27/05/2024
Another two gorgeous Barbary falcons taken out of the chamber for hacking.
My system is based on Lyn Oliphant's Four Week Window. This means parent reared birds taken at 5 weeks, socialised for 2 weeks and given the freedom of the skies for at least 2 weeks.
My method differs in that they are not taken in at night but given total freedom as in a wild hack. I have hacked birds for 6 weeks and more but the critical development happens in those first 2 weeks just as in nature. After that the risks increase substantially.
This year, I removed them from the chamber, hooded them, took the CITES ring photos and fitted backpacks and transmitters. I also fitted anklets for my customers (I don't tether my birds). I did this all at once to get all the unpleasant stuff out of the way in one go and avoid fiddling around later.
The sharp eyed among you may notice one anklet is fitted wrong, above the ring. If you can imagine the difficulty of catching them up and fitting everything singlehandedly without damaging any delicate, still -growing feathers then you might understand why some small mistakes are made in the stress of the process.
In the past my mistakes have included not checking equal lengths of the teflon ribbon before crimping up and even fitting the backpack plate upside down!
And this year this horrible rookie mistake which I didn't notice until she was unhooded in the box.
It's of no consequence since I never tether and it will be changed before passing to the customer. I won't risk stressing her out again until l have gained her confidence.