They grow up so quickly...

Two weeks ago when I started we had a flock of 8 baby geese, following around an adult geese (not their mother, but they assumed she was... It was cute). Saturday morning I did the usual rounds of feeding all the birds on the hill - and the geese have grown so much! Just last week they all still had fuzzy yellowish heads, and now 5 of them have the standard canadian geese markings showing up. And they are as tall almost as their "mom". They do still follow her around in a tight pack, trying to avoid me.
Here are some pictures I've borrowed from another blog (http://neighborhoodnature.wordpress.com) Showing some baby geese at 4, 5, and 7 weeks of age. You can see the head markings starting to appear, and by week 7 they look just like smaller adults.




We also have a plethora of baby mallards. When they see you reach in to exchange their food/water, they all huddle together as close as possible, almost standing on each other. Its pretty adorable...
Here's a video stolen off youtube of some ducklings:

We also have a few wood ducks, and a lot of big raptors and crows. A lot of the older crows have graduated to the hill, where they are in large enclosures. And I am getting better, but I still keep having flashbacks to hitchcocks "the birds" when I walk into a room with 5 crows, and they start flying overhead.
I've gotten to do some medications for some of our baby birds - and it is so nice! they all gape - which means you wave a syringe in front of them, and they open up their mouths looking for food. You can just squirt it in. I wish we could teach the raccoons to gape!
Up on the hill we have a room with 4 or 5 young jays in it. The rehabbers have confirmed they all have learned how to feed themselves - yet when you walk in one chases me around, and keeps landing in front of me and opening his mouth. Lazy little guy, says he's prefer having the food squirted into his mouth, so he doesn't have to bend down. Its pretty cute.

One more bird story - in the ward we have a crow we've nicknamed "creepy crow". In general we don't name the animals... This guy has bilateral paresis, so hes partially paralyzed. In the ward they are in little cages with a sheet over the door so they don't get stressed out by seeing us. However Creepy crow always finds his way to a corner of the door that is somehow not covered, and spends his time watching us. Sometimes snacking on mealworms (like popcorn) just watching! I've never seen another animal in the ward do that...

On a less "cute" note - I had my first experience at Paws that made me want to cry. I've seen plenty of animals put to sleep, or come in dead, w/ broken bones exposed and sticking out wings or legs. Somehow that I can tolerate, and blame on life... But we had a squirrel get brought in who was hit by a car - and he was a little bloody, and just lying in the box gasping clinging to life. His chest was filling up with fluids making it hard for him to breath. Needless to say he didn't make it - but seeing him lying there fighting death was so sad. And it reminded me of all the animals daily who get hit by cars and just left on the side of the road assumed dead - who languish there stunned and in pain as life slowly leaves them. Its hard knowing how much pain we cause animals with our highly advanced lifestyles. But at least I'm helping a few of the animals get back on their feet.

Raccoons

Before I get to the raccoons... Today we got in a young great horned owl. He came in because someone found him tangled in a volley ball net. At a nudest colony...
We're thinking he must have been awfully distracted by all the naked people and then flew into the net... (he was looking for other hooooters. Ha!).

Anyways... I spent most of Friday helping out raccoons. First we started getting one of the silos ready for some of the raccoons to move up to the hill. At paws the young guys get to stay inside in little cages, and once they weigh over 1200 g and are self feeding, they move to a large outside enclosure. This year we hung tarps below the ceiling - because they like to climb and this way it would catch them if they fell. But it turns out they really love sleeping up in the tarps. The nice thing about it is the cages are easier to clean, because they spend so much time up there. Bad thing - it must be super gross and full of poop!
We have 4 silos that can each hold 10 raccoons - I was getting ready the 3rd one. Once that was ready I went down and tubed some of the remaining raccoons - we have about 20 left, only 12 or so getting tubed. Raccoons are so cute.
Once we replenish their water dishes they get so excited and run to dunk their little paws in it, and knead the water. They often stand in the water, just moving their feet. Here is a video if a raccoon in water from youtube to give you an idea of them:


Right now they are pretty young still - and they are curious but timid. So you open the door and they try to dash out, then you reach in and they shrink back, not sure what to think. Up in the silos I found two of them curled up in a big dog food bowl (which had food in it that morning). So cute! They just glanced up at me and went back to sleep. They also like to sleep in their "hammock" which is a black piece of canvas hanging from its four corners, folded in half, and they all pile up in it on top of each other. To get in they have to climb the fence, and they do so slowly, while eyeing me, not sure if I'm interesting or terrifying. At this age cleaning their cages is sorta fun!

I ended the evening helping out with meds and tubings again. I tube fed a gull - who is very bitey. And did manage to bite my finger once (bad gull).

Owls and herons

Today started off pretty slow at work. I spent a while on the cleaning pad scrubbing astroturf, and folded like 8 loads of laundry... (once again - animals sure are messy).

Then I got to hold the barn owl as he was "assist fed." Like the young hawk a few days ago - this involves shoving mice down his throat. I'd never held a raptor before, so it was quite exciting for me. You enter his box (which is like a little room) and he starts schreeeching loudly and spreads his wings to scare you. I'm told that he can't hurt me really... (sure) but his scaring tactics are pretty good. This video I found on youtube gives you an idea of his tactics:


Only in my case he's in a much larger enclosure - and hops around trying to escape me. The general tactic is to throw a sheet over him - once their heads are covered they usually hold still. Then secure his talons - his weapon of defence, and then pick him up, while keeping his talons and wings restrained. I finally got him after a little chasing - feeling bad for stressing him out. I sure was happy to have gloves on - his talons grip hard! Once I had him, he was well behaved, and ate his mice. This owl seems to be healthy other than not eating - so we're hoping he'll start eating soon so he can go free!

