Operation Desert Dove

I was a bit taken aback by a recent article in The Flyer from IAATE adamantly supporting legislation to make the already illegal killing of birds of prey a felony. I understand that the legislation would target those who engage in the “deliberate and wanton killing” of raptors and that this sort of behavior is grievous and sickening. However, I’m surprised that my bird training peers aren’t applying their skills to this issue instead of their emotions.

The idea of a large group of pigeoners brutally destroying thousands of raptors is horrifying and therefore a very “sticky” story, the sort of story that grows into urban legend. We’ve all heard the legend of razorblades and poison in Halloween candy. That too was horrifying and rapidly disseminated. It changed the way kids were allowed to experience Halloween. However, there is not a single verifiable case of death by tainted Halloween candy. Despite this, the New York Times, national syndicated columnists and many others have spread the story as fact with anecdotal stories of children who succumbed.

I am not asserting that the pigeoners involved in Operation High Roller were not guilty or that they should be excused, but the majority of facts in this case are anecdotal. Yet everyone continues to fan this blaze of emotional anecdotes. This creates an environment of reaction rather than solution.Viable solutions to any behavior problem rarely, if ever, come to fruition through an emotional lens. Yet this is exactly how everyone tackled the issue, with outrage and a cry for justice. Killing raptors is a behavior and all behaviors can be shaped or changed. No one stopped to consider that punishment after the fact is the least effective means of changing a behavior. Why not? We’re animal trainers and people are animals too.

Pigeoners lose hundreds of birds a year to hawks. Some racing pigeons may be worth tens of thousands of dollars. Even the rollers, not worth much more than a couple of bucks a piece, constitute thousands of dollars in birds, feed and labor not to mention love. The pigeoners have no great solutions for how to manage their two greatest foes, Cooper’s hawks and falcons. USFWS will neither allow them to trap the birds for relocation nor do they offer help to figure out how to live with raptors in their backyard. It is a challenging quandary. It is, in fact the sort of problem-solving that would be a worthy challenge to some talented avian trainers. In the smallest component the behavior to decrease is the raptor grabbing the pigeon. Surely there is an antecedent and a consequence to this behavior and a way to shape it.

Although I have no great issue with killing raptors becoming a felony, those of us who really care about raptors are missing out on a great opportunity. Most pigeoners don’t kill raptors for fun. Those that do, kill them out of frustration. We have the talent and the means to help find them solutions. What will have a greater effect? Giving them a better solution or looming punishment?

Parrot blogging via jott. Now Ty will do a math problem for you. Ty, seven minus three? Ty, what’s seven minus three? Four. Good bird. listen

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So it took him three times to answer…but he wasn’t real pleased about having a cell phone shoved in his face. I think he did fabulously all things considered.

Okay — so maybe I’m having too much fun, but technology RULES!!

Testing jott, too cool posting blogs from my cellphone. listen

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HT to Doc Hypercube from Twitter Post

Ah, the glorious podcast. Tim Gallagher gives us some falconry to listen to while we drudge through these dog days of summer.

http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/national/local-national-728349.mp3

I thought Tim had a great answer to the man who got his boxers in a bunch about his pulling kestrels as a kid. I was biting my nails a bit, because I hadn’t thought through how I would answer that one if it were posed to me. 

These new rules and ideas about our necessary and respectful separation from animals are a big part of Nature Deficit Disorder — kids need the opportunity to DISCOVER before they can connect, like we did when we were baby falconers. (like we still do) We’re such a point-and-tell-and-don’t-EVER-touch society now. A few broken tree limbs, a few disturbed nests, the raising and taming of a nestling, how much impact is this really when compared to what that child will do for trees and birds and habitat when they become adults and have vested ownership in their natural world? — We’re humans. We’re tactile. We tend to fight harder for things that we have touched. 

Besides tons of the obvious key words like my name and falconry blog here’s some interesting ways people stumbled on to my blog:

• Paw print confetti
• Lazy roller pigeons
• Verbal repertoire
• Shatner
• Toe wiggling men (eh?)
• Pigeon Repellent (Hmmn)
• Screw the pooch (I love this phrase!)
• Do falcons attack small dogs?  (And that’s one way to screw the pooch)
• Just rich enough to release a dozen doves. (Do you really have to be rich?)
• Tequila with cactus quills in the bottle (a. Yikes!  b. too much tequila on my blog?)
• Desert weather (hot and dry?)
• Big words to describe the desert (“hot” and “dry” isn’t enough?)
• Rebecca’s magic clippers (What might I do with a pair of these?)

Who knows when exactly the book will be published. I’ve definitely moved on to other projects. But here’s little excerpt in this month’s Narrative — an online magazine that I particularly admire. You have to join to read it all, but it’s free. Perhaps my admiration comes from me following Rick Bass’s writing around like a fan girl and hoping I weasel my way into getting published there too. I think they finally just got sick of me pestering them with submission after submission. I’m not above a pity publication! Enjoy!

 Whitewater Ranch

What?! Whose cockamamy idea is that? Although now that I think about it… it does make sense. A LOT of sense. The Field Museum in Chicago has released a landmark genetic study that demonstrates the surprising genetic relationships of birds.

“The analysis also showed falcons are more closely related to parrots than to other hunters such as hawks and eagles. If true, the finding would mean that falcons do not even belong in the scientific order originally named for them.”

I find this so incredibly interesting and intuitively valid. I frequently talk in my parrot lectures about training falcons and how it compares and even mirrors working with parrots. I love this possibility. Convergent evolution is a wonderfully fascinating thing.  
  A resemblance?

I just realized that Sunday was the five year anniversary of Operation Desert Dove. I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how I got here– to my current state of living, trying to convince myself I didn’t arrive in a haphazard fashion. I had a mission statement after all.

Shouldn’t everyone have a mission statement? A one-liner to remind them what they want to do with their life? It’s so easy to get side-tracked and so many questions can be answered by referring back to a personal one-liner. Which books should I read? What books should I write? Where should I go? Is this really the right day job, project, diversion for me?

Maybe everyone isn’t as scattered as I am. Perhaps it’s a personal affliction that I need a personal mission statement, an appropriate soundtrack and a souvenir t-shirt for the journey. Hey, whatever. It works for me…most of the time.

I’ve found myself referring back to my mission statement a lot lately…

…to help people understand their connection to animals and the earth and to delight in it.

Simple, eh? I’m not saying I’ll ever achieve such a grandiose and complex mission, but at least I can claim to have some sort of theme and cohesion to my life. It isn’t always that easy. My checklist of tasks is frighteningly varied as of late…do they all fit the mission?

1. Director of Development for a Girl Scout Council? Yes. Who is better positioned to introduce girls to nature than the Girl Scouts?
2. Parrot Behaviorist? Yes. I have at least one lecture a month and the opportunity to help with behavior issues, but more importantly to remind people that parrots are wild and should be admired for their wildness.
3. Struggling writer of novel? Yes. I do think my next novel explores and embraces the many facets of the human/animal relationship. Whether or not it gets finished remains to be seen…
4. Managing Editor of Academic Media Journal? Hmnn. It’s a stretch, but it gives me the ability to proxy on to the University computer for research. I do read a lot of anthrozoology articles…

I guess I’m doing okay, but I was none of these things five years ago. Oh, where a half a decade can take you…how can I even guess what’s next? 

I can tell you though that Anakin is molting slowly. Booth is a saint and Tempe is terrorizing us both with infuriating charm. It won’t be a boring summer. And I doubt it will be a boring five years.