Raptor week.

Its only the 2nd day of the work week for me and already so much has happened. Wednesday evening we had to give meds to one of our Red Tailed Hawks - it seemed intimidating, because usually the raptors are not on the med list (or we can just shove them into their food) and as you can guess, raptors are a little scarier than say.. a crow or pigeon. But in the end it was just like giving a shot to any animal - you just had to wear gloves and hold his feet still also :).
Thursday I started off watching our vet put a little foot wrap on another red tailed hawk - he had punctured his foot with his own talon.
Then we got in a young coopers hawk - who was so cute and small! Well, small for a hawk (still bigger than most birds we deal with), which probably means he is a boy.

(a young coopers hawk from wikipedia).
He had some dirty scrapped up wings - our hypothesis is that his legs are not working well, so he's dragging himself around by his wings. He had scraped one of the wings so much that some bone was exposed, so his prognosis is not promising, but I hope he makes it. He was a fiesty little guy :).
And then that evening I got to assist feed another red tailed hawk! Which means I shoved a dead mouse down his throat while someone else held him. I really had to push to get it down, and you end up with your finger all the way down his throat, it was cool! Then I massaged his chin/chest a little, to get him to finish swallowing (ie until there was no longer a mouse tail sticking out the corner of his mouth).

I also helped weigh our barn owl in the evening, and I was happy that my raptor handling skills have definitely improved.

In other non raptor news - we gave some meds to a little chickadee who was so fierce and tough for his size. He kept biting my hand while someone was giving him fluids, it was cute. It did actually hurt a tiny bit...

And the best part of my day - Someone brought in a young pigeon, and she was convinced it was a bald eagle! For the record it looked just like a pigeon, though he was a little balding. She said she had called fish and wildlife and described the bird and was sure it was an eagle. Then when we told her it was a pigeon, she said "Are you sure??" and seemed skeptical. I personally am pretty bad at recognizing birds, but pigeons are one of the few I know :).

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.