3:00 snapshot, #69.

[urbpan]

Broad-winged hawk.

Comments

[featheredfrog.livejournal.com]

"This time, that finger's MINE!!"

[grrlpup]

Wow. You just have the coolest job ever.

[aemiis-zoo.livejournal.com]

Are all of your birds double jessed?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

All the ones that are broad-wing sized and up. The kestrels and screech owls only have one jess.

[sin-agua.livejournal.com]

Please to explain what a "jess" is?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

It's a leather strap around the bird's ankle, used to handle the bird. In falconry, they simply hold the jess; In our case, the jess has a grommet, and the glove has a leash sewn to it, and the leashes are clipped to the jesses. Entiendes?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

You can see the jess/grommet/leash/glove operation in the snapshot above, now that I look at it.

[aemiis-zoo.livejournal.com]

At my raptor show interview Thursday I told them that most of the birds at VLM were single jessed and they looked at me like I just grew an antler out of the middle of my forehead. So I thought I'd ask and see if the VLM are just freaks.

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

It's not like there are any industry standards--everyone just does it the way they think works. There's very poor communication between places, too. We just found out there were some major differences between us and the other sanctuary with animals, with regards to handling (we're going to have a meeting about it). For our part, we did have a bird get away from a teacher in a school gym, because it only had one jess, and it came undone.

[aemiis-zoo.livejournal.com]

Wow! I am so glad I never had a bird get loose at a school. That'd suck! Did the teacher catch it back up themselves?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

No, they had to call us (well, not me, it was my day off) and my coworker had to drive out there and enlist the help of the local animal control (long handled nets + ladders) to get the bird back. Good times.

[aemiis-zoo.livejournal.com]

What kind of bird was it?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

It was the red-tail in my icon. I don't know if he kept going with the program or shut it all down--it must have been realllly embarrassing.

[aemiis-zoo.livejournal.com]

And did they continue on with the program or pandamonium broke out and they gave up?

[bellelvsbeast.livejournal.com]

Beautiful...:)

[bellisaurius.livejournal.com]

I've always kind of wondered. What's the difference between a falcon and a hawk?

[urbpan.livejournal.com]

"Hawk" is a pretty unscientific word; it basically means any day-flying bird of prey that isn't quite big enough to be called "eagle." The order Falconiformes is split into family Falconidae (the falcons and their closest relatives) and family Accipitridae (other day-flying birds of prey). Falcons are distinguished by wing shape: strongly tapered and swept back, allowing for extremely fast flight; as well as bill shape, and often bold markings, like the "mustache" on peregrine falcons. Many falcons are sexually dimorphic--males and females have different color patterns.

[fledchen.livejournal.com]

The pegs on the wall behind the hawk make it look like it has horns!

[sin-agua.livejournal.com]

Oooh! Stabby! XD