Sarah's Graduation ~ And Three Sisters

On the weekend of May 18 and 19 Rich and I traveled down to Peoria, Illinois to join my sister's family in celebrating the graduation from high school of their youngest daughter, Sarah.

Such a lovely young lady!  She has really good taste in dresses, in my humble opinion.  It seems like not that long ago I was visiting them when she was born.  I know this sense of time passing all too quickly must be felt very acutely for those who have children.

Here she is being a typical teenager . . . cell phone in one hand, networking with her friends . . . soda in the other.

Her classmate and boyfriend Chris was over at the house quite a bit.  They both plan to go on from here to college, but at different locations.

The weekend was a good opportunity to meet up with all of my sister Jennefer's family.  Erica, the first daughter, graduated from college some time ago, and got married in 2010.  She and her husband Sean live in Bloomington, so it is not a long journey for them to come visit when everyone is in town.  It was a warm day, but fortunately there was a breeze to keep it cool, although the breeze was at times swift, so many graduation caps went flying.  We arrived early and staked out a spot in the stands where there was shade.

Erica and Sean

The graduation was held outside in the Dunlap High School football field.  Erica processes in with several classmates.

Here she is leaving her row to go onstage and receive her diploma.

 We were not at the best angle to actually see her receive her diploma.

 The happy graduate!

Jim and Jennefer, the proud parents with their daughter.

At this time Sarah is just unsure what she wants to become when she grows up.  She has become rather fond of and talented with fashion, hair styling and makeup.  She was very encouraging to take advantage of my mop of hair, as well as to use her rather extensive makeup collection on both my face, and her Aunt Janet, who also was able to come for the graduation.

I don't normally wear makeup, except for very special occasions.  I think she did a rather excellent job with the canvas that I was able to offer her.  I teased Rich about hanging out with some strange woman, 'cuz it doesn't look like me!

There was a lot of picture taking over the weekend, as all of the Standlee girls were together, and for a happy event.

You can tell we are related!

It was really nice to see my sisters!

Three Hot Senioritas!  Ok . . . Senoras!

Three Gals from Texas!

On Monday morning, we had a Sister Day, and went out for a pedicure, lunch, and then wrapped it up with ice cream.  OK . . . whose foot is whose?

While we girls were bonding, Rich and Jim went to the Caterpillar Visitor's Center for a guy-appropriate day.  They had fun with that . . . but no ice cream!

It was a really fun weekend to visit with my family, and to celebrate happy times! 

Oh . . . and I had a birthday too!  Yippeeee!

Squirrel Wrath

Yeah . . . I'm quaking in my boots!

 

Just you wait . . . till the molt is over!

Letting Go

In all things . . . there comes the time when there is an ending.  The time has now come for my falconry relationship with my seventh Red-Tailed Hawk, Hit Girl, to end.  On Wednesday morning I removed her equipment, removed her Federal band, and with one last meal, I give her back her freedom, and return her to the wild.  She has been a fantastic gamehawk, and I will miss her, but I wish her well as she returns to being what she was when I fished her from the sky a couple years ago . . . a fascinating and firey wild animal.

Fly Strong and Safe Beautiful Bird!

Spring??

We interrupt this long and dreary winter to bring you a little ray of sunshine.  Spring is taking its dear sweet time to get here this year.  I can't even placate myself during the drudgery and go hawking, which makes most of the winter months bearable.  Just about the time it warms up and you think maybe, just maybe the tide is turned and consistent sunny and warm days are on the way, another storm blows out of the west and north, dumping ice and snow.  We are currently under a forecast for 24 hours of it.  Oh joy!

However, yesterday I went in search of Spring . . . and found it, in St. Paul.  We visited the Como Park Zoo and Conservatory, and specifically the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory.  Under glass, it is summer, and tropical, and in one special area, called the Sunken Garden, it is Spring!  The staff of the Conservatory change out the plants seasonally in the Sunken Garden, and currently their Spring collection of bulbs is on display.  The most noticeable thing about this garden, as you come through the door, is the smell.  It is utterly delightful!

We walked around the displays and I took many pictures.  We will not see our own Spring bulbs blooming probably for another month to month-and-a-half.  There are some flowers here which are more later Spring / Summer blossoms . . . such as the lilies, snapdragons and hydrangea . . . but they were all lovely to see on this cold day.  I've also included some other flowers which were found in tucked away places throughout the Conservatory.  They have quite a few orchids, which are always lovely to see.

