Unity College in Maine Internship Program

The Time is Now

2012-01-10T16:31:00.004-05:00

Many students wonder when the best time to line up an internship for the summer. Well, the time is now. By the end of this week we will be unveiling our 2012 Internship Handbook which does a great job of covering the process of arranging an internship for college credit. We've been busy posting our job announcements to our career services website. What is doesn't quite do well is letting you know how to prepare for the process of applying for an internship. At the bare minimum future interns should have a resume, cover letter,and a list of three strong references. Many positions will also require letter of recommendations, copies of college transcripts, background checks, physical exams and/ or fitness tests. That's a lot to pull together for each position so it's best to start early with these processes.

Keep posted for upcoming Internship Information Sessions scheduled for the second week of school.

Nicole

Last Week

2011-09-01T23:39:00.001-04:00

This was my final week of my internship here at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo. This week I worked Saturday through Tuesday because I could not work Wednesday as I was flying back to college then. This week was again mostly routine, more of the afternoons were routine as well. In the morning I cleaned either ruffed or ringtail exhibit and holding area, cleaned another holding area or two, fed the rats and the aye-aye, and sometimes did herps or prepare diets. In the afternoon I fed the islands ringtail and ruffed lemurs, fed rats, bats, and aye-aye. Did lemur enrichment and helped medicate the ruffed lemurs.

On Saturday the whole day was pretty much routine, so there wasn’t anything different that I did.

On Sunday in the afternoon I helped pull vines off the front fence of the fossa exhibit.

Monday was a very fun day as in the afternoon I got to do target training with the red ruffed lemurs. I also went to pick up mulch to add to the tortoise area of the ringtail exhibit.

Tuesday was my very last day. In the morning I went to go get the new crickets, then cleaned the cricket tanks and unpacked the new crickets, I watched collared lemur training, fed the collared lemurs their fruit, and then fell in the lagoon because I had to say goodbye to Howie, one of the red ruffed lemurs.

Sadly that is the end of my internship. I really enjoyed it and learned a lot. I will greatly miss everyone here especially the lemurs.

Massive Storm

2011-08-26T16:30:00.001-04:00

The mornings this week were mostly routine again, cleaning either ruffed or ringtail exhibit or cleaning windows, as well as cleaning a couple back holding areas. Then preparing rat and aye-aye enrichment and sometimes doing herps or preparing diets. In the afternoons the bats, rats, and aye-aye are fed, lemur enrichment is done, and sometimes I get to feed the collared lemurs their fruit. On Tuesday and Wednesday the ruffed lemurs outside were starting their new medication so I got to watch the keepers giving the meds to the lemurs. This is done either just squirting it into their mouth or putting it in a piece of banana.

Collared Lemur

Diabetic Ringtail Lemur Rhea

On Sunday the only different things that I did were feeding the islands, both ringtail and ruffed, and watching fossa training.

Monday was a bit of an interesting day as there was a very massive storm the night before. There was a sinkhole washed out in the corner of the black and white ruffed exhibit which caused the exhibit to be unsafe for them so they had to stay in the holding for a few days. The road in front of our building had a lot of mulch washed out onto it so I spend post of the afternoon sweeping that up and putting it back where it belonged. Also today was the first day the new mongoose lemur pair was put back on the exhibit after the switch of pairs.

Damage to black and white ruffed lemur exhibit from storm

Mongoose Lemurs, Edwardo and Selena

Tuesday was a very interesting day. After cleaning the windows and the downstairs mongoose lemur and vasa parrot holding area, the vet came down to get blood from Rhea, our diabetic ringtail lemur. Rhea was in the back holding area by herself and the keepers went in and netted her then held her on top of the barrel for the vet to come in and take blood. After that, Ted, a black and white ruffed lemur had to go up to the vets office and get checked due to problems with his hip. I went too, so that I could watch the procedure. He was put under and then examined. He had a normal check up and the vet was moving around both his hips, and the rest of his rear legs to see if there was something wrong, then several x-rays were taken, blood was also taken. Nothing was found to be wrong with him, though they would have to wait for the blood work results to see if that showed anything, but he was put on some medication for pain. In the afternoon there was an attempt to train the fossa, but they would not come back into their holding area. I then went to rake some on ringtail island, because the island had been flooded and most of it had been underwater from the storm and was now covered in the duckweed that covers the lagoon. Today when I was watching the keepers med the ruffed lemurs, one of the black and whites escaped from its holding area and was loose in the lagoon holding building. After a few minutes of it running back and forth from one end of the building to the other it was caught and put back in its holding area.

On Wednesday the only thing I did that was different was in the afternoon I stripped the rats burrow.

Summer 2011 is over!

2011-08-23T21:21:00.002-04:00

Hey all!

I can't believe that the summer is over for Incarnation Camp. We spent the last week getting in as much fun as possible with a few special activities. We brought in a group to take everyone scuba diving in the lake, went out to play paint ball, and traveled over to Hammonasset for beach day.

At the end of the week it was time to take camp apart. After taking down tents and moving beds all Friday morning, the kids got to take the afternoon off and get fancy for the last dinner at camp, banquet. After eating a delicious meal (which they didn't have to cook, no cooksite!), we all gathered in the rec hall to watch a slide show of all the pictures we took this session. Once we all had a good laugh at the photos, the real trouble started: the all night dance! The staff took turns supervising and sleeping so as long as the kids wanted to dance, the party would never end. We ended up watching the sun rise on the docks, and getting a couple hours of sleep before the parents came on Sunday to pick everyone up.

I was so sad to see my campers go, we had such an incredible group this summer, and I can't wait to see them again next summer!

Goodbye Upper Delaware!

2011-08-22T14:09:00.000-04:00

Well, the summer has finally come to an end and my internship is over! My last week on the river consisted of canoe patrols, power boating with law enforcement, and my goodbye party!

On my last day, two of the law enforcement rangers took me out on the power boat to patrol the river. We didn't really catch anyone doing anything illegal, but we did find a whole watermellon floating along the shore! That evening the interpretive unit had a bbq/goodbye party for me. This summer has been a blast, and I am so grateful to have had this opportunity. I've gained so much experience from this internship, and it will definitely benefit me in my future career. I couldn't have asked for a better internship or better people to work with!

It's been a great summer!
-Lara

USDA

2011-08-19T14:07:00.001-04:00

This was a bit of an interesting week because the USDA inspection wound up happening this week. Sunday through Tuesday the mornings were normal and routine, I cleaned the ruffed exhibit and holding area all three days, cleaned windows, then cleaned another holding area or two. Also in the morning, the aye-aye and giant jumping rat enrichment is given, I do not think I ever explained why these two animals get fed/enriched so many times a day. The rats, it is very easy for them to over groom themselves and each other so we feed them three times a day to try to prevent that. The aye-aye, in the early morning they are given their gruel, then with their second feeding they are given their vegetables, and the third one they are given their fruit. This is done this way because they like the fruit the most and if they were given that with or before the other food they would only eat the fruit and not the other food. Sometimes in the morning I will help with herps, and give the crickets new food. Then tomorrows diets are prepared and that’s the end of the morning. In the afternoon most things are different from day to day, but feeding the bats, and the aye-aye and rats again, as well as preparing lemur enrichment is done every day, most days I also get to hand feed the collared lemurs their fruit.

In the afternoon on Sunday, I went with a keep to the jungle to start laundry and try to find balloons for paper mache, then spent most of the afternoon making paper mache.

Monday was interesting too. In the morning I cleaned the downstairs mongoose lemur holding area with them in it. They were not going on exhibit because they were being moved upstairs and separated. The two mongoose lemurs upstairs were separated as well. They are switching mates in hopes that they will breed. All lemurs were put in separate cages with one empty cage in between them and their new mate. In the afternoon another intern and I stripped one of the herps exhibits.

Tuesday in the morning I cleaned the tenrec’s tank. In the afternoon I helped a keeper to fix fallen shelves and other various tidying up jobs. Then while I was feeding the collared lemurs we learned that USDA was at the gorilla area next to us. Everyone quickly ran around trying to straighten everything up and make sure things were where they were supposed to be. After we did all that we discovered that they were not actually getting to our area until the next day.

Wednesday started off a little bit crazy because we knew that the USDA was going to be there sometime that day and so had to make sure to clean everything very well, including all drains, and make sure all chemicals were put back where they belong after we used them. I started out helping one keeper get down cobwebs from the bird exhibit, but then went to help another keeper clean the giant aye-aye and bat exhibit. After that I neatened up the enrichment hallway a little, and then cleaned two of the upstairs mongoose lemur holdings. Today after the holdings were cleaned, the mongoose lemurs were put into cages right next to each other. In the afternoon I fed the ring tails on the island, watched collared lemur training and fed the red ruffed lemurs outside.

Canoe trip!

2011-08-13T16:02:00.004-04:00

Hello everybody!

This past week has been an interesting one. I was out on a five day canoe trip! Along with my co-leader Sihao, I took fourteen campers down the Connecticut River, starting at White River Junction in Vermont, and ending seventy miles downstream on the New Hampshire side. Overall the trip was successful, but for the first three days it rained, and the kids were bummed out. We decided to end day three early and crashed at an unplanned site. Day four started bright and early so we could make up day three's mileage. Thankfully, the wind was with us and it stayed sunny until we reached Brattleboro, Vermont, where we had time to stop for a couple hours and check out the shops. It rained then, but the kids were all inside and I had gone to check on the boats to be sure that everyone's dry bags were closed. After we had all the fun we could in Brattleboro, we paddled on down to our campsite. That night camp called and told us that they couldn't get to the pick up until three in the afternoon, so we got to sleep in for the last day! We took our time on the morning of day five, and made it to the take out spot with time to spare. On the way back down to Connecticut, we indulged in a Pioneer Village trip tradition and stopped at Bub's Barbeque, a tiny spot in Massachusetts. Once we got back to camp we cleaned up and returned all of our gear, then settled in for a good night's sleep.

The best way to end a summer

2011-08-13T08:21:00.010-04:00

So as you all well know I have been done with my required hours but that doesn't mean I was fully done with my internship. I still went back for three more days to help out, and in turn got to do some pretty cool things. The first week of August I only went in on the 5th which was cleaning day. I actually spent almost the whole day at Mary-beths. We of course went and did all of the cage cleanings first, with me mostly cleaning out the Red-tailed hawks aviary. To fully clean that aviary it takes at least 45 minutes. Buteos tend to poop on everything... Then it was off to care for the rehab birds. We had a baby Screech owl in the basement that Patricia was caring for as well as a baby Broad winged hawk. Mary-beth showed us how to put on a tail guard. Tail guards are used with rehab birds in order to help protect their tail feathers from becoming damaged during their time in care. Then we went off into the shed to take care of the crazy Red-tailed hawk and Spirit. Spirit takes no time at all, but that Red-tailed... As Jeanne held the bird Mary-beth unbandaged its wing to see how it was healing. She then told me I was going to rebandage the wing. It was pretty cool doing my first bandage job on a live bird. Then after we bandaged the wing she had me change out the tail guard.

Once we were done we put the bird in a cardboard carrier in order to take it out to one of the aviaries. We were switching birds around for observation purposes. The juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk that had the swollen ankle was being put in the shed in a padded carrier until it's ankle healed up and the other bird was being put in the aviary. The other Red-tailed eventually got its bandages removed which is a good sign. Before we put the bird out in the aviary we had to go and take out all of the perches that way the bird couldn't damage it's wing from falling. Our last task was to go and rewrap Kisra's perches. She seems to like them and is often seen on them.

I then went in again on that Wednesday to work with the Fairfield Red-tailed. When I got there Jeanne had me put a leash on Spirit and take him outside while she cleaned his carrier. He was a very good bird for me and just sat there, bobbing his head. It's good to get him outside to get some fresh air and some stimulus. We then went to rewrap the perches in the Red-tailed hawk aviary, in which he had an extra bird in there. We ended up getting a rehab bird from someone that was keeping it in his apartment. For a Red-tailed hawk this bird looks kinda funky, and really shows some signs of being imprinted a bit. Whenever we go in there now we have to completely ignore it so that we're not encouraging its behavior. While in the fixing mode we went and fixed one of Chico's perches. One of them broke so we were just replacing it with a new one. Zip ties are greatly your friend.

After our fixing period Jeanne let me jess up Oscar the Great Horned Owl. Oscar is the easiest to jess up because he just sits there, the hard part is pulling him off the perch and helping him back up when he bates. He's an awesome bird, but likes to be a plan when to go to put him back on your glove. The minute his feet touch your glove he's pushing back off. We kept him out for quite a bit, give him a break from the baby in his aviary. I'm glad I got to handle him before I left. I finished my day with the Red-tailed. She's good about people being around, but acts a little nervous. I was able to walk up to her with the glove on and touch her without her flying off. I was also able to get her to put one foot up on the glove by gently pushing against her, but I couldn't get her to put her other foot up. Though even that is a good start.

Yesterday was my last day at Horizon Wings, and probably the best. We had a bit of light cleaning to do since most of the aviaries were done the day before. I worked on the Red-taileds aviary, doing both the raking and scrubbing. Brenda was back from being in California, so I got to see her one last time. After cleaning the few aviaries we needed too we worked on the rehab shed. We were waiting for a bird that we had to release later in the day so we had a lot of time to kill. Brenda went and worked with Spirit, and I went to work with the Red-tailed hawk. I had to stop earlier than I wanted to because she got up in the corner of her nest box, and I'm a little to short to be reaching for her up there. We hung out to pass time, enjoying the absolutely gorgeous day we were having. Me and Jeanne also took out some birds to handle. She brought out Athena and I got Emyrs. He looked so sleepy the whole time and I was surprised that he didn't doze off.

