Working out of town all through the month of Oct has us on a late start, at least for us. I generally begin taking Jessie's weight down the last weeks of Sept. and that gets us in the air shortly after Duck season begins. That leaves her to finish her molt while she flies. Waiting another month or so at a heavier weight hasn't improved her molt at all. She is just where she normally is when I begin cutting her down. Of course having her laying eggs in the hopes of immaculate conception doesn't do anything to improve stuff either. A raptor laying eggs will stop her molt cold for at least a month. No way to avoid it however. I did try a couple of years ago to put her with a male, but I guess she has a love/hate relationship with only me. She laid three eggs this year.
She has mellowed quite a bit this year. She actually seems to like me for a change. I am not going to hold my breath that it will last the whole season though.
There are two ways to condition a Falcon, generally speaking. One can just turn them loose to fly and build muscle, usually tossing a few Pigeons to make them go up so that they can actually have a chance at catching the thrown Pigeons. The theory is that when she goes high, you give her a pigeon that will not be able to out fly her. When she flies too low you toss your best Pigeon. One that will out fly her. I apparently am not smart enough to be able to get that theory to work. Jessie will fly them in a tail chase until she intimidates them into the ground, where upon she will grab them and eat the whole thing, gaining enough weight that it sets us back several days. I have found that eventually the raptor learns that you can be manipulated into tossing a Pigeon by her flying wide and out of position. Once they learn that, they begin acting as though they are going to go off wandering, just waiting for you to weaken and toss a Pigeon. I am sure it is a matter of judgement on my part, so I have given this method up completely.
The method that I prefer is either a kite or a balloon to give her a reason to go up and to stick around. Apparently helium is running out, and they don't want to sell me enough to blow up my weather balloon. Normally wind is not a problem here, in fact generally there is too much. That is until I want to fly Jessie. In years past, Jessie has wanted to fly enough that she will go off on her own to get some altitude, and when she begins to tire she will come back to take the lure and her meal. If there is wind she will check the kite height, search for a thermal to help her climb and then come back in to grab the lure and her meal. Last year I had to take her down to the high 700 grams to get her to behave. This year she thinks she is starving at almost 900 grams. (in case you are wondering there is 28.5 grams in an ounce.)
Yesterday the wind died completely, eliminating the kite for the flight. I have been turning her loose and tossing the lure for her if she looked like she was going to land. She has been using the hangar roof for her perch. The last few flights of hers have been pretty short, with her showing no sign that she is even a little bit tired, so I ignored her landing. Karen was yelling at her encouraging her to stay in the air, while I walked away. She landed on the roof finally, but again flew off immediately when I did not toss the lure. ( It takes no time at all for the rascals to pattern you. ) this time she strafed my head. Karen yelled that she was coming back also at head height. I turned to face her, she landed at my feet, ran up and "footed" my boot, looking up at me and threatening me. Brick the new dog went up to see what was going on, and she started after him. He took the hint and vacated the premises. I of course had to feed her. It is the second time that she came to me without waiting for the lure. Two days ago she hovered in front of me until I stuck up my fist.
Today it appeared that we were going to have enough wind to keep the Kite in the air. I ran it out to about 225 feet. As soon as it got in the air, the wind began to die down. I went back into the house to eat dinner and hopefully come out to a bit more wind. No luck, the kite went back down to the ground. I again put it up and went back into the house. Finally the wind came up a bit, and I went out to look. The lure had come loose from the attachment and was on the ground. I pulled the kite back down, and the wind again came up a bit, so I ran it back into the air.
We got Jessie ready and while it was still up, it was only about 125 feet. I turned her loose and she took off, powered around grabbing the lure on the first circle. Perhaps she is in better shape than I thought.
https://vimeo.com/146461978
If the wind doesn't improve shortly, I may just have to go hunting ready or not.
