Saturday night it snowed a little and Sunday dawned cold and overcast with 3 inches of new snow. Great time to find a hungry kestrel.
I gave up on the hoop trap and put the sparrow in my own home made bal chatri. After driving around her normal hang out spots without seeing her I finally saw her on a tree above a house set back 150 yards from the road. Great. How do I get any closer? It was the only chance I was going to get as she wasn't moving from that tree. There was a big pile of snow up against a fence next to the road. I set the trap on top of the snow pile and pulled back a ways down the street. After a couple of minutes she came flying in to the trap. With her having to travel 150 yards it made for a nice long view of her gliding in. She flew over the trap and hovered for a second and flew all the way back to the tree. In my experience, that means she was done with it. Otherwise she would have landed on the fence near the snow pile to examine things more closely. Luckily I waited. After just a minute she came gliding in again and this time landed right on the trap and started clawing at it furiously. I kept waiting for her to show she was trapped by trying to fly off but she was so intent on getting that sparrow. After a few minutes of her dancing on top of the trap I decided to just drive by and see if she would spook but without stopping and scaring her completely. As I drove by she just sat there and looked at my like "There's nothing to see here. Move along." I moved along. I turned the car around and stopped to watch again and just then noticed her slip backward off the trap and that showed me that her foot was caught. I wrapped her up and took her home and brought Shadow out near the spot I trapped her and let her go. That should keep the ecosystem happy and the mice under control. If he stays in that area.
Hazel weighed just about the same as when I caught her the first time. She remembered standing on the fist within 15 minutes or so, and she even lets me hood her without trouble. She still went through her initial period of shock and it wasn't until Monday night that she would eat. Tonight I prepared a couple of starlings for the next few days of feedings and kept her on a perch a couple feet away from the prep area. Then I offered her tidbits of the organs and she took them readily. After several little bits given her directly I tried to get her to hop to my glove with food on it. She did so without much hesitation and we played that game several times, only making her jump up to 8 inches. I just wanted her to remember the process and get it familiar to her. She ate her whole meal that way jumping to my fist for food and back to the perch for food. I think little memories are coming back to her and she's much easier to work with this time around. But don't get me wrong, she's still a strong-willed, aggressive little bird. I can't wait to turn that aggression on some starlings!
Hazel had actually caught a wild bird car hawking. I just didn't have her weight where it should have been to keep her with me and the call of the wild was louder. Hazel went back to her normal territory a couple blocks away. Why not just trade birds?
I started fattening up Shadow at the beginning of last week and started trying to trap Hazel the same day. Each time I saw her she was on a mouse. Let's face it, she's a good hunter. I had a hoop trap and a sparrow; the same setup I trapped her with in December to remove her gear. But this time around she would sit and watch me set up the trap and as soon as I brought out the sparrow she would take off. Weird. I made several attempts on President's Day and again the following Saturday. Nothing. Not even a sign of interest. Saturday night it snowed a little and Sunday dawned cold and overcast with 3 inches of new snow. Great time to find a hungry kestrel.
I gave up on the hoop trap and put the sparrow in my own home made bal chatri. After driving around her normal hang out spots without seeing her I finally saw her on a tree above a house set back 150 yards from the road. Great. How do I get any closer? It was the only chance I was going to get as she wasn't moving from that tree. There was a big pile of snow up against a fence next to the road. I set the trap on top of the snow pile and pulled back a ways down the street. After a couple of minutes she came flying in to the trap. With her having to travel 150 yards it made for a nice long view of her gliding in. She flew over the trap and hovered for a second and flew all the way back to the tree. In my experience, that means she was done with it. Otherwise she would have landed on the fence near the snow pile to examine things more closely. Luckily I waited. After just a minute she came gliding in again and this time landed right on the trap and started clawing at it furiously. I kept waiting for her to show she was trapped by trying to fly off but she was so intent on getting that sparrow. After a few minutes of her dancing on top of the trap I decided to just drive by and see if she would spook but without stopping and scaring her completely. As I drove by she just sat there and looked at my like "There's nothing to see here. Move along." I moved along. I turned the car around and stopped to watch again and just then noticed her slip backward off the trap and that showed me that her foot was caught. I wrapped her up and took her home and brought Shadow out near the spot I trapped her and let her go. That should keep the ecosystem happy and the mice under control. If he stays in that area.