12:45 came around and Mary-beth and Patricia ran off to pick up our bird. We were releasing a Peregrine Falcon that had been up at Tufts for recovery. It came from Kensington and was seen in Southington. After we acquired the bird we drove up to our release site up at UCONN. When we were in the van Mary-beth informed me that after she wrote down the band number on the bird that she was going to pass him off to me so that I could release him. I was super surprised because I thought she would want to release this one. It was so awesome releasing this bird, who almost flew into Jeanne's head. It flew off over UCONN going southwest-ish and scattered a whole crowd of Starlings. I ended the day with my good buys and final trip to the Dairy barn for ice cream.

I'm going to miss working at Horizon Wings now that it's all said and done. I not only leaving some really awesome people that I met, I leaving a new family. I feel that doing my internship over the summer instead of all in a few weeks I was able to bond with everyone a lot more. They gave me many opportunities to learn new things and strengthen things I already knew. When I left they still had about 12 birds in rehab, most of which should be able to be released soon. Mary-beth and her team does an amazing service for the state of Connecticut and I hope they continue doing such a great job.

Well it's time for me to start packing up my things and getting ready for my journey back up to Maine. For those that have been following along, I hope have inspired you to take part in something like what I have been doing this summer.

-Heather

*Some of the above pictures have been taken by Brenda Lyons and Jeanne Wadsworth*

week 9 at state capital internship

2011-08-12T22:26:00.003-04:00

This was the last week of summer break. Still quite boring but I was in charge of the front desk the 3 days I was there this week. I also worked on making list of different contacts fir legislative issue areas and state departments. This was also my last full week of work. We also went and took pictures for my internship. My boss has been talking to me a lot about campaigns and what they take to be a good one. As well as how different strategies for different candidates.

Different Week

2011-08-12T14:50:00.001-04:00

This week pretty much every morning was different because on Monday and Wednesday we had four interns and Tuesday the ruffed exhibit and holding area were not cleaned due to exhibit maintenance which caused the lemurs to stay in the back holding for the day.

Sunday morning was like a usual morning, I cleaned the ringtail exhibit and holding area, then cleaned windows, then cleaned the fossa holding area. After that the morning was different though and I brought branches from a tree that had fallen down to all the indoor exhibits, then cleaned up dirt and ceramic off the boardwalk outside from a potted plant that had fallen over during the storm the previous night. In the afternoon I disinfected extension cords, did more rust painting, prepared the lemur enrichment and fed the collared lemurs.

Monday I did not clean an exhibit in the morning, I just cleaned windows, cleaned the fossa holding area, and cleaned the tenrec tank. Then brought the aye-aye and rats their morning enrichment, and cleaned the windowsills in the upstairs keeper/holding area. In the afternoon I scraped chipping paint for the fossa holding area, cleaned the floor in the upstairs keeper area, then pulled weeds out on ringtail island.

Tuesday I cleaned the ringtail exhibit, then swept and vacuumed the public area, another intern cleaned the ringtail holding area since the ruffs had to stay off exhibit for the day. Then I cleaned the mongoose and vasa parrot holding area. Then prepared part of the aye-aye and rat enrichment, then went to get diets and prepared the dry part of their diets, brought the aye-aye and rats their enrichment, and did herps. In the afternoon I went to go get new crickets, unpacked the crickets, fed the bats and brought rats and aye-aye afternoon enrichment, put new browse branches in indoor exhibits and holding areas. Then pulled more weeds on ringtail island. Last for the day prepared lemur enrichment and brought it to their holding areas.

Wednesday I also did not clean an exhibit. I cleaned the windows, fed the crickets, spot cleaned the tenrec’s tank, and cleaned the fossa holding area. Then I went on a trip with a keeper, we brought the bags of weeds to the compost area, went to get diets, picked up clean laundry from the jungle, and dropped off fecal samples and picked up arthritis medication for saggy, the brown lemur, from the hospital. When we got back we added the dry parts to the diets. In the afternoon, more browse banches were brought to the sick lemurs in holding and to the black and white ruffed lemurs outside. Then with a keeper did cleaning and rearranging in the storage area of the fossa holding building. After that I fed the bats and aye-aye and did lemur enrichment.

Cooksites at Pioneer Village

2011-08-05T16:23:00.004-04:00

Hey folks! This week I thought I'd tell you all about one of the biggest parts of life at Pioneer Village: cooksite. Every day the campers cook their breakfast and dinner over fires at one of six sites. Each cooksite has a girl's tent group and a boys tent group, and they rotate pairings and sites every week. In order for cooksite to run, you need two fires, one to cook on, and one to heat water for cleaning. One person from each tent is designated "fire starter" each day, and they go to cooksite fifteen minutes before everyone else to light a fire in the pit. There are also two cooks each day, but everyone else has to collect firewood or kindling. Once the meal is ready, we call everyone back and eat! Clean up includes washing and disinfecting dishes, scrubbing pots and pans, disinfecting the table, covering the wood pile, and putting out both fires.

Aye-Aye...

2011-08-05T14:22:00.001-04:00

This week was a short week for me because I had to call in sick on Wednesday. Other then that the week again went pretty routinely, especially in the mornings. This week I cleaned the ruffed exhibit all three days of my working and foamed it on Monday, we normally foam the exhibits, Monday, Wednesday Friday, and back holdings get foamed everyday. I cleaned the ruffed holding area, another holding area, either the fossa or the upstairs or downstairs mongoose lemur. After the holdings are done morning enrichment is done for the aye-aye and giant jumping rats, then herps gets done, then diets get done, and that is usually it for the morning. After lunch tends to be different everyday since the only things that get done everyday are feeding the aye-aye their fruit, feeding the bats, preparing lemur enrichment and hand feeding the collared lemurs their fruit.

On Sunday I went with a keeper to get our snakes back that were removed from their exhibit last week for maintenance, then I washed some dishes and spent the rest of the afternoon painting rusted areas in the upstairs holding area with rust preventing paint.

Monday I did extra stuff in the morning, I cleaned out the tenrec’s tank and I helped to clean the cricket tanks. In the afternoon I did more rust preventing painting, this time in the downstairs holding areas, and then cleaned the floor in the keeper area upstairs. This was done the same way as cleaning the holding areas, with hosing down, then foaming, then scrubbing, then hosing again, the squeegeeing.

On Tuesday, in the morning when I cleaned the downstairs mongoose lemur holding area I also cleaned the vasa parrot holding area, this was a little bit different because the parrots are in there and I have to be careful not to let them out. I also went out to meet a keeper in the outside red ruffed lemur exhibit to feed the ibis that are also out there, they got pinkies, some of which I tossed to one bird and then the keeper put the rest up in the nest while I held the ladder. The ruffs were also fed while I was out there. Then another intern and I stripped the aye-aye holding area. Then I watched collared lemur training and that was the end of the morning. Not really sure how so much got done that morning. In the afternoon I helped put the new crickets in their tanks, watched ringtail lemur injection training, cleaned the upstairs keeper area again and cleaned crates that had been used.

Hi-Fi Kill and Picnic Dam Waterhole Count

2011-08-05T14:06:00.002-04:00

Quite a lot took place last week here at CCF. Early in the week, as I was walking to the main center in the morning from Lightfoot Camp (where I stay half the time here), I discovered an oryx that had been killed by some predator, most likely a cheetah. The animal was chased into the Eland cheetah pen fence where it was caught, killed, and eaten. It slightly bent the fence, and the horns of the oryx were caught in the electrical part of the fence, so I had to move it. The four girls in the Eland pen appeared to have been standing right there since the kill, wishing they could have gotten to it. Poor girls were so close yet so far away to a wonderful fresh oryx! I assume they heard the kill happening and investigated, resulting in having to stand and watch as a wonderful meal was consumed without getting the opportunity to take part. Because of this, I found our lead keeper Juliette, informed her and we went and removed the kill. Later on, we checked the camera trap in that area and sure enough Hi-Fi (the cheetah I have been tracking) was around with a bloody face and huge belly. I’ve never seen a wild kill before, so this was very exciting.

Last weekend we had our annual waterhole count of all the 25 waterholes on CCF property. There were 50 volunteers here to count so it was a very busy and active weekend. I was fortunate enough to be placed at Picnic Dam, which is the waterhole closest to the the Waterburg Plateau and deepest in the Rhino Reserve. Rhinos, leopards, and a variety of other carnivores are spotted here, so I knew we were going to have the chance to see some rare sights. Sure enough at around 11 am, a black rhino shows up. Very few people here at CCF have seen one of our 6 or so rhinos so we were very lucky to get the sighting. And to make things even better, at about 4:45 pm, and huge male leopard shows up. Both of these guys walk around the dam (what they call ponds here in Namibia), and spend quite some time right next to the hide only about 50 feet away, so we got some great photo opportunities. Earlier during the count and African Hawk lands on a tree right next to the hide with a kill, which was really neat as well. We got some great photos of that as well. I’ve posted pictures below of all these sightings. All in all, I saw less animals at this count than at the other counts I have done, but the animals we saw here were much cooler so this was by far the best waterhole count of the summer.

My time is coming to a close here at CCF with only about a week and a half left. I’m looking forward to being back in the States, but I’m dreading leaving the things I have come to love here at CCF. It’s been a great experience, but I do have a bit of time left. There will only be a couple of updates to come until I’ll be signing off for good, but no need to worry about that just yet. I’m open to any questions and comments. Any pictures I mentioned in this post can be viewed at my blog ehwalker91.wordpress.com Until next time….

- Eli

week 8 state capital internship

2011-08-05T11:36:00.002-04:00

This week was much more productive then the last two weeks. I did some basic office stuff, as well as updating a list with contacts for different departments in the state. The really fun thing I was able to do, is I am doing what is called a white paper. Pretty much I am making a fact sheet for the assembly member on a wind turbine project proposed for the district. I’m excited to have the wind turbines come up into northern California finally.

The flower is just my desk decoration, but it was grown locally. :)

-Rae

PFD's Please!!

2011-08-04T08:38:00.003-04:00

The past 2 weeks have been filled with river clean-ups, programs, and drownings. That's right...drownings. It's sad to say, but this past week we had 2 drownings because people decided to swim without lifejackets. I wish people would realize how fast things can happen, and how much control the river actually has. Law enforcement has been busy, that’s for sure.

As far as interpretation goes, I gave my last 2 river readings and they both went well. I also went on 2 river clean-ups, where a few of the interp staff go out with volunteers (generally high school kids) and canoe the river while picking up trash along the way. Let’s just say you can find some pretty interesting things on these trips. From slushy machines to propane tanks, people find it all. I found 5 different sandals, a baseball, sunglasses, beer, water bottles, a snorkel, goggles, and a big wooden boat seat…not to mention lots of normal trash like cans, plastic bags, and other litter. These trips are a good way to help clean up the river, and have fun too! Oh, and find treasure!

It’s hard to believe I only have 1 more week left here on the river, but it’s been a blast!

Until my last blog,
Lara

Hours complete, but the internship rolls on

2011-08-02T08:19:00.009-04:00

I have completed my required 180 hours as of this week, though I'm still working when ever there are things to do. Monday was our last Starbase program out of three, with all of the same birds. This time though I was first up on the line up and presented Kisra, and then later on the environment. The more and more I hear the information about these birds the easier it is to kind of do their part on a whim. I got a little tongue tide but other than that I felt I did pretty well. It's sad that this was the last time we were presenting there this year, they were a really good crowd.

Wednesday was a tough group, an extremely varied group as far as age goes. We were presenting at a summer camp in New London full of kids from probably kindergarten to 3rd grade. Needless to say some of them did not have the longest attention span. It went alright though, we pushed thru it. I presented Chico at this presentation and he started it off real well by projectile pooping on one of our signs. So now our sign has a nice ole' stain on it.

Friday was cleaning days, in which I ended up an hour late being my alarm never went off. I still cleaned out Silo and the Red tailed hawks while I was there and helped feed the birds. Due to the chance of rain coming we stacked up wood that had just been painted for usage on some aviaries. That only took a few minutes. In between Wednesday and Friday we had been inundated with birds in rehab. We had gotten in another baby Broad winged hawk (we already had one from earlier in the week), a baby Screech owl, and a Cooper's hawk. Two of the other birds that we had gotten had to be put down due to their injuries. The Cooper's hawk unfortunately died that day after we were done cleaning. After all of our work was done we watched the video from when Jeanne and Mary-beth took Kisra and Beamer to a TV program. It went really well and it was nice to see the other people that was on the show too.

Sunday was a simple meet and greet at the Ashford farmers market. Mary-beth and Jeanne were up in Maine visiting Hope, so this program was all me and Alan. I held Herc most of the time and held Dakota for a little bit too. We got a lot more donations than we thought we were, which was awesome. Being that we aren't funding by anyone donations are very important. It's amazing how much it cost to keep one bird a year. My favorite part of the whole thing was when we had a group come up to our table that had found a bird. They had found a baby Screech owl at the beginning of the summer, the one I was having to weigh every week, and had another rehabilitator bring it out to us. They told us all about how they found us and wanted to know how it was doing. It was nice to be able to reconnect with them, and let them know how the bird should be released here soon. When we got back I unjessed Herc and Dakota and then we checked the baby Red tailed. His right foot was pretty swollen, but upon examination we couldn't see any abrasions. I'm pretty curious to see what Mary-beth says when she gets back.

Since I don't think I'll be working too many more days here at Horizon Wings I'm just going to do one more entree in this blog. It won't be for another two weeks, but it will be my closing entree.
Till then,
-Heather

week 7 of state capital internship

2011-07-29T22:33:00.001-04:00

This week was again not a lot of learning. I mostly did member bio’s which is just getting info together on different legislators. It is interesting to see the different backgrounds on the members. As well as to be able to see where a lot come from. I helped to office work, but hopefully there will be some more cool things to do before I leave. I feel the reason it is so slow is because it summer recess and the capital is empty.

