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.