The day progressed normally starting out. I've definitely worked myself into a routine of sorts, though by no means can I consider it monotonous. There's always too much learning going on in the world of wildlife rehabilitation. I was talking to a recent acquaintance who also spent a good portion of time as a rehabber, and upon telling her I was still in the learning phase, she promptly informed me that the learning phase never ends. I thought it fitting.
The last week, I've actually been rather busy outside of the center. I've been working on an extensive project as well as trying to figure out the whole living situation deal. My time renting out a room in a friends house it coming to a close as he and his fiancee are getting married soon and seem to want the house to themselves for some insane reason.
So, I've been doing a great deal of apartment hunting, and just trying to figure out transportation in general. It can be an undertaking when you don't drive (something I hope to remedy just as soon as I have the means. It can be difficult when they only car is occupied for 12-14 hours a day, and the licensed driver is asleep for the rest of that time). I'm still holding out for the bike and bus system route, but that all depends on how things turn out. Looking for places in Arlington is another option as well, as it will hopefully be easier to get to the center the closer to it I happen to live. As it is my prospects are looking a bit daunting, though I'm determined to continue on the path I'm on. Even if that means working nights to pay for volunteering and school. Thank the cosmos I'm still young. I have a feeling the process may be somewhat lengthier then I'd hoped.
I have a few options. If I can get financial aid for schooling, that might give me some leeway as well. I suppose I only need to work enough to pay for gas and health insurance in the long run. But there's also the issue of the lack of high school diploma coming into play, and I fear that might make it difficult for me to get a job to get myself through school so I can fix the problem, and start working toward what I really want to do with my life. In the mean-time volunteering keeps me calm, and sane, as well as providing me a taste of the life I'd love to pursue full-time. Getting to work around wildlife on a regular basis definitely helps keep me motivated. I think I'd be devastated if I had to give it up, just because life decided to throw me a curve ball.
You may be wondering why I'm including seemingly off-topic worrying about housing, and work. Keep in mind that while this blog has definitely focused in on my volunteer experience with Sarvey, it's original, intended purpose was to chronicle my journey into an eventual career. Even the annoying though possibly informative parts where I have to work my butt off doing things I don't want to do in order to progress myself just that little bit closer to my goal. I want it to be a guide for anyone with a passion, as well as a warning that it isn't going to be easy. If I can pull this off I'll be able to use it as a basis to offer interested persons practical information about how to achieve their dreams. And just like today, some days it's just going to feel really difficult.
I guess writing like this is also therapeutic, and helps put into perspective how much I've already achieved. I've learned a lot, done a lot, and experienced things I would never have had the chance to otherwise. It's almost shocking how easy it is to put yourself in a position to be around wildlife like this, and to make a difference. I've only been at this sparingly since October, but I feel like so much has happened. Hopefully I've done a bit of growing as a person since then as well.
....
The day was actually what I'm consider to be typical by this point, if you can really say that in this line of work. I went about my usual cleaning of flights, making good time as the day progressed.
FPL stuck around for a little bit after I entered, before he took off for his favorite perch.
Nothing too unusual happened until I got to Iya. Now that winter is on its way out she's starting to come out of her sleepy winter phase, (I'm pretty sure it's just an Iya thing), and becoming more active and animated. this meant that she was making noise, mantelling, and even came down to visit me at one point. I'm always excited when she gives me the opportunity to get some good close pictures of her, since I don't have a telescoping lens yet. Getting the close portrait shots I especially like can be difficult with a basic lens. I love it when the birds get all camera-friendly.
Iya really is a fantastically beautiful bird, and always a joy to be around
I also ended up catching Celi down on her feeding tray and had the opportunity to take a few pictures of her before she decided to go back to her usual perch.
Chesmu poked his head out while I was in his run, and got pretty curious in what I was doing. He very nearly crawled out to investigate further, but it was way past his bedtime already, as you can see.
I cleaned Hanble Okinyan's flight later that evening and took a few pictures as well, before moving on.
Around that point in the day I set up Atka's new permanent home. She'll no longer be staying in the clinic, which is good for a few reasons. With baby season looming we need all the space we can get, so freeing up her former flight was definitely a plus. Also, now Atka has a nice cozy little flight all to herself, in a nice quiet area. Owl heaven.
