Jasper's second bag, and Puddy finally gets hungry enough to come to the fist.

Today has been a fairly interesting day. I decided to check a couple of ponds to see if they had water. I told Karen that I would be gone for a couple of hours and told her that I was going to check Palomino Flats. I found that both ponds there had water and ducks. As I started back, the Dodge died. Water in the fuel again. I tried to drain the water, but it would not restart. I managed to make the mile and half walk to the highway in time to  catch a ride with one of the Hwy dept trucks. Traffic is not that heavy on Hwy 78, so I felt quite lucky. I met Karen at the mail box at Burns Junction, and waited for an hour and a half for the mail lady to finally get there. We then went to the house to get tools to change the filter. We drove all the way out there, and found that I had left the wrench in the shop. We drove back again, got the wrench, and I spent the next hour cussing and bleeding from multiple sharp edges placed to inflict maximum damage on any idiot dumb enough to work on a dodge truck. It still wouldn't start, so we went home and I called AAA to get someone out there to tow it home.

While I was waiting for the tow truck to get to the house, I was puttering around in the shop. I could hear occasional high pitched squeaking. I have had one of the free range chickens that insisted on setting eggs. I let her sit. Of course the other chickens laid eggs right on top of her, so they were not set at the same time. Finally two of the eggs hatched, and since this hen is not one of my best mothers, she took the two that she had and left the eggs. She managed to kill one of the chicks, but I had two more hatch, so I gave them to her. She lost another one, so that made two. I gave the remaining two eggs three days to hatch, them gave up on them and put them in an egg carton in the garbage can in the hanger about three days ago. I finally checked the garbage can and opened the carton. The two eggs had hatched with no incubation other than the ambient temperature . ( How hot was it? ) I couldn't believe it. Since Mom was out in the yard with her older chicks, it was obvious that these new hatched wasn't going to be able to keep up. I fixed a box for them, gave them food and water. One of them promptly drowned itself in the water.  It was a standard chick water bottle. Sigh!

The tow truck finally arrived and we took off to get the truck. Batting a 1000, I left the keys at the house. Karen brought the keys to us a bit further up the road.  We finally got the truck home for me to worry about later.

Tami brought Jasper over to fly. He had eaten all the Black Bird that he could hold yesterday and still lost a couple of grams of weight. Great, that meant that we fly him again today. She let him loose in the parking area, and called him to the fist a couple of times. He took a perch on top of the old chicken house, and from there he made his first wild kill, a Grasshopper. He regained his perch and flew to Tami, as she was walking away. He again regained his perch and the next time he flew, it was to my head. He stayed there for a while until Tami called him. I flipped out a black bird that I had not handicapped enough, and he gave chase. When he saw that it could fly, he veered off to the top of the hanger. If he had kept after it, he could have caught it. His reaction was nothing out of the ordinary, and he will soon learn that he can catch those kind. I got another Black bird and handicapped it a bit more. He wasted no time grabbing this one. Tami made in to him and helped him kill it. We put him in the shop to finish eating while we picked up Puddy.

She finally got on the fist, and was weighed at 810 grams. About a three ounce reduction in weight. One of the little bunnies was eating on the lawn, and over Karen's objections I decided to see if Pud would go after it. The cute little thing is so tame that we walked to within 6 feet of the bunny. Pud saw it, looked at it, watched it hop away, with no effort to pursue.

I took her out to the hay bales hoping that she would remember that she had flown to me from them. I sat her on the bales and after quite a bit of contemplation, she flew to the perch. I called her again, and again the long wait, and she flew to the perch again. This time she managed to knock the meat off the perch, but would not go down to the ground to get it. I attempted to get her to fly back to the bales. She took a detour and ended up on the fence in the yard. I decided to reinforce the lure and call it a day, in the hopes that I could feed her less, and she would lose more weight. She actually came to the lure quite quickly.

In the 47 years that I have been doing this I have never spent so much time with a bird and gotten so little in return. I sent off for a capture permit for a wild bird today.

Puddy update and Jasper entered to game.

I put Puddy outside in the weathering area Monday morning. I tried to get her to jump to the fist so that I could weigh her and if she acted right, fly her. In the evening when I put Jessie up for the night she again refused to come to the fist. I left her in the weathering area overnight. She got no food. This evening I again went in and tried to get her to jump to the fist for a tidbit, she again refused, same treatment. Perhaps tomorrow evening she will see fit to at least come to the fist so that I can feed her.

Tami and Tara brought the kids and Jasper over after dinner. Karen volunteered to be the lifeguard for the kids while we flew Jasper. We turned Jasper loose and Tami called him to the fist a couple of times. He showed no hesitation at all. We walked out into the rough on the other side of the runway, and while Tami, who was about twenty yards away, walked to meet us, I slipped a Black Bird out onto the ground. Jasper immediately gave chase and soon caught it, taking it to the ground to fight it out. He soon gained the upper hand and had control of the bird. He paid no attention to either Tami or anything other than the bird that he had in his feet. Tami killed the bird and let him start to feed. Since he seemed to not be concerned by her presence, I advised her to try to pick him and the bird up to finish his meal. He made no objection at all and finished his bird while we watched the kids swimming in the pool.

Tami has done an excellent job with this Kestrel. It has been a source of amazement to her the difference between a December bird and one from a family group. It is a bit like two different species. The young birds have no bad habits, no preconceived ideas of how to do things. A much easier, much more fun proposition.

Puddy, on a diet again.

I tried to fly Puddy free again last night. She was awful. She was at 870 grams. Not much higher than the last time that I flew her, so she can go without for a few nights. Perhaps soon she will get the idea.

Tami and her sister Tara, came over tonight with Jasper, and of course the kids. The kids were to swim after we flew Jasper. Tami has had some scares with Jasper in that there are a pile of Barn Owls in the trees both at their house and in the trees around the houses. The little guy is on edge all the time. She was reluctant to turn him loose because of the way that he had acted last night. Here, however he did not make a bobble, coming either before or as soon as he was called.

Tami has been concerned that he wasn't made to the lure well enough to come to it in an emergency. I suggested that she increase the amount of food on the lure. Tonight she used half of a Starling breast and the wing. Nice and visible. He had flown to one of the rock jacks in the yard, ready for another call. Tami threw the lure in the yard, he took off immediately but of course the creance caught on a weed, so he diverted to her head. She jerked the line loose, and as soon as he had the slack, he flew to the lure.

While he ate we discussed today's lesson. Jasper showed none of the unease here at the house, that marked all his flights at the ranch. We decided that she would bring him here when work at the ranch allows to continue his lessons.

Tami, and Tara

Jasper finished his meal while the kids were swimming in the pool.

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Today the Firestar, Dart, proved its worth. There is a set of springs that have the appearance of being bottomless in one of the fields that the cattle are kept in at the ranch. Most of the cows stay out of them, but occasionally one of them blunders into one of them. If they are not found in a timely manner of course they eventually die. When the weather allows I generally fly over it to check. Most of the time there is nothing there, but today I spotted what I first thought was a calf in one of the potholes. It took me about four passes to decide that it was a full grown cow, but only her head and a bit of her shoulders were sticking out.

