Fecal Test, Free Flights, Bagged Game

     A lot's happened in the last week. My last post was me worrying about Petrie's bloody mutes. I got the fecal results back and they came back negative, so it looks like I went overboard on his weight reduction and shocked his kidneys. All is well, now. Petrie is healthy and acting fine.
     His training has been blowing by, since really, all of this is a refresher course. He's been pursuing the lure like a champ, so yesterday I free flew him for the first time on the lure and it went fantastically. The only thing that I wish would have happened, was I wish he would have taken a wider shot at the lure after missing it. He kept turning immediately after missing it without going out very far.
     But since that went so well, I bagged him on a tethered sparrow today. It also went very well. He hit the sparrow from a good distance away, and bound to it. He started working on it without any efforts to carry. He was quite nervous when I made in. Likely, it was because I did it too quickly and without giving him enough time to get comfortable on his catch. He did trade off of it very easily though. All in all, it was a very good flight.
     I'm trying to figure out what I'll do with him this week, because I have so much going on that I can't start hunting him yet, but I don't want to make him too comfortable on bagged game. I want to get him hunting ASAP, but I don't have the time yet. I'm thinking that I'll just split the week between lure flights and bagged game.
     Wish me luck! Happy Hunting!

Trapping

     I'm going trapping on Friday; Bellatrix is gone. Yesterday I trapped a pretty female kestrel while I was out looking for Bellatrix. She was an interesting thing. The coloration on her head looked like a male, but the coloration on her tail and chest looked like a female. Her wings had blue and red in them. I knew she was a female, though, because she was hanging out with a male and she weighed in at 122g.

     I'm planning on retrapping Petrie, from last season. He's stuck around where I released him. But I don't always see him, and he's really good an feeding himself early in the mornings, so I don't know how likely it is that I'll get him. I won't stress it too much; retrapping him is just an idea. 

     If I don't get Petrie, I'm going after a passage. I just don't have the resources to keep a haggard. I can't get bag them enough to break the carrying habit, and I can't hunt them on starlings, because I can't drive. Also, I'm losing the season here, so I want to get hunting as soon as possible. 

     Wish me luck.

Free Flying Videos

     Today we had our first free flying mishap. I put bells on Bellatrix today and she's getting used to them. I unhooked her from the creance intending to do a couple of flights to the fist and a lure flight. I took her first jess out of her anklet then tried to get the second jess and she flew off. She landed in a nearby tree and started watching. I decided to cut right to the lure flight. She was quite hesitant, probably for a number of reasons including the bells, being on a different perch, maybe being reminded that she is a wild bird, or having to come down to the lure. She waited for a while, then came to the lure from probably 50 or 60 feet away. She bound to the lure and started mantling, then made her killy-killy call, which made me really happy. She let me make-in with no problems and she ate her reward from the lure on the fist while I tidbitted her intermittently.
     Tomorrow I plan to do two lure flights and really wed her to the lure. Then I may be able to free fly her on the last coturnix quail I have. But I won't be able to hunt her until I've bagged her on a couple of sparrows or starlings and practice making-in when she's on a smaller, more portable kill.

First Wild Kill!

     I was working on a photography project for school and had Bellatrix weathering. I turned around to peek at her and saw her eating something on the ground. Then she hopped back up to her block with it and finished it off. And - stupid me - I had a really nice camera hanging around my neck and didn't even thing to take a picture of her. I did manage to get a picture of a beetle leg dangling off her lower mandible. But I took her inside, since I was finished with my project, and set her on her screen perch in the dining room. She immediately fluffed herself out and started preening, she was so proud of her freaking beetle. The good news is, she hunts in captivity now and I think that means that training is almost over. I have a couple more quail to bag her on, then probably a few sparrows or starlings so she gets used to hunting what I intend to hunt her on. Not that I don't like her killing Coturnix quail, but I live in Idaho, not Japan.

