Bird Cams Around the World

Oh my, Barb got some snow!



(Forgot to add picture)

Still snowing....here's to hoping it stops soon!!!

wow!!!...So, how much snow did you end up with, Barb?

No, definitely not as bad as last year Beth, but its still early. We got a couple of inches, with a bigger storm coming this weekend. Richmond usually averages about 2 inches, so its already not looking good.

That's great news! That's soon enough that she could possibly find a mate & nest site for nesting season!

Bless Rex! I think that is the 7th article on this falcon. He also wrote a front page article in Sunday's paper on Mitchell Byrd and CCB.

Here is the update from the Wildlife Center website. I saw Dr. Dave at the Wildlife Center a few weeks ago and told him we have seen several falcons successfully rehabbed and assessed with falconers. I don't think they have done that before. I am so glad they decided to do it!!!! I'm hoping she flies free once they take her outside. That would be the perfect end...and close to the mountains away from Richmond

On December 9, the Peregrine Falcon was brought into the clinic for follow-up radiographs. Dr. Miranda reported that the bird’s right coracoid continues to heal well.

For the past week, the rehabilitation staff has been exercising the peregrine daily. The bird has been showing great progress in increasing stamina and in her ability to maneuver around obstacles. The Peregrine Falcon has been showing so much progress that the veterinary team began looking for other ways to condition her and evaluate her flight.

Dr. Dave McRuer contacted local falconers to see if they would be interested in training the peregrine using falconry techniques. The Wildlife Center is hoping this training strategy will better condition the bird through intense exercise and test the bird’s eye sight and wings as it attempts to capture artificial lures while in flight.

On Monday, December 13, the Peregrine Falcon was transferred to two experienced local falconers – Eva and Andrew King. At first, the falconers will work with the peregrine indoors with food to establish trust and safety. They will feed her only during these training sessions while the bird wears jesses and a leash. At first the distance between bird and falconer will be small; over the course of days to weeks the distance will be increased so that the bird has to fly to the falconer to get food.

Once trust is established and the Peregrine Falcon is successfully flying to each falconer to eat, the training session will be moved outdoors, with the peregrine still on a leash. Ultimately, the goal is to unleash the falcon so that it can fly freely in the field while still returning to the falconers for food. While there is always the risk that the peregrine will fly away during these “off-leash” times, the bird’s motivation for food and the known safety associated with the glove will likely bring the bird back to the glove. This technique has been used by falconers with birds of prey for centuries.

When the bird is routinely flying and returning to the glove, Eva and Andrew will attach food to a lure; the lure will be moved through the air so that the bird can wheel and dive to catch its food. This free-flight outdoors will improve the bird’s stamina, build muscle and test the healed shoulder through repeated stoops, tight turns and lengthy flights — key elements of a peregrine’s survival skills.

If the Peregrine Falcon passes these “tests”, she will be ready for release back into the wild. Falconers routinely train and keep birds of prey for a short time and then return them to the wild, without “imprinting” or other behavioral modification. The Center believes that this approach provides the best opportunity to build up the falcon’s stamina and to ensure that she will be able to survive, and thrive, in the wild.

Wildlife Center staff is very excited to explore this new relationship with Eva and Andrew. This process will likely take weeks to months. Stay tuned for more updates on how this Peregrine Falcon is progressing.

Looks like a miserable day in VA!

Not so much fun today, but hundreds of birds to feed in the backyard!

Part of another update on the peregrine found injured in Richmond:

December 20 update from Eva King

The Peregrine Falcon is doing very well. We began working with her on December 13 — the same night that Dr. Dave McRuer dropped her off with us.

The first part of this process is getting her comfortable around us, and build her trust in us. This is an essential first step before we can do any flight training and conditioning. In falconry, we call this part “manning” and it basically involves getting the bird used to us, establishing that we are no danger to her, and that good things happen when she’s around us. The falcon learns that being around us means easy food opportunities in a safe environment.

This first part of the training process can go very quickly or can take a while, depending on the individual bird. We have experienced birds that are totally relaxed around us and have “gotten the idea” within just a day, while others have taken up to a week.

The falcon is now sitting on the fist (on the falconer’s glove) comfortably and trusts us well enough to bend down to eat her food off the glove. That may not sound like much, but is actually a pretty big deal, because she has to take her eyes off the falconer to bend all the way down to the food at her feet. That takes courage on her part, and she’s doing it consistently now. She’s also fine with sitting on her perch, and her body-language tells us she is getting increasingly relaxed with her new living arrangement.

In a couple of days, we expect to start making the bird do a little bit of work for her food. That starts with asking her to stretch just a bit for food. Next we’ll get her to do a little hop, then she’ll do bigger and bigger hops until we graduate to free-flying outside. But that is still probably a few weeks down the line.

I'm very glad she is doing so well, and that they are keeping her over the winter.

Thanks Alison! I am so thrilled to see her adjusting to her new home some well.

A new update from the falconers on the falcon found injured in Richmond:

December 28 update from Eva King

We hope you all had a good time over the holidays! We are excited to give you our “Holiday Update” on Peregrine Falcon #10-2118:

Since our last post, the girl has graduated to the next training stage: doing a little bit of work for her food. She is now consistently flying/jumping to the fist over a distance of six to seven feet to get bits of food. We have also introduced her to the lure, which is the training tool she will eventually chase in free flight.

Right now her lesson has the theme of “good things (i.e. safety and food) happen when you are on the glove, but the lure really is where the big portions come from.” At this point, the lure is not swung around yet, but just presented to her and she hops to it. She is still getting familiar with the idea. We have also started to put her outside in the mews [outdoor raptor housing], under supervision for a few hours at a time. This increases her sensory input and kicks up her metabolism. She is out in the weather and is more active in the mews than on her perch in the house. All this increases her appetite, which in turn gives us more training opportunities, as we have a mostly food-driven relationship.

I like the look on her face: