Hope- 12 days

Hope had enough ammo that I had to take the two tarps that I use for a ground cover for the carpet out and wash them again. Way too much crap on them for a new bird in training. One look and I was mentally kicking myself for losing a day due to my misguided generosity. I picked her up out of the weathering area and found that she was somewhere north of 910 grams. That is roughly an ounce and a 1/3 higher than the weight that she was when she was taken from her parents.

Falconers will understand the importance of weight control when training a bird. They will have to bear with me so that I can bring the rest of you up to date as best as I can in a simplified version. Raptors need to be in top physical form and weight to hunt. Neither too fat or too skinny. When they get extra food it goes to muscle, thus they gain weight as well as condition. When food is scarce or withheld they lose that muscle and if enough is lost, the ability to catch food as well. So in essence a fat hawk is independent, and a skinny one is unable and weak. So you are running a razors edge when you are controlling a birds weight. You want it as strong as it can be and still maintain control.

So Hope should not have been hungry enough to advance in her training. Every thing that I would offer today should have been ignored. An ounce and a third should have been enough that she would not be interested in extending her self enough to jump to the fist, and her wild side should have been showing. Apparently she was out hunting when that lesson was taught.

Normally I would have just left her on the perch without food and tried tomorrow, but she so far is not following the hard to get role that most play, and I decided to give her a chance. I cut the shoulder part off of a Jacks front leg, and a tidbit from the missing part. I wanted just enough to reward her for any advancement, but not so much that she would maintain her current weight.

John Hauck and Nell were here and we were sitting outside watching the Jacks go to water down at the creek. I was watching her for signs of disdain for me but she kept looking at the fist wondering what she had to do to make it produce food. I gave her to John to hold for me while I went for the food and my official hunting gear, my vest. After I picked her back up, I went for the creance and tied it onto her swivel. I no sooner got it tied than Hope turned around, flew to the hot tub, and turned towards me leaning forward in anticipation of the glove being offered. When I did she flashed to the glove for her tidbit. I turned towards the tub, and she flew off on her own, turned again. This time I offered her the front leg at about 5 feet and she lost no time coming to the fist for it as well. I gave her the leg and a hind foot, which she worked on until she had reduced it to its basic parts and ate them. She should lose a bit of her weight, but apparently she doesn't need to.

Its getting to the point that I am having a hard time wiping the grin off my face.

Another nice step, Flying to the fist.

Hope weighed a bit higher at 884 today, (10 grams, almost half an oz above her pickup weight) but was still very anxious to eat. I noticed that her mutes (The term for crap. Interestingly enough the semi solid dark parts of a hawks mutes is the poop, and the white liquid part is urine. Just thought you might be interested in such trivia. :-)  was totally white, indicating that she still had food in her system. As I mentioned earlier the green tinge in the urine of the mutes is the digestive fluids and indicates that the stomach is totally empty. So anyway, Hope is putting on weight, and thus should be less responsive. I didn't think that was going to be the case with Hope. She is still anxious to eat. Gotta love that!

A friend, Sandy came down at my invitation to do some Rabbit shopping. Her daughter has Yogi and the food was getting scarce. I offered since the ranches are being overrun with Jack Rabbits. She got here about 6 in the afternoon and we went over to the ranch next door. I shot eight in the day light. We went home, got those cooling and around 9 PM went back over with my quad and lights. When we got back to the house at about 1 AM we had 28 more rabbits to cool.

We chopped them into meal sized pieces this morning and Sandy departed for home with 21 Jacks. Her daughter wrote me this afternoon saying that her freezer was now full. Mine only has room for  10 or 15 more as well. The interesting part of the rabbits lying on the floor is that almost all of them are young of the year. The older rabbits will have Bot flies in them and there were only two bot flies among the whole bunch.

Hope

I picked Hope up to weigh her and she was up a bit as I mentioned, but her body language is still telling me that she is willing to do what ever it takes to get food. I finally was able to dig up a creance for her lesson today. I sat her on the wire spool, stepped back about three feet, offered her a tidbit on the fist and she was right there, no hesitation at all. I called her about four times with the last one being the last of the bunny in the form of a hind leg. No problem for her, no hesitation. Then after she finished the last of the bunny, I foolishly gave her a Jack Rabbit head to chew on. Knowing that it will likely tip her over the top tomorrow, but unable to resist rewarding her for her progress. Oh well, I need to know where her top weight is, might as well find out now.

Hope's 7th Day

Hope has consistently wanted to eat each day. Jack Rabbit is rich food. Lots of calories. Yet each day her stomach has been empty and the digestive juices have colored her mutes green, indicating that she needs food. It would appear that her metabolism is the type that falconers pray for. A fat hawk is generally a rude hawk, that just doesn't need you. If you recall I was always bellyaching about Lee not eating much. Well Hope is on the opposite end of the metabolism scale. She puts food over quickly, and burns it just as fast. A hawk that is hungry learns fast. This is the reason that Hope has made as much progress as she has.

I left her in the house today while I did all the things that keep this place going. If you spend the day bored then someone comes along that has goodies, you tend to appreciate the time that you spend with them just a bit more.

The dogs and I went out to do chores this morning, and Josie kept rattling around at the hanger. There is an unused sheet of roofing, and I could hear her banging it trying to get to what ever was hiding under it. When I finished what I was doing I went to see if I could flush the ?Rat? that was hiding behind it. I pulled it up and there was this cute little bunny. Snap, Josie had him dead quicker than either the rabbit or I could move. Gosh I love that dog! I patted her on the head, praised her and took the rabbit in the hanger and laid it down with all the Jacks that I had not yet frozen.

