I suppose that many of you have wondered what happens to the Hawks when they are not being hunted. There are three ways that this is handled. Depending on the bird, some are released to continue on with their lives as nature and their destinies allow. Others, mostly captive bred birds as Jessie and Peggy are, molt their old feathers to prepare for the hunting seasons in the fall. Of course wild birds are not restrained to follow "man made seasons", but of course that is not possible for falconers, so we must find some way to maintain our birds health and preserve their minds while we wait for the crisp days of autumn to finally arrive. Most are released free into chambers built for them and basically relegated to pass the days in solitary confinement. They are able to fly free in the chamber and are fed generally through slots that allow food into the chamber without allowing escape. Of course there are windows that they can sit and watch out of, but it is still boring, I would think. Depending on the bird and how it was taken from the wild, or from the parents in a breeding chamber, this can be one of the best choices of a bad situation. The other way is to molt them on the block in a weathering area as is pictured above. They spend their days in the weathering area, and at night they are brought inside. This is Jessie and Peg's night time perch.
This is an area in my shop where they spend the night. The trays are filled with "Floor Dri", to absorb their mutes. Easy to clean and eliminates the smell. (Peregrines are stinky!)
Peg is very flexible at this stage of her life and pretty well adjusted by the way she was raised and handled, and by her species generally social nature. Jessie however is anything other than flexible. She was taken from her mother at 28 days old, and raised in the house by me and handled daily. This particular timing is designed to have a bird that still thinks it is a Falcon, but is socialized to people as well. Most of the time it works very well. With Jessie it is a bit of a mixed blessing. She ascribes to me, her own motives and ideas. In other words she treats me like an equal, which sometimes would be an adversary. She does like me, and likes me better with daily association.
For the last couple of years, due to yearly spring trips away from the house, I have had to find some way for the (sweet) neighbor lady to feed Jessie in a way that wasn't traumatic for either of them. The easiest was to put her in the mews where bath water and food could be supplied without personal interaction.
There are three chambers in this building. Each room is 8x8x8, and is built as per the specifications required on my falconry permit.
Each fall when I have taken her out to get ready for the upcoming falconry season, she has spent the days without me in her life other than daily feedings, so she is a bit cranky and wild. I noticed last year when I left her in the mews, that she really did not want to be left alone. It took her about two weeks to resign herself to being out there. It took me most of the fall season to get her attitude leveled out, and as the days passed she became more tractable and even a little tiny bit sweet. As least for her anyway.
So this year I decided that I didn't want to lose that, and determined to molt her on the block in the weathering area.
This is one of the types of blocks that I make for that purpose. They can be anything from turned blocks to molded concrete perches.
The problem that I have with Jessie is that she has a tendency to walk around and around on the block and by the end of the day she has her leash wound up to the point that she can barely move. Its not more than an aggravation for me, but Sharon ( the aforementioned sweet lady) would have a serious problem trying to straighten her out. If she had been the type that bates ( flies wildly ) all the time the problem would not have occurred.
A friend of mine had a perch system that allowed the bird to fly to two differing perches on a sliding wire. The bird could choose to be either in the sun or in the shade. This seemed to be an ideal situation for Jessie as she could walk around as much as she would like but still not be able to wind her leash around anything at all.
Due to the fact that there are no public landfills in so sparse an area as this, each habitation has its own little dump. The one that came with this place is a veritable treasure trove. There is every thing from broken glass to wagon wheels and seats. So Karen and I went on a scavenger hunt yesterday that resulted in a front wheel of a John Deere tractor that would fill the bill for one of the alternate perches. There was also some very tough wire that had been used in a failed attempt to keep cattle off the runway. A left over board from some project that some other tenant had left over, and some Stainless Steel rod from my perches, and I was in business.
Today is her first day on this system, but I think that it will do nicely to keep her from tangling and allow her a bit more access to her bath and sunshine as well.
Her attitude is much improved so far. She likes being inside at night, and she is as sweet and tractable as she will ever be. I intend to do every thing that I can do to keep her that way.
The Antelope were in small bunches, and pretty jumpy. 
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