Better today

Well I got home from work and decided I need to get some game under Abby. She was still heavy so I decided to take her to a field where I knew would be lots of easy slips on rats. I got home and weighed her and than hooded her as I did not want to get footed again. I changed out her jesses and put on the bells. This was a challenge because she kept trying to strike, so I was dodging talons plus trying to slid things through moving holes,lol. I did not get concerned with this as she has never liked me messing with her feet while hooded. We got out in the field and I walked into the field leaving her hooded. She was doing a lot of screaming which she does when she is ready to hunt. I got to the area where I knew the rats would be and unleashed her jesses. I than struck her hood and raised my arm above my head so I could duck if she decided to come at me. She looked around a while than flew to a close tree. She immediately remembered how the game works, I walked over to a piece of tin to flip it and she flew to the branch right above me. I raised the tin and she immediately hit a rat. This went on about a half hour and she ate three rats and I traded her off on two. So that is 5 rats total. Some would consider this on there head count, but I will not because of the fact they were easy kills. I hope my goal was accomplished as to let her get some aggression out and get free food.
10/30/08 1095 grams

Aggresive Red Tail

This is our third year together and this year is a whole new challenge. When I started bringing her out of the molt and dropping her weight, she was not dropping no matter what I did. I would try just a few grams a day, and would try a large crop every other day. No matter what I did she would only loose 10 grams a day. This last weekend I did not feed her for 2 days, lost 20 grams, and than cropped her good with 170 grams. My bird is not very aggressive except when there is food involved, and not to get to the food, but if there is no food. I will explain. When she is on my glove I can run my hand all over her with no problems. I can pull on her beak, play with her talons, she is a little fidgety, but not aggressive. When I cropped her up this last weekend, the whole time she was eating off the lure I was running my hand all over her with not to much problem ( I usually do not mess with her while she is eating, just trying to re-enforce the fact that I will be moving in on a kill). The next night I took her out of the chamber and took her to the shop and weighed her, she dropped 113 grams, a little more than half what I gave her the night before. So it looked like her metabolism was kicking in. The problem came when I brought her back to the chamber. I put her on a perch in the chamber and removed my glove and folded it and was holding it in my hand. I turned to look for a casting and she hit the elbow that was holding the glove. I dropped the glove and she hit the glove. I had to use my other hand to push her off the glove and she kept jumping at it. I was than able to leave the chamber. Let me give you some idea of where her weight is at. First off I trapped her at 1380 with a small crop. The first year I flew her at 1010, last year I flew her at 990. This year at the end of the molt she weighed a whopping 1420. At the time she hit my elbow she was at 1175. It gets worse, last night I weighed her and she was back to where she was before I cropped her up at 1110. I carried her back to her chamber and went to put her on the perch, but instead of stepping off the glove to the perch she turned and hit the left side of my face. So I am at a loss as to what to do as she is not at weight yet.
10/29/08

Still dropping

Well most of the week has been just feeding her small amounts about 30 grams of chicken. Still only losing about 10 grams a day. Sunday evening gave her a full crop of rabbit, 178 grams, hoping to kick the metabolism in, which she weighed 1110 grams before feeding her. Monday night I did not feed her and she was very aggressive and weighed 1175. Which means she burned off 113 grams Monday, so we may be headed in the right direction. The problem is, I took her out of her chamber and weighed her and than put her on a perch in her chamber. I took off my glove and held it in my hand while my back was to her looking for a casting on the ground. Than all of a sudden Abby hit my left elbow with both feet and dug in good. I had to take the glove and throw it across the chamber to get her to release. She hit the glove like it was the lure. I may need to take her out and see if we can get some game under her, whether she is at weight or not.
10/28/08

She is still fat

Well I went to fort Worth again with her, and just like before response on lure great, response in field.....none. She is still 200 grams heavy. I am going to start feeding her just 30 grams a day every day. See if that works. Her weight this morning was down to 160 over, so maybe by this weekend, it will be down. I sure hope so because Kylie and me found a really good field to hunt. Her bird got a double.
11/20/08 1160 grams.

