Friday, July 15, 2016

Day 75, Invasion of the drones

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

Thursday, July 14, 2016

Day 72

Lee spent most of yesterday over at the Ranch next door. I took the quad up to the top of the hill to see if I could get a signal on him, but could not. He still lays down a lot and if he was laying on a haystack three miles away, I would not get a signal. Around 5:30 he showed up - hungry. I am pleased that he is doing some traveling, because it is time for him to do so. I was a bit worried that he had not been exploring. I am not concerned that he might make a kill and not return. He is too much like a bear cub with mittens trying to play with himself to manage something like that. ( I wrote this paragraph before he showed up this evening.)

This morning he was raring to go, jumping to me as soon as I got close to the playpen. I took him outside and turned him loose. I then went on to do my chores. Jessie was being coy, and seemed to take forever to get on the fist. Perhaps she is realizing that she is no longer the only bird in my life. :-) Lee was all over the place, flying straight at me several times. He flew to the hawk pens and there was a young Pigeon sitting there. He tried to land on her, but she managed to escape him. He fumbled all over her several times, but did not have experience enough to secure her. She took off, slammed into the side of the motor home, falling to the ground. Lee was after her, but she managed to get under the Motor home. He was standing in the weeds looking underneath. She jumped up into the axle area, and he followed, flushing her out of there and onto the trailer next to it. He followed, fumble fingered as could be, she escaped and slammed into the Motor home again, down on the ground and out the other side. He lost her in the confusion. I'm standing there cussing myself for my shortsightedness. I have decided that I am going to have to leave the Chicken house open or go out earlier to give them a head start. He seems to be getting a bit more serious.

I decided to feed him a bit earlier today and cut a Starling in half for his breakfast. Apparently it was a bit much as he didn't show up until 7:30 this evening for food.

This morning I decided that it was time to introduce the drone. While I didn't expect him to take the lure off the drone, I did want him to get used to it. As is to be expected he didn't like it anywhere over him, and he flew off landing on the Duck pen. I landed the drone, and called him to the lure. Then as he was eating I brought it to a hover within about 25 yards of him. When he got close to finishing, I clicked the switch to have it land where it took off from. I offered him my glove and he ran over to feak his beak, (This ancient term describes him cleaning his beak) he then tried to nip me on the leg. I left him there and started putting stuff away. When I got back he had run up to the door. I told him to go on in, but he decided that the refrigerator under the back porch was a better place to snooze after eating.




I had a bunch of stuff to do and lost track of him. He sometime later went to the Hack tower and stayed there for most of the day. Sometime around 3 PM I turned on the receiver to see where he was, and got no signal. I assumed that he had gone to the ranch. The wind was a bit brisk for comfortable flying, so I kept waiting. We had a really nasty dust devil go through, tossing one of our pool chairs out into the garden and in the process bending the center of one of the hangar doors. Its a piece of 1 1/2 X 1 inch rectangular tubing, so it should have been fairly exciting. In retreiving the chair out of the garden, I discovered that a rather large Deer had jumped the fence and pruned all my plants and pulled all of the Cantalope plants out. Any body out there hungry?

Finally about 7:30, I decided that it was calm enough to risk my life in the air, so I secured one of my telemetry receivers to the firestar's cage and rolled it outside. The very first thing, the wind blew my one piece windscreen totally over the other side of the plane. Luckily it didn't break. I got it pointed into the wind, and waited for a bit for the wind to calm. It finally did, and I got in and started up, plugging the ear buds to the receiver in my ears. To my surprise I can now hear him coming back over the ridge from the ranch. In truth I was relieved and regretful at the same time.




It would appear that he had some excitement today as his sere is scraped. There is nothing for him to hit here at the house, so apparently he is trying to catch stuff. He crashed into something today. You can see the little scrape at the top of his beak. (For those of you who do not know what a sere is- it is the soft tissue that goes over the top of his beak and includes his nostrils. The little post in the center of his nostril allows him to breathe while in a dive. It modifies his air intake so that the speed of his dives do not affect his ability to breathe.) He could have gotten it on a fence or a branch. Fence is the most likely culprit.

One of the most common  ( in my opinion) mistakes that falconers make is to keep their young falcons away from wires and fences. It is my opinion that if they know what they are when they are just bumbling around, they will know what to avoid when they are really flying hard. I want them exposed to those dangers while they are just pooping around.




