Missing Mortimer

It has been a while since we updated the news of Mortimer.  In early July, after a few weeks of Mortimer being outside but staying super close to our back step and not seeming motivated to start to figure life out for himself, we decided a change was in order.  When he came down to feed, we held him, put him in a box, covered him with a towel, drove him the 1/4 mile to Carl's garden and then walked another 1/4 mile to the current place where Carl is planting and opened the box.  We stayed around a bit checking in on the garden and making sure Mortimer would come out of the box.  Mortimer finished eating his food and then flew up to a tree perch and we all walked away.  He didn't follow.  We thought this would be a great idea to start getting him less associated with us but still see Carl on a daily basis when he went to the garden.  The next day Carl went in to the garden but didn't see Mortimer and even tried calling him with no response.  A few hours later, guess who flew onto his favorite avocado tree perch on our back step.....as I said, I will never be insulted if someone calls me a bird brain!!  He found his way home and the kids and I were impressed and excited!!

And then it was time for our family vacation.  One of the researchers (Katie) who was with us when we first got Mortimer and who had formed a loving connection with him was back in Trinidad and came to spend a few days helping out however might be needed with Mortimer while we were gone.  By day two of our absence she noticed an exciting new skill of Moritmer's....he was catching insect, he was hunting, he was feeding himself.  We were all excited to hear this news and all feedings stopped as he was successfully fending for himself!!  By the time I returned one week later, Mortimer was still around the house but spent much more time on the front electricity wires and in other trees waiting for his next meal - beetles seemed to be his favorite. Carl and I watched him grow more and more independent during that week and then we went to Grenada for 6 days.  We have not seen Mortimer since.

We miss him.  We take walks and make his calls.  Kamala heard him once and we all went running in the direction of his voice, calling him but never saw or heard him again.  Last week we heard his call and went running outside.  There were two Plumbious Kites on a tree across the street.  We don't think either was Mortimer.  But we are noticing that those two Kites who were always around are also not in the area any more.  I hold out hope that all Kites have gone to other places for something (food, mating, anything) and they will return next year to nest and Mortimer will fly in one day to his favorite branch and whistle hello.  How nice that would be!!

Some things stay the same while others change!

I can't believe it has been a month since our last update.  Truth be told, not a whole lot has changed for Mortimer.  He continues to stay in our yard, sleeping in a large stand of trees in the neighbor's yard and then coming to perch on the avocado tree at our back step to spend most of the day.  We continue to feed him at a place further away from the house in the back yard but we are getting a bit concerned that he doesn't seem interested in making his own way in the world.  He seems quite content to perch by the back door, chat and call away to us all day long, eat when food gets put out for him and fly around when he feels to.  He doesn't seem interested in figuring out how to hunt or really survive on his own in this wild world.  And as really nice as it is to have him as part of our family in this way, we are worried that it is not in his best interest.

So we are thinking about taking him 1/2 mile form our house to Carl's garden where he would not be attached to our house and there are no other houses around. Carl is there daily to leave food when necessary and check on his progress.  "We will do it tomorrow" is the mantra since last week.  We are a bit attached to Mortimer :)!!  Just as Mortimer used to join the kids on the couch, Kamala now likes to take climbs into the avocado tree to be close to him.

In other big news we are now pretty certain that Mortimer is actually a Plumbeous Kite - another type of local raptor.  A few weeks ago there was a pair of kites that were attacking Mortimer as they have a nest across the road.  When Mortimer is being harassed by little birds he basically sits regally and ignores them but when this full grown raptor dive bombed him we saw some awesome flying maneuvers from Mortimer and he actually used our house as an escape route.  He didn't land in the house but rather flew through the house and quickly confused and lost his pursuer.  It seems that all birds have realized Mortimer is not a threat and they are no longer harassing him. Getting closer looks and listens to these grown kites has convinced us that this is Mortimer's family.  Some clues are that his wings are now longer than his tail and he has rufous feathers under his wings.

So our hawk is now a kite.  Here is Mortimer, and below is a picture from Cornell Lab of Ornithogy website with two adults feeding an immature kite....looks like Mortimer for sure!!  So we are expecting a lot of changes to Mortimer as he ages.....eyes turning red, feet turning orange and bill turning all grey.

We've had some hot days recently and a few days ago we had the treat of seeing Mortimer take a bath.  At first I thought he was injured but then I realized what was happening and took some video of his first fun with water (at least that we have witnessed).  I kept recording hoping that I would finally get a video of him flying but he proceeded to hop up the steps just as we would....is there any hope for him?!?