-Rae

Yay Lemurs!

2011-07-29T14:33:00.000-04:00

This week was mostly routine, days started in the morning with cleaning either the ring tail exhibit and holding area or the red ruffed exhibit and holding area, which is then followed by cleaning the downstairs mongoose lemur holding area, the upstairs mongoose lemur holding area, or the fossa holding area, cleaning holding areas also always means cleaning the footbaths that are in that area as well. Sometimes I will also clean the windows in the public viewing area. Once all the holding areas are done we prepare the day enrichment for the giant jumping rats and the aye-aye, and do herps. Diets for the next day are sometimes prepared before lunch and sometimes after lunch depending on when a keeper has time to go get them because all we do for diets is add in the dry food like browse biscuits and pellets and such. Once diets are prepared, aye-aye and rats are given their afternoon enrichment, and the bats are fed. Then lemur enrichment for when they return to their holding areas for the night is prepared.

There were a few things that happened each day that were not part of this normal routine. On Sunday, I got to go with a keeper to get diets and see where all of that is prepared. Also on Sunday, I had to strip the snake exhibit, this meant removing all the mulch that was on the floor of the exhibit and then hosing it down. This had to be done because they are adding new heating sources into the exhibit so that all the snakes can be at one at the same time.

On Monday, I got to go out and bring enrichment to the sick lemur holding area, and brought food to the ring tail lemur island and to the red ruffed lemurs outside. A keeper usually does this alone so I was happy to get a chance to do this and was able to get some very good pictures of the ring tails and the red ruffed. Today I also helped move around plants that were upstairs and cleaned the dirt that was around the plants, and then cleaned shelves that were removed from holding areas due to rusting.

Tuesday was a short day for me because I injured my ankle stepping out of the ring tail exhibit in the morning and did not come back after lunch to give my ankle a chance to rest. What ever I did to my ankle it is now better and no longer hurting.

Wednesday was a special day called Member’s Day at the zoo. And for this we had ring tail island training at 2pm, fossa training at 2:30pm, and then were putting enrichment out for the lemurs from 3-7. I got to watch the ring tail training, but then had to stand inside and watch the button quail for almost 2 hours. The male and female were just being put back together on exhibit and were not getting along very well so someone had to watch them to make sure they were not fighting.

Promotion

2011-07-28T15:58:00.000-04:00

So in an earlier post I mentioned that we have been running the Okakarara cubs on a regular basis. These guys are almost a year old now and recently we promoted them to a larger enclosure for their runs. Their enclosure is where we used to run them, however in the past couple of weeks we were feeling that they had outgrown that enclosure while running, so we decided it would be best to move them another one of the cheetah enclosures for the runs. Their first time in the new enclosure and on the new run course, which was mid-last week, went very well. Yesterday was their third time and things are still going well. It's a new place for them so they really enjoy exploring the area as well as the opportunity to run at speeds they couldn't reach before because of space limitations. Senay in particular has been very fast and enthusiastic on the course. I imagine that visitors will enjoy the opportunity to see these guys running when they are full grown. I haven't had much opportunity to get pictures of them running in the new area because I have been so busy actually operating the lure machine, but yesterday I managed to get a few shots which are posted on my blog at ehwalker91.wordpress.com

CCF is currently mid stride in a long term cheetah census using camera traps as the data collection method. We have about 15-20 camera traps set up all around CCF property at trees that cheetahs using as marking and communications posts which we call "play trees." We have done short term censuses in the same way, however this is the first long term camera trap census that we has been done. Our ecology team feels that the data collected on the short term will differ from this long term study due to the ways in which cheetahs, particularly female cheetahs, use these play trees. In addition to the cheetah census, the data collected will be used in a variety of other ways. One of the most significant being the study of the relationship between cheetahs and leopards in regards to these play trees, because both cheetahs and leopards have been seen to use the same trees in what we think to be similar ways. I have the responsibility of driving around to all these camera traps and collected and changing the SD cards. It takes me a few hours to check half of the cameras because they are spread out so far in CCF's property. I have really enjoyed this task because it has allowed me to see a lot of CCF that most people do not typically see, and has also provided me the opportunity to participate in CCF's research.

So not too much to update everyone on. It's business as usual here at CCF. As always I'm open to any questions or comments. Until next time...

-Eli

Incarnation Camp!

2011-07-27T21:21:00.009-04:00

The summer started with two weeks of staff orientation at my second home, Incarnation Camp in Ivoryton, Connecticut. Along with other staff members from England, Australia, Holland, South Africa, Wales, and Scotland, I spent the first week in lifeguard training, ropes course certification training, cleaning up camp, assembling steel bunk beds, and putting up canvas platform tents. The second week was spent getting to know each other better, and learning the ways of camp. Once our first two weeks were over, the campers arrived! I worked with the twelve and thirteen year old girls in a unit called Winds. We had just over twenty girls in Winds first session, and five of them were in the tent I shared with my co-counselor, Jasmine. First session was full of madness and typical camp fun including swimming, boating, soccer, arts and crafts, music, basketball, high ropes, and a giant fourth of July celebration. On Sundays we did all camp activities like olympics and Harry Potter day. I got the pleasure of planning a canoe trip for Winds and the boy's unit, Frontier. It was a two day trip down the Connecticut River, and surprisingly went off without a hitch! At the end of the session it was so sad to see the girls leave. There were lots of tears and promises to keep in touch and return to camp next summer.

Next came something very unexpected. There is a program for older campers ages 14 and 15 called Pioneer Village (P.V.). It's located across the lake and involves things like cooksite, where you cook breakfast and dinner over a fire, and five day hike, bike, and canoe trips. Normally you have to be twenty-one to work there, but a spot opened up, and it was given to me! I'll be twenty-one next summer

, but I'm still the youngest counselor in P.V. right now. It has been an interesting experience so far since I haven't been to P.V. since I was a camper in 2007 and I have to re-learn everything from a staff point of view. I'm still planning the Winds Frontier canoe trip, but now I have a tent group with six girls and I'm assisting the trip director with hike trips. I've got a few days under my belt so far and I can't wait to see how the rest of the summer goes!

Even in New england theres a heat wave

2011-07-24T08:08:00.006-04:00

This 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

week 6 state capital internship

2011-07-22T17:37:00.000-04:00

This week i have not really done a whole of different things. I have just done one thing over and over this week. I have been working on senate and assembly member profiles with one the other intern. It’s a lot like researching for papers, but a lot easier. I am looking up different members and fill out a format with information that could be important or useful to our member.

-Rae

First week of work

2011-07-22T14:21:00.001-04:00

Thursday

This was the day after I arrived and checked in to where I will be living. I had my orientation where I got background information about the zoo, people who work there, the different exhibits that are there; got my id badge; got my working hours and was shown shortcuts to get to my area. I was also stopped by two groups of kids doing scavenger hunt to take pictures.

Sunday

For my first day of work we were shorthanded because I was the only intern there and one of the keepers was on vacation. Normally new interns have help with cleaning their first exhibit but got I told what to do then did it myself because we were so shorthanded. The exhibit I was cleaning was the indoor ringtail lemur, collard lemur, and tortoises exhibit. While cleaning I have to wear mask and gloves to prevent disease since lemurs primates and primates so close to humans. Tortoises were on exhibit while I was cleaning, while the lemurs were in their back holding area. First I drained small pool of drinking water. Then I took small broom and dustpan and went in exhibit swept up the food that was left and the loose feces. Then I hosed down exhibit getting stuck feces up and spraying the windows that go out to public viewing. Took broom and dustpan again and picked up the feces that were now not stuck, then took large broom and swept out the water that had collected at different parts of exhibit to a drain. Throughout this one tortoise kept leaving the area on one side of the exhibit with wood chips for them and I had to pick him up and move him back to the wood chips. Then closed the drain for the drinking water and refilled it with fresh water. Squeegee the windows. Then took the lemurs food for the day and put it in different parts of exhibit off the ground so the tortoises would not get it.

Next I went out into the public area and cleaned the windows throughout the whole indoor area.

When I finished this I started cleaning the holding area for the lemurs whose exhibit I had cleaned earlier. For this I again got the broom and dustpan and swept up the food and loose feces. Sprayed the area with the hose to get wet it down and then got hose with soap attachment and sprayed whole area down with that then got scrubby brush and scrubbed the area making sure to get all that was stuck off. I then sprayed again to make sure I got up all soap then squeegeed again. Then I filled up the water dishes.

Next I cleaned out the footbaths that are used every time you go from one area to another. This was done by just emptying them, spraying down the pad that was in there, putting in one squirt of soap then filling with water until it was even with the pad.

After that I cleaned the mongoose lemur holding area, this was done the same way as the previous one for the other lemurs.

Next I worked with another keeper, Wendy, and prepared enrichment for the aye-aye, this was a cardboard tube with food in the middle and newspaper on both ends.

Then was lunch break!!

When I got back from lunch I was preparing diets for the next day with another keeper, Sara. The fruit and vegetables had already been prepared and were all in bags marked with the animals they were for. On the fridge there is a list of what each group of animals gets in terms of pellets or other type of dry food. All this was added to each bag and then the bags were put in the fridge.

Then Sara, Wendy, and I took the bags of food for the bats for today and went to their exhibit. The males are in their own smaller exhibit and the females are in a larger exhibit with the aye-aye. Sara and I went in the larger exhibit and Wendy went in the smaller one.

This weekend is an event called Moo at the Zoo, and for this most of the animals were getting watermelons so me and the three keepers that were there today, Joe, Sara, and Wendy cut up watermelons, some to look like turtles, and brought them around and put them in exhibits, only the lemurs got them in our area.

Unfortunately, the red-ruffed and black and white-ruffed lemurs that are in the outdoor exhibits are currently positive for bacteria (the outdoor boardwalk walkthrough area is currently closed due to this) and they needed to get their weight up a little before beginning treatment so we had to go out and weigh them. This part of the day was my favorite because we got to go in the exhibit with the lemurs. First we did the black and white ruffed ones. There are four of them. Sara, Wendy, and I went in the exhibit and Joe stood right outside to note the weights. We had a scale that was plugged in with extension cords and cups with raisins in them. Each lemur was scanned for its microchip then weighed. Sara and I distracted the other lemurs while Wendy lured one on the scale and got its weight. To distract the lemurs we fed them raisins which they took gently from our fingers and also tried grabbing on to the cup holding the raisins and onto my arm or shirt. Switching the lemurs to weigh other ones was difficult as a couple didn’t want to go on the scale then two of them would be on it at once. After this Sara left and Wendy, Joe, and I went up to weigh the red-ruffed lemurs. They were a little bit easier to do because they didn’t all swarm us as soon as we were there.

When this was done we went back inside and put the food for the lemurs in their holding areas along with enrichment, egg cases stuffed with food, for them to have when they came back in for the night.

And that was the end of my first day.

Monday

There were more people there today, the same keepers as yesterday along with two other interns, Cassie, and Ryan. To start off the day I cleaned all the windows in the public viewing area for the indoor exhibits. Then I swept the floor since it had not been done by the night person the night before. Next I helped finish the aye-aye exhibit, by sweeping out the drains and moving the rocks back to cover the drains so the public can’t see them. Then I cleaned the fossa’s holding area. This was done in the same way as the other holding areas. After that I cleaned the holding area for the two mongoose lemurs that are upstairs. This one is a little different in that I have to be careful where I am spraying the hose because the lemurs are right there in pen next to the one I was cleaning. Next Joe, Ryan, and I prepared enrichment for the aye-aye, which today was hiding their food in different boxes, and then brought this down and put it in their exhibit. Next Ryan and I prepared the diets for the next day. After lunch, Cassie and I cleaned the aye-aye holding area. Their holding area has wood chips and straw bedding on the floor of it so that had to be swept up. Then the rest is cleaned like every other holding area. When we were done it was left to finish drying and bedding would be added later by the night person. Next the two other interns and I prepared ice treats from watermelon that was left from the weekend. This was done by putting the watermelon chunks in buckets along with water and some grape cool aid. They were then placed in the freezer. Then we prepared the enrichment for the lemurs to get when they got back in their holding areas for the night. Today it was large buckets with their food at the bottom and shredded paper on top. This was placed in the holding areas and then the day was done.

Tuesday

Today there were three other interns and two girls from zoo academy. To start off the day one of the other interns, Melissa, and I cleaned the indoor exhibit for the red ruffed lemurs and the brown lemurs. This was interrupted halfway through by a severe weather drill during which we had to move to the stair. Once that was over we went back to finish cleaning the exhibit. When we finished a keeper came to let the lemurs into the exhibit from the holding area. Then we cleaned the holding area. After that me and another intern, Heather, prepared the enrichment for the mongoose lemurs upstairs, then a keeper moved them to the next pen so we could clean the one they had been in. Next the day enrichment for the aye-aye was done and brought to them. Then Heather, I, and a keeper, Kendal, did herps. The first part of this was tossing food in for the tortoises in the exhibit with the ring-tailed and collard lemurs. Next we went to the exhibit for the mantellas. This is sprayed with mist then fruit flies are put in there for them to eat. Then we went to the exhibit with a button quail, geckos, a friendly chameleon. This exhibit is misted then large crickets are put for the reptiles and other food for the quail. I also got to hold the chameleon. He is very sweet and likes to be held by people. The next stop was the exhibit for two small tortoises and several other small lizards, all that is done here is food put in for the animals. The last stop for completing herps is one more exhibit with frogs in it. This is sprayed and then food is put in. Then lunch break. After lunch Heather, Wendy, and I went to strip and clean the burrow for the giant jumping rats. Kendal came in for a few minutes to help Wendy catch the male rat to and get it in the carrier; the female rat is friendlier and goes into the carrier very easily. The rats were then put in the mongoose lemur holding area while we cleaned their exhibit. This is also added enrichment for the lemurs when they return to the holding area at night and smell the rats. To clean the burrow first the large stuff in was scooped out by hand and thrown away, then it was hosed down, then the water was vacuumed out. Then foam soap was sprayed in there and it was scrubbed, this was then vacuumed out. Then the rats were put back in. Then we fed the bats and gave the aye-ayes their fruit. Then we prepared the enrichment for the lemurs for that night which was their food in large feed bags along with straw.

