The hallway between the two mews not only provides security against an escaped bird but also provides storage for falconry equipment. Thinks are getting organized in that department.

Day 45:

Chapal has all but lost all his down. There only remains the few feathers left on his head. He is regularly perched on the lawn now to benifit from the sun and rain. He has been misted to help him cool off in the heat.


Perching the birds outside their mews so they are exposed to the elements, particularly the sun and rain is called weathering and is a valuable management strategy for a healthy falconry bird. There are actual enclosures called weathering pens which are designed for this purpose and allow for the secure and safe weathering of a bird(s). Leaving a bird unattended outside a mew or weathering pen is a dangerous practice. Stray cats, dogs or other wildlife present life threatening risks to a tethered bird(s).

Scirocco is now 65 days old and has been responding well to flight conditioning and manning. He is strongly imprinted on me. Entering on prey is the next step in his training.

Day 39:

Just thought I would post an update on Chapal's daily weighing. To have a far better understanding of the condition of a falconry bird daily weight is taken and a record kept for future reference.

Today Chapal weighs 659 grams, including bells and jesses.

A triple-beam scale is used which is accurate to 1/2 gram. Because of a tiercel's size accurate and small incremented measurement units are more valuable than ounces and pounds.

Day 38:

So the jesses are on and Chapal is learning to use a portable block perch.


The only areas with much down is the crown and the uppertail coverts.


The primaries and rectrices still have a few inches to grow which should be complete near the end of this week.


Chapal still can't dismember food yet so lure training will start in a few days.

Day 35:

Chapal has continued to grow in his contour and flight feathers. But there is a ways to go yet. Particularly the primaries, secondaries and rectries.

He has become increasingly active as his co-ordination and agility have been developing to make use of those new feathers.

He is very brave or reckless in his aproach to his "ledge" which is about 4' above the floor. He bails out regularly and as a result often is found in secluded areas of the house.

Bells have been "installed" in an attempt to aid in locating the wanderer.

Jesses will follow in the next few days to a

void his short flights to possible trouble.

The second mew has been framed in and will soon be complete. It will be modified to house Chapal the tiercel Peregrine.



By placing a secure external door on this end of the hallway a secure second enclosure will have been created to "catch" any escapees while the mew is being entered.


The meeting of the two roof lines will secure the upper portion of the hallway making a suitable place for much of the falconry equipment and

management tools.


This design also allows for possible future mews to be placed beside these thus saving materials and cost while providing a safe and secure structure for housing most species of falconry bird as each chamber can be modified for the various species.

Scirocco is now 7 weeks old and has been coming along nicely in his training. He has been fitted with jesses and bells as well as an i.d. tag and will be banded by Fish and Wildlife this coming Tuesday.

He has taken quite nicely to his introduction to being perched in the yard on a bow perch and baths quite regularly.

There still is some plumage development to happen and down on head, abdomen and legs to be replaced with contour feathers.

Here he is seen resting relaxed on one foot.

Day 26:

The plumage is coming in quickly now as Chapal is about halfway to fledging age.

At 25 days of age:

Chapal, my tiercel Peregrine is definitely showing signs of flight feather growth as well as some pin feathers that will later become the contour feathers on the back.

Chapal is showing some of his human imprinting by starting to bow and vocalize toward me. Now the trick is to minimize the vocalizing to prevent him from becoming a "screamer" each time he sees me.

At 22 days of age:

My new Peregrine tiercel has arrived and will be spending a few weeks with me in the house while his mews is being completed.

He was hatched on June 20, 2008 and is a pure Anatums sub-species and should weigh between 500-600 gr. at flying weight.

I have placed a temporary "nest" in the mews to help the hawklets feel at home while they continue to develop to brancher ages.

Each day I am more convinced Scirroco is male and the other hawklet is female. The latter has a distinctively larger head, longer and thicker toes and tarsus as well as outweigh Scirroco by almost 8 oz.

Well, the mew is nearly finished. Just a few finishing touches before added the Redtail hawklets.

The entrance door is equipped with a one way glass viewing window which allows viewing of the interior yet prevents stress by the viewed hawk. A lock is added for security as well as an interior catch to keep the door closed which catching up the hawk

The perches are designed to duplicate limbs of trees found in the wild but also keep the hawks away from the walls and windows. This greatly reduces the risk of plumage damage, especially to the flight feathers while giving the hawk an opportunity to enjoy the sun while viewing the countryside.