Dave, Tami's husband, took the catapillarTractor out to pull her out. That is about the only thing that will travel over the swamp and has enough guts to pull a stuck cow out of that mess. She was so tired that Dave had to prop her up with the blade. When he went back this evening to check on her, she had gotten up and moved to another part of the field.

Bumbling, stumbling, Sigh!

Still going through the baby stage I guess. I tried yesterday to give Puddy a bagged rabbit. She is apparently not ready to even consider that a Jack might be something that she wants to get close to. In fact she was afraid of it. I did get her to eat off it, but nothing about the exercise sunk in or made any impression.

Tonight as I was doing my evening chores, Josie chased a half grown bunny into one of the Black sewer pipes lying in the loading chute by the corral. Great, I thought, a small Bunny rabbit is just what she needs. I hurry back to the house, put Jessie up on her evening perch, leaving Puddy tied to her perch in the weathering area. The weathering area is 10X24 feet long, covered and enclosed by Chain link. I had Karen check that there were no holes in the far end that the Bunny could get out of. I then put my hand over the end of the pipe, and stick it up in the air so the bunny can't get out. I shook the pipe until I slide the bunny out towards Puddy. The bunny runs like heck to the end of the weathering area where she is sitting. She flares her wings in surprise, the bunny makes a hard right and squirts through the chain link like its a 10 foot hole and disappears under the motor home. Sigh! Seemed like a good idea at the time.

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Tami's corner

25 August 2011

Tonight Jasper weighed 90.5 grams. I changed up as we talked about and went behind the barn to fly him. He responded really well and every time he flew to me I moved to another spot. Although I couldn't get too far away from him due to the weeds and other obstacles hanging up the creance, he flew to me every time I asked without dallying.  He is starting to leave my fist to choose a landing spot as I start to a new location, instead of me always having to set him somewhere. After calling him to me several times, he flew to the top of the gate post. I tossed the lure for him, and he got on it without hesitation. Using a larger piece of meat as you suggested seems to have drawn him much better. It took him a while to eat the wing and breast off the lure as he systematically plucked every single feather off the darn thing. We averted what I considered a near crisis, but which didn't seem to be such a big deal to him, when the cat sauntered over to see what was going on. I tossed a rock at the cat as he drew near which did nothing but spur him on to Jasper all the more quickly. I hurried over to Jasper, sure that I was going to spook him off the lure or, even worse, the cat was going to get him. By golly, if he didn't just mantle a little as the cat got close and I slipped up and stood over him, shooing the cat away. He never even tried to leave.



26 August 2011

Dave and the three oldest kids are up at camp for a few days starting more cows home, so I have to stick pretty close to the house to keep track of the two little ones. Tonight Thayen wanted to come help me and he followed me along as I walked around the house flying Jasper too me from different spots. He was very responsive even with a busy two year old running hither and tither.  When we got to where I have flown him the most, in the driveway where there are no weeds, I tried to get farther away from him, but he would fly to me before I could get very far. A good sign, I guess. We worked our way back around the house and he flew up on the chicken house roof. I considered this a good place to end the lesson, so I threw the lure out for him, but he didn't come down. Too far out with him being up on the roof, maybe? I retrieved it and swung it again. He started to fly and I tossed it, but although he sort of made a movement like he was going after it, he was too close to me and landed on my head. Again. He jumped off my head on to the lure, but it sure makes me feel like the bumbly amateur that I am. Sheesh. He continues to come to me well from the lure, but I sure would like to see him get on it more quickly.

Take Care,
Tami
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Don't worry about it Tami, apparently you caught the "bumbly amateur " part from me. Sigh!

First free flight, first wild game kill.

I wanted to add the picture of the Deer in the camp ground, but could not seem to edit the last post, so this ill have to do.

For what ever reason my blog will not work with my Vista computer. I restored it to the point that I last knew that it was working, but no joy at all. Apparently I am not the only one that is having trouble, but there is absolutely no help from the Blog personel at all. Now normally it wouldn't be that much trouble to just change computers, but had to move every thing when we put the new carpet in, and somehow all the computer discs that are for programs that I use for the blog are in never never land. The program that I use to resize the pictures is on the other computer, and Windows 7 and Vista do not talk to each other. Sigh! Oh well, I will muddle through somehow. You may find that some of the words are mispelled

I had wanted to fly Puddy free yesterday but Karen couldn't find the telemetry transmitters, so I used the creance instead. After I no longer needed the transmitters, Karen remembered where she had put them. Oh well today would be good enough.

It was pretty interesting trying to put the transmitter on Puds leg today, but Karen hung in there and we finally got it on with no blood shed. I took her out to the hay bales as usual, and called her to the perch a couple of times, then started walking with her on the perch. She rode it quite well with no attempts to fly off or to a perch. I am sure that she didn't really realize that she could go somewhere. After a bit we flushed a Night Hawk and she gave chase to it. I found it a bit surprising, since she watches the Pigeons and young chickens with no attempt to grab one of them. She flew around and landed on a fence post. I called her to the perch and continued on out the gate heading to the rimrock over the creek.

Once we got down there we started flushing Quail. There must be several hundred Quail here on the place, and they were busting all over the place. She found that the Lizards were irresistable and gave chase to any that made the mistake of skittering over the rocks. I call them racing lizards and they all evaded her, pleasing me to no end. She saw something by Ezra's corral and made a flight in there, finally flaring back up to the hay bales again. I put a tidbit on the perch and called, She flew the 200 or so feet to the lure. I was more than surprised that she would fly that far.

Finally I crossed the fence to walk in the Sage on the lower part of the property. More Quail running through the Sage. Pud took off and did a wing over on the other side of the Sage. Nothing flew or ran, so I used the end of the perch to poke in the bush hoping that if there was a Quail in there I might run it towards her. Nothing moved so I walked to where she was and found her with her feet in the bush. I waited to see what she was going to do. She finally pulled her feet out and what do you know? She had a half grown Quail in her feet. Now the season is not open until the first of Sept. but there is a provision in our laws concerning out of season game birds, that says that your bird can feed on the game, but it cannot be taken out of the field. Puddy ate the whole thing. I offered her the rest of her meal, a rabbit back bone, and counted it a remarkable first day. I cannot ever remember any of my hawks ever catching something on their first free flight.
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Tami's remarks:


Hey There Larry,

Here's how the last several days have gone. Sorry it has taken me a while to get them typed out.

19 August 2011
We are doing a lot of riding right now, working cows and bringing them from the summer country back down to the ranch. This takes all day and today was the first day Jasper was left unattended on the indoor perch. He seems to have done well and I feel much more at ease with leaving him now. When we got back, I put him out in the weathering area for a while before I flew him.

Although I didn't gain any distance today, his response time was quicker, which is nice to see. I didn't have to fiddle with the lure quite as much before he got on it. He also grabbed the lure body, today being the first time I have seen him do that. I have been stretching out the distance that he comes to me from the lure and was about 5 feet away when he came today.


20 August 2011
We got in late from riding today so today's lesson was short but sweet. Jasper was 95 grams this evening which is higher than he has been and I wasn't sure how he was going to respond. He flew really well, however, and we gained quite a bit of distance. He is also responding much quicker and coming really well when I offer a tidbit as I am walking away. He got on the lure a little better and from a little farther away, but I'm still having to work at it a bit. All in all, I am pretty tickled with his progress today.