Wednesday

Today started out with cleaning the indoor exhibit for the red ruffed and brown lemurs. Since it is a Wednesday it is a foam day so along with hosing down the exhibit and sweeping stuff up it is also sprayed with soap and scrubbed. Once that was done and a keeper moved the animals from the holding area to the exhibit I cleaned the holding area. Then I went upstairs and cleaned the upstairs mongoose lemur holding area. Then did aye-aye and jumping rat day enrichment and brought it to them. Then did herps again. Then I had two hour lunch break because there was a staff meeting. When got back we moved the tenrecs that are in a small tank upstairs downstairs along with the tanks of crickets so that they could be in the air conditioning since the heat upstairs was having bad effects on them. Then we fed the bats and brought the aye-ayes their fruit. Then we took three of the snakes out of their exhibit and put them in storage containers that are used as feeding boxes and gave them their food. Then prepared enrichment for lemurs today was cricket bags with their food, some cereal, and newspaper in it. Then we hand fed the collard lemurs their fruit because they are on exhibit and go in holding area with the ring-tailed lemurs and one of them, Rhea, has diabetes and is not supposed to have a lot a fruit.

Where I work

2011-07-22T13:51:00.002-04:00

Hi, my name is Kristy Antoniato and I am currently interning at Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha, Nebraska. I am working in the Expedition Madagascar area. This area consists of a building which has about 13 exhibits on either side of a hallway with glass showing into the exhibit for public viewing. Inside there is an exhibit for black lemurs, which houses 3 black lemurs; mongoose lemurs, which houses 2 mongoose lemurs and 4 younger giant jumping rats; bats, this exhibit houses just the male bats; aye-aye, which houses 2 aye-ayes and about 30 female bats; a small exhibit with frogs and geckos; giant jumping rat has two adult giant jumping rats; an exhibit with two birds, an exhibit with 4 ring-tailed lemurs (one of which is diabetic), 2 collared lemurs, and 2 large tortoises; an exhibit with 2 small tortoises, and several other smaller reptiles; an exhibit that houses several species of mantellas, very small frogs; an exhibit with 4 different species of snakes; an exhibit with 2 red ruffed lemurs and 3 brown lemurs (one of which is old and has bad arthritis and cannot jump very well); and finally an exhibit with a button quail and chameleon. This area also has 3 outdoor exhibits. One is a small island in the middle of a lagoon which houses 5 ring-tailed lemurs. There is a walkthrough boardwalk that goes through an exhibit with 5 red ruffed lemurs, and a few birds. And the other exhibit outside is one with 4 black and white ruffed lemurs.

Festive festivities!!

2011-07-19T09:14:00.003-04:00

Since I didn’t have time to write a blog last week, I’m going to sum up the past 2 weeks in this one. I presented my first educational program last week which pretty much consisted of me talking about fish to 60 girl scouts. I was really nervous but it went great and they seemed to like it. The next day I was assigned to a “river reading” at a local library. I read “The Rainbow Fish” book to about 10 kids ranging from pre-k to 1st grade. Afterwards I had them put together a fish puzzle and decorate it. I also had them “fish” for magnetic fish with tiny rods that I made. I have another river reading tomorrow, so I’ll be doing a different book and craft project.

This past weekend was the Zane Grey Festival. This is a big bash in honor of Zane Grey (father of the western novel). There were different booths and tents set up by organizations, along with arts & crafts for kids, and different demonstrations. I was in charge of the fishing demonstration, in which I had to wear the lovely old time “bathing suit”. I complained a lot beforehand and my boss said I didn’t have to wear it, but I decided to be a trooper. The festival had a great turn out, and overall it was a fun day…even in my gorgeous bathing suit.

My housemate Becky and I organized a talent show for the park staff which we held last Sunday. In between the other acts, I played guitar and Becky sang spoofs on songs that we made.We also changed into different ridiculous outfits after each act. I must say that it was pretty amazing, and the whole show was hilarious. We’ve decided that our next organized event will be “water olympics”. Keep an eye out for us on TV.

Until next time,
Lara

And the "Felon" appears!

2011-07-16T09:16:00.004-04:00

Most of our days this month and next month are filled with programs. But the first day of this week was hard, hard labor. We had 22 sheets of 8x4 plywood that needed to be painted for Jeanne's aviary she's building and for the flight cage. Our day started with an adventure to Home Depot to pick up a 5 gallon bucket of paint. You don't realize how heavy a bucket of paint is until you carry it all the way out to the car. That took up the first hour of our day. By time we started painted it was getting hot. We were painting 8 sheets at a time; front, back, and sides. After we did the first 16 we saw that there was only 6 sheets left so we pushed through to finish them. I was so tired by the end of the day.

Wednesday was once again our cleaning day due to the abundance of other things we had to complete during the week. We cleaned out left over food, bleached and refilled water, and scrubbed perches. While we had started on our animal care routine Mary-beth was out picking up a new rehab bird from Bolton Vet. She ended up bringing back a Turkey Vulture that we are treating for lead poisoning. We have to put his pills in his food 3 times a day and hope that he doesn't tear appart the mouse with his medicine. Turkey Vultures usually just inhale small prey items like mice. We usually don't name our rehab birds, but he earned his name. This bird ended up being named "Felon". When we was at the vet he had gotten out in the holding area and made a mess of things like tossing things arounds. After we were done cleaning and observing the Vulture we went on with our other events for the day. It was Jeanne's birthday and we were going out to look for Kestrel and then to get ice cream at UCONN. Unfortunetly we didn't see any Kestrels but we did get to watch a Red-tailed hawk fight off a song bird which was pretty cool.

Thursday was a busy program day, with two programs in two different locations. I got to jess up Silo when we were getting all of the birds packed up, and she didn't even scream at me. I learned that if you block her path by putting your arm up infront of her she doesn't fly off and you don't have to grab her. For our first program we were at Starbase again, and I presented the environment. I messed up a little bit by jumbling a few numbers in the facts. For the second program 2 hours later we were at the New England Air Museum where I did the environment again, but this time did a much better job. I think I know what my problem with public presentations is. With public presentations your trying to talk slow and smoothly so people can understand you. But when I need to speed up a part of a program I do not get nervous. Being able to speak at a faster pace makes me a lot more comfortable. So I need to learn to start talking at a speed that is comfortable for me, and then as I do a different program start talking a little slower each time.

Last night was a fun night though. It was our meet and greet program at the movies for the Harry Potter movie. We brought all of our owls out for 2 hours in the afternoon. I had Emyrs the Barred Owl who was a bit of a grouch. But I felt like i did so well at this event, to the point where I was bringing up facts I learned in Ornithology class. This wasn't a paid program for us, just donations, but even then it looked like was were doing well. The last half an hour Jeanne had me take out Silo and present her facts. I was a little nervious because I hadn't really read up on Barn owls but I did fine. Everyone that stopped by seemed to love seeing and hearing about the birds, and thats what matters.

Until next time,

-Heather

*The picture of Mary-beth was taken by the New England Air Museum.

Week 5 state capital internship

2011-07-15T13:21:00.002-04:00

This week start with me writing an article that was not something I agreed with. I found it quite easy to do this. That was because when i have done debates in Nancy Ross classes I often took the side I didn't agree with. I feel this gave me the tools to be able to use my knowledge to write about it, and make sure it defended what people from my view would have said. I also had to do a lot more research then areas I agree with because i feel i was looking for facts more, and wanted to try and see if i could convince myself.

I also had to cover the front desk again this week. It is always interesting getting to talk to people, and be the first person to talk to people.

The rest of the week was quite slow this week. Which is OK it happens. I feel it will continue to be slow because it is now summer break for the California Legislators.

--Rae

Meeting the public

2011-07-11T15:57:00.002-04:00

So for the past couple of weeks I have had a big role in working with the 4 cheetah cubs we are raising to be ambassadors for CCF. Chewbakka, our last ambassador, unfortunately died earlier this year after a 16 year career at CCF and due to that loss it was time for us to begin raising more cheetahs to follow in his pawprints. Last August we received four three week old cheetah cubs from the government of Namibia who had confiscated them from a farmer in the Okakarara area of Namibia who shot their mother and captured the cubs. This is why they are currently called the Okakarara Cubs. Because they came to us at such a young age, there was no hope for them to be released into the wild and we decided to hand raise them and train them to become our new ambassador cheetahs.

Now these four cubs (Kaijay, Peter, Tiger Lily, and Senay) are 11 months old and they are growing very fast. As ambassadors, for the rest of their lives they will be meeting people and the public around Namibia and here at CCF's main center so it is very important for them to be very use and habituated to humans. We spend time with them everyday socializing, while at the same time respecting them for the wild animals they are and will always be. Although they are ambassadors in training and are very comfortable with humans, we always remember the fact that they will always have their instincts and will never be CCF's "pets." We consider them to be more of employees of CCF and ambassadors of the cheetah species.

One of the things we do daily is take them on walks to meet the guest we have here at CCF on a daily basis. It's not quite the same as walking a dog, yet it has similar qualities. Obviously, much more patience and awareness is needed because they are wild, but again because they have been with people their entire lives and are habituated to humans, we can take them on these walks and use them in this way without at all making them uncomfortable. I've greatly enjoyed working with these guys and being one of their handlers. I have learned so much but I have also been able to utilize so many of the things I have learned at Unity. I don't have many pictures but here is one. Again like always I am always happy to answer any questions and welcome any comments. Until next time...

- Eli

: Myself with Senay, Dr. Marker with Tiger Lily and Andreas who was a high school volunteer

Does that bird have a mouth?

2011-07-10T08:17:00.005-04:00

This week has been a very eventful week with programs just about every day that I worked. Wednesday we drove all the way out to Stamford for two back to back programs at the same place. The first group was pre-K to 2nd grade and the second group was 2nd thru about 8th. I was a little nervous about this one because both groups had upwards of 100-120 or so kids, plus we had to use a microphone! I've never used one for a program before other than for my environmental challenge project, so it took getting used too. It also doesn't help when you like to talk with your hands. Though for the first program we shortened it to about 35 minutes for the age group and I had to present Chico and the environment. I feel like I started off a little rough with Chico, but when I went on the environment next I felt more comfortable. We had a short 10 minute break until the next group came in and then we were off with our talk again. For the second talk I did only Chico and it went a lot smoother. I was so tired this way I was actually falling asleep on the car ride there and back.

Thursday we did our cleaning day due to the busyness of the rest of the week. Me and Jeanne did our regular cleaning routine of raking, watering, and scrubbing. Kyle showed up an hour later and got there for the tail end of cleaning. After cleaning I had the chance to jess up Silo which took no time at all. She's such a polite bird once you get ahold of her. While I had her out I practiced my Emyrs talk being I was to present him at the program on Friday. Our next task was to clean out Spirits carrier. We decided to let Kyle hold him being he was one of the only ones who haven't so far. Only problem is Spirit decided to nip Kyle and his reaction was to open his hand and let go of the jesses. Lucky for me he stayed in between two carriers so it was easier to grab him. We also grabbed Emyrs to clip his nails and went to check the Red-tailed feet. Jeanne grabbed the first, adult Red-tailed and check to see that his feet were looking better since we switched out some perches. Then it was my turn to go and get the baby hawk.

This is when I learned a very important lesson, you can never be too careful about what your doing. I grabbed the baby and had each leg in one of my hands, but he was facing me and he needed to be facing away. So I was able to switch one hand and held him as far out as I could so that I could grab the other leg. He almost got my arm when he swung around to perch of my glove. When I reached in to grab his other leg he reached out and tagged me on my face. For those who don't know, when an animal tags you it means that they either got you with their claws, talons, or bit you. The whole thing happened so fast that I didn't really think he got me nearly as bad as he did. Lucky for me he missed my eye and only got me with one talon, but it was still enough to cut my face a bit to start bleeding. The important fact about the situation is I didn't freak out, I kept cool and continued to restrain him. I thought I had the bird far enough away but you can never be to careful. Like Alan said, next time just let him go and try again. I learned my lesson and that's something I never want to happen again. These birds are powerful creatures and need to be respected at all times. The minute you even start to get too comfortable in what your doing is the time you'll mess up.

And that wasn't even the end of the day! After I had a chance to clean up Jeanne and I had to drive down to Pfizor for our rodent pick up. It was a nice bonding time and we were able to get there just on time. Once we got back it was packing time. We had to take all of the mice and rats from the three boxes we picked up and place them into freezer bags for storage. It took us about an hour to get everything all packed up.

Friday was another program day, and another 2 hour ride. We were doing a program for a library that Hope Douglas had done programs for 18 years, so we had big shoes to fill. It was an extremely varied group from young children to adults. I had to present Emyrs for the first time to this group, and it went well except one thing. I was talking about his weight, and it's a natural thing to kinda lift the bird up and down, but with Emyrs that’s not good cause he has a balancing issues. I just glad he didn't bate, he just turned around with his back facing the crowd.

Yesterday was a fun day because we were at Riverfest. We arrived at 3 in the the afternoon and got everything set up with enough time to do a quick walk around. At 4 we started to take the birds out, only 3 at a time, and cycled them every 30 minutes. That way all of the birds, and handlers, got a short break from the crowds. I handled Herc for the day and switched of with Rose every other cycle. Rose is one of Hope's old volunteers who's trying to start off on her own. Herc did well but could only stay out for 10-15 minutes at a time because the music was stressing him out. It's amazing at meet and greets how little people know about these birds. We stayed there until 8pm in which we packed up and left. We wanted to be out of there before 9pm when the fireworks we going to be set off. Over all it went very well.