Fame

A lovely article about Mortimer in our local newspaper

http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/A-hawk-in-the-house-210778221.html?m=y&smobile=y

It's a Big Bad World Out There

Mortimer has been spending lots of time outside these past days and here's what we have learned....birds are racist.  Ok, perhaps racist is too strong a term, but it is amazing to see how all species of smaller birds react when Mortimer is around.  Based purely on his phenotype, these birds go crazy and start to send out alarm calls to bring other birds and they chatter at and fly around and dive bomb poor Mortimer.  They, of course, know he is a predator even if he is showing no threatening behaviors whatsoever.  So it's a hard world out there for Mr Mortimer!

His first day out I described in the last post and he was brought in by the kids after being bombarded by several species of birds and coming down onto the ground where the kids could get him.  The second day he flew out, he went on our roof and didn't come down so he spent the night outside.  His instinct is definitely to go to the highest point he can find!  We left windows open but in the morning he was still outside but had come a little too low for comfort since we do have a cat outside in the yard.  I transferred him to a tree branch and took the attached video as he was being heckled by several species of other birds (I only figured out how to zoom the iPad camera mode after taking this video but you can see him in the middle of the frame on the low branch).

After taking as much abuse as he could tolerate Mortimer left the outside world and flew inside to his high perch in our house.

We are having some household debates regarding Mortimer.  We all think it's good that he knows he can fly in the house to be safe.  The kids would like him to just stay here in the house and be theirs.  Carl thinks it's important that he spends as much time as possible outside to get more and more used to his real bird world and learn how to survive out there without getting too comfortable inside.  I think we should let him choose, leave windows and doors open and see what he does.  On Monday Mortimer flew outside and he hasn't come back inside yet.  He has stayed in trees around the yard, he is being continually harassed but is still staying outside.  We have put out food for him in places that he can see that are a bit high off the ground but he has not come for that food at all.  We know he has the ability to catch insects on his own but there is no way for us to know if he is successfully catching and eating anything.  That's hard!  We rely on the fact that he has flown back into the house once already so he knows he could do that again at any time if he really needs our help/food.  

This morning I came outside to see where he was perched and I couldn't find him visually.  So I made his call and he answered.  He is perched atop a large fruit tree in the back yard about 80 feet up and I felt blessed to be able to call him and have him respond!  I worry about him but I know there is little we can do for him once he is 80 feet above us!  So I trust he will come to us if he needs anything, I pray that his hunting instinct to survive will be strong enough to make up for the lack of teaching he received and I hope he sticks around a while.  But I may never be at eye level with him again and we will all miss having him in our home.  What a blessing he has been to our home!  

Can you find him?  Thank god he answers our calls so we can see where he is.....look towards the top, just under the 12:00 position....good luck

Hey.....guess who came down for food just as I finished typing the blog and taking the picture of him high up in the tree.......

Further updates to follow ;)!!

Fledging

 This week Mortimer has started to fly.  I was going to say he learned to fly but then I realized this is not a learned thing, it is an innate instinct that has now kicked in after all his feather growth and muscle development.  The kids and I were not in the house for his first flight but Carl was and since then he is flying from chair to couch, couch to table, always looking for the highest point on which to perch.  I was witness to his first big straight flight from the very front end of our house (the living room) to the very back part of our house (the kitchen) where he perched on a cross beam close to the ceiling just above the stove.  I have tried desperately to catch his flight on film to no avail (as yet).  Here he is on his high kitchen perch.

Last week Sunday (the day before his first flight) we had friends visiting as it was a big community Harvest festival.  I worked selling food all day and the kids were in and out helping where and when they could.  So after a long day Kamala and Efua sat down on the couch for a foot bath and a cucumber eye mask.  And guess who wanted to join in......

For the past two weeks we have consistently been putting his food in one spot on our front porch in the hopes that he will know he can always come there for food when he needs it.  However, to date he has never gone for himself to the porch to get the food.  He sits wherever he's perched and makes many noises that we guess are calls for food and in the end we will take him to the other side of the front porch and then he will hop to his food and eat.  After eating on Friday, he flew to the front gate and watched out into the world and then he took his first outside flight.

Perhaps you can imagine the excitement in the house as we all ran out into the street to see where he had flew.  It was Kahlil who found Mortimer perched in the top of a large bush in our front yard where he got to stay for a few hours before we finally brought him in to the house as night was approaching.

