Finally away

It's been 10 long months but POTTER was finally released today. He came in very starved back in August from Gillette. It took some time for him to gain needed weight and then he had to go into the hawk flight barn for conditioning. I brought him inside during our very severe weather at which time he broke the tips of some of his primary feathers.

Then he had to molt them in before he could fly free. That finally happened so today was the big day. The top photo is horrible, he shot out of the crate so fast and didn't go the direction I expected so the camera focused on the sagebrush and not on him. Luckily he landed a ways away so I was able to zoom in on him for a better shot. He spent some time checking out the area, I wished him well and drove away.