Mielikki

[ikcus]

Mielikki arrived last Tuesday and I could not be happier. She is a female Finnish and a real love. Mielikki came home at 24 days. At 24 days she was exactly matched in development to my good friends 16 day old Female NA except she was a lot bigger. Her nickname right now is The Giraffe. I am glad I raised quail this year being she is putting down 2-2.5 quail a day! The food intake simply amazes me.
So far everything is going well. The only concern I have right now is her band. She currently has an RW band and I think she might have needed a bigger RX band. I am keeping a very close eye on this issue, and I do hope the RW will be big enough. Time and growth will tell.

Getting her out of the crate:


Feet:


Hello, my name is Mielikki:


I figured out how to get out 29 days:


Hi daddy:


Mommy, can I cuddle:


My daughter and Mielikki watching TV:

[raptrlvr]

Congrats Joe.

[PeteJ]

The band should be okay. By this stage their tarsi are about as thick as they're going to get, and about all that happens from here on out is that their toes lengthen a bit more. Have fun, she looks like she's settled in. Keep that vacuum handy, cause they have loads of down!!!

[hcmcelroy]

Joe,

Delightful photo with your daughter! You will cherish that image as the years pass. Like Pete I see the band as a god fit.

Is she imprinted to people or what? At 24 days it would be interesting if she were not raised by people and suddenly taken from the parents???

Some of us estimate that the N. Am females imprint at 20 or so days and perhaps the males around 18 days.

Harry.

[ikcus]

Yes, Harry she is an imprint. She was in the breeders main living area before she arrived at our place. Mielikki is around myself or my family 24 hours a day. She is currently passed out in her nest box on my desk at work.

[FredFogg]

Joe, she looks great! Nice set of feet on her. What will be your main quarry for her?

[ikcus]

Fred, our main quarry will be jacks, pheasants and ducks.

[Chad L.]

Me likey the giraffe! Looks like almost to much fun to resist, Joe. Have fun with her. I can't wait to meet her at NAFA.

Keep us updated on her progress.

[ikcus]

32 days and all is well. Anklets will be going on this weekend. Mielikki ever so wants to get on the couch with me. She is still putting down 2.5 quail a day. I can not wait to weigh her and see where she is at.
Today we introduced the big red vacuum cleaner, and she was very interested but still very calm. She now is doing Tai Bo with the wife. Gotta keep her in shape.......
Thanks Pete for the advice on the tarsi growth. I am still keeping an eye on it, but it is good to know and has eased my mind.

[FredFogg]

She looks pretty thick Joe, looks like she is going to be a big girl. It always amazes me how many drop cloths falconers have around in their houses. LOL Every time someone comes to my house, they ask why do you have so many sheets laying around?

[ikcus]

Fred, she is growing like a weed. I think she will be plenty big enough
And yes, I ran out of sheets, they are in the wash. Blue tarps for now..............

[ikcus]

36 days. Mielikki is up and just beginning to run around like a chicken and flapping those wings. As I thought in the beginning, she is going to need a larger band. I am going to get the ball rolling with the feds so I can get her band removed, and get a larger band that will not cause her leg issues. Everything has been going as planned other wise. Yesterday a fellow falconer and myself, picked up some starlings from a gentleman at Bass Pro Shops parking lot. Tons of attention from people, cars, trucks, Harley's, little girls with Barbie dolls. Mielikki loved every bit of it and never showed any sign of fear. She also loves to ride in the truck.

[ikcus]

Busy, busy week, but still having a lot of fun with Mielikki. No complaints other than getting her band removed at the vet. She did not really like that part, but was fine a minute or so after the procedure. I made sure I was NOT in the room for that one. She is being fed 3 times a day from the lure in a different location each feeding. I am doing this to keep her less territorial and quiet. So far this has worked out well. Mielikki is really starting to branch, and when the hot days cools off and the nice delta breeze cools the evening down, we head out to the backyard, front yard, neighbors houses, park, etc. She is free to run around and explore and eventually finds her meal. Being we have almost no mosquitoes we stay out til almost dark and then hang out in the garage until she passes out.

40 days


41 days
On the neighbors front porch

Hanging out in the dirty laundry

42 days
Sleeping on her newly claimed bean bag

Someone is getting big

[Ross]

She looks great. Nice pics of her socializing in the home life. I hope to follow this thread for reference a I have flown 2 teircel finns and would like to try a female sometime. By the way who bred her? I think you'll have a blast with her.

[ikcus]

Thanks Ross. She came from Dan Pike's project in WA.
What part of NW Iowa are you in? I have family from Sioux City up to LeMars, and some in Kingsley. Next year my buddy from MN and myself are planning on a trip to Poccahontas for some pheasant hunting.

[Ross]

I live in Milford, but Okoboji and Spirit Lake are the towns with more name recognition in the area. About an hour from Pocohontas or Lemars. Come up and I can probably put you on some birds here if you have time on your trip. Unfortunately we are looking at the lowest pheasant numbers in over 30 years. A couple years of brutal winters and wet nesting seasons combined with loss of habitat has taken its toll.

[ikcus]

Man, Lake Okoboji brings back some good memories. Grandpa had a house on the lake and we used to catch catfish until the cows came home. Good times. I will definitely let you know if we make the trip next year.