After a crazy week of programs and lessons learned I have a day to rest before I start all over again. Though I only have 5 weeks until my internship is over and school starts shortly after.

-Heather

week 4 state capital internship

2011-07-08T13:00:00.002-04:00

This week was pretty calm. I got my first draft of my op.ed. done. I am learning about writing this, and how my style is and what i need to do to change for talking to constituents and what words they like and the wording they look for when reading.
I also had a chance to talk to our legislative director and learn more about what he does and how he balances all his jobs. As well what it takes to get something done. One thing i found out is that you must really follow bills cafe fully and talk to everyone who is effect by this bill as it goes through the process. This is because u must talk to them before u emend so that can let you know how they feel. I also learned you have to learn how work with each member because they all have very different ways of handling legislation. It is also very important to remember you won’t be an expert on everything. So rely on the experts, often times they come to you, and want to share their knowledge. Use that and also use your Caucasus experts and annalist.

I also have been doing a lot reading. This week i have been going through and reading the water code. This is because i would like to become an expert in water in California and i have access to them, and the time to read them. The part i have read this week deals with funding and appointing the chairs to the state water committee.

-rae

African Safari 3D

2011-07-06T15:10:00.000-04:00

So I know I'm almost a week late on my week 4 update, but last week internet here wasn't working so well and I finally have found time to update everyone on what has been going on. Last week a large film crew was here to get shots of our cheetahs for a full length feature film they are working on called African Safari 3D. From what I understand, the film is about kind of a mix between a documentary and normal film in which the two "actors" lead the audience on a safari through Africa from the southern portion of Namibia to Mt. Kilimanjaro in Kenya. It's being filmed in 3D and is set to be released sometime in June or July of 2012. All last week we were all extremely busy getting the film crew the shots they needed plus taking care of the normal day to day activities of CCF.

The reason this film crew came to CCF was mainly to get footage of cheetahs running, so we did our best to provide good opportunities for a usable shot. They came in and filmed at our normal cheetah runs, but we also allowed them to come along for feeding. For some of our cats, we run them behind our feeding truck before they are fed in order to exercise them, so rather than use our own truck we fed out of one of theirs that had a camera and a stabilizer with it. I unfortunately didn't get to come along for this but I saw it from a distance and it looked really neat. Here is a picture of the crew and the truck with the camera with our lead cheetah keeper.

: Juliette, our lead keeper, is near the middle of the image with the brown hat

In the film there are two "actors" who are more of guides than actors. One of these people is Kevin Richardson who is a lion and hyena enthusiast who has a center in South Africa. Kevin is well known in the wildlife world, especially when dealing with lions and I got to spend a good amount of time talking with him. We had an 1 1/2 hour conversation about what it is he has been doing and his outlook on conservation and issues surrounding the lion. He is often criticized for the way he works, but after talking with him I know he is in it for good reasons and has a very good outlook on conservation and the issues surrounding the animals he is passionate about and caring for them in captivity. I really enjoyed spending time with him and Mara, the "actress," during the time they were here.

That was pretty much the most exciting part of last week. Again, I know this update is late but when you are in the middle of Africa 45 minutes from the closest civilization, internet is not always the best. I will post the update for this week in a few days. As always, I'm happy to answer any questions and I welcome any comments. Until next time....

- Eli

Happy 4th of July!

2011-07-06T12:17:00.003-04:00

It’s been a crazy and long week filled with GPS training, river rescues, and 4th of July fun! The week started out with a trip to the Delaware Water Gap to learn about GPS units and mapping the park. My housemate Becky and I will be working on a project that involves taking pictures of any man-made structures along the river corridor and recording their location with GPS units. When it’s all said and done, you should be able to go onto Google Maps and basically go on a virtual “trip down the Delaware”. We’re doing a test run this Friday so it should be exciting!

On Saturday I went canoe roving with my other housemate, Will. Since it was the start of the 4th of July weekend, it was extremely busy (not to mention it was a beautiful day). We contacted over 400 people, and had to rescue 3 because they capsized and ended up floating down the river. Since it poured on Sunday, the river was over 6 feet again which meant we couldn’t be on the river. Since I was scheduled to canoe rove on the 4th and couldn’t, 2 other rangers and I went down to the Barryville bridge and watched people pass by. I would look upstream with my binoculars to make sure that everyone was wearing life jackets, and if they weren’t we would inform them that it was mandatory when the water is over 6 feet.

After “spying” on people all morning, I had the opportunity to walk in the Narrowsburg, NY 4th of July parade. Three other staff members and I decorated the van with safety paraphernalia and walked along, passing out safety tip cards with lifesavers attached to them (clever!). I had a blast, and it was awesome to have the opportunity to represent the park service.

I’ve been working on my fishing program and it is pretty much completed, which is good because my first program is next week. I also have a “river reading” next week, which is basically just going to a local library, reading a book to kids, and then doing a simple craft project with them. Summer is flying by and I can’t believe I only have 1 month left here! I’m definitely going to try to enjoy it as much as possible!

Until next time,
Lara

And soda cans take 200 years to decompose...

2011-07-04T10:51:00.007-04:00

This week has been the beginning of my participation in the education part of Horizon wings. Monday we had a program at a Starbase camp near Bradley airport in which I did the environmental part of our program. This section is supposed to be about 10 minutes long and we talk about things people can do to help protect the environment, more specifically recycling. We have a few items like a soda can, plastic bag, fishing line, and a few other things that we explain what happens to them when they are thrown away in the trash or thrown in the environment. Also to beat home the point we tell them how long it takes said item to decompose, and that brings the reality to it. Being this was an environmental camp so they were really into the whole talk, even asking questions which we usually don't do with this part. When we got back from the program I got to unjess Athena and feed the turtles. That's the funniest thing to watch and hear is a turtle eating some earthworms.

On Wednesday it was just Jeanne and I at work. We spent the majority of the day cleaning out the travel boxes. Not that most people see the inside or care what the birds come in, but some of the birds can be pretty nasty. It's mostly the hawks and falcons that make the biggest mess. So we cleaned out the inside of all of them and polished the outside. Boy do they look pretty now, which is good because we are being flooded with programs. After cleaning I had the task of weighing all of the babies we have now, which is up to 6 (2 Barred owls, a Great horned, Screech, Red-tailed, and Red-sholdered). It's fun trying to catch a feisty, flighted baby bird. The Red-tailed was constantly jumping when I went to grab for his upper leg. The Barred owls flew everywhere and hung from the ceiling. Little baby Screech owl stirred up all of the other owls in the aviary flying around. The worst of them all was the baby Red-sholdered hawk. From the moment I walked into the aviary the bird started screeching like crazy, hopping back and forth. I was afraid it was going to jump on my head being it was on a perch above me. Birds defiantly keep you on your toes, which is a important thing to learn in my field. If you let your guard down for even a second you could be dealing with a talon wound.

Thursday was our next program day for another summer camp. I went to jess up Herc the Screech owl for the program, but come to find out he had a gunky eye. Mary-beth thinks something scratched up his nictitating membrane, or third eye lid. So I had to catch Cedar and jess her up, which was fun. We also brought along Chico, Oscar, and Athena. I had to do the environmental portion again AND talk about Chico. I feel like I did alright when I did my talk on Chico, even though I did miss a few facts. No matter how many times I have to do a talk in public I'm always nervous. The only bad part about my Chico talk was that he got tangled up in his jesses when I went to go put him back in his box. I wasn't entertained by that because I had to do my environment portion! Jeanne helped me untangle him while Mary-beth started the talk off. Other than that it was a great group of kids that were engaged and asked a lot of good questions.

Like usual, Friday was cleaning day. Patricia showed up about an hour after Jeanne, Brenda, and I had already started. We had to clean faster than usual today because we had a family coming over for a tour of the facility and see the owls. When we were done I went and talked to Julian, in which I got a very quiet and shy "Who's a good bird". That many my day more than anything. When the group got there Jeanne gave them a tour while the 3 of us got out some owls. I had Cedar, Patricia had Silo, and Brenda had Emyrs. While Brenda and Patrica were talking about the birds Jeanne grabbed Oscar. They loved being able to see the owls up close. That's probably one of the more rewarding parts of doing educations or up close and personal things is see people’s faces light up when they're that close.

Well this week is going to be a short-ish one due to the holidays. Hope everyone has a happy 4th of July.
-Heather

Week 3 of state capital internship

2011-07-03T15:57:00.003-04:00

I was out sick this week, but really looking forward to next week

Handling birds of all shapes and sizes

2011-06-27T17:04:00.005-04:00

Maintenance is a big part of animal care, especially with Birds of prey. Monday ended up being our cleaning day due to Friday pouring buckets on us. That meant there was a little more to clean up than usual. We fed, raked, refilled water, and scrubbed perches. Scrubbing isn't all that bad as long as there is more than one person doing it. I then was given the task of weighing babies, which sounds easy. It was simple with the Barred owls and the Red-tailed hawk, but boy was the Screech owl difficult. When weighing the birds we just weigh the box their going in, then take the weight of the box with the bird and subtract the original number. Simple enough, except when the box over hangs the scale and the owl wants to sit on one side or the other. Needless to say I had problems. It kind of brings your spirits down when you can't even get a simple weight on a Screech owl of all things.

After all the maintenance things were done we went on to handle some birds. I got to take out Emyrs the Barred owl. He doesn't get out very much so it was nice to bring him out of his aviary away from the two terrors (the baby barred owls). For being a bird with one wing and slightly bad balance he did very good. It was exciting on Monday because we put Corbin out in one of the aviaries on his own and put the baby Red-tailed in the aviary with our own. Both went very well.

Wednesday was a rainy day, so not much was done outside. We cleaned out the baby Barred owls carrier that is currently in the basement. He is a nasty little bugger! We're thinking that we might have to amputate part of its wing because of how much damage there is to it. We also got to clean out little Spirits carrier. He's starting to get better, gaining 4 grams since the last time he was weighed. Now if only he would grow his feathers back so he can stop looking like a chicken. I also got to see how the anklets are supposed to be put on, even though the Red-tailed hawk took them off a few days later. After a quick break we started to work with Corbin a little since we had him in the basement. Instead of using anklets like all the other birds we are planning on using a harness with him. That means we have to train him in order to get on. Since he already knows the step up command for the most part we worked on reinforcing it more with clicker training. We would present our arm while saying step up, then click and treat him when he did the desired task. We were also working with touching his wings and stretching them out. I got to work with him for a few minutes while Jeanne and Mary-beth rewrapped the baby Barreds wing. Since the rain still had not stop by this time we went inside and Mary-beth had me watch a bird of prey anatomy video. It was very interesting but towards the end the audio kept cutting out.

Friday again was cleaning day. Patricia came up to work that day and another new volunteer showed up to get a tour and help. His name was Kyle and he came from UConn, having a little bit of prior experience with birds. Like usual we cleaned and watered the birds. When it came down to cleaning out Spirits carrier I got to hold him while Jeanne cleaned. I like holding him because he bobs his head the whole time. After cleaning I took out Chico and ran thru the information with Jeanne on what we say during presentations. I think I pretty much have it, being last summer I tend to do most of my presentations with the Zoos Broad-winged hawk. It's just learning his story is where I need to study.

While we were outside with the birds, we ended up getting a wildlife call. It was the first call we had gotten while I was still there. So we put up the birds and got on our way. The call was coming from the CT/MA line about a bird that had been close to the ground for a few days. When we got there we had to go find the bird which wasn't too hard since the people who called had kept an eye on it. When we found it it was about 8 ft up in a tree, just out of reach. Lucky for us the bird hopped on down and we were able to grab it from the ground. It checked out alright but seemed a bit dehydrated. So we looked around for the nest and found 3-4 in the same area, and then spotted another bird. We guessed it was a baby being that when it went to land it was very unsure of itself. Then the parent showed up with food in its mouth. At that point Jeanne decided it would be best to leave the bird in a branch of that tree so that the mom could come and feed it. The whole time we thought it was a Broad-winged because the parents we quiet, until they noticed we had its young. Then it started screaming at us and we knew it was a Red-sholdered hawk.

Saturday we had a program for the Relay for Life. We brought with us a Screech owl, Red-tailed hawk, Barred owl, and Peregrine Falcon. I got to jess up the Screech owl, Herc. It was interesting because the bird was so sleepy, meaning I could just jess him up from where he was standing. It was a tough program, because we were out in the open we no spot to really keep people away from the birds. We had kids throwing balls right next to the boxes, kids playing basketball in front of us, all of this making us nervous the whole time. Also they had the speakers turned up so loud that we had to constantly ask them to turn them down so that we could talk. But once it quieted down and they announced that we would be starting soon and people started to gather. Over all it went very well. When we got back from the programs we went and changed out one of the perches in the Red-tailed aviary. The perch that was in there was a bit too big and we wanted one that as skinnier.

Next week I start participating in the programs as far as actually speaking. I'm a bit nervous, but as long as I remember all of the information I should be fine.
Till next time,
-Heather

Good times on the river

2011-06-27T14:45:00.011-04:00

Hello again from the Upper Delaware! This past week has been filled with hiking, amphibians & reptiles, boat rides, and exceedingly high water.
My two fellow interns & I started the week off by hiking 8 miles on a local trail. Let's just say this hike involved tons of ticks all over our pants, lots of mud, 1 turkey, 2 snakes, and the cutest baby bunny I've ever seen.

Look closely!

On Weds. & Thurs. the interpretive unit went to Promised Land State Park again for more educational stuff. This time we learned about amphibians & reptiles and got to go out in the pouring rain to search for them. It was a good time though.

