I have had no word concerning Lee. That can be good or not. It can either mean that he is making his way in life with no real problems, or that he died quickly before he could look for help. I prefer to believe the former. He should have had at least a weeks worth of failures before it got critical. Prey for Raptors this year is better than I have seen it in a long time. A family group of Red Tails was fledged down by the creek, and I never heard a hunger cry from any one of the three. That is unusual, normally they are begging constantly for food.
So, I have kept busy working on my plane, which seems to be somewhat constant, painting outbuildings, and staying inside while it is hot. My hydraulic brakes on my plane was a pain. It seems that one of the master cylinders worked fine, the other not at all. I ordered rebuild kits, and being mechanically challenged as I am, took about three tries before I found the right combination. I should also mention a quart of brake fluid when all it really needed was about 2 oz. Sigh! I got it all cleaned up though.
Most of my flights around here have been in the one hour range. A few out further, but for the most part I get a cramp in my butt, and most of the things that I want to see are within that range. I decided yesterday that I wanted to fly the length of the Oregon Canyon Mountains. I decided to carry 2.5 gallons of fuel extra, fly the length of the mountain, checking out the area between the Nev border and the Mountain. I would then land at McDermitt, refuel, and then come on home. The forecast was not all that favorable due to the winds and their direction, but when I got up in the sky it was windy but smooth at the same time. I decided to continue with my plan.
https://vimeo.com/176667136 - owyheeflyer
I don't mind the wind, if it isn't churning all over the place, You are a bit like a fart in a windstorm with my plane, so I prefer to fly when I am not bouncing all over the place.
On another note, I have put a deposit on a female Harris Hawk. Hopefully I can get her here in a reasonable amount of time with a minimum of trouble. Hopefully this one will posses the attributes that I am looking for. I have liked all of the Harris's that I have had, but I am afraid that I was a bit spoiled by the first one that I had. She was a dynamite hunting hawk, and none while pretty good, have met my expectations. I am getting a bit too old to settle for less than what I want.
Thursday, July 28, 2016
Tuesday, July 19, 2016
Moving on
That is what Lee has done, whether its voluntary or not. I tend to think that he got a bit careless and was carried away by the wind. For a while one could hope that it was a transmitter failure that I was unable to get a signal, but if that was so, he would have been back by now. The only way that we will ever see him again is if he goes begging to someone, and they report it. If he had fallen victim to misfortune, the radio would have given his position away. I have flown North, West, and East with no signal at all. Yesterday I flew the 60 miles to the Idaho border and today was 40 miles North and West to the Alvord. Thursday I will go to the Nevada, border, but I think it is a waste of gas.
While it is true that I need a tiercel Prairie Falcon like I need a hole in my head, still, losing a bird this way is a bit of torture. You always worry that you didn't do enough to prepare him for life's tribulations. While my head knows that I couldn't fly him on the quarry that he would do the best on, my heart is sad at his loss.
My original intention was to take a common Falcon, that was free, and confirm my ideas, formed over 50 years of handling falcons. With Karen's help and tolerance, I did that, and together we raised as well mannered and socially adjusted falcon that I have ever seen. I did get a bit cocky there at the end, by leaving him out longer than I should, but still, its alright. It comes with the territory.
Falcons and all Raptors are genetically imbued with the impulse to disperse, so as to keep the breed strong and free from inbreeding. Perhaps Prairies more so than some others. Eyasses kept tethered are if not carefully flown, lost on the front of a storm in early Sept. by unwary falconers.
On my flight to Jordan yesterday, the wind was calm on the ground, but at 7800 feet the wind was blowing East about 30 MPH. Today the winds were the same , but totally calm on the ground.
I have notified both Oregon and Idaho Fish and Game of his loss, and put the word out to falconers in both states. He may show up, but it is unlikely.
On my flight today, my battery apparently died in flight. I switched it off and flew back with no instruments, no big deal, but worrisome none the less. I have a new battery on its way, and I received the rebuild parts for my brakes yesterday. Apparently I now have time to fix all that stuff, and maybe go fishing.
The first video is the one that I sent you the other day. The other is the flight that I took today. Normally I don't fly until the sun is up high enough to light up the landscape, but I knew there would be winds today and I wanted to get up and back down before they got too bad. When you are flying a thistle, winds can make you pucker more than can be considered fun.
https://vimeo.com/175146420 (looking for Lee) password for both is - owyheeflyer
https://vimeo.com/175416668
While it is true that I need a tiercel Prairie Falcon like I need a hole in my head, still, losing a bird this way is a bit of torture. You always worry that you didn't do enough to prepare him for life's tribulations. While my head knows that I couldn't fly him on the quarry that he would do the best on, my heart is sad at his loss.
My original intention was to take a common Falcon, that was free, and confirm my ideas, formed over 50 years of handling falcons. With Karen's help and tolerance, I did that, and together we raised as well mannered and socially adjusted falcon that I have ever seen. I did get a bit cocky there at the end, by leaving him out longer than I should, but still, its alright. It comes with the territory.
Falcons and all Raptors are genetically imbued with the impulse to disperse, so as to keep the breed strong and free from inbreeding. Perhaps Prairies more so than some others. Eyasses kept tethered are if not carefully flown, lost on the front of a storm in early Sept. by unwary falconers.
On my flight to Jordan yesterday, the wind was calm on the ground, but at 7800 feet the wind was blowing East about 30 MPH. Today the winds were the same , but totally calm on the ground.
