The Malt-coloured Falcon

[den]

The alley behind the Post Office was dark, lit only by yellow light spilling around the edges of a truck backed into an open roller-door. He was waiting for me. I stopped the car and wound down the window as he took a last puff on his cigarette.

"You from WIRES?" he growled as he threw the butt to the ground and crushed it.

"Yes." Cold air spilled into the car. I shivered slightly. "Do you have -- the bird?"

"Yeah."

As I stepped from the car he reached into the cabin of the truck and pulled out a large box. Something moved around inside. I took the box from him and looked inside. "Excellent," I said.

Staring up at me was a young falcon, his feathers the colour of dark malt. I could tell from the light brown fringes on each feather that the bird was still a juvenile. "Where did you find him?"

"Sittin' in the middle of the road at Googooga. I couldn't let him get run over." He looked into the box. "So what is it?"

"I think it's a gosshawk, or prbably a black kite. Or a whistling kite. I'll have to get the experts to check it out." I placed the box on the back seat of the car and headed home. I didn't like the way the bird huddled down in one corner.

Back home and in the warmth I opened the box. The raptor hadn't moved, and seemed more hunched up. H. said the bloke had got it to take food so I thought I'd give it a go. I didn't have the proper feed but I did have some lean steak. I chopped some into 4 x 1" squares and held a piece near the bird. He lept to his feet, made a "tuk-tuk-tuk-tuk!" noise and snatched the meat from my hand. It went down in a couple of gulps. The other three pieces followed suit.

Tomorrow I hand the bird over to H, who is a trained raptor rehabber. She thinks the bird is too old to become imprinted, but not so old that it'll be horribly wild and hard to care for.

Photos to come soon.



(the bit about the alley is true.)

Comments

[kythrain.livejournal.com]

Hi. acelightning pointed me to this post. Very cool that you managed to rescue a bird like that. I'm doing some volunteer work at a raptor center here in State College, PA (in the States) (website here (http://www.shaverscreek.org/)). I'm curious what the experts will say about the species. Mind if I add you to my friends list so I can keep track? I think we've got some other friends in common besides Ace.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[kythrain.livejournal.com]

For the most part you're right... they're all meat eaters. However, the type of meat may vary. For example, the smaller to medium sized owls at Shaver's Creek generally get mice, whereas most of the diurnal birds get baby chicks (the ones the poultry industry decides won't make good broilers for your dinner table). This doesn't necessarily match up with what they would eat in the wild; bald eagles are fish eaters in the wild for the most part, but at the center our two get fed chicks most days unless we've got some fresh roadkill or something a hunter brought in (the other week they got some rabbits for example).

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[kythrain.livejournal.com]

The term is preening, and yes that works basically the same not just among large birds but among all birds. You're referring to using the beak to smooth out the damaged parts of feathers, yes?

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[kythrain.livejournal.com]

Ah, ok. I've heard of that but don't know much about it, including apparently the term for it.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[lizardling.livejournal.com]

Live feed, or dead?

[kythrain.livejournal.com]

Dead food, normally frozen and thawed unless we get it fresh that day. Live feeding is a dangerous thing for the bird because they may get pecked at or bitten by the prey animal; this is a necessary thing with birds that will be rereleased but not necessary with birds that will be kept. Shaver's Creek doesn't do any rehab work anymore. In the wintertime, we have food warmers for the owls so the food seems more live to them.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Here is must be deae food. The RSPCA won't allow live food. Anyway, the bird can be bitten by it and that would be bad.

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

Barn Owls.

They're found EVERYWHERE, all pretty much the same species but with local subspecies.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[kythrain.livejournal.com]

I can think of a reason: rodent control. I don't know if that's the case however. I did find a reference that barn owls have lived alongside man since the Iron Age. I also found this page (http://www.owlpages.com/species/tyto/alba/Default.htm) which shows their worldwide distribution and talks about some of the 35 or so subspecies. That page states that barn owls were introduced to Hawaii in 1958. Interesting tidbit: barn owls are part of a different family (Family Tytonidae) that most other owls we have here in North America (Family Strigidae). The evidence is in the faces.

[acelightning.livejournal.com]

[dewhitton.livejournal.com]

It's unlikely we'll rescue common birds unless it's a barn owl. I don't normall handle raptors, but sometimes I help the local rehabbers.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/dewhitton/141048.html
http://www.livejournal.com/users/dewhitton/164251.html