Going the Distance

This last weekend I left work early on Friday to have some light outside before dark and took the Baron out to the nearby field to work with him in the daylight outdoors. It was our first time doing that. I need to boost his (and my) confidence in working outdoors. The field didn't go too well. There were too many weeds catching up the creance (training leash). But it was a start. Saturday I stayed in the back yard with him and let him soak up the sun for an hour while having him fly to me now and then. He was rather distracted but didn't do too bad. He did try to fly off a few times though. Sunday we went out to the yard after church and I had him flying about 55 feet to me rather immediately at 105 grams. Not shabby at all. I was still rewarding him after each flight or two, so he stopped flying to me after 5 successes.

I spoke with my sponsor and another falconer friend about how to keep him coming after 4-5 successes and they said to vary the reward he gets so he doesn't get rewarded each time. This will keep him from filling up and being done. So I thought about it and yesterday I just exercised him by calling him to me and gave him no food. He did wonderfully! He flew right to me immediately each time I raised my glove. And his weight was higher than normal (108.8g), so he's doing great! After thirty minutes of that I let him eat the demon mouse. He really got defensive over it at first, he knew it was his usual prey and he was keeping it away from anybody. But I just sat on the floor with him and touched his feet and wings now and then and he kept his wings folded rather than spreading them out protectively (mantling). He only spread his tail a little and now and then would turn his back to me to eat in peace. I picked him up on the glove now and then while he ate so he knew I wouldn't steal his food.

Tonight I gave him the same program. Long flights indoors to me with no food reward and I did it without the creance. So basically he was flying free but for the house containing him. Then I fed him his daily meal from the lure in 6-7 rounds. I would throw the lure within 5 feet of him and he'd fly to it and eat the food. If the meat didn't come right off the lure I would walk up and pick him up with it so he gets used to being picked up with what he catches. The last couple of bites on the lure I made him grab the lure as I swung it past him. Once he grabbed it with his foot from the perch, the other time he jumped to it as it was near the ground. I think he's coming along nicely.

I need to build his giant hood so I can take him to work with me and work outdoors with him at lunch time. I'm afraid that just going outdoors on weekends won't be enough to get him past the distractions and focus on me.

Lastly, I got video of Baron von Cuteness preening. It was the first time I saw him do it.

More training

The Baron is taming down very nicely but he's not moving along in some parts of his training as much as I'd like. He will let you touch him on his legs, feet, belly, chest, and beak. But don't try to touch his wings or back. He won't try to bite very often but he turns circles to avoid being touched and then will just fly off to get away from it if you insist. But normally he's just a fat puffball of a bird and fairly content to sit on his perch and rip at his jesses like mad.

I have taught him to tolerate the hood a little better. I put a piece of food in the hood and he ducks his head in to grab it and eats it. Then I (try to) put the hood on him and he doesn't fight it as much as he did initially; doesn't bite it, just tries to avoid it. If I miss, I put the food in again and give it another go. When I get it on him I don't tighten it up. I just leave it on a couple of seconds, tell him Good and take it off and hand feed him another tidbit. Did that 4-5 times in a row and it went easier and easier each time.

Today I got him used to a couple of new things. From day one I've been feeding him cut up bits of meat. It helps me to know how much nutritious food he eats versus filler (skin, feathers, bone, etc.). I have been trying to get him to eat a starling head for a few days now because I want him to get back to grabbing onto his food with his feet and taking bites of it, just like he was doing before we met. Not that I'm going to feed him that way often, but I want him to keep his natural eating method and not just expect to be hand fed tidbits every time. The other reason is that he's probably just been eating mice and grasshoppers all summer and may not "know" that birds are food. Today he finally latched on to the head and got the hang of it and gave his beak and neck muscles a good workout; one of the other benefits. Letting them work on tougher bits of food helps keep their beak, neck, and back in good shape. It's kind of like giving a dog a bone to occupy them but without over feeding. It's called a tiring.

The other new thing he finally caught on to was eating off the lure. I've been calling him to the glove each feeding and the last couple of days have put the lure on the glove with meat on the glove. Then moving to meat attached to the lure held out on the glove, and finally tonight I put meat on the lure and laid it on the ground just under his perch. He jumped down and ate from the lure, grabbing it in his talons and ripping at the meat just like he did the tiring earlier.

The one thing he's not doing so hot on is coming very far to me. The furthest I've gotten him to fly to me is about 6 feet. And after 3-4 flights he quits. It's kind of frustrating because I'm using feeding time to train him to fly to me and after 4 bites, he still has a ways to go on his meal. But I can't cave in and move closer just so he'll eat or he'll end up training me. I called my sponsor and asked what to do and he said after he eats that little bit he may be full enough to feel fairly independent and to just stop at that point and feed him up or find other things to have him learn while he's eating. Like eating from the lure, getting used to the hood; anything I can reward him for.

