Eagle Journal

Hello everyone,

Well today was just one of those days. Widow’s weight is up just a little, which I didn’t think too much of, but apparently for her it’s up enough to take the edge off her desire to hunt, or maybe just dull it. I went to the smallest alfalfa field. I hadn’t hunted there for a few days and it looked just perfect — the alfalfa is right at knee height. As I was wiring Widow up with her transmitter, two big trucks pulled up and parked at the far end of the road. From the second I unhooded Widow she was absolutely convinced that those two trucks were going to get her somehow. I started walking through the field, moving away from the trucks, when a rabbit flushed almost under my foot and ran straight away through the hay — the exact slip that Widow loves. No reaction from Widow. She never even saw the flushing jack rabbit because she was looking in the opposite direction at the trucks! The best flush we have had in the last three days and she’s not paying any attention. But no.she’s looking off at some trucks that are so far away Barry Bonds couldn’t hit them with his longest home run!

I turned back and headed down the field again only to see the farmer’s wife pull up in her truck. She came over to the gate and asked how the rabbit patrol was going. I said that we had caught a few and that this young bird was still learning. I had turned to face Mrs. Farmer. Widow, however, had her back to the nice lady and was keeping an eye on those evil trucks by looking over my shoulder. Then Widow heard a strange voice and glanced over her shoulder, saw Mrs. Farmer and freaked, bating straight into my face. I actually thought I chipped a tooth. Widow was trying for all she’s worth to climb over my shoulder and neck. I’m OK, I said, mostly because I thought Mrs. Farmer needed to hear me acknowledge that, even though I did have a 9 lb eagle thrashing at my neck. I was, in fact, OK. I walked the rest of the field without another flush.

I then went to the pole field and saw 5 or 6 jacks, none of which Widow felt compelled enough to launch after. So…. I went to the railroad tracks. I pulled up and had to wait for a person on a bike of some sort, with baskets tied all over it and various American and Mexican flags sticking out in all directions which he used to pick up bottles and cans, to stop staring at me and move off! Then I had to wait for a county worker to move away from the train tracks. Apparently he realized, much to his delight, that nobody could see or monitor what he was doing up there, which had little to do with work. So he spends a considerable amount of his day placing coins on the train tracks in different and very carefully thought out patterns. What a genius! So, after all that, I went up the bank, unhooded Widow, and we started to hunt.  So far this season, every time I have hunted the train tracks I could count on flushing anywhere from 5-10 jacks. Today I only saw three, so someone had beat me to this spot and my guess would be Mr. Coyote, which is fine. Widow did fly hard at one jack but lost it in the weeds. So the high point of day #24 would be Widow continuing to drop feathers while being hunted. The one feather did have a very nice flight out over the hay field.. Yup, that would be the high point all right, a feather drifting in the wind

When eagles come to me they are usually very pissed off at people. They have been chased around in flights with nets and poked and prodded with all sorts of instruments in order to ensure their health. So they are, for the most part, freaked out. Birds in this frame of mind will not molt well, if at all. Then they are handed off to me, who, instead of taking blood and giving them horrible tasting medicine to eat, gives them good tasting food and leaves them alone. Within a few weeks I am their best friend and a bond begins to form. Their trust and confidence in me grows and I begin to train them. Most eagles that we get, because of their illness or injury, did not molt, so they have missed a molting season and therefore have some ratty looking feathers. And to all birds, but in particular birds of prey, feather condition is everything. Poor feather. poor flight..poor survival chances. Do not doubt for a second that raptors are not aware of their feather condition and have a strong desire to fix them. So it is not difficult to tell when an eagle has settled into the program and is in a much more relaxed state of mind they start to drop feathers like a busted pillow in a pillow fight. Every time Widow moves a feather goes flying off. It won’t be long before she’ll look pretty ratty, especially around her head. So it becomes a real balancing act to keep Widow’s weight within the range that she will hunt and molt at the same time. What does all this mean? I’ll drop Widow’s weight just a smidge.

Hope all is well,

Joe