Thank You Rich . . . for taking me to see the flowers!

We walked around the entire facility.  They have a tropical rainforest room, complete with birds loose in the facility . . . and these were not your typical boring cage bird finches, but many species of softbills and thrush.  I only saw a few of them, so large and expansive the enclosure that it allows these birds to behave normal, fly and nest, and hide.  It is a sad comparison to some of the other animals housed at the zoo portion of Como Park.  Maybe it is just that many of the animals are being kept indoors because of the cold, and they are all a bit stir crazy too.  However I did spot some very pronounced stereotypical behavior in their arctic fox, as he raced around and around his enclosure, and having made some fairly deep paths with his feet.  One of the two polar bears also seemed to be making ritualistic, repetitive dives in his pool.  The zoo is a rather old one, and you can see efforts to improve the enclosures as much as money and space will allow, but some of the animals do look rather melancholy.  The cougars, in their too-small enclosure, were spatting with each other, the only tiger that we saw pacing, and the gorillas looked pretty sad.  Once it warms up they have a new enclosure to go out into, the gorillas, so that may improve their mood.  I'm not sure any warm weather will help the poor fox.

I have mixed feelings about zoos.  Some of the best zoos in the world are wonderful to see.  I was able to visit the San Diego Zoo many years ago, and it is a wonderful facility.  Much effort now is directed at giving animals the best environment possible, with enrichment opportunities, and social interaction when possible.  So often zoos are the only window that many people have to the animal world.  Increasingly, we humans are crowding out and over-populating the places where animals live.  They often lose the fight for space.  Only those who move to areas that are otherwise undesirable to us humans have much of a chance . . . or those which are adaptive enough to live along side us (starlings, sparrows, pigeons, crows, coyotes, raccoons, opossums).  It is probably only going to get worse as the human population continues to increase, and compete.  I realize many people would translate our keeping in captivity our raptors as pretty much the same thing as putting them into a zoo.  As much as I can, I provide a comfortable housing for my hawks, and get them out as much as I can during the winter to allow them to engage in the activities that nature evolved them for . . . flying and hunting.  For this reason I have decided to not keep a wild-trapped hawk for more than a couple years, thus that is why I will be releasing Hit Girl very soon.  Sassy is captive born, and will live out her life in captivity, but at least with opportunities to fly.  Being a social species, I want to get her a companion, even if it is only a hunting companion, and not a bird she will be able to be housed with permanently, although that would be ideal.  If I am successful in trapping a new Harris Hawk this next fall I will have to decide at a later date whether it will stay in captivity, in falconry, or eventually returned to the wild.  It will all depend on how the two birds get along, and if I sense they are comfortable in their captivity.

Currently, Hit Girl is restless, and has been for awhile.  As soon as it warms up, and appears that Spring is here to stay, I shall let her go.  It won't be long now.

Minnesota Falconer's Game Dinner

On Saturday evening I was able to not only attend the Minnesota Falconer's Game Dinner, but also was able to share the evening with Rich (who took a half day off from work) and Justin, my apprentice, as well as Greg and his son Brady, who will be apprenticing with me this next season, in fall (Greg, not Brady).  It was nice to share the evening with everyone.  I was scheduled to work this weekend, but due to a little emergency with one of my co-workers, our schedule got moved around, and I did my three days earlier in the week.  Cool for me . . . I could go to the dinner with friends.

Here is just a picture of the two falconers, and "Wanna-Be" falconer.  Greg just passed his exam.  He'll be building his mews this summer . . . that is if it ever comes.  It has been a particularly long and cold winter, with a lot of new ice and snow here recently.  When it does come, it will be very welcome.

Hey guys . . . do you know how to smile?

There . . . . I very amateurely photo-shopped a smile to Justin, as he smiled very nice in one of the other pictures.  Greg just doesn't smile.  I made him look more like he's got something on his face.  Ah well . . . just a little fun.

It was nice evening . . . and both Greg and I won some loot on the raffle.    Sweet!

Nestbox

I'm hoping to give Sassy a hobby for the next month or two.

Hunting season is long over!  I'm raising the weight in my birds.  For Hit Girl, eventually to release her once it actually starts to look like spring.  We've had a bit of a setback over the last 24 hours, and the next week doesn't look promising.  There is new ice and snow on the ground, but hopefully it won't stick around for too long. 

For Sassy, I decided I would raise her weight to prompt the moult, but not allow her to get too tubby, as last year she turned into a hateful wench.  Well . . . the hateful wench territory was soon upon her, and she has only gone up about 60 grams.  She's becoming possessive of her mews, and stamping at me, and 'scrawing' as she does.  It's been too cold to weather her, so on a whim, I tossed some twigs into her mews to see what she would do.  She tried to stack them on her food shelf.  After a couple questions to a more experienced falconer and breeder, I decided to give her a place to make a nest if she so chooses.  It may even prompt an egg.  There will be no breeding . . . I don't have a male, or a permit for it, but I think it would be good mentally and emotionally for her to behave normal.  She is a 6-year-old female Harris Hawk.  It would be normal for her to breed at her age.  It can't hurt to give her the tools in case she is inclined to do just that.

Rich built the platform and installed it in the mews today.  I put a dry bath pan with some pine bedding in the bottom, and a couple sticks to give her the idea.  I also placed some more sticks in her mews.  I'll watch and see what she does.  If she starts to stack up there, I'll give her more sticks, and eventually some soft pine bows.  I'm advised that letting her sit on a nest, and possibly an egg may delay the moult, but that she'll pick right up afterwards at an accelerated speed.  So . . . we'll see how good a nest weaver she is.

To All the Girls (and Guys) I've Loved Before

I've had reason here recently to review through some of my archived digital pictures.  I decided I would post pictures of all the raptors I have had the pleasure to work with.  I will try to select the best picture I can find with each bird.

My first hawk was a passage male red tail.  I named him Scimitar.  After my first falconry season I returned him to the wild.  The picture below was taken on the day I released him.

I also found this picure with him and one of the bunnies we caught.  My early pictures are pretty sketchy . . . . only got a digital camera after I became a General Falconer.

My second hawk was a fiery passage female red tail.  I named her Penthesilea, or Pente for short.  She is named after an Amazon Queen.  I kept her for two seasons, then lost her to asper.

My third raptor was a male American Kestrel.  I suspect he was a full adult when I trapped him.  He was my first bird trapped after I had been advanced to a General.  For about a year I had both him and Pente.  I named him Rigel.  After a year with me I returned him to the wild.

My third red tail was a late-trapped passage female red tail who was caught in Normal, IL, to replace Pente.  I named her Abby, for she was Abby from Normal . . . and she remains the most abynormal hawk I have had.  Because she was late trapped, she was terribly stubborn and difficult to train.  After a single season I released her.

My fourth red tail was a lovely bird whose time with me was painfully short.  I named her Sienna, for she was a lovely burnt sienna color.  She was electrocuted on her first free flight when she landed on a transformer.  Her death just about broke my heart . . . as her loss occurred during a very difficult time in my life.

My fifth red tail was a passage female who was gifted to me from a falconer who wished to remain anonymous.  I named her Nina, and I would go on to keep her for three seasons.  She moved with me when I relocated to La Crosse, and if it hadn't been for my needing to concentrate on my school during 2008 / 2009 I just may have kept her.  However, she really wanted her freedom, so I returned her to the wild.

Here is a nice, high-resolution, close-up of her.

The picture below was taken on the day I let her go.

I took a year off from falconry to concentrate on my education, then took a job down in Abilene, Texas.  While there I transferred my falconry license, and was fortunate enough to trap a passage Harris Hawk in Corpus Christi.  I would name him Cimmaron.  I kept him for the season, then returned him to where I trapped him when I was going to move back to Minnesota.  It was just easier to not try to move with a hawk.  Many times I wish I had kept him. 

 Upon my return to the Upper Midwest, and at the appropriate time, I trapped my sixth red tail.  He was a passage male red tail that I would name Bailey.  After a year I returned Bailey to the wild.  He was a nice bird, but all he wanted to catch were mice.

(The picture below was taken by my friend Foxfeather, and posted previously by permission.)

My seventh and current red tail is Hit Girl.  She's been a very nice game hawk and I've had a really good couple seasons with her, however I have decided I will release her in the spring.

 

I need to make sure to get a nice picture of myself and Hit Girl, a non-hunting picture, before I let her go.

The last hawk that has come to live with me is Sassy.  She is a delight, and I have absolutely no intention of getting rid of her.  She's a sweetheart, when she is at hunting weight.

(The picture above was taken by Barbara O'Brien, and posted to my blog by previous permission.)


My hopes and plans are to trap a wild passage Harris Hawk and form a cast (that is, 2 birds that fly together ~ for you non falconry folks) for the next falconry season.  I will also be out trapping another red tail to train Greg how to trap and train a game hawk.