new post coming soon

I will probably update tomorrow as it is friday and i wont have anything to worry about for saturday! haha

fun day in ICU this past sunday. I got to grab the meanest Barn owl ever ( pic will be included) and a cute little kestrel decided to take a ride on my arm when I was cleaning its cage. Also i want to post a link to a barn owl screech video. It is amazing how loud these birds can get!

stay tuned!

yahoo

I completed my 3 months of training! I have trained in ICU, Rehab and Education, so I can tutor any new people who come in to volunteer. Now that I had each section out of the way, I started again in ICU. I really like ICU because it is so hands on and in the summer its nice to be in air conditioning and in winter its good to be inside and warm. HAHA. Right now the intake of animals is low but at the same time that is good because that means animals aren't getting hurt! A lot of birds are migrating right now so their chances of getting injured increase. This is due to them possibly being hit by cars, powerlines, animals they might not be used to encountering etc. Not related to the season changes is the high mortality among raptors due to ingesting lead from hunted animals. When a carcass is left with lead this absorbs into the body of the dead animal, then when other animals such as eagles or turkey vultures feed on the carcass they ingest this lead. The lead then infects their own bloodstream making the birds very sick and many times leading to death. Recommendations to fix this problems are using as much of the carcass as possible and properly disposing the rest, copper bullets or removal of the bullet if at all possible. I will get off my soapbox now but to learn more about lead poisoning in birds you can click
here
.

Back to ICU. IT was an exciting day.I completed my first successful bird grab. I had done a bird grab before but that was on kestrels which are smaller and also a severely injured owl that wasn't really a training in grabbing. I had first tried to get a red tail hawk out of its cage for him to receive his medicine but he outwitted me. He was able to get my right hand in his steel grip talons and I had to have my friend mike bail me out. Again this is another situation where bird handling gloves come in handy. I still can't believe how strong raptor grasps are, even with the gloves I could feel the talons digging in and even with the glove I had minor scratches on my arm. ( VERY very minor, not even worth documenting really but i couldn't believe it broke skin through the glove, imagine what it could do on bare skin). Here is my buddy mike and the red tail hawk that won.

After that unsuccessful grab I tried again on a cooper's hawk. This time I just went for it fast to give the bird no chance to grab my glove and it worked! Even I was a little surprised at how efficient that fast process worked. Here is me holding the cooper's hawk, sorry for the horrible picture of myself, i am a wreck. haha. . I also grabbed a couple kestrel's later but they are so small you can just cup them with two hands and dont have to worry about one hand being tied up due to them grabbing you.

Later, my team lead was feeding a Harris Hawk while I was tending to some seed eaters and all of a sudden I hear " Bird out! Big Bird out!!" and I turn around to see the Harris Hawk loose in the ICU room! A very organized chaos followed, everyone quickly donned gloves but the big bird net was outside! It was now going to be a little harder to grab this Harris Hawk. Luckily my team lead grabbed a towel and was able to throw it over the hawk and grab him. He was an angry hawk he probably thought his freedom was so close!

That about wraps it up for ICU this week. Now I have to go back to studying for finals boo!

Red tail in my face

Week after thanksgiving and with a lot of people out of town we were a little shorted staffed on the rehab side. No problem me and my buddy mike handled it with skill. However it was cold and the raptor food was frozen which made my poor little fingers freeze in my gloves. But enough complaining on my end, arizona winters are nothing compared to other parts of the states.

I am becoming more comfortable with going into the cages even when several birds are in their at one time. The key is to stay by the walls and to always keep an eye on the brood. However, some birds will just fly like crazy when you are in their enclosure and its these times that the thick gloves we wear for the raptors come in handy.

This week I had two enclosures that were feisty, the sharpshin hawks and the big red tailed hawks. The sharpshins we have are so spastic they remind me of kids running around loose at chuckie cheese. They fly from perch to perch and will sometimes even bounce off of your head as they fly by. This is why i kept my hood on when i went in their enclosure. The red tailed hawks were a little meaner in their enclosure. While I was in the enclosure one decided to stick up for the brood and flew at me. its funny they dont realize that I am giving them their food, they just want the intruder gone! Luckily I saw him coming and i was able to stoop down and put my glove up in case he wanted to foot me. Footing is when a raptor uses its talons to scratch or injure you. Obviously it is not doing it on purpose but is just trying to protect itself. I finished their food and got the heck out of there so they could calm down and eat.

