Tag: osprey

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.

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.