Second Chick's out !

[Dan Paradis]

Egg # 2 incubated in the Rcompro20 from day one out safe and sound :supz:

Untill now I'm realy impressed with the machine :)

The octagon on the pic is merely a hatcher :o

[SakerJack]

Great NEWS Dan, might you have a female saker available?

[Kitana]

Way to go! That must be a blast seeing a home-bred bird hatch...

[Dan Paradis]

Great NEWS Dan, might you have a female saker available?

Yes Ken, four chances of having females...I have two other pure Saker eggs to hatch in the coming hours/days. Then I'll return them to the parents within a week.

Let me know if you are interested in one :supz:

It sure is a great experience to witness this scene Audrey :)

Dan

[Dan Paradis]

...a small video (6sec) just for you Kitana !


http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q77/DanParadis/th_Photo1981.jpg (http://s133.photobucket.com/albums/q77/DanParadis/?action=view&current=Photo1981.flv)

[HelenG]

Wow, what a feeling it must be! Congrats Dan, I hope all the best for you this season!

[Rabadswompe]

Dan's good with babies...all kinds!!! :lol::supz:

[Kitana]

No way... Thank you!! ahahah! Gives me another reason to add to my list of "why should I travel to Dan's place"! lol

[Dan Paradis]

I hear the third one cheeping inside shell now...

Here are the two other bandidos :twisted:

[Dan Paradis]

Wow, what a feeling it must be! Congrats Dan, I hope all the best for you this season!

Thanks Helen Thanks Yann :supz:

[FredrickFogg]

Congrats Dan! Are you producing any pere/sakers? Hard to find them here in the lower 48's! I would like to have one someday!

[Dan Paradis]

Congrats Dan! Are you producing any pere/sakers? Hard to find them here in the lower 48's! I would like to have one someday!

No but maybe sometime, I plan on breeding Gyr/Peregrine and Gyr/Saker for the moment with my new imprint mews for AI

Dan

[HelenG]

So does that mean you will be imprinting one/some of your new chicks or do you already have the imprints?
Sounds like fun but alot of work building a new "stable" of imprints!

[Dan Paradis]

So does that mean you will be imprinting one/some of your new chicks or do you already have the imprints?
Sounds like fun but alot of work building a new "stable" of imprints!

I'll have to decide all that soon, but these Sakers will be parent reared for sure. The stable is already there we're only building chambers division inside

Dan

[HelenG]

I'll have to decide all that soon, but these Sakers will be parent reared for sure. The stable is already there we're only building chambers division inside

Dan

Neat!
Have your kestrels started yet? I work at McGill where we have a colony of kestrels for research, we paired them up two days ago and I was seeing feeding behaviour today, some nest boxes have really nice scrapes already! It's interesting to watch their interactions, first time I've seen raptor pairs interact. A pair has had to be separated already because the female wouldn't leave the male alone, poor little guy was less than 100g. I thought he was the best looking male of the bunch, I guess she didn't agree! We've put a replacement male in, we'll see how it goes!

[HawkMom]

Helen, your 'little' male kestrel may be a southern 'palus' (sp) subrace. They are smaller than the 'standard' kestrels with the males often being under 100 grams. They have a rather pale chest, almost white. The one I had was only 90 grams. He was a LITTLE guy, as small as my cockateils.

[HawkMom]

I simply LOVE raising baby raptors. They are so much fun.

[HelenG]

Helen, your 'little' male kestrel may be a southern 'palus' (sp) subrace. They are smaller than the 'standard' kestrels with the males often being under 100 grams. They have a rather pale chest, almost white. The one I had was only 90 grams. He was a LITTLE guy, as small as my cockateils.

Kitty,
Due to the nature and size of the colony we get all sizes, shapes and colours.
The colony has been in existence for many years now (10+). They are pedigreed for many generations, with some wild infusion (a current study is comparing the captive population with wild kestrels to determine if they can still be used as suitable comparisons for wild raptors, this study involves cross fostering captive with wild, so we get some new wild blood into the colony). I believe that the founding stock are eastern american kestrels from Quebec (not 100% sure), but any wild infusion we get is wild caught around Montreal area, so I doubt it would be the southern subrace. Plus my little guy is heavily marked on his breast. He's just little, and that's why he's my favourite (in a flight pen of 30+ male kestrels I can pick him out due to his size and markings). Interesting to know about the subrace, I didn't even know about that! I've been told the Cuban American Kestrel looks completely different than those from North America.
We have all colours, from males with very pale breasts to very heavily streaked well into adulthood. We have a pair of females, who I believe came from a cross foster last year (are from wild parents) and the pair of them are very dark, with one of them having an almost completely black back. Very unusual looking.
I would be so worried to work with a male kestrel of 90 g! Did you fly him? Weight management must be insane on one of them!

[HelenG]

I simply LOVE raising baby raptors. They are so much fun.

I agree, but I find it makes it harder to fly them (makes you too nervous of losing them!), and you get much more attached to them than non-imprinted birds!

[Dan Paradis]

I took this female kestrel shot in Cuba last time we went, very small and pale birds indeed.

Dan

[HelenG]

Neat!!!!
Thanks Dan!
My prof thinks they might be genetically distinct from our kestrels.

[HawkMom]

Kestrels are not available for falconers in Florida from the wild because of the threatened status of the paulus (sp) subrace. We can fly kestrels, but not Florida sourced stock.

My little make was an injured rehab haggard. He had lost one eye in an auto collision and had skull fractures. The rehab center noted his fighting spirit and worked to get him recovered. He was doing well for a while but passed away about 6 months later. I guess the head injuries just got the best of him. He was really nice, but a nervous haggard. My 'normal kestrel equipment was too big for him. His legs were as small as matchsticks. The first pair of anklets I put on him slipped off!!! I had to really miniaturize my kestrel equipment for him.

[HelenG]

Wow, sounds tiny! Sorry to hear he didn't make it.