coragyps | Entries tagged with nerd stuff

Read chapter eleven here!

They were so close to actually getting somewhere and now they're not even together in this chapter. This is sorta the angsty part of the fic we're getting into. But a few important things came up in this chapter. One, Poe totally ships it. Two, Rey does not. And for good reason.

Something else that's a little different here. There weren't really a lot of animals in this chapter. At least, nothing specific or worth mentioning. Also, Kylo is very distracted at this point and is far too worried about whether or not Hux likes him to do much more than care for all the animals on autopilot. He's not even thinking about them. Which means there's nothing specific from this chapter to talk about animal wise, but there are plenty of very important wildlife topics! And this is one that was very briefly mentioned earlier.

Baby birds.

Back in chapter three, there was a very good example of what not to do when you find a baby bird. Trying to keep it as a pet is a bad idea, and in most cases in the US and Canada, it's illegal. So if you can't keep it and raise it, what do you do if you find a baby bird on the ground?

The first thing to realize is that sometimes, it's perfectly okay for a baby bird to be on the ground. A fledgling bird is one that's learning how to fly and survive on its own. After they leave the nest and before they can fly, they're going to spend a lot of time on the ground and their parents are still going to take care of them. Leave these birds alone and keep pets and children away! They'll usually be out of the area within a day or two, but if I have a fledgling in my yard, I usually won't let my dog out there off leash for at least a week just to make sure.

If you find a baby bird on the ground and it doesn't have feathers or it's just developing feathers, that's a nestling and shouldn't be out of the nest, and that bird might need your help.
A nestling bird and a fledgling bird

That's a nestling on the left and a fledgling on the right. You can see the nestling isn't as cute, much smaller, and unable to stand or perch. The fledgling is near-adult sized, can perch, and is pretty cute. You may also see fledglings walking or hopping, which is normal.

If you find a nestling, try to locate the nest. It's usually pretty close, although sometimes it's well hidden. If you can get the baby back in there, go ahead and pick it up and put it back. There's a myth that's been around forever that if you touch a baby bird, the parents will reject it because it smells like a human. This is completely untrue for three reasons. One, animals don't readily reject their young because they smell a little funny. Two, birds don't really know what humans smell like. Has a bird ever come up to you to sniff? And most importantly, the third reason is that most birds don't have a significant sense of smell in the first place. So go ahead and put that bird back.

If you can't find the nest or you can't reach it, look for the parents. In some cases, they'll care for the nestling on the ground. If you see them coming in and bringing food, they'll take care of the baby. Just like if you have a fledgling, make sure kids and pets stay away.

If the parents aren't taking care of the baby or aren't there, then you'll need the help of a wildlife rehabber. This is the step where you call someone like Kylo. A google search of "wildlife rehab + area you live in" should bring up at least one in your area. Not all rehab centers can take all species - some are only licensed for certain ones. But you can always call and they usually know who can take something if they can't. You can also contact your state's wildlife division. In some cases, they may even have people who can transport the animal for you. Because even though in this fic, I have Poe able to run around and pick up animals, that's not something I've known any rehab center to be capable of doing. Most barely have the funds to do the rehab work.

If you do find a rehab center in your area, it's a good idea to keep their number in your phone, especially as the northern hemisphere is getting into baby bird season. If not, have the information for your local wildlife division in case you find what looks like an abandoned baby. This goes for mammals as well.

Although it is illegal to keep native bird species, it is perfectly fine to pick up abandoned babies (or injured adults) in order to get them to a rehab center. You don't need any special license, but you do need to take them immediately to the rehab center. This will give them their best chance. Here in the US (and probably Canada) there are a few species that rehabbers don't want, and those are the invasive species - rock doves (or your common everyday pigeon), Eurasian Collared-doves, House Sparrows, and European Starlings. It might vary state to state, but those birds cannot be released from rehab, so they're euthanized. If you want to keep one, it may be legal, but you need to check with your local laws first. Your local wildlife department will probably recommend taking it to rehab anyway just in case it's been misidentified.

The four invasive species of North America. Depending on where you live, there may be others, but these four you can find just about anywhere in North America. You can also keep feathers of these species! Just make sure that you know that it didn't come from a similar looking native bird.

In the next chapter, we learn just what called Hux away from Kylo and Snoke finally shows up!

Read chapter nine here!