I also got my name badge this week so i feel very official now. :)

Final month of training-REHAB!

BRRRRR its cold outside now and the birds need some extra food for winter!Just like we pack on the food during winter so do our animals in rehab. Not only do they need lots of food to help in their healing process but now with winter here they need extra food to aid in their recovering. We were a little short staffed early in the morning and it was so cold! i was assigned to ICU until some more people showed up so I started my normal rounds with the ever so curious Virginia /Darwin the Owl watching my every move. We also had a cute little burrowing owl in a brooder who was so cute with her puffy round little body!

Luckily about an hour later more people showed up and off to Rehab I went. I had missed the majority of the raptors being fed the kestrels, Red Tailed Hawks, Peregrin Falcons, Cooper's' Hawks and now the turkey vultures were being fed. When I arrived to the enclosure my team members were in discussion right outside the pen. Apparently there was a peregrine falcon in the enclosure too and the Turkey Vultures were picking on him! Every time he went to a perch the closest Turkey Vulture would peck at him poor little couldn't perch anywhere, he was hanging onto the walls! We weren't sure how or why the peregrine was in with the Turkey Vultures it was an odd combo but luckily our Med services on hand saved the day by catching the peregrine and taking him to his own cozy enclosure!

These turkey vultures are VERY mean in ICU so i was nervous about going in their pen with them. One is bad enough but 3? they can peck you really good and with all the bacteria they eat you really don't want them to peck you open and therefore letting all that nasty bacteria in! I went in their enclosure with their food and they were surprisingly calm! They just sat on their high perches watching as I went around and put their food on various stumps. ( The above pic is of our Education Turkey Vulture, Bailey)

Next up was the aviary and the cute little seed and insect eaters! There was a section that contained a cute little Montezuma quail and her baby. The Montezuma Quail is actually an endangered species so it was really fun to see the mamma and her baby , hopes for their species getting nice and healthy to be introduced back into the wild! We also had some red winged blackbirds in there that were singing their beautiful songs! I personally love bird calls and am hoping Santa brings me a bird watching kit this Christmas ( fingers crossed) so I loved being in their section listening to their calls while I cleaned and fed the hungry little birds!

Next up was the last few raptorial birds which included CUTE little burrowing owls and SharpShin Hawks. I went into the owl enclosure and a silent panic occurred. In flight these owls were so quiet while flying all i could hear was them landing and just feel the movement of air from their wings. They all went to one stoop on the back and it was funny to see a bunch of little owls all crowded on this little space! The sharpshins next door were a lot more cantankerous, they were flying back and forth going crazy! They were also were messy, I felt like i was taking care of a teenager hawk, messy and wild!

We finally ended the day with the coot and if you have never seen Coot feet before take a look. They are so funny looking!

Hope the links are helpful, ill work on recapping more often, school is winding down so I should be doing better soon! :)

pictures now with more pictures

American Kestrel
Frodo the burrowing owl
Frodo again
Snickers the Great Horned Owl
American Kestrel
Acoma the Red Tailed Hawk
Peregrin Falcon
Phoenix the Golden Eagle
Liberty the Bald Eagle
Liberty the Bald Eagle
Phoenix the Golden Eagle Talons
Phoenix
Liberty
American Kestrel
Sharpshin Hawk in ICU
American Kestrel

Fundraiser

I am thinking of doing a Fundraiser/ donation collection for Liberty Wildlife. With orphan care season coming up in a few months we could use a some new supplies. If you are interested in helping out Liberty Wildlife this page has a list of supplies that Liberty is always in need for. I will update with a new post soon along with any ideas I might have come up with for the fundraiser.

