Adorable Goat update

If you are asking WHAT GOAT right about now, click those red words (or click on the Goat Category on the right of this page).

For those of you who've been hankering (commenter Kilpy and Alice) for a little more of the baby goat, here he is on a day he went outside to enjoy the sunshine and a little grass in the Wildlife Center's new outdoor pens.

'Tis just a moment, but sweet all the same.

Bits and Pieces

A quick thank you for all replies on my last post. I'm on the road, sending this pre-written post from an iphone.

I do have a net and proper pet carrier and food and water if I were to catch the chicken and would have a person who could take her set up before I did anything... And I would take the hen there immediately after catching her. I can always take her to the professional comfort and care at the wildlife rehab center I volunteer at in a pinch. A vet tech there alredy offered to take her but I'm still looking for the best fit for her new home.


OK---Close to sunset baby and adult bunnies are found everywhere along the edges of the reeds and thicker patches of tall flowers in The Park. They are the only animals there that aren't used to people, scampering away as soon as you get near. I'm glad. As much as I enjoy the fact that the animals there are so tame, it's not the best thing for them.... because plenty of people out there do bad things to animals if they can get their hands on them. I was able to snap a pic before this one hightailed it to safety.
All the ducks I've seen sleep with their heads turned back and their beak resting in the feathers, tucked under their wings. This guy looks like he passed out and his beak is holding him up... exhibiting the same fine sense of balance as when they sleep on one foot. Maybe he had a tough night out with the boys. I got closer to see if he was ok. He looked up and said AFFLACK, so I moved on.

I call the one below Three in a Tree. I had given a nice juicy walnut to three different squirrels and they all managed to run up into the nearest tree and perch on a branch stump, as they are wont to do, to eat it. Usually if two squirrels go up the same tree there is a squabble and a comical chase by one after the other. This was an amazing sight, so I tried to get a quick shot. Unfortunately it doesnt show up so well here... but it's enough.



Hope you can see them all. There's one way up on the top left whose tail is facing us.

Hen Peck

I have gone to the park several times this week and have not seen the chicken. Since it's new habit seems to be standing in the road, I keep feeling certain it will get hit... or it will disappear and I will never know what happened to it... did it get squashed on a week, like this coming one, where I will be out of town, and there will be no telltale signs left as dust returns to dust? Has someone scooped him up for dinner once night (hey, in these parts, it could happen). Did the chicken indeed cross the road successfully and take up residence in a more protected area by the golf course? I would search and search and never know.

So the other day, I had just decided to dump all the cracked corn I bring for him to feed a set of 5 mallard siblings who eagerly gobbled it up and grow stronger for it... and I finally see the chicken in the same old place, pecking at the grass. And my bag is empty, grrr. Is she subsisting on insects alone? Am I the only one feeding her anymore?

I go home, I think about her, I am back the next day at sunset, when all is quiet and I see her. This time I have plenty of corn. I shot this first part from afar so you can see what an oddity it is to have a lone black hen in the middle of a parking lot beside a major street.




Right after I stopped shooting, the chicken spots me and comes RUNNING. I wish I'd caught it on tape but feeding her was more important to me and I didn't want to scare her away. Those toothpicks for legs coming at me so fast... hysterical.



I poured a pile that was way too big, on the side of the curb so she would be far away from the busy street... Doh! I should have put it UP on the SIDEWALK! I sat there in the quiet, with the sun going down, just the hen and me, waiting for the hen to eat it all, feeling satisfied for at least another day.


So opinions please..... I'm thinking of bringing a net and a carrier and catching the chicken in hopes that one of the rehabbers in the Wildlife Center will give it a home. I can't help but think it's stressful with no real cover having to hunt and pick for food... around traffic, hiding from the crowds at the zoo (it's a madhouse most days), having no other company of it's own kind.

Or is the hen happy being wild and free? Someone clearly had in their yard -- maybe got it as a chick for Easter and found it wasn't fun once it was bigger -- and dropped off at the park. Remember, it used to have shelter in an overgrown covered shack that once housed the children's train that runs around the park. That was all bulldozed and now is completed, and the chicken has no where to go... Can it be happy in the parking lot nearby, right next to the busy street and zoo? It's hard to know what's the right thing to do.

Do you Believe It? Playing Catch with Wild Birds

Wild birds -- Blue Jays and red-headed woodpeckers to be exact -- play catch with me in the park. No, really.

Who hasn't had sparrows zoom out from nowhere for your crumbs when you're at an outdoor cafe? And in these parts, if any of the other animals are getting fed, grackles appear and want their share. They're incredibly sharp.

