Here's a little look at the Perigrine 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 permissable 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.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
The Snow White Effect
... captured badly on film:
I took a sunset walk with lots of food in my bag. I stopped by a little bridge that crosses a hidden finger of the lake, where very few people walk by. This is where some smart mothers have their babies, as they will be somewhat protected. But what can protect you from a mother who decided that she'd had enough?
I went hoping to see that an abandoned baby duck I'd noticed the day before had made it through the night. Happily, she had. Seems she's been left by her mother, which happens more than you'd think. Last spring it happened in this same spot with a set of five babies. They were a little bigger than this guy when orphaned and at least they all had each other. I watched them grow into teenagers and at that stage, you know they are OK.
I'd first noticed the errant mother and her sole remaining baby last week together, in the same shallow reeds by this bridge, but I haven't seen them together since. Once I saw the little one alone I knew it was for good. Of course I woke up several times in the night with worries that she'd be pulled under by a snapping turtle (probably the fate of her many siblings) or something else. So I made a beeline back as soon as I got the chance
And there she was, eating insects of the surface of the water. She eagerly scooped up my breadcrumbs which I'd broken into the tiniest of pieces for her tiny beak. It was nice and quiet, a moment for just us two...
All at once there were rabbits coming out of the underbrush, a squirrel or two running up for nuts, bluejays screaming from the branches above me, 6 ducks swimming over for bread, a few long tailed grackles cawing for a morsel and a common sparrow spiriting away with the crumbs. A trio of frogs I couldn't see started singing in the distance and a Nutria surfaced and began to clean himself with his front paws before noshing on the reeds.
I did a bad job of getting movies, but I did it to try to capture why I feel like Snow White when I come to this place. Animals of all kinds come out of nowhere, but as soon as a dog or other people come along, they scamper, hop, fly and swim away.
Continued...
I'd already fed her plenty but I wanted to give her some more as the bigger she gets the less she will seem like easy prey. As you can see, the other 6 ducks dominated. The trick is to feed the big ones to distract them and then get something to the baby at the same time.
I went to the feed store and bought some actual chick feed for her for next time. Let's all say a little prayer she's there. All she needs is another week or two and she'll be well on her way to a nice long life.
One day I'll have a videographer with me so I can feed all these animals coming at me without trying to also get pictures... Or, since I do have a film degree myself, I might take the expensive HD movie camera I bought for this purpose but never bring with me... Shoot the amazing things that go on around me with a camera that doesn't rack in and out of focus because I zoom in too fast... and I will be able to edit out the bad parts and splice things together. Until then, thanks for bearing with me!
I took a sunset walk with lots of food in my bag. I stopped by a little bridge that crosses a hidden finger of the lake, where very few people walk by. This is where some smart mothers have their babies, as they will be somewhat protected. But what can protect you from a mother who decided that she'd had enough?
I went hoping to see that an abandoned baby duck I'd noticed the day before had made it through the night. Happily, she had. Seems she's been left by her mother, which happens more than you'd think. Last spring it happened in this same spot with a set of five babies. They were a little bigger than this guy when orphaned and at least they all had each other. I watched them grow into teenagers and at that stage, you know they are OK.
I'd first noticed the errant mother and her sole remaining baby last week together, in the same shallow reeds by this bridge, but I haven't seen them together since. Once I saw the little one alone I knew it was for good. Of course I woke up several times in the night with worries that she'd be pulled under by a snapping turtle (probably the fate of her many siblings) or something else. So I made a beeline back as soon as I got the chance
And there she was, eating insects of the surface of the water. She eagerly scooped up my breadcrumbs which I'd broken into the tiniest of pieces for her tiny beak. It was nice and quiet, a moment for just us two...
All at once there were rabbits coming out of the underbrush, a squirrel or two running up for nuts, bluejays screaming from the branches above me, 6 ducks swimming over for bread, a few long tailed grackles cawing for a morsel and a common sparrow spiriting away with the crumbs. A trio of frogs I couldn't see started singing in the distance and a Nutria surfaced and began to clean himself with his front paws before noshing on the reeds.
I did a bad job of getting movies, but I did it to try to capture why I feel like Snow White when I come to this place. Animals of all kinds come out of nowhere, but as soon as a dog or other people come along, they scamper, hop, fly and swim away.