Oh look. Those two are finally getting somewhere. Nothing like bonding over frozen dead mice and rescuing bears.

black bear in forest

And speaking of bears, I've learned that bears are not as widespread across the US as I thought. Historically, they were but humans ruin things a lot and now, they have a much more restricted range and are primarily found in mountainous regions with a few scattered populations here and there. I've noticed that people don't know how to act around bears, which to me is surprising because I grew up in a place where you might have a school lockdown because a bear's hanging around outside. Then I go to a national park and see people just walking up to bears and taking selfies and my brain basically can't figure out why anyone would do that. But then, I guess most people just aren't used to bears.

So the "bear in the house" problem is actually a real thing. They have a really good sense of smell and when they smell food in your house, they'll try to get in. If you have an open door or window, you're pretty much inviting the bear in. Depending on your door handles, they might even be able to open an unlocked door. They have also been known to break into cars if you leave food in there. Unfortunately, they're not very neat animals and make a giant mess. Especially if they do happen to get trapped because they're desperate to get out.

Although black bears are fairly large (although small as far as bears go), they're not particularly dangerous (as far as bears go). They have the strength and claws that could definitely kill a person, but they'd much rather avoid people. They only like us because we have lots of food. Black bear attacks generally happen with a cornered, stressed animal or a very hungry animal. Typically, most black bear attacks are hunger motivated, which is why you should never play dead when attacked by a black bear but instead fight back. Brown bears tend to attack to defend territory or cubs, in which case, if you play dead, they'll see you're no longer a threat and move on.

Bears can become "problem animals" when they get too used to people. Sometimes, a bear is a repeat offender when it comes to dumpster diving, breaking into houses or cars and just being around people. Unfortunately, over time, these animals lose their fear of humans which can make them incredibly dangerous. Since most animals are naturally afraid of people, it keeps us safe from attacks. But if you have a bear in a city who isn't afraid of humans, there's a very high chance it will kill someone. This means any animal that becomes a problem has to be euthanized.

I'm imagining that the bears in the fic happened to come in to a fairly recently built neighborhood, but now that it was such a terrible experience, the whole family will be a bit better at avoiding people in the future. And usually with bears, they have one experience with people and they never go back, or they become a problem animal.

Also, this is why it's important to never feed wild mammals. That's the easiest way for them to start getting used to people.

As I mentioned way at the beginning of this post, these guys have a rather restricted range these days. Their range in the western US is in blue.

Which leaves us with a lot fewer places for this fic to take place in.

Although the range maps show that there aren't any bears in Texas, I did a little research and they do, but they're a threatened species there. I would guess that since there's not as many bears there, they're not likely to have as many human encounters, so Texas is probably out as a possible location. Off the top of my head, there's only one more significant animal in this fic to narrow down the range, although I might make a mention of some others, although we're going to be moving away from Hux and Kylo's actual jobs for a bit.

And they're going to finally interact outside of their jobs next chapter! Because Hux thought asking Kylo to meet his cat would be the best way to get him to go to his place.

Read chapter eight here!

Hux has at least admitted to himself that he likes Kylo! And we're finally getting to the section where they really start interacting. At least for the next few chapters.

I initially thought with this chapter that I wouldn't need a map because Canada Geese are everywhere, but then I was talking to someone from Texas who said they don't really have that many geese there. I looked up their range, and as it turns out, they don't live year round throughout the continent. There's been a few other animals mentioned in this fic that I sorta just assumed lived everywhere and as it turns out, they don't.

So I definitely could change the map for this chapter because it's definitely taking place in spring/summer which means you're not very likely to run into a Canada Goose in the southern part of North America. But I'm lazy and those parts of the map will be eliminated with another animal anyway.

If you live where geese are common, you might thinking of them as pests. They can cover parks, especially in winter because they're just hanging out in large flocks. For most of the US and Canada, they're a pretty common sight.

The reason we have so many of these guys is that they are very adaptable and don't mind human presence. This means they'll settle in a park in the middle of a city and especially if they've lived in close proximity to people their entire life, they really don't care about us. They've learned that for the most part, people leave them alone. In the park where I walk sometimes, they don't even mind humans walking on the trail right next to their babies and only show signs of aggression if you have a dog, so they're fairly smart and able to recognize that people aren't a threat.

