Next step to freedom

Over the weekend Sara and Mike helped me with some projects. One was building a training ground for the baby GHOs to learn how to hunt live prey. Because a baby wading pool has sides too low, the mice can jump or climb out, I decided to make taller sides with some of the poly panels I have.

That was the easy part. The rim is too thin and would hurt the babies feet when they landed on it. Sooooooooo, I used some old irrigation pipe that is quite large in diameter. Cutting 147" lengthwise was way too hard so we used metal screws and attached it along the top edge. And to protect those big feet I also covered the pipe and edge with very wide Gorilla tape. What would I do without that stuff. I'd already pained the outside with white primer and then a dirt/sandy color brown so it wasn't as brilliant. The inside I left white to reflect light and make the moving prey easier to see.

As you can notice in this photo, there are two babies up on the high perch to the left, one inside the box and three up on top of the tower. I did put food inside and all around the training ground but they're not live. I want them to get used to going into the space to find food. Hopefully this will work as all the babies are now flying and will be ready for release in a few weeks.