... Medium-sized shortwing?
Wow, once again, I fail. I'm so sorry, guys, I meant to update this forever ago.
So, I am no longer flying a species that suits the name of this journal, haha. But that is okay! tinylongwing is still where I will post falconry stuff. Who knows, I may fly another one someday. But at the end of October I trapped a passage female Cooper's hawk, who I named Pele, thanks to Angela's suggestion (Pele is the Hawaiian goddess of fire, lightning, wind, and volcanoes, which makes her an extremely suitable namesake for an accipiter!). She's quite the character, all right. Never before, not even when I worked with all kinds of species at the zoo, have I handled a bird that thinks I should be far more afraid of her than she is of me. If she thinks I haven't fed her enough, she will spread out her wings and lunge at me as if trying to intimidate me into giving her more food. She is certainly nothing like one of my friendly little kestrels! She tolerates my presence (poorly), hates pretty much everyone else, and would gladly eat all of us if she was just a little bit bigger, I think.
Taken the day after she was trapped. She lives on a cool table perch in a corner of the main room in my apartment. For the first three or so weeks, she was kept hooded almost all the time, with it only coming off around times when food was involved, to keep her calm and also to help her learn quickly that I am a good person because I give her food.
After two weeks of training indoors, it was time to do some work on the creance outdoors. It has been extremely windy here lately, so that was a bit of a challenge for both of us, but she was a good sport about it.
Nobody ever said Cooper's hawks were sane.
But at least they are focused.
Finally, she was ready to go out hunting today. We went to a field suggested to me by a local falconer who also flies a Cooper's. After walking around for about half an hour, though, we couldn't find any sparrows in the field. I guess I can't blame them for hiding. I wanted to give her a good learning experience and get her to catch something, though, so I released a house sparrow for her, which she caught easily. Coopers are freaking fast! It was over in seconds, so I went over and handed her a few tidbits, and she hopped up onto my glove and proceeded to plume and eat the sparrow. I, of course, am a consistent failure when it comes to remembering to bring my camera, so all I had was the crappy one on my phone.
That gray-brown lump in her feet is a bird. Just believe me.
So, overall, today was a successful day! Now we just have to get back out there tomorrow and catch a wild bird. :)
Oh, and we met a nice local cyclist dude, who thought she was pretty awesome. Apparently he had seen something about Coopers on PBS. Yes, that's right, there are people in Arkansas who ride bicycles and watch PBS. This state is not 100% backwards!
So, I am no longer flying a species that suits the name of this journal, haha. But that is okay! tinylongwing is still where I will post falconry stuff. Who knows, I may fly another one someday. But at the end of October I trapped a passage female Cooper's hawk, who I named Pele, thanks to Angela's suggestion (Pele is the Hawaiian goddess of fire, lightning, wind, and volcanoes, which makes her an extremely suitable namesake for an accipiter!). She's quite the character, all right. Never before, not even when I worked with all kinds of species at the zoo, have I handled a bird that thinks I should be far more afraid of her than she is of me. If she thinks I haven't fed her enough, she will spread out her wings and lunge at me as if trying to intimidate me into giving her more food. She is certainly nothing like one of my friendly little kestrels! She tolerates my presence (poorly), hates pretty much everyone else, and would gladly eat all of us if she was just a little bit bigger, I think.
Taken the day after she was trapped. She lives on a cool table perch in a corner of the main room in my apartment. For the first three or so weeks, she was kept hooded almost all the time, with it only coming off around times when food was involved, to keep her calm and also to help her learn quickly that I am a good person because I give her food.
After two weeks of training indoors, it was time to do some work on the creance outdoors. It has been extremely windy here lately, so that was a bit of a challenge for both of us, but she was a good sport about it.
Nobody ever said Cooper's hawks were sane.
But at least they are focused.
Finally, she was ready to go out hunting today. We went to a field suggested to me by a local falconer who also flies a Cooper's. After walking around for about half an hour, though, we couldn't find any sparrows in the field. I guess I can't blame them for hiding. I wanted to give her a good learning experience and get her to catch something, though, so I released a house sparrow for her, which she caught easily. Coopers are freaking fast! It was over in seconds, so I went over and handed her a few tidbits, and she hopped up onto my glove and proceeded to plume and eat the sparrow. I, of course, am a consistent failure when it comes to remembering to bring my camera, so all I had was the crappy one on my phone.
That gray-brown lump in her feet is a bird. Just believe me.
So, overall, today was a successful day! Now we just have to get back out there tomorrow and catch a wild bird. :)
Oh, and we met a nice local cyclist dude, who thought she was pretty awesome. Apparently he had seen something about Coopers on PBS. Yes, that's right, there are people in Arkansas who ride bicycles and watch PBS. This state is not 100% backwards!