Day 13 - End of Week 2

This week was intense! All the other externs said the first two weeks were the toughest - adjusting to the work load and just the physical toll it takes on your body and mind. A lot of people have quit in the first couple weeks because it can be so rough. So I'm pretty proud that I made it through... although there were a couple days where I wanted to give up and go home. Now it's the end of the week and I had a really nice shower, did my hair for the first time this week and got a solid 8-hrs of sleep and today it isn't so bad :) And here are some reasons why:

baby Kestrels 

handling Snapping Turtles

fawns for days! was going to dump this pic but the blurriness depicts the situation perfectly

full of ticks & bugs but still so cute

baby bears! which I finally got to handle

bitty eastern box turtles :)

d'awwwww

I graduated from training and am now on my own, which feels great and kind of scary. There is so much to still learn and remember haha lots going on everyday and keep track of but it gets easier each time. We're a great team as well - helping each other out, double checking work & generally having each other's backs. Some days my fellow externs are the only thing that keep me from walking out the front door. We start cracking jokes (usually about each other) or they see I'm exhausted and give me something awesome to do and instantly we're all in a better mood :) It is grueling work in high humidity and bugs everywhere but we care about the work and every person counts and is necessary so we have to take care of each other too. 

the front of the hospital (this pic is for my girl, LeeAnn)

What made this week so hard was my dumb knee...I injured it back in high school when I danced hula a lot and it gives me problems when the weather changes suddenly lol or when I do high intensity workouts too often. So this week's goal is yoga 4-5 days a week to stretch out my legs and lower back and I'll probably vet wrap it at some point hahah It's hard to stay focused on what needs to be done when you're in so much pain and exhausted out of your head but I'll get a handle on it and it will be fine.

Anyways, enough about my old lady problems - here are more pictures!!!!



I got to feed raptors a few times and we're doing "mouse school" with a few of our red tails & broad winged hawks so we give them live mice to capture and eat so we know they can catch food before release. It's a very important part of rehabilitation so while I'm frowning I'm not against it at all lol

So for raptor feed in the evenings we weigh out a certain amount of mice (usually) or rats and put them in the enclosures and in the morning we weigh any remains to see how much they eat etc. Weight of food is calculated based on the weight of the raptor.

This juvenile Blue Jay has been fun to work with. He's got a sharp little beak and this was my first time handling him and so I wore some thick gloves in case.

Two osprey fledges were being watched on a critter cam when they fell out of their nest and someone brought them into us. They are healthy enough to be renested but it was awesome getting to see them so close up! Love me some osprey!!

There are SO many turtles out here! They get hit by cars a lot so we mend their fractured shells etc and sometimes they lay eggs so we collect them to be incubated. I got to collect the eggs of a yellow-bellied slider the other night :) Was so awesome getting to hold these tiny eggs. Wish I could be here to see them hatch!

Baby broad-winged hawk - so cute it hurts!

Bear pen 2 - the smaller of the cubs...near 3 ft tall and thick! Had to grab one and toss it into the back den the other day and it bit me thru my gloves, felt like a large dog bite. They are still pretty scared of us so it's pretty easy to control them.

Bear pen 1 - the larger cubs...near waist height and not scared of us anymore. The other day they tried to take off my coworkers gloves =/ and they got pretty beat up by them. Not looking forward to rounding them up next week...but that's a problem for next week haha These pics were taken from above their dens where we sometimes dump their food in from (instead of the small chutes on the walls) this way we can see them get all crazy happy about their meals. It's way cute to watch...even after they've tried to rip our faces off haha

My friend & fellow extern Amy -- she's Canadian lol

We were moving some Eastern Screech Owls to a different enclosure and had to take pics...eventhough we were looking like crap haha I had just finished hosing out a few enclosures and before that I had mucked a few deer runs haha told ya, everyday is different!

Got some baby Northern Flickers in...suuuper awesome vocalizations which I'll try to record later this week when I'm back in the hospital :)

This Eastern Phoebe has been my favorite bird this week. He's such a good eater and just loves mealworms and always gapes for me haha and he's got the CUTEST noises. Some of his chirps sound like a combination of crickets and frog croaks. Adorableness :)

oh we also released a little cottontail bunny into the brush behind our house haha check it out

I've been slowly working on my video editing skills...which stop at putting clips together...I'm too lazy for transitions and junk lol

Ok I need to get back to work, the weather seems to be holding so I might go for a little nature walk later around the neighborhood and see what I can see! Have a good week all :)