These guys, although considered a pest, are a protected species in the US and Canada. In the early 20th century, their numbers had declined and one subspecies was believed to be extinct. With better habitat protection and enforcement of game laws, they've recovered and are now the common sight we all know and love. Because they're protected, this means that legally, you can't harm or harass these birds. There are abatement methods and legal culls because there's just too many that can become pests in areas, but you do need permission to do anything about them. This means that you also shouldn't let your dog or children chase these birds.

Unfortunately, because they're pests and not well-liked by most people, they are sometimes shot. They are a game bird, so you can hunt them if you have a license, but often times, people just shoot them because they hate them or they think it's fun. I saw a lot of geese coming through the museum that were either definitely shot or likely had been shot. It is considered poaching to kill them without a license or out of season so no matter how much you don't like them, just leave them alone. I used a goose in this chapter because it is a common species that is intentionally harmed by people. And they aren't very nice either, so trying to capture an injured one very well might result in a chase like the one Hux went through. Kylo is apparently the goose whisperer.

If you're in the Pacific Northwest or the Midwest, you also might have another species of geese in the flocks of Canada Geese. It looks just like them, but is smaller. The Cackling Goose has recently been classified as a different species.
Cackling Goose standing in grass

As you can see, it looks nearly identical and without having them side by side, it's really hard to tell the difference. And of course, the largest Cackling Geese and smallest Canada Geese do have some overlap in size. When looking at specimens in the museum, we could tell the difference by looking at the length of the beak. I believe under 33 millimeters is Cackling Goose and anything over is usually Canada Goose. Of course, animals never make anything easy. The two species will occasionally hybridize. I had one specimen that was tiny, but the beak was too large for a Cackling Goose, so it was a suspected hybrid. Typically, Cackling Geese are about the size of Mallards, so if you're looking at a group, you might start seeing some of these small geese around.

Because I work with raptors, I also wanted to talk about one of the predators of the Canada Geese (and Cackling and probably every other goose species that breeds in the arctic).

The Gyrfalcon.

Black Gyrfalcon standing

This is the largest falcon species in the world and they live in the arctic. Typically they hunt things like ptarmigan and ducks, but they can take down full grown Canada Geese if they really want to. These guys are the fastest animal, being able to reach speeds of over 350 miles per hour in a dive (over 560 km/hour). Of course, that was done in an experiment because this species doesn't typically dive to hunt in the wild. They're actually a pursuit hunter and will simply chase down their prey until it's tired. In level flight, one Gyrfalcon was able to go over 110 mph (175 km/hour) which actually means these guys hold the record for fastest level flight as well.

Because these guys hunt geese, this makes them useful for abatement. Like I mentioned, geese can be pests. So under certain circumstances, they can be chased off. There's people who will do this with dogs but there is also abatement done with falcons. Gyrfalcons will scare off just about any pest bird species. It's probably one of the best methods of abatement. Things like noise or scarecrows might work for a while, but the pest birds get used to it. Poison, as mentioned last time, is going to kill a lot more than the species you're targeting. But birds are never going to get used to seeing a falcon overhead. They have a natural fear of raptors and will always flee. And of course, it's environmentally friendly as well.

Usually abatement is done when birds might cause a problem. It's not usually just a case of "I don't like seeing all these geese" but instead it's a case of damaging crops, risk of spreading disease, or risk of aircraft collision. Large birds like geese can take down a plane if they hit it in the wrong spot, so they definitely need to keep them away from airports. And geese can also spread diseases like avian flu, so they also try to keep them clear of really crowded areas like stadiums.

In the next chapter, we finally get some good Kylux interaction. And a bear. Or two. Or three.

Read chapter seven here!

This chapter focuses a bit more on the Knights of Ren rather than any animals. This probably could have easily turned into a fic focusing on the KoR and avenging animals, but I kept it focused on the Kylux. Which means that this is the most we really get to see of the KoR but hopefully it really shows what kind of people they are - which is assholes. They're terrible, but at least they focus on only hurting people who deserve it.

I was debating when writing this as to just how far they would go. I decided that they're probably not killing anyone and for the most part, none of them want to go that far. One, if they were actually killing people, then someone's really going to be investigating them. And two, I feel like in their minds, this is a "last resort respect wildlife" type thing. Kind of a fucked up wildlife education. Like, these are the people who didn't listen about how to respect and appreciate nature, so now you're getting punched in the face. And since education doesn't work if the people are dead, the KoR aren't killing them.

