Today was a good day. After months of intense peeping, wing-flapping, and refusing to dive for fish, Orville took the plunge.
We’re not sure why, but he refuses to dive in the lower lake. Maybe it’s the glut of turtles or the territorial, breeding Canada geese. Whatever the case, if the bird flies out of the mews and immediately takes a bath, he’ll return to his perch and refuse to hunt. This happens more often than not.
We had to change a few things to encourage him. First, we hid. While Orville sat on his perch, begging insistently as we sat nearby on the swing, we got up, went inside the house, and watched him through the sunroom windows. When he could no longer see us, he focused on the water and started scanning.
Second, Kennon limited his food. Kennon had not been weighing him, choosing instead to keep him heavy for the winter months. But with temperatures rising to the balmy low 70s, he began feeding him a little less at mealtime. Today, Orville weighed 1390 g.
Third, we changed location. We have three lakes on our property, and Orville’s “home” perch is on the lower lake. But the upper lake has fish in plenty and fewer turtles. This week, the bream were popping the surface, making circular ripples, so that’s where Kennon took the bird. And…success! No, Orville didn’t catch a fish, but he tried, and that’s progress.
Update: Since I wrote the above (and delayed posting it), Orville has dived several times into the upper lake. And yesterday, while we were fishing, Kennon was reeling in a catch when Orville spotted it from his golf cart perch and dove for it. He flew off the water, the line broke, and he headed for the lower lake with the bream headfirst in his talons. We hopped on the golf cart and rushed after him, but we needn’t have worried about the hook and spinner: Orville had removed them and tossed them on the ground before he started eating. Good bird!
You can find a collection of clips here at our youtube channel: https://youtu.be/O3l4amibuEM.
Many thanks to Ben Woodruff for reviewing our book. You’ll find his video here: https://youtu.be/NsPdB1N2GzQ.