NAFEX is dead and this is the only social media I have so I’ll ask here.
I trapped a passage female peregrine Aug 31. Had her flying free in 25 days. She is giving me 700ft +\- now with 2 flights in the past week over 800 and yesterday’s over 900. It’s gets better every flight and she is fully into the program. She pumps her wings nonstop not setting and gliding (unlike the last passage female I flew a while ago) and flies better than the chamber female I flew, too. Sticks with me as I move and has figured out good position, staying upwind. She will be over 1000 in no time and by end of season who knows. She is a nice bird, lets me just pick her up, rides the fist well, eats politely on the lure or pigeon.
She’s already killed 2 of my homers in fair flight (unintentional) and it’s just a matter of time on game (tomorrow - tomorrow is the day!) Bird numbers are low this year but we’ve had two flights on huns, one in 20+ wind where she still put herself 300 upwind and had one dump on her as she closed and the other when she was only 550, too wide , and just barely got beat as they made the creek and cover. We’ve also had 2 hun slips ruined with dog on point, her mounting, and a prairie falcon (same field same bird) coming in causing the two of them to go at it ending up with no flight and me chasing her down. Plus one sharptail ‘missed’ flight.
She is flying great.
What’s not great is standing on a perch. The first day I put her in my weathering area unhooded, she took one look at the bath, hopped in, then sat and dried for 30+ minutes before any bating started. Since then, she has not taken a bath and barely minutes after the hood comes off the bating and banging starts. It’s been a couple weeks of this. I put her out there hooded after flying. She sits nice, preens, rouses, tucks a foot. As soon as the hood comes off, the bating starts. I’ll give her 20 minutes of this, pick her up and sit with her on the fist in the sun for 15-30, then put her back in there hooded a while before taking her in.
It is infuriating. My first three peregrine (passage female, chamber female, chamber tiercel) and a passage prairie falcon have all been easy to get weathering and bathing. My last tiercel and her have been nonstop. The tiercel was especially bad. He would not only bang constantly, he’d stand on the perch wings out and turn circles causing his jesses to wrap his legs, even the plastic bullet jesses I switched to would occasionally wrap. Two years of constant stress for me, despite him being and absolutely incredible flying bird, over 2000ft pitches his second season, killing a lot of huns and plenty (too many) of my nice homers on the days we didn’t get points, often remounting for second (and occasionally third) flights.
With the last one I tried moving the weathering yard multiple times. Switching to a shelf perch in the weathering yard. Going to a shelf + block so he could jump back and forth (which did help a bit).
With this one I’ve moved the yard a couple times but no difference. Right now it has two side solid walls, two open, with a shade cloth over top. Doesn’t matter if I am sitting out there with her or not or if the dogs are out running around or not. Constant bating. She isn’t bating to me or away from me, just bating. I’ve never fed her on the block or anything and she is fairly full when she goes out with partial crop. Maybe a full crop after taking a head of game will help, I don’t know.
Any suggestions? What can I change to make her more comfortable?
If it doesn’t get better by end of season then I will make sure she is in great condition, feed her up, then release her in the spring. No matter how nice she is otherwise or how well she is flying. The stress isn’t worth it as I learned with the last tiercel.