THEN I got to hold a great blue heron! He was much easier to catch - again we just threw a sheet over first. With the heron his weapon is his beak - so we made sure to always keep control of his head. And we always wear glasses - as apparently they like to poke out eyes :).

I finished off the evening helping with tube feedings and meds - a few birds still have to get tubed (including a gull who loves to bite) and a crow who clamps his beak shut sooo tight. We also have a cedar wax wing, who is super tiny and cute.


I'm slowly starting to learn my birds...
And I finished off the night giving subQ fluids to a little baby squirrel. It was easier than the raccoons and possum, maybe just cause I'm getting better at it.

But no, today, I didn't get to wear the bear suit.

Second week - big birds

My second week at paws was short again - only two days, as I then took the weekend off to go do my first half iron-man triathlon! (But that story belongs to another blog...)

This week the laundry and cleaning situation was way more under control, and we finally caught up from last weeks mountains of dirty items. I learned that Wednesdays are nice - because we have a ton of staff - it is the day of the week a lot of us overlap. Even so, my days are so busy that I come home and I can barely remember what I did and saw - all I know is that a lot of it was exciting!

We have a juvenile Hawk - and I watched him get fed his dinner of mice, since he doesn't want to eat on his own yet. He is super cute - he's got the the big sharp looking talons of a mature bird, but his head and fluffiness gives away his young age. He looks a little like this young hawk:



Up close his mouth doesn't look that big (though sharp!) and the rehabbers simply open it up, and shove a whole half mouse down his throat! He then closes his mouth, does a little swallow, and *poof* its gone. Though once or twice there was a tail sticking out of his mouth, and he had to be prompted (rub his neck) to remember to swallow the rest. Young Hawks are pretty cute - not quite as intimidating as the mature ones.
The next day I once again tube fed a bunch of Raccoons - though now we're down to only 24 as the bigger ones are weaned and eating on their own (yay!). One of the seasonals showed me how she holds the raccoon still and the tube in place, and it seemed to work well for me. I think I finally got the hang of it! Also once again, baby raccoons sure are cute! (I'm pretty sure the theme of this blog is that baby animals are cute...).
In the evening I got to feed a great horned owl. It mainly just means I threw some (dead) mice into his cage, but I got to see him - and he was so fluffy. He seemed less excited to see me - and clicked his beak at me.
I also got to do subQ on an oppossum - which is different than an raccoon as they are smaller and the skin is less thick. But at least it didn't scream at me!

I think those are the highlights of the week. I'm leaving a lot off, but its hard when we fit so much into the day...

The first week

I'm going to try and summarize my first week (only 3 days) as an intern at Paws in just one blog.

A week before I started I had "advanced volunteer training" where we learned/practiced on dead animals how to tube feed, and give subQ and IM injections. I've never done anything with needles before - and this was oddly exciting to me. Something about giving an injection, and breaking through the skin of an animal with a needle makes me feel closer to becoming a vet. Anyways, training went well, and I was ready to start the next week.

On the first day I helped with a lot of cleaning and preparing diets (and I presume I will spend a lot of the summer doing that), and at 8pm it was time to tube feed 44 raccoons. Since it was my first day, and I'd never done that, I drew up the syringes and helped clean, and then R my rehabber helped me tube held the last raccoon and let me do it. I was nervous and excited, but it went well! Then I got to help give subQs of fluids to 10 of the raccoons - This made me even more nervous. It also doesn't help that while you're poking them with the needle and pushing the fluids in, the raccoons enjoy screaming. And it is a high pitched loud scream, that sounds like they are in so much pain! BUT - I had to keep reminding myself, they also scream even when they're just alone in their cage, or just being held - so it probably was not my fault! I got a little more comfortable as I went, but I think it will take me a few more times to feel totally confident doing it.
The second day I tube fed two raccoons all by myself, and continued to help cleaning putting stuff away, etc. It really is amazing how much laundry and dirty dishes are generated by running a wildlife hospital.. Its never ending!
At the end of the day we watched the two baby harbor seals get tube fed, and OMG are they adorable. First things I've ever seen that are cuter than puppies! Those big seal eyes! Here is a picture of one I found off the internet (not ours) so you can see, our are cuter of course.


Sunday morning I started off preparing food for and feeding a bunch of our birds (and baby birds). We have 9 little gosslings who are in a big area with a Geese who came in w/ a hurt wing, and now gets to play mother. Its funny watching them all follow her around in a pack. And the baby mallards are just so adorable. Fuzzy and yellow. I'll be honest that the crows sometimes scare me - when you come in and five of them are on a perch staring and cawing at you, its hard not to think of some scenes from Hitchcocks - "the birds."
I then tube fed all 44 raccoons myself! Yes, I went from help doing one, to doing two alone, to doing 44. I'll say that by the end I was definitely getting more confident and comfortable with them, though I'm still not quite up to snuff. I'm sure by next week I will be! I keep watching other peoples techniques as I'm trying to find the best way to hold the tube in their mouth while pushing down on the syringe. I'll get it soon!