Trapping Season!

[Takasho]

Trapping season opened here in CO on the 4th but today was the first day I was able to get out. It was a rough day (trapping wise) to be honest. We left at the break of dawn and while we were aiming for kestrels we figured we'd trap any juvie RT's we saw just for the fun of it.

We got into birds almost immediately, we found the kestrel jackpot! They were like sparrows crossing the road all over in front of us at one point. And I'm not exaggerating, we would see one on a telephone line, and then one would cross in front of us and then another would be on the fence post all within like 100 yards. I was amazed. We tried to get a set but they were pretty jumpy birds and when we did get the trap out nothing was hungry. We did get to watch one kestrel chase a sparrow pretty good, made me excited to get mine! We gradually drifted out of kestrel mecca without any success but I'll definitely be going back there!

We took a break for breakfast and then headed out again. In no time we spotted a juvie RT, out went the trap and down came the bird...And I thought RT's were supposed to be more difficult than kestrels!
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_MuNtrSS5HEo/SMM8UeuHR7I/AAAAAAAAARc/p71gzl48rTw/s320/006.JPG
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_MuNtrSS5HEo/SMM8VrOyuGI/AAAAAAAAARk/2tjSHCHvCWM/s320/007.JPG
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_MuNtrSS5HEo/SMM8V4e0mcI/AAAAAAAAARs/R1NqvhhroNI/s320/008.JPG
We released her after the pics and she just flew to the next pole! Alas, this was the only bird we got all day. We threw the trap out for TONS of birds but it just wasn't our day. We did see tons of fun stuff though, antelope, deer, coyote, golden eagles, feruginous, praire falcons, swainsons, kestrels, RT's etc. Put about 300 miles on the car. Fun stuff.

Can't wait to get out and do it again soon! rockon I'll post pics as I get them. Probably won't keep a bird until the middle of the month.

[wesleyc6]

Cool story and pics!

I think RT's are a lot easier to catch than kestrels.

[SGC]

Cool story and pics!

I think RT's are a lot easier to catch than kestrels.
A lot easier to get a trap out too also.

[idbirdman]

No sure what you are using to catch the kestrels, but I have always had just incredible success with a store bought Zebra finch. You will catch birds that normaly will just sit and stair at a mouse. Give it a try. You will be supprised. Also then when you have you k-bird in hand, you can always keep the finch at a pet or food storage for you k-bird later on. Thanks Stephen

[tony123abc]

Best K bird set is used is a net and a dove. Just for because I cut the tail in the dove to make it seem smallish. Sparrows and like Stephen said, zebra finches work great too. Also, with the net set you do not have to get so close you will bump em. tony

[sevristh]

Isaac,

Were you using the sparrow harness that you showed in that other thread? It would seem that would be a pretty easy way to go. Most of the kestrels I have seen bump when you pass em, but then usually circle around back to where they bumped from after you pass. A harnessed sparrow thrown at that spot as you pass might do the trick.

And I have to agree from experience (or lack thereof since I was never able to actually TRAP a kestrel), RT's are SOOOOOO much easier than kestrels to trap. What other bird will come down to a trap, have you run up and try to grab it, only to slip off the trap, then let you throw the trap in front of it again, and once AGAIN come down to the trap!?!? I have seen this several times with passage RTs... And we wonder why they have a 96% mortallity rate in the wild... they are careless and greedy! Not a good combination :)

[Bird_Dog]

I concur. I trapped my kestrel with a zebra finch, but you might get something else too - like a Loggerhead Shrike:) I had a wild shrike that would kill my ZFs in my backyard aviary. It could rip their heads off through the 1/2 mesh wire.


No sure what you are using to catch the kestrels, but I have always had just incredible success with a store bought Zebra finch. You will catch birds that normaly will just sit and stair at a mouse. Give it a try. You will be supprised. Also then when you have you k-bird in hand, you can always keep the finch at a pet or food storage for you k-bird later on. Thanks Stephen

[FredFogg]

Isaac,

Trap a few English Sparrows, put two of them in your trap and no kestrel will be able to resist them. I have caught plenty of kestrels and they come to an ES faster than anything. The problem with finches, they hunker down and won't move when they know they are in danger.

Went out yesterday from day break until about 3 p.m. with a friend and we trapped a couple red-tails. He got a nice male that was 37 oz and had a huge crop. Just love a red-tail that comes down to a trap with a full crop, love a greedy bird! LOL

Good luck Isaac,

[Takasho]

Thanks for all the advice guys. Yesterday was just a baby gerbil and BC day which is why we suspected that kestrels weren't interested. I had planned to trap some sparrows but couldn't get any in time for yesterday. I'll have my traps out though and hopefully get some soon. Sparrows are way cheaper than zebra finches, I didn't/don't want to spend $15 for that little bit of hawk food!

