Flying Free

[BeebosMum]

Well thats a week or so my EEO has been flying free, it was quite a heart-stopping moment letting him go with the flying jesses the first time! It took a bit longer as my hubby works shifts and I wanted to mae sure he was on a weekend off incase anything went wrong the first time. But its all been worth it, Beebo did give me a start at one point when he decided not to go to the post I expected him to but its really good fun so far. He has been buzzed by a kestrel and a buzzard and not quite mobbed by crows! He still has his visiting Tawny who sits in the tree above his mews/aviary and annoys him most nights.

So basically its all going fab and we are having a great time!

[Sean]

well done :D

[Osiris]

Nice one BeebosMum. Bet your v.pleased! u should be!! got any photos of him??
How far is he flying free to you? What weight is he flying at now? :D

Jamie

[BeebosMum]

Nice one BeebosMum. Bet your v.pleased! u should be!! got any photos of him??
How far is he flying free to you? What weight is he flying at now? :D

Jamie

Thanks - I do have loads of pics - but no means unfortunately of getting them on the net as yet - my PC at work has had the USB connection deactivated and PC at home is so old you'd need a starting handle to get it going!

His weight varies - he works quite happily at between 3 pounds 15 ounces and 4 pounds 2 ounces, doesnt seem to affect him flyingtoo much, but to be honest he is a much happier bird at the 4 pounds mark. Before I let him off to fly free he was doing twice the length of the creance (hubby was holding it and standing midway so it gave us more distance to work with), he will do more than that if he is in the mood - but sometimes if something spooks him (like the buzzard) he is stuck to the post until you are a few feet away! I think personally its just a clever ruse to not have to fly too far for his grub!

His mews is looking great - we just finished the second coat of wood preserver (animal friendly of course) and the plastic roof on the aviary is finished as well so he has plenty of shelter. The way Ive done the doors on the mews is different, they are in 3 parts, 1 small door (1 third of front of mews), and the other part is hinged in the middle so it opens like a wardrobe door, which means I can either have it back against the mesh and folded on itself or opened out, which gives him even more protection against the wind. Having the small door means when I put him in at night if I need to go in for any reason Im not having to open the full front so he doesnt lose as much of any heat he has built up. We are putting in light (for my benefit in the winter!) and a heater - just a small ring type - enough to keep it above freezing inside but nothing he can get near to burn/hurt himself. Hubby is a sheet metal worker to trade - so he will cover in in a mesh to protect it.

So I guess thats him all sorted out! (I hope!)

[Graham Stuart]

hi there and welcome, take your pics to gigital photography shop or most supermarkets these days and get them put on a cd, then you can upload them...looing forward to seeing them.:rolleyes:

[Renton]

and a heater - just a small ring type - enough to keep it above freezing inside but nothing he can get near to burn/hurt himself.

It is really not worth bothering fitting a heater for an EEO, they survive very well in the wild in Scandinavia and average winter temperatures there are far lower than those in the UK.

[Boobook]

Great stuff!!

Now the nights are longer I am going to try to fly Boobook. Not looking forward to the first free flight though!

There will be lots of creance work first to get my courage up - note MY courage, not Boobook's ;)

[Tanith]

Great to follow your progress.

Well done.

[Tr1gger]

Its great 2 hear ur progress and keep us posted

[HunterPaul]

get the pix up...(demanding or what)....

[BeebosMum]

get the pix up...(demanding or what)....

No problem - any chance of you guys having a collection and getting me a new PC first? If I tried to load pics I think the damn thing would have a melt down! Its so slow it cant even get onto the internet without crashing and the one at work doesnt let you load any files onto it - they are scared of computer viruses.

Having great fun flying Beebo free, she (general opinion due to weight etc - not bothered myself) is quite the wee madam sometimes - wouldnt move her backside off the post last night until I pulled out a whole chick! So I think her weight needs to come down a tiny bit. Weather is awful here today so I dont know if I will get her out tonight but we will see.

[HunterPaul]

try Dell...not some geezer online..dell the computer place..they are doing some very good deals... glad to hear the birds flying well, but dont think youll get anybody to help with a new computer, in my experience falconers are as tight as a camels arse in a sand storm, me heading that and being the king of tight...lol

[Graham Stuart]

as the wise man says DELL will do a good comp for 300 quid, buy it forself for chrismas, cant wait to see your pics...well done:lol:

[BeebosMum]

try Dell...not some geezer online..dell the computer place..they are doing some very good deals... glad to hear the birds flying well, but dont think youll get anybody to help with a new computer, in my experience falconers are as tight as a camels arse in a sand storm, me heading that and being the king of tight...lol

Oooooh - saucer of milk there!

Had fun with her last night - decided to try something a bit different - bit of "pouncing" practice - took her a couple of tries to get the idea but once she did it was no problem. Had her jumping up to the glove from the ground as well. Little ****** gave me a fright at one point - I went to pick her up as I thought she'd got one of jesses tangled round her foot and she took off and headed down the field! Well I was so surprised as she has never done anything like that before! I did the only thing that came into my head - I whistled on her, no thought just a gut reaction, to my TOTAL relief she banked back round and came back to the post, I dont mind telling you I had a touch of the shakes when I picked her up. Still you expect the odd adrenalin surge when you do this sort of thing.........!

[Colohen]

:supz: Beebosmom
I would watch his weight a little closer!? You mentioned a 3 ounce differance, I'd try to narrow it inside an ounce one way or the other.
Renton's right , you dont really have to have the heater but it would be nice to have someting to brake the chill.:grin:

[BeebosMum]

:supz: Beebosmom
you dont really have to have the heater but it would be nice to have someting to brake the chill.:grin:

The heater we were thinking of wouldnt provide all that much - just enough to keep the temperature in the mews a few degrees above zero, I was just concerned with Beebo being such a young bird and it being her first winter outside, especially with everything Ive heard about it supposedly going to be a particularly cold winter this year. We definitely werent thinking about raising it to excessive temps in there just enough to take the edge off.

[Tr1gger]

Sounds like a very good idea to me especially when Beebos first winter is meant to be a bad one

[Osiris]

Yep BeebosMum - try and get a tubular heater or summit for mews / aviary... :D We sposed to have a bad winter - were i live its supposed to be the worst winter we've had in 15yrs and back then i am told it was horrific!! Might just let ma birds sleep wi me this time :D:D :lol:

[BeebosMum]

Yep BeebosMum - try and get a tubular heater or summit for mews / aviary... :D We sposed to have a bad winter - were i live its supposed to be the worst winter we've had in 15yrs and back then i am told it was horrific!! Might just let ma birds sleep wi me this time :D:D :lol:

Yes - thats what Id heard - thats why I thought a heater was an idea, dont want to lose my girl, mind you if it really gets bad I will be bringing her in at night and she will go in the pen I had for her when she was younger, even if I have to turn the heating right down and open a window so the room isnt too warm - Id rather do that than risk her outside if the temperatures really plummet. I know her wild relatives handle very cold temps in their own habitat but she isnt a wild bird and isnt used to those sort of extremes.

On a plus point Im quite looking forward to taking her out flying on nice cold clear frosty days! Got to be better than all the blasted rain we've had lately!