That Time of Year.

The past couple of weeks my apprentice and I have been watching a few nests in our free time.

Red-tailed Hawk Nest

One of the Cooper's Hawk nests.

Kestrel box with a day old chick in it and the other egg was pipped.

Great Grouse Video

Sharp-tailed Grouse Lek in Snow (HD) from Dawson Dunning on Vimeo.

This is a great video showing Sharp-tailed Grouse booming.  I often show videos of Lesser Prairie Chickens booming in our programs and ask the students, "where do you think this bird is found?"  Nine times out of ten they respond "Africa" and then are shocked to find out that these birds can be found in Oklahoma.  "Not all animals with interesting displays and behaviors are found on other continents," I have to tell them. I guess it is a matter of realizing what you've got while you've still got it.

Best Pics from the 2009-2010 Season in No Particular order

Chaney and Merlin, Myself, Raul, and a few Arkansas Falconers

First Double with the Gyr and Hybrid



Kestrel and stripe headed Starling.



First of many Sextuple+ days



Hybrid and his first Canvasback



Passage Prairie trapped while looking for passage Peregrines.



Eyas Cooper's Hawk

Imprint Coop, unfortunately he died unexpectantly a few days later




Hybrid with one of his first few ducks





Katie with passage Prairie from above just before releasing it.



Hybrid with first Drake Mallard



Kestrel action shot



Good day in Norman



Gyr's first duck



Falcons weathering the last day of the season



Hybrid's second duck, a hen Mallard



Harlan's Hawk that was trapped and released



Daniel and Jonathan with they newly trapped Red-Tails.  Both went on to be great game hawks.



Very light Red-tail that was trapped and released



Successful day of getting new and second year apprentices their birds.

Mi Amigo Raul in the Gloss Mountains on the way to the NAFA meet.



Getting ready to fly my Hybrid at NAFA



Hybrid mounting



Mitch Wishon and his Goshawk



Francine Forrester and her Harris' Hawk



Woodward restaurant and wind blown falconers.



Raul enjoying the wildlife



Jason Childress and his Hybrid

Jason, Raul, and several international falconers after a successful flight







Merlin Stooping


NAFA Meet weathering yard

2010 Season Ender

I got a text from Kent this morning that the Starlings were out, so I told him to swing by and we could try and finish out the 100 Starling goal.  Luckily he had his video camera with him and once Jonathan arrived we went Gremlin hunting.

The morning started out with a quick catch, #95, around the corner from my house and then slowed down.  We had a number of misses, but there were plenty of Starlings out and we kept at it.  Before to long she really turned on and we quickly caught the next 5, totaling 100 Starlings in 39 days.  I combined Kent's footage from today with other footage and pictures we had taken over the past month and a half to make the video below.  Flying the Kestrel was definitely a nice change from my usual falconry routine and I had a blast.  Work and family commitments are pulling hard on me now so I'm going to stick to my plan.  I'll be feeding her up over the next few days and releasing her now that the insects are out there to make her life easy, and that will end the 2009-2010 falconry season for me.

:) :)

I had a little time between work and a meeting that I had to be at, so I met up with my apprentice, Daniel, and we put it to 'em.  

"But Petey Didn't Have a Head, Lloyd!"

Caught 4 more Starlings yesterday bringing our total up to 40.  Just to brag on her a little bit, she caught her first one on January 26th. On the final catch of the day today, she slipped about 40 feet before the small murmuration of starlings that were milling about near the street.  They saw her coming and took off to the right.  One however decided he wouldn't be a follower and flushed to the left where there was a wall.  The starling swerved to miss he wall and was snatched out of he air about 3' off the ground with a swoop to the left by Gizmo.  Awesome flight which of course was not caught on video.  


This little bird on starlings is like Ash Williams on Deadites (we'll see who gets that reference,  hmm maybe a good name for the next bird I fly on Starlings)!    On the way home from work yesterday she must have been feeling pretty comfortable, because her head fell off, I mean she fell asleep and had her head tucked under her wing while riding home on my fist.  She must have been feeling pretty comfortable.