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.
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