First free flight!

A success!
Callan and I met up this morning, north of Creswell in a field near the area where Arion was trapped last year. The weather was gray and cloudy but with light winds, and only the occasional half-hearted drizzle... in other words, perfect Oregon mixie-habitat.

I'd checked her condition and weighed her first thing in the morning and she was weighing about 20g heavy--fine for creance work but a shade heavy for an early free-flight, so we waited a couple hours and met up a little later than we'd planned. We got out to the training fields and set her up on the creance line, pressing into service the roof of my car for lack of a handy field perch... so that's my own beloved Honda you see in the background. I flew her once on the creance just to test her glove response; she was fine, if a little slow to respond. In more distracting surroundings we'd have waited another day, taking her weight down another 10g or so; on these wide-open fields there's little danger of her striking out for the next county, so at that point we took her off the creance, removed the hardware from her jesses, and, with a moment of quiet internal panic, I called her to the glove from about 200ft out. After a moment's hesitation, she came to me and all was right with the world:


Look closely, that's her wayyyyy down there, just above the horizon and to the left of the car. Here's a closer-cropped version of the same image:



Hooray!
We flew her a small handful of times, and though her glove response was fine, it wasn't as sharp as we'd have liked, so we called it a day with a throw of the rabbit lure.

As I'd mentioned earlier, it's important to introduce her to a rabbit so that she gets the connection between bouncing bunny and her noonday meal, as many young hawks may never have caught a rabbit and may not immediately recognize them as quarry. This step isn't strictly necessary, but it saves quite a bit of time and frustration for both of you when you're both after the same prey. Chris Fox was kind enough to provide me with a (frozen/thawed) eastern cottontail the other day which we threw for her in the yard for the first time. She immediately leapt from the training perch, showing a very encouraging aggression though she sort of footed it from afar. It was clear she knew there was food to be had, though I'm not sure she's terribly confident about the mechanics of the strike and hold. It makes me think she's eaten rabbit before, though not actually participated in the catching--perhaps as an eyass or early fledgeling.

The next day we took her out to a training field; I held her on the glove while Chris set up our "volunteer" in a clump of grass in a ditch. When he was ready, I turned and walked with her on the gauntlet toward him. As we got within about five yards, he took off, dragging the lure up out of the ditch and into the field. She launched herself off the glove and nabbed it, in a fair simulation of "hunting off the glove", where they're launched from the gauntlet in pursuit of close ground quarry. This time she was a bit more confident with her footing, and as before we let her break in and eat a fair crop full in order to "wed" her to cottontail rabbits.

Anyway, we wrapped up today's session with a drag of the bunny lure, wherein she accidentally spotted it before it was quite thrown properly and Callan and I both had to make a fast dodge to avoid a speeding flurry of wings and talons (yikes!). Although a bit disconcerting to have to scatter so unceremoniously, it's an awesome sign: she's clearly quite sure she wants that bunny (hooray!).
It was a good session, no doubt. At some point, Callan managed to grab this great shot of fast-incoming artillery:


Right about the time we wrapped up with the bunny, Callan's husband Burt showed up with his birds, Magic the gyrfalcon and Stormy, a juvenile peregrine falcon. With the recent de-listing of the peregrine as an endangered species, an extremely small number of peregrine capture permits were issued in Oregon (the first state to open peregrine take) and Stormy is one of the first wild-trapped peregrine falcons in the country being trained for falconry purposes. It's all very exciting!

Here you see Magic, the gyrfalcon, on the left, with Stormy the pere on the right, both hooded. Incidentally, I am way jealous of Burt's rockin' falconry rig. That perch is permanently affixed on rollers along the side window; you can open the side window for air or access, or roll out the perch as in the photo. Slick!


Seeing a hawk wag their tail makes me smile every single time =).

Longwings are trained a little differently than broadwing hawks; part of their flight training involves stooping to a baited kite for the purposes of teaching them to seek elevation and stoop to their prey. Peregrines are famous for high-speed stooping, having been clocked at upwards of 250mph in free-fall. Watching these birds work is something pretty special, they put on a high-speed aerial display of the most incredible kind. Here's Burt lofting the kite in preparation for Stormy's flight:


After the kite flight he did some lure training. For Gaia, we drag the lure on the ground to simulate the action of a running cottontail. With birds being trained for feathered prey the lure is swung in a varying orbit; the bird makes a series of fast stoops and dives in an effort to make contact. Stormy's moving so fast all you see is a feathered blur:


Gaia is wicked fast on the strike, but in comparison to the pere on the wing it's like seeing a lion next to a cheetah; brawn vs. blur.


Lure training wraps up with a nice, fat hunk o'quail:


At that point the light was starting to fail, so we were treated to one quick shot by Magic over the kite. These are about the only good photos I got; there really wasn't enough light to get much on the flight itself:

In case you're wondering, those widgets poking out are radio telemetry antennae--bird-locating equipment. In the event he gets lost you can turn on a receiver which picks up a signal within a certain distance.

So, that's my story. We did well today. With this nice showing, Gaia and I will out for our first training hunt in the morning. I'll try to edge her weight down another 10-20g tonight to sharpen her glove response, so keep your fingers crossed for sub-freezing temps tonight and hordes of bunnies in Corvallis!