Looking Forward Without Moving On

It's been a month and a half since I found out Petrie was dead. It feels like longer. Nevertheless, I have my apprenticeship to finish, so I've been keeping my eyes open for passage birds in the area.

I wasn't legal to trap until now (nor did I want to), because I'd trapped my 2 birds in 2015. But now it's 2016 and I can trap again.

Here are my options:

1) Misty. She roosts in my neighbors porch and is just the most beautiful female I have ever laid eyes on. The coloration on her chest isn't just brown on white, but black on brown on white which makes for a very beautiful muddled hot cocoa and marshmallows look. I think she's a haggard, but I find that I really like the gusto haggards have.

2) Luke. He lives in the local park and he is a butt. He is the reason I can't train my birds in the local park, or really anywhere near my house because he's claimed such a freaking huge territory. Really, I'm not too enthusiastic about him, but hunting with him would mean that I might finally be able to train in the park. Up until I let him go.

3) Fenoglio. The wild passage I have yet to meet. Really, I only have a few months left of the season to fly a bird, and a passage would mean less training time and more hunting time. This is probably the best choice for my situation, but Misty might have just captured my heart.

I don't really know what I'll do. What I do know is that I need to order some BioThane for making anklets. Luckily, this teenager finally found a suitable job.

And, while I've got your attention, I might as well tell you my plans for next season, because they're one of the few things that help me look forward to life after Petrie. The Cooper's hawk is not an option because my parents are not comfortable with an accipiter in the house. But, I will be moving up to a merlin. I'm planning on trapping a female Columbarius (the ones here are black as black comes) and hunting her on doves by waiting on. Maybe at some starling flocks too, depending on the season and what she takes to.

And I've finally got my telemetry, so things will go better now. No more losing birds.

Day 7

     We did indoor ten foot flight to the fist today. He was really paying attention and nearly immediate with his responses. I started hiding the tidbit in the glove, then handing it to him when he landed. This should cement the reward system with the glove and teach him to look forward to my approaching hand. It's already working. His response time didn't slow at all the first time I asked him to come without showing him a tidbit.
     He sits all puffed out all the time now, rouses, and preens. He'll sit with a foot tucked sometimes too, even on the fist. In fact, on the fist was the first time that he stood like that. He sleeps headless, too. He keeps at biting his jesses and bating, though. It's just because Petrie's a really high energy bird. I assume he will calm down once we really start flying. If not, walks in the morning and flights in the afternoon should keep him calm at home.
     He lets me touch his feet and tarsi now, and doesn't mind too much when I touch his sides. He looks for tidbits when he sees my bare hand coming.
     He doesn't take the hood really well yet, but I can get it on him. I may use his meal tomorrow to tidbit him during hood training. If not we will move outside. It depends on the weather tomorrow, because it's been rainy a bit lately.
     On a slightly unrelated note, I started drivers ed and will finally get my license in June next year. This will make falconry so much easier and up my chances of getting a cooper's hawk next July.
     Wish me luck, and happy hunting!

The Difference Between Dreams and Goals

I've been chipping away slowly at my parents on a particular subject. That subject is me working with something other than a kestrel while I live under their roof. Anyone reading this whom doesn't have much of a connection to falconry needs to know that I stick out like a sore thumb in the falconry community. If you were to walk into an Idaho Falconer's Association meeting, you would see a bunch of 40+ year old men, three women falconers, and me: a fifteen-year-old girl. Yup, I am a peculiar child. Anyway, my sponsor- at twenty-two she is the next most peculiar person in the IFA -  set the terms of my apprenticeship as me working with american kestrels both years of my apprenticeship. I completely agree with her that this is the best way to complete my apprenticeship and become acquainted with falconry. So this fall I will be trapping another kestrel. I'm not sure if I want a male or female, but I am going to be a bit pickier when we are trapping this one. I want a more experienced bird; specifically, I want it to just nail the trap. I don't want to wait for it to find the trap, look from a distance, look a little closer, hover over it a bit, peer inside, wander around it a little, get scared away by a passing car, then have the process repeat a few hundred times before it's actually on the trap and stuck. I want a kestrel that just wants to destroy the sparrow inside the trap. Whether it's male or female, I don't care. It's name will be Fenoglio, from the Inkheart trilogy by Cornelia Funke.   To get a bird like this, I will likely have to wait until November to trap. But I'm going crazy without a bird and I may not make it that long.
But back to the story about chipping away at my parents. After the kestrel this season, I want to get a family group Cooper's Hawk. The thing about getting a Cooper's hawk is they are basically one of the hardest birds to maintain in captivity for falconry. They are high-strung and hard-wired to kill things, because they are an accipiter. They are also a lot bigger than kestrels, therefore by falconry facilities need to be completely replaced to accomodate this bird. And a Cooper's hawk would need a lot more of my time. All-in-all this is a big step, a step that my parents think should wait until I am out of the house. But I am chipping away at them ever so slowly, and I think they may just be worn down by the time next July rolls around and I am looking to trap a Cooper's hawk. Everybody cross your fingers...

Photo Cred: Walter Kitundu