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

Care and Management

Last week, I got to take a workshop at The Raptor Center down in the cities. It was 4 days learning about training, first aid and raptors in general. For me, it was fun and I learned some fun facts to take back with me. As part of the class, we got to handle some birds - I got a peregrine falcon and bald eagle on glove for the first time. This won't surprise some of you but the peregrine was more exciting and beautiful to me!

Transferring the bird to my glove

Getting adjusted

This is a male eagle - he weighs about 7 pounds.

As usual in pictures with me and bird - my mouth hanging open

One last photo - my arm was getting tired!

We also got to spend some time practicing our first aid skills down in the clinic on actual patients. I got to give fluids to a couple peregrines and a goshawk. I also bandaged a peregrine and sharp-shinned hawk. Let me tell you, those teeny toes make putting a bandage on difficult. This was one of the most beneficial parts of the entire workshop - getting hands on experience on birds that are alive!

More pictures to follow once The Raptor Center puts there's online. I didn't take too many and sadly did not get my photo with the peregrine :(

CRANEAGE

This morning I dragged my bootie out of bed well before sunrise and was off to see cranes. We went to Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge and were standing, ready and waiting before 7AM. Shortly after, the cranes started coming out of roost and flying out to forage in neighboring fields. I saw over 500 sandhill cranes in total as well as a bunch of ducks, swans, grackles, red-tailed hawks and even a coyote.

3 cranes at sunrise

Right over head!

It was AMAZING to see all the cranes fly over head and a great way to start my birthday!

Hello Spike!

Guess what!

The center got a new education animal earlier this week!

A porcupine!

I am super excited and think that he is adorable. I took a few pictures on his first day. He is getting to know his new enclosure and slowly exploring it and the staff. Like the rest of our education animals, Spike could not survive in the wild; he has been with people since he was a porcupinette.With a little training he will make a great education animal to use in the porcupine quillwork class and a few others.

Checking things out

Starting to climb

Made it!

How awesome is he?

As you can imagine, many folks do not know much about this rodent. So here's a few fun facts for you.

• Weighing in at up to 40 pounds, porcupines are the second largest rodent in North America behind the beaver.
• A porcupine can have 40,000 quills.
• They are herbivores and often fall out of trees. Not because they are clumsy but because they are trying to get to tasty tree buds and tender branches.
• The porcupine and skunk are the only 2 mammals in North America that are black and white. They benefit from letting others know who and where they are at all times of the day and night. In other words, even though they see you, no one wants to mess with you!
• Natural predators include fishers, great horned owls, wolverines, mountain lions and humans.

Open House

This weekend  was the Audubon Center's annual open house. It was crazy busy and a ton of people came out. I got to spend the day with the birds in a roped area sharing their stories with the general public. 

Sunrise on my way into work!

Isis showing off!

So beautiful!

Also, check out this newsletter from a program I did this summer at Father Hennepin State Park. You will see a couple familiar faces on page 4 :)

FIRE!!!!

My Friday morning sure had a little bit more excitement than I would have liked. I was working with my school group when I saw one of our neighbors cruise by on his 4-wheeler. He noticed a bunch of smoke heading his way and figured we had fire somewhere. I didn't believe him but turns out he was right; we had a small wild fire on our property. The fire department and DNR came and put everything out. It ended up being pretty small but we lucked out big time since the dry ground and high winds could have made it much worse. Anyways, in total it was about an acre - just enough to give all of us a good adrenaline rush. Here are a few pictures of the damage. 

Also, I wish I had a smokey the bear shirt for Friday.

Remember: Only you can prevent forest fires.

Bird-on-a-Stick

I got to attend a couple sessions at the Raptor Resource Foundation conference this week. What this really meant was I got to play with more dead things! In the morning session I learned how to make a study skin and in the afternoon I learned how to do a necropsy. Anyways, I had lots of fun and it was totally worth the drive up!

working on getting the muscle and bones separated from the skin

Puppet time with a sharp-shinned hawk!

TA DA! My finished product :)

Hey There Delilah!

What I have been up to this week at work? 

I have been playing with a squirrel.

Yep! Delilah has arrived at the Audubon Center.

See. Here we are doing office work.

I betcha my job is cooler than yours.

Girls Weekend!

What a great start to the month! I spent last weekend hanging out with a couple friends. They came to visit me YAY! We did the high ropes course and I introduced them to some of the education animals we have. Following lunch, we  went for a walk at Banning State Park. It was great to show off this part of the state and contrary to what they may tell you, I did not try to kill them :)

Getting ready for the high ropes course!

Hiking in Banning

Some amazing colors!

After bumming around here on Saturday, we headed down to the cities to cheer on a couple friends who were running the twins cities marathon. They did AMAZING and it was a fun experience for me to watch. By the end of the race, runners were even recognizing us along the sidelines. I think that's a sign we were a great cheer squad!

Runners at mile 6 of 26.2

Cheering folks on!

Friends running the race

Cheering squad along the lake!

All in all, a fantastic weekend and a great way to start the month of October. I can't wait to do it again :)

A Walk in the Park

I must say, fall is my favorite time of year - the trees are gorgeous, the weather is awesome and there are very few bugs. Perfect. This morning I went for a small hike in St Croix State Park. It was the first time I went to the park since a storm earlier this year knocked down many trees! Seeing so many trees all snapped off at the same level was really bizarre. I also climbed the fire tower - in a week or so when the oak in the area turn it will be a phenomenal view. That said, the view today was very nice :)

Trees along the road leading into the park

Close up of the destruction

view from the fire tower