Hazel weighed just about the same as when I caught her the first time. She remembered standing on the fist within 15 minutes or so, and she even lets me hood her without trouble. She still went through her initial period of shock and it wasn't until Monday night that she would eat. Tonight I prepared a couple of starlings for the next few days of feedings and kept her on a perch a couple feet away from the prep area. Then I offered her tidbits of the organs and she took them readily. After several little bits given her directly I tried to get her to hop to my glove with food on it. She did so without much hesitation and we played that game several times, only making her jump up to 8 inches. I just wanted her to remember the process and get it familiar to her. She ate her whole meal that way jumping to my fist for food and back to the perch for food. I think little memories are coming back to her and she's much easier to work with this time around. But don't get me wrong, she's still a strong-willed, aggressive little bird. I can't wait to turn that aggression on some starlings!
 |
| Goodbye Shadow! |
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| Welcome back Hazel! |
Sunday, January 13, 2013
Been a while...
It's been slow going for the last month between weather and a bird that isn't quite getting the hang of things.
I mentioned in my last post the way I was getting Shadow's weight down to free flight by going to different places. That has proven to be a good method and I haven't had any hesitancy from him in the various locations I've worked with him now.
I also mentioned I regretted not getting him lure trained earlier. Now I'm regretting it x100. Shadow has become a screamer. I spent too long hand feeding him while trying to get him to come around and interact with me that he now has a very strong food association with me. The result is that he screams for food whenever he sees me. If I have him in the house I turn my head the other way and don't look at him. Sometimes it works, usually not. This screaming is high pitched and makes your ear drums hurt and goes on whether he's stuffed full or hungry. I think that if I had gotten his food association with the lure earlier he wouldn't have become screamy. Lesson learned.
Shadow is also having a hard time getting himself out the window of the car on bagged starlings (or wild ones for that matter). I don't know if it's his strong food association with me that he figures "why bother?" or what it might be. I set him up a bagged starling on the roadside and drive by and it takes 5-10 passes before he'll finally go out after it. Or he won't go at all and I have to hold him out the window before he'll fly at it. When he does fly, he means business and binds well and subdues the bird, but getting him to leave the perch is a challenge. Last Saturday I got some starlings and set him up on Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday with the intent of drilling it into his head. The first three days were terrible. Multiple passes, even stopping the car didn't elicit a strong enough response to get him out the window. But each time I kept at hit until he would fly. Wednesday he flew out on the first pass! I had one starling left and wanted to reinforce that experience the next day but... Winter storm warning from Thursday through Saturday. 19" of snow dumped on us overnight Thursday night. So needless to say I haven't been able to reinforce his learning yet and have low expectations for his performance tomorrow with this final starling. I guess I need to clear my training schedule with the weather center before attempting anything next time.
My thought with Shadow now is to give him another set of 4-5 birds in a row and see if he'll improve his response. If it doesn't consistently improve then it's best for both of us to part ways. If he "gets it" then we'll try him again on wild birds. However going from a single baggie to a small flock of birds is a big jump and I wonder if he'll have the gumption to do it.
On a lighter note, Hazel and I were briefly reunited mid-December. I had seen her around near where I originally caught her and got a mouse and attempted to trap her three separate times. But each time she had a mouse already and wasn't hungry enough to bother with the trap. So I sat and watched her eat and enjoyed just bird watching. Or stalking her, however you want to call it. My sponsor suggested I try a different trap that he had. It's called a hoop trap. Basically it's a simple hoop of metal with nooses standing up around the perimeter. Looks like a daisy but with the petals vertical around the center. You tie the hoop to a weight with cord wound around it to act as a slow release drag weight. This allows the bird to hit the trap at speed and not damage their legs with a sudden stopping impact. In the center of the hoop is tethered a sparrow with a weight. It can't reach the outside of the circle and so it doesn't mess up the loops. The idea is that whatever bird of prey you're after swoops in low at the sparrow, extends its feet for the grab and puts them right through the loops.
