I trapped Stevie very late in the 2010/2011 Falconry season and she was wild and very difficult to man and I struggled with her minimal tolerance for my presence, but her flying was so good and her footing so deadly, I kept with it.  Flew her very late into the Spring in 2011 and determined that she needed to be on my cadge in the Fall.  Very good decision.  Although she has always maintained a certain independence as most passage birds do, she became manageable and we had a very good hawking season, taking Sage Grouse, Sharptail Grouse and a good number of Hungarian Partridge.  (See a short video clip below of her on a Sage Grouse she killed dead in the stoop from a 1500' pitch on brisk, windy morning as a 2nd year bird.  I was with Ken Tuttle of Elkridge, Utah.)

Stevie suffered wing tip edema, or frostbite, in her second winter with me for some reason.  Redig said she could lose the entire wing tips, but said there was a chance she wouldn't too.  She got lucky and only lost a couple of primary feathers off of each wing and they never grew back in.  Even in this flight condition, she still competed very well in Sky Trials events and she still took Partridge and Sharptail in very fine style.  

Like Izzy, Stevie started showing signs of imprinting on me after the 2nd year with me and then through the third and fourth years it intensified during the summer molting months.  I thought perhaps I'd try my hand at Artificial Insemination with her and see if this couldn't be a new era in her life and a fulfilling of her destiny as a producer of young falcons.  Long story short...  She is producing youngsters starting Spring/Summer 2015.  These will also be Peales Prairies and they should be dynamite!  

Stevie      (2011 Passage Prairie)

​Mission Falcons