Vet results

I decided this morning to take Puddy to the Vet to see if I could discover what is going on with her. I was worried that if I took her weight down it would be the final factor that would cause whatever problem that she might have to take over with fatal results. Raptors when they are sick, do not have a good survival rate, especially if they are down in weight.

There is an experienced Raptor Vet in Nampa thank goodness. I called and they squeezed us in at 5:45 PM. Rather surprisingly all they found was that she was loaded down with worms. The Vet did a full check up, and physical and apparently she doesn't have anything other than the worms. She has been treated for that, and I will do a microscopic examination of her mutes in 10 days to make sure that we got them all.

I don't know if the worms were the cause of her change in behavior or not, but now that I know that she is otherwise OK, she better hold on to her butt, because I am now going to get her attention. :-) 

update!

Well, its been a while. I've had company and Puddy just hasn't done a thing for quite a while. There is some thing going on with her, and I don't know what it is. She has almost always gaped, ( like a yawn ) from the very first week that I have had her. On the second day that I had her, she acted as though she was trying to cast up something from her crop, but all that comes us a yellow liquid. It doesn't smell, nor does her castings. She does not act sick, is able to stand on one leg, but she still does this. I guess I am going to have to take her to a vet.

lazy falconer

Puddy was a bit fat tonight, ( 920) but she still did quite well. I just didn't feed her as much as I would have liked.

It is hot! Too hot to expend much energy, so I took a chair to the fence with Puddy on the fist so that I didn't have to stand around waiting for her to decide if she wanted the food bad enough to jump the length of the leash. That was the distance for tonight.

As you can see there is a lot of inexperience at play here. My fist is about the same height as the rail.

The amazing thing to me about this hawk is that she pays no attention to Josie. She is not inhibited or prevented from doing what she wants no matter where Josie is or is doing.

Jumping

We have had company for a couple of days and it is tough to leave then on their own while I sit in here and type stuff for the blog, so I didn't make an entry for yesterday. It was a break through for Puddy however. She made her first jump to the fist, even though she was up an entire ounce in weight. I had fed her a "gorge" the day before and I didn't expect her to do much of anything when I picked her up. Sure enough when I weighed her, she weighed 930 Grams. I took her outside as always and walked with my company for a while. She surprised me by indicating that she wanted to go to the fence. I took her over there just to see what she had in mind, and offered her a tidbit. She didn't hesitate, and walked down the fence to the fist for a tidbit. I made her walk a couple more times then offered her a chunk of back bone with a fair amount of meat on it. After a short bit of hesitation, she made the leap of faith to the fist. I kind of beamed for a while.

Tonight, she was back down to 903 grams, and I had some Bunny to feed her. A lot less calories in Bunny so I could feed her more. Karen and I sat with her in the lee side of the motor home to get out of the wind. She amused her self by watching the birds and the dogs for a while, but soon began to get hungry. She made a try for the fence, so I sat her on the rail, and made her walk for one bite. The next she had to jump for. She kept trying, but just couldn't pull the trigger. She hopped around on the fence and then onto the rock jack. I just waited and periodically offered her the fist. Finally she started walking across the top of the rocks, then flew the remaining foot or so. Karen missed the shot, but she wasn't done yet.

 

After I had called her a few times to the fist, I then gave her the big chunk that would complete her meal and satisfy her hunger. 

She is coming right along with her training. She no longer pays much attention to me after I pick her up. Many of you have asked how do you get birds to come back to you when you turn them loose. The answer is that you get them used to coming to you for food so gradually, that they don't remember any other way or time that they didn't.

Day Seven

I put Puddy out front this morning with the idea that she might like a drink. Well apparently like most kids, anything that looks like a bath is to be avoided.

However Chickens might be another proposition entirely.

Puddy wanted to see where the Chickens went, so she flew off the perch and unfortunately landed right in the middle of the bath. She did not drink, she wasn't in it that long.

I had thought that she might be better in front of the house rather than in the weathering area with Jessie and Peg. I was wrong. The resident Bullocks Oriole took great exception to the presence of a raptor that close to her nest.

The Oriole was really cute in her defense, but persistent enough that I finally decided it was a waste and took Puddy in again.