Part of the reason that I'm waiting to get my kestrel is so that I can test my sparrow harnesses out. I suspect that I'll have MUCH more success with them. Hard to have less!

[idbirdman]

Isaac,

Were you using the sparrow harness that you showed in that other thread? It would seem that would be a pretty easy way to go. Most of the kestrels I have seen bump when you pass em, but then usually circle around back to where they bumped from after you pass. A harnessed sparrow thrown at that spot as you pass might do the trick.

And I have to agree from experience (or lack thereof since I was never able to actually TRAP a kestrel), RT's are SOOOOOO much easier than kestrels to trap. What other bird will come down to a trap, have you run up and try to grab it, only to slip off the trap, then let you throw the trap in front of it again, and once AGAIN come down to the trap!?!? I have seen this several times with passage RTs... And we wonder why they have a 96% mortallity rate in the wild... they are careless and greedy! Not a good combination :)

Hey Dave
I have caught a prairie falcons, released it just to have it turn around not even landing and come and catch my previously unharmed bait bird right in front of me. Kind of frustrating. Stephen

[sevristh]

Stephen,

Yeah, last year I trapped a RT, it was smaller than the one we already had, so I released it. It flew to a wire right above the truck, and turned around to look at us. I had one gerbil that wouldn't stop fighting with the other two, so I took it and tossed it into the field in front of the truck... that RT was on it in a SECOND! He grabbed it, and carried it into a tree and began eating. It's amazing how fast a RT can forget something :)

[tony123abc]

Ya know I have been observing the darn RT for a while. The characteristics that make them a good hawking bird are the same characteristics that allow them to live all over and displace the other hawks in their areas. I know with me, if that Rt aint down by the time I turn the truck around, I generally move to the next one. Ya gotta love a bird that will take such risks.

I had a buddy who had a coopie fly right into the jeep while he was fitting a jock on the pigeon. Another guy had one chase him down the road after the jocked pigeon tangled on his truck antenea.

[Takasho]

A couple pics from the weekend, caught two kestrels in about an hour of trapping. Both male so I let them go:
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj41/Takasho/024.jpg
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj41/Takasho/022.jpg
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj41/Takasho/025.jpg
The male kestrel hood I made fits!
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj41/Takasho/023.jpg

[zx2run]

Nice pics!

[chamokane]

Hey Dave
I have caught a prairie falcons, released it just to have it turn around not even landing and come and catch my previously unharmed bait bird right in front of me. Kind of frustrating. Stephen

I've caught Prairies that insisted on being trapped no matter what I did also. That kind of bold aggressiveness is one reason I enjoy flying them.

[FredFogg]

Issac,

Pretty little adult male you caught there! Are you trying for a juvie female only or will you take a juvie of either sex? I have flown a juvie and adult male, haven't flown a female yet!

[Takasho]

There's actually two adult males in those pics! ;)

But I'm going for a juvie female. Not seeing a whole lot of females, juvie or adult, around though. Did your males handle starlings okay? I think the males are beautiful but since I've still got plenty of time I'll hunt around for a female for awhile.

[everetkhorton]

Isaac:
Thanks for posting the picture of the k-bird that you trapped. Mi. trapping season open today if I remember right.

[FredFogg]

Did your males handle starlings okay?

The juvie male was catching sparrows and just starting to chase starlings. He chased two through a row of trees and that was the last I saw of him as I think a coops snatched him up. The adult male, I caught a few sparrows with him, about 10, and the last couple he carried, so I switched him to starlings and he caught about 40 in a month before I turned him loose. He also caught 2 doves, but one never got off the ground and the other only got about a foot off the ground when he hit it. And both times, if I hadn't gotten there fast, he probably would have gotten kicked off. He was a fiesty little guy and I had a blast flying him. Those are the only two I have flown, but just from comparing the two, a juvie is easier to train to not carry, although a hag will start chasing starlings quicker. I will definately fly another one someday! They are fun birds for me to fly at the end of winter and through spring.

[Takasho]

Another couple male kestrels this weekend. I can't seem to find females ANYWHERE! There's still plenty of time though and I'm having fun so I can't complain.

I finally worked out a sparrow harness design that works but the sparrow doesn't survive the attack, or at least this one didn't:

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj41/Takasho/Trapping001.jpg

So after that confirmation I figured I'd save the harness for any females I saw and use the BC for males:

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj41/Takasho/Trapping003.jpg
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj41/Takasho/Trapping004.jpg

I'm a happy trapper:

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj41/Takasho/Trapping006.jpg

But I'll be happier when I finally find where the females are hanging out!

