|
|
|
Avalon Report 2011
by Mike McLellan, ORC volunteer
Read newer 2012 posts Here.
Dec. 28, 2011 Video
It's been a couple of weeks since I've reported, and I have a new video to share of the latest training work I've been doing with Avalon. I want to thank Kate Laird and Carole Wood for shooting the video and still photos and putting together this newest record of Avalon's progress.
I've been able to work with Avalon more frequently lately because I had Christmas weekend and the week after off from my regular day job. I was able to work with Avalon 4 times in 6 days. Previously, with the short days, I have only been able to get Avalon up on a glove about once a week on Saturdays. She seems to be responding well to this more intensive schedule. For the last session, (the one you see in the video) I was happy to welcome some guests from the IWS forum to observe the session. That meant that there were a few people standing outside on both sides of the aviary within about 10-15 feet of Avalon and I. She's not used to that, so she was a little nervous, but not in a panic, and her session went quite well with no bating or jumping off the glove.
A couple of key moments were when she stepped up onto my glove and how she dismounted in the end. She stepped up with one foot all on her own and placed it slowly where it was more comfortable, instead of the old crush my arm death-grip. On the dismount she stepped off cleanly and did not fly or jump away, just settled in at her regular spot. To me these were both good indicators of a more relaxed and cooperative bird. In fact, I'm more impressed by her cooperation than anything else. She is actually doing everything I ask of her at this point without much resistance.
Right now I want to emphasize that the glove work is just half of the real goal, which is to have her accept people real close inside her 'personal space'. Having her on the glove is great, but it's that closeness that counts. Of course, the only way to get that close is to use the glove.
Dec. 11, 2011 Video
Today's glove training session went pretty well. I was by myself today, so I set up the camera on a tripod and thought I would move around to the other side of the perch for a change of pace. .
Just switching sides of the perch was enough to make her think. She still slowly stepped up onto the glove with her usual skittishness, then settled in nicely. We spent about 45 minutes like that, just standing there. I then moved down the perch to the crossbar end with Avalon still on the glove and not bating (jumping off). I know this is only a few feet, but it's good progress. I then tried to get her to step off the glove back onto the perch, and wouldn't you know, she was frozen there and didn't want to jump off! You can see she does finally and we wrap up the session.
Dec. 4, 2011
Avalon goes for a Spin! See video
Nov. 27, 2011 Video
It’s now been just about 100 days since Avalon arrived at ORC, so this is her first 100 day report! It seems like it was a lot longer ago that she came here, and comparing her behavior then to now shows she has made steady progress. One of our basic goals with Avalon is to just have her accept her new life and the people who are in it. We have kept the number of people who do come into contact with her to a minimum. Right now there’s Jacki and Dee, who feed her each morning and clean her aviary as needed. I see her most afternoons to also feed and on weekends Kim and I have been catching her and doing exams and forced glove training. Just within the last week or so both Jacki and Dee have reported being able to walk in and feed Avalon without her flying around at all. This is a first and a big sign of her acceptance of things. It also makes Jacki and Dee our ‘control’ humans. They are the humans who never scare her or make any threatening gestures; they are the ‘good guy’ humans. On the other hand, Kim and I have been the ones who come in and catch her. So we are the one’s she keeps an eye on. I don’t think she dislikes me or Kim, but she knows we might be up to something at any time, so she is very cautious with us. This is the hard part of training her, I want to try to be her friend but I am really her handler, which is not a purely friendship relationship but is more of a working relationship. I have to get her to go to work and accept a very scary concept, to stand on my glove and be right next to me. I can’t wait for her to come around on her own, so we make her work with me and the glove, even though it’s hard on her. But each time we go through this, she comes out a little more like we want. Each time she gets over the fear and accepts what we’re doing a little more. So after 100 days she has made definite, positive progress. Now, maybe another 100, or 200...
So now, some more details. In the last glove session Kim and I once again checked out her foot pads, and they are continuing to improve. She did need her talons trimmed, and her beak as well. This added a lot of stress to the day, but she got through it just fine. After the trimming was finished, we (all this was done with the hood on) put her up on my glove for awhile and just stood with her. I then removed the hood, and this is where the video starts for the day. My main goal today was to have her stand on her perch, without the hood, with me holding tightly to her jesses and try to get her to relax with me standing right next to her. This went pretty well, and she was very vocal about the whole thing, so after a while I tried to move her feet up onto my glove. I got one foot and then after a while I got the other foot too. So now I have both her feet on the glove, I just keep leaning on the perch; in fact I kept all her weight on the perch. She looked down once to see that her feet on my glove, and not the perch, and then made a face like she was ‘grossed out’ but she stayed on anyway. I tried to move her away from the safe zone of the perch and just hold her on my glove. She went along for about 20 seconds and then jumped off screaming. At least we both know what to expect!
So I think, in the end, our glove session was the best it has ever been. Avalon is settling in and accepting her human companions better than ever and we are well on our way to getting her trained to be the amazing ambassador Bald Eagle we all know she can be!
