As an avid animal-lover, falconer, and bird dog owner with experience in wildlife rehabilitation and zoo work, currently working bird abatement in LA, I live a pretty animal-rich life. This is my way of sharing it. *Warning* There will ocasionally be pictures of my birds on game. This is a natural hunting behavior for them, but may be offensive to some viewers.
Parker has exchanged his baby blue eyes for a piercing pale yellow. As he gets older, that yellow with turn to orange and then, eventually, blood red. With spring approaching, he will soon start to drop all his brown juvenile feathers and grow in his vibrant adult plumage of orange and steel blue
A perfect example of teamwork between these two; hawk and dog working in unison to hunt. Kai got scraped off the rabbit during the initial grab. It started to run off, but Malia came in from the side and cut off its path, turning it back towards Kai for the catch. I’m so glad I happened to be filming!
Spencer and I made it into the LA times! They did a story on us for the grand opening of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Hollywood, where we’ve been keeping pigeons away for over 4 years. The writer did a great job!
Tortellini, our young Sulcata tortoise, enjoying some greens and a nice mud wallow on one of the last hot days of the year. Soon, the temperature will drop too much for her to stay outside and she’ll have to go into her wintering box
Roy on point (with help from Stile in one pic). Roy is a 4yo field bred English setter. He’s great at finding birds, and my hope for this season is that he’ll hunt cooperatively with my coopers hawk, Parker. If they can learn to work together, they’ll be unstoppable on quail.
Stiles (3yo English setter) and baby Parker, around 3 weeks old, spending time together at the park. I often took Parker there as a baby to get used to seeing people, bikes, dogs, and other things he might encounter later on. He always felt safe sitting next to “big brother” Stiles, though Stile wasn’t always a fan of his pesky antics
I started playing with oil pastels about a year ago, right before and while in lockdown. I’ve only had time for 4 serious pieces since starting, but I’m loving the medium so far and can’t wait to do more. These were all done with Conte a Paris oil pastels and Stabillo Carbothello pastel pencils on pastelmat paper.
1) Lanner falcon - done by following a tutorial from Jason Morgan
2) Cooper’s hawk on valley quail - original piece from personal reference photo
3) Aplomado falcon on chukar - original piece done on commission
4) Juvenile goshawk on scaled quail - original piece from a friends photo