Finally!

[Minca]

After almost four years of flying kestrels on and off, and/or missing seasons because of moves and finances, I trapped my first RT!

I had a few names jumping around in my head and have finally settled on Vlad the Impaler.
Trapped 1/15 at 830grams with hood and sock, which turned out to be empty weight, no casting and very little mutes. Flew ten feet to the fist ten days off the trap and introducing well to the field T-perch and lure.
I'm hoping to have him hunting by Valentines Day.

[kenbro77]

wow, cool looking bird michelle. Looking forward to hear how he does.

[Weasel]

Nice!

[titaniumtalons]

Hey Michelle,

Bird looks nice, lots of bunnies in AZ

[Minca]

titaniumtalons said:

Hey Michelle,

Bird looks nice, lots of bunnies in AZ

There sure is! I recently took a walk through a field I'd been eyeing and flushed 7 rabbits in 15 minutes all on my own. I'm so excited to get this bird going!

[Minca]

He flew 50 feet on the creance yesturday at 695g. There's a great open space right behind my work and I was planning on flying him on the creance once more at lunch today, but with the UNpredicted high winds I would have simply been flying a living kite 25 feet up on a heavy kite string. I'm thinking my goal of hunting by Valentines Day may be realized!

[Minca]

I took Vlad to one of the feilds I'd scouted for hunting and flew him free for the first time today. 650g. He flew back and forth from T-perch to tree and back like a champ. We worked the feild for almost an hour and saw 8-10 ct's and 5 blacktailed jacks. He started at a couple of the ct's but right now they're all the full grown seasoned adults and he pulled up as soon as he could tell he didn't have a chance. There's another feild right by that one where I can put him up on poles and hopefully flush the rabbits directly under him, so I'm gonna try that tomarrow. I'll try to take pics but they'll be with my cell so I can't guarantee anything.

[kenbro77]

Good deal, way to go. Keep at it girl!

[Minca]

Well, I'm leaving today for the AFA Meet in Camp Verde, a little ways to the north of Phoenix. I can check email on my cell, as long as I've got signal, but otherwise I won't be around.
I've taken Vlad out a few times and showed him many bunnies, with out any catches yet. To build his confidence, I've had a friend pull a dead bunny on a string on two different occations and he slams those, but still won't try for the live ones. So I'm hoping they'll have smaller ones up there, or someone can save a live baggy for me.
Wish me luck!

[Minca]

Well, we had a little setback. We were out in the feild on Wednesday and some ravens decided to come over and play their intimidation game on Vlad. Unfortunately, it worked. He totally ignored a perfect slip and eventually flew a little ways across the feild and down to the ground, and refused to fly anymore. The next day I tried flying him twice and he wouldn't take a perch at all, if he wasn't on my fist he was on the ground. So, I'm going to work on his physical fitness at home instead of taking him hunting for a few days. I figure if I get him into shape he'll have better confidence, and we're not having the raven problem at the house.



Vlad looking sexy,

[richardfhoyer]

Minca,
From the sketchy information you have provided along with the hawk's recent behavior, there is some chance he may be too low in weight. Is his flying still strong or does it seem
somewhat weak?

After being entered twice on a dead bunny but now ignores slips and if he continues to land on the ground and not come up, he could also have an overload of parasitic worms. Such behavior is unusual for a Red-tail. Such parasite are normally found in raptors but when a hawk get a bit too low in weight, parasites can proliferate and potentially cause problems. You might consider having the hawk's mutes checked for parasitic worms.

On the other hand, if the hawk flies with strong wing beats and not weakly or flutters to the ground, then disregard my post. But a passage male Red-tail at 650 grams is on the low side for the species.

Richard F. Hoyer (Corvallis, Oregon)

[Minca]

I work at a veterinary clinic and have done a few fecals on him. There were traces of coccidia that he was immediately medicated for and a follow-up fecal to be sure he was clean. Everyone that has seen him flown agree that he's out of shape muscletone wise, so I'm working on that right now, and giving him richer food with casting and vitahawk instead of just cottontail meat.
I know someone here in Arizona that flew a male Rt successfully at 600g. I do believe with more muscle mass his flight weight will be higher and his confidence better. He flies strong and hard in the feild and hits the ground hard on rat flights, so being a late trapped bird it's my opinion he's just a bit set in his mouser ways. I plan on overcoming that, and trapping season doesn't start until the first of Oct. here, so I've got plenty of time to figure him out.

[richardfhoyer]

Sounds as if you have covered all bases.

Richard F. Hoyer (Corvallis, Oregon)

[jobbyjob]

I had a RT that looked just like him but bigger. In that color of juvi plumage do you think they will molt into a dark morph or what. I ask because (i live right on the pacific ocean) I see tons of rt juvi's in the central valley that are so much lighter. I guess I'm asking what do you guys speculate a rt of this plumage will look like as an adult.

[Minca]

By all the photos in the books that I've seen he looks to me like an "intermediate morph", but a couple people at the meet a couple weeks ago swore to me that he's a "rufous morph". I'm really anxious to see what he looks like after molting. Most of the RT's I see around here are much lighter, but when I lived in Washington I saw alot of rufous and dark morphs. The adult rufous morphs were absolutely gorgeous! I've talked to a couple people in Texas that have trapped Harlans, I believe Weasel is one of them.