Month: August 2020

I tried the tail mount. He dove seven to eight times hard and it held up. The silicon has lasted for around a month on the leg mount transmitter, so I have high hopes for this one. He completely ignored it.

He’s clearly possessive of his tiny catfish. He caught this on his first dive today into the small catfish pond. Out of the hundreds of meals he has eaten with me beside him, he still fears I will expect him to share.

He responded to small tidbits before and after he ate this fish. After the third post-meal tidbit, he stopped responding and was distracted by pond fish. He flew to my glove garnished with a large tidbit with only minimal hesitation.

All of this good behavior was after I wrestled his hood on after numerous unsuccessful attempts to attach telemetry (the pecking was too much). I tried to place the transmitter yesterday while wearing some gloves with the fingertips removed. These gloves freaked the bird out making them worse than nothing. Those unsuccessful attempts were why I resorted to the hood wrestling.

I also attached a tail-mount clip to a deck feather. I have resisted this so far due to concerns about water and fragile deck feathers, but a tail transmitter would make the hooding just for telemetry unnnecessary.

I will try it out tomorrow if I can find a good battery. After watching lots of slo-mo video of dives, I am no longer concerned that vigorous tail down-thrusting into the water will be a problem. I am looking forward to the tail-mount making for easier anklet clipping, less confrontation, and better hydrodynamics in a dive.

In the book, I mentioned the osprey behavior of not responding well to small tidbits. This last bird was making me rethink this. He would fly a couple of hundred yards to a bite. He did this repeatedly with only a little hesitation.

Until today.

For two hours he diligently hunted. I maneuvered him to the three ponds using a combination of a hooded golf cart trip to the first site, a multi-stage tidbit trip to the second, and his own return to his favorite perch at the third. He dove several times without success at each place.

Well, at the last pond, he hunted OK but refused to quit when I presented my garnished glove. He just looked at it briefly then resumed his scan. I repeated this maneuver several times—and he repeated his response. His call increased in pitch to “I’m coming now” level, but this lasted only a second and faded away.

His weight was at the high end (1350 grams), but he had been flying to me multiple times at this weight. We’ll see if this behavior continues at lower weights.

Anyway, as soon as I presented a large tidbit (around 40 grams of fish, or a third of a bream) he immediately responded. Prior birds have also been selective about their return. He is hunting so well that I hate to drop his weight, but I suppose I am more likely to lose him without a better response. I would certainly be worried about a redtail.

I am just not sure if I need to better apply normal falconry or if this is a true difference with ospreys. I will do some tinkering and, hopefully, figure it out soon.

The ebook version is now available on Amazon, and the paperback should be ready in a week.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GGB14KY

It was pretty hard to produce a small book. I enjoyed the initial rough draft writing, but all the finishing work gave me school flashbacks. Fortunately, the two other co-authors were much better writers and did all the hard stuff. We used underpaid family and friends for photos and book design work.

The only people who should read the book are falconers considering an osprey, and those considering using ospreys in a raptor show. It is not an encyclopedic reference, but it describes my experiences and numerous lessons learned. It is as useful as several of my species-specific falconry books. (Say “species-specific” five times fast.) It assumes the reader is a knowledgeable falconer.

This bream was just sitting in a foot of water, about 75 feet offshore. Orville took off almost as soon as I placed him on the perch on top of the golf cart. I filmed the attack on my iPhone, but it didn’t focus until he splashed. Up he came with a fish!

He circled a few times (it was obvious he knew that he had caught something) then flew back to his favorite perch in the back yard. I let him eat the head, then tried to trade him off to a tidbit, but he carried. I did not frighten him; he did not want to share. He flew about the pond and finally landed in the carport–not a typical place for him, but convenient for me. This time the trade-off was successful.

I consider this a particular success because this was a free swimming fish, not one attracted by feed (seems like cheating a little). Also, the pond is several acres.

What still needs to improve is getting a hood on him (he’s a good dodger), pecking (occasionally draws blood), and screaming (this is getting better.) Otherwise, everything else is working fine.

We’re just waiting on our proof copy for a final inspection before we put the book out there. Anyone serious about trying an osprey should get it because there’s nothing else out there. The info would be very helpful to you. Rehabbers or bird shows may find it worth their while as well.

The book should be available at Amazon as a paperback or ebook before the end of August.

Orville caught a rock yesterday and mantled over it for about ten minutes. I guess I could have traded him off of it, but I decided to let him figure it out. It was a good, vigorous flight, and he got the rock off the bottom ten inches down. He’s getting serious, with multiple dives per day and lots of scanning, but still no more fish after the first one.

He made last moment aborted attacks on some young catfish in the tiny grow-out pond. The water was very muddy, but the catfish came up in the daylight–that’s a new thing.

The bird was heavy at 1360 grams. He was quick to come to a big tidbit and seemed to be hunting as earnestly as ever. He needs to get some catches to build his confidence. I suspect he will enjoy the fresh fish over the usual frozen I’m giving him.

…although, I caught a fish. While Orville was still searching, I hooked a one-pound (measured) catfish. After reeling it in, I attempted to keep this a secret from the osprey. He must have suspected something because he flew over and landed on my back while I huddled over the fish.

In a sudden brainstorm born of desperation and mild pain, I decided to just throw the fish onto the dock. As expected, Orville immediately saw this and pounced. He got a good grip initially, sat for a few minutes, then took off straight over the water.

He was able to climb well and maneuvered with no obvious change in his flight. This fish weighed a third of Orville’s body weight (1350g.) He circled back to his perch with the fish and just held it. Until he dropped it.

After this clumsy drop, he floated down off the perch and grabbed it again. As I hoped, he traded off to a large tidbit, and I got the catfish to put in the freezer (at least two full osprey meals.)

The bird is behaving well (other than pecking at my hands or sandaled feet). Orville is flying to tidbits better than other ospreys have. He resists the hood, but I can get it on him and, once on, he tolerates it fine.

I am planning trips to ponds with more fish.

Orville made his first kill today on a 5″ bream! He weighed 1310 g and stooped from a low perch on the side of the pond. He returned to that perch, and I let him eat the whole fish. It was small enough that I thought he’d be willing to come to me for more later.

He mantled moodily as is typical for my ospreys. Otherwise, he was very well behaved. He hunted enthusiastically after his meal but did not stoop again. He continued his good behavior by a quick return at a fair distance to my glove.

This is the third bird that I’ve been able to catch a fish with.

Of note, the osprey was cooperative even after the daily hood struggle and is not seeming to hold any grudge. I may have detected a slight movement towards hood acceptance today.

Excited about one stoop from the fist, a miss, and then a return to the fist instead of his perch! Otherwise, this osprey is slow to hunt. Lots of stares, head bobs, and false starts. A few dives and last-second go-arounds are accompanied by long bouts of begging.

He tolerated a good bit of perching and being restrained on the glove today, and he’s getting a little better at regaining after a bate. He still requires significant assistance, and I don’t see this going away due to ospreys’ unique behavior.

This bird is also flying to tidbits more reliably than any so far. Other birds would balk at tidbits and just keep hunting until they saw a whole fish on the glove. Then they’d be reliable.