Nov. 13, 2011
Check out the Video of today’s training session with Avalon. Today I wanted to try something different and work the whole time without a hood. She won’t stand for any length of time on the glove yet as long as she can see what is happening. The first half of the video shows me getting the jesses in order and securing the safety clip and my attempts to get her to step up onto the glove from a perch. She hasn’t actually seen me do these things before because of being hooded, so this is important. Later in the video you see me get her to step off with her left foot back onto the perch, and then stand there pretty calmly. Finally I unclip, release the jesses and step away. She remained on the perch, even with Tawny standing very close recording video. In the past sessions she would have flown away at the earliest opportunity. All in all I feel pretty good about the time spent today!
Nov. 7, 2011
Well, Avalon seems pretty calm this afternoon. She is flying around a little more than usual but she doesn’t appear overly stressed or upset. I spent about an hour with her and I would say she has recovered just fine from the big weekend. One unusual thing is that she has not eaten her fish (salmon) meals since Sunday. This could be an indication of some stress. I'll keep an eye on the situation.
I feel that by having people walk near her aviary on Saturday, we have in effect, continued our schedule of doing something more challenging each weekend to push her along in her training. Each time we make her participate or expose her to some activity with us, she is initially very upset but then she gets over it faster each time. Slow but sure progress!
Nov. 5, 2011
Today was our very successful Open House. Thanks to all who attended! We allowed guests to walk through our large aviary, still under construction, to within about 20 yards of Avalon's aviary. She did pretty well, but was a bit agitated with the number of people nearby. She ran around on the ground quite a bit, showing some mild stress, but not wildly flying about with major anxiety. As soon as we all moved away, she got back up on her favorite perch. I’m going to take it easy tomorrow and also give the birds a day off too. I’ll check in on Avalon on Monday and see how she is then.
Oct. 30, 2011 Video
Today Kim and I decided once again to get Avalon and hood her for a quick exam and more glove time. It all went well and we got her more easily than before, took a quick look at her feet, which are improving again, lathered some Udder Butter on her pads and put her on the glove. The video (below) begins with the last few minutes of the 30 minutes that she had the hood on.
When I took off her hood, she immediately bated, or jumped, off the glove. This has been standard procedure. So I put her right away on the perch but kept a tight hold on her jesses. After a few minutes I lifted her up off the perch and held her on glove, really, for the first time with her cooperation, not refusal. She has one foot slightly tangled in her jess, and I struggle to free it. Once it’s free she keeps holding her foot down and I become concerned she is injured. I get so concerned for her leg that I neglect to even realize I have her on the glove! Good thing for the video. So I set her back on the perch and her foot is fine.
After Avalon has calmed down quite a bit, I unclip the jesses from my glove and release the tension I had on her jesses. Soon I step back and walk away, she is much calmer now than when the hood came off. I clean up her fish of the day (a big perch, I think) and leave her to ponder what happened today. So, I feel it was a good result today and Avalon was less stressed and more receptive to what I was doing with her.
Oct. 29, 2011
Next week is our big Open House at the Ojai Raptor Center, so today I went out to help with a volunteer work party to spruce things up and get ready for guests. I have great news where Avalon is concerned! If you attend the Open House, you should be able to get a glimpse of Avalon in her flight cage. At first we thought it was perhaps too early in Avalon's time here for her to be exposed to a crowd of people. After discussing Avalon's progress with ORC Director Kim Stroud, we decided she can handle people being nearby if we are careful to keep a good distance away, but not so far that she can't be seen. So, today, we set up the area where we plan to take guests out to view Avalon. I plan to do another glove training session tomorrow, so I'll report about that soon.
Oct 23, 2011
Avalon and I (Mike McLellan) made some progress today in her training to become an Ambassador Eagle! After a foot exam by ORC director Kim Stroud, I placed a hooded Avalon on my thick, long eagle glove for just the third time. She was more calm than the previous session on a glove, so that was good news and our session got off to a good start. To add to today's session challenge, we had a reporter here interviewing me and taking photos and video of the whole thing.
First the numbers, she weighed in at 9.8 pounds, exactly the same as one month ago, that's good news. Her foot exam showed improvement in a few of her toe pads that had shown some wear. Still more good news.
So I had a good feeling about today's session and it did go well. I have posted a couple of photos of today and you will see that I'm able to stand right next to Avalon, holding her jesses after I removed the hood. This is really more than I expected today. She was quite upset at first (to be expected) but calmed down quickly and I was able to end our session in a positive way.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Want to help us feed and care for Avalon? Eagles are expensive!
Be one of the first to Adopt or Sponsor Avalon!
Adoption for 1 year - $500
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
See video of Avalon's first time on a glove!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Video courtesy of Kate Laird and Carole Wood
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
This video is called The Journey... K-04 'Avalon' and tells Avalon's story from hatching on March 27, 2010 until she arrived at the Sarvey Wildlife Center with her injuries.
|
|
|
The video below is courtesy of the Orange County Register
and King5.com. It is the news story that aired in March 2011,
just a couple of weeks after Avalon was rescued.
|
|
|
|
|