I set out with my brother in law (the lucky one that was with me to capture Hazel the first time and most recently Shadow), one of my boys, a sparrow, and Shadow (we were going to try him on a baggie). We spotted Hazel right away and she was less than 100 yards from where I originally trapped her. Talk about a homebody! I set up the trap and the sparrow and drove up the road a little bit to wait. After about 1-2 minutes she came in on a low approach from her fence post perch straight at the sparrow. It was almost directly toward us so I just saw her "hovering" in the air but descending toward the trap. She hit the trap and veered to the right in her fright and came to ground after 10 feet, never touching the sparrow. It was quite a sight to see her flight at the sparrow as well as the beauty of the trap working. I was so excited I immediately jumped out of the car only to realize I was 50 yards away and had a perfectly good car to get there faster. (duh) We released her from the trap and she didn't struggle and fuss as much as first caught birds do. She had her anklets, jesses, and the transmitter all still attached. We got the anklets cut off her legs and her legs looked good. No abrasions or scale damage from the anklets or grommets. I was glad to be releasing her back to the wild with no damage done.
I had food with me since I was going to be working with Shadow so I thought I'd send her off with a bit of food for her trouble. I had a few pieces in my fingers and held them up to her. She immediately snatched one and held it in her beak. A fresh caught wild bird wouldn't take food from a person that quickly. It felt good to know she still remembered the connection we had. The piece of food she took was large enough that she would need her feet to help her eat it so I tossed her up and she flew right back to the same fence post to eat her snack. It was a good feeling to make things right with her and remove any external trace of my passing association with her. It was a good day. I see her now and then and wave hello on my way past.
On a side note, while working with Shadow and a baggie in Hazel's territory, Shadow just wasn't flying out and while I turned around to make another pass I saw a wild bird come out of the sky and make a grab at the starling. It was startling and cool and funny all at once. I realized it was Hazel and she probably remembered playing the same game during her training last year. She took a second pass at the starling and missed again and came to rest on the fence nearby. I pulled up in the car and she still sat there waiting for me to leave. I was waiting for her to leave. I finally had to get out of the car to send her off and she left the area.
Ah, yes, the transmitter. The antenna was missing (it's cheaply replaceable), the battery cover and battery were missing (also replaceable), and it was a little beat up due to constant wear for 9 months. I took it to my sponsor who had all the replacement parts and we tried it out but got no signal from it. So while we retrieved it and spared Hazel the embarrassment of wearing it, it's useless. I may send it in to the company and ask if there's anything that can cheaply be done for it but I haven't taken the time to bother with it yet.
Through all the frustration, excitement, embarrassments, awe, disappointments, thrills, and setbacks I've realized that falconry is not a perfect science and no two birds are alike in personality and response to similar methods of training. It is a constant learning experience and, though trying, is still rewarding due to the basic fact that I'm experiencing things that most people have no clue even exist. National Geographic, Animal Planet and even a good pair of binoculars can never provide the learning or connection with a wild animal that is gained through falconry. I highly respect those experienced and dedicated falconers like my own sponsor who learned from scratch without the internet or a sponsor.
I mentioned in my last post the way I was getting Shadow's weight down to free flight by going to different places. That has proven to be a good method and I haven't had any hesitancy from him in the various locations I've worked with him now.
I also mentioned I regretted not getting him lure trained earlier. Now I'm regretting it x100. Shadow has become a screamer. I spent too long hand feeding him while trying to get him to come around and interact with me that he now has a very strong food association with me. The result is that he screams for food whenever he sees me. If I have him in the house I turn my head the other way and don't look at him. Sometimes it works, usually not. This screaming is high pitched and makes your ear drums hurt and goes on whether he's stuffed full or hungry. I think that if I had gotten his food association with the lure earlier he wouldn't have become screamy. Lesson learned.
Shadow is also having a hard time getting himself out the window of the car on bagged starlings (or wild ones for that matter). I don't know if it's his strong food association with me that he figures "why bother?" or what it might be. I set him up a bagged starling on the roadside and drive by and it takes 5-10 passes before he'll finally go out after it. Or he won't go at all and I have to hold him out the window before he'll fly at it. When he does fly, he means business and binds well and subdues the bird, but getting him to leave the perch is a challenge. Last Saturday I got some starlings and set him up on Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday, and Wednesday with the intent of drilling it into his head. The first three days were terrible. Multiple passes, even stopping the car didn't elicit a strong enough response to get him out the window. But each time I kept at hit until he would fly. Wednesday he flew out on the first pass! I had one starling left and wanted to reinforce that experience the next day but... Winter storm warning from Thursday through Saturday. 19" of snow dumped on us overnight Thursday night. So needless to say I haven't been able to reinforce his learning yet and have low expectations for his performance tomorrow with this final starling. I guess I need to clear my training schedule with the weather center before attempting anything next time.
