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!

Trapping

Today was the most problematic trapping experience I have ever had. I went out with my sponsor, Monica, early in the morning (though not as early as I would have liked). We drive out into the middle of nowhere and set out the trap for, what turns out to be, a haggard male kestrel. I pull him off the trap and he is banded, TWICE! We call in the bands, then turn him lose. Hop back in the car and, Guess what? The car won't start; the battery's got a problem. We call my dad and comes with jumper cables and gets us back on the road. But then we realize that neither one of us has out licensing on us. So we go back to my house to get my license. While we're there, dad takes a moment to fix up Monica's battery, just scraping some baking soda mess out of the connection. We head back out, but right as we turn the first corner from my house, the sparrow in the trap gets its head through a noose on the bal-chatri. I cut the line on the noose, but it's still around her neck. So I stupidly try to pull her out and get it off her neck. Then she slips out of the trap and is free in the car. We spend fifteen minutes trying to get her, but we can't. So we head to a local Zamzows and get a mouse. By now, we have less than an hour left to trap, and within that hour we get nothing. This is the first time that I've gone out trapping and not come home with my bird. We're headed out again Monday.
     On another note, I went to a dance tonight. I got out of the car and one of my friends points out a mouse running across the sidewalk. Guess what this little falconer girl does? Of course I catch it. It takes me a while, and I'm worried about the plague that's been out and about. I manage to step on it's tail, though, then thoracic compression it with my feet. So now I'm at a dance, with a dead vole, ten miles from my house and no ride. So I stick the mouse in the freezer that's conveniently in the building and go to the dance. I managed to smuggle it into my mom's car in a fast-food box. Oh, the crazy things us falconers do.

UPDATE!!

Soooooooo... Breakfast the mouse had twelve pups (now ten). I finished making all of my equipment. I went to my first IFA meet. I moved my platform perch into my room. I mailed in my Falconry Permit Application today along with the letter from my sponsor. My inspection will be (hopefully) early next week. And I'm going to start trapping and probably catch a kestrel next week.
:)

Mice, Astroturf, and the Test

I got mice.

Breakfast

Dinner

Lunch

I'm pretty sure that Breakfast and Lunch are pregnant. Dinner is a male. I think Lunch might be sick or something; she's had a stuffy nose for a couple of days now.

I got new astroturf. Very high quality stuff. It's much better than by old astroturf; I probably could have killed a kestrel with that stuff. The new turf is about 3/4 of an inch thick, very soft, and made with two different types of blades. There's the straight long ones and the short curly ones that make it really soft. It's made to cover lazy people's lawns so that they don't have to water it.

Oh, I almost forgot! I passed my test! I got a crap score but it was a crap score that was over 80%!

Hello Again

     Sorry about the gap between posts. I was gone for a week to McCall.

     I got my leashes right before I left, literally. I got my leashes and an hour later I was on the road.
     P.S. "premium hawkers chocolate" tastes nasty.

     Monica came over to check my equipment today.
DONE:

• stabilize the screen perch with some string connecting the top to the feet
• attatch a loop of rope to the center of the screen perch for tying the leash
• make some minor modifications to the giant hood

TO DO:

• extend the sides of my platform perch
• figure out how to secure the astroturf to the platform perch in a way that is secure (especially around the edges) and removable
• get some breeder mice

     My dad still thinks that I should wait until I have a kestrel to get mice, but if I want a good supply (that I don't have to pay and unaffordable price for) then I have to get them now.

Leashes

I finally spoke with someone of authority at Western Sporting. They found my order through the website database but there was an energy glitch so the website database didn't send the order to the product database. Since I ordered the leashes FIVE FREAKIN' WEEKS AGO they said that they would only charge me for one leash (I ordered two) and rush the order and send me some of their  "Premium Hawkers' Chocolate" with the order for free. I'm not sure what that is, but I'm pretty sure it's chocolate so I'm happy.
Unfortunately, I'll be camping next week so I won't get the package until the next week unless rushed shipping means overnight. That would be fantastic.

MAJOR update

     So....
     How's the last year treated ya?
     Sorry about the massive gap between posts there. My computer randomly became incompatible with blogspot.

Long Before April 7:

     My dad said that I couldn't get a falcon...
     I fell into depression...

April 7:

     I'm not sure that I've told you about the falconer that lives on Marteeson. I have seen them out manning their Harris', but I couldn't ever talk to them about falconry because their front yard was fenced off and their front door was removed. But I know there's a falconer that lives there.

     I met them today. I was biking to the library and passed their house just as they pulled in. She started walking to the back gate and I stepped in the driveway and called, "excuse me?"
Her reaction to "I'm Anna and I'm interested in falconry," surprised me. I expected an interrogation to figure out whether I was really up for falconry. Instead she invited me in. Her name is Kelly. She has a harris' hawk named Delta and a Finnish goshawk named Aussie. Then she gave me a list of contacts, and a list of books to collect, and a list of things to learn over the summer.
     Then she let me hold her harris hawk.
     And a hallelujah chorus started singing in the back of my head.

It was great.

     I proceeded to bike home and Facebook message every single person on the contact list. I got one reply out of six. Monica (the replier) and I met up that same week where she offered to sponsor me with the help of two or three other people. So fortunately for me, I have the unique option to have three sponsors. I accepted.
     During the rest of the afternoon with Monica, we got things figured out. I'm going to have a kestrel. I'll keep it in my room so my dad and the HOA don't complain about the mews in the backyard. I'll trap in the fall.
     That gave me roughly six months to get everything ready... and pass my test.


Since then:

Unfinished Mews

• I've built my mews
• I've bought the two falconry books my sponsor recommended (Falconry Equpments by Kimsey and Hodge, American Kestrels in Modern Falconry by Matthew Mullenix)
• I've built two sparrow traps
• I've started working on my giant hood
• I've ordered my leashes from Western Sporting
• I've gotten my hunting licence
• I've decided that this summer is going to be the longest summer of my life

Unfinished Giant Hood

The Books my Sponsor Recommended

Hunting Licence and Hat

I'm Mad

I just found out that I do have to be 14 to apprentice.
5 months till my birthday.

Time for a Story

I'm gonna tell you about how I got interested in falconry.
   When I was around 6 I heard my brothers talking about falconry. My brother talked about becoming a falconer and getting a peregrine falcon. The thought of owning a falcon so entirely captured me that I have not forgotten since then.
    My brother, Braden, was the kind of person who says things that aren't true if they'll make him sound smarter. My dad call it BS: Braden Says. Point being: he gave me plenty of false information.
     I thought that I had to be 14 to apprentice, so i started studying at 12 thinking that I would spend 2 years memorizing every measurement of every raptor and all their behaviors and I would memorize everything in the falconry packet from the fish and game.
     Then I learned that I could apprentice at 12.
     I dumped previous plans and saved up enough money to buy the California Hawking Club Apprentice Study Guide and Apprenticeship Manual and buy into the Idaho Falconer's Association. About a week before school ended I promised myself that I would have a falcon by the time school started again. Then I learned about trapping seasons and money and apprenticeship and reality, and I promised myself that I would be apprenticing by the time school started again.
     And I'm almost there.

Test?

     It's been 2 days since I got the study guides and I've practically memorized the CHC Apprentice Study Guide and I've read through the CHC Apprenticeship Manual twice. Should I take the test or not? I'm confident in my ability to pass, but the Fish and Game reccomends that you give yourself 6 weeks to study.

     Does anyone else think I'm a freak?

Intro, Intro, Intro

I created this site more for me than for you. It's great if you can get something from this, but it's main purpose is to be a place where I can keep track of my progress and record thoughts and experiences. Don't take this as an "I'm booting you off my site" I'm just saying that if you read some weird stuff on here, that's because it made sense to me and at that moment I wasn't really concerned about being Follower Friendly.

Falconry is the art of hunting in cooperation with a trained raptor. That means that when I'm finally licensed you will be reading about me hunting with my hawk. Probably a Red-Tail. So far I'm just studying for the apprentice falconer exams.

Now that you've met the site and the sport, I guess you'll have to meet me. I'm 13 years old and I LOVE FALCONRY!! I also love art, writing, and the antique typewriter that I got for my 13th Christmas. I have five brothers, three older ones and two younger ones, and a dog. He's a cross between a Chihuahua, Dachshund, and Italian Greyhound. I have tons of self confidence so don't think that this person you're reading about is just the cover-up of the real person. It's all me, all the way.

Just to catch you up...

I heard my brothers talking about falconry when I was about 7, give or take. I heard him talking about owning a falcon and fell in love with falconry. At the age of 12 I started studying thinking that I would study for 2 years and then begin apprenticing. I hit a few bumps. Then I read some more, made some footnotes, studied some more and more and more, and now I'm set on falconry.