Keep in mind that I don't actually do all of the education animals in one shot. I definitely have a routine, but it involves rotating my way around the facility as opposed to tackling one group of animals at a time. The reason I sequence things the way I do in my blog, is to leave a clear distinction between our education animals, and our visiting wild ones. Speaking of which...
Our Visiting Wild Ones...
I tackled the outside flights first. working my way through several different types of birds. The majority of what we take in during our off season seems to be birds. They must be especially good at getting themselves into trouble. Especially the Raptors, and Owls. Understandably, most of what I work around are birds. There is the occasional opossum, and so many raccoons, but most of the potentially dangerous mammals are handled by the staff, who have more experience.
My first stop outside was actually visiting the same Sapsucker that I weighed earlier in the week. He's flying well, and is super energetic. I believe at this point we're just waiting for him to gain enough weight to be released back out into the wild, which will be pretty awesome.
We recently moved a Barred Owl outside to hunt. She's in good shape at this point, and just spending some time outside before her release. Barred owls have a tendency to be more approachable as far as owls go, not that I'd recommend it. To me they've kind of instilled themselves as the sweetest owl species I've worked with. Don't get me wrong. They're still wild animals, and they definitely act like owls, which means they snap, and hiss, and bite, and scratch. But there's something about their sweet soft features, and their tendency to be less aggressive that has me placing them in the sweet category, at least in comparison to other owl species.
Here she is enjoying being outside again. She pretty much stayed in the one spot while I moved around the flight, and was content to watch me, and snap her beak if I got too close.
....
The juvenile Peregrine that footed herself last week seems to have gotten past the incident with no real complications, as she's right back outside and her usual energetic self. Falcons definitely have a tendency toward skittish behavior though, at least from what I've seen.
Like I've mentioned in the past, I'm always super happy to find pellets. Found this one while I was in with a visiting Red-tailed Hawk. I imagine that in the wild, these pellets are much different in color. Since a lot of what we feed our birds are your typical white pet-rat, their pellets come out a pretty off-white. Pellets are the collection of indigestible parts of prey that basically gets scrunched together as it gathers in the bird's gizzard, and hocked up later. Since hawks don't generally swallow their prey whole when they're in a comfortable setting, their pellets are pretty much just a lump of fur and anything else they happen to be unable to digest.
There was a second Red-tail in the flight last week who had been outside for quite awhile. I'm assuming he was released sometime during the week. I don't remember him being present on Tuesday either, but Tuesday was a pretty hectic day as far as things usually go.
In the evening, myself and a fellow volunteer tackled the squirrels. We have a tendency to do them together as she isn't particularly fond of them, and by that point in the day I'm beginning to lose steam a little bit, and am happy to accept the help lugging bedding back and forth. Rodents have never bothered me. In fact I especially like them, I'm just allergic to them, (In addition to pretty much everything else, but hey, I try). This means I where gloves while I clean, and make sure to load up on allergy medication before I head in. So far it's been working awesomely well. Especially for the birds. I was ecstatic to find out I could handle them, and work around them without having issues whatsoever. I still get a little asthma-ee when I handle certain mammals, though.
As it began to get dark, and we found ourselves pretty well ahead, I help with medicating a few of the smaller birds, and prepping food/cleaning. I was especially achy today as it hadn't been long since I got a hold of wheat last, but I was pretty well off considering it was my second time in that week. That's all for the day this time around. Thanks for reading!
Iya really is a fantastically beautiful bird, and always a joy to be around
I also ended up catching Celi down on her feeding tray and had the opportunity to take a few pictures of her before she decided to go back to her usual perch.
I was really excited to have the opportunity to really get good pictures of her. All of our birds are really so unique, even in comparison to other birds of their own species. That's definitely something I've learned during my volunteering, and as I've gotten to get to know the birds I see on a regular basis. It's mostly a lot of little things like specific shapes of their markings, facial features, and body. It all kind of seems to pull together to create one cohesive personality. It's like of like how I can tell I'sta, and Lil D the peregrines apart by looking at them. Personality factors into it quite a bit as well, but when you're just looking at a static picture of the bird, the little details really pull it together.
