This time around I have two days worth of blog to write. I wanted to wait to release this one, because I knew I'd be coming in on Tuesday as well, and honestly. It's so much easier to have a week to write up the events of the day, then just a few hours. I figure if I work a week ahead I can continue to update, and on a more consistent basis as well.
I came in to the center yesterday (Tuesday), because I had a project I needed to discuss with Kestrel (one of the staff.) I don't believe I can go into to much detail about the project save to say that the discussion went pretty well, and it's something exciting, for me at least. But I digress. So, before I get too far ahead of myself, let's jump back to last Thursday morning.
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The day progressed fairly typically. I started out with my usual cleaning of flights, beginning with the education animals as I tend to do. One of my main reasons for beginning with them, is that they are the most visible to the public. When you visit Sarvey, there is a visitor area in which you can view a few of our educational animals. The earlier in the day that I get their flights clean, the nicer they look for anyone who happens to stop by during the day. The flights are cleaned every day, so they never really get too messy, (some birds make bigger messes than others), but I figure that no one who comes to see them wants to be distracted by a huge splat of poop on the wall.
I made my usual run through the flights, scrubbing excrement off of various surfaces, raking gravel, providing fresh water, and picking up debris left behind by the animals. Debris can range anywhere from pellets to left over "dinner". I can tell you up front that if you aren't comfortable cleaning up the remains of whatever the bird ate last, and that means all of the remains, then you probably shouldn't volunteer to do outside work. There are certain parts of the food animal that a lot of our birds wont eat, and tend to string decoratively about their flight. Some are more notorious for it then others. (I'm looking at you Cetan).
I progressed quickly through the education animal flights. The only bird I really took any extensive photos of was Cetan, who has a tendency to be awfully photogenic. I haven't seen a repeat of her camera-friendly behavior since the Eagle festival. It seems that now that she's settled back into life at Sarvey, she's back to being indifferent or even shy at times where a camera is involved.
I was excited to find a pellet in her flight though. I don't know why pellets excite me so unnecessarily much, but they really do. I always find myself taking a picture when I find them, and noting who they belong to.
A Cetan pellet!
I Feel like there's so much less to do with Nanjiska the snowy owl, and Athena the Great Horned Owl off limits to volunteers. Sarvey staff set animals to staff only for various reasons. In Athena's case it's because she becomes aggressive when she is incubating eggs, or raising young. The eggs she's incubating right now are unfertilized and they wont hatch, but often, if we receive baby Great Horned Owls during her incubating period, she will take them in and raise them as a foster mom.
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I did stop by to see Nanjiska, though I didn't enter his flight of course, and I took a couple pictures of him that fall among my favorites so far. I love that my camera has the capability to focus out anything too close to the lens, in this case the netting of Nanjiska's flight. Since Nanjiska isn't likely to move at all, I can get some especially neat pictures of him, with clarity that I may not be able to get otherwise. Other then being a bit hissy, he mostly just sits there and looks pretty while I shoot.
He's a very charismatic bird, with a wide range of expressions, that although subtle, can be quite telling. Of all the birds staying with us, I'd easily say he's one of the most observant. Snowy owls are diurnal, so Nanjiska is pretty much up all day while I'm puttering around outside. On top of that, he is incredibly interested in everything going on. He's always watching when I turn the corner. At first I wouldn't have said he was anywhere near as expressive as some of the other owls, the Great Horned Owl for instance. Now that I've gotten to know him, and have started seeing him on a more regular basis, I'm starting to see all the little changes in his posture, and expression when he's confronted with different situations, whether it be someone walking by, or his food showing up.
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From there, I went on to clean the flights of several of our rehabilitation animals, before I worked my way around to I'sta and Lil D the Peregrine Falcons. Right away upon entering their flight I found another pellet and of course I took a picture.
A Peregrine Falcon pellet.
I'd just like to put it out there, that I'sta and Lil D are messy eaters. They mainly eat quail, and that generally means feathers and quail bits everywhere. Their feeding tray tends to look like their dinner exploded feathers, as opposed to being eaten. In all likelihood they pluck their prey a bit before eating it, which might explain how they manage to get feathers everywhere within a two foot radius. In addition, neither of them seem to like to poop in the uncovered part of their flight. Instead they like to defecate on the dirt, in the back. This means I spend a lot of time loosening up the dirt with a rake while I'm in there. I'm starting to understand why my muscles are always so sore when I get home now.
I'sta, I've found, is actually much braver and more curious when you aren't inside the flight with her. The moment you're outside she's all fluffed up and waddling her way over to the chain link to shove he face in yours. Once you're inside though, her demeanor changes a bit. While she's certainly still calm in comparison to Lil D, who tends to be all over the place, she seems to be a bit more nervous. It changes with the day really. Some days she'll let me get a lot closer to her while I'm going about business, than she will others. This time around she was more on the cautious side. I tried to give her a little space, but she would sit stubbornly in one spot until I had no choice bu to move closer. Only then would she decide it was time to fly away to another part of the flight. I won't pretend to understand her behavior, but I did notice that having another bird in the flight with her, has caused her to be less curious about me when I enter.....
After cleaning my way through a few more flights containing rehabilitation animals, I eventually came to Hanble Okinyan's flight. She was in her spot on the perch right next to the door when I arrived, and was sure to salute me with her usual eagle noises when I showed up. I have to say, I rather enjoy listening to her talk, as it tends to get at least one of the other eagles going too.In my mind she's a particularly amusing bird. She's fairly easy to approach, as long as you don't move too fast. Which is great since I generally have to get in around her to clean. She uses the one perch quite a lot, so it needs a good scrub by the time I get there. You can't really ask an eagle to move, and Hanble Okinyan is more then happy to sit in the same general spot and watch you as you slowly make your way closer to that poo spot on the perch a foot away from her feet. It took me awhile to realize I could do this.