So I guess it's not that far a stretch to think that the other birds could. But these birds sit on a nearby branch (or in the woodpeckers case, on a tree trunk) - and make eye contact with me. I show them the piece of nut or sunflower seed and when I know they've seen it I toss it -- and they swoop down and catch it in the air! They land on a branch and eat it, then return for more.

I know it's hard to believe... but, I finally caught it on film. I've several bad tries -- shooting with one hand on a little pocket digital cam (while my nice HD movie cam I bought to take with me sits at home), while spotting birds, rustling up a nut with the other hand, aiming and tossing, and trying to follow without it blurring. I'm not talented enough to do it all... but I did get this where you can see it in his mouth when he lands.

And of course, when one comes, several follow. You'll see another Blue Jay waiting for his behind the one I shot. I threw another piece in the air but he picked it up when it was on the ground (it was a bad toss), OK, are you ready? Here we go!



Woo Hooo! Isn't that fabulous? If you play it again you can see it starts with the bird on the tree trunk, where he flew to get my attention. I have never seen that happen before. I figure they cackle among themselves about how they've trained ME.

I'm in constant wonder and amazement at this and it has happened many times, so it's not just a fluke... and it's not just in one part of the woods, with the same birds. I'm telling you, someone spread pixie dust across this little park, and it's my personal slice of heaven on earth.

Wild and Tame

Here's a little look at the Peregrine falcon who is a fixture at the Wildlife Rehab Center. He's long ago healed up and has a permanent home there. Every day he gets to come out of his house and sit on top of his perch, where he likes watching everyone. He doesn't need to be tethered or anything. He rules the roost, so to speak.

When we get busy with things elsewhere, he amuses himself by going to the edges of what he must feel is his permissible territory because when one of us passes by and actually notices he's not on the top of his house, he looks a little like a kid who emptied the cookie jar and he hops back into what he must feel is the place we expect him to be. It's a crack up.

Here I found him standing on a perch next to his cage -- He doesn't hop so fast, so he must not have been feeling very guilty that day, lol. But he does do the hop.

Forgive my voice-- I had laryngitis that day.

Eagle Eye

For now, something timely:

Thanks to Sizzie for sending me this link to a live camera in the nest of a Bald Eagle. There is a baby and two views of it. A must see.

An OGE (the electric company) pole was used for the nest. The pole broke, so OGE repaired it and inserted a camera in the nest as they did. Apparently there were 4 eggs but only one hatched. But you can watch a great, golden headed bald eagle and her baby in the nest live by clicking HERE  (or cutting and pasting) this link:
http://www.suttoncenter.org/eaglecam.html

Check it out and let me know what you think!!!

(I found out the cameras there have broken in a rainstorm... but they've been recently repaired... of course, you have to watch during the daylight hours) 

*Also, please take a moment to click the purple paw to the right of this post, to help animals in need get a meal*

UP!

Another thing I did for the first time Wednesday was to put on a really thick, long glove and got to put this outrageously handsome bird back in his cage. He was staring me down with those HUGE golden eyes and his beak, which wasn't far, looked sharper than his talons, so I put on protective glasses too.

You hold your wrist straight at his legs and press into them a little and say "UP". That should make those strong claws grab onto the glove. Then you hold your hand up and higher than your shoulder. The bird feels comfortable being high up and he won't feel the need to try to fly away. If your arm starts to sag with the weight, birds will start to crawl up to reach the height they see on your shoulder, or hey, maybe your head. OK with a parrot, but not these killer feet!


Look at him!!! Magnificent! His life was saved by the Wildlife Rehab and Education Center but he was not able to be released into the wild, which is their main goal. If an animal can't get away from predators or eat properly, or are not 100% in the noggin due to some kind of fall or accident, they are kept by the center, or a zoo or the like to be an ambassador for their species. Hence the educational part of the Center's title.

This bird as well as the Peregrine Falcon, the Red Tailed Hawk, the Screech Owl and the Hedgehog go out for public talks and do a great service. But to take them out, they have to be trained a little, so they behave well in public and so their own stress level is minimized.

He was sitting out because Kinky Freeman came to visit, with a small group of folks he had with him. I guess he was speaking for the SPCA the next day, and has some kind of animal preserve of his own. This owl was part of the welcoming committee.

