Analytics

Today I am sunk in analytics. I've never used them before, and it's so much fun to see the little line spike and dip as people have come and go from my little shop.

Yesterday I found so many goodies! Had a killer photoshoot, and am working on getting them all edited now.

Etsy Time!

All the thrifting this week means there's tons of new stuff up in the shop!

Birds and Family

Spring is here, and so are the rains. All the family too. We went out to Clearwater for my grandfathers memorial. There's been a lot of thrifting and time spent with birds.



A pair of sandhill cranes and their juvies came to visit.



This bird loves lightbulbs. It is a dangerous fascination.



Training with a coopers hawk.



It must be the year of the great horns around here, there have been so many babies in!



Yeah, the bird is weird.



We had a big renaissance fundraiser last week at the center. It was a ball, and even after four hours of glove time, Henry was just wonderful!

Love and life, Love life

I feel very full right now. A lovely kind of full where I'm happy to be alive, surrounded with birds and life and love and family.

I woke up this morning and spend an hour sitting on the little dock surrounded by Sandhill Cranes. They tried to eat my sandal, and then pointedly ignored me and ate snails until I finally had to leave. It was a wonderful way to wake up.

I read books and paint, I fix up clothes and sell them in my little shop, I teach people about raptors, and get to spend time with some of my favorite birds on the planet. I have a wonderful husband and tons family who I'm finally getting to know. On the weekends, we get to try out hotels and restaurants. In a few months, the bees will come, and I may have a summer job.

Life has always been about what's next for me. Where am I going to live, what am I going to study, what job am I going to get. I'm happy just where I am for the first time, and it's like I can finally breathe. Contentment isn't just acceptance of complacency, a lack of drive, it's a wonderful feeling of everything being right. And I love it.

Portrait of a Lady

This weekend was mild enough to fly both falcons on Saturday, so I took some pictures of them doing their thing. Here's Cora, a Peregrine, chowing down on some quail wing.

Lady offscreen: Oh my god, it's alive!

Well, not any more.



Here she is, coming in for the lure. The lure is swung around in circles, and yanked away when the bird dives in. They either have to be fast enough to catch it from Scott (a Master Falconer) or wait for him to slow down for them.

Cora dives faster than Spyder, who puts on the brakes when he takes the lure.



See how his wings are outspread? This is just before grabbing the lure. He's being trained to not slow down before the impact, but he's not quite there yet.



Here he is zooming in. He loses a lot of this speed when he brakes.





When they've caught the lure, they are re-tethered while they eat their prize. To get them back on the glove, they're given another meaty treat as incentive.





Yeah, I'm talking about you.

This weekend JrFalconer and I made some new jesses for the birds.



Jesses are the leather anklets and straps that allow us to handle these birds of prey. They're very soft, so they don't irritate their delicate legs, but are strong enough to keep them from slipping out of them. Usually.

I was making kestrel jesses here, but it took a few tries to get them small enough for their tiny legs! Along the way, we ended up with Barn Owl and Merlin jesses too.



Henry is a master at chewing through his anklets. So are the eagles.

Whoo will you Woo?

Valentines day was lovely - between our volunteer face painter, and the bake sale, we raised a decent amount of money at the ARC, and we even got in the paper! There were a bunch of visitors, and everyone wanted their picture taken with Henry, our resident Valentines Barn Owl.



Barn Owls are pretty cool in general, and I didn't mind talking about him all day! Spider gave everyone a show, even though he was too light to pull the lure off of the kite.



You can see the little tail of his transmitter backpack he wears in this picture - Falcon insurance.



After feeding everyone gutted mice and chopped up quail (My Bloody Valentine, reality edition), I was really ready for a romantic evening with Curtis. We had a gift card for the movies, and in the interest of putting our old student IDs to good use, we went to see Coraline.

