Flying High!

Musket’s weight has been slowly dropping. The washed beef helped her loose a few grams, but she still has not dropped as much as I would have liked. It’s been cold the last few days, but I’ve been keeping her in the house, so I might start putting her outside at night… that should help take the weight off.

Saturday and Sunday, I free-flew Musket at home. She has gotten better every day. Last Monday when I flew her, she was pretty good, but still made me nervous when she was a little hesitant to come back. She was a bit lower this time and she flew pretty well with Hazen videoing the whole thing. She’s usually pretty shy when he’s there. I think bringing her down another ounce will just give me that edge.

Sunday, I flew her without distractions. She was fantastic! She usually wants to fly to her bell perch, but she didn’t give it a second glance and was looking all over for perches to try. She decided at one point that the ground was a pretty good perch. I don’t know how to break her of that, maybe I’ll only reward her occasionally for a ground perch. Her favorite perch is the post that sticks up above the mew. She’ll fly to that and I’ll walk around all over the place. When she feels like I’m too far, she’ll make for me. Some falconers don’t like it when birds just want to play the game of coming to the fist. I don’t mind it because it means my bird wants to come back to ME!

I put her in a small cherry tree and she took to it really well. She even took the initiative of working her way higher into the tree to get a better perch. She was wonderful! She’d come before or instantly after I called. I really think that she’s about at the point where she is ready to go! I love this stage! There were moments in our flying yesterday that I really felt like part of a partnership with this wild bird. I’m so happy.