The gravel floor is to help ease of cleaning and reduce risks from waste and unconsumed food.

I attempt to place two windows in a mew. The choice of placement is to gain benefits from the sun yet minimize drafts that sap the birds energy. I want to also create situations where the bird(s) can get out of the direct sun, rain, snow or drafts from a window. So you want circulation of air during hot days but not drafts during cold days.

One of the two windows of this mew is placed to get morning sun and the other afternoon/evening sun.

Scirroco continues to grow, gain weight and feather development. He has used several different voicalizations. Soft peeps, A louder nervous peeping and a softer version of the Redtail territorial scream.

The yet un-named hawklet is more nervous and uses the aggressive/territorial scream more often than Scirroco. This hawklets further along in feather development and shows the more common head plumage development.

Mew #1 is almost complete with entrance door to be installed, food chute and entrance door for hallway which will act as second (backup/security) door.

Mew #2 has the front wall which also forms the left wall of hallway up and timbers laid out to show foundation. I use conduit galvanized pipe for window bars. It is very secure and weatherproof.

The bars must be close enough together so the raptor can not get their head and then a shoulder through the openings. If they can they are free. Not desirable.

Well, sometimes life literally thrusts opportunities or birds in your face and you have to choose what's best for both. Scirroco has a new best friend as of yesterday.

New development is often created at the expense of wildlife. Cranbrook is experiencing a growth spurt as a result of increased human population and the greater disposable income enjoyed by a good economy of B.C. and Alberta. The Columbia Valley (Cranbrook is at the southern end) has become a recreational playground for Albertans for many years now and is currently embracing the recreational economic benefits of golf. There is a new course being created on the outskirts of the city along the St. Mary's river. It is being claimed by the course developers that 2 RT hawklets were found on the ground Friday, June 27, 2008 as a result of falling out of their nest tree.

The birds were retrieved by a local mammal rehabber and moved to their facility. As some of you are aware I had my newly constructed mews inspected (a regulation of falconry) by a local biologist with our Fish and Wildlife office. During that visit the situation with these hawklets was relaid to me and the biologist asked me if I would mind visiting the facility and consider accepting one of the hawklets as the second bird of my capture permit of 2008. When I visited the hawklets they were a little older than was suggested and one had a scabbed injury on it's left side of the face, behind the mouth/gape and below the ear. Both birds were alert and showed a expected level of fear which is good. Though it was not my 1st choice but one made out of consideration for the big picture welfare of the younger, slightly injured hawklet I chose to accept the bird and raise it as a falconry/education bird and possible mate for Scirroco (although this is the last of a long list of considerations and neither birds gender has been confirmed. They may both be males and hopefully both are not females). So the Redtail population in Scirroco's territory has doubled. The fun and science has expanded.

The new (yet un-named) hawklet is possibly 4-5 days older than Scirroco, the size comparisons are very similar with the toes possibly being a little thicker and the weight slightly greater. The new bird is much more cautious and defensive but a few days of exposure to me will lessen that greatly. The bird won't eat on its own at this time. More likely a result of fear than anything else and has a softer version in it's repertoire of vocalizations, something Scirroco has yet to reveal.

Raptors have some specific needs to be considered when constructing housing (a mew) and most governing agencies have guidelines or regulations for minimal requirments. Like all construction, starting with a level surface is key to easier and more stable construction. I have prefabricated and stained all the dimentional lumber as well as the wall OSB. The roof will be corrigated steel with a pitch of 1' in 4' to allow for easy snow removal. There will be a center hallway between two mews to provide for a double door safety system and storage of some falconry management equipment.

These photos show the layout of the front and rear walls placed on treated timbers. These two mews are located on a raised bench to the rear of my property, offering the birds a lofty view and some security from the public.

Well as you can see Scirroco is really developing his flight and contour feathers. He now weights 13.5 oz.

I have been busy, while he has been growing, building his mews (enclosure for falconry bird). My next few posts will show the first steps in building the mews and explain why the enclosure design is specific to raptors.

After a week in my care Scirroco's contour and flight feathers are coming in as should be expected. The primaries and secondaries are approximately 2" long and the rectrices are showing about 1" of development accompanied with a thick cream tip band.


