A Mouse Without Its Head

...as promised, the first bird from the raptor center. Click image for larger view.

 

Pixie was a beautiful American Kestrel, the smallest falcon breed of all.  She introduced me to the headless mouse just as she did with lots of people, children and adults.   Children did best and gathered close for the most part.  Mothers looked in awe or feigned a brave heart for the sake of their children.  Nature is as nature does and the head came off first, assuring a meal which did not fight back.  Held upright in the feeding glove, the head was also a natural first bite.  Note that mice come from a lab mouse house and are already deceased when served as dinner to the raptors. Crickets are part of the American Kestrel diet in the wild.

                                                                            click photo for larger view

Pixie came to the Clinch River Raptor Center in June of 1998.  She was not injured and if not held could fly away when out of her living quarters.  To control and otherwise protect the birds when part of an educational program, the birds have leather straps on their legs called jesses.   Smallish anklet loops may be used and longer straps attached when the birds are out and on the handler’s gloved hand.  In this next photo, Pixie is entertaining children at a summer camp ground. The jesses are visible.

If not injured, why was Pixie kept at the raptor center?  She was imprinted on humans.  She had been raised by people who thought they were doing the right thing. Instead, this caused Pixie to lose natural fear of people and lose much of her natural ability to hunt and survive in the wild.  The “good deed” of raising the little kestrel was ill advised and she could not be released after that.  Yet, Pixie had a good life.  Spoiled a little, she was hand fed each meal and got to go outside for that.  She was the first raptor I got to handle and feed and Pixie was a good introduction to the newbie I was.  She amazed me as much as the young lady in the background of this photo from an Earth Day event in 2009.   If I could find the girl in the photo, I have a print waiting for her.

February of 2010 was much colder than usual and the birds feathers were all puffed up to stay warm as they would in the wild.   Their homes are protected from rain but are not heated or cooled.  Pixie was found on the floor of her home of many years.  She was over 12 years old. The winter was too harsh for this elegant yet older lady falcon. A wonderful and beautiful little falcon she was, teaching many children and adults that she and others like her are important and valuable parts of nature.  With memories tugging, I remember that Pixie was the first to introduce me to a mouse without its head. This lady kestrel had imprinted my heart.

Male kestrel falcons have more blue than the females.  The American Kestrel is one of the few raptors gender identifiable by coloration.  With great horned owls and red-tailed hawks, for instance, the difference in male and female is determined by size.  The female is definitely larger than the male but coloration is the same.