get time to fly your raptors?”
“Not as much as I’d like,” Jenny admitted, walking back into the protected raptor facility. “You said you held the same raptor licenses as I do. Right?”
“Yes, because I still service that part of the industry, and the other half of my life is beekeeping consulting.”
“Good, then come with me.” Jenny gestured for Cari to follow her down a wide path of cedar shavings between two huge eagle cages. They kept walking until they came to another area, which was closed off from the eagles, and this was their hawk and falcon facility. Jenny walked at Cari’s shoulder. “Are you rusty at training a young bird to hunt?”
“A little,” Cari admitted. “Why?”
“Well, we had a young female red-tailed hawk who was hit by a car when she was just a fledging. She was bruised up pretty badly, lost some of her flight feathers, and the driver pulled over to save her. They wrapped her in a shirt and brought her here, to our facility.” Jenny opened a door and went inside a slightly warmer area. This was the bird hospital, as she called it. “Over here,” she said, making a left down a white-tiled aisle that was spotless and clean.
Cari came to a halt in front of a large hawk enclosure. Inside was a beautiful red-tailed hawk. Next door to her was another hawk of the same species, so she had company. “She’s beautiful and big!”
Jenny nodded and they halted in front of the airy cage. “We call her Wild Child, even though Valkyrie is her official name, because she’s of a huntress temperament and she takes no prisoners. I’ve been the one training her, but in the next couple of weeks, I’ll be gone. Valkyrie needs someone who knows what they’re doing. She’s sharply intelligent, and doesn’t put up with a handler who really doesn’t know what he or she is doing.”
“In other words,” Cari said, studying the young hawk, “she doesn’t tolerate beginners.”
“No. She’s a ‘hot’ hawk.”
“Nervous? Anxious?” Cari asked.
“No, just fully intense like a laser-fired rocket, is impatient, wants her own way and is headstrong despite her youth.” Chuckling, Jenny said, “And that’s probably what got her into trouble, trying to fledge and fly before her body and wings were actually ready to do the duty.”
“I’ve met raptors like that,” Cari said drily. “They’re always the ones that fall out of their nest or fly too early and land on the ground.”
“Yep, Valkyrie is like that. She’s a hot hawk in terms of being a totally relentless hunter, isn’t afraid of anything or anyone, and she’ll crash through trees and branches to get her prey, which is highly unusual. Most hawks that survive know you don’t do that and get away with it. Usually, they end up with a broken wing, grounded, and then some predator will make a meal of ’em.”
“Right you are. But how do you know she’ll go through tree branches?”
Grimacing, Jenny said, “I had one of our older students work with her, and one day, Valkyrie decided to go to the nearby woods instead of work with the creance line. Pamela saw her fly above the trees, spot something, and then dive right down through the tree limbs. We put locators on their tails so we can find them, and when Pamela got to her, Valkyrie had a dead squirrel in her claws, mantling over it, making a meal out of it. After our Wild Child was done with her meal, the student put the jesses back into place on her legs and brought her back to the facility.”
“Maybe she’s half harpy eagle?” Cari asked with a sour grin. “They are a South American eagle who will literally dive into jungle trees after a monkey, leaves and twigs and branches exploding around them as they do it.”
“Yes, well,” Jenny said with a chuckle, “the harpy is about the only eagle whose wings can take that kind of punishment and not break a bone. They are a massive raptor, as you probably know.”
“I’ve seen two in captivity, both in South America,” Cari agreed. “They are a huge eagle. I wouldn’t want to try and work with one.”
“Makes two of us. So, maybe tomorrow? If you get an hour off? Drive over here and I’ll see how you and Valkyrie get along. I need someone to pinch hit for me on this hawk for the next few weeks. By then, she’ll be ready for release, unless she hits a tree