Day 47-48

I anticipate that I will not be making many more videos as he is growing up and soon he will not be in a position that I can get videos of him for a while. At least until he begins his training. This "cute" stage will not last too much longer.

I am a bit surprised at his desire to be close to us. If he gets restless and bored, he will begin fidgeting around his perch eventually flying to the table to rummage around there. If either Karen or I go over, put on the glove. He will run over, bite the glove a bit. Then crawl up on the glove where he will talk a bit more, nibble a bit, then settle down and pop out his chin whiskers in relaxed mode. We can then set him back on his perch and he is fine for quite a while. It surprises me a bit to see that he is most comfortable in our presence. Of course that will go away  as he gets older.

Today he played outside and visited Jessie for about 5 hours total. He then started making his way over to the house. He made most of the journey on foot, hopping up on the roof, then flying to the window with Karen's encouragement. I gave him a Mouse for lunch. I had to strip its skin back so that he would know that it was food.

This morning he spent quite a bit of time on the hanger, then the fifth wheel, then the Motor home. As you can see there is a bit of a storm front moving through.

Yesterday he was mainly a foot falcon. He played on the ground almost all day long. After he gets tired, he ends up on the ties of the weathering area. It keeps him out of the wind and I think he is enthralled with Jessie.

She however does not seem the slightest bit interested. She is right in the middle of trying to lay all the eggs that she can. She has 8 so far. I have been cutting back on her food hoping that she will stop, and it has had the effect of making her beg me to be a good mate and bring her enough food so she can continue to waste the summer. You see, a raptor that is laying eggs will stop their molt until they begin setting. Unfortunately she does not do that. The longer she continues this farce the later she will complete the molt.

The Chickens also like the area in front of the weathering pen, and congregate there about the middle of the day to nap in the shade. I found Karen sitting in a chair with the camera in her lap, watching Lee by the pen. There were a couple of hens around him, and he jumped at one. She ran, but about that time one of the older hens came up,saw that that and promptly ran over him. He got up with some pretty big eyes and took off flying for safety with the hen right behind. All Karen could do was roll up in a ball laughing. She didn't even try to get a picture. While disappointed, I couldn't blame her too much.

Yesterday evening followed the same routine, but this time I was prepared. I guess I don't have to worry about him becoming a Chicken Hawk.

https://vimeo.com/171220610   password-  owyheeflyer

Day 45 - 46

Yesterday, the 15th I took Lee outside and put him in the window. It didn't take long and he was over on the old BBQ, then to the spare tire on the 5th wheel. Then on the hanger and weathering area roof. He played there most of the day eventually moving to the roof of the house. He showed signs that he wanted to come to me, but did not. I did go out and gave him a bit of Quail for lunch. A storm came up and he took refuge under the overhang of the hanger roof. Finally around 6 PM I went out to offer him my fist and he ran down the roof to me. I brought him in and tied him to his playpen perch. He spent the rest of the day and night in quiet contentment.

This morning (16th) I gave him half a Quail for breakfast as I have done all along. He ate a bit, not near enough for my liking, and got back up on his perch. The day had dawned looking great. A bit cool at 41 degrees. I took all his jesses off and took him outside, sitting him on the BBQ. I went back in, fixed my own breakfast, and did a bit of reading while listening to the crap going on around the country.

When I got up to check on Lee, he was nowhere to be seen. I went looking and was quite surprised to see where he had gone.

The pool cover had puddles of yesterday's rain, and Lee was happily flopping around in them getting as wet as he could. He eventually made his way back to the BBQ to dry.

I went back in the house to return to my reading and coffee. As I do often, I went to check on Lee. I opened the window in front of the Hot Tub and was talking to Lee, still on the BBQ. When he saw me, he began peeping and flew over to the ground in front of the window. With my encouragement he leapfrogged up various things until he could get to the window sill. He then jumped on my fist and we went back to my chair inside.

Brick took the opportunity to study Lee some more, and get a bit of love along the way.

