Patience

I've had several requests for "updates"...not much to say though, I've only had the bird for 4 days!!

I'm as anxious to get out there and slay some starlings as anyone but this is going to be a slow process. I'm bringing the bird's weight up for awhile so that I can properly gauge response on the way back down. It's sort of like tuning a violin when you can't quite tell if the note you're hearing is sharp or flat so you purposely loosen the string so far you know it's flat and work your way back up. My "training" sessions at the moment consist of feeding the bird on the lure and then having it jump to my fist for one more tidbit. Not all that exciting.

I'll keep doing this until she pretty much stops responding, meaning when I show her the lure with a big ol' chunk of starling breast on it and she doesn't want it I'll know I'm there. That could be a few days yet. Then the process of re-training begins. Since she's already familiar with the basics I imagine things will go fairly quickly. For example, I won't have to worry about convincing her to jump to my fist like I would a bird fresh off the trap. Instead what I'll be watching for is how fast she responds as I gradually lower her weight. What I want to see is an instant reaction to the lure or my glove and once I figure out at what weight I get that response then we'll head out hunting. How long will that take? I have no idea.

Until then (whenever "then" is) however, I'm afraid any updates would just consist of: I fed the bird again today.

Patience my friends, patience.