Day 2 Education

Second day in education now that i know how the birds react with people I feel a little more confident today. I start with the first pen where the evil Rupert the Raven lives. He was not in a happy mood. I emptied out his water and then he flew to his front perch right next to me and started pecking his perch. He was pecking it so hard it made such a loud thud noise. Point taken, you do not want me in there. I decided to fill up the water from the outside of the pen. Cheating I know.

I also got to clean Trick the harris hawk's pen. He had ever so kindly left some food bits around his cage. He is partly blind so he doesn't go to crazy when you enter his enclosure. I walked along the wall and he ever so kindly flew to the other part of his enclosure away from me.

The next enclosures contained some of my two favorite hawks, Honey and Cholla. They are a boy and girl pair that share an enclosure. They are very calm when you enter and sometimes you can catch them wagging their tails on their perches. This tail wag means they are content and happy. Probably because they know some delicious food is coming in just a few seconds.
This enclosure also has two of the mean birds Hedwig the Great Horned Owl and Henry the Barn owl and the mischievous Clarence the Raven. I got to take care of Clarence this week and made the mistake of leaving my scrub brush in the enclosure. I exit his pen and realize too late I forgot the scrub brush and turn around to Clarence stealing my brush away. I have been warned that he will steal anything you leave on the ground and they were right! After the help of another team member he dropped brush and we were able to take it back. Till next time Clarence!

The next pod we got lucky that someone had taken the cranky Turkey Vulture , Bailey, out to get some sun. The two other birds Snickers the GHO and Acoma the Red tailed Hawk were very polite.

The final enclosure has most of the education eagles and Beaker the Raven, and Coolidge a ferringous? hawk. I might be wrong on that. One of the handlers was in the enclosure sitting in the eagle chair with an eagle on his arm eating a rat. It was funny to see someone just sitting there with a giant eagle on their hand.

second day of education was good. Below are video and pictures of Sonora the Juvenile Bald Eagle.
She is working with her trainer in the pictures and movie below. Some fun tips joe told me about Bald Eagles, they wag their tail feather when they are happy, they drool like dogs and also stick their feathers up to make themselves appear bigger like dogs do when they are upset and they have a 300 lb pressure in their talons. , in comparison humans only have 80 lb of pressure.

i haven't forgotten about you

i know i have slacked in my posts, blame school midterms! i will hopefully put something up tomorrow. here is an osprey picture forgive me!

FINALLY

A new post. I am horrible and putting these up in a timely manner. Ok so I started my first day in Education this week. I was excited by after last week's encounter with the Great Horned Owl I was a little nervous about getting in the cages. Especially because while these birds are more used to humans they are also a little more braver and curious. These birds will peck at your legs just to say hi, or some might even land on you like Duncan one of the hawks.

We got the team together and started in the pens with Rupert and Clarence the Ravens and one other Raven whose name I can't remember, along with 3 other hawks, one of which is a harris hawk named Trick. Clarence is one hilarious raven. He is known for not only talking, saying ow or even hell, but also for stealing stuff. Rupert is a grumpy raven and has been deemed aggressive. he will come at you if you don't pay attention! The education birds daily care is exactly like the Rehab side. The pens are cleaned and water is changed. However, instead of feeding all the birds were only feed some designated birds. For example Rupert, Clarence and Trick are all fed by daily care ( the menu today was mice) but the other birds in their pod either have a special diet or are handled specifically by the education team. The education team are the people who work more one on one with the birds and take them out to events and shows. If you have ever been to the Renaissance Festival in Az some of the birds they use for their flight show come from Liberty Wildlife.

I start off my first run with the raven whose name I can't remember. He FREAKED out when I got in his pen, he kept flying back and forth, back and forth. I just tucked myself in a corner and did my work and just kept an eye on where he was landing. Can't the birds just sit back and watch or even better not even pay attention to me!

We move onto the next pod which has to particularly grumpy owls, Hedwig the Great Horned Owl and Henry a Barn Owl. Hedwig will just sit in the corner and hiss at you but Henry has been known to swoop at people's feet. With claws and sharp as an owls its a good thing sneakers are worn for daily care. My fellow team member who is also on his first week of Ed. toughs it out and goes into the owl pens. Luckily all went well!

