1st's

Yesterday was the first day of the duck season in eastern Oklahoma, my new Hybrid caught the first duck of the year, and it was this bird's first duck ever.  After coaxing from my apprentice and another falconer friend I decided to fly even though I wasn't expecting much.  It wasn't a text book flight or ideal flying conditions with high winds and upper 60's but worked out all the same.

After bumping a duck off the first pond we checked by accident, things were not looking good as we scouted the next 1/2 dozen ponds.  We finally did find a group of Mallards and Gadwalls on the last pond we checked.  I figured what the hell, if nothing else I'll have the bird flown and we can move on to other things.  So after checking telemetry, the bird was unhooded and he was off.  He began to climb as he has now been brainwashed to do from weeks of flying up 1500' feet to the bait underneath the kite.  The bird was several hundred yards down wind and climbing when the ducks flushed before we had even pressured them.  The falcon had climbed maybe 500', if I'm being generous, at this point and turned into the wind with a long drawn out stoop.  From our angle the bird didn't even appear to be losing altitude.  But it was obvious that he was when the ducks turned cross wind facing the sun.  In the final seconds the drawn out stoop turned into a full on stoop and a drake Gadwall was the target.  The impact resulted in a power-bind and both birds plummeted out of the sky.  With the warm weather, high winds, inexperienced bird, fairly large pond, ducks flushing with the falcon out of position, and low pitch I naturally thought that the flight was a bust, but my brain only lagged a little before I was sprinting across the dam wall of the pond to assist my bird with the largest thing he had ever caught.

Gyr/Peregrine Hybrids are mutant superfalcons, there is no way that should have ended in a catch.  All the same, duck #1 in the bag.  Off to a good start, but this is a baby bird and I foresee several days of a falcon stooping ducks that are still on the water.  Gotta start somewhere...

Bird ID?

While patiently waiting for the duck season to open in my part of Oklahoma I have done a little trapping to help pass the time.  This past weekend I came across a very dark colored bird on a power pole just east of where I was working in Woodward that I assumed was a dark morph Red-tailed Hawk.   After bumping the bird I saw that it did not have a red tail and it just so happened that I had a trap in my truck.  After some scrambling to get it everything together, I managed to trap this bird.  Definitely a dark, dark bird but I was puzzled by this bird's markings.  It didnt really fit what I would call a dark morph Red-tail, or a Harlan's, or a dark morph Swainson's Hawk, but I had narrowed it down to these three birds.

 The bird was Red-tail shaped and was an adult, but it lacked the any amount of red on it's tail tail, thus eliminating the dark morph Red-tailed Hawk from my options.  It also lacked the rufous coloring under its wings, lacked the light undertail coverts, the tail was too long, and it was very late in the year for it to be a dark morph Swainsons, but I hadn't ruled this species out at this point.  In fact I was still leaning toward it.  I didn't think that it was a Harlan's either, because of the multiple bars on it's tail and the lack of any white speckling on the bird's breast.  So in the end I took some pictures of the bird and released it back out on it's merry way.

Upon further review with some very experienced biologists at the Sutton Center, we found the answer in the book "A Photographic Guide to North American Raptors," by Brian Wheeler and William Clark.  On page 87, bottom right corner, there is a photo matching the bird that I trapped.  An adult Harlan's Hawk, that just so happens to lack the white breast coloring and also has a matching wide sub-terminal band.  The weekend mystery has been solved.  An awesome looking bird and a great experience, too bad it wasn't a passage hawk....

Weekend Trapping

This past weekend was my wife's fall break, and with grandma in town to watch the kids, Katie and I decided to go camping with the intent of trying to trap a passage Peregrine in Oklahoma.  We headed down to a wetland area in southwestern Oklahoma where we had heard of several sightings over the past couple of weeks and set up camp.  The campsite had an interesting old barn on the edge of the property complete with its own Great Horned Owl who would have happily eaten my Hybrid right off his block if given half a chance.

After getting settled in we took a drive around to get feel for the area.  There were mainly flooded fields around that held many shorebirds and waterfowl.  The amount of ducks was unbelivable.  There were so many that the bass from the beating of the birds wings after they were flushed made my bones vibrate.

We ended up having pretty warm weather during the day and it looked like the Peregrines that had been there the week before had moved on to Texas.  We did, however, see many morphs of Red-tailed Hawks, Coopers Hawks, Kestrels, Harriers, Merlins, and Prairie Falcons, one of which we trapped.  It was a really nice looking bird but upon further consideration I decided that I did not have the time to start another bird this year.  It just so happened that a boyscout group was visiting this area at the time and after talking to them about falconry for a few minutes, I let them have a real close look at her before I turned her loose.  Even without seeing any Peregrines and getting a flat tire the last morning we were there, we had a great time seeing another part of Oklahoma.  You can bet I'll be back there next year, but maybe a couple of weeks earlier.

For some reason RC Cola is everywhere in southwestern Oklahoma.  *aside* not too bad

Me scoping power poles for Peregrines from a lookout tower.  This tower had raptor pellets on it and there was a coot head on the deck.

Mainly Pintail and Blue Winged Teal flushing off the water.

Coots and about every duck species found in Oklahoma.

Picking up trapped Prairie Falcon

My wife bravely holding a mean little bird.

She got the pointer's approval...

Looking good on a block approval...

But not mine in the end. So back to the wild with her.

The fun finale.

Disappearing Pigeons

It's easy to tell when a Cooper's Hawk is visiting my pigeon loft, the pigeons disappear for a while. Sunday afternoon I let out my pigs, secretly hoping my flock might get thinned a little by natural means. It is not uncommon for Coops to show up around my house in the winter and feast on my weaker birds but I'm surprised it took this long considering there is a nest in very close proximity to my home. I went back out to feed the pigeons later in the afternoon and noticed that they were nowhere in sight. This almost always means Cooper's Hawk. Sure enough I look over in my neighbor's yard and there he is munching on a YND (young and dumb: what I call inexperienced birds). He hadn't even broken in yet so I bumped him off and put the pigeon in my hawking bag to use for food for my bird. I did pay for the pigeon's food so should at least get my money's worth.