This is why Sygnus asks if the poison is going to kill the guy. Because he was going to stop them. But as it turns out, people who accidentally ingest rat poison are typically fine. And I imagine it's the same if you've been fed it on purpose. But it definitely doesn't sound fun. Rat poison kills rats (or whatever animal eats it) slowly and causes things like internal bleeding and kidney failure. This is also the reason it causes problems.

Because it's slow acting, the rodent who eats the poison can actually wander pretty far from the source where another animal can eat them and then poison them. And they're pretty likely to go to water because the poison makes them thirsty. Owls especially seem to be hit hard by poison. This is possibly due to their lighter weight which means it takes less poison to kill them, but I also work mostly with birds, so maybe mammal predators are hit just as hard. Which is extra terrible because owls are really good pest control. Something the size of a barn owl (which are medium sized owls) will eat six mice a night. And even more when they have babies. Snakes are another good method of natural pest control, but unfortunately, people kill them as well.

So if you're worried about rodents, I do have some tips for you (this is also what Hux would have told the asshole in this chapter if he'd listened). First thing is, don't worry about the ones outside. I can pretty much guarantee that if you have mice, you also have predators for that mouse in the area. This means you should leave said predators alone. You probably have owls, even if you don't see them. If you do see them, just let them be. Especially don't bother them when they have nests. But even predators that people don't love should be left alone. Like snakes. Snakes are your friend when it comes to pest control. Even venomous ones. I know people think it's okay to kill a venomous snake, but trust me. That snake does not want to bite you. It wants you to leave it alone. And if you leave it alone, it leaves you alone and eats mice for you. And maybe keeps pesky neighbors away.

For rodent problems inside the house, prevention is the number one thing. Keep all sources of food and bedding in places that rodents cant get to or in rodent proof containers and there's no reason for them to be in your house. When you need a trap, a good old-fashioned snap trap is the way to go. It usually kills them instantly, which is good, but they can only catch one at a time and then you have to reset it. There are other traps like bucket traps, but those aren't instant kills so maybe not the best. You can live trap and take them somewhere else, but that's not effective. If you release them too close, they're just going to come back inside and if you take them too far away, they're now invaders in another animal's territory and one of them is probably going to die either from directly fighting or because of competition. The other option is to introduce a predator to your house. If you have a dog or cat that will hunt, then you're all set!

Predators really are a great way for control because unlike a trap, they can track and stalk the mice and mammals and snakes can sniff them out so they can actually find the nests as well. Owls don't have a sense of smell, but they don't need one. They can actually hear all the mice in the area. I'm not sure what the range is, but they can hear a mouse's heartbeat under a foot of snow! So they know where all the mice are hanging out.

So since I've mentioned owls a few times, have some owl pictures.

Barred Owl (left) and Eastern Screech Owl (right)
Barred Owl standing on a glove

Two Great Horned Owls (left) and Barn Owl (right)
two great horned owls standing next to each other

barn owl standing on glove looking to the right

Only one of these owl species hoot, by the way. That would be the Great Horned. The Barred Owl kind of barks, the Barn Owl makes a horrible screech, and the Screech Owl whinnies. In North America, the Great Horned is the only owl that makes that classic "whooo whooo" sound.

Next chapter has a more prominent animal featured, so there'll be more bird facts for that one!

Chapter Six is here!

It's time for a map! I added the porcupine (in green) from last chapter and then since Mitaka was working on a pronghorn in this chapter, I added that as well, which is the pink. As it turns out, I didn't really need the porcupine because the pronghorn's range pretty much fits inside. Oh well.

So this is what we're left with:

So our list of possible places are California, Arizona, Nevada, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Saskatchewan, and maybe Alberta. There's two more major animals in this fic which will narrow this down a bit more.

And now for our weekly animal facts. This time, I wanna talk about pronghorns. Y'know. These guys.
male prongorn standing in scrub

This is one of North America's coolest mammals. And it's not an antelope. NOT. A. FUCKING. ANTELOPE. Look at him. Does that look like an antelope to you? Maybe? Well, okay. I understand why people think that. But the biggest difference is right there on this guy's head. See those horns? They're not horns. They're pronghorns (yes, the animal and the head ornamentation have the same name). A true horn consists of bone with a keratinous (same stuff hair and fingernails are made of) sheath and they aren't shed. The pronghorn is similar, as it has a bony core, but it's then covered in skin that hardens. The outside layer then sheds every year. And unlike a true horn, these guys have that little prong on the front. True horns can twist and turn, but they don't branch.

