My Latest Endeavor...

[Tom]

Time for an overdue update.

My bird is a porker. Plain and simple. I started cutting her back on food in September in anticipation of being ready for the start of hunting season on October first. I pulled her out and weighed her in mid September to see where we were. I've been warned not to drop the weight too fast, so after a couple of weeks of reduced food I needed to see where we stood.


HOLY COW!!! That is the heaviest she's ever been and that was after two week of dieting. Wow. We had a long way to go. Under my Master Falconer's guidance, I reduced her caloric intake a bit more. Now, 3 weeks later, we're at about 1400 grams and I've got about 200 grams to go. Last year I started flying her and hunting at around 1200 grams and that is WAYYYYYYY heavier than most people fly a female red tail hawk.

At this point I'm exercising her and weighing her and her food daily, checking the keel and closely watching her behavior and eagerness to come to the fist for food. We've got a long way to go before she'll be ready to go hunting. Due to my inexperience, I had no idea it would take so long to drop her back down to working weight. I should have started this process in the beginning of August!

So it will be awhile before I have anything fun to report. Here's a pic to hold you over:

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

She has a stash.
Twinkies under the bed, that sort of thing.

 

[Tom]

She has a stash.
Twinkies under the bed, that sort of thing.

We've had a distinct shortage of mice around the ranch… Maybe she's figured out a way to get them to come hide in her house at night…

My baboon used to lure mice in with food crumbs. Then she'd catch them, break their legs so they couldn't run away and then groom them to death. I felt bad for the mice, so I set out lots of snap traps to try and give them a quick, humane end and save them from the maniacal monkey.

 

[wellington]

I'm not shocked she's over weight with the big girl Ethel I got from you lol
I still can't believe how easy it seems to train a wild bird like.
When one of our wild Falcons sat on my fence and stared at me it was really cool, but kinda creepy too as I was wondering when was he going to make a mad dash at me, lol

 

[no one]

She is beautiful!! What a thrill it must give you to go out hunting with her. Thank you for sharing this story.

 

[Tidgy's Dad]

We've had a distinct shortage of mice around the ranch… Maybe she's figured out a way to get them to come hide in her house at night…

My baboon used to lure mice in with food crumbs. Then she'd catch them, break their legs so they couldn't run away and then groom them to death. I felt bad for the mice, so I set out lots of snap traps to try and give them a quick, humane end and save them from the maniacal monkey.

Goodness!
The baboon version of "Misery". - Stephen King.

 

[Tom]

I'm not shocked she's over weight with the big girl Ethel I got from you lol
I still can't believe how easy it seems to train a wild bird like.
When one of our wild Falcons sat on my fence and stared at me it was really cool, but kinda creepy too as I was wondering when was he going to make a mad dash at me, lol

Maybe he's a former falconry bird. He's wondering when a quail or grouse is going to flush from the bushes near you.

 

[Moozillion]

We've had a distinct shortage of mice around the ranch… Maybe she's figured out a way to get them to come hide in her house at night…

My baboon used to lure mice in with food crumbs. Then she'd catch them, break their legs so they couldn't run away and then groom them to death. I felt bad for the mice, so I set out lots of snap traps to try and give them a quick, humane end and save them from the maniacal monkey.

OH.MY.GOD!!!! What in the world was she (the babboon) thinking???!!?!?

 

[Tom]

OH.MY.GOD!!!! What in the world was she (the babboon) thinking???!!?!?

We speculate that she wanted a baby. I used to let her groom some of the other smaller monkeys (Under VERY close supervision on leash.), and she was very into that.

I found it curios that she didn't eat them. She was a piggie, and we regulated her food to keep her from getting obese. Wild baboons will opportunistically hunt and eat any animals they can catch.

 

[Tom]

Her weight is slowly dropping down to working weight and she is out and flying to my glove again. Still not able to take her out hunting just yet, but getting closer every day. Here are some beauty shots showing off her new feathers:

 

[JoesMum]

Her weight is slowly dropping down to working weight and she is out and flying to my glove again. Still not able to take her out hunting just yet, but getting closer every day. Here are some beauty shots showing off her new feathers:
View attachment 221145 View attachment 221146

She is beautiful. I would love to do something like this.

 

[Tom]

She is beautiful. I would love to do something like this.

Falconry is huge in the UK. I've heard of an outfit in Ireland that does a sort of "Falconry Tour" too. They let the public get some instruction and then actually handle and hunt with the birds. I don't know how far of a drive that would be, but it might be a neat way to get introduced to the amazing world of falconry.

I don't think you'd have any trouble finding a sponsor in your area. You'll be the best friend of every farmer in your area.