Pod 3 contains Bailey a rather mean Turkey Vultures whose looks I'm sure matches its mentality, Acoma a Red Tailed Hawk and Snickers the Great Horned owl.
Bailey for some reason cares if one person is in her pen but doesn't really mind if two are there. Maybe she thinks that one she could take, but two is too much.

Pod 4 contains a Raven named Beaker who when she was younger got her bottom beak bitten off by another bird. He also contains a cooper's hawk and an Osprey. These birds are just the ones we take care of but in this enclosure are also some eagles! Apache two golden eagles reside along with the Bald eaglesLiberty and Sonora Again I can't believe how big these birds are and how BIG their talons are. My favorite in this enclosure though is Ivan are little Screech Owl. THat is so precious, it is like a little Tea Cup Owl, and if you can tell from the picture Ivan only has one eyes, hence the name Ivan . :)

Next post I will include a mini lectures I had by one of the Eagles trainer's. I got to watch him as he took Sonora out for her training and I learned some fun facts about Bald Eagles. For example did you know Eagles drool? I will get that post up faster then I did this one.

EDucation

Expect a new post by tonight or tomorrow. Until then here is a picture of Sonoran our juvenile bald eagle. She is about 4 1/2 years old and her feathers are starting to turn white! She should look like an adult bald eagle within a year.

Liberty

Liberty is our "mascot" at Liberty Wildlife. She is a bald eagle that due to a wing problem is unable to be released back in the wild. She has been trained as an education bird by our special eagle trainer. She loves him and whenever she sees him she gives out a call and she even gets jealous whenever he walks around with another bird!

Here she is calling out to her trainer while she is in her enclosure.

Runaways,grabs and attacks!

Last day of ICU training was a crazy one! It started out normal, no animals had died and we started cleaning cages. However when it was time to do the bins we had a bunch of fast little birds! We had doves ( morning and a cute little inca baby), woodpeckers, finches and pigeons. A lot of people ask why we even bother to take care of pigeons and doves but my answer is why not? It is not fair to treat one type of bird but not the other because it is ugly or we have a lot of them. Even though a dove might not seem exotic it still deserves a fighting chance! Moving on, I was working with another to get a pesky little woodpeckers out of its bin into a new clean one. Not only was he running around his bin like a mad bird but he was pecking at every chance he could get! Next thing we know he is flying out of his bin and to the other side of the ICU room. We run after him and he has disappeared! He could not be found anywhere, we saw where he went but it was like he had vanished into thin air! We searched for about 15 mins and we still couldn't find him but we had other animals to treat so we had to leave him to come out on his own from his hiding spot. At least we knew he was in that room and he couldn't have gone to far!

We move on to an injured owl in a brooder. This poor great horned owl came in with either a back problem or neurological problems. He has trouble moving but we are doing everything we can to take care of him. I was called to grab him out of the brooder and I was really excited for my first owl grab. It did kind of feel like cheating because he was very injured so it wasn't really any trouble getting him, but I will take any chance practicing my bird grabbing skills. I am holding the owl when all of a sudden the woodpecker appears and chaos ensues!Other volunteers start grabbing nets and trying to get the bird and here I am holding this owl while a woodpeckers is flying and running around. Even the owl seemed to be confused by what was going on! The woodpecker disappeared yet again behind the peregrine falcon and owl cages. Funny how the little woodpecker takes refuge behind two meat eating birds. Peregrin falcons especially will eat other birds!