Lastly, he finally found his voice. I was hooking him to the perch today and was having a little trouble attaching the clip to the jesses. One of the jesses was free and the other I was trying to clip. He realized the one foot was free and was trying to pull the other away but it was held tight in my fingers. The mismatch kinda threw him off and he was really upset about it and he let us know with a high pitched call. Later in the day Bella (the dog) walked up to sniff at him and she was being very brave to do so because she's terrified of him. The Baron wanted none of it and let her know with his alarm call again.

Progress

During the Thanksgiving break I had 5 days to work with and be with the Baron. Now I'm back to work 8-5 and I have to give him a regular schedule so he can have some normalcy in his life. I've got him on a once a day feeding, giving him enough to burn through to the next feeding roughly 24 hours later. This involves calculating his weight loss per hour over the previous 24 hours and estimating his next 24 hour burn based on that number. Then I reduce that by a couple of grams since I'm still lowering his weight. So tonight he ate 15.2 grams of starling (about the size of a golf ball of meat) which should put him at about 111 grams by 6:00 pm tomorrow. With yesterday's estimated calculation for today at 6pm he was .5 a gram higher than I had estimated. Turns out his weight loss went down from his recent .84 g/hr to .77 g/hr. Of course, he spent the day in the mews instead of being handled and messing around so his metabolic rate was slower.

He was caught at 127.8 and today before feeding was at 113.5, losing roughly 2.6 grams a day. Tomorrow I'll reduce that to 1 gram a day until I reach his "hunting" weight; the weight at which he is most responsive and willing to interact with me for training and hunting.

When I feed him he has to earn his food. Each bite is earned by jumping from the perch to the glove where the food is. Tonight I started out at 4 inches, then 8, to 12, and by the time his meal was done he was going a little over 2 feet which required some wing flapping to get there. He is also a lot more tolerant of us touching him. When I came home from work I promptly took him from the mews and my wife wanted to touch him and give him some water from her fingers. I really wondered how that would go since he hadn't been around people all day. But he did great. No biting. After I feed him I can rub his belly and feel his crop and he just looks slightly nervous but doesn't bite. Eventually he'll start side stepping to get away from it but not like he's too scared. He still doesn't like being touched from behind. He'll spin around in a circle really quickly to avoid that.

It's amazing to think that only 5 days ago he was completely afraid of people and wouldn't dream of letting anyone within 30 yards of him. I'm very proud of him and his progress. It's going to be a great partnership.

Skeksis?

Maybe I'll change his name from the Baron to the Chamberlain. Durn thing gave me the heebie jeebies.

Forget the starling. Find me a gelfling!

Fluffy Jail Bird Hops to Glove

That newspaper headline sums up today's stories. Earlier today the Baron was perched on my fist while I was on the couch. He started doing a lot of head bobbing and looking around the room. Then, while looking straight at me, he inflated like a dang puffer fish! Whoa! Totally freaked me out. I thought he was going for my eyeballs for sure. Turns out he just finally had become comfortable enough while on my fist to puff out his feathers and straighten things out. Later on and through most of the evening he was fairly fluffy looking, only slicking his feathers down again when the dog went past or some other nervous distraction occurred.

He's so fluffy, I'm gonna die!!

Now that he's more comfortable he's trying like mad to escape his jesses. He'll turn around on my fist so his back is toward me and start yanking on them for all he's worth, every now and then turning around to make sure I haven't caught on to what he's doing. "Is the warden looking?" Pretty sneaky. I wonder how long til I'll need to replace them.

Lastly, I did feed him a good amount earlier in the day but wanted to work on him hopping to the glove for food and taking food like a man vs. a baby. So I set him up on his perch and showed him the first tidbit and made him lean out for it. Success. Then I placed a piece on the tip of my thumb on the glove and separated it from the index finger a little so he could hop to the finger and eat from the thumb. I backed my wrist up to the perch and let him walk across like a bridge. He got that figured out so I put my hand about 3-4 inches away and after a lot of head bobbing and looking around the room he finally hopped to the glove and ate. I replaced him on the perch and did it again and he was successful another 7-8 times, jumping about a foot at the end. We'll see how he does tomorrow, but I think he'll get the idea. I'll have to attach a longer leash and see how far we can get tomorrow. All this and his weight was only 7 grams lower than it was when I caught him just 2 days ago.

Oh, one more thing. A brief update on Killer, the demon mouse. (See last Saturday's post if you don't know his background.) Moo went to say goodnight to the Baron, the gerbil, and the mouse. I guess she decided to try and pet the mouse. Bad idea. She came in with blood dripping down her finger. That mouse has thrown cheese off the menu and added raw meat. Moo demanded to be allowed to personally, and with extreme prejudice and malice aforethought, feed said rodent alive to the Baron when the time comes. And she's an animal lover.