Phoenix (nickname Finn the Shin)

[wesleyc6]

Well I guess I will go ahead and introduce my new little charge. I met up with a group of falconers a few states north of me and joined in on a mission to pull some shins for several falconers. I believe 11 falconers in all got one. I got to climb 3 nests.......not. I watched 3 nests be climbed and was able to get one of the chicks. I am hoping mine is a musket. I got a longtime sharpie guy to guess the sex instead of me trying. I will be happy either way, but hope its a guy. I know compared to my buddy's chick, Finn's legs are much daintier and Finn is a day or two older than his by appearance. I am guessing he is 11 days old or so today, so I will post by day. I was going to just do a log at home and then post it all at once, but I will just update here separately. I am doing the whole full food association deal. It will be a whole new game for me as even though I have raised a gos and a coop, I have always hid the food and cut the weight fairly quickly and won't be doing that this time. I weighed his smaller container today and then later weighed it with him in it (I split his time with some in the little container and some in his imprint box) and he is 90g today with a little bit of food in him. He can just barely stand and then falls over on his head. He did hack up a casting today. He seems quite comfy and the family is all over him. I had a great time on the trip as I had my son along with me for our first big father/son adventure and a good friend put us up and went with us, so it was nice to spend time with him too.

[JRedig]

I wondered if that's why you were visiting Brian, cool!

[colelkhunter]

Hmmm. That bird looks oddly familiar.

[FredFogg]

You all suck! LOL

[poleyc]

You all suck! LOL

I agree Fred!!! Totally jealous!!!

[skooky20]

alright Wes, good luck and keep this thread going

[Goshawk635]

Fantastic looking forward to all the shin threads this year as there are a couple WA folks who need to share their new charges as well.

This will be a fun summer to watch

[jeffandheidi]

Hey Wes, I was there also but believe I went with the other group. Two of the nests we checked had hatched but been destroyed by a predator. Damaged nests with bits of fluff and blood in them.

I ended up with what I think is a male. If I can get my act together I'll start a parallel thread and we can compare the two.

Good Luck!

[wesleyc6]

Just a few observations. He did peck one bite of food from his little dish today according to my wife. He only stands for a few seconds at the time. I do notice he has times when he doesn't especially want to be handled and other times he is fine. I don't mean like a real fear, but when chatting with another falconer the word "hesitancy" came up and seemed the best way to describe it. He is handled a lot, but not picked up unless in his nest bowl. He is a fun little guy right now and hard to stop watching when he is awake and even like to watch him sleep a little too.

thanks for the comments guys

[Buckeye Falconer]

Congrats Wes! Sounds like you all will have quite an exciting summer.

[jeffandheidi]

How much is he eating at each feeding?

[colelkhunter]

Got a good shot of MeDermott explaining to Wes and the gang which end of the bird you need to feed and which end the poop shoots out of.

[BestBeagler]

Got a good shot of MeDermott explaining to Wes and the gang which end of the bird you need to feed and which end the poop shoots out of.

Brian, yeah I was confused about that for awhile!

[wesleyc6]

That is funny Brian. I am glad he explained it too. I forgot though for a while, but then figured it out again and wrote it down with diagrams to make things go smoother.

[wesleyc6]

How much is he eating at each feeding?

2 lbj's. He goes through about 6-8 a day.

[wesleyc6]

Standing more and more. He is eating calmly and starting to pick off the dish more and more. I took him to prayer meeting tonight and he got a lot of exposure........and baby talking. They are going to hinder his vocabulary development. I guess that is about all.

[wesleyc6]

My wife said he stood up for 3-5 minutes straight today. He ate off the lure today for the first time, but has been picking off the plate some the last couple days. He has eaten today, but doesn't seem to want it as often. He ate 5 lbj's. I put him in his bigger box for a while today so I could clean the small nest bowl. Here is a pic.

[colelkhunter]

If you needed lure, I could have made you one while you were up here. I hate you had to cut a piece of carpet from the front porch to make a lure.

[JRedig]

It's shin madness this year! Someone should write a story for the Hawk Chalk about the take day/weekend. Would be cool to keep track of each bird taken and how they are all doing through their first season for an end of year summary too.

[hcmcelroy]

Wes,

That is one neat looking mini...I guess you could use the Holohil BD-2G on his back???

Harry.

[wesleyc6]

Thx Harry. I am not sure yet what his permanent type mount will be. I am thinking of trying a small neck or leg mount.

I put anklets on today, but took this picture this morning before I installed them.

[wesleyc6]

BTW do you experienced sharpshin guys agree he looks like a male?

[hcmcelroy]

Just a guess but the shape of the head and foot look male to me???

Harry.

[jeffandheidi]

The head/cere/feet look identical to mine. My birds belly down is much darker since he decided to lie down on his freshly cut up starling this evening.

[wesleyc6]

The head/cere/feet look identical to mine. My birds belly down is much darker since he decided to lie down on his freshly cut up starling this evening.

Have you weighed yours lately?

[wesleyc6]

Finn spent the first hours of his life alone today. The whole family was gone at one time which hasn't happened before. He was well fed before we left and I suspect he slept most of the time. However when we got back, he stood for a solid 10 minutes. He ate a sparrow and he walked across his nest bowl and played with an old hood I put in there. Something else I noticed tonight is that I saw him looking up a lot while standing. I think in his mind he is contemplating when to start trying to get higher. Probably craziness on my part, but it sure appeared like he had a different look in his eyes to me as he looked up. Oh and I scooted him into his little bowl and he weighed 112g.

[jeffandheidi]

Hey Wes, I haven't weighed him at all yet. I have noticed that his eating habits are erratic. The past week he has eaten right away in the morning only once, either Sunday or Monday. Since then he nibbles, a few tidbits at a time all day without ever taking a full crop. Nothing like the cooper hawks I've raised in the past. How does that compare with yours?

[BestBeagler]

Hey Wes, I haven't weighed him at all yet. I have noticed that his eating habits are erratic. The past week he has eaten right away in the morning only once, either Sunday or Monday. Since then he nibbles, a few tidbits at a time all day without ever taking a full crop. Nothing like the cooper hawks I've raised in the past. How does that compare with yours?

Jeff, Same here. Since I am hand feeding though I can coax him to take a full crop more often than not.

[wesleyc6]

Most of the time he eats pretty well. Yesterday he didn't act hungry in the morning, so I left food on his lure. He casted later and then ate. I am leaving food on the lure now. Two pics from this morning.

[wesleyc6]

Neat to see how the shins all are so close in development. I saw where Brian's bird had hopped out so texted my wife from work to keep her eyes open to the possibility. DD texted me a picture a few hours ago of Finn standing on her leg after he hopped out of his nest box.

[Breeze]

Wes, love your thread, too! Following all these shin threads. Agree with an earlier post - there is Shin madness for sure this year! Enjoying all the threads - thanks for taking time to post and share pics with all of us. Very nice bird! Will be interesting to follow your exploits.

[wesleyc6]

Wes, love your thread, too! Following all these shin threads. Agree with an earlier post - there is Shin madness for sure this year! Enjoying all the threads - thanks for taking time to post and share pics with all of us. Very nice bird! Will be interesting to follow your exploits.

You guys are welcome. Glad you are enjoying the thread/bird.

[wesleyc6]

Finn hopped up in my lap today.

[wesleyc6]

Finn has learned he can run now. He can't run far by any means, but he can make 10 steps about as fast as my old eyes can keep up. Then he stops and has that silly look on his face. Reminds me of how a killdeer moves in the wild. If you sit by his tub he WILL jump out on your leg and climb up your thigh to lay in your lap. He is just too funny to take seriously at this point. It will be both a joyous and sad occasion to see the serial killer come out in him. I understand why people have always said that a sharpie may be the most fun bird of all to imprint.

[BestBeagler]

Finn has learned he can run now. He can't run far by any means, but he can make 10 steps about as fast as my old eyes can keep up. Then he stops and has that silly look on his face. Reminds me of how a killdeer moves in the wild. If you sit by his tub he WILL jump out on your leg and climb up your thigh to lay in your lap. He is just too funny to take seriously at this point. It will be both a joyous and sad occasion to see the serial killer come out in him. I understand why people have always said that a sharpie may be the most fun bird of all to imprint.

Wes I know what you mean! My little bugger has been my favorite imprint so far. They just do new a cool things so often. I wonder how much older yours is compared to mine? Sadly I know that soon we will have to tie them up once they start getting really fun to have loose. I know I won't risk a collision indoors.