He was really hungry this evening, enough so that what ever bad manners lurk in his little mind was to the fore front. It took him a while to settle down enough to eat. Today I decided that it was Karen's turn to feed him. :-)

https://vimeo.com/174699997  passwork    owyheeflyer

Day 72

Lee spent most of yesterday over at the Ranch next door. I took the quad up to the top of the hill to see if I could get a signal on him, but could not. He still lays down a lot and if he was laying on a haystack three miles away, I would not get a signal. Around 5:30 he showed up - hungry. I am pleased that he is doing some traveling, because it is time for him to do so. I was a bit worried that he had not been exploring. I am not concerned that he might make a kill and not return. He is too much like a bear cub with mittens trying to play with himself to manage something like that. ( I wrote this paragraph before he showed up this evening.)

This morning he was raring to go, jumping to me as soon as I got close to the playpen. I took him outside and turned him loose. I then went on to do my chores. Jessie was being coy, and seemed to take forever to get on the fist. Perhaps she is realizing that she is no longer the only bird in my life. :-) Lee was all over the place, flying straight at me several times. He flew to the hawk pens and there was a young Pigeon sitting there. He tried to land on her, but she managed to escape him. He fumbled all over her several times, but did not have experience enough to secure her. She took off, slammed into the side of the motor home, falling to the ground. Lee was after her, but she managed to get under the Motor home. He was standing in the weeds looking underneath. She jumped up into the axle area, and he followed, flushing her out of there and onto the trailer next to it. He followed, fumble fingered as could be, she escaped and slammed into the Motor home again, down on the ground and out the other side. He lost her in the confusion. I'm standing there cussing myself for my shortsightedness. I have decided that I am going to have to leave the Chicken house open or go out earlier to give them a head start. He seems to be getting a bit more serious.

I decided to feed him a bit earlier today and cut a Starling in half for his breakfast. Apparently it was a bit much as he didn't show up until 7:30 this evening for food.

This morning I decided that it was time to introduce the drone. While I didn't expect him to take the lure off the drone, I did want him to get used to it. As is to be expected he didn't like it anywhere over him, and he flew off landing on the Duck pen. I landed the drone, and called him to the lure. Then as he was eating I brought it to a hover within about 25 yards of him. When he got close to finishing, I clicked the switch to have it land where it took off from. I offered him my glove and he ran over to feak his beak, (This ancient term describes him cleaning his beak) he then tried to nip me on the leg. I left him there and started putting stuff away. When I got back he had run up to the door. I told him to go on in, but he decided that the refrigerator under the back porch was a better place to snooze after eating.




I had a bunch of stuff to do and lost track of him. He sometime later went to the Hack tower and stayed there for most of the day. Sometime around 3 PM I turned on the receiver to see where he was, and got no signal. I assumed that he had gone to the ranch. The wind was a bit brisk for comfortable flying, so I kept waiting. We had a really nasty dust devil go through, tossing one of our pool chairs out into the garden and in the process bending the center of one of the hangar doors. Its a piece of 1 1/2 X 1 inch rectangular tubing, so it should have been fairly exciting. In retreiving the chair out of the garden, I discovered that a rather large Deer had jumped the fence and pruned all my plants and pulled all of the Cantalope plants out. Any body out there hungry?

Finally about 7:30, I decided that it was calm enough to risk my life in the air, so I secured one of my telemetry receivers to the firestar's cage and rolled it outside. The very first thing, the wind blew my one piece windscreen totally over the other side of the plane. Luckily it didn't break. I got it pointed into the wind, and waited for a bit for the wind to calm. It finally did, and I got in and started up, plugging the ear buds to the receiver in my ears. To my surprise I can now hear him coming back over the ridge from the ranch. In truth I was relieved and regretful at the same time.




It would appear that he had some excitement today as his sere is scraped. There is nothing for him to hit here at the house, so apparently he is trying to catch stuff. He crashed into something today. You can see the little scrape at the top of his beak. (For those of you who do not know what a sere is- it is the soft tissue that goes over the top of his beak and includes his nostrils. The little post in the center of his nostril allows him to breathe while in a dive. It modifies his air intake so that the speed of his dives do not affect his ability to breathe.) He could have gotten it on a fence or a branch. Fence is the most likely culprit.

