Dreaming of Spring!

This winter seems to have gone on forever. I needed a little color and green in my day. So I headed up to the cities and went to Como Park Zoo and Observatory. I enjoyed a few moments soaking up the smells and the bright colors. Spring can't come soon enough!

More Soar!

This weekend was the last weekend of Soar with the Eagles at the National Eagle Center this year. We had different presenters and a TON of visitors so I didn't get to take quite as many pictures. Even though we were busy, I still managed to meet a few critters.

The Minnesota Herpetological Society brought a bunch of creepy crawlies including tortoises, turtles, toads and snakes. To the left is a picture that Scott took where I am holding an 8 foot red-tailed boa that weighs in at roughly 22 pounds. When I was younger, I was terrified of snakes. I've come a long ways the last couple years but you have no idea how much I was freaking out doing this. After I had the snake I realized that I had handled rats earlier that day for the eagles. Maybe not the smartest thing I have done recently...especially since the snake kept "yawning." I survived and I hope to see you next year at this event :)

Kitchen Successes

Last week, I decided to try out some things I found on pinterest. I drove to the store, got the needed supplies and then proceeded to turn my little kitchen into a disaster zone. When all the flour settled, I had successfully made a loaf of french bread, pizza and frozen peppermint cheesecake. It all tasted fantastic!

SOAR

Donald and I teaching

I have a pretty cool job. Each year in March, The National Eagle Center hosts an event called SOAR with the Eagles. Special presenters and vendors are brought in each weekend and our staff does lots of live eagle programs with our residents. This weekend, the feature presentation was World Bird Sanctuary and their free flight bird show. We also had David Stokes with his reptiles and some fun artists. There is one weekend left, so if you are in the area stop by! Its a great time :)

Eurasian Eagle Owl flying over the audience (and about to hit me in the head with his equipment)

Got to meet the bird stars after the show: here is the wedge-tailed eagle from Australia. AWESOME bird! There are no vultures in Australia so this bird serves the role of vultures and eagles. It also has a crazy long tail and this individual was rather vocal for a booted eagle. As a bonus, I now have my photo with 4 species of eagle - only about 55 to go!!

I purchased this Eagle Totem drawing from Foxloft Studies - one of our vendors. I first came across this artist last year at the IAATE conference but didn't purchase anything. Glad I did this time!

Playing with a bull snake

IAATE 2013 Conference

Last week, I traveled to Tampa, Florida for the International Association of Avian Trainers and Educators conference. It was 4 days filled with bird nerd activities, presentations and meals. I had the chance to go behind the scenes of Natural Encounters, the Florida Aquarium and the Tampa Lowry Zoo. It was awesome! I learned a lot, met some new friends and got to see some pretty amazing things! I would call it a completely successful trip!

The entire IAATE conference crew!

Steve Martin training a parrot at Natural Encounters

Andean Condor being free flown at Natural Encounters

HARPY EAGLE!!!!

Check out those Harpy Eagle Talons!

YAY for getting my photo taken with the harpy at Natural Encounters!

Ray touch tank

African Porcupine!

Martial Eagle

Lorikeet Landing

ACNW Visit

My Audubon Center of the North Woods folks (see above) visited me last Sunday. I showed them the eagle center and went out to find some goldens. I had a blast!

A couple of them were SUPER sneaky and managed to hide a "gift" in my workspace. Since I am stuck with the tennis ball for the near future, I decided to put it to got use and let the eagles enjoy. Surprisingly, Donald interacted with it the most!

Was'aka and tennis ball

Donald investigating!

Bands

We had a dead eagle come into the center recently. What makes this eagle really special is that it was banded on both legs - it had both a federal band and a project band.

Certificate from the USGS for reporting the bands

Close up the bands

I reported the information to the federal bird banding laboratory of the USGS and got immediate results. The site told me all the information about this individual. Turns out it was banded in the UP of Michigan in 2000. I even got a little certificate. We cut the bands off the birds and are going to use them in education programs at work. We are also working on tracking down the folks that put the bands on the bird to see what the goal of the project was. Stay tuned!