2014 Shin

[jeffandheidi]

It's that time again, and thanks to the encouragement of my family and friends, we ended up with another eyas shin in my hands. It's a little early to ID the sex, but I'm kind of hoping for a female. These two were about 4 or 5 days old in the pic, they really are the same size, the camera angle must have blown one up a little. Let the fun begin!

[Huntndad1]

Nice! Congrats man!

[Flight]

Very cool!

I look forward to reading your exploits this coming season, sharpshins piqued my interest a while back, but I decided that I wasn't experienced enough to handle all the potential problems that they can incur.

I hope you will share your experiences and observations with this cool little accipiter!

[Dennis Samnee]

Jeff,
Congrats ,
I thought about another one.Glad
you did
It again! Maybe I will get to see it fly if you make it over near St. Louis.
Dennis Samnee

[awleaphart]

Man your a lucky fellow. Best of luck. Nice looking bird.
Anthony

[Red-tail71]

Congrats Jeff! Good luck and have fun!

[Chris L.]

Thats awesome Jeff, Congrats!

How long had you been scouting the nest?

[jeffandheidi]

Thanks everyone, this will be a fun summer!

Still twig feeding but she also pics up the random tidbit on her own. Nothing special, just a rapid growth update. I'll try to upload a new pic every few days just to show how incredibly fast they change.





Chris, we met up with the Indiana boys last weekend. They had already scouted the nests before leaves were out, and fortunately they were still active.

[jeffandheidi]

Growing like crazy. She is self feeding pretty efficiently, using a starling wing as a food plate. The wing pins are getting long and just starting to open. If she isn't eating or preening, she's asleep. All the time.

[jeffandheidi]

Lots of time in the car this weekend, and lots of people around her, playing with her feet, etc. She has food with her all day but really only eats a few tidbits every few hours, even in the morning she doesn't take a full crop. She goes through about two starlings a day.

If anyone lies their hand flat on her box she will waddle over and lie down on it. Fun stage!


Last night she climbed completely out of the box onto my wife's hand and went to sleep.

[jeffandheidi]

She is changing daily, and has someone's hands on her constantly. Her appetite has dropped off a little. Yesterday she only ate about 1 1/2 starling.

[JeffNH]

That is so cool...looking forward to this thread.

[Tanner]

Hi Jeff - out of curiosity, is there not a decent nesting population of shins in Missouri?

Chris, we met up with the Indiana boys last weekend. They had already scouted the nests before leaves were out, and fortunately they were still active.

[jeffandheidi]

I'm sure there are several nests across the state, but shins are on Missouris list of excluded eyas birds.

The past three winters we have had an adult female shin catching Juncos off our backyard bird feeder. Fun to watch!

[jeffandheidi]

Standing tall, I will be putting jesses on this afternoon. About 16 days old today.

[Flight]

Looking good Jeff!

Looking forward to seeing how you train this bird as it progresses!

[jeffandheidi]

I tried to organize photo bucket and must have moved the wrong pictures. Oops!

[jeffandheidi]

Jesses went on with no problem, I am using traditional jesses and put the two holes in the ankle end 1.25 inches apart. I know her tarsi will grow some more, but for now it's a good fit and won't slide over her narrow toes. I also introduced the bath pan today, she bit at the water a little and drank some before climbing out and sitting in the grass.

[vlp]

Jeff
Glad to see you get one again. I had so much fun with mine last season I pulled another one this year also. Good luck!

[jeffandheidi]

Thank you Vincent! Did you pull a male or female?

[vlp]

Thank you Vincent! Did you pull a male or female?

Ended up with both. (Other falconer not able to fly his this year - work issues came up )Doing the dual imprint and will be flying both (at different times). Have lots of house sparrows and starlings around. Flew a hen sharpie before and had a great season. Hoping for another great season with them.

[jeffandheidi]

Major branching activity last night and today. I have attached a weighted leash anytime we go outside but so far all she does is stand and flap and hop. It's just a matter of time before she surprises us both by getting some air, and I want to be sure she doesn't go far!

This morning I took her out back, let her sun on the ground for a few minutes, and once she stood up and started panting I filled a glass pie plate with water and started splashing my fingers. It just took her a few seconds to hop in, drink and bathe. This is my first attempt at posting a video clip ..
http://youtu.be/F0X6pJgqdEU

[HGlider]

Major branching activity last night and today. I have attached a weighted leash anytime we go outside but so far all she does is stand and flap and hop. It's just a matter of time before she surprises us both by getting some air, and I want to be sure she doesn't go far!

This morning I took her out back, let her sun on the ground for a few minutes, and once she stood up and started panting I filled a glass pie plate with water and started splashing my fingers. It just took her a few seconds to hop in, drink and bathe. This is my first attempt at posting a video clip ..
http://youtu.be/F0X6pJgqdEU

Boy at the last half of the video she was splashing up a storm. Neighbors don't complain?

[jeffandheidi]

[jeffandheidi]

Ha, John I don't know how that happened. Butterfly effect? I need more practice with uploading videos to YouTube.

The second video was an early morning storm that ended up damaging several trees and homes nearby on June 4. Once it passed I went out to check on my redtail, she was in the corner with a foot pulled up and completely dry.

[Breeze]

WAY cool, Jeff! Look forward to following this thread! Thanks for taking time to share with all of us!

[jeffandheidi]

More changes, same routine. She still sits on her haunches a lot but is standing more and balances well, even in a moving car, so we are getting there. About 20 days old.

[jeffandheidi]

Happy 4th of July! She has been growing at an amazing rate, and is on someone's lap almost all the time. I started tethering the other day, and she has hardly bated.

I was a little worried about how the neighborhood fireworks would go over, but she slept on my lap out back until it was dark, when I brought her inside to her perch she took a bath and started preening.

No baggies yet, but my traps are out so it won't be long before fresh sparrow is on the menu.

A couple pics from today:

[Huntndad1]

Looking good Jeff. Amazing how fast those little pocket rockets grow!

[jeffandheidi]

She is tearing scored starling and sparrow carcasses and feeding herself all she wants three times a day now. Also bathing at least twice a day. By this time last year with Spaz I was introducing baggies, but with no hunger there was really no interest, and I expect the same level of motivation now, so with this bird I'm holding off on baggies until closer to her being hard penned. Still easy stuff, lots of socialization with a lot of people.

This morning after she had eaten and bathed I attached her weighted leash to let her explore a little. She flew up to a chair, the table and went to sleep for an hour.

[jeffandheidi]

I've been picking her up on my hand a few times a day, this afternoon I carried her out in the sun and got this pic. You can see the primaries are still growing. About 28 days old.

[lxlMurdoclxl]

Love checking this thread daily, thanks jeff

[jeffandheidi]

Thanks Josh, she's a lot of fun so far and we aren't even hawking yet.

In the past day or so she has finally learned to hold food down and twist off a hunk with her beak. Before she would nibble and pull. Over and over and over. Also she has slowly been getting more vocal. Most of the time it's peeping with a closed beak but today it was a little louder. I know it's coming.



This morning there was a female cardinal and a sparrow in the trap. I guess the cardinal thought she would try out some pop corn also. The sparrow was our first ever Baggie, even though I said I planned to wait, here was the opportunity so I took it. I called her twice to the lure about 3-4 feet, and she walked over for a bite. I sat next to her, scooped her up to my knee and tossed the restrained sparrow a few feet away. She bobbed her head, flew/hopped over next to it with her wings out and mouth open, then jumped on with both feet. I guess we will start doing baggies with this bird everyday after all!

[jeffandheidi]

Vincent, that sounds exciting. I would be interested in your thoughts later on about how they compare in personality, handling, hunting, etc.

So far I've been able to offer her 5 sparrow baggies and she has quickly bound to each of them. The last one was released only about 15 feet away and she quickly left the fist to fly/hop/run after it. The third tail stripe is just below the coverts, so I'm thinking she will pen around next weekend. Until then she is getting two training and feeding sessions per day ending with as much fresh starling carcass as she cares to eat. So far the vocalizations are at a minimum also, except or just before mealtimes.

[jeffandheidi]

I've noticed some small personality changes that I'm just attributing to her growth and metabolism changes. The trash truck goes by twice a week, but today she bated away from it. Folding towels in the living room last night also had her slicked down. Just a couple examples of things that she is suddenly aware of. A little weight reduction in a week or so will help I think.

I've started weighing her just to get a starting point. This morning she started at 177g. After our morning session she was at 192g. She eats so very slowly from an opened starling, but as long as she's still on it I leave her alone.


Yesterday was overcast, during our afternoon session the sun came out and she turned around to sun for a moment.