More Trapping!

It's really not supposed to be this easy. Especially this early in the season when it's warm and birds are fat. But for whatever reason the falconry gods are smiling on us this year and things have just worked out.

After the typically long and drawn out process of obtaining a falconry license, my friend finally got what he needed on Thursday and we headed out bright and early on Saturday morning (well, maybe not "bright"...it was 5:30 a.m.). We were headed to an area quite a bit north of us and wanted to be there before the sun came up so we could find birds before they'd had breakfast. As the sun peaked over the horizon we decided to pull off the highway and start cruising the back roads to see what we could find. It wasn't long before I spotted a bird sitting low on some farm equipment overlooking a field.

It was about 50 yards out and just starting to get light so we couldn't be positive but it looked to be a first year red-tail so we dropped the trap. We backed up about a hundred yards and trained the binoculars on the bird. We were debating on whether or not it could see the trap when it launched...It headed toward the trap but just kept flying...and flying, and flying. Into a large tree another 200 yards away!

We took a right at the next intersection and headed the direction of the tree but there was no road next to the tree and another set for that bird was improbable so we just kept driving. It wasn't more than a hundred more yards over a slight rise when I spotted another bird sitting on a pole on the left side of the road. Again, it looked like a passage bird so we dropped the trap and turned around a hundred yards away.

I focused the binoculars on the bird on the pole again when my buddy suddenly says, "There's another bird! And I think it just came from the trap!" I glanced away from the binoculars in time to see a bird pitch up to a telephone pole directly above the trap. It had come from the same direction we'd just come from but we're not sure where exactly it had been. Was it the first bird we'd seen coming from the tree quite a ways away or was it another bird that we'd just not seen? Either way, we were counting our lucky stars that we now had a bird that was clearly interested in our trap sitting right above it. It seemed like a while but I'm sure it wasn't more than a couple minutes before the bird dropped right on to the trap!

We slowly crept up toward the trap since we couldn't quite tell if he was caught. He hopped around for a minute or so before we saw the tell tale flop and we knew we had him! As we drove up we could see we only had him by a toe so rather than take pictures of him on the trap we hurriedly gathered him up and got him back to the car. Passage male red-tail, exactly what we were after.

It was only 7:30.

We both kinda looked at each other and I said, "You wanna keep trapping?" He said, "No reason really..." So we headed home to jess up his new bird:

Two days after he gets his license he's got his first bird. He must be doing something right! 1078g with the sock and the hood. Started regaining the fist on its own the first night. It's gonna be a fun season!

Banding Report

I mentioned how I called the banding office after trapping that bird with a band last Saturday and was told I had an incomplete band number. Well I spoke with the individual in charge of making those reports and after a bit of discussion and some pure luck (the picture I took of the band on the leg is at the perfect angle to see the second to last number, and apparently if you know what the bands look like you can kinda guess what the last number is), we got the complete number and some info on the bird.

Got this via email today, kinda cool:

5 years for a kestrel ain't too shabby! Fun to have a bit of history on a bird you randomly pluck from the sky.

Let The Games Begin!

Trapping season is officially underway in Colorado. I was up at first light on Saturday with BC's ready to go and I was on the lookout for kestrels. It turned out to be one of the best days of trapping I've ever had!

Right off the bat, two kestrels sitting near each other, we toss the trap and:

Passage female! And it wasn't even 8:00 yet!

We forged on and made a somewhat long distance set on another bird. A fly by at first and then a bit more commitment and we had our second bird of the day! This one turned out to be a male hag. The cool thing was, it was banded!

I recorded the band number and made the call later in the day but they said the number was incomplete...Doh! I was referred to an authority on "partial" band numbers and left her a message but with the long weekend ahead I probably won't hear back for awhile. Bummer, it would be cool to get some history on a bird I trapped! The band actually had Laurel, MD written on it but I suspect that's where the band was manufactured rather than where the bird came from. A kestrel flying cross country east to west just doesn't make much sense to me but who knows. I hope the lady calls me back.

Moving along, we came upon a family group. 4 kestrels within 100 yards of each other, 3 of them sitting on the same pole at one point! We got a drop on them but as we passed the two we were after bumped to a telephone pole over a small rise near a railroad track (that's where they were joined by the 3rd from somewhere). The new location didn't offer a very good opportunity to set as there wasn't a road on the side of the tracks nearest them. We figured our original drop was a decent place though so we had one of the members of our team get out of the car and walk toward them. Sure enough, all 3 bumped BACK TOWARD THE TRAP and less than a minute later we had a passage male on the trap!! I was so amazed I forgot to take pictures! We couldn't miss today!