Continued...
I'd already fed her plenty but I wanted to give her some more as the bigger she gets the less she will seem like easy prey. As you can see, the other 6 ducks dominated. The trick is to feed the big ones to distract them and then get something to the baby at the same time.
I went to the feed store and bought some actual chick feed for her for next time. Let's all say a little prayer she's there. All she needs is another week or two and she'll be well on her way to a nice long life.
One day I'll have a videographer with me so I can feed all these animals coming at me without trying to also get pictures... Or, since I do have a film degree myself, I might take the expensive HD movie camera I bought for this purpose but never bring with me... Shoot the amazing things that go on around me with a camera that doesn't rack in and out of focus because I zoom in too fast... and I will be able to edit out the bad parts and splice things together. Until then, thanks for bearing with me!
J' Adore, Furry One
Oh, oh OH! In seeing this little movie again as I uploaded it, it's far cuter than when I took it, and when I took it I knew I'd captured something truly special.
Go ahead, press play again. I'll be waiting right here.
The Wildlife Rehab and Education Center was packed with animals since I was there last. I've had to take a week off and boy, do things change fast. Many of the patients I was caring for have grown and are gone or have been given to local rehabbers to care for and release. Baby ducks and birds, once in tanks, have gotten big enough to move to the fabulous wooden pens outside in the fresh air.
The baby opossums have multiplied (you'd think they were bunnies) and grown to be happy and mischevious. And we're fully into bird season. There are incubators with several small kleenex boxes (to mimic nests) filled with eggs and rows and rows of tanks with of sparrows, robins, rock doves, etc... We have a baby heron (all legs), and terns of all sizes. I saw a new screech owl and the baby great horns continue to grow straight and strong.
But everyone is wild for the two newest additions: 2 baby beavers. The one in the movie above is getting fed on his back wrapped in a towel, by bottle just like our own kids. Below is the sibling of the one getting fed, hanging out in a tank with a stuffed Beaver Mommy. See his little flat tail?
The two sleep together in the corner on those white flannel sheets. I'm glad they have each other.
I spent all yesterday at the Center getting basic training in cleaning oil spilled birds and animals (so I can be ready to volunteer when the need arises). I'm itching to get back in there, maybe tomorrow, to learn more about how birds hatch and develop-- and what they need to eat. I saw people in there with everything from raw eggs for some, to little dishes with crickets, meal worms, cat food pellets soaked in something to be soft and berries, feeding all those open mouths with the appropriate tidbit, delivered by an official looking tweezer/scissor like device. Hopefully I can get a few pictures, because as you can see from the nursing Beaver, they are worth a thousand words.
Go ahead, press play again. I'll be waiting right here.
The Wildlife Rehab and Education Center was packed with animals since I was there last. I've had to take a week off and boy, do things change fast. Many of the patients I was caring for have grown and are gone or have been given to local rehabbers to care for and release. Baby ducks and birds, once in tanks, have gotten big enough to move to the fabulous wooden pens outside in the fresh air.
The baby opossums have multiplied (you'd think they were bunnies) and grown to be happy and mischevious. And we're fully into bird season. There are incubators with several small kleenex boxes (to mimic nests) filled with eggs and rows and rows of tanks with of sparrows, robins, rock doves, etc... We have a baby heron (all legs), and terns of all sizes. I saw a new screech owl and the baby great horns continue to grow straight and strong.
But everyone is wild for the two newest additions: 2 baby beavers. The one in the movie above is getting fed on his back wrapped in a towel, by bottle just like our own kids. Below is the sibling of the one getting fed, hanging out in a tank with a stuffed Beaver Mommy. See his little flat tail?
The two sleep together in the corner on those white flannel sheets. I'm glad they have each other.
I spent all yesterday at the Center getting basic training in cleaning oil spilled birds and animals (so I can be ready to volunteer when the need arises). I'm itching to get back in there, maybe tomorrow, to learn more about how birds hatch and develop-- and what they need to eat. I saw people in there with everything from raw eggs for some, to little dishes with crickets, meal worms, cat food pellets soaked in something to be soft and berries, feeding all those open mouths with the appropriate tidbit, delivered by an official looking tweezer/scissor like device. Hopefully I can get a few pictures, because as you can see from the nursing Beaver, they are worth a thousand words.
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