I had gotten a stump and my hatchet to remove the feet of the Jacks that I am putting in the Hawk freezer, so that they wouldn't take up so much room. The freezer is pretty small, so I need all the room I can get. I had frozen half of them last night, and it was time to put the rest in the freezer. When I put the last one in, I turned and the Bunny was gone. I knew right where to find it. Josie had picked up "her" bunny and taken it out on the lawn, laid it down and lay down with it. That is what she does with the Rats and Mice that she kills. I went in, got her a dog biscuit, broke it in little pieces and fed them to her. Then I took the bunny back.

I prefer to "gorge" my hawks at least once a week. Then they fast the next day. They look forward to getting all the food that they can hold, and the day without food allows them to empty out and look forward to the next time you feed them. It is time for Hope to get a good full crop, and the Bunny is perfect for that. It has few enough calories that she will put it over quickly and not gain that much weight. The main lesson that I want Hope to learn is that I am the source of food, sometimes lots of good food.

She reluctantly walked to me the first day, then a bit quicker the next. I was sure that today she would jump to the fist quite readily. Especially once she began bating towards me when I was preparing Venison for dinner, and dropping bits of Venison scraps for the Cat.

When it was time to feed her, I skinned the bunny and cut it in half, and took the head with me as a "tiring". ( tough chunk of meat that the hawk has to work at to eat. Builds muscle and makes them feel that they had more food than they actually get.)  I picked her up and took her outside. I could tell that she was wanting me to get on with it, so I relented and put her on the hot tub cover. I flicked a piece of meat near her, and she went for it with no hesitation. I then put a piece on my glove and she wasted no time in hurrying over to get it.

I did that with about three pieces, then moved back enough that she could not reach the fist. Once she thought about it a bit, she jumped to the fist to get it.

Then again with no hesitation. I called her three times and the third time I had the bunny half in my fist for her.

I let her eat all that and before she finished, I slipped the head in my fist, so that she would have uninterrupted food.

Bunny gets a bit dry, so a little water helps it go down better.

You can see the crop that she is carrying, and she was never able to finish off the head totally. Karen sat with her while I scrounged up another tarp to put in the line of fire, since she will have lots of ammunition over night.

We put her up on her perch, a happy and contented little girl. Tomorrow I will not handle her at all except to put her out in the weathering area overnight.

Hope's 6th day

As long as she makes forward progress, I will document it. Training hawks and falcons is different because each bird is different. However there is one thing that stays constant with their training and that is that the falconer can fall way behind if you follow a formula. Since every thing is different, the training must be suited to the individual bird.

Hope is different from every other bird that I have trained, just as Lee was different. These two birds although different species had one thing in common. They are not phased or impressed by the small stuff, much more than any birds that I have known. To me that trait alone will ensure that both of these birds will be exceptional. Of course with Lee, we will never know.

Hope came out of the mews weighing 874 grams. That is 30.5 oz. She was made to skip at least one perhaps two meals before she was picked up. That merely meant that her stomach was empty. Prior to that she was fed full meals every day.

 Normally when I catch a wild bird, I will weigh them when their crop and stomach is empty. This will give me a base line of the weight that a bird would like to naturally be at. Most birds would then be reduced about 10 percent as a starting weight. Hope tonight weighed 880 grams, and walked to the fist for food.

With most birds they would be skittish and spooky, not wanting to sit the fist much at all. Hope is not. OK lets get on with establishing that I have the food, and all she has to do to get it is to come to me.

Getting her used to the touch.

Walking to the fist

It's mine!

Knives!

I don't see any dog?

Wonder what they taste like?

Hope!

Today is Hope's fifth day, and I am pleased with her progress. I put her out in the weathering area with Jessie yesterday after writing in the blog. She did well. She seemed quite relaxed, drank from her bath and everything.

I picked her up around 6 PM and carried her for a while. She began looking at the glove, wondering when it would produce food. I carried her out to a large wire spool that I converted to a shooting bench and put her down on it. I cut up a few pieces of rabbit meat and flicked them out close to where she was standing. It took a bit, but eventually she gingerly tip toed up and picked it up. I cut up another couple of pieces and again flicked them out towards her while holding a Jack front leg in my fist. Eventually she could not ignore them any longer and she followed the "cookie trail" up to my fist and set about her meal.

I again put her out with Jessie about mid morning. I heard her at least twice calling, I think to Jessie for food. I can't say for sure, but she was wanting someone to come feed her. After the second time, I picked her up. Karen and I sat out in the shade and read while I was holding her. Several times she picked at the glove, indicating that she wanted something to eat.

Karen spent the time trying to get a few decent shots of her, but the lighting is all screwed up, and it was difficult at best. The wall too dark, the door too light, the camera kept going out of focus :-)

Again around 6 PM I got some food, and took her to the spool. She of course went to the end of the leash. I flicked her a tidbit, and she walked to it with a little hesitation. Then to a second one and on to my fist. She is actually a few grams heavier than when they took her out of the chamber, but her stomach was empty, and she is not a nervous bird, that would let anything distract her from food. Again she pays no attention to the Dogs or much of anything. We bundled her up this morning and I put a transmitter cradle into one of her center deck feathers. She took it in stride.

I am quite pleased with what I see so far. One of the traits that I consider most valuable in a hunting hawk is a calm disposition. Hope has this in plenty. She just doesn't sweat the small stuff. Most Harris's take forever to accept dogs. Yogi never did, at least with us. This gal is unconcerned about them. I believe that she will turn out to be one of the better hawks that I have ever handled. This should be a fun year. New hawk and Rabbits as thick as fleas on a sick dog.