My thought with Shadow now is to give him another set of 4-5 birds in a row and see if he'll improve his response. If it doesn't consistently improve then it's best for both of us to part ways. If he "gets it" then we'll try him again on wild birds. However going from a single baggie to a small flock of birds is a big jump and I wonder if he'll have the gumption to do it.
On a lighter note, Hazel and I were briefly reunited mid-December. I had seen her around near where I originally caught her and got a mouse and attempted to trap her three separate times. But each time she had a mouse already and wasn't hungry enough to bother with the trap. So I sat and watched her eat and enjoyed just bird watching. Or stalking her, however you want to call it. My sponsor suggested I try a different trap that he had. It's called a hoop trap. Basically it's a simple hoop of metal with nooses standing up around the perimeter. Looks like a daisy but with the petals vertical around the center. You tie the hoop to a weight with cord wound around it to act as a slow release drag weight. This allows the bird to hit the trap at speed and not damage their legs with a sudden stopping impact. In the center of the hoop is tethered a sparrow with a weight. It can't reach the outside of the circle and so it doesn't mess up the loops. The idea is that whatever bird of prey you're after swoops in low at the sparrow, extends its feet for the grab and puts them right through the loops.
I set out with my brother in law (the lucky one that was with me to capture Hazel the first time and most recently Shadow), one of my boys, a sparrow, and Shadow (we were going to try him on a baggie). We spotted Hazel right away and she was less than 100 yards from where I originally trapped her. Talk about a homebody! I set up the trap and the sparrow and drove up the road a little bit to wait. After about 1-2 minutes she came in on a low approach from her fence post perch straight at the sparrow. It was almost directly toward us so I just saw her "hovering" in the air but descending toward the trap. She hit the trap and veered to the right in her fright and came to ground after 10 feet, never touching the sparrow. It was quite a sight to see her flight at the sparrow as well as the beauty of the trap working. I was so excited I immediately jumped out of the car only to realize I was 50 yards away and had a perfectly good car to get there faster. (duh) We released her from the trap and she didn't struggle and fuss as much as first caught birds do. She had her anklets, jesses, and the transmitter all still attached. We got the anklets cut off her legs and her legs looked good. No abrasions or scale damage from the anklets or grommets. I was glad to be releasing her back to the wild with no damage done.
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| Goodbye Hazel! |
On a side note, while working with Shadow and a baggie in Hazel's territory, Shadow just wasn't flying out and while I turned around to make another pass I saw a wild bird come out of the sky and make a grab at the starling. It was startling and cool and funny all at once. I realized it was Hazel and she probably remembered playing the same game during her training last year. She took a second pass at the starling and missed again and came to rest on the fence nearby. I pulled up in the car and she still sat there waiting for me to leave. I was waiting for her to leave. I finally had to get out of the car to send her off and she left the area.
Ah, yes, the transmitter. The antenna was missing (it's cheaply replaceable), the battery cover and battery were missing (also replaceable), and it was a little beat up due to constant wear for 9 months. I took it to my sponsor who had all the replacement parts and we tried it out but got no signal from it. So while we retrieved it and spared Hazel the embarrassment of wearing it, it's useless. I may send it in to the company and ask if there's anything that can cheaply be done for it but I haven't taken the time to bother with it yet.
Through all the frustration, excitement, embarrassments, awe, disappointments, thrills, and setbacks I've realized that falconry is not a perfect science and no two birds are alike in personality and response to similar methods of training. It is a constant learning experience and, though trying, is still rewarding due to the basic fact that I'm experiencing things that most people have no clue even exist. National Geographic, Animal Planet and even a good pair of binoculars can never provide the learning or connection with a wild animal that is gained through falconry. I highly respect those experienced and dedicated falconers like my own sponsor who learned from scratch without the internet or a sponsor.
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