Blue Sky Picnic

Today we took the day off to go to the lake and have a picnic with the team. It was a great say of R&R for everyone. Lots of laughing, eating, singing, and even some swimming. What a fantastic way to finish out our season.

We have one more falconry lesson before the girls move over to Damu's and go on feed up.
Three days of parahawking left of the season!

We have to thank everyone who flew with us this year, it was an incredibly rewarding season.
I'd also like to thank Chris and Shea in advance, they are coming to take care of Emmy and Oscar, as well as Bob, Kev, and Brad while Scott and Anita go to India for their wedding.

As for me, I've got 5 days left in Nepal. Loads of gifts to buy, ends to tie up, and of course packing.

Em and Oscar on the move

Our babies are growing so fast! They've about doubled in size and are starting to stand pnon their own. They are eating a lot and are very healthy.

Scott has been building some aviaries so we have enough housing for all of our birds during the monsoon. Sapana and Goggles will be going to stay with Damu, one of our parahawking pilots. He and Scott have been puttng together a nice place for the girls to spend their moulting season.

In other news, we've been extremely busy this week. Being the last week of the season, we are overwhelmed with bookings and lessons. We've had very full days! All is well, and we are really happy to be able to continue to inform people about the vulture crisis and raise some money for conservation.

The babies are eating on their own!

The good news is that the babies can eat off of a plate by themselves. This means a smaller chance of imprinting them.

We pulled Sapana out of the falconry rotation and were trying to get her to surrogate the chicks, but she hasn't had enough time to get in the mothering mood. Typically she lays eggs in May, so she's just not interested in being a mother right now. Regardless, we are having her sleep with the chicks so they get used to having an older kite around.

They're eating four times a day, a mixture of buff, chicken, and fish.

Oscar and Emmy

Our newest rescues, see week-old black kite chicks were brought to Maya Devi today. The children who gave them to us said that the tree they were in had been cut down, and the nest destroyed. They also asked us for money, so there's a chance they took the babies out of a nest in hopes of getting paid for them. We won't support this behavior. We gladly accepted the chicks offering our gratitude as the only reward.

Winding down...

Not really,
With only two weeks left in the season, we are busier than ever. Lots of people wanted to fly before we pack up for the summer, as a result we are almost fully booked for the next two weeks. Definitely not complaining!

We also have a bunch of falconry lessons booked, which I'm pleased about.

Otherwise things have been going great, all of the birds are happy and for the most part, healthy. Weve had Brad on antibiotics and bandaged up his foot. It's healing really well! Crossing our fingers for a full recovery of that wound and he'll be good as new!

It's that time...breeding season

Lately we've been having some trouble with the wild Egyptian Vultures. They're all broody, pairing up and nesting. As a result, they don't really want our guys around and take to chasing them away. Kevin and Bob have been troopers, but it's still annoying.

Back at Maya Devi, Brad is feeling the need to build a nest, and keeps carrying this one stick everywhere,...so cute!

Release Day!

Today we released our rescued Steppe Eagle. She's been eating really well on her own, and was getting a bit stir crazy in her aviary.

We had some trouble in the car, which resulted in her being tired once we finally got to the release point. After a brief rest, she took off and never looked back. Good luck Monty!

You can see her release here

Monty's Rescue

Monty came to us in perfect feather condition, but on the skinny side. Seeing as she had no external injuries, we think she either accidentally ate something bad, or was poisoned. Currently we're feeding her and keeping an eye on her behavior.

Montgomery

After quiet a few days of not much to do, we had a very busy today. Shiva, our normal taxi driver who handles the birds, had a mandatory day off today and couldn't come up to release the birds. Therefore, I had to accompany Scott up to take off, leaving Anita to run after the baby and catch Kevin and Bob.

On the way up we got a phone call that an eagle had been brought into the Blue Sky office. They put it in a box and would like us to come get it. After I released Bob for the parahawking flight, I went to BlueSky fully expecting this "eagle" to be a kite, or small injured bird. It was actually a Steppe Eagle.

When we got him back to Maya Devi, Scott checked him over and he has no external injuries. He seems healthy, although thin and a bit stressed out.

I decided to call him Montgomery, and we put him in Kevin's aviary. We had to force feed him some food coated in a glucose solution, but hopefully he will begin eating on his own.

As for now, Kevin's sleeping in my room. I'll post pictures soon

Leap Day and Kev's BirdDay

I always love leap day, not for any particular reason but it's somewhat special and I feel the need to note that it happened.

In other news, Kevin's "hatch day" is listed as March 1st on his Facebook. Even though we aren't exactly sure when he was born, it's nice to celebrate a day for him. All of his Facebook friends sent good Birdday wishes and he had a great day, complete with an egg.

Happy Sixth Birdday Kevin, and many many to come!