This is a bit belated because things have been a bit crazy this summer, but this is my po
st for week 4 of my internship. When I came in on Wednesday I started off with the usual bird feeding, and then refilled water bowls. Every so often through the week we empty out the water bowls and refill them. Then my next task was to clean out the mice and rat tanks. Mary-beth used to breed her own feeders for when times got tough, so she has a few of those tanks still up and running. It didn't take that long, and I got to have fun catching a bunch of fuzzy mice and putting them in a tank so I could change the bedding. Then I had to go out to Silo the Barn Owls aviary and take off her anklets. All of the birds have anklets that stay on all the time except for Silo because her ankles are sensitive to them. This task required me to first catch Silo and put her in a spot where she would stay still. So back and forth I followed her until I caught her. I realized if I distracted her with one glove above her head I could grab her with the other. Once I did catch her she made a screaming noise that sounded like I was murdering her! But after I got her into her box she was a polite little owl.
Athena was my next accomplishment. I was able to go in and jess her on my own, which she acted much better than what Jeanne was expecting. She didn't scream at me, or make me rump her onto her swing. The last task at Horizon wings was to weight the baby owls. They are some tough little boogers to catch, especially since they are flighted. When everyone was weighed and put back in their aviaries I followed Jeanne to sort out her freezer full of mice and rats. It took us I think 2 hours to go thru the whole freezer. We couldn't believe that some of the bags only had one mouse in them, and we're talking garbage bags.
Thursday and
Friday were the last two farewell tours for Wind over wings, the first one being in East Hampton and the last in Old Saybrook. The East Hampton program was a bit of a bust due to some freak weather we had that day. One of the volunteers from Wing over wings couldn't make it, so I got to hold Sassafras the Eastern Screech Owl. The stage was small and everything was divided up that it made the finally go weird. Though the Old Saybrook program went flawlessly. The location was
switch last minute due to power outage, but that didn't affect the attendance. The audience was a lot more responsive to where you could hear the "oooo"s and "ahhhh"s from backstage. And during the finally the audience applauded the whole time. I was glad that Hopes last program in CT went well, and I hope Chappy is doing well with his new Red-Tailed friends at Hopes.
The programs taught me that not everything goes perfectly or according to plan. After the East Hampton program confusion Hope had everyone run thru the program twice before the final show. Practice did make perfect in this situation.
This week’s post will be up soon, so till then,
-Heather
st for week 4 of my internship. When I came in on Wednesday I started off with the usual bird feeding, and then refilled water bowls. Every so often through the week we empty out the water bowls and refill them. Then my next task was to clean out the mice and rat tanks. Mary-beth used to breed her own feeders for when times got tough, so she has a few of those tanks still up and running. It didn't take that long, and I got to have fun catching a bunch of fuzzy mice and putting them in a tank so I could change the bedding. Then I had to go out to Silo the Barn Owls aviary and take off her anklets. All of the birds have anklets that stay on all the time except for Silo because her ankles are sensitive to them. This task required me to first catch Silo and put her in a spot where she would stay still. So back and forth I followed her until I caught her. I realized if I distracted her with one glove above her head I could grab her with the other. Once I did catch her she made a screaming noise that sounded like I was murdering her! But after I got her into her box she was a polite little owl.Athena was my next accomplishment. I was able to go in and jess her on my own, which she acted much better than what Jeanne was expecting. She didn't scream at me, or make me rump her onto her swing. The last task at Horizon wings was to weight the baby owls. They are some tough little boogers to catch, especially since they are flighted. When everyone was weighed and put back in their aviaries I followed Jeanne to sort out her freezer full of mice and rats. It took us I think 2 hours to go thru the whole freezer. We couldn't believe that some of the bags only had one mouse in them, and we're talking garbage bags.
Thursday and
Friday were the last two farewell tours for Wind over wings, the first one being in East Hampton and the last in Old Saybrook. The East Hampton program was a bit of a bust due to some freak weather we had that day. One of the volunteers from Wing over wings couldn't make it, so I got to hold Sassafras the Eastern Screech Owl. The stage was small and everything was divided up that it made the finally go weird. Though the Old Saybrook program went flawlessly. The location was
switch last minute due to power outage, but that didn't affect the attendance. The audience was a lot more responsive to where you could hear the "oooo"s and "ahhhh"s from backstage. And during the finally the audience applauded the whole time. I was glad that Hopes last program in CT went well, and I hope Chappy is doing well with his new Red-Tailed friends at Hopes.The programs taught me that not everything goes perfectly or according to plan. After the East Hampton program confusion Hope had everyone run thru the program twice before the final show. Practice did make perfect in this situation.
This week’s post will be up soon, so till then,
-Heather
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