I seem to be a little confused occasionally concerning the days. Out of two or three mentions of the date one of them is usually right. I think I have it right today.
I wanted to continue the familiarization with the drone, and it went quite well. It is all explained in the video, so there is not much use in repeating it.
At 11:00 am I decided to see if I could find when he takes off for the Ranch. I got a signal pointing in that direction. I went to the yard fence and the signal was still coming from the West. I kept sweeping around trying to pinpoint his location. Finally I began pointing it up and the signal got a bit clearer. I kept looking and sweeping with the receiver. One way to get an exact fix is to slowly sweep it to the side. When the signal disappears entirely the elements of the array is pointing at the transmitter. By checking one way and then the other the transmitter can be pinpointed exactly. After quite a long time I found him circling in the clouds. He was high enough that he was barely visible. Some say that you can still see a falcon as high as 1500 feet. I do not believe that, at least for me. I would guess his height to have been somewhere above 600 and below 800 feet. The interesting part was that it was so early in the day and I never saw him flap a wing. Of course he is small enough and light enough to be compared to a thistle in the wind.
I banged on the side of the pigeon house hoping that I might see him give chase. He did come over them, but made no move to chase any of them. Finally he turned to the NW and again without moving a wing, zoomed over the horizon at a speed that only a falcon can match. I waited and kept trying to locate him. After about 5 minutes he zoomed back in and landed on the hangar. He then went to the Hack tower to sleep the hot part of the day away. Later he will go over to the ranch for the rest of the day.
In answer to several questions, I do not have any ID on him. There are few here to see him, and any who do, already know about him. If by some chance he were to fly off far enough that I can't find him with my plane, then he will go with my blessing. In all honesty, he does not fit into any falconry plan that I have. He is too small to hunt most of the quarry that is available to me. It is doubtful that he will be able to take many or any of the Ducks that populate this area. In fact, if I was half as smart as I tend to think I am, I would just fly him back to the wild. I am sure that I will not, at least for a while.
There are areas that hold small birds, Starlings and such. There are a few problems with that however in that raptors are naturally jealous and protective of their food. It doesn't matter that he has had all the food he wants and has never had any real reason to think that I envy the food that he has. It is an ingrained genetic disposition, that will not ever change. Even now I use a spike on the lure to hold him in one spot. If I did not he would carry it off to eat, then come back for more.
Hunting a raptor works best if the prey is big enough that the bird cannot readily carry it off. Once the behavior starts, it is only a matter of time before the bird is lost.
Raptors tend to specialize with what ever quarry that it first kills. All raptors are excited by upland game. They have a real resistance to catching waterfowl for some reason, I tend to believe that Ducks do not have that flurry of wings that possibly suggest weakness. For whatever reason, one of the hardest things to do is to make a Prairie Falcon to Ducks.
I will, when he is judged ready, try to give him for his first kill, one of the Pigeons that I have. I really do not want him to kill anything at all, unless I give it to him. If I can get him to pursue and catch a Duck, at that point he will exceed my expectations, and then I will be careful to not lose him. Until then he is a tool that I am using to expand my knowledge, and burn up my days.
What I intend to do is to get him to the point that he is taking the lure off of the drone. Then I will keep raising it up in the air so that he will have to climb up to get the lure off of it. I will raise it by increments to the point that he has reached a hunting height, then release something for him to catch. When he will climb to 4-600 feet and wait for me to toss or flush quarry for him to kill, then we will go hunting.
https://vimeo.com/174847873 password owyheeflyer
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