Yet Another Escaped Falconry Bird – White Gyrfalcon
Thursday afternoon a possible Snowy Owl was reported at Mick Riley Golf Course in Murray, Utah. In the end it turned out to be a spectacular white Gyrfalcon.
Tag: trapping
Good News Regarding The Escaped Peregrine Falcon and American Kestrel
Recently I’ve photographed and posted about two escaped falconry birds – a female American Kestrel and a Peregrine Falcon. Both were flying free with attached jesses and/or anklets in the vicinity of Antelope Island. Both were reported to wildlife authorities and to the falconry community but each bird has been a challenge to recapture for a variety of reasons – among them the difficulty of getting proper permission for the licensed trapper to attempt the recapture of the kestrel in a state park. There were lots of hoops to jump through. It is very likely, for a variety of reasons, that both of these birds were originally captured illegally by “wannabe” falconers and not by anyone in the organized and licensed falconry community. Two days after we found the kestrel we met the licensed trapper out on the island to point out the area where the bird was hanging out and to try to find her, which we never did. But yesterday morning we spotted the female Kestrel once again, in the very same area where we found her before. She was far off but when she scratched her face one of the jesses became obvious, as you can see in this photo. I immediately called the trapper to report that the bird was in the area again and she was enthusiastic about making the attempt but as far as she knew, permissions from the state still hadn’t been obtained. A little background before I get to the good news. When Mark Runnels (master falconer from Oklahoma) saw my first post on the female kestrel,…
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Good News Regarding The Escaped Peregrine Falcon and American Kestrel
Recently I’ve photographed and posted about two escaped falconry birds – a female American Kestrel and a Peregrine Falcon. Both were flying free with attached jesses and/or anklets in the vicinity of Antelope Island. Both were reported to wildlife authorities and to the falconry community but each bird has been a challenge to recapture for a variety of reasons – among them the difficulty of getting proper permission for the licensed trapper to attempt the recapture of the kestrel in a state park. There were lots of hoops to jump through. It is very likely, for a variety of reasons, that both of these birds were originally captured illegally by “wannabe” falconers and not by anyone in the organized and licensed falconry community. Two days after we found the kestrel we met the licensed trapper out on the island to point out the area where the bird was hanging out and to try to find her, which we never did. But yesterday morning we spotted the female Kestrel once again, in the very same area where we found her before. She was far off but when she scratched her face one of the jesses became obvious, as you can see in this photo. I immediately called the trapper to report that the bird was in the area again and she was enthusiastic about making the attempt but as far as she knew, permissions from the state still hadn’t been obtained. A little background before I get to the good news. When Mark Runnels (master falconer from Oklahoma) saw my first post on the female kestrel,…