So, the Peanut has been asking about an owl for a good five years now, undeterred by reports of their questionable SAT scores and poor study habits.

The Feds allow falconers to take both adult and juvenile GHOs from the wild, but the concept of trying to train an adult GHO for falconry is basically too insane even to contemplate.  Thus, it's been mostly a matter of waiting for the right circumstance to present itself....

Here now comes a cute little juvie male GHO falling right into our laps:

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This is Cedric (after Cedric Diggory, in keeping with our theme) -- all 1030 grams of him.  He's quite small for a GHO - a big female will outweigh him by nearly a factor of two - and thus far seems to break all the GHO rules by being a sweetheart to work with.  He's taken right to the glove, rarely bates, eats well by hand and, most importantly, seems disinclined to either bite or foot.

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Training him to take game might be a slow process, but we're off to a great start!  Note here the anklets padded with rabbit fur - GHO's are booted like Ferrugies and Eagles and the padded anklets serve two purposes:  protecting the delicate leg feathers from irritation and camouflaging the anklets to minimize picking.

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The happy camper:

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Lily continues to do well (except for catching jacks) and has about another 6-8 weeks left in her season:

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