 

[JoesMum]

Falconry is huge in the UK. I've heard of an outfit in Ireland that does a sort of "Falconry Tour" too. They let the public get some instruction and then actually handle and hunt with the birds. I don't know how far of a drive that would be, but it might be a neat way to get introduced to the amazing world of falconry.

I don't think you'd have any trouble finding a sponsor in your area. You'll be the best friend of every farmer in your area.

We have a bird of prey centre not far from here. I might just have to drop hints to my husband about a Christmas present

It’s the practicalities of actually having one that would stop me. I just couldn’t accommodate it. I love going birdwatching and going out to see the predators in action is amazing.

We saw 4 species of vulture, 2 species of eagle, 2 species of buzzard, 2 species of kite and others in just a two week holiday in France this year.

 

[Tom]

We saw 4 species of vulture, 2 species of eagle, 2 species of buzzard, 2 species of kite and others in just a two week holiday in France this year.

Now you are speaking my language! Four vulture species in France? Man, I've got some studying to do. I didn't know there were any vultures native to France.

 

[JoesMum]

Now you are speaking my language! Four vulture species in France? Man, I've got some studying to do. I didn't know there were any vultures native to France.

Black, Griffon and Bearded are all in the Cevennes having been part of reintroduction programmes. They have done well. Egyptian vultures migrate to this area. You frequently see mixed species flocks.

I have also seen Lammergeier in the Pyrenees (we didn’t go there this year). They’re very scarce and you have to know where to go as it’s not publicised!

 

[wellington]

Beautiful bird there Tom.

 

[wellington]

We have a bird of prey centre not far from here. I might just have to drop hints to my husband about a Christmas present

It’s the practicalities of actually having one that would stop me. I just couldn’t accommodate it. I love going birdwatching and going out to see the predators in action is amazing.

We saw 4 species of vulture, 2 species of eagle, 2 species of buzzard, 2 species of kite and others in just a two week holiday in France this year.

Go for it. Maybe there's a way you can do it without having to own it.
Every time I see a Falcon or Red Tail
Hawk in my yard, I'd like to get a piece of chicken or something and see if I could get it to come to me. LOL. Never know, might have been someone's bird in the past.

 

[no one]

Wow, she is beautifull!! I like the look at the birds but now when I see one like yours I dream away thinking of your story.

 

[Moozillion]

Her weight is slowly dropping down to working weight and she is out and flying to my glove again. Still not able to take her out hunting just yet, but getting closer every day. Here are some beauty shots showing off her new feathers:
View attachment 221145 View attachment 221146

GOSH, She's GORGEOUS!!!

 

[Tom]

The point of this thread, for me, is to showcase the art of falconry. To demonstrate to friends and readers just how amazing and awesome these birds are and to highlight the connection to nature that is derived from participating in this ancient "sport". I wish to show the pitfalls and the triumphs. The frustrations and the elations. Tragedies and comedies. Failures and successes.

I've been training birds for decades, but I am new to falconry. I figured I'd pick up a few tidbits of knowledge that I didn't already have and be on my merry way with my new falconry license in hand. Man, was I wrong… I had, and have, so much to learn…

In our last episode, my bird was a fat fatty after the molting season, and taking forever to drop back down to "fightin' weight". With parrots and other birds, this is simple food management and exercise using sanctuary methods until weight drops to where the bird responds well. This bird is giving me fits! I've managed this weight watching on little conures, cockatiels and even parakeets. One would think it would be even simpler with a MUCH larger carnivorous bird, right? Not necessarily…

It turns out that some red tails migrate thousands of miles in Fall and they have some sort of ability to conserve calories and not lose weight. They can fly thousands of miles and they might only see food a couple of times. Biologically, how they accomplish this makes no sense to me. If you are burning calories, then you need to take in at least that many calories to maintain weight, right? Wrong. These birds have some sort of mechanism that somehow bends these physiological laws of physics and biology. They can somehow maintain weight for long periods of time on hardly any food. Well if there is a way to be difficult, my bird will find it and excel at it…

Now this whole weight loss process is a complicated balance of many factors. I can't start exercising her and burning those calories until she loses enough weight to want to fly to the fist. But if I'm not exercising her, she doesn't lose much weight. And its not just a number on a scale. Its also dependent on the birds behavior. If they respond well at a higher weight, you don't have to drop as much. If they aren't responding well, then you need to drop a little more until they are motivated to participate. All the while you have to be careful to not drop them too fast or too much, and observe their behavior and demeanor for tell tale signs of good or bad news. Constant adjustments are made in the food quantity and routine throughout this process.