21 August 2011
We got home from riding too late to fly Jasper outside tonight, so I decided to fool around with him inside. He weighed 93 grams. I flew him to me a few times around the room, set him on the back of a chair and tossed the lure down for him. He knew that he should do something, and he decided to fly to my fist which was at my side. I put him back on the chair and after looking at the lure a bit, he jumped on it. He is still mighty protective of the meat on the lure and tried to hide it from me. He comes to me well when he finishes, however.


22 August 2011
Jasper was 93 grams this evening when we got home from riding. I am pretty tickled with how well he's coming to me. More often than not, he's coming before I whistle and I am still increasing the distance, alternating between sticking my fist up as I am walking away and just walking the distance I want to go before I call him. He was Johnny-on-the-spot every time I offered my fist which pleased me very much. I put him back on the post, whooped and threw the lure. A bit too far, apparently, because he flew to my shoulder. Hmmm. I put him back and slung the lure a little closer, maybe 10 feet away. He looked at it a while and then flew down to it. I stayed back and gave him a lot more room as we talked about earlier this evening, and he seemed much more comfortable. He wasn't trying to hide from me as before, and is still coming quite nicely when he finishes what is on the lure.


23 August 2011
Jasper weighed 93.5 grams this evening. He continues to fly to me without hesitation and I went almost as far as I can without getting into grass and weeds, which, as you well know, hangs up the creance most annoyingly. I swapped directions on him after he flew to me one way, set him on a post by the pipe gate and walked back the way he'd just come. This didn't seem to faze him and he came to me without question. I set him back on his post, stepped out a ways and got the lure. He was coming to me before I could even toss it and although I did toss it out to the side, he didn't deviate his course and landed on my head. Clumsy, clumsy apprentices, anyway! He was looking at the lure the whole time and when I got him off of my head and on my glove, he went right to it. It took him a minute to find the meat as it landed underneath it and I was beginning to despair, but he finally found it. I stayed back about 15 feet and he came nicely when he finished on the lure.

Catch up time

Karen and I left home about 8 AM Friday morning bound for Wallowa Lake. Karen had agreed to give a talk for the Park Service about Falconry. Of course I was invited to come along if I wanted?
Since I couldn’t see any way out of it without looking like a complete crab, I consented. Nothing like a 6 and half hour drive in the morning to make you happy you live in the desert.

We finally arrived safe and cranky, to find that the park was full to overflowing, and that there was a Motorcycle rally in Joseph this weekend. How much better does it get, Fat guys on noisy crotch rockets everywhere you look.  Actually as usual I am exaggerating, I probably couldn’t get any sympathy even if you believed me.

We insisted on sitting our tent in the hiker area, which has a table, but none of the other conveniences that we didn’t need. The important part is that we are as by ourselves as one can get in this city in the woods.  I was a bit worried about Jessie, concerned that it might interrupt her molt. The two Harris Hawks I could stick in their Giant Hoods, But Jess would have to ride unhooded in the truck. I apparently had worried for nothing as she hopped to her normal perch in the back with no problem, riding all the way with little concern.

I was more than a bit concerned as to whether this was a wasted trip or not. Every one seemed to have a lot of other things going on, and I wasn’t sure that anyone would be interested enough to come. Karen said that she had seen posters advertising it in one of the bathrooms, but I was still skeptical. I went to check the area and found a presentation about Teepee’s that had two people attending. Of course when I mentioned it to Karen, I got yelled at for being my usual guy self.

When we arrived and brought the birds out, people started coming from all over, and at one time we had seventy people gathered around. We of course had ( Well Karen had anyway, I could bullshit about falconry for a week straight without hitting the same subject twice.) given a lot of thought to our presentation. It soon deteriorated to answering questions. Oh well, they seemed to be happy. I do not talk very loud and my voice does not carry. I have also had a sore throat for two weeks. The Harleys were nonstop going by.

Since our routine was interrupted, I didn’t feed Puddy this morning. After we got camp set up, I just tossed the lure with a good chunk of Jack Rabbit on it to her on the perch, and ignored her. Soon she was back on her perch without the lure. Perhaps at last she will find that the lure has food, but once it is gone, there is no reason to hang on to it.

Saturday:

People had been coming by and stopping and gawking at the birds. We would wave them over and answer any questions that they might have. Things were actually going quite well, but Peg was getting agitated by all the attention, and bated across in front of me and to my horror the button popped off her leash and up into one of the 100 foot Ponderosa pines she went. She had not eaten either Friday or Saturday morning. I hoped that she would come down to the lure. It was not to be. She chased some of the Stellar Jays up the tree, ignoring me completely. Finally she flew to the other side of the camp by the hillside. A camper later saw her thermal up and head off into the direction of the Eagle Cap wilderness area.

The Park people were horrified at our loss, and did every thing that they could think of to try to help. They made up posters and plastered them all over the campground. Every one was looking, and I can't remember how many Jay's I investigated that sounded like a hawk. A group of Bikers returning home reported that they saw her in Wallowa, 44 miles south of the park. We of course checked every "sighting" but I don't think that there was a plausable sighting anywhere. We were both gratified beyond words at the number of people who went out of their way to try to help us recover her. We stayed an extra day in the hopes that she would return to the area looking for us. She made her choice to leave the area, and I hope that she makes it.

We drove the area and looked all over, but with all the trees, there is no way that I could find her if she didn't want to be found. So we finally just sat and listened for any call from her or a disturbance from the Jay's. There are quite a few Deer in the park, seeming to run heavy to Bucks. There was some really nice Deer there, and they just walk through the park with total disregard for people or dogs. One of them was a real PIG. Not sure how old he is, but he looks elderly.

The trip for Puddy was a real plus. She got exposed to more things than she ever would at home. I took advantage of the down time to work on her lure training. I just tossed her the lure, and left her with it. She would eat the meat and then hop back on to the perch. The only time she held onto it was when I would call her to the fist for a finisher to her meal, but it was nowhere like it had been.

Pud is ready!

The first thing that I did this morning was to fly to the Alvord to check the water levels. It is hard for me to believe, but the Desert is still full of water. I looked for a way to the east side of the Lake bed, and at the moment about the only way to get there is to fly or come in off the Micky Hot Springs road. Here is the link to a video of the flight.
http://vimeo.com/27878704

Pud this morning weighed 870 grams. She has been steadily coming up in weight, but her response is better each day. This only means that it is finally sinking in what I want her to do. I am beginning to subscribe to Karen's theory that she is just a baby yet. Slow development I guess. I may go back to stupid later. :-)

She came on the creance without a bobble to twice the length of it. I called her to the fist and took her to the lawn to toss the lure for her. ( She doesn't like to have dirt and gravel in her food. ) This time when I took it out of my bag, she focused on it with recognition in her gaze. ( a bit of sarcasm there ) I tossed it out in front of us and she immediately flew to the meat this time. I let her eat it, pleased that she hadn't gotten a death grip on the lure body. Sadly it wasn't to last and as soon as she finished the meat, she grabbed it. She then had to think how to get to the fist for the rest of her meal. Actually she did quite well with the whole of the lesson. She ate the rest of her food and I tied her up in the weathering area. She is ready to fly free. She knows what the fist and the perch are for, and she will come to the lure, even if I have to toss it in front of her feet to get her attention.  It will be a relief to be able to get into the field where we can work on following and maybe even find a tasty Jack Rabbit to invite to dinner.
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Tami's flight yesterday:

I put Jasper out in the weathering area this morning while I did chores. He is still a bit restless in there and although he hopped to the edge of his bath and even in it several times, he didn't really bathe. I left him out for a while as I was around the house today and could keep an eye on him.

