The new Monster

[IAmTheWeasel]

Well, This is a journal on the training of my 3rd passage female RT. I will try to fill it in as often as I can....no promises though :roll:

Day 1: Sunday 11/28/04, Went out trapping at noon, but didn't expect anything at this time of day. A friend and I drove to the Dallas/Fort Worth airport as it's usually a great spot to trap. When we arrived, we drove around the access road for about 10 minutes until I saw one on the top of a light standard 100ft up. Kurt walked the trap out to a safe spot away from the busy road and set it down. I drove about 100 yards away and we waited for about 5 minutes.....I have a two song rule...If the bird isn't on the trap within two songs on the radio, we move on. The next bird we saw was a good distance away with no easy way to get to it, so we went for broke and toss the trap about 100-150 yards away. She wasted no time in sailing to the trap.....SCORE!!! I hooded and socked her up for the ride home and said farewell to Kurt. After weighing and putting her new gear on it was the moment of truth, so up she went on the fist and the bating and fainting began. Within minutes she was standing on the fist like a champ giving me the "I WILL kill you!" look. Later that night, I put a leg of squirrel on the glove, but she only stared at it as she was still too nervous of the big evil human she was attached to. At midnight, I put her in the Giant hood and called it a day. She weighed in with no crop and a semi sharp keel at 1490g or 3lbs 4.5 ounces

[IAmTheWeasel]

Journal of #3
Day 2: 11/29/04, Started out with the usual walking around the house, introducing the jack russels to the bird and bringing in the cat(all of which the bird thought where going to eat her) I walked in the back yard for awhile until the bating got a bit much. from that point I just sat inside on the couch with food on the fist. At about 11:00pm she reached down and began to wolf down the squirrel leg. She only got about 50 grams worth since she left the bone and skin. Back in the giant hood.

[IAmTheWeasel]

Day 3: 11/30/04
The bird has begun to noticably calm down on the fist and she it taking tid-bits off the fist quite well. She still hates the dogs as they keep poping up all over the place in typical Jack fashion. I introduced the call to associate with food and she started to pick up on it rather quickly. After about 60 grams of beef heart tid-bits, we called it a day at about 11:00pm

[Sean]

Keep us informed :D

[IAmTheWeasel]

Day 4: 12/01/04, Going to the vets for her check up today and to get a West Nile Vaccine for her. I'm placing bets that she has liver flukes, gapeworms and coccidia....Seems like all the wild ones do around here. I'll let ya'll know what the doc says tommorow.

[Scottish Austringer]

keep it coming mate.

[Hawkmaster]

What kind of trap did you use?

[IAmTheWeasel]

I use a modified Bal Chatri. I got rid of the old nylon nooses and I'm using steel leader line nooses that lock into place when sprung....Here's a picture of it..... :roll:

[Hawkmaster]

Please do!

To post a picture, just resize to 600 pixels wide and click the post reply button at the bottom of this page and add attachment.

HTH? Paul

[IAmTheWeasel]

Now that I've got the picture thing sorted.....Thanks HM.....Here is a picture of my fresh trapped female RT

[Bill]

Impressive, very impressive. Only wish we could trap over here and had fhe variety of hawks to do so.

Trapped a male kestrel in a dho gahzza many years ago. Little beauty in mature plumage.

[Scottish Austringer]

what a gorgeous bird mate, well done with the pix.( that trap looks a mighty bit of kit!!)

[IAmTheWeasel]

Day 5: 12/02/04, Went to the vets office last night and had the RT checked out. I was right about two of the three things she would have. She had Liver flukes and gapeworms. Other than that, she is perfectly healthy. Started her on the droncit last night.
She was not very happy after the vet cast her to look her over and she took it out on me. I have a few holes in my glove now that were'nt there before... :roll: . She has the food/call thing down quite well now and I will start calling her to the fist once she gets a bit of fat off her bones. I'm guessing about 2-3 ounces before she gets hungry enough to jump. We'll see what happens today.

[Hawkmaster]

Well done. DAMN cracking looking hawk, size is great too.

I would love to see a close up of those sprung loaded nooses if you don't mind as I still have a fascination with trap from my African days.

[GoneHawking]

Fantastic bird I just love the big reds.

[IAmTheWeasel]

I'll see what I can come up with. :D

[IAmTheWeasel]

Day 6: 12/03/04, Still not loosing much weight yet. She weighted in at 1428 this morning so I may give her a big meal tonight to speed up her metabolism some. Still hates the jack russels and throws a threat display every time they enter the room. She has become good at stepping to the scale and into the Giant hood so things are progressing quite well. This weekend will be spent with the bird on my fist non-stop for as much as I can take, indoors and outdoors. I will introduce her to the ring perch at some point this weekend as well.

