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.