When I picked her up this evening, her weight was 889. Her casting this morning showed nothing adverse, but in the middle of the day she again acted as though she wanted to cast, but couldn't. It is too early to tell if she has a problem, but if she does, It will become evident soon.

We followed our usual routine, and went out to the fire pit area to sit in the shade with her. Josie being her usual self, ran up and without hesitation jumped in my lap. Puddy did not get all excited, but was quite prepared for any way the encounter might go.

I put her on the spool and although she was slow, she did walk to the fist.

I called her several times today and then gave her a Black bird to pluck and eat.

After she finished that I gave her a Bunny backbone to give her a gorge. I most likely will not feed her tomorrow. I am sure she will be too fat to do anything. I like to give my birds a gorge at least once a week, and of course a day of fasting comes next.

Day Six

Puddy threw up some stuff from her crop this morning. Karen saw it, and said that it seemed to be liquid of some sort. I looked at her and she showed no sign of distress, but I decided to give her a casting tonight to help clean her crop.

I went up to pick her up and she seemed to be a bit flighty. I weighed her and found that she was at 896 grams. My first thought was that I had hit her top limit, and today's session was not going to be that great. She was also pretty grumpy about being touched, so I put my glove on and tormented her for a while. Karen came out bringing me a feather that Jessie had dropped. That was even better, so I tormented her for a while longer.

 She actually did pretty well with all the harassment.

 Biting the feather when ever she could get a chance to get hold of it.

 I sat her on the spool and was surprised that she was eager to walk to the fist for a tidbit.

 I called her to the fist twice, and then offered her a blackbird on the fist. She was unsure at first, looking for the raw meat. Finally she decided that what I offered might be worth while and she shot out a foot and grabbed it.

I picked her up and she ate her bird with relish. Hopefully that will help clean her crop. I will put her out on the lawn with a bath tomorrow.

Day five

First let me make a change. Even though Karen says that Tweety always said "I taught I taw a putty tat" I am going to have to spell her name puddy. I cannot shorten her name to put? I can however shorten her name to Pud (pronounced PUDE as in Pudding) Others may have their own pronunciation, but that is the chance I will have to take.

Yesterday was a day of improvement, but due to the late evening and poor photo conditions, I didn't record her lesson. She did however make her first step towards the fist and food. She also made improvements in her reaction to my hands. She did not foot me at all, and the bites were merely grasping my finger and moving it out of the way. No serious reaction to my hands at all.

One of my friends emailed me with questions about her actions, which indicates to me that I haven't explained things as fully as I should have. His question and my reply follows.

"I find it interesting that Pud bites you so much.  I was always under the assumption that raptors didn't use their beaks too much as an offensive weapon as to break it would mean CERTAIN trouble for their survival.  Maybe this is not so true in captivity though.  As you noted, the talons are razor sharp and I would think this would be the weapon of choice all the time.  Have most of your birds in the past shown aggressive biting as a norm or is Pud's activity unusual, or as you mention, normal as Harris' go?"

"It is a bit unusual for a "hawk" to bite. In fact it surprised me. Let me digress a bit for some more explanation. I bred Harris Hawks for perhaps ten years, maybe more. The pair that I had always produced two females, and one male offspring. One of those females was bigger, more aggressive, and a better hunter. The other female was just fine, but not an over achiever. Now, when I contracted for this hawk, I asked for the bigger one, knowing that she would be exceptional if handled right. I expected to have to deal with a Beta female. You can see it because when first threatened, she stood her ground rather than try to fly. There is nothing abnormal about the way she has been acting."

 

"What Puddy is doing will stop when she learns that only good things come from my hands. Her first defense was her feet, and that is normal. Hawks kill with their feet, Falcons kill with their beaks, therefore a bite is more normal for a falcon. However Jessie doesn't hesitate to grab me with her foot and drag me close enough for a bite. :-) Therefore when Puddy's feet didn't do the trick, a bite was next. Since her feet were not working, the only thing left was to bite. The reason that hawks use their feet is due to fact that their feet are their primary weapon. Gos and Coopers incidentally just grab their prospective meal and start eating. The prey rarely dies from anything other than blood loss. As for other birds biting, yes they all will defend their selves until they learn to trust you. Pud biting me was an indication of how frustrated she was at my violations of her space. You must remember that their reaction if positions were reversed, would be to kill and eat you. They expect the same treatment."

 

 Pud gained weight again, but I will not reduce her weight until she shows me that she doesn't want to eat, by trying to fly and refusing to come to the fist. She weighed 889 grams tonite. If you remember she was at least an ounce lower in weight when we started outside. I want to keep her as high in weight as I can, because with a Harris, response does not depend entirely on hunger. If I can get her used to responding  when she is heavier I will be able to fly her when she is at maximum strength. That way when I do have to turn the screws to get her to chase and kill, she will still be strong. ( This would not work on any other Raptor, you would only prolong your misery.) Of course there is always the possibility that I am full of it. We will see.

I was able to pick her up off her perch with only one bate, and was able to weigh her with no adverse reaction. We sat for a while, and she remained calm and interested in her surroundings, turning her head around looking at the Nighthawks and Swallows.

I put her on a cable spool, and tossed her a chunk of meat.

She didn't know at first what was going on, and really didn't recognize it as food. I let her sit and look around, she made no attempt to fly away. ( that would have ended the lesson) I gave her a couple of tidbits, and got her to to stretch for tidbits.

Little by little getting her to move towards the fist rather than away.

Then when she began to look for the tidbits, I offered a large enough chunk to finish her meal.

She began by pulling pieces off the food. I then allowed my fist to go with her pull, so that she was having trouble getting enough leverage to pull off pieces. That caused her to put one foot on the fist to hold it still.

I then slowly started lifting my fist until she stepped up with both feet.

All of this so slowly that she was not aware of any of it occurring. I then moved over to the chair to be comfortable while she finished her meal.

Betsy jumped up on the spool to clean up what ever scraps she left, while Josie was checking for mice.

I prefer to allow the birds to train me to feed them. It is nicer when it is their idea.

Fires,Josie, and Putty Tat.

We had thunder, lightening, and rain, it seemed like most of the night. I lost count of the number of times that thunder woke me up. Then the hiss of the rain on the roof, had me checking to see if the noise was normal. Some yo yo drove in the gate and took an excursion down the runway, but I somehow missed that one. We just found his tracks when we took Putty for a walk this evening.

I have been helping the neighbors put up their hay this year. With all the rain last night, it was too wet to stack hay, so I had the day off.  After I did my chores, I rolled Dart out of the hanger and went for a recon. Here is a short video of the fires locations.
http://vimeo.com/26517093


After I got back, I spent some time editing the video, and while it was up loading, I went to close the hanger doors. I had one of the doors pulling it into position and almost stepped on a Bull Snake, sunning himself on the concrete. Once I touched back down, I grabbed him by the tail and went looking for Josie. She has never seen a snake before and I wanted to let her know what they are, and to stay away from them.

 A lot of barking and nervous jumping is apparently the way to handle a snake.

She didn't have any trouble being hinky about snakes. This is the closest that she got to it. I was very pleased to know that she won't go up to a Rattler and smell its nose. Bull Snakes are normally difficult for a dog to smell. This one was no problem for her nose at all.

Then it was Putty Tat's turn for attention. We went for our walk up the runway. The wind was encouraging her to try to go someplace other than where I was. I wore the work glove again, and she showed little inclination to foot me in more than an occasional desultory manner. She cannot believe that I willingly let her bite me however, and she is still insisting that it should hurt. Finally after she had bated several times, I stopped and just petted her until she was worn out from biting me.

When we got back to the house, Karen got a squirt bottle to cool her off with, and I sat down to let her settle a bit. When I picked her up tonight, I weighed her and found that she had dropped an ounce of weight. I had not intended that, but it meant that I could feed her all she wanted. After she had settled down, I offered her a tidbit, which she took with no hesitation. I then got up and took her to the fence and sat her there. I fed her a big part of her meal just making her reach for the tidbits.

 Once she was on the fence, she made no effort to leave.

Finally after I had given her most of her food allotment, I sat down and fed her the rest from my bare hand. No striking or biting now. When I brought her into the house she bated for her perch when she got into range. Things are going well.

Perhaps I was too hasty with the name?

Day two of Putty Tat's introduction, and it is interesting to say the least. She is of course still convinced that I am a villain of the first degree. A new bird of course will react to that fear one of two ways, fight or flight. So far flight hasn't come into the picture. Her talons are razor sharp, and I refuse to clip them. She is going to need them soon. So far she has not acted like a Putty Tat, maybe a Hell cat, or Edwina Sissorhands, but when she gets over her fear it should get better. She has long legs, and can reach out and touch you before you can move.

We went for a walk when it cooled a bit.

 

I started to straighten the leash, and out flashed a foot full of razors and I have three new leaks in my hand. If one reacts, then the action has gotten the desired (for the bird) result. I reached up high enough that it was not comfortable to use her foot, and with no hesitation, she bit my thumb, hard. By the time that we got to the end of the runway, it finally quit hurting. I need her to get over this, so when we got back to the house, I got one of my work gloves and put it on my right hand and proceeded to pet and touch her feet.

She footed me four times, and got no response from me, so she decided to bite.

I touched her all over for quite a while and she did not use her feet again, but she didn't quit biting. After we had sat there for a while, the storm clouds began building. It finally got pretty windy, so I finished feeding her and put her on her perch. I will have to use the work glove until she decides that biting and footing causes no reaction. I generally do not pet my hawks, but I am going to have to in her case or carry a lot of band aids.

We began to get some thunder bumpers and Karen went in, leaving me with the elements. One of the things about here in the Desert is that July is lightening month. Its going to be pretty serious with all the weed growth. So as I sat there we had a strike just over the hill to the South.

and another down along the Hwy. This one was apparently put out by the rain, but the one by the Hwy has gotten to be pretty good sized.

We will see how large the BLM lets it get before they put it out. I am of the opinion that they have a tendency to want to justify their existence.

The lightening was popping all around the place.

I am sure that the BLM will have plenty to do after this evenings fireworks.

New bird

It seems awfully early, but I guess Hawking season is upon us. I haven't even had a chance to go fishing yet, but I now have a new bird. She is the off spring of Sylvester, who you might remember hunted with Peg the first year I got her.

http://owyheeflyer.blogspot.com/2009/10/sylvester.html  Sylvester was owned by Lee Mann, and was paired with Tweety, his female. Lee passed the birds to Mike Syring, a breeder in Gresham, and I wanted a replacement for Sue, so Mike sent this bird to me.

Sue finally convinced me that she was dangerous. Her behaviour kept getting worse, so she doesn't live here anymore.

 Josie, the new pup ignores Peg as if she is not there, but this new bird will be different.

 This was her first night here. She is about 13 weeks or so old. She was taken out of the mews where she had been living with her parents and siblings, jessed and stuck in a airline kennel for her flight to Boise. She will live on this perch in the house until she is ready for the outside. In other words she needs to be comfortable with captivity to where she doesn't do herself harm if tethered outside. Normally about two weeks will have her coming to the fist and able to be outside.

Of course she was pretty jumpy the first night, and we made no attempt to do anything other than let her observe and decide that no one was going to hurt her. This afternoon I picked her up on the fist and weighed her for the first time. She weighed 866 grams. She has been without food for at least two days, and her stomach was empty. She may have been picked up a day earlier than her shipping date, so she might have lost a bit of weight as well.

I had thawed some Jack Rabbit for her, in the hopes that she would eat today. We went outside, and I took a comfortable chair to sit with her. She settled right down, so Karen brought me a large pair of hemostats to offer her some food with. She surprised me by taking the first piece with no hesitation. The second and third went the same way. So I offered her a piece on my thumb. She showed no hesitation.

 

I could have fed her a large pile of food, but stopped when I judged that she had enough to maintain her weight. Tomorrow we will do it again, and I want her to be very interested in food.

She did quite well on the fist outside. She even sat through Josie jumping in my lap when Karen scolded Betsey for barking.

I have been racking my brain for a name for her. At my age I have had a lot of birds, dogs and other pets. I try not to recycle names, as the memories of these birds and pets are associated with those names. It gets tough after a while. Finally it came to me. If the parents are named Sylvester and Tweety, then she is Puddy Tat. Pud for short.

Video Camera's and of course Rats

The rat problem is slowing down a bit. I only got three yesterday. The "sonic" gadgets seem to work just fine on the Rats, but does not deter Mice one little bit. Either that or there are so many of them that new ones move in as soon as the irritated ones move out. Either way it is a plus to keep some of the vermin away from us.

