WRITING: Part 2 FLYING HAWKS and RESEARCH WORK

Hi Everyone

Well, I'm back. Gotta divide my time between many responsibilities, my writing and fun stuff like this :-)

Let's move on with my interview of Susan Ruble of High Country Raptors (check out my links on the right and her website is there--I invite you to visit it).

When we were done with three stories on three of her raptors, Susan decided that we should go 'fly' Bo, the Harris Hawk and Spike the Cara-Cara. I got to see what she does to get 'ready' for such a flight. First thing was a $350 radio transmitter.

Susan is holding the 'tail mount' radio transmitter, which is very light weight. The light metal prongs actually clip to the quill of the bird's main tail feathers. She said that if the bird took off and it couldn't be retrieved, the radio transmitter, for the first 24 hours, puts out a 'pulse' that can be picked up by the radio. Then, it goes to half a pulse for the next 72 hours so that you can still hear it with the equipment and find the bird. She said there are cheapter radio transmitters but their long 'tail' (the long, thin black piece that extends out from behind the cylinder that holds the lithium battery) is the 'antenna' is much, much longer and may hamper the bird's flight or balance. The shorter the 'tail', the more expensive the piece of equipment. This just shows you how much money is going into these birds--it is not a cheap hobby.


And here is the radio tracking transmitter unit. Susan is holding the tail radio transmitter over it to check to make sure the lithium battery is working and is strong. The batteries have to be replaced quite often, as well. These tail mount units weigh approximately 5.5 grams. The bird isn't hampered by the weight of it. Also, there are leg mounts as well, but Susan prefers the tail mount.


And then, we went out to the mews (cages) and Susan went to where she has the two Harris Hawks, Bo and Bella. This is Bella, the female, looking at her through the bars of her mew. She was giving a grackle kind of grumble as Susan went in to get Bo, who was more than ready to go have 'fun.'


Once Bo is on the fist, he is taken inside Susan's house and placed on the weight machine to see what he weighs. She explained that a hawk has to be a certain weight before it can be flown. If it is too full it won't fly. If it is too hungry, it might be weak and won't fly. She said many times that weight is primary to the care of the bird. And Bo knows that he needs to get up on this perch. He may not know its to weigh him, but this is part of the routine before flying a bird.


And here is Bo after being weighed. Susan said he's a fast flyer and loves to fly from perch to tree, to her and all around. Bo is more like a rocket--and I can attest to that trying to get photos of him.


Okay, now it's time to put the tail radio transmitter on Bo's tail. Susan said it was very difficult to place it on a tail quill by herself. So, I donned a gauntlet and she taught me how to transfer Bo from her fist to my fist. Once Bo was on my fist, she then expertly and quickly attached the radio transmitter to one of Bo's central quill tail feathers. He was so used to this being done that he acted like it was ordinary.


Bo, with his radio transmitter on, easily goes into his travel box. And here he is.


Next comes Spike, the Caracara who may be seen from Texas, Arizona, through Central and all of South America. From what I can tell, they are more like a vulture--going after dead prey, although it is said they will eat lizards and snakes as well. I gotta tell you, on a personal aside, this bird looks like a chicken to me--just a jazzed up chicken. Spike's from the falcon family. But he sure reminded me of a 'fancy' chicken with the mind of a raven/crow. Still, he's cute, smart and what a character--as you will see....


And here's Spike getting weighed. He's an immature Caracara by the way. He hasn't gotten his mature feathering and coloring yet.


And so Susan brings out Spike's travel case and he hops onto it. Then, Susan gets down on the floor and points with her finger. Spike knows that 'sign' is to come to where she's pointing ehr finger. And so, he goes flying off his travel case to do just that!


As Susan leans over to ensure Spike's travel case is just so, Spike decides to go walking off and snoop around! Off he goes.....


Susan looks up--and Spike's gone! He's gone down the hall to snoop around. She call him and here comes Spike!


Spike is very accomodating and strides right into his travel case! Just like the cool dude that he is! It was amazing to watch this whole scene. Spike has a high curiosity and has very long legs, and so he was striding up and down the hall, looking here and there as Susan got his travel box ready. And yet, when she called him, he came. And once he was in his box, she gave him a meat treat. And it reinforced what she'd said before: that you want your bird to enjoy being in the travel box and not making it a chore or something stressful. I can see why now.


And off we went to the Flagstaff Arboretun/botanical garden. It is about ten minutes away from where Susan lives. The first to fly is Bo and here, Susan has him on her fist and taking him out of his travel digs.


As soon as Susan lifted her fist, off flew Bo. The training area is a huge oval with lots of pine trees on the perimiter of it. Bo is completely free, although he wears flying jesses (leg straps wrapped around his lower legs, a bell (so that if he flies off you can hear and find him if nearby) plus the tail transmitter. It didn't seem to hamper Bo in the least. He took off like a rocket! And full of fun and playful.


And here's Bo in free flight having a ball! That Harris Hawk zoomed around at the speed of light! I was having a helluva time with my camera and trying to follow him. You don't know where he's going to fly. And I'm trying to look at my f setting, and so many other things, that I was pretty flustered. I figured I wouldn't get many good shots because Bo was so active and swinging a 300mm VR Nikor lens around and focusing by hand and moving....that I'd have lots of blurs....But some did turn out decent enough.


And here's my favorite photo of BO--he's flying around so FAST that he sometimes, I think, doesn't realize his speed and when he lands--well, you can see the 'brakes' are on with the tail up and you can see how precarious he's on that limb.....almost overshooting it!! But he was having such fun....

Wrong Fstop so that action is blurred, but I still like this photo of Bo because I focused on his head and it came out clear--can't you see the intent and focus of this hawk in this shot? I thought it was pretty cool. Bo knows. He was just powering around the area like a jet going Mach 3 with his hair on fire, as they say in the jet jockey/military ranks :-).


More on another blog! Enjoy!
In Spirit....Eileen