A Lesson for the Lone Falconer

Introduction

Falconry techniques can, and should, be applied to many other areas of bird of prey (raptor)  management. Recently I have been examining how they can be applied to avian veterinary medicine.  Much falconry technique I can do quite literally on my own - taking in hand, kitting out.  These are falconry terms that I do not want to go into in this article, except to say that taking in hand involves holding the bird and putting falconry equipment on it. Aspects of this are really hard when you are doing it alone, as I so often do. Specifically, closing eyelets on anklets. But then  this week I was talking to one of the nurses here at the veterinary hospital where I study, in Brazil, and he gave me a fantastic tip which I was able to put into effect immediately.

The Joy of METs (Medical Adhesive Tape).

Here in the Companion Animal Clinic the nurses and residents students use a special adhesive tape the word for which in Portuguese is 'esparadrapo' and I have not been able to find a satisfactory translation for it. The nurse, when I called him over to hold the hawk for me, said "Why don't you put tape around the foot?".  I instantly visualised how many problems this would solve.  The last thing you want when handling a raptor is to have it sink its talons into you.
So the following day I went on my lunch break and took the tape and some paper towelling, plus some cloths and then extracted one of the hawks from her cage. In a clinical situation I do not need to use a falconer's hood. But I do need lots of cloths with which to secure various parts of the hawk's anatomy not to mention to shield my own. My wife had suggested paper towel between the foot and the tape to prevent injury on removing the tape. This was, admittedly, awkward and time consuming - this was my lunch break after all, and it was very hot, this being tropical South América.
But it worked very well. That is, the right level of human physical restraint was achieved.
I need to explain what I was trying to do.

• Anklets go around the bird's lower leg
• To them is attached a jess
• This can be a hunting jess or a field jess. For now, in a clinical situation, I use field jesses.
• By using clean, white leather, the jess can be used as a marking or identification system.  The clinician can write the bird's veterinary hospital patient number on the jess. 

This last point is important right now because we have four hawks of the same species in the wild animal section and they are not ringed, so at-a-glance it is very difficult to tell which is which and to track their post0surgery recovery rates, parameters and other details.

Conclusion

It takes just as much time to remove the tape as it does to put it on. Although this will get faster with practice. Next time I may try with water. That could speed the process up. I wanted to publish this short artcile to get this useful tip out on-line. I hope you liked it.