About The Bird

     Currently, I am working with a male American kestrel named Petrie (after that pterodactyl from "The Land Before Time"). I trapped him last year as a passager. He was a fantastic bird. He became so tame that he would roost on my shoulder some nights. He was very high energy, so I would free-loft him in my bedroom. I topped his favorite spots around the room with astroturf and kept the blinds down; never had a problem. However, when he was tied to his platform he would bate incessantly and quickly damage his tarsi.
     He didn't take to hawking sparrows very well and I had no access to Starlings, but we managed a season total of 9 kills, all of them rodents. For a first-year apprentice with no car, I'm pretty proud of myself and Petrie.
     April 7, the anniversary of the first time I met a falconer, I released Petrie in a field just down the road from my house. He stuck around there, with the exception of a few months while there were swainson's hawks nesting there, and this season I decided to trap him again. I'd seen him terrorize everything from mice to magpies, so I thought that he might be a better hunter now.
     So far, everything's going really well. We are in the early stages of training and Petrie is doing a fine job settling back in.

Petrie as a 2nd year bird

Petrie in immature plumage

Petrie with his first wild kill as a passage bird