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his week has been pretty ridiculous heat wise. You would think being in a New England state that one wouldn't have to deal with 90+ temperatures, but I was very wrong. Monday we started off with changing the birds water, which took no time at all. Then Jeanne ran off to grab something for her aviary and I went to go meet her at her house. At her house we needed to dig up the grass 18" out from her aviary on all sides. It wasn't that hot when we started, but by time we got half way done with the first wall we were drenched with sweat. Jeannes two golden retrievers were playing supervisor the whole time, or trying to steal gloves and Gatorade bottles. Once we got a good system going it went pretty fast.
Wednesday the first thing I did was go and say hi to Corbin. He's a silly bird now that he has his own aviary with a nest box and all. I was trying go him to say hello, because corvids are that smarts. All I was able to get out of him so far is him trying to make out two syllables. It's a good start. Being this was also a hot day we didn't work with any of the birds. This day was a rehab cleaning day, which meant the Kestrel and Red-tailed. He currently have a
6 year old banded bird in rehab that had a telemetry unit on it. We didn't clean out the Barred owl carrier because Jeanne was taking him to her place. After cleaning it was time to release one of the young birds we were holding. At the moment we had the Red-Shouldered hawk in the flight cage, and he seemed more than ready to go. Me and Jeanne went into to the flight cage to get him and pack him up for a short trip. Jeanne netted him and I grabbed him out and placed him in the box. We took him to a wooded area near UCONN to release him. Since I might not be around for the release of the other birds I was allowed to do this one. Jeanne got him out of the box for me since he was being a bit nuts and then passed him off to me. The 
whole time he was doing his usual Red-Shoulder scream. When I let him go he flew up into a tree that was as far away as the flight cage is long. It was good to see him go as well as he did, and hopefully we won't get him back.
Like usual Friday was our cleaning day in which I started by gathering water bowls. After that I spent most of the time cleaning out the Red-tailed hawks aviary. Those birds can make such a mess, it's ridiculous. And then Saturday was a program day in Norwich. We brought with us the Eastern Screech owl, Broad winged hawk, Peregrine falcon, and the Great horned owl for a small crowd. I don't feel like did my best at this program, but not the worst. Before we left someone checked the temperature outside and it was 106 degrees outside.
I technically only have six and three quarters of an hour left in my required time, but I'm going to finish another 3 weeks and leave Connecticut on the 16th. I'm ready for school to start up again and get done with my last semester. I'm now going to leave you with a video of the Red-Shoulder release.
-Heather
his week has been pretty ridiculous heat wise. You would think being in a New England state that one wouldn't have to deal with 90+ temperatures, but I was very wrong. Monday we started off with changing the birds water, which took no time at all. Then Jeanne ran off to grab something for her aviary and I went to go meet her at her house. At her house we needed to dig up the grass 18" out from her aviary on all sides. It wasn't that hot when we started, but by time we got half way done with the first wall we were drenched with sweat. Jeannes two golden retrievers were playing supervisor the whole time, or trying to steal gloves and Gatorade bottles. Once we got a good system going it went pretty fast.
Wednesday the first thing I did was go and say hi to Corbin. He's a silly bird now that he has his own aviary with a nest box and all. I was trying go him to say hello, because corvids are that smarts. All I was able to get out of him so far is him trying to make out two syllables. It's a good start. Being this was also a hot day we didn't work with any of the birds. This day was a rehab cleaning day, which meant the Kestrel and Red-tailed. He currently have a
6 year old banded bird in rehab that had a telemetry unit on it. We didn't clean out the Barred owl carrier because Jeanne was taking him to her place. After cleaning it was time to release one of the young birds we were holding. At the moment we had the Red-Shouldered hawk in the flight cage, and he seemed more than ready to go. Me and Jeanne went into to the flight cage to get him and pack him up for a short trip. Jeanne netted him and I grabbed him out and placed him in the box. We took him to a wooded area near UCONN to release him. Since I might not be around for the release of the other birds I was allowed to do this one. Jeanne got him out of the box for me since he was being a bit nuts and then passed him off to me. The 
whole time he was doing his usual Red-Shoulder scream. When I let him go he flew up into a tree that was as far away as the flight cage is long. It was good to see him go as well as he did, and hopefully we won't get him back.Like usual Friday was our cleaning day in which I started by gathering water bowls. After that I spent most of the time cleaning out the Red-tailed hawks aviary. Those birds can make such a mess, it's ridiculous. And then Saturday was a program day in Norwich. We brought with us the Eastern Screech owl, Broad winged hawk, Peregrine falcon, and the Great horned owl for a small crowd. I don't feel like did my best at this program, but not the worst. Before we left someone checked the temperature outside and it was 106 degrees outside.
I technically only have six and three quarters of an hour left in my required time, but I'm going to finish another 3 weeks and leave Connecticut on the 16th. I'm ready for school to start up again and get done with my last semester. I'm now going to leave you with a video of the Red-Shoulder release.
-Heather
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