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Takasho
09-05-2010, 12:58 AM
Trapping season here in Colorado started today so I was up at first light with BC's ready to go. I was on the lookout for kestrels and it turned out to be one of the best days of trapping I've ever had.

Right off the bat, two kestrels sitting near each other, we toss the trap and:

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj41/Takasho/DSC00276.jpg

Passage female! And it wasn't even 8:00 yet! rockon

We forged on and made a somewhat long distance set on another bird. A fly by at first and then a bit more commitment and we had our second bird of the day! This one turned out to be a male hag. The cool thing was, it was banded!

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj41/Takasho/DSC00277.jpg

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj41/Takasho/DSC00278.jpg

I recorded the band number and made the call later in the day but they said the number was incomplete...Doh! I was referred to an authority on "partial" band numbers and left her a message but with the long weekend ahead I probably won't hear back for awhile. Bummer, it would be cool to get some history on a bird I trapped! The band actually had Laurel, MD written on it but I suspect that's where the band was manufactured rather than where the bird came from. A kestrel flying cross country east to west just doesn't make much sense to me but who knows. I hope the lady calls me back.

Moving along, we came upon a family group. 4 kestrels within 100 yards of each other, 3 of them sitting on the same pole at one point! We got a drop on them but as we passed the two we were after bumped to a telephone pole over a small rise near a railroad track (that's where they were joined by the 3rd from somewhere). The new location didn't offer a very good opportunity to set as there wasn't a road on the side of the tracks nearest them. We figured our original drop was a decent place though so we had one of the members of our team get out of the car and walk toward them. Sure enough, all 3 bumped BACK TOWARD THE TRAP and less than a minute later we had a passage male on the trap!! I was so amazed I forgot to take pictures! We couldn't miss today!

Onward, ever onward, we spotted a bird high on a telephone pole and made the drop on the corner of a dirt road intersection. It wasn't long before the bird dropped off to say hi to our BC mouse (we used the same mouse all day, he was used to this by now...). #4 was another male hag:

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj41/Takasho/DSC00280.jpg

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj41/Takasho/DSC00281.jpg

Shortly after that we were cruising down yet another dirt road and I happen to spot a bird on a wire right as we passed. The trap was tossed almost as an after thought as it seemed I barely had time to tap on the brake. She was on the trap before we turned around. We debated on whether or not she was a passage or a hag. I was arguing for the latter due to a wider last band on the tail and closer inspection revealed a still moulting tail feather and confirmed my suspicions. #5, a female hag:

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj41/Takasho/DSC00282.jpg

A wrong turn took us pretty far out of kestrel country and we hit a slump after that. Mind you we'd been at it only a few hours at that point but with afternoon appointments looming we decided we'd had enough fun for the morning and headed home. 5 kestrels in about 4 hours ain't too shabby!

Soooo, did I keep one? I guess you'll just have to keep an eye out for any new threads I start. :D Gotta busy weekend planned though so you may have to wait awhile...;)

MadAustringer
09-05-2010, 01:51 AM
Nice trapping mission Issac!clappThe pics are great. They really made me feel like I was there, trapping with you guys too, for just a second...:D

Great hawkin

Shichahn
09-05-2010, 04:13 AM
So jealous! I have to wait until I get home to trap this season's kestrel as I'm doing a banding internship right now. And actually, with regard to that band number, a lot of larger bands leave off a 0 that goes in front of the first set of numbers for some reason, so that could be all that was missing. Hopefully you get a call back, as that would be pretty cool to hear the bird's history. I hope you'll post it here if you do hear back.

outhawkn
09-05-2010, 08:33 AM
Dont you just love it when it all comes together....
Excellent read Isaac........clapp:D

Goshawk65
09-05-2010, 01:46 PM
Great report... you gotta love it when things just click.

Meagan
09-05-2010, 03:00 PM
Great read! I hope you kept one of them...they all look really nice. I cannot believe that you trapped one with a band, I hope you hear back from the lady and can figure out more about where that bird came from.

Takasho
09-08-2010, 11:40 AM
Just got word back from the banding lab in MD. I was able to get one more number from the band off the picture and we were able to narrow it down to the bird being banded in May of 2005 here in Colorado by folks out at the Rocky Mtn. Arsenal. I sent them the picture of the close up of the band to see if they could determine what the last number was and get the rest of the information but even the limited information I got is still pretty cool. 5 years for that little guy. What a trooper!

zx2run
09-08-2010, 11:43 AM
I was out trapping this past Monday and amazingly enough I ended up trapping a banded Haggard Female. We took some pics and sent her on her way.

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm92/zx2un/trapping001.jpg

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm92/zx2un/trapping014.jpg

sevristh
09-08-2010, 04:09 PM
Did you record the band to try and call and see where it was banded at?

zx2run
09-08-2010, 04:21 PM
Yup...I have called and reported it. They are having a little trouble finding out information on it. They told me that the number that I recorded was incomplete. They said there should be 8 numbers...I only found 5.

Takasho
09-08-2010, 04:41 PM
Yup...I have called and reported it. They are having a little trouble finding out information on it. They told me that the number that I recorded was incomplete. They said there should be 8 numbers...I only found 5.

Ha, that's exactly what happened to me except I had 6 numbers. Looking at the picture I took I was able to see one more (no idea how I missed it when I had the bird in hand...) but at least they were able to pin it down to the month and year it was banded and who it was banded by, if not information on the exact bird. For me, that was interesting enough!

zx2run
09-08-2010, 10:58 PM
Ha, that's exactly what happened to me except I had 6 numbers. Looking at the picture I took I was able to see one more (no idea how I missed it when I had the bird in hand...) but at least they were able to pin it down to the month and year it was banded and who it was banded by, if not information on the exact bird. For me, that was interesting enough!

