Kestrels like to climb too much

This week I worked every day in some way, shape, or form. So I'm just going to start right away. Monday started out with casually feeding the baby crow who still had the bandaging on his wing. Man when he's hungry, he's hungry! Since the weather wasn't bad that morning we decided to try and rerelease the Red-tailed hawk again. We went up somewhere in the Union area almost near the Mass-Connecticut boarded to release the bird. This time Mary-Beth gave it a nice bit of lift and it took off into one of the trees nearby. It felt so good to see that bird fly off. One person driving by even stopped to watch the event. When we got back we cleaned out the other Red-tailed hawks rehab carrier. Mary-Beth showed me her technique of how to grab the birds out of the carrier in order to transfer them to a clean one. She has a few extra clean carriers ready for when birds come in or when it is time to clean out the carriers being used. Our next task was to rebandage the crows wing. He has been healing up so well, and he loved being able to let his little wing air out. Also I'm sure he loved to get all the dander off his wing.

We also took Chappy out for a debut kind of thing at the town hall. It was his first time being inside a building on the glove. He did very well for his first time, but he of course had to bate once. When we finally got back my last task of the day was to work with Kisra the Kestrel. Jeanne got his jesses on and handed him off to me. After handling her for a bit it put her back and took the jesses off myself. Boy is it hard to do that left handed when you’re not used to it. Also on Monday we took the weights of the baby birds we had in rehab. I got to grab one of the baby barred owls and the baby screech owl. That screech owl was such a puff ball.

Tuesday I did actually go in, but I did do work related to my internship. I was asked to make a new feeding chart based off of the one they had now and the recommendations of feeding based on weight. Thursday I also worked at home, but this time to make up a standard maintenance chart.

But what happen to Wednesday?! Well we started with feeding all of hawks and removing carcasses. While we did that I worked on winning Julian the Raven over. I fed him a pinkie and a hopper mouse, which seemed to please him. Then it was time to clean out the rehab cages. This time it was my turn to try and catch the hawk. Needless to say I don't have the best technique in the world. Lucky for me the bird decided to do the whole lay over and play dead thing. That way I could grab it and transfer it to the other cage. Afterwards was bird handling time with Kisra. Today I was supposed to jesses her up myself which was interesting. First off she wanted nothing to do with it. Kisra kept trying to climb up the wall in hopes to avoid me. Jeanne told me to step out for a bit so she would go back to her nest box and then try again. So I waited a bit and went in and tried again. She did the same thing, so I decided to work with what I had. I jessed up one of her legs while she was on the mesh and then I was able to hold that jess and get the other one threaded through. After I got her all situated I went and sat with Jeanne on the picnic tables as she held Chappy. She also took his weight which was interesting in the fact he would only stand on the scale if it was in the travel box.

After some handling I got to watch Jeanne and Mary-Beth bandage up a baby barred owls wing. It's apparent that they have done with many times together because they just work together so well without even a word. Our last task was to measure out a property line in order to place out some electric fencing.

Friday was a fairly easy day. Me, Jeanne, and Brenda cleaned out the aviaries and scrubbed down the perches. It went pretty quick with 3 people working. Then we took Corbin out for some much needed sun and fresh air. He was loving it just sitting on our legs and playing with the puffy dandelions. He also had a chance to air out his bandaged wing which we were finally able to leave off. I then practiced with a little more with Kisra since I was to hold her during the presentation on Saturday. I also got a chance to work with Chico the Broad-winged hawk. He stepped up on the glove a few times for me which was a good start.

Saturday was a funny day, a nice trip out to Rhode Island with Mary-Beth, Jeanne, and Alan. We had a program that we had to do for the Duck awards ceremony. It was slightly a bust because only a few people actually interacted during the whole thing. It was pretty dull and fried all of us because we weren't used to it. I got to hold Kisra and Beamer (the box turtle) during the presentation. When we got home I did a transfer with Jeanne using Chappy. This time he didn't even bate during the transfer. We sat on the picnic table for a while and then got to unjess him. It was interesting because he gave me this big Red-tailed posture like he wanted to tag me but he acted like such a gentleman.

After that program it revisited something I learned last summer that could help me later on. No matter how dull the audience is in a program, you just have to keep rolling with it. Just because most people are asleep or texting that doesn't mean that everyone isn't paying attention. There are still a few people that are learning and are valuing what your saying. That's what makes you feel good about doing presentations. As long as your making a difference with a few people you have achieved your goal.

So today I will leave you with a few more pictures from the week.

-Heather