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!
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| Goodbye Shadow! |
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| Welcome back Hazel! |
