Happy Holidays!

Here are a few pictures of my trip home for Christmas! It was a fun but super quick trip. Can't wait to bust out my new snowshoes...if we ever get any.

Mattmiller grandkids and great-grandkids

annual picture of Checkers under the tree

AWESOME!

I got a treat tonight - we had a falconer come to the center and talk for our winter family camp. She brought a gyrfalcon and harris hawk. Both beautiful birds and I was excited just to see these birds. This was easily the highlight of the week for me!

female white phase gyrfalcon

harris hawk

Pox

This morning, I got bit by our education raven on the lip. I grabbed him to put him on the table but he is smart and quick. He managed to give me a nice cut that bled for most of the day and my lip is now a little bit swollen and bruised. It hurts.

The bad news is that both our crow and raven have avian pox. This is a virus birds get from a biting insect that causes lesions on the non-feathered parts of a birds body. Usually, corvids get over the virus without too much issue in a fairly short period of time. We can't do too much to speed along healing since it a virus, we just have to make sure the sores do not get infected. We have put in additional protocols to limit the possibility that we spread it to our other birds since it is contagious.

Fingers crossed they heal quickly!

Mob the crow

 P.S. - Don't worry, I can't come down with avian pox. I did however fill out an injury report form just in case my lip gets infected or I get sick because of the bite.

St Mary's Glacier

Perhaps the best place I explored on my Denver trip was St. Mary's Glacier. It was off the beaten path but once we hiked up to the opening, it was AMAZING! This place is technically not a glacier because it doesn't flow but has snow year round. We rented snowshoes, walked around a bit and took a ton of pictures. They don't do the view justice but here are a few of my faves.

Fallen tree on the hike up

St Mary's Glacier

St Mary's Glacier

Love the way these trees look and had to climb one!

Sun going behind some clouds

Quick picture of Amanda and I

View of the mountains on the hike down

Colorado Springs

My second day in Colorado, we went over to Colorado Springs after having brunch with some friends.

View from Cave of the Winds

We started the day with a lantern tour of Cave of the Winds. Basically, they give you a candle for light then take you back into the cave and tell you ghost stories. Little bit spooky but a really fun way to see a cave.

Me and my lantern

Inside the cave

more cave

After the cave, we headed over to Garden of the Gods. Again, the scenery was amazing!

beautiful

absolutely amazing!

Garden of the Gods - Me and Amanda

Red Rocks

View from the plane!

I am back to reality after my quick trip to Denver. It was a lovely but short break. I was visiting a friend and this time out, I got to see lots of naturey things. First up, Red Rocks.

At the top of the amphitheater

 This was on my list because prairie falcons have been sighted there. Sadly, I didn't see any falcons but the scenery was beautiful!

Shadows

Amanda and I

Of course, I had to climb something!

Mammals Class

Check it out!!!

Its been a big week for Spike the porcupine and me! On Monday, I learned how to pick him up and today, we taught our first class together!

I taught Minnesota Mammals where the students learn all about what makes mammals special. While they were out on a hike, I got Spike into his crate and brought him inside for his teaching debut. I let him walk around on table top while I talked awesome porcupine adaptations. He did AMAZING for his first time out - even ate in front of the students :) What a fantastic way end to the week!!

insanity

They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.

That's kinda of how I feel at the moment. Like I am repeatedly running into the same wall but nothing is changing. So I have lots of crud going on in my head at the moment.

The good thing is I fly to Denver on Saturday which should provide a much needed break. I am hoping to see a few new sights and get some snow time in. Also, I am bringing my binoculars with. There is word on the street that 2 pair of prairie falcons frequents a place I want to check out. Would love to see one in the wild!

So long story short, I haven't abandoned the blog world. Just lots going on in my head and at work.

P.S. Don't worry, I will post another series of taxidermy pictures from taxidermy days soon.

Snow

Well, its that time of year. We finally got snow...and a lot of it. So far about 5 inches has fallen and it may not be done. Snow does make animal care a little extra challenging and shoveling is not my favorite but at least it looks pretty out!

Now off to dig out my winter clothes from storage :(

TRC Blog

Check it out - A picture of me tethering a kestrel made The Raptor Center's blog!

skullage

Its time for another round of beetle products! I know some of you are not too interested but here are a few of my favorites from the past couple months. We now have bird heads galore and have started to try doing deer heads for European mounts. The trick with both of these is not to get the colored part of the beak or antlers into the hydrogen or the color gets removed.

I also had developed another life skill - I am awesome at skinning things. Tonight, I skinned a deer skull in about 20 minutes and almost entirely in a single piece.I am not sure if I should be proud or concerned to have this skill....

Deer

Merlin!!

members of the corvid family - blue jay, crow and raven

Skunk!

Windy City

This past weekend I took a quick road trip to Chicago with my friend Amanda. Its always fun for me to get out of the bubble and back into civilization.

One of the first things on my to-do list was a Starbucks run. Its holiday drink season so I got my first peppermint white mocha of the season. Usually, I get a regular coffee rather than a fancy drink but this is AMAZING. As a bonus, I still have a free drink coupon from my birthday so I saved $6!!

After coffee, we went to Millennium Park and took ridiculous pictures with the bean. If you are not familiar with this statue, it is a giant metal thing that was supposed to look like a cloud. I think it looks more like a kidney bean. Either way, its great to take funny photos with.

looking up at the bean

Then we hit up The Art Institute of Chicago where we saw the highlights, including American Gothic.

After some Chicago style pizza we went to Navy Pier and then did a little shopping before getting back on the train.

Chicago Skyline

sun going down in the windy city

looking awesome as always?

 On our way back to the cities we stopping in Milwaukee. We said a quick hi to my sister and grabbed some more coffee. I wish our trip could have been longer but it was fun and totally worth the hours in the car :)

Feeder Frenzy

I have been watching the bird feeder at my house on mornings I have off. Here are a few of the critters that made an appearance!

Dark-eyed Junco

Red Squirrel

White breasted Nuthatch

Red-bellied Woodpecker