Understandably, I'm not exactly apt to march up to a bird that size, let alone any bird with talons, and expect no repercussions. Granted, I still go out of my way to move slowly, and keep an eye on her while I'm working. She may seem calm and comfortable most of the time, but she's still a wild animal at heart, and therefore unpredictable. If her body language says no, not today, then I'm not going to push it. Ideally, I'd love to get every spot that needs attention in a bird's flight, but It's more important for me to keep my own safety in mind, and if I don't feel comfortable doing something, I won't. There will be another day when I can do it safely. I've been cornered by birds, slapped with wings (several times now), scratched, bitten, and nearly fallen on before. Even as a volunteer it's not a job without it's risks, and when working with wildlife you kind of have to go in expecting that you might get hurt, but ready to take every precaution to avoid it. Luckily, I haven't been bitten by anything much bigger then a Barred Owl, and none of my scratches or bites have drawn blood, but I know better then to think that worse can't happen. I've seen the evidence. Fortunately, the majority of the animals you deal with as a volunteer, are more likely to want to put as much distance between you and themselves as possible, and a lot of what does happen is accidental, or due to directly handling an animal. Even then I say directly with a grain of salt. There is generally a towel in between myself and the bird, and any biting that happens is an unfortunate side effect of trying to medicate a scared animal.
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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.)
Here are some of my favorite images of our current rehabilitation animals.
You may remember the Douglas Squirrels spending their winter with us. Here is one of those mischievous little guys posing for the camera. They're always attempting to get out of their run while I'm cleaning it.
A gorgeous ring-necked dove spending some time with us. Hopefully she'll gain enough weight to be returned to the wild again soon.
This little quail is kind of an unusual visitor for us. Or at least, something that I'm seeing for the first time in my volunteering here.
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2/28/12
I decided early on not to take pictures on Tuesday in part because I wasn't sure what to expect, or what I would be able to get done. Tuesdays are fairly busy. All of the produce shows up on Tuesdays, so we had to manage that on top of our allotted work for the day. We still managed to get a ton done, and I was happy to see one of the volunteers I usually work with that day as well. It's always a bit intimidating going into something not knowing anyone you'll be working with. I'll keep the summary of the days events somewhat brief.
When I arrived, everyone was busy checking out Baxter the Bobcat, so I decided to get right to work cleaning outside until Kestrel was free. I actually managed to get a lot done in the two or so hours I was at it. By the time I finished, all of the major flights had been done, and all that was left were some of the small coops, and runs.
After my talk with Kestrel I helped out with catching and weighing a few of the birds outside, as well as a Virginia Opossum. We weigh them to make sure they are eating once we put them outside and cannot monitor them as closely as we can in the clinic. Altogether I weighed five doves, the quail, a sapsucker, and the Opossum. The basic process consists of trapping the bird in a bird-safe net, carefully removing them, and maneuvering them onto the scale on their backs. With some luck, and in my case hovering my hand over their eyes to keep them calm, they'll stay in that position long enough for the scale to get a reading. Overall the quail gave me the most trouble, and surprisingly the Sapsucker gave me the least. The doves were a good mix of personalities in that regard. Some were more cooperative then others, but at least the doves didn't bite.
Once that was done, I assisted the volunteer I recognized in cleaning the outdoor flights, as it was her first time cleaning outside. We went through a couple of the remaining flights, as well as our permanent Flying squirrels, before we retired to do less exciting work for the evening. By this point we had actually managed to pass a good portion of the day. It was already getting dark outside by the time we wheeled the garbage down to the dumpsters.
The rest of the night was spent preparing food, and cleaning. About the usual. Right before leaving, I ran some tissue samples down to the pick up box, but other then that it passed uneventfully.
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2/28/12
I decided early on not to take pictures on Tuesday in part because I wasn't sure what to expect, or what I would be able to get done. Tuesdays are fairly busy. All of the produce shows up on Tuesdays, so we had to manage that on top of our allotted work for the day. We still managed to get a ton done, and I was happy to see one of the volunteers I usually work with that day as well. It's always a bit intimidating going into something not knowing anyone you'll be working with. I'll keep the summary of the days events somewhat brief.
When I arrived, everyone was busy checking out Baxter the Bobcat, so I decided to get right to work cleaning outside until Kestrel was free. I actually managed to get a lot done in the two or so hours I was at it. By the time I finished, all of the major flights had been done, and all that was left were some of the small coops, and runs.
After my talk with Kestrel I helped out with catching and weighing a few of the birds outside, as well as a Virginia Opossum. We weigh them to make sure they are eating once we put them outside and cannot monitor them as closely as we can in the clinic. Altogether I weighed five doves, the quail, a sapsucker, and the Opossum. The basic process consists of trapping the bird in a bird-safe net, carefully removing them, and maneuvering them onto the scale on their backs. With some luck, and in my case hovering my hand over their eyes to keep them calm, they'll stay in that position long enough for the scale to get a reading. Overall the quail gave me the most trouble, and surprisingly the Sapsucker gave me the least. The doves were a good mix of personalities in that regard. Some were more cooperative then others, but at least the doves didn't bite.
Once that was done, I assisted the volunteer I recognized in cleaning the outdoor flights, as it was her first time cleaning outside. We went through a couple of the remaining flights, as well as our permanent Flying squirrels, before we retired to do less exciting work for the evening. By this point we had actually managed to pass a good portion of the day. It was already getting dark outside by the time we wheeled the garbage down to the dumpsters.
The rest of the night was spent preparing food, and cleaning. About the usual. Right before leaving, I ran some tissue samples down to the pick up box, but other then that it passed uneventfully.
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