[sevristh]

Isaac,

would you mind posting some pics of your final design on the harness? I thought most birds in harness' did not survive the attack? Do pigeons survive falcon attacks in the harness? confusedd

[Takasho]

I'll post some pics of the harness when I get home, it's super simple to make and only has 6 nooses, MUCH easier on the fingers than the dozens of nooses you need for a BC! The set up for a sparrow harness is about as simple as you can get too, just toss the weight (in my case a leather pouch filled with sand) out with the sparrow. They're both so small you don't even need to open the door, just toss it out the window. It looks like the sparrow gets hit by a car and the bird comes swooping in. I'd love to try it out on other raptors like praire falcons, coopers, sharpies, and merlins.

As for surviving the attack, I don't know if pigeons survive. I'd be surprised if they did. I've just never used a harness before so I didn't know what to expect. I didn't know if the leather gave them some measure of protection or what but it doesn't help sparrows!

[sevristh]

I would think that if you wanted to give the sparrow or pigeon a measure of protection, you'd need to have the leather extend up the back of the neck, since falcons (of which kestrels are falcons) bite at the spinal cord to kill, do they not? Make the sparrow a little leather 'hood' type extension with a chin-strap! LOL!:D

[Takasho]

The harness design that I finally settled on does actually have a kind of collar around the birds neck but it's more to keep the harness on (that was my problem with earlier designs, birds kept getting out of the harness!) than anything else.

If I'm tossing a sparrow out the window of a moving vehicle as "bait" for a raptor I really shouldn't be concerned about whether it survives! (Kinda like a worm on a hook...;)) If I had a better supply of sparrows at the moment I'd use the harness more often.

[Takasho]

Two females this morning and one was a keeper!
I started by throwing the BC under a bird whose gender I couldn't identify immediately. It only took a few minutes and the bird made a pass at the trap but didn't commit. I could see it was a male now but thought meh, what the heck and left the trap out. The male made several more passes but just wouldn't land when suddenly this lady in a huge truck pulls up next to my trap. The male bolted and the lady was getting out of the truck so I rushed over and saw that a female kestrel was caught! What the...? I don't have any idea where it came from or how long it had been on the trap (not too long though, I'd only been there 10 mins...). The lady in the truck had seen the caught bird and that's why she had stopped. Under her watchful eye I removed the nooses, explained myself, and took the bird back to the car for pics:
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj41/Takasho/Dulcinea002.jpg
Judging by its tail, I figured the bird was a hag:
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj41/Takasho/Dulcinea003.jpg
but since I haven't seen many females I figured she could at least keep me company while I looked for a passage bird. She was absolutely comatose with the hood on!
Not more than 20 minutes later I spot another bird sitting on a telephone pole. Out goes the BC and before I could even turn around the bird was on the trap! With it's tail fanned out I could tell immediately that she was a passage bird:
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj41/Takasho/Dulcinea006.jpg
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj41/Takasho/Dulcinea009.jpg
I popped the hood off the first bird, thanked her for her time and let her go. I put the hood on the second bird hoping for the same comatose state that would make the drive home easy. None of it! Not only did she not sit still with the hood on wiggled her way out of the sock despite the tape! She's a fiesty one! I ended up driving the whole way home holding her in my one hand. She's got attitude for sure. Now she's all jessed up learning to ride the fist, I'll start a thread on her in the longwing section later today. I'm excited to get my season started!!!
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj41/Takasho/Dulcinea007.jpg

[FredFogg]

Way to go Isaac! clappclappclapp Now you are on your way! Can you take a photo of her chest? Is she a juvie or a hag?

[Eagle Owl]

Congrats, Isaac!!!! clapp

[wesleyc6]

How cool. I have never trapped a juvie female. At least not a clearcut one like the one you caught. I hope to hear great hunting stories from you!

[Takasho]

Can you take a photo of her chest?

Here ya go Fred:
http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj41/Takasho/Chest003.jpg


Is she a juvie or a hag?
Refer to the original post and tail pics about her for my opinion about it. I'm 99.9% sure she's a juvie. From all that I've read, the best indicator of juvie females is a thin bottom band on the tail. Comparing the two I caught today, she's a juvie for sure.

[FredFogg]

Here ya go Fred:
Refer to the original post and tail pics about her for my opinion about it. I'm 99.9% sure she's a juvie. From all that I've read, the best indicator of juvie females is a thin bottom band on the tail. Comparing the two I caught today, she's a juvie for sure.

She sure is purty! What is her weight? I have only flown 2 males, so haven't had a chance to fly one of those huge females. LOL

[Takasho]

She's a tiny girl, 114.5g with jesses. Honestly she seems smaller than the males I caught this year!

[FredFogg]

She's a tiny girl, 114.5g with jesses. Honestly she seems smaller than the males I caught this year!

Wow, she is tiny! I have always heard they were smaller out there than in the east, but I didn't realize they were that small. You have 5 days, you can always trap a larger one and cut this one loose.

[Chris L.]

Isaac,
Congrats, she looks great thumbsuppThanks for posting the great pictures