An Update on the Moult

Well, after doing some research today, I learned that a Red-Tail Hawk has a total of 54 flight feathers: 14 primaries, 28 secondaries, and 12 tail feathers. To date, Katana has dropped 17 of them. I have also started quite the collection of body feathers as well. She currently weighs around 1300 grams, and spends the day sitting contently on a perch in the living room, with visits to the weathering yard as weather permits. The vote is in - she is a dark morph. Her red tail is coming in strongly barred, and her body feathers are darker with hints of silver. Here are a few pictures to show her progress.

Summer Time Blues

Kylie is getting impatient with the whole molt process. She does not seem to understand that the birds don't drop all their feathers at once and immediately replace them, although this is how she would like for it to happen. And she's tried to get me to do unscrupulous things to make that happen, but I've rebuffed said efforts. So far there are about 10 wing feathers and 3 tail feathers gone. Numerous body feathers have gone by the wayside. The new body feathers are considerably darker than the old. The tail feathers are red, not white. That makes Kylie happy, and we all know if Kylie is happy then Krys is happy. The tail feathers appear to have black stripes throughout, but time will tell the rest of that story.
We have done a lot to stay busy. Kylie et al have helped me build a new mews in anticipation of my getting a tiercel sharpy next spring. Kylie and friends have been hard at work renovating my house. We have now moved on to expanding Kylie's mews. All that's left in that project is to lay the pea gravel, place perches, and put up the last wall. Now Kylie is recovering from yet another back surgery.
On happier notes the THA picnic was last week. Kylie was named Graphic Designer of the On The Wing. Kylie will also be running for the recently vacated secretary treasurer position and I will be running for Northern Director. We also plan on making a day trip to Houston this weekend to pick up Katie. From all that Ky has said Katie has been in good hands with Greg Barrow and she looks forward to having her back at the house. Hopefully Katie will be added to the hunting party this fall. Heck I hope now that she will have the dog back she'll still keep me around.

It's Snowing!!

Well, the molt is in full swing. It has started snowing in the living room when Katana bates, a result of the body feathers she is dropping. She has also become restless, and causing damage to her passage tail. She seemed to do well in Krys's new mews, so I am going to begin conversion of my mews to accommodate her. Hopefully, this will prevent damage to her new feathers. Also, her new tail feathers are just starting to push through, and yesterday I saw a hint of red. :)

2 More Tail Feathers

Katana is now back in the air conditioning, and fully recovered from the other day. When I came home last night, I put her in the weathering area for a few hours. Around 6 I went out to feed her, and surprise! 2 more tail feathers! When I brought her back inside after eating, she bated and played dead bird. I took the opportunity to check her out. The tail is not poking in yet, but her secondaries are almost in. They are a beautiful dark and silver. She is definitely going to be stunning when she is done!

A Little Scare

Well, I got off work yesterday and went over to Krys's house to pick up Katana. She was in the weathering area outside as I had asked Krys, the same weathering area she spent the weekend in while we were doing some work. When I arrived, she was bating like crazy. I went over to pick her up, and noticed that she was panting, she had stringy saliva coming out of her open mouth, and she seemed very weak on the fist. I immediately soaked her down with a water bottle and took her inside to cool. After she was thoroughly wet and was starting to calm, I took her home. It is about a 10 minute trip. When I got home and pulled her out of the box, she was drooping her wings, and panting even harder. It seemed that she could barely stand on the fist. I immediately soaked her again and took her inside to the perch in the living room. After turning the A/C on, I refilled her bath pan with cool water. Before I even had it halfway full, she was in it. I continued to fill it as she spent the next 10 minutes drinking. When she was done, she returned to the perch, and sat there mouth open, wings hanging. Needless to say, I was very concerned. Over the next few hours, I continued to keep her wet, and to spray water into her mouth until her disposition returned to normal. By the evening, she was back to her usual self, and I fed her a quail that I plucked for her, taking away all the casting material. It just goes to show that even the same situation (the weathering area) can cause different results, even in the small span of a few days. I will not put her in the weathering area again while it is hot, unless I can remain and supervise her. Fortunately, all is fine now, and I am glad I was able to get off work early yesterday.
However, when I entered the weathering area yesterday, I did find another surprise: HER FIRST TAIL FEATHER!!!!! YEA!!!!!