Onward, ever onward, we spotted a bird high on a telephone pole and made the drop on the corner of a dirt road intersection. It wasn't long before the bird dropped off to say hi to our BC mouse (we used the same mouse all day, he was used to this by now...). #4 was another male hag:

Shortly after that we were cruising down yet another dirt road and I happen to spot a bird on a wire right as we passed. The trap was tossed almost as an after thought as it seemed I barely had time to tap on the brake. She was on the trap before we turned around. We debated on whether or not she was a passage or a hag. I was arguing for the latter due to a wider last band on the tail and closer inspection revealed a still moulting tail feather and confirmed my suspicions. #5, a female hag:

A wrong turn took us pretty far out of kestrel country and we hit a slump after that. Mind you we'd been at it only a few hours at that point but with afternoon appointments looming we decided we'd had enough fun for the morning and headed home. 5 kestrels in about 4 hours ain't too shabby!

Soooo, did I keep one? Keep an eye on this space for more adventures to follow...

Warning: Nature Ahead

Chad over at Southern Rockies Nature Blog posted this sign he saw on a trip to Vermont:

Not sure what to make of it...A part of me understands the "keep an eye on your kids, there are dangers about" part of it, but the wording irks me a bit. "Nature" down this path? Hmmm...thoughts?

In other news, the countdown widget at the top of my blog has served it's purpose and been removed. Trapping starts bright and early tomorrow morning. Kestrel for me, red-tail for my buddy, and possibly a cooper's hawk for another friend. Should be fun. Watch this space, should be much more active in the coming weeks!

Single Digits!

The widget at the top of my blog is officially in single digits. Trapping season is literally right around the corner!!

As for the check list:

Food? Check!

New Traps? Check!

New Nooses on Old Traps? Maybe tonight...

Bait? One sparrow so far in my trap and last weekend was the State club's annual picnic where I made connections with a couple people with pigeon coops who say their places are almost infested. So I'm sure we'll have plenty. Throw in a few pet store feeder mice and we'll have our bases covered.

New Indoor Perch? Materials have been priced but it'll have to wait until payday. Shouldn't take me long to put together.

Clean Out Mews? Not yet, but since that's where all my old traps are, it may be another thing to tackle tonight or at the latest, this weekend.

Get Miscellaneous Gear In Order? Check, for the most part. A member of another forum I'm on let me in on this brilliant, (if not rather obvious, duh!) piece of advice: Falconers only used left-handed gloves but they usually come in pairs...turn the right-handed glove inside out and presto, left-handed glove! So I've even got a couple of new gloves for the season!

I've been eying the local starlings every morning and thinking, "I'll be coming for you soon..." Next entry will hopefully (barring any especially exciting news between now and then...) be about trapping adventures and possibly about my new charge for the season!

I'm giddy, this is better than Christmas I tell ya!

So Much To Do And...

...So little time?

While I diligently check the widget at the top of my blog just about every day (in fact, I have a friend who will ask me every time he sees me, "How many days til trapping season?" because he knows I'll have the correct answer), it just hit me yesterday that I have a lot to do to get ready for the upcoming season and the time to have it all done is quickly approaching!

Stuff I have to do has been rolling around in the back of my head for quite awhile now:

Stock up on bird food (Check! Yesterday I picked up enough starlings to last me at least until a new kestrel is hunting, if not the entire season.)

Build a new trap (a new style I haven't tried before, just for kicks and giggles)

Tie new nooses on my old traps (I know they work)

Set out my sparrow traps (gotta have bait)

Clean out the mews (gets used mainly for storage in the off season)

Build a new indoor perch (we'll chat about that later, honey!)

Get all my other miscellaneous gear in order (Glove, leash, jesses, anklets, etc...)

I dunno, putting it in list form makes it seem less intimidating but it's a lot of small projects that are going to take up a bunch of time. Time well worth the effort however as I am really looking forward to this season (as I do EVERY season). A lot to look forward to this year, one of my good friends just got his license and will be trapping and training his first red-tail, I should be getting my upgrade to General at some point (after 15 years!), and there's a possibility that a significant life changing opportunity that I've been working on for a while will come to fruition during the season and mix things up as well...

Can't wait!

Yo-Yo's for Troops

It's been a busy summer with conferences and road trips and unfortunately not a whole lot of falconry related activities so the posting has been scarce but an internet acquaintance of mine who is over in Afghanistan right now asked me to post this. It's a worthy project so participate if you get a chance!

The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles: Yo-Yo's for Troops

Thanks to these folks for allowing me to be able to be excited about trapping season that starts in 38 days!