This evening Jasper weighed 92.5 grams. I put the creance on him and headed outside to continue where I left off yesterday. Working on getting him to come further and further to me when I call him. He is doing well with this and even though he still thinks about it with the furthest flights, he hasn't refused to come. It was a bit breezy this evening and I learned something that most experienced falconers know. I was standing down wind from Jasper and when I whistled for him to come he was very hesitant. It was contrary to how he had been behaving although he finally flew to me. When he did, he had to do a little bit of fancy flying to be able to hit my fist as the wind blew him around. Duh! I moved up wind when I called him the next time. He didn't need any coaxing to come this time and was able to fly much more directly to my fist as he was flying into the wind. As I continued to increase the distance, he took a little longer  to come so I employed your tactic and stepped a bit further away. This didn't seem to dissuade him and on he came. On his final flight I guess he flew about 35-40 feet to me. I considered this a good place to quit and finished the lesson with some lure training. I squatted down so he was a couple feet off the ground, gently swung the lure back and forth a bit and laid it out in front of him. He looked at it with great interest, but I had to wiggle it a little before he realized that there was meat on it for him to eat. Once he figured out that out he hopped off my fist and grabbed it. Then he turned his back on me and tried to haul it off. He couldn't get far dragging it and when he settled down I offered him tidbits in the hopes that he would realize that I was not interested in robbing him of his prize. I was happy to see that he turned back towards me as he ate what was on the lure, not trying to hide from me anymore. I continued to give him a tidbit now and again as he ate what was on the lure and he seemed ok with my presence. When he finished up I offered him his finishing chunk of meat and he had no trouble leaving the lure and coming to my fist. I guess I was about 3 feet away when he came to me from the lure. I feel a lot less hurried about him coming to my fist from the lure than I did with Orrin. With Orrin it seemed like it took an excruciatingly long time for him to finish what was on the lure and decide to come to my fist for the rest. I felt pretty unsettled as he ate on the lure because I really wanted him to be secured on my fist. This time around with Jasper I keep remembering what you say about "the hurrider you go the behinder you get" and I feel a little more at ease with waiting until he is ready to leave the lure. I think Jasper and I are continuing to make progress and this makes me happy.
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Any of you with a memory will remember that I said feeding tidbits behind a birds back isn't really going to do you any good. The problem with making flat statements is that there are many variations to the situations. Tami did the right thing, and the only thing, when Jasper tried to take off with the lure, and with him it worked. He is still adaptable, and if she can show him that there is more, then he will gladly stick around to get it.  The one thing that Tami is finding much to her pleasure is the differences between a young bird taken in August and one taken in Dec or January. Jasper is much more adaptable than Orrin, and really hasn't settled into just one course of action or way to do things.

Jasper is about two lessons from the spot that Pud occupies right now.

The little Bunny is still living under the Motor home and coming out on the lawn in the daylight to eat on the lawn. Karen opened the door to do something, scaring the bunny. He made a beeline for the Motor Home. There has been a family group of Shrikes learning how to hunt here in the yard and around the house. (look it up on Google) They are meat hunters and like all young of the year, do not know what they are really capable of. This one apparently thought that he was  "Henry Hawk", and chased the little Bunny right down into his pipe. Not sure what he had in mind, but he was definitely out of his class.

Lure training?

Pud this morning still weighed 850 grams. I decided to walk with her a bit as I was bored with the lessons and felt that she must be as well. Betsy has been trying very hard to impress me with her hunting ability and trying to convince me to always take her along when hunting. I would of course love to, but both Betsy and Josie would work better with a high flying falcon rather than a slow developing Harris Hawk. Anyway the dogs went one way, and I of course went another.

On the first part of our walk, the little bunny that lives in the back yard bolted to cover and wonder of all wonders, Pud did her best to try to catch him. A very good omen. I watched her pretty close and of course the Jacks that were jumping up at a distance elicited no response, but the two that flushed close registered on a very positive scale with her. The dogs finally realized that I had gone somewhere else, turned and found us. I walked over to the edge of the rimrock, and we started finding Quail. The dogs were working pretty close and they soon had a snoot full of Quail. When the Quail realized that they were busted, they started flushing all around us. All in all it was a pretty exciting walk. Sighting about 8 Rabbits and 30 Quail, and observing Pud's behavior gave me a boost as well.

I again tied the creance on Pud and let her fly to the hay bales to begin our lesson for the day. She as usual choose to sit for a while when I offered her the perch, so each time she hesitated I stepped back a bit further, finally she decided that she had better get the tidbit while she could. I called her several times with her improving a bit. I soon bored of that exercise and took her to the yard. I let her fly to the wooden fence bordering the yard, and tossed the lure out in front. As usual she sat and watched, and as usual the meat landed on the far side of the lure, blocking most of it from her view. On the third try the meat landed in sight and she flew to the lure, grabbing the leather part as usual. I find all this a cause for amazement. She will not fly to the lure until she sees the meat, but when she does, She grabs the lure body and she takes a long time to find the meat, all the time maintaining a death grip on the lure body. After she eventually finds and eats the meat, comes to the fist for the rest of her meal, that grip is maintained.

Here she is trying to hold onto the lure with one foot, hold onto the fist with the other and still eat the food in my fist. By the time it was all over I had the lure line wrapped around her feet, through the jesses and every other combination you could think of, and the light still hasn't gone on. I may have to let her tear it all apart before she understands its purpose. Still it was a good lesson and we are one step closer to hunting.

Now for Tami's corner, Every thing is a day behind as she flies of the evening, and I the morning:

Today was a town day and, as you well know, when you live out as far as we do, you try to get as much done as you possibly can in the hopes that you won't have to go back for a month or so. Trips to town for us just tend to take all day. Grace stayed home with Elsie, Dave, and Reuben to mind the fort and also to keep an eye on Jasper for me. As it has only been a little over a week, I am still a bit worried about leaving him unattended for all day. So far he has done fine on the indoor perch and hasn't gotten himself into any trouble. I would like to visit with you about how soon you leave your birds unattended. I know Puddy stays in the weathering area with the other girls now, but as Jasper is still adjusting to the weathering area, should I just leave him on the indoor perch if I need to be gone riding all day? How do you determine when they are ready to be left unattended on the perch? Orrin didn't seem to adjust to the perch well and tended to bate a lot so I kept him hooded on the perch when I was around or in the giant hood if I wasn't around. Jasper seems to be more accepting of the perch so I haven't used either of those as of yet.

