After the arrival of our great horned owl on Friday evening, I had no time to stop and ponder how great it is to have birds in our mews. I would be leaving first thing Saturday morning for a trip down through Colorado to pick up more birds.
I am lucky to have a friend who offered to drive into New Mexico and pick up birds for me. Can’t turn down an offer to shave 360 miles off a trip, right? So, I contacted the folks holding the red-tailed hawk and the peregrine falcon and told them I had transport available on Sunday if they could meet in Raton, New Mexico. The falcon was ready and would have her health certificate done the next day. They would meet in Raton at noon. The hawk, unfortunately, would not be making that date. The vet for Talking Talons wasn’t able to get him in for his health certificate until Monday morning.
At this point I decided that if I’m going to drive 600 miles down to Colorado Springs on Sunday, I might as well stay and drive another 160 miles on Monday to get the hawk too. No point in making another trip down later. We got it arranged and were set to meet and transfer the hawk on Monday.
After spending a very short amount of time relaxing in Casper, I headed to Colorado Springs and my friends’ house Sunday morning. The transfer of the peregrine falcon went smoothly. She is a big, beautiful girl! My friend has several years of raptor handling experience so she helped me get the falcon fitted with her ankelts and jesses (a system similar to a collar and leash on a dog, but going around legs instead of the neck). We also trimmed her beak back as it was a bit overgrown.
The real test was coming. Would she stand on the glove for me? Falcons are relatively high-strung animals and some take a while to get used to people. I was ecstatic when, after only a couple of minutes and a few bates (attempts to fly away), she was standing on the glove. In no time at all she was even correcting how she was standing to make herself more comfortable. I was so impressed!
I decided to offer her dinner on the glove. One way to bond with a wild animal is to feed them. Once they accept that you are not a threat, they will eat in your presence. I was not expecting her to eat on the glove that night. She had just had scary things done to her and she has been at a rehabilitation facility for months. In her mind, people are those beings that grab you when you are unable to fly and wrap your wing up in weird material and make you take medicine. For her to trust me the first evening would be amazing!
To my surprise, however, she was very interested in the quail I offered her. She knew exactly what it was…and she wanted it! The problem was, I was holding it. Several times she would look down at the food then look at me. She couldn’t decide if I was trustworthy. After standing on the glove for the very first time in her life for about 20 minutes, I put her back in the travel box so that she could enjoy her dinner. She wasted no time in grabbing and devouring it!
