Just too damn small!

We have been having weather, particularly wind, problems. It has been howling most of all last week. Tami has been flying Orrin in the house on those types of days. Yesterday it moderated and we took Orrin out to fly. His weight should have been just right, but all it did was make him go hunting on his own. The little sucker flew down to the new barn and sat on top of the rafters. He was watching the brush (Christmas tree) pile feeding station, so I flipped out a Sparrow that we had caught, and from 80 yards away he came, but the unhindered Sparrow soon out flew him. Instead of going back to the  barn he came on and actually waited on over our heads. I threw a Starling that I had handicapped, for him. ( Not enough it turns out) It also showed more ability than he was comfortable with, so he quit chasing it. He then flew to one of the trees across the field. We tried to call him, but he paid no attention. We walked on a bit further thinking that he would come on over, but he stayed, so I tossed the lure for him. Tami picked him up with a very reduced amount and we went home. She put him to bed having only fed him some four grams. I told her that when he hit 98 grams I would come back and we would try again.

After weighing him this morning Tami and I thought that he should hit the 98 gram weight around 2 PM. I caught another Starling this afternoon, so I took it in the empty Hawk mews here at the house to flight test it. I pulled secondary feathers this time, and thought that I had just the right amount of a handicap so that the Starling would still be able to fly, just not well enough to get away from Orrin. What we want and need, is to teach him to keep pushing and he will be successful. I don't want to make it too easy, or too hard. As he develops confidence they will be handicapped less and less until he is taking wild birds.

(Pulling feathers sounds kind of bad, but it is better than cutting them. If I cut them they will not grow back until the bird completes its molt later in the spring. However by pulling them, if the bird escapes, they will grow back in a few weeks and he will be good as new.)

On arrival, Tami told me that he had stopped losing weight at 98.5 grams. Apparently that is the bottom line. He was a lot more attentive this time, and deigned to come when called. I had a pocket full of Sparrows again to see if we could duplicate the waiting flight again. He was on the barn and Tami called him again to the fist. He came when called, and then went back to a fence post on the edge of the field. I yelled at him and flashed a Sparrow at him, he started and I tossed the Sparrow. It saw him and turned out across the field. He pressed it hard and after flying it for 50 or more yards, it took refuge in a Grease Wood bush. Orrin crashed in after him, surprising both of us. He soon lost it and came back out and flew back towards us. I took out the Starling and tossed it towards him. The Starling flew straight at him. He strafed it and tried to turn to get in behind. They both flew across the field and to the far trees before we lost sight of him. There was a hump in the ground and we couldn't see the conclusion to the flight.

We walked over there hoping against hope that we could find them. We both listened as hard as we could, thinking that we might hear the Starling screaming. Orrin did not show up in any of the trees or anywhere that we could see. We started combing the Sage in the area that we had last seen him. Still no Orrin, so it was for sure that he had caught the Starling. Once Tami thought that she heard the Starling Scream, but though we looked all around, we could find no sign of them. The trees curved around to the right along the ditch, although there was only two of them and they were another couple of hundred yards along. Tami walked part of the way to them, but turned around. We walked, looking under almost every bush that we could find, and in every spot that we could possibly think of. I even went back down the ditch towards the far off trees, seeing and hearing nothing.

It had been two hours since we last saw him. Now the only question was how he was going to act with all the Starling in his crop that he could hold. Whether he would come down in the morning if she could find him before he ate his fill of Mice. Its always tough when your bird spends his first night out. The uncertainty is unrelenting. I have lived through it more times than I care to remember, it never gets easier. It would be no better for me, even though I was pretty sure that he would not leave the ranch before she had a chance to pick him up again. It was after all my fault that the chase went so long. I was the expert that was supposed to guide her through all this stuff, and I had failed miserably. It took me by surprise that he would chase so long and so hard.

I was going back over the brush again when Tami called to me. I looked up and the little turkey was sitting in the last tree way the hell from where he should have been. It turns out that Tami did hear the Starling. It had only screamed once so she couldn't get a line on the sound. Apparently like a lot of raptors he had followed the Starling until it ran out of steam and then crashed into it as it was going into cover. I had thought that should have happened back in the original search area. The actual chase had covered about a quarter of a mile.

I still had a Sparrow, so I secured it to the lure and tossed it out. Surprisingly he came and strafed the Sparrow a couple of times before going to a different tree. I picked it up and tossed it further away from us and towards him. He could not resist and bound to the Sparrow.

He however was very full and very jumpy. Not surprising since he had two hours to eat all the Starling that he could hold.

He kept trying to fly with the Sparrow, but of course, could not with the weight on the lure. Tami began to slowly creep closer, talking to him all the time. He killed the Sparrow and began to pluck at it. She reached out with her bare hand and gave him a tidbit, and soon, she had him secured and on the fist.

As you can see from the grin, Tami was quite relieved and happy that every thing worked out. It could have, or even should have, not turned out this well. I am surprised that no one heard my sigh of relief when the little sucker grabbed the Sparrow on the lure. Chump to hero in 2 minutes.

The stinker is so small, that none of my transmitters will fit on him. I don't want to put a bell on him either in case we do lose him. The loss would be no big deal. We are going to turn him loose in about a month any way. If he books now, he will only have to pull the jesses out and he is unencumbered. With a bell its a whole other story. We may bell her family group bird this summer, but not Orrin. The likely hood of keeping him after he begins taking Sparrows is too tenuous. However since he has shown that he is willing to come to a live lure after stuffing himself with Starling, one would have to say that the odds have improved.