I stopped by to see pretty boy Nanjiska during the day as well, though I didn't linger long.
The girls were about their usual selves while I was in with them. Which for Lil D means a lot of flying to the opposite side of the flight, while I'sta will let you get fairly close if she's used to you.
I cleaned Hanble Okinyan's flight later that evening and took a few pictures as well, before moving on.
Around that point in the day I set up Atka's new permanent home. She'll no longer be staying in the clinic, which is good for a few reasons. With baby season looming we need all the space we can get, so freeing up her former flight was definitely a plus. Also, now Atka has a nice cozy little flight all to herself, in a nice quiet area. Owl heaven.
Keep in mind that I don't actually do all of the education animals in one shot. I definitely have a routine, but it involves rotating my way around the facility as opposed to tackling one group of animals at a time. The reason I sequence things the way I do in my blog, is to leave a clear distinction between our education animals, and our visiting wild ones. Speaking of which...
Our Visiting Wild Ones...
I tackled the outside flights first. working my way through several different types of birds. The majority of what we take in during our off season seems to be birds. They must be especially good at getting themselves into trouble. Especially the Raptors, and Owls. Understandably, most of what I work around are birds. There is the occasional opossum, and so many raccoons, but most of the potentially dangerous mammals are handled by the staff, who have more experience.
My first stop outside was actually visiting the same Sapsucker that I weighed earlier in the week. He's flying well, and is super energetic. I believe at this point we're just waiting for him to gain enough weight to be released back out into the wild, which will be pretty awesome.
We recently moved a Barred Owl outside to hunt. She's in good shape at this point, and just spending some time outside before her release. Barred owls have a tendency to be more approachable as far as owls go, not that I'd recommend it. To me they've kind of instilled themselves as the sweetest owl species I've worked with. Don't get me wrong. They're still wild animals, and they definitely act like owls, which means they snap, and hiss, and bite, and scratch. But there's something about their sweet soft features, and their tendency to be less aggressive that has me placing them in the sweet category, at least in comparison to other owl species.
Here she is enjoying being outside again. She pretty much stayed in the one spot while I moved around the flight, and was content to watch me, and snap her beak if I got too close.
....
The juvenile Peregrine that footed herself last week seems to have gotten past the incident with no real complications, as she's right back outside and her usual energetic self. Falcons definitely have a tendency toward skittish behavior though, at least from what I've seen.
Like I've mentioned in the past, I'm always super happy to find pellets. Found this one while I was in with a visiting Red-tailed Hawk. I imagine that in the wild, these pellets are much different in color. Since a lot of what we feed our birds are your typical white pet-rat, their pellets come out a pretty off-white. Pellets are the collection of indigestible parts of prey that basically gets scrunched together as it gathers in the bird's gizzard, and hocked up later. Since hawks don't generally swallow their prey whole when they're in a comfortable setting, their pellets are pretty much just a lump of fur and anything else they happen to be unable to digest.
There was a second Red-tail in the flight last week who had been outside for quite awhile. I'm assuming he was released sometime during the week. I don't remember him being present on Tuesday either, but Tuesday was a pretty hectic day as far as things usually go.
In the evening, myself and a fellow volunteer tackled the squirrels. We have a tendency to do them together as she isn't particularly fond of them, and by that point in the day I'm beginning to lose steam a little bit, and am happy to accept the help lugging bedding back and forth. Rodents have never bothered me. In fact I especially like them, I'm just allergic to them, (In addition to pretty much everything else, but hey, I try). This means I where gloves while I clean, and make sure to load up on allergy medication before I head in. So far it's been working awesomely well. Especially for the birds. I was ecstatic to find out I could handle them, and work around them without having issues whatsoever. I still get a little asthma-ee when I handle certain mammals, though.
As it began to get dark, and we found ourselves pretty well ahead, I help with medicating a few of the smaller birds, and prepping food/cleaning. I was especially achy today as it hadn't been long since I got a hold of wheat last, but I was pretty well off considering it was my second time in that week. That's all for the day this time around. Thanks for reading!
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