Lost Haggard Redtail in Santa Cruz

[HeartyHawking]

A mature 1300g female redtail was lost the night of Feb 28 and was last seen the morning of March 1 in Santa Cruz (near High Street). She has a BLUE LEASH TRAILING (I wasn't the one flying her...) Any help would be greatly appreciated. We'd hate to lose her this way. :(

[katzenjammer360]

Did this bird ever get found?

[HeartyHawking]

Spotted numerous times but not recovered. :( She was last seen Saturday at 10 AM... We've had a live cottontail-looking rabbit staked out in the yard where she'd been weathering for the past four months, along with two live quail in a BC. No luck.

Unless we can figure out where she's hunting, I don't have a lot of hope left. The bird is managing to fend for herself, even with equipment on, and we believe she's even found a mate. x.x Her original falconer says she is good at chewing through anklets, but after nine days she was still wearing them. :(

[katzenjammer360]

Aww, man. That sucks. Does she still have the leash on, too? I guess it's good people are still seeing her, means she hasn't gotten tangled up yet. Here's to hoping she chews those anklets off soon. Is there any pattern to where she's been spotted? If so, could her falconer walk around there with a lure? Anyway, my brainstorming probably wont do any more than you guys have tried to. Good luck and hope it turns out okay.

[HeartyHawking]

Yeah, we thought of dragging the lure around as soon as we realized she was staying in the immediate area. In fact, she soared over the house as I was doing this and kept on flying. :/ (It's unfortunate that I was the one there at the time, as she doesn't know me very well.) I assumed then that she had "gone wild," which is why we tried to bait her with the rabbit and quail.

Ugh. The whole thing is immensely frustrating and sad.

[FredFogg]

Pigeon and a bow trap!

[HeartyHawking]

I don't mean to be a negative nancy, but I don't think that would work in her case. We had a pigeon in the yard for days and she didn't show any interest in that... or anything else. :(

[HGlider]

Any recent sightings?

[FredFogg]

I don't mean to be a negative nancy, but I don't think that would work in her case. We had a pigeon in the yard for days and she didn't show any interest in that... or anything else. :(

Were you flagging the pigeon or just had it tethered out hoping the bird would come down to it?

[HeartyHawking]

She was last sighted March 9th. And the pigeon was mostly sitting there tethered, but on two occasions we were tossing it in the air when we had a visual, and she didn't come to it.

[FredFogg]

She was last sighted March 9th. And the pigeon was mostly sitting there tethered, but on two occasions we were tossing it in the air when we had a visual, and she didn't come to it.

Try using a pull line to move the pigeon with you out of sight. The bird is wary of you now and won't come to a bc or anything with you in sight.

[Amy]

That bird wouldn't have anything to do with a pigeon but was very fond of boyds quail. I am very disappointed to hear about this. I am the original owner of this bird. I was under the impression she was lost while hunting and was only wearing field jesses. Very disappointed she is flying around around with a leash and most likely a swivel. Only a matter if time before she gets tangled on something and wines up dead. I would try a carpet noose with a dead rabbit. It would be nice to hear she was trapped and re-released free of hardware.

[HeartyHawking]

The bird is safe and returned to her falconer! Some boys saw her hanging from a pole and got in touch with a wildlife rescue. They could tell she belonged to somebody and through the grapevine they got in touch with us. I had hoped this might happen but the odds seemed against it! Thank god she's alright.

[Amy]

Glad to hear she is alive. I hope she is placed on antibiotics as a precautionary measure as I have heard she had some cuts on her. Also it would be a great idea to crop her out, make sure her weight is above 1500 grams, cut off her hardware and release her back into the wild in the same area she got hung up. She has lived several weeks on her own and apparently has a mate. She was an amazing bird for me and she was suppose to be with a very experienced falconer, but instead passed off to someone else. I would hate to see anything further happened to her. I hope your friend will do what's right.