Month: July 2020

Down to 1300 grams. He didn’t dive at several fish that should have gotten his attention.

I rigged a fish on a monofilament line and suspended it in 10 inches of water directly in front of the osprey’s hunting perch. He fixated and head-bobbed but was very reluctant to dive. He made a couple of half-hearted attempts and seemed uninterested, even when I moved the fish around and put it at a very shallow depth.

I eventually detached the fish and just threw it in the water in front of him. He immediately dove hard and caught it in the water. He must have aimed for its path.

Is it possible that ospreys aim just in front of the fish, leading it like a trap shooter leads the clay pigeon? The fish will first move forward (and fast) when startled by the talons hitting the water.

The osprey circled around with his new fish and landed on the hunting perch. I bobbled the trade off and away he went–a fish in his talons and a tidbit in his beak. On the repeat landing, he dropped the tidbit out just before he landed. The second tradeoff was successful, and he flew to my glove after he finished his tidbit.

I’m clipping him to my glove and hooding him regularly. The hooding is a fight, but he calms down well and isn’t holding grudges. So far.

At 1350 grams, the bird was slow to return and not interested much in hunting. I saw fish swimming around, and he watched, too, but not with much intensity. He spends a lot of time begging and just flying from the perches down to the ground so he can look up to beg! It’s odd to see such a huge, taloned bird act like a baby chick.

He’s been flying and returning well at weights around 1300, and he’s made a few dives. I’ll lower his weight a little to get him on fish, and if that doesn’t work, I’ll try a different pond with more cooperative fish.

He’s very pecky. He’s also very difficult to hood but is well behaved when hooded. Except for trying to land on my feet, he’s never shown any hint of footing. He did try to land on the back of a dog, once, and another time, he landed on my head.

Weight 1376 grams.

Hooding is not getting easier.

The bird did well tethered to his perch weathering. He definitely chooses the shade and will stand on the ground in the shadows when the perch gets sunny.

Late in the afternoon, it was dark and rainy. I decided to just skip telemetry since he hopped to the glove and seemed attentive to me.

Of course, I get a little worried when he suddenly takes off, catches some wind lift, and really climbs fast. He flew around a bit, made one nice stoop towards the lake, pulling up at the last moment. I could see a fish swirl beneath where he was aiming.

He circles over several times with one fist closed and dangling, tricking me at first into thinking it was a broken tail feather.

When he finally lands, he lands on one foot with his other still clenched. He thinks he has something! He notices the fish I am offering, but doesn’t come until he pecks at the set of talons which proves to be empty when he opens them. He looks back up at me and flies straight to me.

Today and the past few days I have exposed Orville to being tethered to a perch outside. He has flown around the pond and taken lots of baths after he lands on the water in a slow, weak dive. He has occasionally been hitting the water aggressively.

Several actual soars above the treeline but quick returns to his perch or a whole fish. Short returns only to tidbits.

I am having more luck with traditional anklets, jesses, hoods, leashes, and telemetry. I am also trying harder. Hooding him in the mews prior to messing with his legs has saved me numerous bites.

I designed a new and simple swivel block perch, seen above, he seems to like. He doesn’t like bow perches or small blocks much.

Well, no surprise, but I broke one of the osprey’s tail feathers today. I transported him in my special osprey hood, which is always a little risky, due to these birds’ clumsy tethered behavior, but I actually think it broke when he backed away from my glove as I tried to retrieve him from the ground.

Oh well. Perfection adds stress, so now I can relax a bit. The tips of the feathers have tiny shafts, so I will not imp it. It will not measurably affect his flying or getting off the water.

Otherwise, at a weight of 1430 grams with a crop still full from last night (or maybe he finished off the bream this morning), he was reluctant to fly to a tidbit. Although he begged for it, stared at it, and greedily ate it when I delivered it to him.

Checking again this afternoon, I had trouble finding the break. It was only the last half inch of one feather. That’s nice. I tried to get a picture, but he was too squirmy when I fanned his tail out.