One of the most common  ( in my opinion) mistakes that falconers make is to keep their young falcons away from wires and fences. It is my opinion that if they know what they are when they are just bumbling around, they will know what to avoid when they are really flying hard. I want them exposed to those dangers while they are just pooping around.




He was really hungry this evening, enough so that what ever bad manners lurk in his little mind was to the fore front. It took him a while to settle down enough to eat. Today I decided that it was Karen's turn to feed him. :-)

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Day 72


I added a handle to cover the exposed screw.

Yesterday Lee skipped his breakfast. I went out to check on him, and could only get a faint signal across the hill towards the Ranch next door. I went out far enough away from the buildings here so that I could be sure that he wasn't just laying on his antenna. The signal would come up strong and then fade as it does when the bird is flying. He was over the hill for sure. This is a lot further than I have recorded him flying before. Around 4 PM he showed up starving, so I gave him the lure and fed him his final meal for the day. It was way too early to put him in the house, so I decided to perch him with the big birds for a change and see how he was going to like that. He seemed to be quite content, so I left him there until I put Jesse up for the night. It was the best and quietest evening that he has spent since he has grown up.

This morning he was on fire to go out. He paid no attention to Karen, but when I got up and he saw me, his enabler, he was jumping up and down with impatience. He made a bee line for the Motor home as a launching point for his chicken attacks.

After my breakfast, Karen and I decided to go for our walk down the runway. Lee began by strafing the dogs, then he started riding the early morning thermals. He is so lightly wing loaded that he had no problem going up. I tried to get some video, but the camera will not focus on infinity. He went high enough that he was blinking in and out of my sight, He drifted a bit downwind, but soon went into a shallow dive back toward us and on over the hill to the Ranch next door.

When we got back, he had also returned and was waiting for his breakfast.

 https://vimeo.com/174396105   password    owyheeflyer

Sunday, July 10, 2016

Day 69 -70

I have been having trouble holding the video camera steady enough to inflict the resulting video on anyone, so I made a stock to hold the camera. Yes its a bit crude, but it does the job reasonably well. The camera actually takes fine video, but nothing about it is ergonomic, or fits. On its own it is almost impossible to hold it steady or to see where the darn thing is pointing if there is any daylight at all. To reach the telephoto button takes another hand. I got so frustrated that I looked on line for a camera that had a view finder. Yep they had them, starting at about 1200 bucks. Sorry, not happening.


The screw hanging down gives me a place to wrap my finger around it to hold it snug to my shoulder. I may have to make a little round thingy to dress it up a bit.

So with my new camera addition, I took it with me to do my morning chores.  That seems to be the time that Lee is the most frisky, and today was no different. The biggest problem is that some of the Chickens that I have running around in the yard are smaller than what I intend for him to hunt. Once they make it across the open parking lot he doesn't bother them. I am not sure what all that adrenaline does to the chickens egg laying process, but I have too many eggs now any way.

At 9:30 AM, Lee got hungry, and stopped his harassment of the critters both tame and wild and landed on the fifth wheel looking for me. I tossed him the lure with a Starling on it. He finished it and came to sit on my fist for a while, before leaving to finish harassing things.



There was a storm coming in and as the day went on it progressively got worse. By 5:30 when he got really hungry the storm was just on the verge of breaking. He went to the lure and then to the fist to finish his meal, as the storm really picked up. He sat with us in the protection of the porch and watched it blow. I am a bit surprised at how well all this is going. I expected more trouble.



One of the emails that I received concerned his eating of feathers. Raptors take in much more food than they can put in their stomach. They have a crop that holds the food until their stomach can process it. Meat and bones and other byproducts are messy and the feathers as well as the bones that they cannot digest serve to clean their crop, so that they do not develop a toxic mess that would eventually make them sick. It is regurgitated the next morning as a pellet.


Keeping things neat and tidy. One of the problems that can be fatal to them is a condition called sour crop. It is merely food that for what ever reason is not able to be processed and begins to rot in the crop. For instance if a hawk gets too low in condition, the bacteria within the stomach stop working, the food rots, the bird dies of peritonitis.

https://vimeo.com/174114347  password   owyheeflyer