Upward Mobility

The hawk has been feeling her wings the past couple of days.  Yesterday she had her first real flight.  She went about 30 yards across the driveway to sit above my truck and beg for a few minutes.  Today she is riding high on confidence and is beginning to venture all round the property.  Including the discovery of the bubbler.  I suspect that we won't be seeing the dozens of goldfinches and other songbirds that frequently visit this water feature nearly as much in the next several weeks.

Sitting on the bubbler edge after a bath (picture taken through a window).

Today she is 36 days old if I remember right.  The third black band on her tail is complete so she is nearing the point where she will be hard penned.  Currently I pick her up and weight her each morning from her block in the house.  Then I get the lure garnished with a whole sparrow, put on her telemetry and head off to work.  When I get there I toss out the lure and let her eat on the ground with me around until she is finished.  Then I just go about my business and let her do what she wants.  Most of her mornings have been initially spent soaking up the sun followed by a bath in the late morning.  Then she has been bouncing around from tree to tree until about 4:00 pm or so.  At which time she starts looking for me to be fed again. 

Closeup of "Rainbow" on the water feature.

When it's time to head home, I have been just tossing out the lure or offering a baggie and she comes right down.  I put on a tail saver and her equipment while she calmed down and is eating.  When she's done I just pick her up and home we go, where she has been doing well tethered to a floor block.  Then we do it all over again the next day.

The hack has been pretty fun and educational so far for me.  I do worry about other predators and window collisions a lot but it seems that the rewards outweigh the risks so far.  *Knock on wood*