Because of the torrential rain that we had, any scheduled canoe rovers were stuck inside the office on Friday. The normal average water level for the Delaware is 3 feet, and once it goes over 6 feet employees aren't allowed to be on it. Since the water was at 8 feet, we stayed inside to work on our educational programs.
On Saturday I was stationed at the Mongaup kiosk, where the Mongaup river flows into the Delaware. There were tons of people kayaking down the Mongaup because they released water upstream that day. The picture below shows the crazily flowing Mongaup going into the muddy Delaware.

On Sunday I was stationed at the kiosk in Lackawaxen and basically just talked to people and worked on my educational program all day. Near the end of the day a few of the law enforcement rangers came by with the powerboat and took me for a ride up and down the river. It was a perfect end to my day!!

Until next time,
Lara

week 2 of State Capital intership

2011-06-24T16:04:00.002-04:00

This week i again did more reading on water and agriculture issues. The main book I have been reading for the past month is Managing California's water from Conflict to Reconciliation. As well different weekly water and agriculture issues. Alot of them have to do with new laws going thought the house and senate. As well as in California they are working on implementing more ways to conserve water. The big issue right now is how and how will the measure the use of water, and who will pay for the cost. I have been reading news articles and code to try to follow this issue.

I also had a meeting with constituents to listen and talk to about State Park funding that is being cut this year in California. I was able to listen and hear how important these parks where to the people and see letters from others, as well as explain my members view on the funding being cut. I also read over there packet and of information and helped summarize it to give to the assembly man.

I have been working on updating our media contact data base for both the local contacts and state contacts. I have almost finished my part of the state contacts and already finished the local contacts.

Yesterday I was able to attend a legislative process workshop. It was really great i was able to see the steps the bill went though as we worked with our sample bill. We also got to see a lot of the forms used to do different parts of the bills. As well as the dead lines and process that are specific to California legislation. It was very interactive and we got ask lots of questions as well as get good advice from people who had been in the building for a while. the best advice to me was "talk dirty, but write clean".

-Rae

Cheetah Workup, 12 Hour Waterhole Count, and Cub Run

2011-06-23T14:50:00.004-04:00

I’m in the third week of my internship here at CCF and work has not slowed down at all. We are currently in the middle of an international Conservation Biology course in which we have participants from all over the world including Brazil, Iran, Australia, England, Ethiopia, and Niger. These students work and come from many different areas and professions involving wildlife, but all have a passion for conservation. It is really cool and encouraging to see that people across the world care and are passionate about wildlife and its continued existence on Earth. They are typically busy all day with lectures and practicals, but we get plenty of time to talk and learn about what is going on in other parts of the world. I have met a lot of very interesting people.

Once a year every cheetah at CCF undergoes a medical workup or check up to ensure their health, to diagnose any problems and plan appropriate treatment, and to collect any needed data. These workups typically happen all at once in April but this year, three cheetah workups were postponed for the Conservation Biology course. Last week these 3 cheetahs were anesthetized and brought in for their workup like normal but this time there were students present to learn about how these workups are done. Although this was mainly for the international students, the student interns were involved as well in assisting Dr. Marker and our vet nurse, Rosie, in the workup. It was my first time doing something like that and it was really cool to be involved in that sort of work along side Dr. Marker. We all learned a good deal about how that sort of procedure takes place and the course students really seemed to enjoy it as well.

On Monday we did a cheetah run, but this time we ran the ambassador cubs. These guys are 10 1/2 months old and have a ton of energy so they run exceptionally well. We do it mainly for their health and to help them develop properly, but it is of course a great sight for visitors as well. We are trying to run these guys every three days, there is a picture of Kaijay (one of the cubs) running below.

Yesterday I went on my first 12 hour waterhole count. We all were dropped off (four pairs) one of four man-made waterholes in Bellebeno camp at 6:00 in the morning. It was our task to observe the waterhole and to count all the animals that came in. Bellebeno is a fenced game camp we use for research, cheetah “soft” releases (the step before release into the wild), and as a food source for our cheetahs. We collect this data in order to understand how the populations within this area are doing so we can establish our own harvest limits and restrictions and to know how the ecosystem is doing as a whole. It was a great experience and was actually relaxing. Twelve hours in a hide is a long time but it went by rather fast and we got to see a bunch of wildlife, including a very large family group of giraffe, which is always great. There is a picture of that family group below.

So far things have been great and have been getting even better. Please feel free to ask questions or comment. I would be happy to answer any question that anyone may have. If you would like to see more pictures, visit my blog at http://ehwalker91.wordpress.com. Until next time…

-Eli

Dead Shad Smell Delicious

2011-06-21T11:57:00.007-04:00

After being here a few weeks, I’ve finally gotten used to how things work around here; also the smell of dead fish. Okay, it’s not that bad…but when you do run into them it’s pretty gross. Countless numbers of American Shad spawn in the Delaware River and then die. Their eggs live on, but the adults can be seen floating dead in the water, washed up on shore, or floating helplessly around in circles refusing to “follow the light”.

On a happier note, I had the opportunity to take part in the Delaware River Sojourn on Sunday. It’s basically a week of canoeing, kayaking, camping and bonding on the entire Delaware River. Four other rangers and I paddled along with about 60 other people on the northern portion of the Delaware. It was nice to paddle up north because we don’t usually have the opportunity to do so. The Sojourn happens every year, so if you’re looking for a cheap vacation or getaway for next summer I definitely recommend it!

The usual kiosk and river patrols have been going on, along with more educational training every Wednesday at Promised Land State Park. I’ve decided to switch my educational program from nature at night to fishing. I’m going to design a program that will teach kids how to fish, along with basic fish identification skills.

Law Enforcement Ranger Ron and I

Until next time,

Lara

Programs for the kiddies

2011-06-18T12:37:00.003-04:00

Now that the farewell tours have slowed down our programs are starting to pick up. Needless to say it's never really a dull day at Horizon Wings. This week Jeanne has been gone on vacation so it has been Mary-beth, Brenda, and I at work. Monday started off the week very odd. I pulled into the drive way and things just seemed out of place. The van was in a different spot and there was a ton of random things near the basement door. As I got out of the car Mary-beth greeted me, informing me that she was unable to feed any of the birds yet because her basement had flooded. There was a good 2-3 inches of water on the ground because one of the pipes wasn't clamped on tightly enough when it was put in. Luckily none of the freezers with the mice and rats in them were ruined. That would have been a very hard blow to us. So I picked up the food bucket and went off while Mary-beth waited for Alan and plumber to show up. I went and fed the resident birds first. Before I fed the Red-Tails I worked a little bit with the one in training. Instead of training the birds on food both Horizon wings and Wind over wings works more on trust. Start off with getting the bird used to you being there and being touched with a feather, and eventually working your way up to having the bird on the glove. The one I'm working with is pretty good about being touched with the feather, but he's in the defensive posture the whole time. Not aggressively but still.

After feeding all the residents I went in and sat with Atka for a few minutes and talked to him. I took my keys off my belt loop and attached the aviary keys onto them and hung them up in the atrium so they didn't make any noise to startle him. Though when I was leaving I stupidly forgot to collect them and ended up locking them in the atrium. Thank goodness for extra keys. After I got my keys back I went and fed the new Kestrel. He's in pretty bad shape, and his wing was amputated was shorter than it should have. But he should make a good recovery and grow all of his missing feathers back. I went on to handle Chico and Athena a bit to keep myself occupied while Mary-beth was getting stuff situated. Before I left me and Brenda we asked to take up the carpet in Chappy's old aviary. We got as much as we could, though one carpet was screwed down underneath the perch. I was super glad that I had a Leatherman so I could use pliers to get out the staples.

Wednesday we had a program in town so we were in no rush to get ready. I worked with the Red-tailed for a few minutes before we left. The program was at a small montessori school of about 12 students. We brought the Broad-winged hawk, the Kestrel, Barn owl, and the Peregrine falcon. It went well, but an hour long program was way too long for a group of kids their age. That's one thing I remember from all of my schooling. The thing we were most amazed by was that Chico didn't projectile poop in the middle of the program.

Thursday I was up at about 4 am so I could get ready and make it out to Horizon wings wicked early. Mary-beth needed Brenda and I to get ready being she didn't know if she was going to be able to get out early. So before Brenda got there I went around and fed the birds we weren't taking out on the program. Then Brenda arrived and we got all of the birds together. It was a 2 hour drive out to Stamford across the state. The school we were going to was a green school that was absolutely beautiful. It was a huge group of kids that we were presenting too. Though it was kind of nice because they gave the kids the chance to leave if they were done sitting there . That way they weren't making a whole bunch of noise from being bored. The majority of them stayed. We even had a little girl draw two small pictures of some hawks to give to us as a thank you gesture. She was super smart and knew a bunch of the Raptors scientific names. When we got back we clipped Silos talons, in which I got to restrain her. Then I got the joy of taking off her jesses, which was interesting. She was very calm and patience with me. Our last task was to clean out Spirits carrier, in which I got to hold Spirit. He did a bunch of little head bobs, and boy was he feisty!

I'm glad I'm getting that chance to train some birds this summer. It's more or less learning to read the birds behavior, which is a very important trait for anyone working with animals. It's also learning how fast or slow you can work with an animal to gain its trust.

-Heather

First official post from state capital internship

2011-06-17T12:54:00.004-04:00

This is the first week that I am getting credit for the state capital internship in California. The internship so far is great. I have got to watch how the legislation work on the floor, and talk about bills when voting. I also am getting to see how the budget is processed and how it has to go through a lot of drafts and both sides have to work with each other to get it to work. I mostly do research on water and agricultural issues. A lot of reading, but it is great because I am reading and getting exposed to many issues I would not have gotten other wise. One other thing i really enjoy doing so far is talking to constituents and hearing how they feel about different things.
-Rae

Pet Orphans Adoptions and Medical Training

2011-06-16T17:37:00.004-04:00

Finally got some stats on how many dogs and cats have found homes! Within the 2 months I've worked with Pet Orphans 16 new dogs came in and 1o dogs have gone home. Including Hopper, Cher, Sammy and Hardy. Hopper came into Pet Orphans with a shattered foreleg. He got a cast put on (which hurt a lot when you got hit by it) and was adopted even though he had the cast. Cher was an adorable papillon mix who came in pregnant and had puppies in the facility. Two of her four puppirs have already found homes. Sammy was a puppy who came into the rescue with Parvo. Parvo is a horrible virus that can be fatal to puppies and dogs. It attacks the digestive system and makes them very sick and not want to eat. He started on the

road to recovery and began looking really healthy. One of the reasons Parvo is so fatal is that the animal gets quarantined and can't get interected with. Pet Orphans has their quarantine and health procedures down to a tee! We were able to play with Sammy get his energy back up and he was adopted the day after he was let out of quarantine free of Parvo! Hardy was a pitbull mix that was given up by a family that moved to an ARMY base. The ARMY has a strict policy on the types od dogs one is allowed to own while living on the base. Pitbulls are not allowed to live there due to their "bad nature". But Hardy came to the rescue and was adopted out to a loving woman with a Pitbull mix of her own.

Pet Orphans also tends to cats. While there 10 new cats have come in and 7 cats have gone home. They include Smokey, Spot and Raja. Smokey was a russian blue that came there when I was volunteering before I started going to Unity. He finally went home! Not only did he go home but he went home with another cat from Pet Orphans. Spot was a black & white escape artist. He loved to try and get out of the cat house. Sweet cat too. Very much a people person. Raja was the most beautiful burmese. Very regal and majestic. He was out into quarantine for asymptomatic tritrichomonas foetus (a bacteria that causes diarrhea in cats). After treatment he was put up for adoption and swept out of there before the papers were done.

Recently we were dealing with a case of K9 distemper and a few cases of ringworm. Molly, the distemper dog sadly has passed away from the virus. The kittens with ringworm are doing well and are on their 4th or 5th week of treatment. They will hopefully be out with the general population of cats soon.

Farewell Wind over Wings

2011-06-16T14:23:00.006-04:00

This is a bit belated because things have been a bit crazy this summer, but this is my post 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

Warming up on the river

2011-06-13T15:32:00.003-04:00

With temperatures in the 90’s, it’s definitely beginning to feel like summer around here. For the past 2 weeks we’ve been working at the kiosks, doing canoe patrols, and just getting to know the park. I think I like doing canoe roving the best because we get to be on the river all day. Everyday there are usually 2 or 3 groups of 2 people who are on the river in solo canoes. We basically just canoe down the river, talking to people along the way and making sure they have life jackets, fishing licenses, etc. I like river roving because it’s a good way to practice my canoe skills, and it’s also nice to talk to people on the river rather than at a kiosk all day.

This past Wednesday our whole interpretive unit went to a workshop at Promised Land State Park, which was about an hour away. We learned about different wildlife programs for kids and how to create lesson plans that would keep their interest while teaching them. We also had a speaker, Lindsay Barrett George, who creates children’s books that mostly revolve around nature and wildlife. At the end we all had the chance to choose one of her books and have it signed, which was cool.

We also received tons of material on wildlife programs which included lots of neat ideas. Being in the interpretive unit at the park, we need to create and present educational programs. I’m currently in the process of trying to design a program which focuses on nature at night (stars, night sounds, animals). Right now I only have a general idea of what I want to do, which would be a night hike around the area with some educational stuff thrown in.

Other than that, nothing too interesting has been happening…yet. Since we don’t have cable, internet, or cell phone service at the house my housemates and I have been playing lots of Wii and watching lots of Glee. I’m having a blast though and I’m excited for the rest of summer!
Until I snag some internet somewhere again,
Lara

Off to a great start!

2011-06-13T14:40:00.006-04:00

So I have been here at the CCF for about a week and a half now and so much has happened! Since I have arrived, I have had the opportunity to do so much and have experienced so many things. After orientation on my first day here I jumped right into things and immediately began work. I started off with more broad assignments until we decided where I fit in here at CCF. So far I have been involved with cheetah husbandry, guardian dog and goat care, general maintenance work (landscaping, and automotive work), some computer work (still in this process, and will be for a while), and one of my favorite jobs… cheetah runs.

