Month: May 2020

Baby Orville

Here is Orville the osprey the first week we had him.

To transport him, we kept him warm in a one gallon-sized cooler lined with hand heaters. When we got him home, we put him in a Sterilite plastic storage container with a small towel in the bottom. We leaned a reptile-style heating pad against the side of his container, and underneath, Kennonite placed a dog mat heater.

He slept. A lot.

As he’s gotten older, he sleeps less and less and peeps more and more.

Day 26

Lots of fish. Catching them, then preparing them for the bird. The first week, I pulled off small pieces with hemostats or tweezers and fed Orville until his crop was full, about a pecan size bulge in his chest. After that, I could cut the fish in pieces and feed him bones and all. He would reject any piece too big or too bony with a very vigorous head shaking, slinging the offensive piece to the side.

He ate vigorously and gained weight daily. He also visibly grew daily. Soon I was using a paper cutter to initial cut the fish, then game scissors to cut the pieces o fail size. He ate the entire fish, entrails and all. I thought there may be some hidden vitamin or biome ingredient hidden somewhere in the fish. I occasionally gave him vitamins for the rare (2 so far) frozen fish I gave him.

He eats a little over one full size bream a day now, 150-200 grams.He has gained from 41 grams to 720 grams in 26 days. When he fills his crop, it gives him about a 10% temporary weight gain.

I am doing a little falconry training already. Hooding him occasionally and briefly and under supervision. I am constantly touching him, especially his talons (although I have not had one that was footy yet) and his beak (they all have pecked badly). I am carrying him around exposing him to everything, all our cats and dogs, cars, outside flying birds, etc.

I am keeping him well fed at all times as I have read this can help with screaming. We shall see.

5.17.2020

Hello! I’m Kennonite, a master falconer. I have been experimenting with osprey as falconry birds for several years and have had success in their husbandry and also in catching fish. I am going to use this blog to illustrate my process. Meet Orville, a nestling I obtained the end of April.

This is what he looked like 3 weeks ago. They grow really fast, eating lots of fresh fish.

I am now hooding him occasionally, under supervision. The hood is very loose. I am just trying to expose him to the concept. I also am showing him everything, scratching him, carrying him around a lot. I weigh him daily and feed him 2-3 times a day. He eats all parts of a fresh whole fish, cut into sizes he can swallow.

Ospreys in Falconry

They say it’s impossible to train ospreys to hunt fish. We have proved them wrong.

Welcome to Ospreys in Falconry. We live on a farm with three small ponds. We’ll share our adventures raising and training Orville, a three-week old osprey (at the time of this writing).

Orville, newly hatched

 

We’ll document Orville’s progress as the falconer trains him to hunt fish. Check back here for more pictures and information.