Full Circle

I had a conversation with a falconer friend who has been a falconer about 6 months longer than me. He recently applied for his upgraded permit from Apprentice to General Falconer and they took a good long 6 weeks to get his permit to him. When I asked him about the process he told me that I need to send a formal letter requesting the upgrade and Rudy (our sponsor) has to send a letter along with it basically approving my move from Apprentice to General. He also told me something that got me thinking, he said that they take your start date from the day you caught your first bird. Hmmm...

Monday I called the permitting office the lady told me that they really want to have seen me fly a bird for 2 solid seasons. I flew a bird for a season and a half since Musket was a late season trap and I have not yet caught a bird this year. I asked her if that hinders my ability to upgrade my permit. She told me that "if" my sponsor sends a letter telling them that I'm ready, they "may" agree, "but" it would be up the the feds to decide "if" I qualify for an upgrade at that point. OH BOY... went my mind, that's just too many "maybes" and ifs". I may have just shot myself in the foot here. So I asked her, "if I trap a bird in December when the season opens up again and fly that bird through this season, would I qualify?" She told me that I would. So... back to square 1. I'm going to be trapping another red-tail. I'm actually kind of relieved... that Cooper's was looking to be more than I bargined for.

Yesterday afternoon, I contacted a rehabber friend of mine, and she may have a bird for me. She wasn't sure what was wrong with it when I talked to her, but the bird was at the vet school, so I'll have to wait to see what the injuries were and if I can take it on. She's been getting a lot of hawks in the last few weeks, but only a few red-tails. I've also been seeing them all over. Looks as though the winter birds have settled in. I actually saw 2 adult red-tails sitting together on a power pole at the airport today right outside my office door, so it should (hopefully) be little trouble to find and trap another juvenile bird.

Ultimately, I've wasted a lot of time with this experiment... serves me right for trying to jump the gun a little. But I haven't been idle. I've found a good local supplier of day-old-chicks (DOCs) and I've made a few watercolors of raptors that I'm fairly happy with. So, time well spent I believe.

I scanned in my first 4 watercolor attempts to post on the blog. The scanning changes the quality of the images a little, it makes them much lighter and I had to darken them which threw off the color a little, but you'll get the general idea.

First Attempt-Eesh! I tried wet on wet and it turned into mud! I like the face on this one, but the rest... yuck. (it looks okay as a thumbnail though...)

Second Attempt-Getting the idea of blending down. I really like how the branch turned out in this one too. This was the bird that we saw in Texas going after those chachalacas.

Thrid Attempt -and I surely didn't spend as much time with this one... I tried doing details too soon, so it's pretty poor. I do like the tail on this one, but the scan didn't capture it very well. Also, I stretched the paper for this one, so it doesn't curl like the first two... it leaves ugly staple marks in it though... I guess that's what matting is for... not that this one will see a mat.

Fourth Attempt -I'm starting to get some of the techniques down and I took a lot more time with this one. I still like my second attempt better... I made the beak and feet a little too big on this bird. But, the feathers turned out much better, the eye is pretty good, the claws actually have a point and the shading is starting to do what I want. I don't know if I'm over the hump yet, but I definately feel that I'm improving with practice.