The rest of the day goes without a hitch but still that little bird is hiding! All we can do is wait for him to come out. All the birds are wrapped up in ICU so I go out with the Medical Services to check up on the birds in rehab. Birds in rehab have already been into ICU and taken care of but sometimes they can fall sick again or they hurt themselves in their enclosures. We get to an owl pen with about 9 owls in it and we see an owl on the ground sitting funny. I get the gloves expecting that the medical services would go in and get the bird, but then she tells ME to get it out of the pen. I gave her a look like " are you crazy?" I am just learning how to take birds out of cages and now she wants me to jump in a enclosure of 9 angry great horned owls! When owls are angry they clack their beaks, then they will puff themselves up to make them appear bigger. When we got to the cage only one owl was clacking, not too bad. We step into the cage and every owl starts clacking, now that gets a little scary. These are all very mad owls and they all have very sharp talons and beaks. One owl flies at us and even with the gloves I am not feeling very confident. The medical services senses my nervousness and decides to grab the owl for herself. I step out of the enclosure to give her room and she swoops in for the owl. Owls start flying around then the next thing I hear is " Oh F**k! " and I see the medical services yelling out in pain and cringing! Not quite sure what to do I just yell What happened!!! When reaching for the owl she had been footed and pecked by an owl! Luckily there was not a lot of blood but I can only imagine how good that did NOT feel. Unfortunately in the battle the bird in question disappears with the rest of the owls. After the incident all I could think was holy cow! that was supposed to be me getting attacked! She knew what she was doing, I really didn't it could have been worse!

I head back in ICU getting ready to leave and then I see that darn woodpeckers on a light! I hurry up and grab a net along with the other girl in ICU and we get on either side of the bird. He starts to fly away and I snag him in my net! Success! Last Day In ICU was quite an adventure and next week its off to education !!!

Education post will come soon and will have lots of pictureS!

Apologies

Sorry for the lack of posts this week. I was sick and then I have been very busy with school work! I should have something up within a couple days. I have a really good week to recap! Bird escapes, owl grabs ( my first one yay) and owl attacks( boo!) Thanks for your patience!

and shout out to the person in canada who checked out my blog! even if it was an accident! haha :)

ICU and Owl Release

My third week in ICU starts with some sad news , one of the two golden eagles that came in died. We did get an osprey in ( also known as a water eagle). He had the funniest ruffle of feathers on the back of his head that made him look like he had constant bed head. Im not going to dwell too much on the ICU that day because not only did anything really crazy or interesting happen ( it was just a typical ICU day) but I got to do my first Release that night!

Once our animals are rehabilitated they are able to be released into the wild. The key turning point where we know our animals are ready for the wild again is when they are able to successfully complete a live feed. This is when a live food is put into their enclosures and the birds are able to successfully hunt and capture their prey. Knowing that they are able to catch their own food lets us know that in the wild they are also capable of hunting.

So there are two ways you can release a bird, the simple one is just opening the box and allowing the bird to come out on its own. The second option is wearing a pair of gloves and taking the bird out of its box and launching it into the air. Since it is my first time and I am still relatively new at grabbing birds it is recommended that I just open up the box.

4 p.m. rolls around and I get to pick up my owl. I recruit my friend to drive me so I can hold the bird in his box. Even though the boxes have a top that isn't meant to open on its own I figured better safe then sorry. I wouldn't want to be driving by myself and have an owl get loose in my car. I get to Liberty and here is my package!. Sara Great Horned Owl Sun night! I take my box and my owl is moving around like crazy! You hear him scratching around in there and you hope he doesn't somehow manage to escape! I decide to take the owl out to the Superstition Mountains which will give him lots of mice and rabbits to eat and lots of cactus and trees to perch in. We release our owls at dusk because since they are nocturnal releasing them at night they are more likely to hunt for food right away and explore their new environment. After driving for a little bit the owl calmed down but through the holes in the box you could see him glaring at you. I don't get spooked easily but seeing a pair of angry looking bright round yellow eyes starting at you from darkness is a little unsettling! IF only he knew we were taking him to a new home!

We arrive at the First Water TrailHead at the Superstition Mountains right when the sun is setting. The view is beautiful and I am so excited to let my little guy go! This is my boyfriend and I walking away from the car and into a denser part of the desert. Here I am opening up the box getting ready to release the owl. A nice view of the sunset. And finally here is our owl out of his box and observing his surroundings! . I was kinda of expecting the owl to come flying out of the box into the sunset but his exit was actually way more comedic. He busted out of that box and spent a while glaring at his. He must not have been a fan of his box! Sorry the picture did not come out more clear, my friend was using her camera for these pics and we didn't find out until we were reviewing them later that on some pictures her focus was not , well focusing. The owl hung around in that spot for a couple minutes and of course right when we turned our recordings and cameras off he flew off into the desert! Unfortunately there is no video of him flying away but I have included a video of him coming out of his box. :)

It felt so good to watch this owl being released into the wild! Knowing that with the help of an excellent team of people an injured or abandoned bird can be taken in, rehabilitated and successfully released into the wild is an amazing feeling. I can't wait for my next release!

