I ran across another method of teaching lure flying to red-tailed hawks. Typically, lures for red-tails are only used to bring the bird down if she is reluctant to return on her own. As I've mentioned before, it's a safety net to be used only in emergency situations. The books I read said to give a full crop of food on the lure all the time and if you show the lure to a bird, you have to give it to them, no exceptions. Well, we already broke the rule of "you have to give them the lure when you show it to them" because of Rudy's methods, so that idea kind of went out the window.
When you hunt falcons like Peregrines or Merlins, falconers will use the lure to exercise their birds. You swing the lure and the bird comes in and tries to catch it, but you are also playing a game of keep away. It's a good way to condition the falcon. A big time falconer Gary Brewer has written a number of articles on red-tail hawking. He has a fascinating one on training the red-tail, who is typically a sit-and-wait predator, to work to get the lure. Eventually you can get them doing ariel strikes, and not just the "road kill" approach to coming into a lure. I think it will help sharpen her response a little as she has to work harder to get the lure. She likes it so much already that I figured a little more work could be rewarding for both of us.
I set about making her a new lure. I narrowed it and covered it with a rabbit hide. The first day I gave it to her, she literally jumped on top of me! As I walked into the mew with the lure hidden, she must have picked up on my excitement in giving it to her because she baited and landed on my shoulder! I quickly transferred her to the glove, but it was a little nerve-racking there for a second. Then I put her back on her perch, waited for her to settle down, and revealed the lure. She eagle-eyed it and dove for it, hitting it hard! Then, like she had actually killed it, she started to mantle over it and shake. It was very satisfying to me to see her so enthralled with this new lure. I gave her a knuckle-sized tidbit on each side of the lure. The idea is that she is eating on one side, then I have to come in and turn the lure over so she can get to the other side. I thought this sounded like a good idea so Musket would get used to me approaching her kill again. Before she'd easily give it up, but now that she has lost some of her natural fear of me, she'll fight me for it. I want her to realize that I am not going to steal her food, but trade her for it. I brought an extra glove with me and when I reached down to turn the lure over, she nailed me lightning fast with her foot. I was expecting it so I didn't react, but continued to approach her "kill" until she eventually gave it up. I turned it over and invited her back. I also gave her a few tidbits thinking that hopefully she will not see me as competition, but still the one who feeds her. We'll see how well that works. My goal is to do this with her meals for the next few weeks until she gets really used to me "making in" and trading off her kill for a tidbit.
I covered up the lure as Rudy had shown me and stood up. Musket took one look at me and jumped to my glove! Perfect! I rewarded her for her good behavior with the rest of the tidbits, then collected the lure securely wrapped in a rag and left her.
I did this again the next day with Hazen videoing the whole thing. I put it up on YouTube for those of you who want to watch. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0XX3eFM1Ls . She was very wary of Hazen being in the Mew with us, so she was much slower to respond than she was the day before. But we're moving along. You'll notice that she still has two brown tail feathers in there. Hopefully by next week she'll be all red!
*Edit- Because this training session was experimental and I didnt want to give YouTube viewers the wrong idea about falconry, I took this off the public forum. If you want to see it, let me know and I'll give you access.
Enjoy!
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