[ikcus]

My babies after a long hot day:

[ikcus]

Sunning on a Sunday Morning....Before the heat inundates the day......
43 days with a full breakfast crop.

[Lee Slikkers]

lookin' good~

[ikcus]

It is late here, but I would like to share this late evening. Today was hot, 103 to be exact. Mielikki stayed very quiet all day in her nest on the bean bag. She ate a whole quail and a starling today and keep quiet during the heat. Upon arriving home late tonight she was on fire. I decided to take her out front, and she proceeded to run into the garage and play like a little kid. She is now up on a high perch footing the crap out of anything I give her. Mielikki is in rare form. I guess dad has to stay up late tonight to let her do her thing. I am not complaining.... Has anyone else seen this behavior before? She is acting like a cooped up kid denied the candy store. Never the less, this is fun.

[goshawks00]

I've seen it many times over the years , but I think it's just pent up energy that was to be used in order to alleviate internal 'meltdown'. They do it when they are inspired to.. I've seen it happen with a blowing leaf in the middle of the day... or a simple lure toss, or any other motivator. The funniest ones for me were when we raised Ricky , a gos in 2006. He would quietly be sitting on the perch or floor, and Oreo the kitten he was being raised with would walk into the room.. One second he would be standing there, and the next second they would be on the floor wrestling WWF style no holds barred. Oreo would have him in a head locked kicking away while Ricky would have both feet footing the crap out of the kitten... along with many a bite and wing whipping. If you didn't know any better it would appear as if it was all out war , but they were just playing... After a bit of that, one or the other would either run off or collapse on the floor. The other sensing victory, would lay down as if spent and fall asleep.

BTW the picture of the kitten under the perch was at around 90 days , fully a month aftyer hard penning..... Ricky got killed by a RT on a long flight on a pheasant kill a month or so later.

[ikcus]

47 days old. Mielikki is progressing well. Still feeding from the lure 3 times a day. Lots of socialization, and we have more planned for this weekend. This weekend will be dirt bikes at my friends private track, horses at my bosses house, and hopefully an evening meal by the busy freeway.
Woke up this morning with Mielikki sleeping on my chest. Still have a on my face.

Sleepy head on the couch this afternoon.

[AK Rev]

Love it! Keep it up. Sounds like you are doing fantastic on the socialization.

[Chad L.]

Looking at how much she has grown and how much feather development has happened in the last 23 days is pretty incredible.

Keep at it Joe, she seems to be comming along just the way you wanted.

[ikcus]

48 days. Some good ol glove time.

[allredone]

Very nice bird! Super nice Bozo the clown feet. Where is she from? Sorry if that has already been mentioned before. I couldn't find it.

[ikcus]

Aaron, she came from Dan Pike's project. She is currently high perched in the garage with me and a couple of friends. We had a wonderful day today. I took her for her morning feeding to one of my honey hole jack fields right near a freeway. Well, not right on the freeway but close enough for her to see big rigs and cars a plenty. I have witnessed a couple of Gos' shutdowns at this field and am trying to keep this out of our plan. She ate two starlings with no issues to her surroundings. This evening, we had dinner at a friends house on a super busy street. Two, ice cream trucks, the ghetto bird (police helo), 8 plus neighbors watching her eat, and plenty of traffic. She ended her feeding and took perch on a 4 foot tall bush and we continued the bombardment of stimuli. From now past hard pen we will continue on this path of exposure. Tomorrow, I am hoping for dirt bike exposure and some train time. I had horses lined up but that will happen next weekend. I plan to let her be a baby and then a teenager with lots of stimuli. Once I see the evil, I will start cutting her slowly. No rushing, and not a lot of bags. We will see if this works...... So far I am please, but ask me in another 3-4 weeks.

[ikcus]

Blanco Basura at 50 days hanging out in the garage once again. The word of the day for Mielikki is, Mobile.

[allredone]

Wow. Very nice. There is a small chance I saw her hatch. Dan was nice enough to show me some of his chicks of the year several weeks ago. He's got some thunderous big ones! Good for you!

[ikcus]

Yeah, Dan is a great guy. I am very pleased with this gal. If you saw the three baby Gos' then yes one of them was my girl.

[Dirthawking]

48 days. Some good ol glove time.

Jealous of the bird, and the beard!

[ikcus]

51 days and we finally hit the scale........1176g\41.5oz. dead empty.
I am beginning to see some fire in Mielikki's eyes. My jesses are not here yet but I am currently oiling up some roo to take the place in the meantime. In a day or two she will be able to make it up into the trees or to the roof. With Barry's thread, I so want to hack this bird but my surrounding are less than acceptable. Too much ghetto, dogs, and ignorant people.

[allredone]

Ghetto Gos! I like that.

Have you considered doing Supervised hacks at another location? An hour or few a day may be beneficial.

[ikcus]

Yes Aaron, I have definitely thought of hacking her elsewhere. I am still trying to decide where to do it.
Someone had to be tethered a couple of days ago. I tethered her before bed, and awoke to a tether tantrum which lasted for about 10 minutes. After that time she has been pretty good about being restrained. I found that she really misses sitting on the couch and cuddling with us. We have just changed the routine and my wife, daughter or myself will sit with her on the floor or out in the front yard. Giving her some cuddle time while she is tethered has re-assured her new change.
Mielikki and Wendal relaxing in the front yard.