Day of Progression

Got a LOT of stuff accomplished today! Started out like any Monday morning....slow! I'm not big on Mondays to begin with, but being that my company is "switching focus, and heading in a different direction" (which entails them closing my department....thus laying ALL of us off!), I was even less motivated than usual (That's right....time for the shameless plug....anyone out there have a job opening?????). Anyways, Ryan and the girls had gotten back to town, so I shot him an e-mail, with my birds legs as the main topic. It has pretty much been decided that the bating was not what caused the scale damage....this became pretty evident when it continued getting worse while in the GH. This was further confirmed, when I pulled her out of the GH this morning, and the OTHER leg had damage on it (we didn't have a single bate yesterday....)! I had come to the conclusion that I must have made the anklets too tight when I had put them on initially. My line of though.....if the anklets arn't rotating properly, then that would account for why it was getting snagged on the scales, and why I was seeing irritation on the legs. I'm thinking that she is sitting in there, picking at her anklets, and she is just yanking the crap out of them. The "too tight" anklets are getting snagged, and the scales are getting damaged. Anyways, I tell him that I'm going to swap them out, and he suggests that I try roled anklets....D*MN! I never thought about those! Makes perfect sense though....no edges means nothing to get snagged on...good call sponsor! He also told me to stop screwing around, and to get this bird down to weight....My train of thought, was that her being higher would hasten the healing process (apparently not)....unfortunately, keeping her higher also kept her nervous, bouncy, etc, etc, and was putting her in the position to further damage her legs (along with slowing the whole training process, giving me more opportunities to teach her bad habbits, and giving her time to loose all her muscle mass)....stupid apprentice!!!! Hind sight...this is one of those "duh" things, but I just didn't get it...What pisses me off the most though, is that I was having a discussion pertaining to manning, and how little progress is made until the bird drops some weight JUST last week on a forum....I understand the concept, I can even explain it in a semi intelegent sounding fashion, yet can I practice what I preach....NO! I'm tellin ya....I think I just have a blind spot, when it comes to my own falconry. Anyways, we had talked a little bit about this yesterday, so I had already "slightly" started bringing her down, and she was at 671 grams around 3:00 this afternoon. Ryan had informed me that her usual bate to start the session was unacceptable...he explained that something (or someone....me!) is causing it, and I need to figure out why, and to fix it. He suggested some tips, and I started trying to put them into practice during yesterdays quick session (which worked! No bate!!!!!). I continued on with this today, and got her unhooded AGAIN without a bate....SWEET! Hopped her across the garage a couple times with great response, but then she got distracted....she hopped up onto a shelf, and just started looking around everywhere like she was about to book it. She did this b/c she is still too fat, so I picked her up, and set her back down where she should have been. Gave her a tid bit to bring the focus back onto me, and then hopped her to the fist one last time. Pulled the lure out, and she SORTA looked at it. I picked it up in my hand, wiggled it a little bit by her feet, and then tossed it back to the ground....she hesitated for a few seconds, and then flew over to the lure....wasn't as quick as I was expeting, but she flew further for it than last time, so progress is progress. She was at 691 grams at the end of the session, and Lindz and I headed off to Bartlesville for some good times. Took a little longer than we anticipated to get Parker all packed up and on the road, but we pulled into town with about thirty minutes or so of daylight left. Dropped my babies off with the girls, and I met up with Ryan to do some quick trapping before dark. Got a couple tosses, but no commitments, so we picked up some pizza and beer, and headed back to his place. After grubbing down, we pulled the bird out, and Ryan informed me that the anklets where, in fact, NOT too tight (so much for my theory), and that she must have just been yankin the $hit out of them. Got the new anklets on her, and I'm thinkin they will work out really well. Rebraced a hood (b/c I need to give the hood I'm using right now back to Gary), did some chillen, had some good times, and then it was back home we went. Made it home, and it was time to work on the pole perch.....pole perch Version 1.01 didn't perform the way it should have, so it was time for version 1.02. Changed the design of the perching section, and swapped the base for an old Christmas tree stand....it is really darn heavy, and hopefully she won't be able to tip it over....if she can though, then I will swap it for four boards going out the sides....that won't look as good though, so HOPEFULLY my new design will work great. So summary....my mind is at ease with her new anklets, had a good session, rebraced a hood, AND fixed the perch....not too shabby for a Monday! Since I fed her 20 grams during our session today, she won't be ready tommorow until the evening. All I'm going to do is fly her down to the lure, hop her to the fist, and then put her on the pole perch. I will tid bit the rest of her rations over the rest of the evening (when she is behaving on the perch), and will be aiming to have her in the high 650's on Wednesday. If her behavior has improved the way I think it will by then, then I think I will bring her down a little bit more, and creance her outside on Thursday.....big plans...we shall see what happens