>>>If you click on the pictures you can see them full size! So do that!<<<
Today was insane! I learned sooo much and we were so productive. I felt like everyone was on their game and we did work!! First thing we did this morning was take care of our baby raptors which included a few Cooper's Hawks, a juvenile Kestrel and a baby Kestrel.
He was so adorable and noisy, I couldn't get enough. With young raptors they stay inside until they are deemed healthy and big enough to move out. Then they are "acclimated" for three days which means we move their kennels outside where they can start getting used to being outside for the day and are brought in at night. I'm excited to get to watch this little dude grow up :)
Then a few of us headed up to the black bear pens to muck out the one with the smaller bear cubs. They are SO adorable but they sound like demon spawn!! So scary hahaha It was intense hard work and the bears are on a critter cam so we are working with an audience. We secured the cubs in their back den and went to work getting their place all cleaned out and threw in some fun new toys. We climbed on top of the enclosure and watched as they were let out of the den and explored their new digs and it was really fun to watch them enjoy their toys and fresh food :)
Taken from above their back den area
I'm sad I missed them when they were small enough to handle...but if I'm lucky we might get cubs later this summer that I can get my hands on :) Right now we have 16 cubs which will hopefully be moved to the new bear run being built right now. It's such a small space in a cement building that gets filthy so fast. It will be great for them to get more space to play and we will be able to give them more enrichment to help them learn skills they will need in the wild.
A big part of bear and fawn diets are fresh tree cuttings from plants they will be eating from in the wild. The difficult part of this is that we have to venture out into the surrounding forest to gather all these cuttings!! haha I went out with Brenna, another new extern, and Jordan, an experienced extern and Natural Resources major, to learn how to identify the plants they eat and find some good plants to bring back. Here are the one's we learned about today :)
Serviceberry (Amerlanchier spp)
Red Maple (Acer rubrum)
Dogwood (Cornus spp)
Dogwood also has a very unique bark that is used to identify
Blueberry (Vaccinium spp.)
Jordan was really helpful in answering all our questions about plant identification.
Black Gum (Nyssa sylvatica)
Black gum can be identified from a distance by the way the branches extend at an almost 90 degree angle from the main leader
Witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana)
Crazy fungus we saw growing on a lot of the Black Gum
Tuliptree (Liriodendron tulipifera)
It was a lot of fun to learn about the native plants from someone who really knew his stuff :) And it was great to get away from the hospital and hike around for awhile (eventhough we were still working) OH! one thing you ALWAYS do after hiking through brush etc,....check for ticks!! and guess who got her first tick today!? ME!! lol ewww I kinda freaked out...but I've seen these dudes under a microscope and they do not play!!! So I had to take a pic lol Sorry about my hairy legs, I'm about to shower and this will get taken care of promise...just not much reason to shave if ya know what I mean haha.
I found multiple ticks on me today...just part of the deal when you're working with wild animals... but usually I just find them on my clothes. Thank goodness this is the only one that got to my skin and it hadn't burrowed yet lol
Anywaaaaayyys...next we learned how to restrain and transport fawns which looked like this:
love those cute fuzzy butts haha
Then we were trained on raptor handling/restraint & weighing using nets and then two ways to restrain a large raptor to weigh them. My mind was BLOWN! It was so easy. So one way is to use a box, laying the raptor on its back which calms them down.
The second and easiest way is to CAREFULLY lay the raptor on its back and make a raptor burrito! I couldn't believe how easy it was. Raptor swaddling hahahaha So awesome!
Then it was time for miscellaneous chores involving cleaning and returning box turtles to their cages from their soaking tubs. Check out the pics :)
Cottontail rabbit (Sylvilagus spp)
Baby box turtle! (that's my thumb for scale, it was about 3 in from end to end)
Terrapene spp
Loved their bright colors :)
Then we had to feed the adult raptors later in the day including the education raptors.
Athena (below) is a Barred Owl and is pretty feisty, known to dislike females. Which is why my trainer made me enter her enclosure to give her her food hahah As soon as I put her mouse on the perch she flew over to it and glared at me while I put out the rest.
I did not turn my back to her the whole time haha she was quite intimidating, pretty sure she was trying to send me a message in this picture...which I had to take outside of the enclosure. There was NO way I was taking off my leather gloves to snap a pic with her looking like that. Then there's Edie, an American Kestrel. She's in the mood to mate right now so no one but staff is allowed in her enclosure because she gets.... worked up hahaha
But she seems to like attention and to glare at chicks (another female hater) so I got to snap this pic while she was perched right next to the mesh. So by the end of the day I was trained on so much! Below is the list of tasks we will be expected to learn and master by the end of our externship. It's been two days and this is what I've been signed off on so far (including turtle handling). Not too shabby!! By the time I leave I will also train another extern on all these tasks as well and sign off on their activity chart :) There's still so much to look forward too and lots of time to completely master these skills.
Here are some other cool pics I took around the enclosure yard.
Such an eventful day but beyond exhausting! 10.5 hrs on my feet with maybe 45 minutes of that sitting down to eat lunch and rest...a little! Needless to say I earned a milkshake from Sonic's after work and now I'm going to take a long hot, hot shower and work a bit with my feet up and pass out before 10pm hahaha I decided I'm over morning work outs hahah don't need them. And I don't need to worry about not lifting this summer because I know I'm doing all that and more everyday at the hospital. But definitely doing yoga religiously morning and evening :)
So pumped to see what tomorrow brings....if this much has happened in 2 days...I can't even fathom what all I will have seen/done 54 days from now!
Exhausted and feeling blessed for such an amazing experience.
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