{"id":10123,"date":"2012-12-10T07:19:50","date_gmt":"2012-12-10T14:19:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/?p=10123"},"modified":"2012-12-10T12:16:09","modified_gmt":"2012-12-10T19:16:09","slug":"yet-another-escaped-falconry-bird-this-time-a-female-american-kestrel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/10\/yet-another-escaped-falconry-bird-this-time-a-female-american-kestrel\/","title":{"rendered":"Yet Another Escaped Falconry Bird – This Time A Female American Kestrel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday morning\u00a0I spotted this female American Kestrel perched on a far-off rock to the west on Antelope Island.\u00a0 She was much too far away for decent photographs (as is obvious\u00a0from the mediocre quality of these first five photos)\u00a0but when I see raptors at most any distance it’s my practice to “scope them out” through my lens so I can ID them and look for anything unusual or interesting.<\/p>\n

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\"american<\/p>\n

I took a couple of shots for documentary purposes but at first\u00a0I didn’t notice anything noteworthy about her except for the keratin flaking off of her beak.<\/p>\n

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\"american<\/p>\n

But then she scratched her face with her\u00a0foot.\u00a0 Jesses!\u00a0 Those damned jesses again.\u00a0\u00a0 In this\u00a0shot you can see anklets above both feet and the jess on the\u00a0left leg.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"american<\/p>\n

She perched and preened on the rock for quite a while and a few minutes later she scratched with her other foot which provided a good look at the jess on the right ankle.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"american<\/p>\n

I’m including this shot for a look at her right side, in the unlikely\u00a0event that some local falconer may recognize her.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"american<\/p>\n

I hung around for a long time in the hopes of catching her at take-off for a better look at both jesses and anklets.\u00a0 As luck would have it, when it happened they were both in shade and I lost focus on the bird but the photo still provides a decent look at the jesses.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I’m deeply troubled by this event and I’ll provide a little background\u00a0as to why (some of this may be old news to regular readers of my\u00a0 blog).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"american<\/p>\n

Three years ago we found this escaped male kestrel hanging around Farmington, Utah.\u00a0 For weeks I’d see him nearly every morning on my way to Farmington Bay WMA for my bird photography.\u00a0 I reported the bird to the Utah Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and to a local falconry group.\u00a0 The “owner” of the bird was eventually located and\u00a0trapped him\u00a0but it wasn’t long before the\u00a0kestrel escaped a second time. The bird returned to\u00a0Farmington where I continued to see it on most mornings for quite a while.\u00a0 I don’t know the eventual\u00a0fate of the bird.<\/p>\n

But I can guess.\u00a0 Falconers have informed me that these particular jesses are illegal, I suspect because they are too long.\u00a0 They are an obvious death trap because of the virtual certainty that they would become entangled around a branch or wire and kill the kestrel.\u00a0 And a miserable death it would be.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"peregrine<\/p>\n

Then, on September 17th of this year, I found this Peregrine Falcon along the causeway to Antelope Island.\u00a0 The falconry anklets on both feet are clearly visible, so\u00a0the\u00a0peregrine is obviously another escaped falconry bird.\u00a0\u00a0 Once again I reported this bird to DNR (both the Salt Lake City and Ogden offices)\u00a0and was told they would “check it out”.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"peregrine<\/p>\n

But almost a month later, on October 14, 2012, the falcon was still actively hunting along\u00a0the causeway.\u00a0 In this photo you can see both anklets, though the one on the right ankle is most obvious.\u00a0 In those four weeks I\u00a0noticed this bird several times along\u00a0 the causeway but never did I see any DNR or falconry folks out there\u00a0attempting to trap the bird (nor did I see them at all, even though I was out there on most mornings).\u00a0 And I never did heard back from DNR.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"peregrine<\/p>\n

In this take-off shot, taken the same morning, \u00a0both anklets are clearly visible.<\/p>\n