Forty-five minutes later I see some of the birds start coming back so I go near my loft to watch them fly for a bit. I must have made them feel safe because they came dropping in like rocks onto the loft roof and scrambled back through the trap just as fast as they could. Then WHAP! Another one gets nailed on the roof of my shed not 10 feet from me! The hawk sees me standing there and quickly lets go of his catch allowing this pigeon to fly away. I'm thinking "man this is one brave hawk." So I set up a trap that had been lent to me by a falconer friend to try my luck with. It is kind of a hybrid Swedish Gos trap crossed with a bow net and it triggers itself (I'm not gonna put picks of hawk traps on a public forum, sorry). Not ten minutes later I see my dog looking up at the top of the shed and sure enough there was a Cooper's Hawk securely caught inside!

I temporarily brought the hawk inside to get a few pictures.

A look at his front.

A look at his back.

From the coloring on can tell that this bird is a "tweener." He is molting from his juvenile plumage into his adult plumage. Quite a bit of brown feathers mixed with gray and about 1/2 of his tail and primary feathers were moulted into his mature feathers. Also his eyes were an orange color, about 1/2 way transformed from yellow to red. After a few pictures, I hooded and socked the bird and transferred him to a nice riparian area about 20 miles south of town. I figure that this is a migrating Cooper's Hawk so hopefully he'll continue on his merry way down through Tulsa; terrorizing pigeons as he goes. And I'll be ready for the next Coop that comes my way.

Beginners Luck?

Not much has changed in my falconry yet. I'm still just kiting and training until the ducks come in and the season opens. My apprentice, Daniel, however just got his first head of game and became a falconer today instead of just a falconeer. The best part of this is that it was only his bird's third day off the creance and the first time we really hawked her. I'm sure he'll tell it best on his blog. Check it out: Dan's Blog

Here are a couple of pictures until he gets his account of the events up.

"Delicious" and her first rabbit

Perfect trade-off

Happy Falconer

Beautiful evening....

Congratulations Daniel!

Peregrine Falcon

The first legal Peregrine Falcon take for falconry in 30+ years opens this Sunday in Oklahoma. The Peregrine had been the poster child of successful reintroduction efforts through the years and much of this was spearheaded by falconers. Peregrine numbers in much of the U.S. had dropped severely low due to the use of DDT, but recovered enough through the reintroduction process to be taken off the endangered species list in 1999.

Last night I got to thinking about the role that I played in the effort. It was a very small role; as a teenager I volunteered with the Peregrine Fund's project monitoring captive

raised juvenile Peregrine Falcons that were released in the downtown area of my home town, Fort Wayne, In.

For most of the summer I could be found, along with my brother, binoculars in hand watching these newbies take their first flights, make their first kills, and keep an eye on them for their own general well being. Peregrines traditionally nest on the sides of cliffs and coincidentally buildings are very much like a rock face to a falcon, coupled with the convenient food source, pigeons, cities make a good home for the birds. But cities are also more dangerous. A bird in the wild that goes to the ground has to be wary of predators but city falcons also have the added danger of traffic. Also several of the birds crashed into reflective windows where the falcons only saw the sky in until they were to close to stop. With the exception of a few birds, the majority had little problems living in the city and became very good at being wild.

We used this sheet identify the birds .

The wings were painted in a certain way that

allowed us to identify them from a distance.

Overall, the project was a huge success in the United States and elsewhere. It only took three years after their release for Peregrine Falcons to nest in Fort Wayne for the first time and they continue to nest there today, 13years later. That summer was one of the most memorable I have had. After that summer, falconry had me hooked.

Oklahoma Peregrine Take

Peregrine take regulations should be posted on the Wildlife Department's website. It can be found under Hunting, then Seasons and other Information, then Peregrine. The procedure for trapping should work as OFA had hoped. That is general and master falconers may trap. There will be a number to call to be certain the season is open. The season is open from September 20 until October 20th or until the first 2 birds are trapped. Rod Smith (ODWC Falconry Coordinator) has the bands and I am not sure how that part will be handled. Rod wants to take a wait and see approach as far as how to handle the season in subsequent years. Nonresident trapping in Oklahoma is under statute. The statute reads "Nonresident general and master falconers will be allowed to take legal raptors in Oklahoma provided that their state of residence reciprocates such approval for Oklahoma residents." Rod interprets this to mean that if an Oklahoma falconer may trap a Peregrine in another state (i.e. Texas), than a Texas falconer may trap a Peregrine in Oklahoma. Theoretically, both of the available birds may be trapped by nonresidents, unless we seek a legislative change.

The regulation changes are progressing along. The department has made their official request to USFWS for the changes. USFWS now needs to accept ODWC regulations. Once that is done the USFWS will publish a comment in the public register. If all goes as planned we will have new regs Jan. 1.

The Peregrine take issue hit a major roadblock a few weeks ago. Rod Smith, Alan Peoples, Steve Sherrod, and David Riggs (Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Commissioner for NE Oklahoma) all deserve a big thank you for making this happen. Without the work of these folks this take would not have happened in 2009. As all of you know this process started over 20 years ago, and many people worked hard to make this happen. Hopefully, we will see a passage Peregrine on an Okie Falconers fist this season!

*Note- this and all other posted regulation information in blue text is from Dave Eslicker who has worked hard on our Oklahoma falconry regulations, Peregrine take, and on the NAFA TAC committee* -Ryan