Then I got to put away the gorgeous and fluffy Red Tailed Hawk. Neither bird cooperated so well on my first try but that's what you have the leg straps for. They have custom made little leather leg straps and gromets in the center where they can attach to a rope, so if they do fly, they don't go very far. It's as much for their own safety as ours. It was easier with the Hawk than the Owl. And after the initial moment of taking in what I'd learned wore off, it hit me what I'd just done.

I may have lost the thrill of New York City but Mother Nature is a formidible match. I just can't believe I get to do this stuff!

Catching The Last Spring Rays

I might have seen Mr.Goose on his own on my last walk (click HERE to read), but a few days later I saw he and the Mrs. standing in the setting sun on the far side of the center island, doing their evening preening. All the ducks follow a rather comforting routine of getting close to where they'll settle for the night and beginning a grooming sequence. They usually are no longer interested in my bread or cracked corn, as nature's instincts rule.

(I wish my own instincts would be that way when I'm watching TV in the evening on the couch. I wish my nature would be to say, "oh no, I'm close to going to bed, I have NO INTEREST in Ice Cream at this hour!")



I got closer and tried to shoot them again, since in the above video I had maxed out my zoom and knew it'd be even smaller on blogger. And to my amusement, I saw they'd been joined by a turtle, warming himself in the sun. There's a healthy population of turtles in the Lake. They're cold blooded and regulate their temperature by absorbing sun. I like to think of their shells like solar panels that they can draw upon long after it's dark. Click HERE to learn more.




Amazing how the geese use their long necks to curl in such a dramatic way, and can smooth their downy feathers with not just their beaks but the back of their heads. At times when I see waterbirds poking at themselves with their beaks, it looks like they're perhaps pinching out mites or some other little bug that's gotten on them.

But in fact their big, outer feathers have zipper-like little connections called barnucles. The preening straightens out any of these that might have come undone and restores them to their fully waterproof nature. Underneath those are small whispy feathers called down, which of course is what's used in pillows and comforters. Together they provides insulation and bouyancy. I learned about that when I took an all day training for cleaning birds caught in oil spills at the Wildlife Rehab Center. Hoping to never have to use those skills....

Mr. Grizzled from RiverDaze, you may have something else to add on this grooming activity....

Talk to the Animals

Talk To The Animals

by Chief Dan George

If you talk to the animals,

They will talk to you.

And you will know each other.

If you do not talk to the animals,

you will not know them.

And what you do not know, you will fear.

What one fears

One destroys.

Take a Deep Breath

As promised in my HEN story of a few days ago found by CLICKING HERE-- the strange call of the long tailed Grackle.

I learn mostly about animals by observing their behavior. I ask questions wherever I can, in fact, I run the risk of being that annoying question person. But I do have enormous curiosity about everything... Of course it can led me to Google a little and read up in books. But I don't have much spare time.

In this case, I've observed a strange call in the long tailed Grackle. Only see it in the males (females are brown, males are the irridescent indigo blue-black you see below). I assumed it was a kind of mating call, since many males puff up what they've got to impress a female. But while sometimes another grackle is nearby, it's usually another male. So one might assume that it's a fighting posture -- again, another reason to make ones self bigger. But I've never witnessed a fight ensue. The call is also different. If you look here as the grackle comes up behind the chicken, it makes a mechanical sound, like someone's turing on a loudspeaker to test it before an announcement.

Or you have this other sound... more of a wind up noise. Sorry in advance for the wind in the microphone.... but I got a better shot of one doing it by complete chance.




Both time the bird inflates fully and opens it's beak, the noise comes out and he deflates to less than half the size, then... nothing. I've also tried to figure out if this only happens at certain times of the day or the year, without much luck... Anyone out there with answers? Clues even?

With Many Thanks

A big bowl of gratitude goes to Grace at Graceful Yoga for this blog award. What a wonderful surprise. Grace is a recent follower of Adventures in Nature so I am doubly honored by her.

I also received this award the same week from Linda at World of Spirit. I am a fan of their blogs. Please check them out and say hello as you know, we all live for comments.

Of my three blogs, this blog is indeed my favorite. I could post on it all day and never run out of ideas. I have had so many experiences that I still haven't posted about!

Some of those are:

* More of what it was like to feed the lions, tigers, leopards and bears as a carnivore keeper Aid at the zoo. And why I had to stop for now.

* CIG training which I did in early March, which gives me a few initials after my name and makes me official in what I do here naturally --interpreting nature.

* Taking Animal Handling training as an extension of my docent training at the zoo. Now I can take out the animals ambassadors and interact with the public. My faves -- a running duck, a gorgeous chicken, a mischievous, wiggly ferret, a little baby gator and a giant Welsh rabbit (I'm too allergic to take him out DARN! It set me back a weekend just being near him for the training). I'd love to take out the owl but that is for staff only...

