Owlets move to flight pen and begin training

Originally posted Monday, 28 April 2014 15:05

Hein and volunteer Ron constructed a wall in the flight pen and Hein and I installed new lower perches. Once ready we immediately moved the owlets in, as they were already starting to fly in their little 5' x 7' transition mews.

We had a small audience made up of a neighbor's family and volunteer owlet socializer Patty. The owlets pretty much just stayed put after moving into the pen, although they are able to fly around in the 35' long enclosure.

I am working with them to get them to step forward onto the glove and backward onto the glove and perches. They also are progressing enough to start making short hops to the glove.

They also need to get used to wearing equipment on their legs, although their legs may not be strong enough yet to be restrained by jesses. We simply put anklets on them to see how well they will tolerate them, and once they are strong enough we will start using jess straps, but it may be with a different jess setup. The anklets they are currently wearing are removable.

The owlets have been much less vocal than last year's owlets who grew up with their parents. It will be interesting to see if Ruby and Rupert vocalize more now that they can hear Rusty and Iris better, although they cannot see them.