It didn't take Lee long to close his eyes, lift up one foot, and relax. I eventually put him on his perch again where he is now sleeping.

I was surprised that he searched out the water on the cover and took another bath. Prairies are not known to be fond of bathing. After all they are true Desert Falcons, and rarely take more than a dust bath in their natural habitat.

I put him on his perch and he promptly went to sleep. He stayed for quite a long time at least until it warmed up a bit. When he woke and started to get restless, so I put him back outside on the Hot tub cover.

https://vimeo.com/170991472  password- owyheeflyer

I made this video of the first part of his outside adventure, and came back in the house, as it was still a bit cool. About an hour or so later he flew up to the dining room window. Josie had killed a Pack Rat, and I had put it in the window, promptly forgetting it. He was dragging it around and trying to find some way to open it up. I gave him the rest of his Quail, and left him there. After finishing it he came back in and went to sleep again.

42 to 44 days

Lee has been a bit of a pain in the butt going through what I term the equivalent of the "terrible two's". He really wants to be with us all the time.  He doesn't quite know what he wants, he just wants it now! He tries to get into every thing. Much of the time the things that he wants to do are the very things that he should not be doing, such as rummaging around on the dining room table. 

The remedy seems to be to pick him up, carry him around for a bit, then stick him outside on the window ledge and close the window. 

I try to sit with him as much as possible, and he enjoys the company. On a whim I got a rubber bath and filled it with about 2 inches of water, and put it on his playpen. I was quite surprised when after a bit of inspection he went over to examine it. He jumped in and seemed to like it quite a lot. He eventually took a bath. It is surprising that there are certain things such as bathing that seem to be pre programed into their memory.  

Then its off to the Hot tub for a good flat play area. He got to examine Josie and give her a few nibbles on the leg. She doesn't seem to mind.

The sun got a bit hot so he took refuge behind my coffee cup.

Later when we go inside, he is quite content to lay on the top of the playpen while we have dinner, and perhaps take a nap or two.

After a particularly irritating bout of " I don't want to behave" Karen decided that it was time that he was taught some restraint.  I dug up a leash and some jesses and he learned to sit on a perch like a big boy. I have to say he accepted it with very little trouble.

I spent the evening trying to cut an hour of video down to an acceptable length. My first cut was 12 minutes, and then I finally settled on about 7-8 minutes.

I have to say, raising an eyass Falcon properly to the point where the result is a sane and well adjusted hunting partner is a daunting task. I have not ever succeeded in my earlier attempts, to my satisfaction, though I haven't tried all that much simply because there were factors that could not be overcome in that time and place.

The task, while so far looks good, is far from complete. Although if I were living where I have been all my previous life, this point would be the finish line. What would happen from here on would be that he would stay on a perch until he became "hard Penned" and then we would attempt training. Of course he would then have to learn all the nuances of flying and pursuit of game. Not an easy task. He would in the wild get about 30 days of support from his parents to get to the point that flying became automatic and thought becomes action. Pretty hard to get good at something like that with about 30 minutes of flying a day.

Although it is pretty labor intensive, he will have that 30 days or what ever he requires to learn that skill. The only hazards here are the ones put here by nature, and they are plentiful. So while the risks are great, the goal is worth it. So far we are about 1/4 of the way through the process. There is still a lot to go wrong.

As I sat here typing my thoughts, he began "peeping". It is morning and he has had 1/2 a Quail to break his fast. Karen is on her computer catching up on overnight catastrophes. I got up to see what he wanted. As I got to the playpen he jumped down off the perch and came over to nibble on my fingers. I put the glove on so that I could survive his attention. He climbed on the fist and fluffed out his chin feathers in contentment. After holding him a bit I took him out to the window.

He is now out rummaging around in Karen's rock garden. She would like me to go pick him up, but I have chosen to let him do as he wants. Hoping that he will keep out of trouble. The next week or so is one of the choke points.

https://vimeo.com/170732380    password  owyheeflyer