Here at the CCF we have just over 50 resident cheetahs. When assigned with cheetah husbandry, we start off by preparing the meat for the cats and any meds that the cats may need (right now we only have two cheetahs who need meds). Our local Namibian farmhands take care of cutting the meat into proper portions but we have to count the pieces and make sure there is enough and that they are suitable. Overall on average it takes about 1 donkey (which are bought from local farmers) per day to feed all the animals under our care. However, we do often times have other sorts of meat come in that we most definitely utilize. Last week we had giraffe (which lasted for a few days) and I think I saw an oryx in the meat room as well. CCF is composed of multiple farms and on each of those farms there are multiple “camps” or enclosures in which all the cheetahs are spread throughout (as I mentioned in the earlier post). So once we have all the food prepared and ready to go, we load it up in a vehicle and typically start out our day at either the Eland camp, which is right next to the main center, or the Bellebeno camp which is about at 30 minute drive from the main center. During the drive to Bellebeno, we typically get great views of a lot of wildlife because we pass a couple of waterholes. We never leave CCF property and all the cheetahs we currently have are located in the closest farms to CCF so you can imagine the size of CCF’s property. The cats at Bellebeno are currently the furthest captive cats from the main center and they are candidates for release into the wild, which is very exciting. It typically takes the husbandry team 9-12 and 2-3 to feed all of the cats outside of the main center. At the main center we have 8 cheetahs (4 males, 4 females) that are fed where visitors and guests can observe, which provides great opportunities for education and interpretation. I really enjoy feeding, but it is only one part of the work that goes on here at CCF.

Here at CCF, one of the most important and effective conservation programs we have in operation is the Livestock Guarding Dog program. We have 8 dogs here at the CCF main center which we use for breeding so that the pups can be donated to the local farmers. For more information on how this program works, click here. Along with the dogs, we have a large herd of goats and sheep, which we primarily have for training purposes. Basically, to prevent farmers from killing cheetahs and other predators (which is one of the cheetah’s greatest threats) CCF donates Anatolian Shepherds to the farmers. These dogs are actually guarding dogs rather than shepherd dogs and very effectively protect the herd from any predator. Along with the dogs we have a large herd of goats and sheep, which we primarily have for training purposes. However, CCF has recently been making goat cheese from goat milk harvested from our goats.

As I am sure you know, the cheetah is the world’s fastest land animal. Everything about the cheetah’s physiology is designed for speed and therefore it is important for the cat’s health to get regular exercise. At CCF we exercise our cats by running them with a lure machine, similar to the ones used for greyhound racing. I have recently began helping with the cheetah runs and it is a job that I enjoy very much. We typically do the runs in the morning a couple of times a week, but we have done runs for the OK Cubs (ambassador cheetahs in training) in the evening.

For more pictures, see my blog here at http://ehwalker91.wordpress.com

Please feel free to comment and ask questions. Until next time...

- Eli

Week 4 is no bore! Plus a little more

2011-06-07T18:12:00.012-04:00

Holy nuggets it's the 4th week already!

The week started off by welcoming 4 new volunteers! Three are working on the primate project and are currently at Fireburn reserve hanging out with the released howlers, the last is my newest helper who will take over looking after Twiggy after I've finished here. I spent the first few days showing Jess around and introducing her to Twiggy. We then took the shifts together to get her accustomed to the day to day routine of things. With Jess, myself, and the occasional help of Shawn it has become a lot easier to let Twiggy out in the lagoon for larger amounts of time; allowing for her to graze longer and eat more sea grass! Good stuff all around.

Wildtracks has acquired three new animals this week! 1 owl, 1 kitten, and 1 new howler monkey. Shawn has taken the owl under his wing (punny!) Paul and Zoe are assessing the howler and myself and Ashley are taking responsibility for the kitten. I've named the kitten Puma because it's awesome. It was found by a family on their front porch; having a language barrier we were unable to explain that the mother will probably come back for it; it being two weeks old it relies on us to syringe feed it 10 cc's of formula every 3 hours (makes for long nights and busy days!).

This week also consisted of Twiggy's check up! A team of scientists came over from Florida and took blood samples, measured her weight, fat levels, as well as length and girth. It was really cool to watch! I stood by with a bucket of water to keep Twiggy hydrated as they explained what they were doing. I was also there to help restrain her tail, the most dangerous part of the manatee; she was trying very hard to flip us away and it took quite a bit of muscle power, and to help roll her over (quite stressful)! To do all of these things we had to catch Twigatron, put her in a sling, and lift her out of the water! It. was. awesome.

I also took part in one of the most important days of the month.....POOL SCRUB DAY! Can you say par-tay? Okay, it really wasn't that exciting, but I felt like a beast removing all of the delicious fungus from the pool walls and floor. It is important to keep the pools clean and filled at all times in case a stranding occurs, this way Wildtracks will be ready for the animal and can begin to make the manatee comfortable.

________BEFORE____________________________AFTER_____________

I never got around to publishing this so I'm going to add my final 4 days into this blog.

All 4 days ran reletively smoothly. The three volunteers came back from Fireburn to relax and do some data analysis, so it was nice to have a good amount of people in the main house. Twiggy has been enjoying her 8 hour days and we decreased her formula/water ratio from 200:400 to 100:400 and she's taken to it just fine. Puma is growing stronger and becoming more active; when I'm not out with Twiggy I'll be letting the kitten run free for a few hours and feed it its 10cc's of formula. During the week it peed on its own without any stimulation, which was new and great news.

It was sad to say goodbye to such a wonderful group of people and an amazing experience; I felt as if I was leaving home instead of going back to it. The journey went well; we had to chase down my plane in a pick up truck, but it ended up seeing me and turning around so it's all good :) I got to enjoy my last few hours on the beach of San Pedro and soak up my last bit of sun before coming back to Chicago (where it's cold and cloudy! what is this non-sense?!) and have had that one Madonna song stuck in my head ever since (last night I dreamt of San Pedrooooo!!). Anywho, I hope you all enjoy the rest of your internships; I can't wait to read all about them.

Good day!

~Jordan

Hatchery

2011-06-07T16:01:00.003-04:00

I started working at the Berkshire national fish hatchery about a week and a half ago. over this time I have done daily routine maintenance around the hatchery which includes feeding fish two times a day, mowing the lawn, scrubbing tanks, power washing tanks, making new informational posters, giving tours. stocking trout into lakes and rivers. All and all I am enjoying my time working at this hatchery.

Busy busy busy

2011-06-07T09:39:00.005-04:00

*Fore note before I start. I would like to thank Jeanne and Mary-beth for some of the pictures I have been using in prior and future blogs.*

This week was a busy week with me working Wednesday thru Sunday. Wednesday was a laid back day. I came in and helped feed the birds like usual and handled Chico for a little bit. I was able to jess him up and unjess him with no problem at all. Brenda had Dakota out too, just a bit of bird handling to pass the time. Then we took Chappy out to Bolton for a health check at the vet. We needed to get this check done in order to complete the paper work that will accompany his transfer from CT to ME with Hope from Wind over Wings. We got to go in thru the back door and see everything that was going on. All of the surgery prep work, and of the animals in holding. Oh my it was busy...Me, Jeanne, and Brenda kind of tucked ourselves into a corner near the X-ray room and people were going back and forth, carrying dogs, going in and out of rooms. Everyone was very interested in what we had in the box. After about 45 minutes or so we finally got to see the vet and get the check done. Chappy was pretty good for being in his box the whole time except for when he went and nipped Jeanne on the arm. But hey, it was a stressful situation and he hasn't been inside too too much.

Thursday ended up being cleaning day since we wouldn't be there on friday. Everything pretty much went as usual...except for Julian. He proved to me how smart Corvids are that day. Usually when we clean aviaries we let him out to run around the property. Lately he has been peeking around the Eagles aviary, looking under the walk in. Well today he decided that he had enough information and jumped climbed up the short side of the Eagle aviary. It took a bit of bribing, but he finally came down. He didn't exactly want to go back in his aviary either, he wanted to play with us the whole time. Silly Corvid...Our last task was to clean out the rehab cage and weight the owlletts. It's amazing how big those guys get in such a short time.

Friday we drove down to Clinton to help Hope sort out her house for the tag sale she's having before she moves. It was fun because while we were there Hope told us stories about Blanca (sp?) and all the experiences he's had with different groups. I can't wait to see him this week! The last thing we did that day was Hope gave Jeanne a chance to hold Skywalker, her Golden eagle. I was so happy for Jeanne, and I don't think the smile on her face could have gotten any bigger.

Saturday was the big day, the first of the farewell tours. It went amazingly well even though not that many people showed up. It didn't help that Stratford had some sort of festival going on so it was super packed. I got to meet all of Hopes volunteers and see how they did things. The program went so smoothly and was a nice way to end years of service to the state of CT. Me and Brenda ran the booth at the end where we were passing out information. We had a few people stop by.

Though out of everything this week I was reminded that you always need to stay on your toe when it comes to animal care. If we didn't notice Julian was MIA who knows what the Eagle would have done to him or how stressed he would have become. Its all about assessing the situation and acting in a swift but calm manner.

-Heather

2011-06-06T15:02:00.006-04:00

Hello again from the Upper Delaware River! This past week has been much more exciting than my first week here. The week started out with basic first aid training on Tuesday, followed by CPR training on Wednesday. We also received fire extinguisher training and driver training so that we can drive the National Park Service vehicles. The most exciting and best part of our training (in my opinion) was saved for last: canoe training! On Thursday we learned about safety and basic canoe skills, and then we hit the water for some hands-on experience. We paired up in the canoes and went over skills such as paddling, putting your life jackets on in the water, getting back into your canoe if you fall out, rescuing other people from your canoe, and ferrying across the river. We also went “swimming” down Skinner’s Falls (a set of class II rapids). We floated down in only our life jackets, while the other seasonal rangers practiced their throw-bag skills to “save” us.

On Friday we hit the river again for an 18 mile trip from Skinner’s Falls to Lackawaxen, only this time we were solo. We all made it through Skinner’s Falls, then continued downstream while enjoying the many Bald Eagles we saw along the way. Let’s just say that by the end of the day my legs looked like a freshly cooked Maine lobster, and next time I won’t forget the sunscreen.

Saturday was our first day on the job in uniform. My housemate Becky and I were paired up to shadow a seasonal ranger, Adam, for the day. We worked at Ten Mile River which is one of the accesses along the river that we will be stationed at during the summer. The accesses are places where people can put in and take out canoes, boats, kayaks and rafts. There are informational kiosks at most of the accesses, where we simply provide information to people, answer questions, and give safety talks. We watched Adam give safety talks, gave a few of our own, then hiked up a trail along the river, picking up trash and doing maintenance on the way.

The 3 of us were together again on Sunday, only this time stationed at the Skinner’s Falls access. We hung around the kiosk in the morning, talking to people and giving safety checks. After lunch we took a short walk over to the area where people swim and hang out on a stretch of massive rocks along the water. The area was packed with people blasting music, sprawling on rocks, swimming, drinking, and just having a good old time. Becky and I walked around and picked up trash while Adam talked to people, advising them of poison ivy and promoting safety. Skinner’s was crazy, and definitely seemed to be one of the more popular places on the river.

Well, that’s all for this week. I need to go lather my legs in aloe now!!
Until next time,
Lara

California State internship

2011-06-01T16:36:00.004-04:00

I have now been at my state capital internship in Sacromento California for over a week. It is so far an amazing opportunity for me becuase i am getting a lot of experince. Some of the things I have been able to do is learn the basic structure of my state politics, and what it takes to have a functioning state assembly mans office. As well as they are giving me a lot of experience in water, and time to research and understand water and agriculture.

Week 3 is the Bees Knees

2011-05-30T19:10:00.008-04:00

This week I had my first day off! It was very nice; I got a chance to explore a bit more of Belize and see an ancient Mayan ruin site called Lamenai. A fellow volunteer, Jack, and I ended up missing our bus back however and had to hitchhike the 40 miles to Sarteneja. A lovely group of 11 fishermen let us cram into the back of their truck with them; it was quite a squeeze but we made it back, and alive!

Tuesday was chaotic! We got a call saying two spider monkeys had been confiscated from someones home and needed our help. Paul and Zoe drove the 4 hours to get them while the rest of us scrambled to prepare proper housing, clean and disinfect carriers, and shift the other monkeys around all while taking care of the Twigster. It was pretty intense, but we finished everything in time, only to have Paul and Zoe come back empty handed because the monkeys escaped from the park service's holding area before they got there. BUT at least we know we're awesome enough to pull it off if we need to.

Yesterday the whole group of volunteers finished with their programs so it's now only me, Ashley, and Ashley's brother Shawn that's visiting that are here to help out. I miss my British friends; drinking tea is just not the same without them. Some new volunteers should be coming in next week, and today I began training Shawn on the manatee work. In other news I have been officially promoted to manatee care coordinator for the remainder of my internship (oh yeah, real professional stuff)! Though that only means for the next 10 days :(

We've had no running water this past week and it looks to be like it won't be fixed for quite some time. It makes some of the cleaning duties difficult at times; running back and forth with buckets of lagoon water, but it makes me feel like I'm Laura Ingles, which if you've felt this way you know is awesome (and slightly smelly). Our drinking water is still working so that's good! However it's stored rain water and since it hasn't rained the entire time I've been here I'm not quite sure how much could be left.

Anyway, this week has been very exciting and awesome and super and adventurous and and and...you get the point :)

On the 2nd Twiggy is due for a check-up which means I'll be helping to hurl her out of the water and weigh her! woo!

