"Did you notice that Carson's alymeri is broken on this side?" Despite Mollie's calm, quiet demeanor, her words stopped me in my tracks.
Mollie wore a thick set of leather welding gloves as she restrained Carson on the table for a health check and beak trim. I worked quickly, starting by clipping the hawk's overgrown talons. This simple task was made difficult by her incredible grip strength; strong tendons popped in the toes as I used all my might to pry them open.
I had just finished with the talons when Mollie called my attention to the leather anklet wrapped around Carson's left leg. This alymeri is a traditional piece of falconry equipment used to maintain control of a bird while outside. The leather on Carson's alymeri had become brittle and just a thread of fraying leather held the anklet together.
A vision passed through my mind of Carson sitting on her perch in the back yard, soaking up the sun last week. If she had become frightened and tried to fly away, that anklet could have snapped completely. As she pulled against the leash, the force could have broken her other leg. Or maybe both anklets would have cracked and she could have escaped into a nearby tree.
Luckily we keep spare equipment ready-made for emergencies like this. I ran to retrieve the kit and used grommet setters to apply new anklets with smooth and supple leather. Crisis averted, I revved up the Dremel to reshape her overgrown beak. We soon got her back on her feet and, although her feathers were a bit disheveled, she looked fresh with her properly shaped beak, trimmed talons, and shiny new equipment.
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