Weight Frustration

I just don't get it. The weight will not come off. She is doing great on the creance. Coming on or before first whistle as soon as I raise my glove. Hits the lure immediately and hard. I am going to go with out feeding her today or tomorrow, and than get her in the field the next day. I need top get her flying on game. I gave her 140grams of chicken neck yesterday. 100 grams on the creance and 40 grams in the mews.
10-16-08 1190 grams. (still 190 grams heavier than last years hunt weight)

It just is not coming off?

I just don't get it. I flew her on the creance again yesterday and she is coming every time with or without tidbit. She hits the lure hard, but she is loosing weight very slow. I am giving her 100 grams every other day and she looses that plus 10 more. I had been giving her washed beef heart when giving her food every day. Than unwashed beef heart when every other day. Yesterday I gave her chicken breast, 100 grams. We will see how that works.
10/14/08 1190 grams

Getting there, but still fat.

Well Saturday I did some more creance work. Two days earlier I gave her 95 grams and skipped the next day. She lost all I gave her plus a few grams. She was responding great and was coming on first whistle or sooner no mater where I was. Ended it with the lure, which also went well. She got a total of 90 grams of beef heart.
10/13/08 1198 grams.

Its getting better

Well yesterday was a lot better on the creance. I took her behind the shop and she responded great on the creance. Consistently coming on the first whistle, a couple of times before the whistle. It did take two whistles on the lure but she hit it hard once she realized what it was. As adviced by a friend I went ahead and gave her 100 grams to get a good crop in her to try to get her metabalism going. The day before I only gave her 20 grams and she lost 25 grams. It was a cool night so I figured she would have lost more. Any ways she did a lot better, I hope to have her hunting by next weekend.
10/10/08 1200 grams

Ah the frustration of weight control

Well after work today I tried some more creance and lure work. Was not a success at all. I could only get five 10' flights out of her, and I piratically had to beg her for those. We were in the parking lot at work, due to the field flooded after the nights rain, so it was pretty busy. That and she is still heavy had something to do with it. I only gave her 20 grams, and when i weighed her this morning she was 20 grams heavier. She is not loosing weight.
10/6/08 1200 grams

Oh the frustration

Took Abby to Fort Worth this weekend to free fly for the first time this season. I knew she was heavy, but the way she has been acting on the creance I thought she was going to fly heavier this year. But an apprentice mistake, 200 grams is way to heavy and I guess I was just to impatient to get out and do some flying. We put her up in a tree in this field that had a group of trees in the middle surrounded by field that looked great for bunnies. When she got up in the trees she started moving around like she was squirrel hawking, but there were no squirrels. I think now looking back, she was just trying to avoid me. It was freaking hot and cover was think and we flushed no bunnies. So I decided to call her to the lure. Well guess what, she wasn't coming. I ended up putting a bunnie on the lure and took a while but finally got her down. Called it a weekend and went hunting with a couple of other falconers that had their birds ready. So back on the creance and a diet.
10/5/08 still no kill 1225 grams

More Creance and Lure

Abby lacked response she had yesterday. She was about 20 grams heavier, but I also had lady staked out close to her. I was only able to go about 25'. She would not fly further. I only did this a few times so I did not raise her weight any more. I pulled out the lure while standing next to Lady. It took a few minutes but she finally came. I threw the lure down within reach of lady and told her leave it. Abby hit the lure but was really keeping an eye on Lady. Lady was acting like she wanted to play with Abby, but never got close enough to be footed. After Abby finished the lure hooded her and called it a day. Abby still is not ready for free flight. I will not feed her any more today, and nothing tomorrow.
1270 grams 10/2/08

First Creance Flight of season

Well the first creance flight of the year was what I would consider a success. Put the creance on her and unrolled about 25 feet. I unhooded her and walked back to the anchor (25') and put my glove up and she had instent response. Put her back on the perch walked about 40' and same thing. I walked again what i thought would be the full length of the creance and I was about 2' to far. She hit the end of the creance than flew to her left at the full length of the creance. She landed on the ground and gave me the go to hell look,lol. I put her back on the perch and she would not fly to me. So I hooded her and waited till she roused. Than I tried again, but had to move to within 15'. Than gradually increased and she started coming to me as I walked off. We had about 20 creance flights. She did not seem tired when I was done. She will not eat tonight, and I will try her again tomorrow.
10/1/08 1252 grams this morning.