He caught his fish in the water trough today after a long and vigorous foot-chase (with occasional pounces ) and seemed to grab more aggressively at some additional fish I gave him later. His hunting fervor is beginning to show up!

At 1340 g he seemed cranky. He begged a good bit, but he also stared and bobbed at fish for a while. He did not dive. I set him up with a small bream in a container, and he finally jumped in. But he was clueless about using his talons to catch a fish. He scrambled around after it and caught it with his beak and talons in an unorthodox and clumsy manner.

The actual footing of the prey requires a combination of instinct and experience. Judging from how he learned flying, eating, and other behaviors, I expect the fish grab will “click” after just a few tries.

I chose a small fish so that if he carried it, he would still return. I also want him to be content diving for smallish fish since bream are more common around here and are tricky for ospreys.

The movie is on our ospreyfalconry Instagram page. The bird has been behaving well at weights around 1300g. He flew to the perches I picked for him for tidbits and flew directly to me for visible, larger tidbits. He is staying on the boat for long periods before flying to more stable perches. If I crank up the trolling motor to speed 3, he will always face forward.

The osprey dove today! It was a fairly slow dive presumably after a fish. He was riding up front and suddenly dove after a couple of seconds of head bobbing. I didn’t get the video of course, but there now promises to be lots more! I haven’t entered* this bird yet, and he has never gotten a fish from water. (I usually enter them with a tub or wading pool). I was actually happy that he was riding on the boat so calmly.

He had already come to the glove for a big tidbit, then again for a small fish. He then came quickly to me in the boat over about 50 yards of water. He shied away from me (seated, near a protruding electric motor–a scary landing site even for older birds in the past) but landed well for the first time on the boat perch.

He then rode with me for maybe 30 minutes, scrutinizing the water, every turtle, and other things I couldn’t see. I was shocked when he actually dove. I had not waterproofed the telemetry he was wearing (still works). He lifted off from the water without difficulty. This was his first time ever for that also!

He flew from the boat back to his yard perch when we got very close to the dock. He flew to my glove for another fish. It was a great day!

Well, I did have some trouble getting the hood on him. He likes to duck and dodge. Once hooded, he hopped and scrambled up my arm and ended up on my back. As I was stuck, bent over inside the mews, with the hooded bird digging into the skin of my back, my son came to the rescue. He got my glove and got the bird to step onto it.

Starting over with him back on the perch, I got the telemetry on, removed the hood, and then started the great day.

*exposing a young raptor to prey for the first time

At 1298 grams, the bird flew well to my glove twice. He flew to me while I was in an aluminum boat for a bream. Several hours later he flew across the yard to another fish. He is slow, deliberating a while. When I first see the head bobbing and direct gaze that means he is planning on flying to me, I can expect to wait another couple of minutes to him to check the surroundings, check his feet, and maybe slice.

These birds seem fairly reliable, just hesitant.

An interesting episode: With the osprey on my glove I walked by a fish lying in an open container. I did not notice the osprey spot it lying there. He flew form my glove to the ground about 50 feet away. I walked back to the fish, fixed it to my glove, hid it behind my back and walked back to and then 30 feet past the osprey.

Before I could present him the fish, he flew back to the container! It had been around 2 minutes since we walked by. He had seen it. He had remembered where it was, but he didn’t notice (or understand) me remove it.

After standing around on the container and closely, repeatedly examining it, he finally turned his attention to me and flew his longest distance to the glove yet (about 70 feet).

At 1288 grams, early in the afternoon, the bird mostly just screamed for food. He flew a short distance to his tripod yard perch, then a short parachute to the ground, then a quick takeoff back to the perch where he just begged in all directions. After I’d offered the glove for a long time, he hesitatingly flew across the yard for it. This was his longest flight to the glove. He did eat well on the glove and did not leave on the walk back to the mews. Telemetry on, but not needed.