We also know they're not antelope, because antelope are related to cows, goats, and sheep (all horned animals). And these guys are related to giraffes! Or at least, that's their closest living relative. There used to be other similar animals to pronghorns in North America, but they're all extinct. Some had really cool head ornamentation too.

So now y'all know why I think they're cool. But they're seriously amazing animals. So here's why other people think they're cool.

These guys are the second fastest land animal in the world, able to run at speeds of about 60-65 miles an hour (96-104 km/h). Not quite as fast as a cheetah, but they can keep it up just a little bit longer. And at lower speeds, they can actually run for a while. So why do they need that kind of speed? Wolves and coyotes only go about 40 mph (64 km/h). A mountain lion can maybe get up to 50 mph (80 km/h). Bears can go 40 mph over short distances. So why are pronghorns so much faster?

A couple million years ago, there were some very cheetah like cats living here simply referred to as American cheetahs. They might be related to the modern cheetah, but that's still up for debate. But it's believed that like modern cheetahs, American cheetahs were using speed to hunt. So the pronghorn had to evolve to outrun cheetahs. Although their predator no longer exists, they still have their speed.

Another fun fact is that pronghorn can't really jump, which sets them apart from a lot of other ungulates. Because of that, fences can disrupt their movements and migration. They can run under fences, so there's a push to get ranchers to remove the bottom wire on barbed wire fences to allow pronghorns to move freely. One of the biggest threats to these guys is that their migration routes are being blocked by things like fences and roads. For the most part, their population is doing well, although smaller than it was historically. There are a few subspecies that are endangered however.

Also. Look at the baby. They're called fawns. And they're adorable.

In the next chapter, we get the Knights of Ren in action! And shirtless Kylo.

Click here to read chapter four of Never Cry Elk!

Luke identifies our hawk species so it's time for another map! This first one shows the range of the eastern fox squirrel in blue and the Swainson's Hawk in red.

So we can take away any place their ranges don't overlap and...

We're left with a lot fewer places for this fic to take place in! Hopefully it can be narrowed down more. There is a bobcat in this chapter, but that doesn't change much since they're found just about throughout the US and southern Canada. At best, we could eliminate Illinois from potential settings, but some maps show them as present there. And animals wander.

So why'd I make the hawk a Swainson's Hawk? Red-tailed Hawks are the most common hawk in North America - if you live here, you've probably seen one. Broad-winged Hawks are very well known for forming large flocks during migration. Ferruginous Hawks are more impressive. There was no good reason to pick a Swainson's. I just like 'em.

And I was thinking of this guy.
Swainson's Hawk standing on a glove

Like the hawk in the fic, this hawk was raised by people from the time he was a baby and can't be released to the wild. Although we don't really see the hawk again, it's pretty safe to assume that in a few months when it's full grown, Rey and Finn will start working with it and training it to stand on a glove and be an education animal. Kylo might attempt to release the hawk, though. The hawk in the picture above was released several times and he kept returning. Eventually, they realized he wasn't ever going to live on his own. Maybe Kylo will have better luck (but probably not).

Imprinting can be really hard to avoid. It happens very quickly, and there's no way to undo it. Sometimes, baby birds can be feed with a puppet so they don't imprint, but unfortunately for the hawk in the fic, it likely got used to humans shortly after being kidnapped. When the bird is young, if a human is helping taking care of it (or another bird species) you can end up with a very confused bird that doesn't know what it is.

But back to Swainson's Hawks and why they're so cool. Like the Broad-winged Hawk, these guys migrate, but they go even further. They'll go from southern Canada all the way down to Argentina. They don't migrate because of weather - they can tolerate the cold and a few have been known to winter in North America. The reason they travel so far is because their main food source is insects. Although most hawks hunt mammals and reptiles, these guys like the really small stuff. And since there's no insects in the winter, they go south. They're pretty smart as well and will follow farm equipment as it goes through fields to eat the bugs that are flying up.