Redtails hatch as a semi-altricial with a fine white down covering much of their main body. After about 9 days they start to replace that downy protection with a thicker buff colored 2nd down protection.



The contour and flight feathers grow within a drinking straw like protective sheath of keratin. As the feather reaches full length the sheath breaks down forming a powder and exposing the unfurled feather. While feathers are growing they have a blood supply providing nutrition. Once the feather has reach complete growth that blood supply is pinched off and the feather is now dead.

Despite being known as a Red-tailed Hawk, Buteo jamaicensis, hawklets and many juveniles don't show the coloration of tail feathers the species was named for. Often the 2nd year bird will moult in a "red" tail but many don't get this bright plumage until the moult of their 3rd year.


The juveniles tail is a series of dark and light grey/brown bars of coloration.

A common source of food for Redtails in my area is the Columbian Ground Squirrel, Spermophilus columbianus. They are available as prey from April until early August which coincides beautifully with the nesting and rearing season of the buteo. It is also the ground squirrels reproductive season which provided the fledgling Redtails with young, inexperienced prey.

These rodents are mainly herbivores but on occasion take advantage of insects, other small vertebrates and some birds. They are also a true hibernator.

I feed my growing hawklet an almost exclusive diet of harvested Columbian Ground Squirrels.

Many raptor species I have visited at the nest are hosts for several parasite species. Feather lice are not common, in my experience, with down phase eyasses but Blowfly larvae is a different story. These larvae (maggots) tend to holdup in the ear apertures during the daylight hours. They normally are not life threatening themselves but should the eyas already be vulnerable because of other stress causing then the parasite may make the difference between death and survival.

As an example this hawklet had approximately 1 dozen larvae per ear and a few days later I removed 5 much larger larvae pictured above.

The larvae are easily removed by administering mineral oil into the ear aperture which cuts off the air supply causing the larvae to come to the surface. A good indicator of their presence is a dark crusty matter around the rim of the aperture. Because dealing with them is such a simple and non-evasive procedure I recommend any eyas be treated for possible removal. A pair of fine tapered tweezers or forceps is the only tool necessary.

Weighing the raptor is one of the best indicators for training. From the beginning I weigh even the hawklet to condition the bird to this part of what will become a daily routine. At this age I use a spring scale because of the size of the surface the bird can sit upon. Later I will add a perching block for the hawklet to stand upon while being weighed.

This is the nest tree site. The nest itself was at approximately the 60' height. The tree is a Bull Pine located at about 3500' elevation.

There were 3 hawklets in the nest. Because of dimming light conditions and what appeared to be a healthy male well within reach it was decided to harvest the closest bird. I was also concerned about the other hawklets bailing. The bird was placed in a backpack and lowered to the ground. I prefer when possible to do this rather than risk injury while negotiating the decent around the various large limbs.

The adult female spent most of the capture perched nearby screaming. The male showed up as the nest was approached and the pair circled with the female often passing within about 30' of the tree top.

June 16, 2008 I successfully captured a male Redtail eyas. I am naming this hawklet Scirroco. He appears to be approximately 15 days old. One of my goals is to create an imprint I can use for education as well as falconry. As has been my practice in the past I examined his ears for possible fly larvae and removed approximately a dozen small ones from each ear aperture.

May 27, 2008 I was issued a permit to capture up to 2 raptors of specific species (all Class ll species).

Raptors in North America are generally protected by Federal, State and Provincial government agencies so permits or licenses are required to capture or possess raptorial birds. Also a hunting license is required to pursue wild game with a falconry bird. I am in the process of acquiring the necessary permits at this time for the capture and/or purchase of two raptors.
Proper housing (a mew) is also required for the proper care and safety of a falconry bird and the public. Efficient and safe management equipment is also required.
Also it is wise to be doing the leg work to find a suitable and active nest from which to capture the intended species. Because one of the species of interest for me is a Red-tailed Hawk, I am actively searching for some nests. The species has been returning to my region recently and will be nesting within the next month.

I'm hoping this blog will be a regular and lengthy record of the raising and training of some falconry birds and their canine hunting partners using text, photos and video to help people understand the sport. From the time of locating a nest and the searching that went into that discovery or contacting a breeder and arranging the purchase, the acquisition. From the selection of a sire and dam, the whelp of a pup and the merging of a hunting team for the taking of game. Falconry is a sport, passion not for the faint of heart.