Falconry: from study to ... umm, what were we doing here again?

Time for another sporadic update.
A few days after the last post I free flew CeCe for the first time and it went great, but after four total weeks of working with her she was chased of by a pair of wild kestrels during anti carrying training.
My next kestrel was named Petrie, and he was so fantastic that I couldn't believe it. He was super good with people and loved me. It was because he was trapped as a fairly young bird compared to CeCe and he may have imprinted on me a bit. We wrapped up the season with 9 kills, all of them rodents, which was more than my sponsor had between her first two kestrels so I'm pretty happy. And his first kill - a vole - he got on my birthday. But as the season came to an end I was having less and less time to fly Petrie, and he, in result, was becoming more and more dependent on me. I was planning on another month or two with him, but his freeloading spirit got to me and I cut him loose one sunny morning after a week of fattening him up. I'll probably go more in-depth about my journey with him later, assuming I don't let another six months pass between posts again. But for now, some pictures from his release:

Removing the anklets

Eating a final meal

Still connected...

Last goodbye

Away he flew

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.

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.
:)

House Finch Update

     The baby house finches are now being cared for at the Ruth Melichar Bird Sanctuary. The people there commented on how they'd been fed. I think that they took that to mean that I picked up a couple of chicks that were still being cared for by their mother instead of taking it as I fed them. Btw, I can tell the difference between baby birds that have fallen out of the nest and baby birds that are orphaned; these birds were orphaned. I think that the sanctuary will foster them to a zebra finch mother. Zebra finches seem quick to take up orphans. But they said that the chicks have a very high chance of survival.

Anna's Collection of Pink and Squirming things

PINK, PINK, PINK, PINK, PINK, PINK, PINK, PINK, PINK, PINK, PINK, PINK.


Two of the three orphaned House Finches

     I got back from BYS yesterday and about ten minutes later my friend called and said, "Hey Anna, You like birds right? I found some little ones in Sister Fractman's lawn." They were pink. I have three pinky birds sleeping in a box next to me as I type this. And they are absolutely tiny! I thought they were hummingbirds for a minute. Now I think they're goldfinches. Those are pretty small and we have a few around here. I'm trying to find them a wildlife rehabber so that I won't kill them accidentally. But I really want to keep them now.




Breakfast's pregnant belly

     Breakfast the Mouse is definately pregnant, she's getting that "swallowed a golf ball" look. She'll probably deliver more pink and squirming things into my room before the month is up.


Yes it's upside down and
you can deal with it.

     While were speaking of mice, my dad and my brother found a wild mouse(?) under our truck topper that was lying in the lawn. When I got home my brother was gone and Dad said that it was in the plastic dog treat container in my room.
     Guess what? It wasn't.
     I spent about ten minutes basically tearing my room apart until I found my brother's note that said it was in the aquiarium above my typewriter. Now it's in the freezer; it should make two or three kestrel meals.
    

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%!

Four Down, Two to Go

 I widened my platform perch.



Before

After

I still can't figure out how to attatch the astroturf. The turf that I got is such poor quality that everything that I've tried thus far has ruined it. I'm looking for better astroturf online that isn't out of my budget.

I'm hoping my mom will take me to get mice today. Also, Someone in the IFA (I won't mention their name for security reasons) found a farm in Middleton that raises pheasants and they have a major overpopulation this year so they're culling the excess chick and selling them for super cheep. I'll get 100-150 of those for $20-$30, breed mice, catch a house sparrow every now and then, and my kestrel will catch some game for itself too.