Note* For some reason I cannot upload a quicktime video of the release so here is the embedded video from YouTube. Again sorry for the bad quality. Next time I will use a camera instead of my iPhone!

Day 3- ICU

So its my second day in ICU and I am pumped up. I walk in and this is what greets me. HELLO, golden eagle. This guy and a buddy came in from Utah where they had apparently been hit by a car. I am not sure if this was a juvenile, I don't believe so but a lot of juvenile birds are the ones that end up getting hit by cars. They are practicing their flight and sometimes cannot avoid cars in time and such. This one was in way better shape then the other golden eagle and sadly about a week later the second golden eagle passed away. The one pictured is thriving though and is now able to eat on its own. Let me just say how massive and amazing these creatures are. Whenever I take a look at it in its ICU cage I just see its HUGE talons, its feet are bigger than the palm of my hand. It is also so regal the way it just stands on its perch watching. A specialized trainer is the one who handles the bird and he has to put on these huge gloves that go all the way past his elbow to avoid the bird's talons. Hopefully this guy keeps on recovering and we can soon let him back out into the wild!

A funny story for today though, I prepared food for our ravens which is a smorgasboard of mice, dog food, cheese, eggs, and fruit. I was cooking the eggs in the microwave when I went out to the fridge to get some cheese and fruit. When I came back I see someone stopping the microwave. I open the door and inside waiting for me is a giant mess of exploded egg bits everywhere. HA. Apparently I was cooking the eggs for way too long , even though ironically this was the second batch I was making with the same amount of eggs in the same amount of time. Obviously I had to clean the microwave and I have never seen such a big mess in a tiny space. It was like the movies, there was egg hanging from the ceiling of the microwave, the door, sides, bottom . basically everywhere. Good times.

I got to bond with an education great horned owl named Virginia who is just the sweetest owl you can meet. She is so friendly and comes to the front of her cage to watch you clean the cages. You can put your finger in the cage and she will give it a little nibble with her beak,precious because she is still a juvenile but pretty soon that habit will have to be stopped because her beak is going to get sharper and tougher. I prepared her food ( mice) and when I was putting it in the cage someone told me to give her one by hand. I didn't have my leather gloves on so I was nervous but I put my hand up to Virginia's mouth and she took some mouse right out of my hand. Owls are my favorite animals so it was so exciting feeding her by hand! THis isn't a picture of anyone at Liberty Wildlife but I just wanted to put up a picture of what Virginia will look like when she is all grown up. This was actually a bird demonstration at the Sonoran Desert Museum in Tucson, Az.

I also got to practice my bird wrangling skills and grab a Red Tailed Hawk He had an injured wing and when I tried to grab him in an effort to escape he fell backwards off his perch. Poor guy. I went in for the grab again and he got my glove with his talons. Now I understand what the bird steel grip is like, so strong. It was to the point where I had to get someone to distract him so he would release my glove and I could grab him correctly. This is why leather gloves are mandatory when handling any birds with talons. If I hadn't had gloves that grip would have been so painful, just feeling it through the gloves was enough for me. Those talons mean business. Once he was grabbed though he received his medicine and went back into his cage. Here is a picture of someone else who grabbed another red tailed hawk we had in ICU.

The rest of the day went out without a hitch and I finished up my second week in ICU.

Pictures

Here is a movie and pic I took with my phone of one of the Education guys working with his eagle. I believe it is a juvenile bald eagle.

Day 2 with picture!