They will eat small mammals like mice and rats as well, which are still around in winter. So why don't they just switch prey items? If they stayed, they'd be in direct competition with the Rough-legged Hawk which migrates from the tundra to the rest of Canada and the US. And they're also small rodent specialist (and much bigger than a Swainson's Hawk). There's also Red-tailed Hawks and Ferruginous Hawks in their range. In summer, the Red-tails will eat reptiles, mammals, and insects, but in winter eat almost exclusively mammals, so the Swainson's Hawks might also have to fight them for hunting territory, although the Red-tails will hunt larger prey as well. So instead of competing with other hawks, they just head down to South America and keep eating bugs.

Also, random note. If anyone from outside of North America is reading this, I keep saying hawk, but all of these species are called buzzards outside of North America (and I believe hawk is used more for species like the goshawk and other Accipiter hawks). Here, we differentiate the two groups of hawks by calling the buzzards "soaring hawks" and the others "forest hawks" if there's any potential for confusion. And I also have no idea if Canada uses hawk or buzzard for the soaring hawks.

And for a fic note. I'm pretty sure this is the only time there's two chapters in a row from the same POV. I didn't intend to switch every chapter, and since this was early on, I just wrote it the way it made the most sense. As I kept going, I started switching every chapter. I briefly considered switching the POV in this chapter and then combining it with chapter five, but that seemed like a lot of work. Plus, I liked this one from Hux's perspective. And I liked his interaction with Rey. So it breaks the pattern, but... oh well.

In the next chapter, we meet the Knights of Ren. AKA the "losers" Kylo lives with. I don't think anyone calls them losers in the fic itself, but I kept referring to them as losers in the outline, so it kinda stuck. And they are a little weird.

Here's the link to chapter three of Never Cry Elk!

I'm glad I didn't try to do updates on a schedule because work would have messed that up this weekend. I am going to try to make sure I don't go any more than a week without an update though!

I didn't realize until I was editing that Hux and Kylo don't spend a lot of time together early on in this fic. But they do spend quite a bit of time thinking about each other! Especially Hux in this chapter. At this point, Kylo's probably doing his best to not think about Hux since he's pretty embarrassed about what he said.

I didn't specify what species of hawk is in this chapter because no one there would likely be able to identify it. Baby hawks all look really similar until they get their juvenile feathers. Typically, when you want to identify baby birds, you look at who is taking care of the nest. In this case, that wasn't possible. Hux's ID skills when it comes to baby birds aren't great and Poe, as he mentioned, can't even tell the difference between falcons and hawks.

Poe might have been joking when he said that. Either way, Hux probably thinks he's an idiot. Which might not make sense because lots of people don't know the difference. But as anyone who works with birds can tell you, they're nothing alike. Their only real similarities are that they're both birds and they both eat meat. Even genetically, they're not close. Hawks are related to eagles and vultures and falcons are more closely related to parrots.

When you look at them, you can see the differences as well. Falcons have pointed wings built for high speed flight and maneuverability while hawks have broader wings. They either have long, broad wings for soaring or shorter (but still broad) wings for flying in forests. Falcons have long skinny toes for grabbing hold of other birds feathers and hawks have short but very strong toes for killing their prey. Falcons usually kill with their beak, which has a notch on it so they can break the neck of their prey. Because falcons typically hunt other birds, they keep the sun out of their eyes with a malar stripe - a black marking under their eyes. Hawks typically hunt mammals and reptiles on the ground - they're always looking down so they block the sun with a supraorbital ridge, or bony extension over the eyes. This also makes hawks look angry all the time.

This is a Prairie Falcon - you can see the malar stripe and long pointed wings, even while its sitting.

Prairie Falcon sitting on rock

And this is a Peregrine Falcon. The malar stripe is much thicker but it still serves the same purpose. You can also see that unlike a hawk, she doesn't look angry. Falcons usually look surprised when you look at them straight on. You can also see the tomial tooth on her upper beak. It's not as smooth looking as a hawk's beak.
Peregrine Falcon standing on a glove

I don't have a great picture of a hawk with its wings out, but if you've ever seen a soaring hawk, you can probably picture it. In this Harris's Hawk, you can at least see that his wings aren't nearly as long as the falcon's.
A Harris's Hawk sitting on a perch with wings partially spread

A Harris's Hawk sitting on a perch with wings partially spread

And here he is again so you can really see his supraorbital ridge and how he lacks a tomial tooth on his beak.
Upper body of a Harris's Hawk

With a little practice, you can really easily tell the differences with a quick look. Behavior is different as well. Typically what you'd see on a wild bird is a hawk soaring and rarely flapping its wings while moving slow and a falcon constantly flapping its wings and moving fast. And if you're really lucky, you might even see one go into a dive, which is when they break speed records! The fastest animals on the planet are all falcons. The record is held by a Gyrfalcon, which can go over 350 miles per hour (over 560 km an hour).

