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.