Upside of weekends - not having to do anything
Downside of weekends - not doing anything when you actually have things to do
Result - late late nights and starting the week more tired than you were when the last one ended haha
That's how I started my week today - ouch! Seriously took me atleast 3 hours to get my act together today and that was after a cup of coffee and redbull. The great side of my job is that we get to work and it is non stop all day so you wake up fairly quickly out of necessity....the bad side of my job is...that it's non stop...allll day! haha Nevertheless, it's the 4th of July and everyone was getting into the patriotic spirit of the day. My trainer/housemate, Becca, is from Alabama so she brought the redneck patriotic flare to the hospital today :)
A lot of you guys have asked me what the hospital looks like so I took a few pics of the outside yard (where I am most of the day) and I'll take pics of the inside of the building later this week :) But check it out, it's a big facility with tons of enclosures and lots of hiking to each haha
The entrance to the outdoor enclosures with education animals housed in the first circle of buildings
The backside of the hospital where the freezers and set ups for cages are kept, among other things
This is past the education animal ring looking to the left....structure at the top left is the new bear enclosure being built for the cubs and on the top right is large flight pen where we keep Red Tailed Hawks right now and smaller flight pens below that.
The back side of the bear pens. The doors that are raised allow us to look into their dens where we corral them when we need to clean etc.
The path up to mammal pens and deer runs and bear pens are at the top of the path on the right
One of our education animals, Grayson, a broad winged hawk
The benefits of having my pre exposure rabies vaccinations is getting to work with awesome mammals like this little flying squirrel (Glaucomys spp.) He was brought in with his mate by two locals who were illegally housing them and no longer wanted to care for them :( They are very cute and chubby and are in the outdoor mammal enclosures to get some much needed exercise. While they are adorable, they also have a nasty bite and while there is little to no chance of me getting rabies from them, I don't like getting bitten so I wore leather gloves while holding this dude. I also got to capture/restraint/move a red tailed hawk today. So much fun!!
Recently, a juvenile bald eagle was found out near the shore in a tub of fish oil and was brought to us covered in some tar-like substance. We're still unsure of what it is but today the vet staff gave him a bath which first required them to spray canola oil all over his feathers to loosen the tacky substance. Then he/she/it was thoroughly washed in 6 seperate tubs filled with LOTS of Dawn soap then rinsed and allowed to dry and relax. Dr. Dana said he would probably need another bath but there was much improvement in his condition and she was very hopeful :) Check out more pics here.
It was so awesome that we were allowed to watch this procedure. As many of you know, the oil spill in the Gulf a few years ago was how I became interested in working with wildlife and motivated me to look for volunteer opportunities and go back to school so this was really fun for me :)
Ofcourse, we were right back to work cleaning out one of the bear pens. It's dirty dirty, smelly work but a great work out ;) It's important that we clean these pens every other day because there are 8 cubs in each and they are so messy and it get's really nasty in there. Snapped this shot of a cub from the adjacent pen while we were waiting for the enclosure to be hosed down. These guys are seriously SO cute but wow! they scary! I mean look at those claws hahah yaaaa... Today was even more fun because it was my first time getting to corral the cubs into their back den and getting my first direct contact with them! (another perk of being rabies vaccinated) I was really intimidated at first and a little scared but it ended up being more exhilirating and kinda fun in the end :)
I really hate spiders but I have a couple nature-loving friends who have charged me with documenting the local wildlife/species I get to work with so I take pics of everything I see haha
This little ruby-throated hummer (Archilochus colubris) came in a day after or the day he fledged, meaning he had fully developed the feathers and muscles necessary for flight and was beginning to refine his flying and learning to search for food. Unfortunately, because he was seperated from his parents he hadn't picked up these skills so the past few days we have been making a huge effort to get him to learn to self-feed and hover/feed. Today, he was moved to an outdoor aviary to build up his flight muscles and get used to the outdoors and we were sent in every once in awhile to offer food and check on him. So ofcourse I snapped a few ;)
I worked with him a lot and so he's kinda my baby....name ideas?? lol He'll be released really soon in an employees yard who has a million feeders and hummingbird friendly plants.
The rest of the day was odd jobs and occasional feedings...here are some of the cute animals I got to handle today :)
another Cottontail bunny - these critters have super tiny esophagus' and will die at the drop of a hat so it's always a little stressful working with them but I think I'm getting the hang of it :)
Blue Jay juvenile (Cyanocitta cristata)
baby Virginia Opposum (Didelphis virginiana)
They are so cool and tiny and I loved checking out their little anatomy. Look you can see the joints in its tail and their skin is transparent in some areas. Pretty neat little creatures.
Anyways, that was my day :) I'm home now entering the last of the payroll and enjoying the quiet (we BBQd then most everyone went to watch fireworks) Another long, busy day tomorrow...I'm waiting for my legs and back to get used to this schedule but they are taking longer than I'd like =/ I've prided myself on being pretty strong for my size but I'm definitely building muscles I didn't know I had haha just hope I don't end up more broken than I already am lol
Good night everyone! Hope you enjoyed your 4th!
No comments:
Post a Comment