This is already getting longer than I thought, but I do want to talk about the hawk in this fic because its situation is inspired by some real life events. Two of the birds I work with were stolen from their nests as babies because someone thought it would be a good idea to keep them as pets. First of all, wild animals never make good pets. Second, in the US and Canada, it's illegal. You might as well have killed the bird because if they're taken young enough, they imprint to people and can never be released to the wild. They don't understand that they're a different species and have no survival skills.

This, contrary to what some people might think, does not make these birds tame. It actually makes them more dangerous. Wild birds have a natural fear of humans. If they don't like us, their natural instinct is to get away from us. An imprint doesn't have that fear. So if they don't like us, you just might be unlucky enough to find out just how strong their talons are.

It sounds crazy because most people would never steal a bird of prey and try to keep it as a pet, but it does happen! And it's a bad idea all around!

I was going to talk about different hawk species, but I might save it for next time when Luke identifies the species for us! Although if you want to know ahead of time, this video is of the hawk I was thinking about when I wrote this. He's also an imprint, but at least he wasn't stolen. Unfortunately, he was abandoned as a chick.

I'm posting my latest Kylux fic "Never Cry Elk" sometime in the next 24 hours. (Update: It's up - read it here) I wrote this for NaNoWriMo in 2018, except for the last chapter. I had it outlined and in November, I decided I didn't need it. When I started edits, I realized I put in a few sentences that kinda work better with the last chapter. So that isn't written yet, and there's still some at least one section in one of the last chapters that needs some work, but hopefully that's done by the time I'm ready to post.

Anyway, I'm writing all this for a couple of reasons. Mostly to give some background on the fic. Because it's a little weird. This was a dumb idea that I came up with about four or five years ago. At the time, I was volunteering at a museum to prepare vertebrate specimens. The museum collects all kinds of dead animals for research purposes. In the past, they'd collect specific things. These days, it's mostly just whatever someone happens to find dead somewhere and brings in. They also get a lot of things from wildlife rehab centers. So this fic came about when I was working on a squirrel and it was pretty obvious it was killed by a BB gun. And I just thought, "Hey, I have the address of where this squirrel came from. I could probably figure out who did it. And kick their ass."

If you're reading this after the first chapter, then that all probably sounds familiar.

At the time, the other volunteers and I were discussing that we could do a "small animal CSI" thing. I never planned on writing anything for it until one day I was thinking I'd like to write a Kylux fic where one or both of them have my job. I work in wildlife education, where I care for injured animals that can't be released to the wild and take them out for educational purposes. And I could really see that sort of thing working for Kylo, but I was struggling with just where Hux fit in with it all. Until I remembered "small animal CSI" and suddenly, everything clicked together. So we have Hux, who is basically the small animal CSI guy, and Kylo, who works at a rehab and education center.

So that's how we all ended up with this oddly specific AU.

The other reason I'm writing this is because I'm not entirely sure where it takes place. Somewhere in North America. I was thinking Colorado, my home state, but I don't actually specify where they are. But I do mention a lot of different animals in this fic, so that will probably narrow it down. So as I post chapters, I'm going to see just where this fic could possibly take place by comparing the ranges of the animals mentioned.

So in the first chapter, the only animals mentioned are squirrels and rabbit (this is most of what came in to the museum as well), which of course, are found everywhere. Fortunately, I did specifically mention a species - the eastern fox squirrel (Sciurus niger). Their range is shown in blue below and they've been introduced in the general areas highlighted in red. I only had state and province names for those so I just guessed.

I don't mention anything specific again until chapter four, so I'll have another map when that's up. I might talk more about this AU in the meantime because I have a lot to say about wildlife.

I'll update this with a link to the first chapter whenever I get it posted.

Update: Here's the fic on AO3

Current Mood: nerdy
Current Location: that's what i'm trying to find out