the good, the bad, and the kitty

Yesterday (April 19) was the annual spring clean-up day at the raptor center. I was out there from about 9am until 4:30pm helping to beautify the MRP now that spring is here. I cleaned a few bird cages, which entails raking all the leaves, sticks, guts, and debris that has accumulated over the fall and winter months out of the gravel in the cage, scraping down the poo-covered walls, and then power-washing the whole thing. My cleaning partner and I found some interesting things in some of the cages – in Spirit, the bald eagle’s, cage, we found a pig’s foot and a pig or rat tail, and in Aura, the turkey vulture’s, cage, we found a rat’s skull and jaw bone. There were various guts and pellets thrown in there as well – it was a filthy disgusting good time. After that I spent most of the day raking and spreading mulch. It started raining sometime before lunch, so I was wet, cold, and covered in mud for most of the day. It was satisfying, though, and the raptor center looks lovely. I must say, though, that I hope to not see a rake and a steaming pile of mulch for a LONG time. I still kind of think my arms are going to fall off.

After lunch, one of the red-tailed hawks in the flight cage was released. I made a video and took lots of pictures of the hawk. Visit my Flickr page for more pics of the hawk.

BUT…the coolest part of the entire day – and possibly of my entire life – was that I not only got to see Petra, my favorite owl at the raptor center, after about 5 months of her staying at the MRP clinic in Cedar Rapids…but I got to HOLD her and PUT HER BACK IN HER CAGE!!! Yes, I was that excited that it warranted all caps. The first time I get to see her after all that time, and she was sitting on my hand, looking at me curiously with her big golden eyes. Petra (a Northern Saw-whet Owl) was so good and sat so nicely on my hand; so nicely, in fact, that once I got her into her cage she wouldn’t get off my hand! I tried to get her to hop onto her feeding platform which had two mice waiting for her, but she wouldn’t get off. I took her over to the perch on the other side of her cage, and she hopped off then. I was hoping she would never get off so I’d have to take her home. Getting to hold her after not seeing her for 5 months made all the hard work, mud, rain, and body aches worth it.

Here’s Petra! Remember, she’s about the size of my hand – less than 6 inches tall.

I also got to put Windhover, the American Kestrel, back into her cage, as well as Cypress, the barred owl. Barred owls are “normal” sized owls, so she was much larger than Petra. Jodeane, the director of the raptor center, helped me get Cypress back but it didn’t go very smoothly. Cypress kept trying to jump off my hand, but she was in jesses and tethered to my glove so she couldn’t go anywhere. She would end up hanging upside down off my hand, so I had to untangle her jesses and get her back upright. It was kind of nervewracking because I was afraid I would inadvertently hurt her, but I got her back safe and sound. I’ve never handled a bird like that before, and have never worked with a bird wearing jesses. I felt bad for things not going well, but I’m sure Jodeane knows I’ve never done that before.

Here’s Cypress!

I was supposed to start my flight cage training yesterday, but everybody was so exhausted and wet and cold that we decided to do it later in the week. After handling Cypress yesterday, though, I’m a little nervous about handling larger birds in the future. I’m sure I’ll get used to it.