* Training for how to clean wildlife affected by oil spills, which I just took on Friday at the Wildlife Rehab and Education Center. I hope I never have a reason to use those skills.

* Trying to catch that orphaned baby bird in The Park to bring into the Wildlife Center so it won't be on it's own (not a good thing for a duck) and will have a chance at a good long life.

*Spotting ANOTHER chicken trying to cross the busy road.... in the middle of the city!

* New pics of the baby giraffe at the zoo and stats on how much he's grown.

I'd like to pass this blog award on to:

RIVERDAZE

TRANSIENT LIVES

CIRCLING MY HEAD

WINEDALE PORCHSCAPE

WANDERING LIKE A NOMAD

LOTUS MARTINIS

GARDENER TO FARMER

TERRY AND THE CATS OF FURRYDANCE

(Scroll down to check out kitten videos on this one!)

STUFF FROM ELLEN'S HEAD

Please stop by those blogs by clicking on their names... I hope you enjoy them!

Thank you Grace and Linda!

Swimming Lessons

Just yesterday I was at the Wildlife Rehab Center and had a first with The Beavers. I've never even seen one until 2 weeks ago, and in that time I filmed THIS little movie of them drinking from a bottle (You MUST click that link to watch, if you haven't seen it!). To my great delight, a few days later I myself was feeding them. And yesterday I got to "swim" them.... meaning we fill up the large utility sink off the kitchen and put them in so they can get used to swimming. Had I been thinking, I would have gotten THAT on video.

Of the two, there is one who's sensitive (fussy) and very vocal (whiney). Pinktail we call her, because to tell them apart we put a tiny dot of pink nail polish on her tail. Though it's fallen off , by now I can tell who she is by her temperament (I say her, but we don't know who is what sex at this point).

We put a branch or two and a few great smelling leafy boughs and a pine cone in their little tank. I saw one of them instinctually trying to eat a leaf and the other gnawing with those beaver teeth on the wood. Yay, they are learning to be beavers! This movie isn't much because I can't sit around waiting for them to do something great when there are other mouths to feed, but it's a little something...

For their swimming lesson, I got the water temp juuuuuuust right and watched as the woman who runs the center put Pinktail in. I did the same with the other one, who I'll call Biggie, since he's bigger. (I don't try to come up with fabulous names for the sake of the stories!) She then walked away and Pinktail started to reach up to me and cry. It was adorable. I knew it was good for her to keep her in, so I just turned her around and she paddled a little. Biggie wasn't any more skilled, but uttered not a peep. He did grab on to P. They were hanging on each other, even thought they could touch the bottom. So I spent a delightful 10 minutes pulling them apart and resetting Pinktail (she kept trying to crawl out).

Then it was a matter of lifting them out and putting towels around them, with the attendant whimpering from Miss Pink. Made some Esbilac (Powdered "puppy" milk), put 4 oz in each bottle with 1 oz Pedialyte and warmed it up in the microwave. Then, still wrapped in towels, let them nurse.

Biggie is a great eater, though I had to pull the nipple out of his mouth several times so he wouldn't aspirate. THEN I heard him complain. He did not want to let go of it. Pinky was being fussy as usual, but eventually they both were satiated with 3 oz. We dried them off a little more and put them back in the tank, with the heater on. I watched as they promptly went right to sleep!

Who knew Beavers were this cute and... human?

It's a Long Story.....

Been meaning to mention for OVER A YEAR that in addition to all the animals I listed on the Snow White post, there is a hen in the Park too. That's right, a lone hen. Someone must have dropped her off there and she'd been managing to live there for gawd-knows how long.

I was astonished when I first discovered her, thanks to a homeless man who pointed her out to me, happy to be talking to someone, someone who clearly loves animals as much as he does. The guy, looked like he could not feed himself, but I've seen him often wandering the perimeter of The Park with a bag of peanuts in the shell (the most economical thing to feed the squirrels). He pointed toward the vine covered, ramshackle shed where the children's train was kept at night. There in the side was a hole, and hovering at it's entrance was a black hen!

She tentatively peeked from the safety of her shelter when I tossed some bread her way. But she would not come out to eat until I stepped way back. When I did, she pecked what I had brought. So I started to go by to feed the chicken on my rounds.