My second day at Liberty WIldlife was in the ICU department inside the building. Thank God, Air Conditioning! I have some new team members today who are also training in ICU. You train in the 3 different departments at Liberty Wildlife, Rehab, ICU and Education.
Today will by my first day in ICU of what will be my month long training before I move to a month in both Rehab and Education. The ICU has a section of cages set up for the little seed eating birds, a section for the meat eating bigger birds and also some bins for the smaller / babies to be kept in. The animals stay in ICU until they are well enough to go to rehab. We start off the day with cleaning the newspaper trays for the birds in the metal cages. Luckily a bunch of them were fairly clean and you just had to roll up the newspaper and throw it away but some birds ( especially the Ravens) left some nice, wet surprises on the newspaper for you. After all the newspapers are clean its time to feed the birds. Some birds like doves are seed eaters and those are pretty easy to take care of, you just stick your hand in the cage and give them seed and water. The insect eaters like the cactus wrens and night hawks ( very cool bird by the way) get little meal worms in their food dishes along with water. Some of the more sickly and little birds require a little bit more extra attention and they will be tube feed. The tube feeding food is a mixture of water and some gritty seed like material. The birds are tube feed by inserting a tube into their crop and filling it up with this mix. ( This mix does have a name but I am blanking on it right now, I will get back to you). Birds have this crop to store food after they eat so they have some for later. Im still working on getting the knack of tube feeding because not only do you have to hold the bird in one hand but you have to make sure to stick the tube into the crop and not down the throat to the lungs. Getting food in the lungs, just like us will make the bird choke. The seed and insect eaters are fairly easy and calm to take care of and get down the quickest usually. I forgot to mention while the ICU team is at work a specialized medical services personnel is working hands on with the animals that require medical attention. The med services will administer pills, shots, force feed, stitch, bandage etc.

The bigger, meat eating birds are next and a lot of them are grumpy from being bandaged up. In the ICU today we have barn owls, great horned owls, peregrine falcons, ravens, hawks and kestrels. Its a party and everyone is invited. For these birds you have to pick up any scraps in their cages and weigh them, this allows you to see how much the bird is eating compared to what is being given to them. Any time an animal is fed it is recorded onto a chart the day and how much the food weighed. You can tell if a bird is getting better or worse by the amount of food they eat. Some birds are picky and will leave just the tails of the mice or the wings and legs of the quails we give them. Some might not finish their food because they do not feel well or they are just getting too much food. Once the scraps are picked up you weigh new food and give water as well. Anytime you stick your hand in the cage it is recommended that you where gloves. Most of the time the birds will back into a corner and just watch you as you change their water and food but some will try to bite you or foot you with their talons. The peregrine falcons and kestrels love to eat chicken and quail while the owls, hawks and ravens usually like mice. The barn owls are particularly aggressive when it comes to being around their cage. They will hiss at you , open up their wings and bob at you back and forth while you clean their cage. The meat eating birds go without a hitch and then its time to start handling the birds for the medical services. The trainees have to suit up in some gloves and grab the birds out of their cage to hold them while med services checks them over and gives any medicine that is needed. I am asked at first if I wanna grab an owl but I decline because I wanted to watch some people do it first because I just shot my hands in there. The first guy pulled out was a barn owl and all he did was SCREAM while being held. This scream was raspy and loud and just incredible to hear. Its hard to believe a bird can make such noise. Here is the guy that made so much noise. This was taken just after he was fed some mice so his face is a little messy. Next up is me and I start off easy with a little Kestrel. He was small enough to be held in my hands but I still had to wear gloves to watch out for his talons and beak. He is given some food and medicine then put back in his cage. Yay, for me I grabbed my first bird! No one was hurt in the making of this bird grab. The day goes on successfully and after all the animals are fed and full the first day in ICU is wrapped up at Liberty Wildlife.

P.S. feel free to ask any questions.

Day 1

I woke up at 5 a.m. Sunday to start my first day at Liberty Wildlife. I was extremely nervous as I drove to the center, I had read the start up manual over and over so I could be as prepared as possible. I arrive at meet my Team Lead Eric and my Team members. The first day I will be in the rehab facility.