When I went to pick him up this evening he was very eager to come to me. He launched himself at my fist before I was even ready for him. He weighed 91 grams which is now the lowest he has been. He still seems alert and strong, so I don't think it is too low, but I am hesitant to try to take him down further, and will try to hold him at this weight for now. I took him outside on the creance, set him on the fence post, gave him a tidbit to prime the pump so to speak and stepped away to about 6 feet. He came right when I whistled.  I set him down and as I turned to walk away I put a tidbit on my glove and held up my fist to see if he would come as I walked away. I didn't whistle or anything,  but just wanted to see if he would come of his own accord. He was bobbing and looking, but wasn't quite sure what to do, I think, and he stayed on the post until I turned around and whistled. (Do you think that this was an acceptable thing to try?)  Each time I called him, I went even further out and when I called him for the final time I was out about 25 feet. It was about the same as yesterday where with the last, furthest flights he had to think about it for a little bit, bobbing and moving, opening his wings and such before he committed to flying. I held him for quite a while this evening and he was much more accepting of me touching him. He didn't try to bite me, only gaped his mouth a little a time or two. This was the first time that I have been able to feel his keel bone without him being quite objective, and it seems to me that it feels about right. In my limited experience, however, I am not quite sure.

I am pleased with Jasper's progress. Should I work with the lure tomorrow? I'll be looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Take Care,
Tami

My response:

I would leave him on the indoor perch if you need to be gone, and where you live, I would do it that way as long as you have him. I am not sure that I would care to leave him outside unattended at anytime. With a bird that small, almost anything could be really traumatic. As long as he has adjusted to the indoor perch, he should be fine for any length of time. Each bird is different, but it took about a month before I felt able to put Pud out in the weathering area all day long. I will still keep her in the house at night for at least another couple of weeks, or more. Their attitude governs their treatment. What I am looking for is for the time that the bird does not remember any other life, than what you are providing. In other words, complete acceptance of its life with you.

 

I do think that it is time to start the lure. I would call him several times and then use the lure to finish. When he is made to the lure you can then turn him loose. Calling him to the fist while you are walking is fine. He will soon figure it out and come to you. I wonder if I could talk her into "petting"  Puddy for a while?

 

We made a standing round perch for him that is like what I use for Pud in the house. That way he can bate and still be able to recover the perch with no chance of injury.  It is the safest type of perch available. Karen reminded me this morning that it was time for a cleaning?

Still making progress.

In another day or two Puddy will be ready to fly free. It would be so much better if I could cut her loose now, but she needs at least one or two more lessons as to the value of the lure. I am sure that I could get away with it now, but I don't need to push it, nothing to be gained worth the chance, or aggravation if things go wrong. She still has a few flat spots that need to be worked out. For instance if she is brought to the ground, it is very difficult to get her to come back up on the fist.

I did weigh her today and she weighed 850 grams. Her response is still good. She shows anticipation to the things that indicate that I am going to pick her up. I have to watch her because she will fly to the hay bales from a lot further than the length of the creance. So she is capable of learning, I just need to be smart enough to show her what I want.

We called her several times to the perch, and she responded quite well, coming more than the length of the creance. She wanted to fly up to the top of the tack house, which caused some confusion on her part, but over all did quite well. I tried to pick her up off the perch so that I could give her the lure. I managed to cause her to bate and she ended up on the ground just in front of the yard. I tossed the lure a couple of times and finally she flew to the lure. It is a bit interesting in that she is not quick to recognize the lure until she can see the meat, but when she grabs it, she grabs the lure body, and holds to that like it is gold.

None of her reactions are that unusual. You first have to teach them that the lure means food, then they have to learn that once the food is eaten there is nothing more there. It is a bit amusing to see her with one foot full of the lure body trying to use that foot to hold down the piece of slippery meat in the other foot.

The lure is made of soft leather stuffed with fabric softener sheets, and is designed to be something that will give the lure enough weight to swing and get the hawks attention, yet be soft enough to not cause harm to the birds feet. The line is nylon and it has a weight on the end that will slide forward on the line so that you can throw the lure, but if the bird tries to drag or fly off with it, the weight slides to the end and hangs up on every little bump or weed.

I asked Tami to send a written recital of her new birds progress. His name is Jasper. He is a young of the year male Kestrel. We caught him out of a family group in Rome.

We actually wanted to catch a female, just to be able to compare possible differences, but that just wasn't happening. There were probably three perhaps four different family groups gathered on a series of power lines that ran beside a long string of hay fields. The males are always a bit faster to develop than the females. The males were ready to go on to bigger and better things, while the females were quite happy with Grasshoppers. We caught three Kestrels that day. One was an old Kestrel so faded that the only blue on him was on his head. The other was a gutsy little male, but he was so small that Tami's fingers wrapped all the way around him. When we caught this fella, he was much bigger and plumper, so we turned the other one loose as well.

The deal for Tami this year is that I will answer any and all her questions, but will not offer advice unless asked, or she is doing something so bad that I can't keep my mouth shut. One of the things that will help a new apprentice is to keep a journal of what you did, how the bird reacted, and the results. The better, and more accurate observer becomes the better falconer. That needs to be trained and refined during the apprentice period. This blog can be her journal, since so many inquired about Tami and her new bird.
Here is her report:


Here goes Progress Report # 1. I took Jasper outside with me this morning as I made my rounds through the garden, changing water and checking on things. He seems more than willing to just come along for the ride. He doesn't seem too inclined to bate, just kind of looks around at things with interest. He's still a bit crabby about being touched, so I spent some time tormenting him, touching him about the feet, chest and back. He still tries to bite, although it seems a little half-hearted to me. His grumpy indignation about this is actually quite amusing. I just keep chuckling at him and telling him what a mighty brave little falcon he is.

Thus far I have been keeping him inside on the perch, so this afternoon I decided to see if he would like a bath and how he would handle being outside in the weathering area. When I set him out and tied him to the perch, he just sat there and looked around for a long while. Soon he jumped down and began exploring how far the leash would let him go. I was glad to see that there wasn't any incessant bating, but just what looked to me like normal exploration. Hopping to the edge of the bath, then sitting for a while. Hopping back to the perch and sitting for a while. Flying out as far as his leash would let him go. Mostly, though, he sat on the perch. I kept him outside for an hour or so under supervision and as I had other things to do, put him back on the inside perch until it was time to fly him.

I have been monkeying with his weight, taking him down a bit because although he is flying to me pretty good in the house, outside he hasn't seemed inclined to come when I whistle. Last night when I tried, he just looked at me. I got tired of begging, so I brought him in and put him up while I went for a run. By the time I got back it was dark and I just flew him inside. He did well, but I think he was a still a little too heavy so I fed him less in the hopes that today he would do better outside. This evening he weighed 92.5 grams which is the lowest he has been. I have noticed that whenever I approach his perch lately, he gets pretty animated and hops over to the edge and onto my fist before I even have a chance to unclip him. I like to see this enthusiasm. I took him outside and set him on a fence post. I didn't put the creance on him because I wasn't sure how far we would progress being outside, even though he will fly across the room to me inside. I gave him a little tidbit when I set him down, moved my fist away about 6 inches and whistled. He came with no hesitation. I moved back about a foot and a half and he came before I could even whistle. Needless to say, I was quite pleased with this. I decided to put the creance on him and then stepped back about 6 feet, whistled and he came again. Okey-Dokey. I stepped back about 10 feet and after a little coaxing he came again. This was about as far as he has come inside and I guess I was feeling a little greedy because I then stepped back another few feet. At this point, he started to look around and then down at the ground quite intently. I whistled, but he was much too interested in something in the weeds at the base of the fence post. Just my luck there would be a mouse or a vole or a grasshopper or something lurking down there. At any rate I could see that he wasn't really interested in coming so I went and picked him up. I walked around with him a bit and decided to try again. I am not sure if this was the right decision, but luckily it worked out. I set him back on the post and stepped back to about 12 feet and whistled. I wiggled the tidbit, whistled again, and he came. I was pretty confident that the large chunk of meat that I saved for finishing the lesson would draw him so I stepped back about 15 feet or so and called him again. He took a little bit of time, more than I would of liked, but I wonder if he is still getting the hang of flying and landing on my fist from longer distances. He seems to wiggle and step around and think about it before he commits to flying. It doesn't look like he's ignoring me because he's bobbing and moving and stepping from side to side. It just looks like maybe he's not real confident about landing on my fist. What do you think? From the longer distances he sort of crash-lands into my fist. It has been interesting watching him try to figure that out. I am really liking this little fellow. And that is that. I will be interested in hearing what you think.