It is amazing to see the growth and development of Mortimer over the past month.  Today is four weeks since he came into our care and he has grown from a white downy 5 inch bird to a fully feathered and flying black, white and auburn underneath bird of prey.  We continue to love being part of his journey!  We look into his eyes and see his curiosity, intelligence and beauty and we wonder what else is going on inside that bird brain.  All of a sudden bird brain doesn't seem like such a negative thing at all!

Next step is trying to help him learn to survive in this big world......any and all tips and resources on how to go about this are welcomed!!

Hawk Squawk

Mort tries to reach a higher box edge and squawks when he can't (turn up the volume to hear Kamala's comments as well):

New findings

Guess what Mortimer has found in the past few days......his feet and his voice!!  Every day I take Mortimer out of his "playpen" home and put him on the floor to change the sheet and tidy up for him.  On Sunday when I did this Mortimer started to walk all around the house with such strength, confidence and curiosity that we left him out for the whole day.  Kamala and I spent hours watching (and videoing) him in the gallery (front porch) as he walked and hopped and searched for places to go up, to get higher.  All the while, he was making his distinct hawk call which is very different from the smaller squeaks he has been making over the past few weeks.  It's as if he's saying, "watch out world, here I come"!!  And, after several tries, he made it to his first perch - the side of the box in which he first came to us.

So we decided to set up a little practice area for him with perches at different heights.  

He checked it out a bit but never got higher than that first box side perch (yet).

And like a true independent toddler he kept going to the places that most interested him.  His favorite corner was by the front gate where he must be seeing the sky and outside and he tried to jump up several times.  Luckily the gate is higher that his jump and he isn't flying yet but we know it won't be too long!!  We are wondering what would be happening for Mortimer if he was still in his nest in the wild.  Even though he is not flying at all as yet he is strong and mobile and obviously wanting to move about a lot.  Would he be hopping out of his nest and moving along branches?  He definitely wouldn't have as much space and room to move as he does in this house so we are certain we are raising this hawk to be highly advanced coming from such an enriched environment :)!!!  

And when we went into the kitchen to cook, guess who came and followed us and found his own perch for himself......not sure if the plastic bags and blender should count as part of that enriched environment.....

And now it's time to go and "bird child proof" this house to minimize the things he can get into and the things that can get sliced on.....oh the joys of motherhood :)!!!

Expert advice

We had a wonderful visit from a wildlife rehabilitator and expert falconer from Atlanta, Georgia last week.  She and her husband (Debbie and Brandon) were spending a few days at Asa Wright Nature Centre (a birders paradise located 8 miles from our home).  They came to hear about Mortimer (thanks Peter O'Conner) and were delighted to come for a visit.  We were so excited to have them!

Debbie did a thorough check of Mortimer and showed us certain things to look for with regards to his craw (where his food is first stored) and his chest (where you can feel a certain bone that can indicate proper growth) and his blood feathers and his diet and his environment and so much information she shared!  Debbie says he is doing great and the set up we have here at home is ideal because our windows are unscreened and opened so when he is ready to fly he may start with perching on the window ledge and then can easily come and go as he pleases.  She also suggested to start blocking him off (with a towel or something) whenever we bring food so he can stop the association of humans as a food provider.  And she said to start putting food in one designated place for him so that he can always know to come back there for food (which was different from what we have heard before that the first time he flies out we may have to bring food to him wherever he is).... Time shall tell with that one.  But his eyes are clear and his feathers are growing beautifully and he is preening and eating and stretching and flapping so we got an A on bird parenthood thus far :)!!  

We also learned about slicing and casting.....no, these are not just golf and fishing terms.  Slicing is how falconers refer to a bird pooping and casting is the important event of regurgitating a pellet of indigestible material.  We have not noticed the casting process as yet so it's something to look out for as it also helps to clean out his tracts and help him stay healthy.

It was such a special treat to have these knowledgeable visitors and to hear of all the work they have done in rehabbing thousands of birds and animals.  Debbie currently is part of a medieval dinner experience and works as the king's falconer to soar her falcon over the heads of diners and give them a swooping, diving and catching show at which to ooh and aah!!  The chance to earn money of course peaked Kahlil's interest and he is still hoping we can keep Mortimer as he loves the thought of walking around with a hawk on his shoulder.  We have heard of a falconer in Tobago and we hope to spend a day with him to get some more first hand experience of what it is really like to have a full grown bird of prey in your care.  I myself will be happy to see Mortimer survive on his own but oh how I would love for him to come back and visit our yard every once in a while!

Many thanks to Debbie and Brandon for their visit with us!

