Buzzard trapping plan abandoned as government U-turns again

It’s summer! Which means it’s the slow season in hawkery and not much is going on that is relevant to this blog. However, I do have some news, some birdcams, and some updates on previous information.

To start with a little birdcam action, the Peregrine Fund’s Peregrine Cam is in full swing in downtown Boise, Idaho. The chicks are supposed to pip at any time now and you won’t want to miss that. http://www.peregrinefund.org/subsites/webcam-peregrine/

Additionally, the P-Fund is running a kestrel cam out of a box at their headquarters and we’ve got babies for you to watch ALL DAY LONG. Fluffy little bandwidth hogs. http://kestrel.peregrinefund.org/webcams

On a sadder note, my dad has told me that the kestrel nest boxes we put up near the house have been abandoned. One was abandoned with eggs in the nest and Azula has not been seen in some time. All the kestrel pairs in the area have flown the coop, I’m afraid. We’re not sure what happened to chase them away, but Dad has made sure to send in his data to the scientist studying the kestrel decline. Hopefully, in a few years, a narrative will be come out and we’ll be able to work to prevent such a loss again.

In news, I’m happy to announce that I’ve secured a two month job later this summer hacking out aplomado falcons. I’ll be spending my days in Southern Texas, baking in the heat and humidity while feeding juvenile falcons and helping to usher them into a life in the wild. I’m pretty excited about the whole thing and I hope to come back with some fantastic pictures for your enjoyment and delight. It’s going to be hard work and I’m very worried about my ability to tell the difference between individual falcons, but I intend to learn and give it my all. This is an incredible opportunity to work with wild birds and be a part of a great conservation story. Wish me luck.

Imani, Leif, and Azula together for the last time. Photo by Roxana Hegeman.

I cut my falconry season a bit short this year. The big reason is that at the beginning of March, I moved to Seattle, Washington. The day before starting the drive, I released Azula where I had originally trapped her, just a half mile from my parent’s house. We put up a nest box for her and my dad put up a second box for her a couple weeks later. It’s really for the best that Azula is back in the wild. I failed pretty badly with her, but she sure taught me a lot in the process. I hope to fly another kestrel this fall and attempt to do some urban hawking here in Seattle.

Removing Azula's equipment. Photo by Jed Carty.

Right now, I’m working on transferring my license and finding a Washington sponsor with experience flying kestrels. I’ve already joined the Washington Falconers’ Association and I’ll probably start meeting up with them during the summer picnic.

Azula is very touchy and must be cast to remove her equipment. Photo by Jed Carty.

The most recent news is that I heard from Dad today that he saw Azula with a little male as she flew out of the new nest box. He’s going to try to get a picture of her sitting at the box and with a lot of luck, she’ll bring off a nest there and he can track them through the summer. I helped the Kansas Hawking Club build 17 nest boxes for The Peregrine Fund’s American Kestrel project in the months before I left, so her nesting data will be going into their database.

One very unfortunate side effect of my move is that I had to leave Leif, my beloved puppy, behind in Kansas. My parents are taking good care of him, but I miss him a lot and I’m sorely disappointed that I won’t be hunting pheasant over him this fall. I had hoped to fly another Red-tail over him, but that’s not going to be possible as I no longer have access to facilities that can house a ‘Tail. These are the trade-offs I’ve accepted for a greater chance at finding gainful employment, though, so I can’t complain too hard. Until I do have space for a large dog and a ‘Tail, I’ll just have to be content with pictures of Leif exploding in size (he’s already the size of his mom) and a small falcon that can be housed in an apartment.

Which brings us to…NESTING SEASON! Once I shrug off some of the lazy, I’ll get a post up with links to some of the nestcams that are running this year. I know The P-Fund is running a kestrel one that is linked to from the Kestrel Project page I linked earlier, so that’ll get you started until then. Meantime, keep an eye out for birds in your own neighborhood. I promise they’re there!

Azula sits on a power line minutes after her release. Photo by Jed Carty.

Leif weighs 36 pounds!

Freshly trapped juvenile Red-tailed Hawks.

Dad, Tommy, and I were out trapping Red-tails the other day, looking for the perfect bird for a very discerning falconer (Tommy). We trapped two juvenile ‘Tails, both of which were very small males. One of them was only 840gms and had shock marks and a couple broken tail feathers. I suspect that he suffered some malnutrition in the nest and I’d be surprised if he lasted the winter. The other one we trapped was about 920gms and clearly sick. He had lesions in his mouth, so we packed him up and took him to the rehabber. On the way there, we also observed that he had watery green mutes with no fecal center. Eagle Valley Raptor Center took him in and after observing Ken Lockwood’s operation there, I know he’s in very good hands. I’ve had a link to his operation here for a long time, but after finally getting the chance to visit, I feel really good about that link. The whole facility was very well taken care of, his permanent resident birds were clearly well-trained and healthy, and he took a lot of care for his rehab birds, as well. We were very impressed and I encourage all of you to donate to keep Eagle Valley running and visit when you can. Tours are by appointment.

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So I lost Zuko on the 5th and on the 7th, I trapped a female kestrel. I have named her Azula and she is definitely living up to the name. Though a mere 1/9th the size, she is 9 times more dangerous to me than Zuko ever was. You see, she bites. She bites really, really hard. She’s gonna be a great bird.

I lost Zuko. It was too windy, but I put him up anyway. He went into a soar and disappeared.  I do not have telemetry.

Today was one of those hunting days where the weather was perfect, the ground looked good, the dog did everything right, the bird followed well and acted aggressively, and absolutely nothing got caught. This is why it’s called hunting.