Upon the advice of other falconers, I have decided that it is time to start working with Musket again! There have been significant, if not unexpected, changes to Musket's behavior from the calm, scardey passage to the aggressive, fearless adult.Probably due in part to my feeding her regularly in the mew, Musket has started to become a little footy. By "footy" I mean that she'll aggressively grab me with her foot, the danger end! I am hoping that I have not inadvertently created a monster in my bird. From my reading, second year birds are much different than first year birds. By now, they know that you are not going to hurt them, so they can get more aggressive. This aggression is fine as long as it is directed towards prey and not the falconer.
I was a bit worried about it last night when I went to take her out of her mew. I have allowed her to fly free in her mew, a condition that will be changing soon, so it is somewhat nerve-racking to come into the mew, present the fist to the bird, have her hop up to it, and then hope that she does not foot me when I go to put the jesses in her anklets. So far she has been cooperative, knowing that she will eat when she gets out of the mew, she’ll sit calmly and wait for me to put the jesses on. (She has been allowing me to do this above and beyond my expectations. Last week she would not stand on my fist and let me do this so I had to jess her in the dark.) Yesterday, I got one jess on her, no problem, then she decided that my glove had to have food in it somewhere. She looked down at my glove and deliberately footed it hard. I dropped her to the ground to let her know that this behavior was unacceptable. After 4 or 5 times of her doing this, I left her in her mew and went inside. Half hour later, I came back and tried again. She footed my glove one more time and then stood there and let me jess her. She did not try it again.
My hope is that she is still very wild from being free in the mew for months and eating whatever she wants. I am bringing her to work with me every day now and sitting with her for hours at a time in the house to start from square one. I’m hoping I can quell the demon inside her and that she’ll calm down.
Her weight is also very low right now; she is close to her old flying weight. She has shown aggression during feeding, trying to jump at the food or grab it with her foot. This is the type of behavior I want in her when we are getting ready to fly, not when we are manning. I think I will take her weight up over a few days so she’ll feel fat, and then slowly work it back down as we work. I hope this will make her easier to work with during the re-manning. I think I have my work cut out for me. Wish me luck! I am very excited to start working with her every day again!
I was a bit worried about it last night when I went to take her out of her mew. I have allowed her to fly free in her mew, a condition that will be changing soon, so it is somewhat nerve-racking to come into the mew, present the fist to the bird, have her hop up to it, and then hope that she does not foot me when I go to put the jesses in her anklets. So far she has been cooperative, knowing that she will eat when she gets out of the mew, she’ll sit calmly and wait for me to put the jesses on. (She has been allowing me to do this above and beyond my expectations. Last week she would not stand on my fist and let me do this so I had to jess her in the dark.) Yesterday, I got one jess on her, no problem, then she decided that my glove had to have food in it somewhere. She looked down at my glove and deliberately footed it hard. I dropped her to the ground to let her know that this behavior was unacceptable. After 4 or 5 times of her doing this, I left her in her mew and went inside. Half hour later, I came back and tried again. She footed my glove one more time and then stood there and let me jess her. She did not try it again.
My hope is that she is still very wild from being free in the mew for months and eating whatever she wants. I am bringing her to work with me every day now and sitting with her for hours at a time in the house to start from square one. I’m hoping I can quell the demon inside her and that she’ll calm down.
Her weight is also very low right now; she is close to her old flying weight. She has shown aggression during feeding, trying to jump at the food or grab it with her foot. This is the type of behavior I want in her when we are getting ready to fly, not when we are manning. I think I will take her weight up over a few days so she’ll feel fat, and then slowly work it back down as we work. I hope this will make her easier to work with during the re-manning. I think I have my work cut out for me. Wish me luck! I am very excited to start working with her every day again!
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