Starting again

Since the passing of my sponsor required me to find a new one, I haven't been trapping. I did find a new sponsor the week after and he is of the mind that I'm a big boy and can trap a bird without him hovering over my every move. So I've been waiting for the current conference I'm attending to come and go and then I'll take it up again. Hopefully this Saturday or Monday I'll catch something. The weather has turned colder lately and I've seen the kestrels moving away from their nesting areas so it should be easier now to catch one.

On a very sad note

I called my sponsor, Bret Hicken, tonight to ask about going trapping on Saturday and left a message as nobody answered. A minute later I got a call back, from his son. He told me that his dad passed away last night from a heart attack. Of course I was shocked and dismayed and sad for them and all those things. Hard to believe when you see someone recently and then they're gone a week later.

Of course this means I'll need to find a new sponsor. I called a falconer who lives close by that knew my Bret to make sure he heard the news. After that conversation he let me know he'd help out as best he could and we'd talk about apprenticeship in the near future. We'll see what works out.

Meanwhile, I hope Bret's family is well and able to carry on in peace.

The one that got away

After taking some time off to let the weather get cooler it was time again this morning to give it another try. Luckily the cat woke me up at 5:30 so I was fresh and ready to head out early. Ok, I slept in a little more after that and got out by 7:15. I headed out toward the mink farm and was excited to see 3 kestrels all together on the wires, two males and one female. I saw one of them chasing starlings in a field nearby so figured they were hungry enough. Though I wonder if the one chasing starlings (female) was the mother; not sure if the young'uns would know to hunt birds yet. In fact, at one point I saw the two males hopping around in the road like lesser birds, eating bugs. tsk tsk

Compare this male's chest with the one on the background of the site. The lighter color of this one is a pretty good indicator that he's a passage (first year) bird. The darker breast on the other means he's a haggard (adult plumage).

I dropped the gerbil baited trap and turned back and settled in to watch. Maybe one minute after the drop one of the males dropped down and hovered about 3 feet above the trap, then dropped down onto it. And sat there. And the gerbil sat there. And the kestrel still sat there. (They're both supposed to run around in a frenzy. The gerbil to get away from the bird, the bird to grab the gerbil and more importantly get his feet tangled up.) Perhaps they conversed in a way only hunter and prey can communicate.

Kestrel: You will be my breakfast, little rodent.

Gerbil: Fat chance. Go eat a bug.

Kestrel: What are these weird fuzzy things sticking up all around me?

Gerbil: *chuckle* You'll see.

Kestrel: Wait, what? My feet are tangled! I'm outta here! *hop flap*

That's where my heart skipped a beat. He had sat so quietly on the trap, no running around and footing at the gerbil so when he hopped I didn't think much of it. I kept waiting for him to move across the trap toward the gerbil. Then he hop-flapped again. The third hop-flap finally got through to my brain that he was caught in the noose and I started the car and pulled into the road. I was too far away for him to get spooked by the car but coincidentally, right as I started car he flew off the trap, right back up to the wire. I'm guessing that since he didn't run across the trap he wasn't tangled enough and when he just hopped straight up and down, the noose opened up and let him loose. If he had panicked and kept the pressure on the line, he would have been caught. *sigh*

I backed into my waiting spot again and waited. (That's why I call it a "waiting" spot. I wait there.) Well, after a little more looking at the trap, he flew down to the road and started pecking at bugs again like a dang chicken.

I drove around and found a couple other kestrels but nothing with a good setup for dropping the trap and none were looking hungry by then. The sun was up and warming everything and the bugs were on the move. Maybe next weekend we'll try again.

Labor Day

I figured I'd go out to try trapping first thing this morning and get the birds when they're hungry. Luckily my daughter's cat woke us up at 4:24am and I didn't get back to sleep til 5:30 so when my alarm went off at 6 I was ready to greet the day.

