Feb 11

Orrin was down to 101 grams today and for some reason at that weight the little sucker will go hunting all on his own. At least he has, the last few times that we have had him at that weight. At 104 he seems to stick around a bit more and at 98 he does as well. However between 101 and 102, he is off on his own.

We attempted to go into a larger open field, but he took off at the first opportunity and flew to the line of trees at the edge of the field. We walked back to the brush pile, hoping that he would come back to us and act like a trained hawk. He went down out of the tree after something on the ground, so we started in that direction. The Starling that I had "secured" in my pocket, (yeah right) got out and tried to make his escape. He got into the bushes lining the field. I got around him to block him from getting into the heavier brush. We walked to where I could see Orrin in the tree and I waved a Sparrow at him to try to get him over us with the thought that I would try to flush the Starling when he was coming. Orrin started out of the tree and it soon became clear that he wasn't coming to me at all. I stopped and watched him slam into the Starling that had gotten out into the open. He was pretty torqued up and wanted to fly with it, but it was too heavy for him to be able to do so.

We let him kill it and start eating. Tami began edging his way, and finally got down on her knees to finish her approach. He was very jumpy and made it abundantly clear that he would carry anything that was small enough for him to do so. When Tami got close enough, she gave him a tidbit on the end of her finger. I had her then offer him the live Sparrow in her fist, hoping to establish the idea in his head that just killing something wasn't necessarily the end of the fun. Besides Starlings are stringy and not all that tasty, and the stuff that Tami has was better tasting.

Now I personally don't think that he will ever make that connection. I don't think that we have been able to modify his behaviour one little bit, other than to get him to tolerate Tami and take whatever food she offers him. He still wants to hunt on his own, still hates to ride the fist, preferring to fly to the tops of the trees to hunt. He will come when called, but so far the fact that we have birds for him to catch still hasn't made that much of a lasting impression, or change in his hunting style. However there was one good thing about the switch. He got to eat all the Sparrow, and it was not big enough that we will not be able to fly him tomorrow. If we had left him with the Starling, we would not be able to fly him tomorrow, it was too much food, and way too rich.

His behaviour and attitude is normal in a bird taken at the age that we trapped him. That is the main draw to taking a bird that is younger and less experienced. They don't know what they can and cannot do. They have not formed any habits concerning hunting, and are quite willing to sit the fist and fly flushed game, which is the style that we would prefer. Perhaps a waiting on style of flight would have been better in his case.