Season 2025/2026

When I got over to the woods, Cisco took off but then he screamed. Usually that's a Red-tail. But today it was a smaller buzzard like a Red-shoulder or Broad-wing. Maybe juvenile. It was a huge distraction. I moved a squirrel that Cisco saw and it was chaseable. He ignored it.  Still Cisco got in some flying which is good. He was not following well, way too warm, and he was a little bit over his flying weight, but actually a little lower than I'd like to keep him these days. Farrah may be one feather away from dropping all 32 major feathers. It's also possible that she's done. She may have one dry socket in a primary, I'm not sure.  https://youtube.com/shorts/GHRNAfg2gVc

Cisco is still molting, and more than an ounce heavy. But I'm taking him out to the woods to get him in shape, even though it's a bit warm out, and the woods are overgrown a bit.  Today fairly early, Cisco took a long flight from where I released him over to a spot in a tree in the woods. The one good thing about Red-tails and the fact that they're generally lazy is that flights like that actually mean something. A Harris's Hawk might go back and forth two or three times for nothing. So when Cisco made that flight I figured he might be up to something. And sure enough he whacked a nearby tree and missed something. I spent a whole hour out in the woods with him, boring yes, but worth the effort. He got decent exercise. His high weight and the warm weather took away a lot of his motivation, and he flew overhead once or twice croaking slightly. That is an indication that he's not really looking for squirrels, he's in the tidbit mode.   This picture was ...