Here is a trap that I use to keep the mouse population down in the hanger, along with the Sonic gadgets. The only problem with it is that it is hard to keep bait on it that the Rats like. Peanut butter does not do it for them.

Tami was having trouble with the Rats eating her young Tomato plants and I put one of the sonic gadgets  at the head of the row. They have quit eating the plants and have moved on to somewhere else.

Karen and I were listening to an unidentified Owl last night, I got her out of bed to do so, and we could hear something tapping on the tin roof of my wood shed.  Pack Rats tap their feet when irritated or they see a cat under them as this one did. One of the "Barn Cats" was on the ground just under him. I grabbed the BB gun and the light and went to find him. Karen helped,  she poked a stick into the area he was hiding in, while I did the shooting. Definitely worth getting out of bed for. The Rats are leaving the house alone, but they are moving into the outbuildings.

I have been working on my Video mount for the airplane. While it worked out fine on the nose, I had no control of the thing. I need about 10 minutes to warm up the engine before I can take off, and I had to either burn up that much battery life, on get out and turn it on again. I have been thinking about a HD camera, and their video and battery life is much shorter, so its back to the drawing board.

The Camera that I have now does not have a remote, or I can't find it, either way I need to be able to get to it. With a propeller thrashing around, a vibration free spot isn't that easy to come by. I finally decided on the windscreen just above my head was a place to try.

Now it is just a matter of finding the right foam cushioning to stop the shaking.

I took a flight to the Whitehorse area of Oregon Canyons. One would never know what was there if the ground was the only way to travel. When I get my HD camera I will revisit the area for some better shots.

http://vimeo.com/25984425

Since this was taken I revisited the Owyhee Canyon to test my latest mounting system. I still need some different foam, but it is going to work out.

http://vimeo.com/26204167

While I was waiting for this to upload, Josie alerted us to another Rat on the back porch. The BB gun and Josie are getting to be an unbeatable pair. I don't even have to touch them.

Road Trip to Leslie Gulch

We have been to Leslie Gulch several times, and I have written about it as well. However each time is different, scenery is different, and most importantly Jan Marker had never been there before.

After our visit to the rock Quarry we continued our trip towards Leslie Gulch. This entailed a drive through Jordan Valley and past the Skinner Rock House, which serves very delicious ice cream cones. Thus fortified, we were able to continue our trip in much better, thou fatter in my case,  condition .

The road turns off just a bit West of the Idaho State line. It is still dirt, though in good condition. Karen and I have been giving Mike, (primarily a city boy) lessons in wildlife spotting. He has apparently learned quite well, as he pointed out a large bird sitting on some rocks across a creek from the road. We stopped and I thought they were Vultures, until I got the bino's out. Upon checking them, it turned out to be two Golden Eagles. I had thought one might be a youngster, but I changed my mind when I saw the nest with a genuine youngster in it.

needless to say, I was a bit surprised. We had driven by that spot several times before, and I had never noticed it.

You will notice all the swallow nests under and to the right of the Eagle's nest. What better protection could you ask for.

Its occasions like this that make me wish for a good telephoto lens. Sigh!

On down into the canyon and the formations that make the place so magical. I had hoped to run into some of the wildlife that frequents the area. We were not to be disappointed, first up was a Chukar that Karen spotted up on the hillside

This is a file photo, since I was so busy driving and they are so jumpy, I never got a chance to be other than a guide.

I was very pleased to be able to show one of them to Jan. I was telling them that on other trips we had been able to see some Bighorn Sheep, just around the corner from where we were. We turned the corner and what do you know?

There they were as if they had been waiting. There was a young ram with these ladies, and of course he was full of testosterone and quite willing to show off.

He jumped up on the rock to pose for us.

I was very pleased to say the least. The rest of the trip was of course full of some remarkable scenery.

All in all a great road trip. The temps were in the low 70's, traffic was at a minimum since the Owyhee reservoir is so high, there aren't many people fishing, and the rafters are pulling out in Birch Creek to avoid paddling 15 miles of slack water.

Jan had of course heard of the scenery in the Gulch before, but I dare say, she wasn't disappointed.