Ellie

I realize I have introduced Ellie on social media but not on the blog! Ellie is a small falcon, a North American Kestrel. I started working with her in early December. How I came to work with this bird is a story for another time, and will be in the next book, but right now rest assured she is teaching me a lot about patience, persistence, and joy.

I have never trained anything besides red tailed hawks, and so to move onto the world of micros was a new and slightly-challenging endeavor. Kestrels need more daily check ins, more weight management, and have a super high metabolism which means for something so small (130g) she can eat a lot. Like, a lot. It's amazing.

Progress is slower than with tails, but coming along. I really like this little bird, named after one of Alice Wu's characters in the Netflix movie The Half of It, which is amazing and warm and possibly the best movie I have seen in a decade.

There won't be many posts about Ellie here, but you can follow us on Instagram to keep up with the pictures and training. She will most likely be released this spring, but is spending her winter with me and the farm.