Quote Originally Posted by jfseaman View Post
The tiercel was changed to a falcon. She is currently on my prorogation permit. She may be my hunting partner this year as well, we will have to see how a special circumstance turns out, she was injured in the mews after ringing. In a nutshell, the breeder and I are trying make sure she has the best chance we can give her.

Please be patient, more of the story will come later, because I can't keep a secret regarding my own life and falconry.

Here she is doing what eyases do, eating, sleeping and creating work for the guy who has to clean her imprint tank (me).
Time for a little update.

The barbary is back to being a tiercel, initial size and eventually going past 520 grams lead me and the breeder to believe it was a female but stabalizing at 470 grams and it's a male.

Gotta take some new pictures.

About the injury. Breeders know, there are somethings you just can't do anything about. The little guy, now named Spencer Tracy is doing really well. The injury was a cracked/broken upper mandible and displaced lower and a puncture wound to the shoulder. The assumption is something upset mom in the chamber after ringing and he got in the way when she lashed out. Mom, lays her eggs on the ground, perfectly good nest ledge where they court but what ever, so she is jumpy to ground based noises, probably wildlife on the outside of the chamber at night. The breeder has a comprehensive control program but of course no such program is perfect.

It kills me but he will probably not be allowed to hunt or at least not in a classic barbary way. The lack of ability to properly close his beak leads me to worry about lung and air sack problems. He comes from a line of very good hunting hawks and siblings from prior years are well proven. So he will be a donor, the breeder has seen his imprint behavior and we are on track for that. I will raise and fly his first offspring and if there are problems, he will not be used as a donor again and will go to and education program. I doubt his offspring will have any problems as his aggression to the lure is better than any other imprint I've done and his lineage.

The turning point was when he started to tear food for himself, it was sketchy and he still has difficulty but is figuring it out. If he couldn't tear up his own food, it would have been a long term management problem. I would have had to place him in an education program where the people were willing to cut his food up every day. But now he is part of the breeding team and I really look forward to seeing what happens in spring 2010.

Since Spencer won't be allowed to hunt, I got his brother as a chamber raised bird for hunting.