[IAmTheWeasel]

Day 7: 12/04/04, Not much time with the bird today as the wife and I drove about an hour north to do some serious squirrel hawking with the wifes bird and my sponsors bird. Bane, my sponsors bird, flew fantasticly and bagged a large buck squirrel. The wifes bird flew great and came so close to getting one on several occations.....We'll try again tommorow
Cheers

[IAmTheWeasel]

day8: 12/05/04, Went out hawking with the wifes new bird today and it caught it's first squirrel!!!! I am still trying to get some weight off of my bird so proggress is going slow to say the least. She is still bating off the fist at regular intervels and she still hates the hood.....!

[IAmTheWeasel]

Day9: 12/06/04, Not much change in her attitude yet. I fed her 90 grams of squirrel last night in an attempt to get her metabolism moving again, so we will see what she weighs tonight.

[IAmTheWeasel]

Day 10: 12/7/04....Pearl harbor day. Yesterday I didn't do much with the bird as she held the weight hard. I am now going to wait her out for the food.....I'm getting tired of the constant bating from the fist though. Today I will just keep her on the fist for a few hours and see what she will do. I got my new hood in this afternoon and after a bit of wetting and forming , fit like a charm! She is still a bit unhappy about the whole hood thing so I'm trying to make it as nice an experience as possible.

[IAmTheWeasel]

Day 11: 12/09/04, Had her out for quite a few hours yesterday hooding and unhooding well now. Late last night I gave her the last dose of Pancur. Her weight was at 1382 last night so I tried to tease her to jump to the fist off of the perch. After she leaned as far as she could for a bit, she jumped to the fist for the first time. She was rewarded well for doing this

[North East Harris Hawker]

great photos and a lovely looking bird, you guys are so fortunate to be able to trap the way you do, no such opportunities like that in the uk :(

[IAmTheWeasel]

Yea, but on the other hand, ya'll don't have to deal with all the regulations. We can't even legally own a captive bred bird. It's still the governments property unless it's a non native species and off the falconry permit. We can use any captive bred bird we want (within reason) for falconry, but the government has ultimate control over who keeps them.

[Fox]

Hey Stoat,
Carry on posting i have enjoyed reading about your reds progress!
Fox.

[IAmTheWeasel]

Day.....whatever...lost count.....Still dropping weight slowly on her as she still has some meat on the keel and is only half heartedly responding. Started giving her washed meat to get her metabolism in high gear as she is only dropping about 8 grams a day and holds every bit of what she is fed. She has calmed down quite a bit now and doesn't freak out at the dogs unless they come right up to her. I have her flying to the fist all over the house, but I want a much better responce from her. I introduced the lure to her about a week ago I think...and she still is not hungry enough to jump down off the perch to get the free food yet. I have had a lack of time lately since the whole x-mas thing. Slowly but surely she is coming along.
I got my own squirrel kill yesterday when I went out with my sponsors 10 year old female RT. She chased a squirrel into a dead tree trunk at about head height and I stabbed the tree with my bamboo stick. A squirrel poped out of the tree and the bird gave chase, but lossed it in the briars. I pulled my staff out of the tree and the rotted part fell off of the side with a dead squirrel in it....It had it's head smashed by my flushing stick....Oops. Well, the bird saw the dead squirrel fall out and "killed" it again......Do we count this one? :lol: [color=red]

[IAmTheWeasel]

Day....Whatever...+1: 12/21/04, The washed beef heart seems to be doing the trick as she has her metabolism in high gear now as she is putting over 140 grams a day now. I'll cut her rations every other day to drop it slowly down in amounts. Very good responce to the fist last night while flying from one room to another. Still hesitent to the lure.

[IAmTheWeasel]

Just a quick update. I flew Circe for the fist time today after having a hectic past few weeks and she did great. She followed well and came to the fist instanly when called. I will try again tommorrow and see if I can get some squirrels up for her. Mel's bird took #10 squirrel today so she is happy as can be too!
Cheers,
The Weasel

[IAmTheWeasel]

Another update: Circe is now on her third squirrel so far, but the weather has been hampering our time in the field quite a bit in the past few weeks so hunts have been limited. I did however receive good news from a Falconer that was at the NAFA meet when my other bird was killed. This person went back to Kansas to do a little more jack hawking and found that my bird had finally been knocked off the top of the transformer. She buried the carcass and collected the remaining equipment. She is mailing the equipment to me right now. Gaz, you and the others might remember her as Heather from Minnesota.
Cheers,
The Weasel

[Gaz]

Glad to hear that Noel...funny thing is i wrote to her the same time i sent your goodies,when we got back from Kansas she sent me a Minnesota Falconers Association sweat top :mrgreen: So tell MEL my singing worked :!: :mrgreen: YEAH HAR! GIT "ER DONE :mrgreen: