Orville, at 1350 grams, traveled in his hawk box for one and a half hours, flew well, made several dives, and caught his fourth fish.
The tail mount telemetry is working great as is the hawk box. Hooding was done twice, but it didn’t look pretty either time. He does behave once it is on.
The only flaw was carrying. It would have been avoidable if I had been less clumsy. He caught his fish and circled to his perch. He made a long flight and seemed to be considering other options. It was a new place, plus there was a running ATV with an unfamiliar person nearby. Despite all that, he returned to his perch and began eating.
He allowed me to approach and took the large tidbit I offered in his mouth. The plan was for him to use his foot to help eat this tidbit that was too big to swallow, thus he would partly release the fish so I could secure him.
In a surprise to me, he took off with a big chunk of fish in his mouth and both talons on the fish he just caught. He flew around a while and landed in the pasture a hundred yards away. He ate all the fish in about 15 minutes, looked around the ground for any he dropped, then flew straight to my glove garnished with a large tidbit.
He ate up on a perch in the strange-to-him yard. Transport and behavior on the way home was fine.
The book is now available at Amazon. The current price is in an attempt to help several people around the world have access.