According to the women I spoke with...there should be 3 numbers followed by a dash and then the last 5 numbers. I think I might have just missed the first 3 numbers.

I know exactly why I might have missed a few numbers....that female was one nasty biter. She drew blood half a dozen times in the few minutes we had her. So needless to say I was a little distracted. LOL

Takasho
09-09-2010, 12:28 PM
Got this via email today, kinda cool:

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj41/Takasho/page0001.jpg

Saluqi
09-09-2010, 12:32 PM
That's pretty neat Issac. It surprises me that a kestrel even gets to be 5 years old in the wild.

REYNALDO
09-09-2010, 12:35 PM
thats is pretty cool. i am jeaslous with your luck too in trapping. 3 more days here in MI and i will be out trapping in the crack of dawn!!!

Takasho
09-09-2010, 12:46 PM
That's pretty neat Issac. It surprises me that a kestrel even gets to be 5 years old in the wild.

Yeah, 5 years impressed me too! Makes me wonder how long the average kestrel lives if they make it past that first year.

Takasho
09-12-2010, 12:17 AM
I don't know what gods of falconry I appeased this year but trapping has been ridiculously easy. Obviously last week I posted how trapping for kestrels went, this week we were out after a male RT for my buddy who just got his license. We left around 5:30 a.m., only tossed the trap twice and had his bird by 7:30!!

It was pretty crazy, we made the set for one bird sitting on some old farm equipment and we thought it was going for the trap but just did a fly by and headed for a tree a couple hundred yards away. We picked up the trap and made a right turn toward where the bird had gone but quickly realized there was no road that ran near the tree the bird had gone to. We continued another hundred yards or so over a small rise and I spotted a bird on top of a pole on the left hand side of the road. We made the drop and turned around down the road a ways to watch. I was watching the bird on the pole when my buddy says, "There's another bird and I think it was just on the trap!" I looked up to see a bird pitching up and landing on a pole directly above the trap! We have no clue where the second bird came from, it could've been the bird that did the fly by originally (since it must've come from that direction) or it could have just been sitting in a tree where we didn't see it. Regardless, it looked at the trap for a couple minutes and then just dropped straight on to it. Easy as that, my buddy has his first bird. (No pictures on the trap since it was only caught by one toe and we wanted to make sure it didn't get loose.) We'd planned to be out until at least noon and were both laughing at how easy it was. We took it home, jessed it up and they started getting acquainted:

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj41/Takasho/DSC00384.jpg

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj41/Takasho/DSC00385.jpg

http://i269.photobucket.com/albums/jj41/Takasho/DSC00386.jpg

1078g with sock and hood. Feather perfect (do the decks look a bit shorter than the others?? Still coming in? noidea) and fat and healthy. I'm just bummed that trapping season just got started and I'm pretty much done! (Until my upgrade comes anyway...:))

cwd56
09-12-2010, 01:29 AM
Those big arse arms and he's already bracing it with his other hand lol. I know that feeling, tell him congrats. Is he a member here?

Takasho
09-12-2010, 09:49 AM
Yeah, he's on here but I don't know that he's ever posted. I'll leave it up to him as to whether or not he'll start a thread on the bird. He's pretty excited though!

Dirthawking
09-17-2010, 10:31 AM
Just saw this! Tell him congrats for me Isaac. Glad to see the paracord is getting used! I was worried he would have it for a few more weeks. clapp

Chad L.
09-17-2010, 10:45 AM
Thanks for posting the pics Issac. I love the pictures of first birds. The falconer with the big cheesey grin and the bird with the what the hell are you smiling at look in their eyes. Fun.

It's super cool that you got the info back on the Kestrel. I've seen a handful of these off of ducks and geese but have never seen one off of a raptor. Very cool.

Takasho
09-17-2010, 11:03 AM
Mario, he thanks you again for the paracord! In all honesty, I didn't think he'd be using it this soon either!

Chad, Yeah, he's pretty excited. It finally ate off the fist for him Wednesday night (920g). The hood you loaned him fits great. He found what he thinks is a tape worm in mute this morning though. I gave him Labondie's (sp?) number and told him to give him a call.

Chad L.
09-17-2010, 12:19 PM
Glad to hear it decided to start eating and I'm glad the hood worked out. The credit of course goes to Bryant Tarr for making a great hood.

john1100
09-26-2010, 09:18 PM
Congrats on the banded birds. I am a raptor bander and any information on a return is a plus. Just a note on kestrels but they tend to winter in the same place from year to year. I banded a male and recaptured it four years later from the same telephone pole that I caught it the first time.

Jim

tumble
10-05-2010, 06:22 AM
Too early to get anything done so I'm catching up on some old threads...this one is great, Isaac. Good stuff!


Those big arse arms and he's already bracing it with his other hand lol.

:D

jnelly32
10-18-2010, 02:37 AM
Those big arse arms and he's already bracing it with his other hand lol. I know that feeling, tell him congrats. Is he a member here?
LOL. Even big-arse arms get tired when you hold a hawk away from you like that for very long. I've since learned that its o.k. to hold your arm close to your body even if a raptor with meat-hook talons is sitting there!

As to your question about membership, yes, I'm a member with very few posts. But I did just post a very long introduction to my passage male RT here ( http://www.nafex.net/showthread.php?t=9214 ) complete with training details and tales of his first few hunts.

I'll promise to post updates periodically and apologize in advance for the lengthy waits between periodicals :)