Day 3

     Petrie is falling back into the swing of being a falconry bird. He hopped to the fist today! He jumped about 5 times from 6-18 inches inside at 100g.
     This is about the part where I start beating up on myself for letting this blog lapse the whole time I had Petrie last year. We had some of the greatest days last year, and I don't have them in this record.
     Our best hunting day last year, we'd just gotten permission to hunt on this local dairy farm. We were over there in a spot where they used to store hay bales, but they'd used them all at this point. There were still little clumps of hay lying around everywhere and a tarp crumpled and lying off to the side. And there were mice everywhere. These particular mice had gotten very good at hiding from predators in the little hay clumps and very bad at running, so when I flushed them, Petrie was on them in seconds. He caught 6 or 7 mice. I lost track; it was that good. Unfortunately, Petrie was good at carrying these small prey items, so he'd pick them up and head off with them. Fortunately, he was so lazy that he wouldn't want to bother breaking into them, so he'd just drop them and come back to me for easier food. After he'd caught several, I was chasing one down with him on my fist (more like following it because it was so fat and slow) and I tried to step right in front of it and make it double-back toward Petrie. But instead I accidentally stepped on its head. So, I just stuck it in the hawking bag.
     Anyway, here's the video of Petrie's first hop to the fist!

First Free Flight

     I free flew Bellatrix for the first time today. It was super nerve-wracking. We started on the creance doing 40+ foot flights to the fist. She was coming immediately at 108g, which is a little higher than normal but she was acting hungry enough to fly. I set her up on the shed for a couple of flights so she had to come down to the fist. She was hesitant, but she did it twice. The third time she went onto the peak of the shed and didn't pay me any attention, so I used the creance to slide her off. She landed on the ground then came to the fist from there. We did a few more 40ft flights from the training perch and she was doing really really well, so I started thinking about free flights. \ I've been super nervous to free fly her because sometimes she just tries to fly off, but this time she was returning consistently to the training perch, so I held my breath and unclipped her jesses. I set her on the training perch, then slowly stood up and slipped about 20 feet away. Tidbit, glove up, whistle. She came immediately. I only had three more tidbits left, but they were smaller so I piled them all up on the glove and called her again. She was immediate and ate calmly while I clipped her back onto the glove.
     Now shes sitting on the screen perch all fluffed up and one-footed with one eye closed, so I'd say it went really well.

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.

Frustration and Screen Perches

I ordered my leashes around Friday two weeks ago, meaning the 16th. They are supposed to arrive within 2-8 business days. So excluding memorial day and weekends, it has been 8 days and I still don't have them. It's just Wyoming to Idaho! Jumping two stinkin' state borders! If they're not here tomorrow, I'm going to call Western Sporting.

On another note... I finished my screen perch.

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