Small Steps and Giant Leaps

Once Isabeau had overcome her fears and eaten on the glove, the real training began. Now that she had figured out that I wasn't going to eat her, she had another fear to overcome. It's one thing for her to tolerate sitting with me. It's another thing entirely to have her come toward the big scary predator. Thus, I needed to teach her to come to the glove.
I placed her on the bow perch and presented her with a good sized chunk of meat. She stretched and stretched her head out trying to reach it. When that didn't work, she reached out with her foot. Eventually, after bobbing and weaving and making adorable chirping noises, she gathered herself and hopped! I gave her the meat and placed her back on the perch to try again. Unfortunately, the dog chose that moment to walk out of the room and she wouldn't try again. I put the remainder of her food aside to wait for the next day.
The next day, after she cast the pellet of undigested fur and bone they bring up like a cat with a fur ball, I tried again. I misjudged the distance, though, and she grabbed the first piece with her foot. The second time, though, she jumped and it was like a light bulb went on. She got it. Today, I cut her food into smaller pieces and had her fly the length of her leash to me (a few feet). She did it about seven times with little to no hesitation. It was amazing. She had to put forth effort and come toward me in order to get her meal and she did it repeatedly. It was a big milestone for us. 

Flying to the fist.

After that, we took her outside for a walk to let her get used to being out in the open while tethered. She did really well and only bated a handful of times. My fiancé still hadn't gotten his bird, so after we had all cooled down from the walk, we went out trapping. We have driven 1400 miles in six days trying to find one for him and had had no luck. We were on the verge of giving up on our area and waiting for more to migrate in, but wanted to try one more time, so we went out. We saw a red tail high up on a post and couldn't see its tail so decided to try. We threw the trap and after about 30 minutes, it came down. We were really excited until we saw the bright red tail of an adult. We approached to release it and it pulled loose and flew away. We moved on. The light was beginning to fade from the sky when we saw one on a pole. It was clearly a juvenile male, which was what he had been hoping for so we threw the trap. Within minutes, he flew down to it. We started to approach, but he wasn't caught and he flew up to a low power line. We knew we didn't have time to find another, so we decided to wait and see if he'd try again. He did, but again didn't get snagged and flew back to the line. He kept looking at it, so we waited. When he came down again, I was astonished. This time, he did get caught. We rushed over to get him off of the trap.

My fiancé and his bird.

We taped his feet for the ride home and put his gear on, then rushed to get him home. We weighed him and confirmed that he's a male and sprayed him with parakeet spray for parasites and checked him over to ensure that he's healthy. My fiancé is a huge fan of Breaking Bad, so he named him Heisenberg. They're now sitting together with Heisenberg hooded while he waits for him to rouse and show that he's comfortable. In the meantime, I'm trying to figure out how to acclimate Isabeau to him without undue stress as they will need to be able to be calm around each other so we don't have to keep them constantly hooded.