Arrr... One Eyed Musket!

Musket on Trapping Day (Early January)

Musket after Hurricane Faye (Late August)

Since Day One I have noticed something strange about my bird’s right eye. Her pupil was not quite round and when I shone light in there, I could make out a milky whiteness deep in her eye. Since I trapped her in early January, I figured if she did have some impairment that she had done well enough to survive for that long on her own so she would probably be okay. We are slowly coming out of the molt, so I have been working with her more and more to man her back down. Her eye has gotten much worse over the intermew! The pupil is all screwy now with the iris moving into it and the milky whiteness that was just barely visible when she was put up for the molt is now very obvious. When I was holding her on the glove this week, watching a movie, I decided to test her to see just how much she could make out. At this point I was sure that there was some visual deficiency, but after my little test, I am now almost positive that she is totally blind in that eye. I could sneak my hand around and just about touch her eye without her noticing. When I did this same test to her good eye, she would pull her head back and react like I was poking her. Not Good.

I posted this comment on the apprentice falconry board that I'm a part of and got back a few responses. One of the members has a red-tail with a very similar condition and she seems to hunt just fine. In fact, he said he'd put up his one-eyed red-tail against any bird out there. He hunts a lot of squirrels with his bird. I have not tried squirrels with Musket, but I am hoping to try my hand at it this year. Squirrel hawking seems like a lot of fun with some dynamic chases and in-the-air dives after squirrles that bail out of a tree.

For some strange reason, I like Musket even more after this little discovery. I feel like it's my sacred duty to find her squirrels and rabbits to chase. I hope she does well. I have this idea in my head of making a hood with a pirate hat and eye-patch. If I figure it out, I'll post a picture of her with the new hood.

I'm going to start taking her weight down and working with her every day starting this weekend! Wish me luck!