Liberty Wildlife is a center made up of 3 main parts, ICU where the new injured animals go. Rehab where the recovering and getting ready to be released back into the wild go. Last is Education where animals who cannot be released back into the wild, whether due to imprinting or injuries to severe, are kept and used for educational purposes. These education animals are the ones you see at presentations at school, conventions etc. For example some birds might have a wing too badly broken to heal properly and this does not allow the bird to fly. Obviously a bird that does not fly cannot live in the wild so this would be an example of a bird kept for education. Imprinting is a state an animal goes through when it gets too used to human contact. It can either see the human as one of its own, for example an owl sees all the humans as other owls, or it cannot distinguish itself from the humans, hence the owl will think it is a human. Unable to tell man from animal this does not allow an animal to survive in the wild, however some can shake this imprinting process.

So I begin my day with my partners and I am instantly thrust right into the process. First of all, I might mention that even though its early in the morning, it is an Arizona August summer morning and it is already hot. And having the bird's food, fish and meat in the sun is not pleasant! Luckily for me I get over smells easily. The water birds are first and they consist of herons, storks, ducks and geese. I watch my partners clean the first few enclosures to get the hang of it and then I get my first chance with some little herons. This a was about a month ago so I can't remember the exact species but I think it might have been a green heron. I go in nervously, even though the birds are small it is my first time and I don't want any to leave or peck me! The basic cleaning of an enclosure includes cleaning out the water bowl and giving new water, same with the food dishes, cleaning off any messes and also making sure all the animals in the enclosure are still alive. The herons are wary of my entry as they should be so they can also be afraid of the humans in the wild. When its time to feed the herons things get a little juicy, its a bowl full of dead herrings. I finish the feeding and I successfully complete my first enclosure. I finish up the water birds with the duck and geese enclosure.

Next we move on to the aviary with the seed eating and insect eating birds. I love little birds so this was fun. The aviary contained doves, quails ( adorable), woodpeckers, grackles, pigeons, swifts, sparrows, finches and many more. These aviary cleaning follows the same guidelines as the water birds, clean water and new food. The best was the quail enclosure because it was filled with baby quails who were just running around frantic everywhere but when you put the food down they all ran and stood in their food bowl to eat. The woodpeckers had a good time pecking at their wood enclosures and were very sneaky and tried to get out more then once.

We round of rehab with the raptorial birds, the meat eaters. This is when feeding gets a little gruesome. That day in rehab we had ravens, coopers hawks, harris hawks, kestrels, red tailed hawks and peregrine falcons. The enclosures we had also had barn owls, great horned owls and bald eagles but the owls are fed at night and the bald eagles require special feeding by people a little more specialized on bald eagles. For these meat eating birds you have to prepare them a gourmet meal of cut up mice, quails and chickens. You have to get over any squeamies really fast when you are preparing their meals. The ravens get more of a smorgasboard that includes meat, eggs, dog food and fruit. My first task is the Harris Hawks and my heart is pounding there are about 5 hawks in the enclosure and I am to go in take out scraps, dump the water, give new water and food. I try to calm my heart down and go in, I walk along the sides to give the birds the middle of the enclosure to fly in. Its crazy feeling these birds fly past you as you are in their enclosure, a little scary as well because they all have sharp talons which they can scratch you with. The scraps I get to pick are nice and moist thanks to the random downpour we had the night before. When I get to putting the food in I get nervous again because I don't know if the birds are going to try to swarm at me when I have the food. I put some on their posts and on their perches and I leave. The birds just stayed in their places and watched me, the occasional one flew across the enclosure but for the most part they stayed away. I also take care of the Coopers Hawks, Kestrels and Peregrine Falcons. The kestrels I thought were interesting, they were tiny little birds. You don't think something this little would be a meat eater. I also was in awe of the peregrine falcons, I mean I was in an enclosure with one of the fastest animals on earth. I got to feed them! It was absolutely amazing.

So that was my first day at Liberty , sorry for the post being so long. The next ones wont be as long and they will also include pictures. :)

First Post

Ok, here is my real attempt to have a blog that I keep up for more then a couple weeks. As the about me states, I am a biology major at ASU and I am currently volunteering at Liberty Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation in Arizona. At Liberty we take in injured Arizona Wildlife and get it back up and out to its natural environment. Those animals who cannot be let back out into the wild are used for education purposes to teach others about the world around them. Ill take pictures and post videos and just write a little about how my volunteer day goes. Feel free to ask any questions :)