You can see the beetle leg hanging off her lower mandible.

Here it is again.

Death From Above!

     I gave Bellatrix her first bagged game today. I used a coturnix quail where I normally use house sparrows, because the quail are larger than Bellatrix is and will discourage carrying as well as boost her ambitions. I'd love to be able to hunt wild quail and dove with her, and she could handle it as long as she let herself.

     The session went very well. I allowed her to drop a tiny bit below hunting weight, so she would have that extra motivation to take on the difficult prey. Normally she flies at 106.5g but I flew her at 105.7g today. I put her on the creance and started walking towards the quail. As soon as she saw it flapping around on the ground she was interested, but it took her a couple of minutes to actually take it on. She watched it intensely, and a couple of times she made like she was going to go after it. She finally dove from my fist, hit it, and bound to it. She struggled to control it, but eventually she landed on top and started plucking. There were no problems with me making-in; she didn't try to carry. She did mantle a little, but I don't mind that. I made in with a partially skinned mouse and she stood on her kill reaching towards the fist. She ate from the fist while standing on the quail, but eventually stepped off the quail and onto the fist. I let her eat the mouse while I plucked and opened the quail for her. She ended up eating the whole mouse and a good portion of breast meat from the quail. 

     Overall, her first bagged game went really really well. I don't have any pictures from the training session, but here ya go:

Bellatrix with a full crop.

The remaining two coturnix quail

Bellatrix, fat and happy after training.

Oh, Hi. I Totally Didn't See You There!

     So, ya know, sorry about the major lapse there.

     I have a kestrel now. Her name is CeCe. I'm almost ready to free fly her, but I'm still getting her "wed" to the lure. Her manning is going very well. I know that she knows how to kill a sparrow now. I don't think she did when we trapped her. Just getting her attached to the lure enough to free fly her.

     My sparrow trap got stolen, so I built another one but this one isn't working as well. Perfect timing since I will need baggies possibly as soon as wednesday.

A New Aviary

     I caught my fifth house sparrow by way of funnel trap a couple of days ago. My family was waiting for me so that we could continue our nighttime rituals so I just put it in the aviary. After we finished our prayers, I took it out of the aviary and into the garage for euthanization. But it was in the wrong hand and I was wearing gloves so of course I had to switch hands.

     Guess what happened?

     I spent the next hour and a half chasing a house sparrow around the garage. Finally, around 11:00pm I set my trap in the garage and went to bed. I caught it today with the trap.

On a slightly related note:

     I have been a little worried about actually keeping up with a kestrel's food needs. I haven't been catching very many birds and, apparently, the bird won't be able to entirely provide for itself. I think I'll get feeder mice. $8 for a pair and they'll reproduce like crazy. I think that between that, the sparrows from the trap, and what the kestrel should catch I will be able to keep up with its diet.

More Trapping

I made another Funnel trap a while ago and set it up where there are no dogs to eat my birds. I caught three female house sparrows on the third day and, yes, I got to keep these ones. I put them in an aviary that I had all set up for them. They immediately got out. I managed to get two of the three back. I fixed the aviary so they couldn't get out then messaged Monica on facebook. Now they're in the freezer because that's what she told me to do.

A few days later I went to check my trap and it was gone. I wasn't super surprised, I had set it out in the open right next to a busy road. But I was angry. I left a note where it had been and put up a notice on the subdivision's webpage. I found it today. It wasn't in nearly as bad of shape as the other trap when I found it, but it did look like someone had run over it on their bike, which is probably what happened. I fixed it up, but now I need to find out another trapping situation for it. I think that I can set it up across the street from where it was. There it will be hidden by some trees and bushes, but I need some more bird seed. I had my mom buy some when I ran out, but the birds don't seem too keen on it.

They like penuts.

Oh, and my leashes still aren't here. I've called Western Sporting twice now and appearently my case has been marked urgent. It would be really nice if I could just get my leashes though.