Take care all,

Jordan

Hello from Joburg

2011-05-30T13:32:00.001-04:00

So finally after two days of delays due to the storm we had in the southeast Thursday night, I have finally arrived in Johannesburg, South Africa (often times called “Joburg”). Although I just landed from a 15 hour plane ride, I still have a 12 hour wait here in OR Tambo International Airport (Johannesburg Airport). I’ve found the place I’ll be spending the night (it’s 6:00 pm here and 12:00 pm back at home)… it’s an “Aircraft Viewing Platform” of the international departures and it’s out of the way of the rest of the airport. A bit of advice…. if you ever have to spend the night in an airport, take some time wandering around to find the best spot. You want to be in a place where there won’t be much people traffic, so as to avoid giving anyone the temptation to steal from you while you are sleeping (it most definitely happens!) Anyways, after my 12 hour wait here I have a flight from Joburg to Windhoek, Namibia where I will be picked up by the CCF. I don’t know if I’ll have internet access, but if I do I will make sure to post another update. Until then…..

-Eli

Kestrels like to climb too much

2011-05-30T09:21:00.017-04:00

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

Week Two: Taking care of the manatee foo!

2011-05-25T10:47:00.004-04:00

Ah yes another week has gone by and I'm fully settled in. This week was fairly routine; everyday I walk Twiggy out into the lagoon where she follows me to the best sea grass grazing areas, I stay with her for the two three hour shifts observing how much time she spends feeding, playing, and resting. When time is up I walk her back to her lagoon pool area where I bottle feed her the powdered milk and vitamines that help with digestion. While in the lagoon I always bring a blow up float with me and ancor it in the sea grass area. This is because when Twiggy was smaller there was always a float in her pool that she could hide and sleep under. Manatees are very social animals that need a lot of physical contact; having the float in the pool with her gave her something to hold and hug. When first introducing Twiggy to the lagoon, volunteers would lay on the float so she would associate those people being in that area; she had constant contact with the people and knew them well. Now we are weaning this human contact from Twiggy by continuing to bring the float out to the area but by observing her behavior from the shore. In a few weeks time she will also be weaned from the float. Slowly but surely Twiggy is becoming more independent and not relying upon people; she's being weaned from us, her float, and is currently in the process of finishing up with the milk. It is the centers hope that Twiggy will be ready for realease into Corozal Bay sometime between June and September where she will meet up with one of the 4 manatee herds already established there. She will no longer be following me to the feeding grounds, but other manatees :)

This week I also worked on data entry. Information about Twiggy's feeds such as time, amount given, amount spilt, total drank, and the formula/vitamine ratio all need to be recorded. We do the recording in a book and then transfer the information onto the computer. Unfortunately data hadn't been entered into the computer for about 3 months so I had quite the project! Now the information is all up to date and it will take much less time to update as I keep up with the records.

On Sunday a group of people from Blue Ventures, they do expeditions and research projects concerning the ocean, came to Wildtracks to learn about the rehabilitation project. I assisted my supervisor Zoe in giving them a tour of the facility and explaining the process of rehabilitating orphaned manatees. After showing them the pools, explaining heat regulations, and demonstrating a feeding, I showed them back to the main house and Zoe gave a presentation explaining why manatees are a vulnrable species and what's been happening to the population. It was a good learning experience for myself as well because I got to hear a bit more background information about how they start the rehabilitation process and continue along through the steps of recovery.

Time has been flying by! I only have 16 days left and I'm nowhere near ready to leave this experience behind. It's been a lot of long days, but I get to hang out with a manatee!

~Jordan

Dogs & Cats at Pet Orphans

2011-05-22T21:53:00.005-04:00

Another great week in the Orphange. 4 of the 5 dogs in isolation got put up for adoption! The only sitll in Iso has been given his last medication for Parvo. He's doing great and getting over it really well. Hopefully he too will join them in getting adopted.

The cats that were still in isolation are still there but they are getting much better. One of them has taken a few HUGE steps towards people friendly. She actually let me and a coworker pet her and she loved it!

We have done a lot of paperwork recently. I went through all of the files for the dogs, cats, puppies and kittens making sure all of their papers were there. For the cats I had to make sure they had FIV/FLV negative tests, their microchip, spay/neuter certificates, and boosters. The dogs on the other hand had their spay/neuter certificates, rabies shots, boosters, and three other common shots for dogs. Then we had to take every file since 2009 and make sure that they were in order by tag number. So I spent a good 4 hours sorting tags from 7000 - 9000. That was fun.

But other than that I have socialzed with many adorable dogs and cats.

--Cielle/Skye

Summer at the CCF

2011-05-22T12:00:00.011-04:00

This summer, I will be working amongst the world’s leader in cheetah conservation… the Cheetah Conservation Fund. I was accepted for a student internship position and on May 29th, 2011 I shall be arriving in Otjiwarongo, Namibia… the location of the CCF Headquarters. I am very excited for this opportunity and I plan on making the most out of my experience. I’m not exactly sure on my specific responsibilities as of yet, as that is determined when I arrive, however whatever I am assigned I shall do my best at. I’ll be documenting my time at the CCF here, so I hope you follow along.

I'm currently making the final preparations for the summer and figuring out the annoying logistics involved with flying to a different continent. I plan on leaving on either the 26th or 27th of May here from Atlanta to Johannesburg, South Africa. I haven't decided on those dates yet because of my connection from Johannesburg to Windhoek, Namibia, but I will be deciding that within the next couple of days (it's getting really close). Hopefully I will be able to post an update between the time I leave here and arrive at the CCF and maybe I'll have some pictures of Africa too! Below is a map of Namibia where the CCF is located.

If you would like more information about what I'm doing this summer or would like to see more pictures, look to my separate blog here (ehwalker91.wordpress.com) Feel free to ask questions or comment below. Until next time…

- Eli Walker

Upper Delaware S&RR

2011-05-20T23:55:00.016-04:00

This summer I will be interning as an interpretive park ranger with the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River in Pennsylvania and New York. I'll be working at informational kiosks along the river, educating people and ensuring safety. I'll also be patrolling the river by canoe, talking with visitors and making sure they are wearing life vests. Another task of mine will be to create and present educational programs about different aspects of the park and the environment.

For the past week I've been training and getting to know my fellow interns and seasonal rangers. The blue house below is where myself and 2 other interns will be staying for the summer. It's located in the extremely small town of Lackawaxen, PA (a lot like Unity), and practically sits on the Delaware River.

Our house is right in front of the Roebling Bridge, the oldest existing wire suspension bridge in the U.S. It was originally built as an aqueduct for the Delaware and Hudson Canal by John A. Roebling (the same guy who designed the Brooklyn Bridge). Right down the street from us is the Zane Grey museum, which the park service also owns and operates out of. I never knew how much history actually surrounded the river until I got this internship.

The past few days have consisted of lots of sitting, listening and reading. We started the week at park headquarters, meeting the superintendent and listening to various people talk about what their jobs are there. The next few days were spent at the Zane Grey Museum, learning about interpretation, the history of Zane Grey and the museum itself. We also learned about the Roebling Bridge and kiosk operations, and also received various pieces of equipment to use throughout the summer (radio, life vest, paddle, dry bags, binoculars, uniforms, etc.).

I took the above picture on Thursday when we had our tour of the park. It is from a lookout above the river called Hawk's Nest. The tour took pretty much all day because the park stretches about 73 miles. We saw where all the different accesses and kiosks were, along with other hot spots on the river. On Friday we took a trip to the Delaware Water Gap and pretty much just explored all day.

The river and the area around it is beautiful, and I've seen a bald eagle nearly every day I've been here so far. Everyone I've met so far is very nice, and they're willing to help you out if you need anything. My housemates and I have gotten along great so far, and I'm excited to get to know them more throughout the summer. I'm excited to start working, and I'm more than proud to be a part of the Upper Delaware S&RR, which is helping to preserve this amazing piece of the natural world.

-Lara

Birds, birds, everywhere

2011-05-20T21:28:00.011-04:00

With my first week at Horizon Wings complete, I was only able to put in 3 days of my internship. It's been raining so much here in CT that it's hard to get anything done. Monday it was down pouring so it lead to an interesting ride to work. When I arrived at Mary-Beth's house I was greeted by not only her and Jeanne but four dogs, around 7 cats, and Teddy. Teddy is a very vocal African Grey who loves to talk to people and have his own phone calls with himself. We got settled in and I was given to run down of what a typical day might be, what projects are going on, and some things I should expect.

After that we made a little trip outside and I was given a tour of the backyard where all of the aviaries are kept. We started at the rehab shed which only had one occupant at the time. There was a HUGE grey screech owl in there that we might be keeping as an education bird. Then they gave me a tour of the rest of their resident birds. They currently have a Bald eagle, Kestrel, two Screech owls, Broad winged hawk, Peregrine falcon, Red tailed hawk, Great horned owl, Barn owl, Barred owl, and a Raven. They also have a two Barred owls in rehab, a younger one and an adult, and a Red tailed hawk. Then there is Chappy, a Red tailed hawk we are training to give to Hope from Wind over wings. After the tour we took out the baby barred owl to get a weight on him and then they allowed me to put him back in the nest box. He was such a fluffy little booger. The last task of the day was to measure out carpeting for perches. While we were doing that they let me try and hold the Kestrel.

Thursday we traveled down to Tyl middle school to watch Hope from Wind over wings give one of her last presentations before the farewell tour. I would have to say she is an amazing speaker. She did an hour long presentation with a Screech owl, Peregrine falcon, Golden eagle, and Great horned owl. The way she was able to tell the story of each of the birds while incorporating in the facts about the species. The kids really seemed to like it and paid attention. Hope is moving up the Maine, so maybe just maybe we'll see her at Unity sometime.

Now yesterday was my super busy day. The first thing I got to do was hold the baby Crow that we might be keeping while Mary-Beth cleaned out his bedding. I then got to learn the feeding routines for most of the birds, including who gets what and when. They feed the hawks in the morning and the owls at night, that way it makes you doubt check everyone. After feeding we went to check on the rehab birds. Thursday night they picked up a Red tailed hawk that they think has a neurological issue, so that was our newest resident. They looked like they were doing alright. We cleaned out the Screech owls carrier and cleaned out the Red tails. Mary-beth and Jeanne also gave the bird a shot and some saline to keep it hydrated.

After that I shadowed Jeanne with their routine for cleaning out the aviaries. I then was off to clean out four of the aviaries on my own. This meant pulling out carpet from hide boxes, picking up left over food, scrubbing perches and anything that needed to be cleaned. I had an awakening of animal care when I found a mouse that one of the screech owls had stashed away. Needless to say it was full of maggots. I was a little grossed out at first but it was whatever. I also pulled all of the water dishes and scrubbed those down. After all of the cleaning was done Jeanne and I worked on transferring with Chappy, or just simply passing him off. He did really well for only being worked with for 3 weeks. He's still a little nervous when you go to move your free arm around, but he calms down pretty quickly. Jeanne then took Chappy for a ride to work on him being in the travel box.

While she did that I was allowed to go in with their new Bald eagle. Right now they are just trying to get him used to being talked to have having people get close to him. After a little bit Mary-beth switched with me and I went to go handle Dakota the other Red tailed hawk. I was a little nervous being the last Red tailed I worked with was nuts. Though she was very friendly and didn't grip hard at all. Jeanne then let me go and put her back in her aviary. I had never worked with the removable jesses, let alone having the birds on my right had rather than my left. Dakota bated once when I went to walk into the aviary, but I got her back on the glove and walked her inside. I was then able to take her leash and jesses off without her flying away. I felt really accomplished.

We ended the day with a trip to the UCONN dairy bar and some birding. We drove around and Mary-beth showed me where some raptor nest were and where Kestrel boxes are set up. We had a great time, also Mary-beth and Jeanne told me various stories of birds they went to go and get.

I think the main thing I relearned this week is it's important to stay calm with any bird of prey. At one point during cage cleaning Julian the Raven came after me, being I was the newbie around. Jeanne calmly talked me through the whole thing and told me to just let him peg the bottom of my shoe a few times. She then distracted him so I was able to walk away. I wasn't nervous and understood Julian is just a feisty little bird. But if I did freak out the situation probably could have been worse.

-Heather

Week Number One: Off to a great start!

2011-05-18T12:40:00.002-04:00

Hey there hi there ho there!

I have just finished my first week here at Wildtracks, the manatee and primate rehabilitation center in Sarteneja, Belize. There is currently one manatee at the center, a calf named Twiglet "twiggy, twigs, twigatron (okay that last one is just me but I think it will catch on)" who is roughly 350 pounds. Being a manatee care intern, she is my super awesome assignment. I am responsible for letting her out into the lagoon and staying with her for two three hour shifts; one in the early morning and another in the afternoon. I also prepare and bottle feed her a formula at the end of both shifts. She is currently in the process of being weaned, so it's important that she's feeding on sea grass as we lessen the amount of formula given to her. Aside from Twiggy there is also a lot of cleaning to be done! Dishes galore!

As I'm sure you all know, manatees are quite vicious animals; dangerous creatures that stalk you in the night with their razor sharp teeth! Of course this is a lie, but Twiggy does like to try and eat my shorts and shoes; a delicacy I'm sure. She did try to swim between my legs when I wasn't expecting it though, and I was in fact taken down from behind the knees :)

This week I will be starting some data entry in relation to Twiggy's feedings; the center has fallen pretty far behind so I've got some catching up to do!

Until I type again!

-Jordan

Summer already?!

2011-05-16T12:33:00.002-04:00

Wow I can't believe the summer is here! This is Heather again, posting for my second internship. This summer I will be working at Horizon wings, a Raptor rehab and education center in Ashford, CT. I start my first day tomorrow and hopefully by then end of the week I'll have an exciting first blog for everyone.
Till then...
-Heather