Growth on steroids

Raising a baby bird is like watching growing up in fast forward.  Every day there are such big changes. Mortimer is  now stretching out his wings and starting to practice flapping them as well.  This meant he  needed another upgrade to his home and he is now in a padded container with some branches for perching.  We have only see him go up once on the branch but hope he may start to use it more.  We have also stopped feeding Mortimer by hand and now just leave the cut up meat on a small Tupperware top.  He picks at it and has figured out how to hold the bigger pieces with those taloned feet.  We have also put in several live prey - small lizards and grasshoppers - and watched as he tracks and captures and devours.  Of course we did give him the advantage by removing the wings from the grasshoppers and holding on to the lizards till he had them in his grips...as all good parents do ;)!!

A big new home

Caught that grasshopper!

Stretch and flap

We love this little guy!!

Poop Shoot

This is the name Kamala has given to Mortimer since we discovered his interesting pooping habits.  I will let Kamala explain:  "Mortimer stands up, raises his butt high and shoots the poop out.  This means the poop gets all over the sides of his box but keeps him clean. He is a grey lined hawk and all his names are Mortimer, Mort, Dylan and Poop Shoot.  Good night"  We are all pretty amazed at this ingenious method of keeping his nest clean.  Since we had no idea about this method at first we just had a few cloths around the bottom of the box he was brought to us in.  We have now upgraded him to a bigger box, lined it with a garbage bag and then lined all around with cloths which we change and wash daily.  

We all definitely feel like parents to a newborn baby around here.  Carl removed the three bot flies from the left side of his face, I am counting the poops and equating that with doing well, we are on the look out for any moving living creature that could possibly provide sustenance to Mortimer and when he threw up the other morning we all spent the day fretting if he was ok.  Kamala says we are foster parents but human foster parents to a bird.  And it seems our baby is doing well.  He is making soft tweeting noises, standing up more, growing more feathers and today he started stretching out his wings and holding pieces of meat in his talons and biting at that.  Oh yes, I am feeling those maternal instincts abounding!!

Bot fly removal.....soooooo gross!!

Wing stretch number one......

One sided wing stretch......still to capture the full wing stretch on camera......

Mortimer on day 5 with us.....so attentive and intelligent....if we do say so ourselves :)!!

A New Family Member

Wow!  It has been faaaaaaaar too long since I last visited this site and made a contribution!!  Reading past posts makes me feel sorry for all the happenings over the past few years that have not been recorded in this way. But....glad to be back and with especially exciting stories to tell!

Last week Kahlil was saying how much he wanted a falcon as a pet.  Saturday we arrived home to a young baby hawk in a box from a neighbor who found it on his land - obviously fallen from a nest but looking healthy otherwise.  The bird seems barely weeks old with a body full of downy feathers and only tiny pin feathers now starting to grow.  Together with some researchers living with us, we found a few lizards and a bunch if guppies and Mortimer (named by researcher Julian) was well fed.

Day 1 both kids were scared to feed the bird.  On Sunday morning they put a sock on their hand and were fighting over who could feed the baby and by evening the sock had been abandoned completely!  Mortimer is gentle and smart....he takes the raw meat carefully from our fingers and never picks at our hands or fingers when we are retrieving meat that has dropped close to him.  We were advised to put lots of cloth to keep him warm and feed him as varied a diet as possible.

An interesting dilemma immediately presented itself of course.  Mortimer is a carnivore.  He is a grey lined hawk which mainly eat lizards and snakes but will also eat small mammals, birds and insects.  We have a small bird nesting in a brick in our bathroom so we decided to take the baby chick to feed Mortimer.  Carl got the bird from the brick hole and the plan was to kill it.  But we saw it was infested with bot flies (google it) and Carl removed 12 from the tiny bird which of course meant we saved its life so we couldn't very well kill it now.  So back into the nest it was put and was happily fed by its mommy while we were sent to look for other prey.  Lizards are abundant around our house but not an easy catch by any means!  We were successful enough to fill Mortimer's craw and he went to sleep happy again.

Monday (day 3) was another adventure.  A large (over four feet) snake (locally called a dos cocorite) came into the bathroom to eat the same baby bird we had saved the day before.  After a few failed attempts, the snake was captured in Kahlil's net but now what.....Carl's not going to kill it, I don't want to either....are we really cut out for raising a carnivore?  Discussions ensued about killing of animals for food, the cycle of life, the fact that be hardly think about it much since any meat purchased in a store bears no resemblance to the cute creature it was when alive, etc, etc.  In the end, Kahlil said he would kill the snake and I said I would cut it up.  Big kill #1 completed (no pictures this time) and the happiest we have seen Mortimer yet!

Tomorrows topics.....all that poop!!