Willow's Pace

I think Stephen is disapointed that Willow hasn't hopped to his fist yet. In some ways the time we had with Zoie flew by so fast that looking back we some times tend to think that she was completly trained the day we trapped her. I think with the situation that Zoie was in she was a little more willing to do what Stephen ask of her, however when we take a closer look at the logs that Stephen kept with Zoie she was only a couple of days quicker to do the things Stephen wanted her to do. 

Zoie was most likely desparately hungary and probably in some pain from the first day we had her, this made Zoie more willing because she needed to be. I don't think there will ever be a day when Katie can walk right up to Willow on the perch, Willow isn't going to put her head down to be petted, however Willow is a different bird in a different health situation than Zoie was. I know that every bird is different, but with that in mind I also think that having a sick hawk from the start ment that Stephen didn't really get the true experiance if a wild hawk on his fist. Not to say that Zoie was not an amazing hawk, she was and if either of us could have saved her we would have moved mountains to make it happen. However animals like people tend to be less agressive and have less spunk when they are suffering.

Even though Stephen seems to be letting this slower pace of training get to him, I am thinking this is probably the correct pace, the pace a wild healthy hawk learns to trust a human.

Tonight Stephen was attempting to put Willow on the perch, I wanted to take a few photos of her but she deffinately has her own ideas and attitude, instead of sitting on her perch she flew at Stephen then straight for me. I was trying to focus the camera and take a photo but it all happened so fast that she was about to step on the perch then she was suddenly banging me in the head with her wings and back on Stephen's arm. I had to stop and think to even realize that she had flown at him first, then me then circled and headed toward Stephen about the time he had pulled in the leash enough to force her to go to his fist. She didn't hurt me or even scare me, mostly I was upset I missed capturing her attitude with my camera.

Once she had her hissy fit and let us know she wasn't pleased she settled down and got on the perch. Then she was at least willing to give a good stretch to get sme bits of food. She may not be training up as fast as Zoie but I think she is getting there at her own pace and time. The hard part is working in the time for Stephen to spend with her. It is diffictult to manage our time to include all the things that we need to accomplish in a day, but I think if Stephen can learn to live with a couple hours less sleep he will manage it fine. I on the other hand may not deal so well, a sleep deprived Stephen means a grouchy Stephen lol..