I have notified both Oregon and Idaho Fish and Game of his loss, and put the word out to falconers in both states. He may show up, but it is unlikely.
On my flight today, my battery apparently died in flight. I switched it off and flew back with no instruments, no big deal, but worrisome none the less. I have a new battery on its way, and I received the rebuild parts for my brakes yesterday. Apparently I now have time to fix all that stuff, and maybe go fishing.
The first video is the one that I sent you the other day. The other is the flight that I took today. Normally I don't fly until the sun is up high enough to light up the landscape, but I knew there would be winds today and I wanted to get up and back down before they got too bad. When you are flying a thistle, winds can make you pucker more than can be considered fun.
https://vimeo.com/175146420 (looking for Lee) password for both is - owyheeflyer
https://vimeo.com/175416668
Sunday, July 17, 2016
Missing!
Unfortunately it would appear that I left Lee out for one day too long. Lee left sometime yesterday and has not returned as of this writing. My assumption is that he caught a thermal, that just drifted him totally out of the area. I expected him to eventually catch something and spend a night out, but as near as I can tell he is nowhere around any more. I attempted to fly yesterday afternoon, but it was so rough that I soon gave it up.
I got up this morning and the wind was nice and calm, so I rolled the plane out and took off, thinking that if I got up high enough that I could hear a signal on the receiver. I climbed up 4000 feet above the ground and nothing but static. The neighbor needed a bit of help, so I discontinued my search and helped him out.
Wind and weather permitting in the morning I will travel East, the general direction of the wind, and see if I can get any signal, but it is my opinion that he is gone. I really don't have a problem with that as such. I just hope that he gets some breaks and can make the transition to supplying his own food. He should have a pretty good chance, as he has never been restricted as to how much food he had available, and he is a strong flyer. As of this writing the wind at 12,000 feet is at 20 MPH. There is a storm front coming through, and all of that will combine to make it harder for him to return. So I am of the opinion that he is gone for good. I would estimate that he has about a week to make a kill. That's a pretty good cushion. I wish him the utmost of luck.
My original intention was to hack a female that would fit into my Duck hunting plan. Ducks are an easy and plentiful quarry for me, requiring minimum effort on my part. Ducks are sometimes difficult quarry for Prairies, but almost impossible for a tiercel, male, Prairie Falcon. Hunting game birds such as Chuckars or Hungarian Partridge, require a lot of driving and more effort than I can produce on a regular basis. I was considering hacking him back to the wild, but I really wanted a bit more time to work on his ability to catch things. So any regrets that I have are centered around whether or not he can make the cut to survive. The stats say that 75 % of the young raptors their first year do not make it. I hope that he does.
My goal was to see if I could raise a well mannered falcon in ideal conditions. I have gained a tremendous amount of insight about how to do that. This is my first mistake in that endeavor. I originally intended to do this using a hybrid falcon. Lee only required a bit of effort and only bad luck mandated that only a male was available. If he had been a female, I would have played it a bit more safe. Hybrids are going for around $2,000 each now.
I have done nothing this summer but tend to Lee. I have yet to go fishing. I have not flown much at all. Every thing has been centered around him and his care. It has been worth it and I hope that my interference in his life has not been a bad thing for him, as it has not for me.
https://vimeo.com/175146420 password - owyheeflyer
I got up this morning and the wind was nice and calm, so I rolled the plane out and took off, thinking that if I got up high enough that I could hear a signal on the receiver. I climbed up 4000 feet above the ground and nothing but static. The neighbor needed a bit of help, so I discontinued my search and helped him out.
Wind and weather permitting in the morning I will travel East, the general direction of the wind, and see if I can get any signal, but it is my opinion that he is gone. I really don't have a problem with that as such. I just hope that he gets some breaks and can make the transition to supplying his own food. He should have a pretty good chance, as he has never been restricted as to how much food he had available, and he is a strong flyer. As of this writing the wind at 12,000 feet is at 20 MPH. There is a storm front coming through, and all of that will combine to make it harder for him to return. So I am of the opinion that he is gone for good. I would estimate that he has about a week to make a kill. That's a pretty good cushion. I wish him the utmost of luck.
My original intention was to hack a female that would fit into my Duck hunting plan. Ducks are an easy and plentiful quarry for me, requiring minimum effort on my part. Ducks are sometimes difficult quarry for Prairies, but almost impossible for a tiercel, male, Prairie Falcon. Hunting game birds such as Chuckars or Hungarian Partridge, require a lot of driving and more effort than I can produce on a regular basis. I was considering hacking him back to the wild, but I really wanted a bit more time to work on his ability to catch things. So any regrets that I have are centered around whether or not he can make the cut to survive. The stats say that 75 % of the young raptors their first year do not make it. I hope that he does.
My goal was to see if I could raise a well mannered falcon in ideal conditions. I have gained a tremendous amount of insight about how to do that. This is my first mistake in that endeavor. I originally intended to do this using a hybrid falcon. Lee only required a bit of effort and only bad luck mandated that only a male was available. If he had been a female, I would have played it a bit more safe. Hybrids are going for around $2,000 each now.
I have done nothing this summer but tend to Lee. I have yet to go fishing. I have not flown much at all. Every thing has been centered around him and his care. It has been worth it and I hope that my interference in his life has not been a bad thing for him, as it has not for me.
https://vimeo.com/175146420 password - owyheeflyer
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
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
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. :-)
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
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