16 Jan 2012
Marsha was one of two marsh hawks or harriers I had for pets. I was learning to become a falconer but was really too young to do the job right. I more or less just raised them til they were old enough to fend for themselves.
I took the baby from a ground nest in a marsh that had 7 babies in it and I took the smallest thinking they wouldn't survive anyway.
This great horned owl came from a large Basswood near Winnipeg City park high in fork. I shimmied up those trees in those days with no gear whatsoever. He wasn't a good pet cause he was active when I was sleepy and vice versa so I recommend nobody ever keep owls for pets.
Raptors are better left in the wild for their parents to care for and to train. We can't teach them the skills they need like a parent hawk or owl. I loved these birds and started to look at the world from the point of view of a mother father raptor. My tools were a BB gun and later a 22. I was the terror of the range when feeding my babies. Gophers, pigeons and English sparrows formed the bulk of their food but I supplemented by handouts from the local butcher.
The years went by and after university I moved to the eagle capital of Canada, Squamish where I researched and teamed up with Lefty Goldsmith to take care of eagles.
I conducted demography, social feeding behaviour to look for a peck order amongst the age cohorts, habitat use, leslie matrix population modelling studies which you can find by googling.
Raptor publication references:
http://www.jorma-jyrkkanen.livejournal.com/157115.html
http://www.jorma-jyrkkanen.livejournal.com/155630.html
http://www.jorma-jyrkkanen.livejournal.com/154080.html
http://www.jorma-jyrkkanen.livejournal.com/155332.html
http://www.jorma-jyrkkanen.livejournal.com/154678.html
http://jyrkkanenconservationbiology.wordpress.com/2009/04/19/bald-eagle-haliaeetus-leucocephalus-blood-chemistry/
http://jorma-jyrkkanen.livejournal.com/153205.html
http://jorma-jyrkkanen.livejournal.com/153559.html
http://jyrkkanenconservationbiology.wordpress.com/2009/04/20/bald-eagle-trends-on-bc-winter-habitat-over-ten-years/
http://jorma-jyrkkanen.livejournal.com/153742.html
http://www.blogster.com/quarksandgenes/bald-eagle-kills-coot-in-lake-okanagan
Copyright 2012. Jorma Jyrkkanen. All rights reserved.
Tags: Marsh hawk, Harrier, Great horned owl, Bubo virginianus, Jorma Jyrkkanen
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