Last Fall, The Park started a remodeling project of the very area where the hen lived. Construction trailers, tractors, shovels, cement, metal poles, spools of heavy wire, bright blue Port-a-pottys and lots and lots of men in work boots and hard hats invaded the grounds and dug everything up. I approached the foreman and asked if he was aware of the chicken, which he said was. I asked if I could bring some chicken scratch by he said they'd be happy to give it to her, but that they also fed her (I assumed, pizza scraps). I liked the thought of all these big bruisers caring for the girl. I continued to check every time I visited the park or the zoo, and most times I'd see the chicken in the area near the trailers. As the site morphed, I noticed at times she was penned, so they were making an effort to protect her.

Flash foward to last weekend, opening day of the new park area. I was driving on the heavily trafficked road between the Zoo and the golf course and I spotted a large black bird at the edge of the curb. I made a stop in the lane so I could get out (no one was immediately behind) and throw her some bread. OK, I have to say it. The chicken was about to CROSS THE ROAD, and I was tossing the bread in the other direction, to lure her away from the edge. Why WAS this chicken trying to cross the road? To get to the golf course? Not on a busy Easter week Saturday on the main drag near the Zoo! After all she'd been through, as described above, she could not end her life as road kill.

Had I been able, I'd have taken time to scoot her back further, to the safety of some kind of bushes at least... and I had to summon the strength to let it go as I drove away. But you bet your arse I was back there the next day, and with food.

She must have gotten used to people and loud noise and chaos, because when I saw her, she actually came running up to me. I had cracked corn in my pocket. Plenty of it! I was SO HAPPY to see she was still alive... We'd also just had two days straight of monsoon-like rain and thunderstorms. Half the area was flooded. This one's a survivor for sure.



I felt bad, that she must be very hungry. I wish I had a yard, because I'd love to catch her and give her a good home. I know she's survived all this time, now without a shelter. Maybe she likes it, and is an independent single....um,... chick... but maybe she's scared and lonely. I can't claim to know. Do chickens think? (that's another post)

Here she is running up to me. This time I hope it's that she's been totally socialized, not that she's starving under the fluff of all those feathers.

Oh, and did you hear that crazy mechanical kind of wind up to the long tailed grackle behind her? I am so glad to finally get that on film. I'll write about it in the next post.... back to the chicken. OUTRAGEOUS is it not?!?!?!

I went back today on my bike with more grain, looking for her, but didn't see her. I'll try again in a few days. She's obviously getting along just fine, but of course, I worry.

Breakfast with Sparrows

Oh how lucky am I? It was just two year ago that I saw my first bird nest ever (a long tailed grackle's), and even though it was quite obscured by leaves from my vantage point, many mornings I watched in the mist before the sun rose, in my pj's, with bad binoculars, the mother feeding what I could see of a grey baby in the nest.I was in a high rise and my porch was about a floor above the tree top that the nest was in.

Flash forward to last week, I was having a now-rare outing to a coffee shop which is flanked on each side by ivy covered brick, with plentiful live Oak trees all around it's small parking lot. Optimal setting for a nursery, I guess, as there are bird nests everywhere.

Picnic tables are out in case you want to enjoy the setting, which I do, as in the next month or so, the heat will be prohibitive. While sitting outside with my berry scone and decaf au lait, I completely ignored their flimsy "do not feed the birds" sign and made sure some crumbs happened to be on the table top. I got to witness a mother feeding breakfast to her fledgeling, and actually got it on film, so you can too!



Actually, the thrill is that she took a crumb right from my fingers, which I caught (akwardly) on a different clip.

I've come to recognize fledgelings. They chirp A LOT (even in the bird world, kids are demanding and endlessly so) and flutter their little wings with such animation as they do... not sure if it's just getting them strong, or if they just don't have control of them yet, or if it serves another purpose (if you do know, will you comment?). You can see that though this little one's still chirping and wing-beating for mom to feed him or her, it manages to peck at a crumb here and there.



Flash Forward again -- Two days after I shot this, I was in the Wildlife Rehab Center, and the inn is full, so to speak. Baby bird season is in full swing and the incubators are packed with eggs that people brought it, and all kinds of birds in every stage of development. Starlings, Killdeer, sparrows, rock doves, pigeons, grackles, herons.... I was opening the tank lids and, as if I was on the edge of their nests this time, the many little mouths with developing beaks opened WIDE to me, exposing tender pink throats, their heavy heads still wobbly on their necks.

I went down the line feeding tiny berries, crickets and soaked catfood pellets to each, depending on their size and diet, with a tweezer (essentially my beak), playing mother to them all.

I simply can't believe I get to do these things.