Sarvey update - 12/15/11

Well, I'm back from another day at Sarvey. Not quite as hands on this time, but still just as fun. After not getting to go last week (I sprained my ankle something fierce,) I was aching to get back out again, so even though my ankle isn't quite where I'd like it to be, I opted to go this week with a compromise of light duty (Whatever that means in the rehabilitation world.)

We were already significantly ahead by the time I got there, which meant half of the education animals flights had been done already. So I picked up where one of my colleagues left off, which meant getting to start off the day with one of my favorite birds, Iya the barn owl.

Turns out I caught her mid-meal, which I'm pretty sure unnerved her somewhat because she gave me a few indignant twitters before picking at her rat some more. 

She's a beautiful bird, really. In any case, after she decided she didn't want the audience while she ate she made her way down to the netting right in front of me. I've never had an owl essentially ask to be socialized with before, but that is pretty much what she did. She had a serious case of wanting to play hop on the hand. I wish I were on the other side of the netting for this, but I was interrupted by a visitor with questions about volunteering before I had the chance to slip in with her. I got some awesome pictures before that though.

 

After that point I went on to snap pictures of the other Educational birds, figuring I could have a little picture tour for anyone that is interested. I've introduced a few of the Ed animals in a previous blog entry, but here is essentially everybody. (Excluding Rex the raven, who is kind of skittish and probably wouldn't hold still for long, Our permanent Deer, and Baxter the bobcat who wasn't out and about today.)

This is Nanjiska our resident Snowy owl. He is a gorgeous bird, and he makes a lot of noise, but he's all bark and no bite.

Next we have Tadita, our Barred owl. This is the first time I've been able to get anywhere near this close to her. I just happened to catch her in the middle of dinner later in the evening.

The by now infamous Athena the great horned owl, who has actually calmed down quite a bit around me recently, thank god. She's a gorgeous bird, but she's definitely a princess.

Here is our little one eyed Celi. She is a short-eared owl. 

And Skaska our male merlin,

Lil D, one of our two Peregrine Falcons. I didn't get in the flight with her because like Rex, she's horribly skittish, and I didn't want to stress her out over pictures.

And our other peregrine I'sta (Ee Shtuh), who is a much more confident, and friendly bird.

Cetan, our Female Red-tail hawk

Chesmu, our fuzzy is Opossum. 

Canowicakte (Chawn-O-We-chalk-Tay), our OTHER, and markedly less obstinate, Great horned owl. Don't get me wrong though, he's still a bundle of personality. I also took video of this awesome bird.

A collective of our permanent American Crows Heckle (male), and Jeckle (female). Heckle is the incredible social one. I wish my camera were more then just a point and click. I would have loved to have been able to document his antics.

Our Female Golden Eagle Hu Iyake (Who Ee-yawk-ay)

Our Educational bad girl, and Bald Eagle Wanbli Askate (Won-blee Awsh-kuh-tay),

Hanble Okinyan (Hawn-blay O-keen-yawn) our female educational Bald eagle. I couldn't get many good pictures, because Hanble likes to hide in her dark little shelter.

Here is FPL (pronounced Jeen-ah-lee-ee,) our American Kestrel. He is also fairly skittish and hard to photograph, something I've come to associated with falcons (our merlin skaska is also this way.) He was kind of hard to photograph because every time I got close he'd flit away and hide. You can see he's been having some wing issues. I'm not sure if he's plucking, or if he got snagged on something but it hasn't been clearing up well.

And finally Our little Western Screech owl Birch. He might as well be completely blind, so we have to make sure his food always in the same general place. An owl's sense of smell really isn't all that much better then our own, so without eyesight he wouldn't be able to locate his food very well otherwise.

Now that our ED animals are out of the way here are a few of our current birds going through rehabilitation with the hope of being released.

Our Visiting Wild Ones...
(Next I'll touch base on some of our current rehabilitation animals. These are animals that come to us sick, injured, or too young to care for themselves, and we take them in, nurse them back to health, and get them ready to enjoy their lives in the wild. I don't like to take pictures of these animals, as human contact can be stressful for a wild one.)

Our Visiting Turkey Vulture

When I first started we were worried this bird wasn't eating. I'm happy to say he has been putting on weight and making steady, if not slow, progress.

I also photographed the Saw-Whets, because they're adorable little balls of fluff, with talons. Believe it or not this is actually a collection of pictures of two different owls. Can you tell the difference?

Here are a few of the pigeons and doves we're helping,

This particular Rock Dove will Coo at you if you approach her, or if she sees you... or hears you.

And lastly as far as photos go are the turtles. We received a ridiculous amount of Box turtles, all different types. There's nothing physically wrong with these turtles, but circumstances call for us to take care of them until they can go to a new home.

And these next turtles aren't from Sarvey, but they're cool little guys that I found at a local childrens museum.These are red-eared sliders.

Well, that's about it. Not really much to report about what I actually did today, because there really wasn't anything terribly hands on today, other then prepping food. Oh, and one more picture, just because I can,