Over the long haul, jesses on raptors in the wild can be extremely dangerous, for obvious reasons.\u00a0 Even anklets could be a\u00a0significant hindrance\u00a0to a bird attempting to eke out survival in the wild.\u00a0 Anklets, with their open eyelets (those eyelets can be seen in this photo), have the potential to snag and hang up the bird.\u00a0\u00a0 Many of these birds expend significant amounts of time, effort and energy trying to remove jesses, anklets and even falconry bands.\u00a0 That’s energy they can’t afford to waste.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I’m seeing a pattern that I find disturbing.\u00a0 I was troubled by the first two sightings I’ve reported here and I blogged about\u00a0those concerns but I was somewhat reassured by responses from the falconry community that\u00a0these were unusual, isolated incidents.\u00a0\u00a0But it\u00a0seems to me that I would not see three\u00a0different escaped falconry birds (one of which escaped twice)\u00a0in such a relatively short period of time\u00a0unless this were a larger problem than I’ve been led to believe.\u00a0 If I’ve seen three, how many more of them are out there that I haven’t seen?<\/p>\n

I’m still trying to reconcile my respect for the responsible actions of the vast (and I do mean vast) majority of falconers with this troubling pattern of falconry birds I’m seeing in the wild with their anklets and\/or jesses still attached.\u00a0\u00a0 And I must admit that my support of falconry as a “sport” has once again\u00a0taken a significant hit.<\/p>\n

Ron<\/p>\n

Note<\/strong>:\u00a0 As I said, I have blogged in the past on this issue.\u00a0 In the comments on those posts there has been extensive discussion on the ethics of falconry and the positive influences falconers have had for many years in the areas of conservation and education.\u00a0 For those who may be interested I’ve provided links to those posts below.<\/em><\/p>\n

Escaped Falconry Bird – Peregrine Falcon<\/a><\/p>\n

Escaped Falconry Bird – Peregrine Falcon, Again<\/a><\/p>\n

Falconry – A Detriment To The Birds?<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday morning\u00a0I spotted this female American Kestrel perched on a far-off rock to the west on Antelope Island.\u00a0 She was much too far away for decent photographs (as is obvious\u00a0from the mediocre quality of these first five photos)\u00a0but when I see raptors at most any distance it’s my practice to “scope them out” through my lens so I can ID them and look for anything unusual or interesting.   I took a couple of shots for documentary purposes but at first\u00a0I didn’t notice anything noteworthy about her except for the keratin flaking off of her beak.     But then she scratched her face with her\u00a0foot.\u00a0 Jesses!\u00a0 Those damned jesses again.\u00a0\u00a0 In this\u00a0shot you can see anklets above both feet and the jess on the\u00a0left leg.     She perched and preened on the rock for quite a while and a few minutes later she scratched with her other foot which provided a good look at the jess on the right ankle.     I’m including this shot for a look at her right side, in the unlikely\u00a0event that some local falconer may recognize her.     I hung around for a long time in the hopes of catching her at take-off for a better look at both jesses and anklets.\u00a0 As luck would have it, when it happened they were both in shade and I lost focus on the bird but the photo still provides a decent look at the jesses.   I’m deeply troubled by this event and I’ll provide a little background\u00a0as…<\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/span><\/i><\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[340,334,8,16,1004,582],"tags":[28,850,31,1047,847,1045,1008,849,682,541,311,1046],"class_list":["post-10123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-kestrels","category-birds","category-ecology-and-environment","category-photography-ethics","category-falconry-2","category-peregrine-falcons","tag-american-kestrel","tag-anklets","tag-antelope-island-2","tag-dnr","tag-falconry","tag-farmington","tag-farmington-bay-waterfowl-management-area","tag-jesses","tag-keratin","tag-peregrine-falcon","tag-utah-2","tag-utah-department-of-natural-resources"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1zzJh-2Dh","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10123","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10123"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10123\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10123"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10123"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10123"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}