So it took me about 10 weeks to get her weight down and her working attitude up. At the right point in her training, I took her off the line and started free flying her. One of the training exercises we do is to get her to fly from telephone pole to telephone pole and follow along with me while we hunt. In training, I cue her to fly to me and then put my hand down and walk away once she is on her way to me. When she passes over me and lands on the next pole in front of me, she gets an instant reward. We move down the line of poles this way. I "fake" her out, then reward her for landing on the pole ahead of me. When we get to the hunting fields, her reward will come in the form of a rabbit flush. Well… the ranch is out in a rural area and while we were training, a rabbit popped up and ran and she decided to catch it instead of doing my lame training stuff. This is the view I got on approach:

Look at those feathers! Gorgeous. I call her my little sky dragon.

Here is the front view of this scene:

I let her tank up and we were done "training" for a couple of days...

Now her weight was still on the high side, and she was really taking her sweet time deciding whether or not to come to me when I called her to reposition her to a better hunting spot. Can't hunt with a bird that just wants to perch and won't be moved to the right area for rabbit flushes, so I continued on with the exercises and food rationing. All of a sudden, the weight loss kicked in. She went from 10 weeks of dropping hardly any weight to suddenly dropping "normal" amounts overnight. Now the trick is to feed enough to stop further weight loss, while continuing to build strength and stamina, and continuing the training. As the muscles build and the workouts increase, so do the caloric needs. Its all a big balancing act with constant adjustment and twice a day weigh ins. All was progressing perfectly, albeit very slowly, and I decided it was time to get her out in the field and hunting. On purpose this time…

At the end of last season, frustrated with all the rabbit flushes that Minerva had no chance at because she was in the wrong position being her usual difficult self, I decided I wanted to add a dog to our hunting outings to flush more rabbits and re-flush rabbits that Minerva wasn't in the right position to catch. All through the off season I took my Malinois Sophie with me to feed Minerva every day. Minerva was a little unnerved by Sophie at first, but soon began to ignore her, and then began to associate the sight of the dog with feeding. It got to a point after a couple of months where if I walked by the mew and Sophie wasn't with me, Minerva would sit quietly and ignore me. But if Minerva saw the dog, she'd come to the window and eagerly beg for food. Sophie was with us every day during the 10 weeks of weight dropping and training too. Minerva was totally indifferent to Sophie by now, which is how you want it. So I gathered the bird and the dog and all the food and gear, and off to the hunting fields we went. I checked and double checked all my equipment, outfitted the dog, put the hunting jesses and radio transmitter on the bird and we walked to the field for our very first day of the 2017/2018 hunting season, and only 6 weeks late... I sent Minerva up to a nice light pole that is in the perfect spot and she went directly to it with no fuss. Sophie and I then walked up the sidewalk a bit and entered the field about 100 feet up from where Minerva was. The idea is that as Sophie and I work the field, we will flush rabbits right in the direction where Minerva sits and waits. Well after about 10 seconds a rabbit jumps up ahead of Sophie. Sophie didn't even see it, but Minerva did… She dove into action and WHAM! Caught our first "official" rabbit of the season after roughly 12 seconds of "hunting". I was elated, but also disappointed. I was ready for a "day" of hunting. I din't expect everything to go so perfectly and be over in 12 seconds. But there we were.



Sophie and I sat there patiently for a good 20 minutes while Minerva ate her fill.

Despite a slow beginning, our season couldn't be off to a better start.

Because I am so inexperienced, I wanted my avian vet to examine her and give her a clean bill of health. I brought her into my vet friend's clinic for a full check up, to make sure everything was okay. He wanted to x ray her and make sure we had no apsergillosis, or any other problem that would show up in an x ray. I got her out put her hood on and she promptly gave us a stool sample to check, and then I held her feet while we put the bell hood on her head and started the iso-flourane anesthetic gas. Didn't take long and she was out. We got some clean x rays and everything looked perfect:


You can see the bits of quail bones in her stomach from her morning meal.

Then, we pulled blood:


While she was out, we were ably to really examine her keel, and it was sharper than I originally thought, but all else looked great.

Blood and fecal results came back the next day. Blood came back good with no signs of any infection. Fecal showed low levels of coccidia which we are now treating for. She had this last year and was asymptomatic, but we still eliminated it. We will eliminate it again.

So my challenge as a beginning falconer is to keep the weight high enough to keep her strength and energy up, but low enough to keep her responsive to the hunting cues. Its tough and ever changing. As the muscle, strength and stamina build, I have to feed her more and more to maintain the correct hunting weight. She appears to have beefed up a bit over the molting season and I'm finding that I have to keep her weight significantly higher than where I had it last season. Constantly striving for that balance.