I got out at 6:40 and went to the places I had seen kestrels earlier. Nobody was around. I drove out near West Mountain and saw quite the bird menagerie. On a 4ft rail fence there was a red-tailed hawk perched. Twenty feet from the hawk was a male kestrel in a small fruit tree, and below them about twenty feet into the pasture were two cock pheasants. I'm not sure if the red-tail was scoping them out for breakfast or just dreaming but I didn't get to find out since as I blundered onto the scene the kestrel and pheasants scattered. I got a quick glance as the kestrel flew past and the morning sun on him just lit him up like Christmas! He was so beautiful, but not playing the trapping game. I headed back home to run some errands and do stuff, and just as I was pulling into the neighborhood saw a pair of kestrels on the very last power line. But I was about late for where I needed to be and passed them by.

I went back out to trap with my wife around 5pm. We drove to where I had seen the pair of kestrels and magpie on Saturday. They were there again sans-magpie. We drove right past them and dropped the trap and looped back around to a place where we could watch. That gave the birds time to come back to the wire. After 5-10 minutes the male flew down to the trap! I repeat FLEW DOWN TO THE TRAP! I about peed and managed to giggle like a school girl. This was the first official interest in the trap in my short career as kestrel trapper. But... (Yes, Pee Wee, everyone has a but.) ...he veered away when he got about 4 feet from the trap and went to land back on the wire. About 5 minutes later the female did the same thing. After that, they each took turns flying down and nabbing grasshoppers on the side of the road. Right across from the trap with two juicy meat-filled mice.

I called my sponsor and he wasn't around. I called a falconer that lives in my little town and he gave me some advice. He said that the appearance of the mice and the trap were scaring the kestrels since they weren't natural looking. Kestrels like their mice brown or black as a normal field mouse would be. These black and white marbled mice were just too strange for them. He suggested taking a black marker to the mice. No really. He said that. Also he thought that the metal color of the trap was too unnatural for them. He suggested I paint it brown or green or even black to at least make it a color that would be seen in nature. That will be a little work since I don't want to get the nooses painted because then they wouldn't slide very well. I'll see what I can do with a magic marker and a can of brown spray paint this week. I've also promised my boys a dollar for each live brown field mouse they can trap in the field at the end of our road.

After that conversation and waiting a few more minutes we picked up the trap and headed home. On the way we stopped by my sparrow trap and laid out some more seed and added water to the water cup. Still no sparrows in the trap. It's kind of a theme with me.

As we were driving the last little bit home we passed the same pole I did this morning with those to kestrels and they were there again. My wife tossed the trap out and we circled the block to come around and watch and within a few minutes the male buzzed the trap, veering away at the last second like the other two did earlier. But it still had the same affect on me. School girl giggles. My poor wife. However, instead of him flying back up to the pole, he landed on a nearby yard light; lower and closer to the trap. The female then took her turn and also landed lower and closer. Then they each took one more flight at the trap and headed back up to the pole. Their next flights were to catch grasshoppers in the field underneath them.

And so we went home, not as discouraged as on other days because we at least saw interest in the trap and got a reaction out of them. I'll paint the mice and trap and try again later this week. I'm guessing with newly tinted bait and trap, plus colder weather slowly creeping in I should get something this month. I'm trying to set a realistic expectation for myself rather than thinking I'm going through the express lane at Kestrel-Mart.

Mechanics

You may be wondering what a kestrel is, how you trap it, etc.

Kestrels used to be called sparrow hawks. They are the smallest falcon in North America. Wikipedia can tell you more about American Kestrels.

The type of trap I use is humane to both the bird and the bait. If all goes well, neither animal will be physically harmed. I can't speak for their mental condition. The trap is called a bal-chatri trap. Again, Wikipedia can tell you more details. And you can watch one in action with a beautiful male kestrel on YouTube.

Here is the trap that I made. It's about 12 inches square and 2 inches deep. Horseshoes weigh it down and fishing line is used for the nooses.