Traps and thoughts.

Orrin weighed 103.5 this morning so I was to go over at 1130 for his flight. Before I went I decided to do something about the difficult job of keeping Starlings under control before their use. I have been jamming them into my coat pockets and keeping them there with my hand. This however has a few drawbacks- They squeeze out past your hands, they get all messed up by trying to keep them under control, and of course there is the minor ? problem of them crapping in your pocket. While eating breakfast this morning I noticed that we were out of paper towels, so I went to get a new roll, and kept the old empty roll.

You will notice that the tube is just the right size for a Starling and the velcro fasteners on each end keeps things under control.

I used dead ones for this demonstration, but you can see the birds readily slide out for use, and it will hold two Starlings ready. It would of course hold more Sparrows, but I prefer Starlings. You could of course use tape, but I have the Velcro and it is reusable, where the tape is not.

For our flight today, I loaded the tube with two live ones, but did not use them. They spent 30 to 40 minutes in the tube with no apparent adverse effect. Of course they may now be claustrophobic, not to mention have nightmares, but they appeared to be in good physical health.

Another falconer that reads the blog requested a picture of my trap, and I am happy to comply. The Starlings are coming into our Chicken pen, and eat as much or more food than the poor Chickens get, so it was imperative that I do something to control their populations. It is nice that I actually have a use for them - Hawk food. I estimate that I caught upwards of 500 Starlings last year, and they form a good part of my hawk food requirements. It is turning out to be a boon with Orrin's training as well.

The trap is made of 1x2 inch welded wire. It is 2x3x1 feet in size. There are two funnels, one in each end, with a door in the top. With this size of wire, the Sparrow sized birds can walk on through, since I am not that interested in them for Hawk food.

The idea of course is that the birds walk around the cage trying to get to the feed. When they find a funnel they walk in, but when they try to leave, they always go to the edges of the cage to try to escape. The only way for them to go out is to go to the middle of the cage and find a hole in the wire that will lead them outside.It is not unusual to get 15 to 20 Starlings a day out of this trap.

Now for Orrin. I think that he made his first kill today. Tomorrows casting will tell the tale. As I said he was at weight. Tami pulled his jesses before she turned him loose, not wanting a repeat of yesterday. He took his familar perch on the barn as we walked out into the Sage. We were waiting for him to come over us, but he flew the other direction to the Telephone wire out across the creek.

We decided at that point that he was screwing us and we were going to pick him up with as little food as possible and see if he could overcome his addiction to Mice long enough to work with us for a change. We walked back across the field into the opening by the barn and looked for him. He was nowhere to be seen. We swung the lure for 10 or 15 minutes before we spotted him on the Telephone wire. He saw the lure swinging and came to it. Tami almost knocked him out of the air with her belated toss. :-) She was appalled and I was quite amused. On the lure he was quite jumpy, which was unusual to me. She had put half of a Sparrow breast and wing on the lure, and fed him the head, which he ate not much more than the brains. (He really likes the brains.) When we weighed him at the house, he weighed 115 grams. In thinking about it, he was out of sight for a long time, and he was jumpy on the lure, as well as weighing a lot more than he should have. Tomorrows casting will tell the tale, but we are thinking that he caught one of the mice or Voles that abound in this area while we were walking across the field.

Conclusion :  I have mentioned a lot of times that he is a older bird, Haggard. That is one that has been through at least one molt. In falconry we do not use Haggards with the exception that it is permitted in Kestrels, since there is no real noticeable change in feather color to identify them. It takes a real expert to tell the difference. It can be done, but not by me. The reason that they are not used is ostensibly because they have proven to be a survivor ( not easy at all. 75 percent of young die in their first year.) and they are a valuable part of the breeding populations. Actually it is because they have already developed their hunting style and not even dynamite could get them to change it. ( my version ) Any way the only way so far that we can get Orrin to cooperate is to take him to the razors edge on his weight, and prime him, by tossing Sparrows for him. So far if given a chance, he flies to the nearest high point and starts watching for Mice. It is a known fact that "bad habits", ( as in a bird that does things that are counter productive to what you want. ) can be taught in one easy lesson, and never be eradicated by years of work. Bad habits are a lot like fat cells, they shrink, but never fully go away. We will be fighting his proclivities for the rest of the time that we have him, and will not get what we want until the spring when the new models come out. The lessons that he is teaching Tami are frustrating, but valuable as well. I like very much, that it pisses her off to have to chase him. I like the fact that she overcomes her fears of losing him enough to not do things the easy way and settle for just keeping him around allowing him to lead her on a merry chase.

This is why I require the novices that I sponsor to train at least three hawks in their two year apprenticeship. The hawk that she has now is supremely designed as a survivor. He does what he needs to do that, and as I said not all of them are up to the task. As a survivor he is rated as a 10. As a falconry bird he is perhaps a 7. It would not be this critical in a different species, but with a Kestrel it is much different. (Surviving does not depend on catching birds. It does depend on catching Mice. They have much more food value, there is little danger to the raptor, and the effort is minimal.) Her next bird will be a Kestrel that is in a family group. It will not know how to hunt, it will not know what it can or cannot catch. It will be a "blank slate" that Tami can write what ever she wants to on it. If she is sloppy or unwise, the things that she writes will haunt her through out the entire time that she has the bird. She will undoubtably make some mistakes. That is where the third bird comes in. She will then have a chance to correct the things that she did wrong.

With Orrin, I am helping her, in that I am making the decisions and asking her to carry them out. The one that she gets this spring will be hers to train. I will only comment if asked directly or if she makes a mistake and recognizes it for a mistake, and then only after the fact.