Take Care,
Tami


The problem with Jasper is of course the same aversion to flying to a human fist that Puddy did not seem to be able to over come. That is why I went to the Tee perch. Jasper seems to be able to overcome it however. The Kestrels are so much more agile in their flying. Actually I am quite pleased with her thoughts and actions. She is almost as far along in one week as I have been able to progress in a month. She has made no mistakes, and many intuitive guesses that keep things moving in a positive direction.

Finally a good lesson all the way through.

The "art"? of falconry is predicated on refining the things that a Raptor does naturally, and shaping them towards a point that allows you to participate with the bird as it does the necessary things to survive. The bird actually doesn't do the things that you demand, it merely allows you to help them hunt.

So of course the first thing required is that the bird accepts you and whatever hunting crew, human or animal, that you have to help you in the flushing of game for the bird. With some birds that isn't that tough a proposition, others take a lot of time. Most of it is through changes that are so subtle that the bird readily accepts things that would have been considered preposterous when the process all began. That process is called manning.

Raptors respond best to positive stimuli, what gets them food is good. The more food the better. Of course sometimes more means that you don't have to hunt as often, so there is no real reason for the bird to even pay attention to the falconer. One of the things that I read many years ago when I was starting, was that each lesson should end on a positive note for the raptor. With some birds that is the easiest thing in the world, with others it is a constant struggle to attain even half the time.

Pud, I am happy to say is finally getting better. Having finally gotten her attention, she is beginning to show some signs that she just might turn out alright. The degree of alright is yet to be determined, but things are looking up. Normally I will keep a hawk in the house where it can observe all the things that are going on from dogs to cats and people, for about a week, perhaps two. Pud has been in the middle of the floor since I got her a month ago. She may not be ready to go out for another couple of weeks.

One of the mistakes that is generally made with the training of Raptors is that the falconer gets in too much of a hurry and doesn't establish a thorough foundation in his training routine. It can be overdone, but most generally one ends up with a bird that rarely returns to the falconer without a lot of promise of a large reward. They will wait for the falconer to catch up generally, but in essence they control the line of travel. This occurs when a falconer is too anxious to get into the field and catch something. The only way that you can then regain control is by cutting the birds weight enough to make them want to stay close to the fist and that generally results in a bird that continually flies to some place so that you can call them back to the food and thus a reward.

I prefer to fly my birds a bit heavier with the thought that they will have more speed and stamina. Of course that requires a bit longer to obtain, since there will be days that the bird will be high enough in weight that it will be quite independent. That type of response will then have to be dealt with by not feeding as much on that day, and extravagant rewards on days that they do well. I generally handle that by only flying Jessie (Peregrine ) and the Harris Hawks every other day. It also has the added benefit of allowing me to hunt every day, but not be busting my butt to find game for two different types of raptors. Now I am quite confident that I am a better judge of where Jack Rabbits like to hide out, and if the Raptor doesn't want to follow me to where the rabbits are, then it doesn't need to eat any more than that required to get it on the fist long enough to secure the jesses and put it up.

These things are what I am trying to instill in Pud. I want her to be comfortable around me, Karen and the dogs, in all situations. On the ground or in a tree. One of the generally harder things to get to go right is when the bird has the lure and its reward. Most birds will have the tendency to hide the food from other predators, and "mantle" over their food. One of the first things that one has to remember is that the only things that think in the same mind frame as you is another human and he or she will have to be of the same sex and background as well.  Where you are towering over the hawk thinking warm and fuzzy thoughts, all the hawk sees is another predator that has dropped a valuable piece of meat and will soon realize it and thus take it away. Raptors do not have generous feelings and thoughts toward any other creature, they live by tooth and claw and think that you do as well.

Pud was still anxious to start the lesson for today, and I sheepishly admit that I forgot to weigh her. I set the scales on the table, picked her up, and walked straight outside. One of the benefits of growing older I guess? I am sure however that she is up in weight even more. We are back now to judging her actions rather than the scale. I fed her a lot yesterday, so I am sure that she gained weight.  One of the things that I want her to do is to respond quicker when I offer her food and call her to the perch. That one is going to take a long time, I am afraid. I called her to the perch a couple of times, and then she hung up. I didn't really want to call her too many times, as I didn't want to feed her too much. I had Karen stand on the end of the creance to avoid as many tangles as possible. When Karen was controlling the creance, I then started calling her from different locations left and right of where I had been calling her before. After she started coming with a minimum of lengthy pauses, I called her to the fist. We took the creance and walked to the yard. where I had Karen swing the lure and toss it in front of where she sat on my fist. She just looked at it for a bit, and finally Karen tossed it so that the chunk of meat was visible. She hopped right to it. Now this is the part that I was talking about in the above paragraph. Birds read body language, if you are in a hurry or nervous, they know it and react the exact opposite of what you want. The object of course is to be able to pick the bird back up on the fist to secure it. Now you are eventually going to be doing this with a bird that is not secured, has a whole fist full of food, and the wilder eyed you are, the more difficult the task. The first two or three times will set the path that this exercise is going to follow for the rest of the birds life. If you screw it up, it will haunt you for the rest of her days. It is one of those situations where "the hurrieder you go, the behinder you get". Remember at the slightest indication on your part that the bird thinks is remorse for letting such a treasure go, will cause the bird to turn its back and try to drag the lure off to a safe, from you, spot. One of the earlier falconry books that I read addressed this issue by suggesting that you feed the facing away raptor tidbits over its shoulders so that it would quit mantling. Mule muffins, that sucker just thinks that you are trying to lull it into a careless moment so that you can snatch the food away. 

I merely got close enough to step on the end of the lure line, and sat down on the grass. Pud ate her meat and as she finished and began to look the lure over to see if there was more, I offered her half of a quail in my fist. She soon drug the lure to me and grabbed the quail and the fist. I picked her up and let her eat the rest of her meal. If the next few lessons on the lure go as well I will be able to turn her loose and begin the "follow me" part of the training.

There was actually some change.

Pud this morning weighed 840 grams. A one ounce raise in weight. She still gave the appearance of being hungry. I am still keeping her in the house at night. She is still a bit spooky and not acting as though she is ready to be outside like a trained hawk. Her training at this time is very shallow. I do have to admit that she is the slowest hawk to respond to training that I have seen for many years.

She was very anxious to get on the fist to be weighed. I walked her outside to where Karen was watering the flowers. She indicated that she wanted to fly to the hay bales, so I tied her creance on and began the lesson. She of course then didn't seem to be in any hurry to get to the fist for food.

One of my requirements needed before I turn any hawk loose is when I can no longer get to a point to call them. In other words they get too impatient to wait for me to turn around, and fly before being called. Puddy however seems quite content to sit on her butt and wait for me to plead with her to come.

After some delay, she finally began to fly to the perch for the tidbits. She is finally acquiring some skill in her landings.

I got her stretched out to about 30 feet without too much trouble, and was going to call her just one more time before I gave her the lure. This time she actually came before I called, panicked and flared off over the truck, heading over the house. The creance hooked on the truck bumper and brought her down on top of the drift boat. Actually I was quite pleased that she came, but wish she would not get so excited when things don't go as she thinks they should. I went to the boat, offered her the perch with food. Instead of going to the food, she was still all screwed up and scrambled to the top of the boat. I finally got her on the perch, but she ignored the food. I carried her over to the concrete pad in front of the hanger, and tossed the lure down. It had the meaty back bone that I had cut her tidbits from. She looked but didn't register that it had meat yesterday, maybe had something on it today. I attempted to entice her by swinging it up close to her. She tried to grab it, but bolted instead and was brought down in the yard.

I walked up and tossed the lure to the grass by her, but for whatever reason, she just doesn't see the meat. Finally with it about 12 inches from her she decided to grab the lure. Not the meat, the lure. She is standing there holding the lure, not quite sure why, but holding it. I flipped a slice of rabbit about 6 inches in front of the feet, but she doesn't see it? I tried several more time, and she ignored each of them. I finally put a slice of meat on the fingers of my glove and extended them towards her. That one she saw and footed my fingers. Finally after quite a long cluster #$%*&@ she found the meat on the lure. Karen and I were both quite amazed at her actions or rather lack of reaction. Of course all this means that the value of the lesson is pretty much lost in all the confusion. Quite frustrating indeed. The only thing that keeps us sane is the ability to laugh at ridiculousness of the situation.

If I can get her to understand what the lure means, I will be able to turn her loose.

Yesterday I showed you a picture of one of the small bunnies eating grass by one of the fruit trees. Here is a shot of the afternoon trimming squad at the same tree.

A bit of progress- maybe?

Pud has been an interesting study. Not one that I felt I either needed or deserved. I am not sure if she is still a baby in the head, or just plain stupid. A bit harsh I suppose, but if I was supposed to have patience, then I feel sure that God would have made me a gynecologist. There is a bit of good news. The vet checked one of her mutes and did not find any sign of worms.

Every day it is the same with Pud. Almost on the verge of starvation and she is quite content to sit on a hay bale and act as though she has never flown to the fist for more than 6 feet. Today appeared to be more of the same. She did seem to remember that the hay bales were a good place to be however and tried to fly to them as soon as we got close to them. She then proceeded to hang up at 8 feet, and look all around as though she did not ever need to eat again. I countered by stepping back every time that she refused to come to the perch. Finally after about 15 or more minutes. I felt that what I really needed was to let her sit until she found that just sitting on her butt wasn't going to get it done. I decided that I would at least introduce her to the lure so that I could eventually at least turn her loose. Then I could walk away from her, forcing her to at least fly nearer to me to get fed. The creance while a necessary tool, is also a pain in the butt to keep untangled, and you are best served to get rid of it as soon as possible.

I tied a chunk of Jack Rabbit on the lure, and tossed it to the ground by the hay bales. She thought that it was interesting, but not enough to actually fly down to. I wiggled it a bit, but again, it just wasn't enough. I tossed it out in front, but she couldn't be sure that it was really worth the effort to fly to it. Now, I have been saying over and over that she has been taken down to the point of starvation, but the truth is that she is no where near a dangerous point of hunger. It is just that another bird would would be determined to eat something, anything no matter how difficult it might be. To come to the one source of food that has been supplying food to her for several weeks. She is quite content to wait, sooner or later something to eat will come along. I have trained Goshawks to fly free in just 11 days, she is amazed that I want her to fly 12 feet.

I went to the lure and tossed it in front of the hay bales, thinking that the contrast between the meat and the gravel would show her that it was worth investigating. She was definitely interested, but still not sure. I walked up to the lure and picked it up. I was still holding the tee perch in my left hand. She flew to the perch, causing me some surprise. I fed her a tidbit, and let her fly back to the hay.

 Since she had decided that she wanted to eat, I kept walking back further with each flight.

 until I was the full length of the creance. Much further than she has ever flown before. No flare offs this time.

When I began to run out of tidbits, and with her sitting on the highest bale, I tossed the lure onto the lower bale. This one was close enough that she could see the meat and flew to it immediately. I let her eat the meat, and then offered her another chunk on the fist. She walked to the fist and snapped out a foot, grabbing it and the glove. I soon picked her up and we walked to the weathering area. When she was done, I tied her and left her to weather with the rest of the birds.

This is the first lesson that has gone well in several weeks. I have been very depressed by her actions and reactions, perhaps that is mostly past us and she will get with the program. She will gain weight from all the positive reinforcement that she received today, but she has room to carry it. Once I get her to the point that she knows the lure means a lot of food, I can then turn her loose with some hope of reclaiming her after a lesson. Then I will have the ability of letting her sit if she doesn't want to participate.

While she was sitting on the hay trying to out wait me, the little bunny was flushed out of hiding by the chickens, and ran out into the yard where we were. She watched, but didn't react. She actually seemed more interested in the Quail coming up to the Chicken house to feed.

Karen is out in the front yard watering the various plants. She pecked on the window to show me the little bunny in the yard eating grass in spite of her presence. I told her that I would be sorry to see it get caught by one of the birds. It didn't take long for her to inform me that it wouldn't be very sporting, and therefore wasn't happening. He is cute! Sigh!

Perhaps a solution to Puddy Tat's problem

As you are aware, Puddy will not fly further than about 8 feet to the fist without flaring off. Once she does that, she seems to panic and tries to fly off. Yesterday she got about 4 tidbits before I gave up. Today she weighed 785 grams, was really hungry, but still will not fly without flaring. I tried two different times after her flaring off again to get her back in the groove and flying to the fist. Finally I got my Tee Perch and offered it to her with a piece meat on it. She flew to it with no hesitation. I called her three times to the perch with no problem, before I ran out of tidbits. I then called her to the fist for a Bunny rib cage and fed her up. I know that her real flying weight is higher than where I have been keeping her, so I gave her a lot of food today hoping that the good result will stay in her mind tomorrow and we can finally move on from this temporary stumbling block. I have never had a bird so determined to not fly to the fist. It really doesn't matter, I will almost always not ever call her to the fist other than short distances. Almost always it will be to the Tee Perch. We will see what tomorrow brings.

More fires, and a really stubborn hawk!

Tis the season I guess. I feel as though we are playing Russian roulette. Every day that we get past without a big fire is a relief. Every evening it builds the storm clouds and the lightning starts popping. So far so good. When the days get short enough to cut back on the high temps, it will all end.

 The skies and sunsets are spectacular, but as you can see, come with a price.

I spend the evenings sitting outside watching the various strikes to see if they spark another fire.

