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.