This one did start another fire close by the first one.  They managed to put both these out. One started on the other side of the Owyhee River was still burning yesterday. I believe it is out by now.


As for Puddy Tat, we are still going through the throes of weight control. I keep starving her, ( at least it feels like it.) and she keeps on refusing to progress beyond the beginning stage. Perhaps my soft hearted "good guy" approach lead her to believe that I could be trained easier than her. I took her out yesterday to try to fly her with her weight at 820. That by the way even though she is a small hawk, is ridiculously low. When I first approached her on the perch, she flew the other direction. I turned around and walked away. She knows that I am going to pick her up. I pick up my bag and glove, she wants to fly away- not hungry I guess. I came back 30 minutes later, but this time she did not try to escape.

I put her on a rock and called her a few feet to the fist.

That worked out fine, but when I stepped back another couple of feet, she didn't feel comfortable and flared.

Then she wouldn't come back to the fist, and kept trying to fly away. OK, not hungry enough, back in the house on her perch.

This morning as I was waking up with a morning cup of coffee, I saw her jumping and footing the turf on the top of her perch. That is a first for her. She sits there with her head feathers showing all the signs of being starved to death, and she is jumping up and down on the perch? When I approached her with my hawking stuff on, she jumped onto my fist, hard. I weighed her and found that she was now down to a true weight of 810 grams. That is two ounces less than Peg, who I thought was small.

I put her on her rock and called her a couple of times and she was pouncing onto the fist when she flew. I walked her to the hay pile after she showed signs of being uncomfortable of flying the distance I was asking. I thought that flying towards the house might be causing her some concern. I walked out to the hay stack and sat her up on one of the bales. What she does that drives me nuts is that she will think about the flight to the fist rather than react to the fist. I need her to get past that stuff and just react when she sees the fist. She flew about 8 feet to the fist and then began to hang up again. I offered her a pigeon wing as a reward and a tiring. ( something to eat that will make her work at it for a while, but not put too much food in her crop) She flew, but chickened out and flared off. I let her go dragging the creance. She flew into the yard and landed on the fence around the garden. I walked to within 12 feet of her and called her. She dithered and false started several times. I finally started plucking the wing that was in my fist. That proved too much and she finally flew to me, with the high flight and mouse pounce used by Redtails trying to catch fleeing mice. The funny part was that her flight scared a half grown bunny hiding in the weeds, and it ran to within 6 feet of me and froze underneath some scrap wire. Pud and the rabbit exchanged looks for a while, but a pigeon wing on the fist is worth more than a bunny in the weeds, or something like that. I stood there laughing, and knowing that when it comes time to enter her on rabbits, I will never get another chance like that.

What I need to do with her now is to be able to give her rewards that doesn't put a lot of weight on her when she flies well. I really need to go somewhere and pop a few bunnies, but I am apparently too lazy and I flatly refuse to kill one of the ones running around the house. When they go to the great bunny trail in the sky it will be with a hawks help, not mine.

Trapping season is here again.

Tami and Isabel came over this morning at 5 AM their time so that we could go shopping for a new Kestrel for her. This area does not hold a lot of Kestrels generally, and trying to trap one in a family group is a bit of trial and error. Apparently there is much more error than anything else. Tami missed being around to train the babies that were at the ranch due to other requirements on other parts of the ranch. Perhaps they were a bit early than the others that we are seeing, but for whatever reason they have left the area.

We have found three groups of young birds in the Arock area. We actually had a nice female on the trap this morning when a Black bird decided to butt in and ran her off without her getting caught. Then when we made another set, a young male Redtail came swooping in and was caught in seconds. He managed to break the noose since it was made out of 8 lb test monofiliment. Probably a good thing for Tami. I have been checking to see if she might want to change her mind and take a young Redtail rather than a Kestrel. Not sure if she could have turned down that much temptation.

We decided that we were a bit too early for this group as they were landing all around the trap catching the numerous Grasshoppers all over the side of the road. We haven't resorted to filling the trap with Grasshoppers yet. It may come to that however. Too bad there isn't a bait shop around.

We decided to check another area that should have a family group, and had stopped to look at some obvious adults sitting on the wires over the road. The area is at the base of a small steep hill that the road goes around. There is a hunting lodge there with a clump of trees. I could see a cat in the road, that didn't look just right. Tami and I were trying to decide if it was a house cat, when a small kitten came out with her. At that point it became obvious that it was a Bob Cat mother and her babies. Three to be exact. As we drove closer the mother went to the left and the babies of course across the road to the right. I was lamenting the fact that I had left my camera at home, when Tami finally remembered that she had hers with her. We sat in the car trying to get a decent picture of the young ones. Not at all easy with the lighting available and all the weeds.

 Tami snapped a bunch of pictures of the young ones, and then we moved on down the road looking for some more Kestrels. When we came back the young ones had moved across the road. Mom was with them this time and hiding in the weeds to guard them.

Tami got out of the car this time to see if she could get a better shot. Mom crouched down and was giving that scary low growl common to all cats that are really pissed. I of course reassured Tami that I would go for help immediately if the Mom attacked her. She looks really cranky don't you think?

After coming back home, I took Puddy out to see if she wanted to eat. She was 830 Grams. She flew a few times to the fist, but when I got back to about 10 feet, she veered off and wouldn't come back to the fist. Oh well, some day she will decide that she only eats with me.

Finally a bit of light shines through.

Yesterday it was much the same as the day before. She is down to rock bottom, but still doesn't seem to realize that I will not feed her if she does not perform. We had a mediocre 3 or 4 flights to the fist from about a foot before she decided that was too far. Well, the result was the same, end of lesson, end of food. Back to her perch in the living room.

This morning I was able to get her picked up without a bate, although it was close. She starts to fidget when I put on my vest. I whistled and stopped her from bating. Her weight was somewhere around 817 grams. We walked around the place for a bit with me giving her a tidbit every once and a while. She was quite eager for tidbits. I have a rock in the yard that she can only just stand on the top that I have been using for a flight perch. I offered her a tidbit from a foot away, and she jumped to the fist. I managed to stretch her jumps to about 10 feet before I gave her most of a Bunny front leg for her efforts. I then tied her to her perch in the weathering area as a reward. She can watch something besides the fan in the living room for a change. Hopefully she is finally understanding how to get fed, and has turned the corner for good. Her good behavior was so unexpected that Karen didn't even go with me.

I need her to get her stuff together, the rabbits are about to overrun us here. The poor dogs are continually tempted at every turn. There is a little bunny that has decided that he wants to live on the back porch. I don't mind, but he isn't much bigger than a Packrat.

His other place of refuge is a piece of plastic sewer pipe under the Motor home. In spite of his size he is rather fleet of foot.

We had a pretty severe wind storm yesterday afternoon that blew my solar heater on top of my young and tender Grape Vine, and while we were straightening out the mess, Josie kept smelling the cover over the old pool cover. This in the past has been a shelter for the Packrats. I lifted up the lid to let her check it out. I saw what I took to be a rock under a large roller that the cover had been rolled on. I reached down to grab it, when the damn thing jumped and turned into a half grown bunny. Karen seemed to find my near fall into the pool very funny. Every one knows that when rocks move, a jump is in order. She is so insensitive sometimes.