The movie was great - I can't believe all the things they did with just claymation. I read somewhere that it had the first stop-motion transformation scene, and it was incredible! And they used those awesome 3D printers for the faces! I'm still geeking out about that one, it's nice to hear that people are finding ways to put them to practical use. Maybe one day they'll become our modern-day Star Trek replicators.

But the best part about Valentines day was that we got pictures of our new bird:



It's just too quiet around here without Peep - we needed a new birdie to help us procrastinate again. Only two more weeks and he can come stay with us!

Only use your google-fu powers for good

It seems that writing swallow tailed kite in a blog-type thing brings the internet watchers of the birding world upon you, sort of like an avian "Beetlejuice". I guess someone read on here that the ARC had an imprint kite, and they got some flack for it last week.

So for anyone interested, Willow came to the ARC as an imprint. Any rehabber who imprints a bird, on purpose or accidentally, is not allowed to keep it. This is to keep people from trying to imprint birds, because they won't be able to keep them anyhow.

Some of the saddest cases are imprint birds. Most of the time there is no reason they couldn't be surviving in the wild if they had not been imprinted by humans, but because someone interfered, they will live their entire lives in captivity. Imprinting happens when a young bird associates itself with its human caretakers, rather than other birds of the same species. When this happens, they grow up lacking the instincts they need to survive in the wild, and released imprints have even been attacked by birds of their same species in the wild - wild birds can tell that they don't belong.

It can happen because a rehabber just doesn't know any better, but a lot of imprints happen because nestlings were taken in by people who thought it would be neat to have a pet raptor. These birds will never make good pets - they eat dead things, poop all over the place, and need a lot of room to be happy. People soon realize that they can't handle a bird like this, and give them up.

It just sucks because, unlike permanently injured birds that end up in captivity, these are beautiful healthy birds that should not be stuck inside with us.

Even if Willow is a sweetie, and she helps educate a lot of people about kites, I'd rather she be flying around Brazil right now.



In other news, I got to assist with a red shoulder that came in. They had to take some blood and fecal samples, and Jr.Falconer was showing me how to hold the bird. He rolled his eyes when CM started to peel a scab off an old compound fracture on the birds wing, and I asked if he was okay with blood. He said he was fine, and then fainted dead away.

CM tried to keep him upright, but he was going down, so I grabbed him, and CM grabbed the bird. He came out of it after just a second, but his eyes were large as saucers. We got him some liquids and snacks, I got to hold the bird, and he got to supervise.

...

Swallowtailswallowtailswallowtail

A bit of bird

Good evening. Tomorrow I get to see my bird friends again, including this one, with the dirty mouth.

Saturday, there was a group of visiting students at the center, and one enterprising young man took off with dads lighter to set fire to things. He happened to settle upon the dry grass in the parking area, and then lit the entire field on fire, underneath all the cars.

Florida is in its dry season right now, and I imagine the field went up just like what it was - kindling. Dry grasses and twigs, with our wooden mews in the background.

Nothing was hurt, except the lawn, and everyone managed to move their cars. Lucky for me, he stayed away from mine, which would have been unmovable with me gone on another program. Lucky for him, too. The fire department came, the police chief gave kiddo a talking down, and our resident hard-ass, Ms. Paula got in his face about endangering the safety of all our birds, as well as his peers. By the end of it, I'm sure the poor kid just wanted to melt into the ground. I'd be more upset at daddo and mom - where were they?

Even after all that, I think we found the least-informed kid in central Florida at the wetlands festival:

Teen girl (pointing at barn owl): That's a bald eagle, right?
All of us, hive-mind: No..
Girl (turns to Red Shouldered hawk): But that's gotta be a bald eagle, huh?
....

Bird Jobs

Been thinking a lot about how I could make a living out of playing with the birds. It always seems to be what I go back to when I have the time. Why did I study Japanese for four years? It was fun, but it might not be what I want to do.

Bird jobs would mean more schooling, anyway you slice it. I could get a falconry license, but it takes years to become a master. Some wildlife and education courses would be helpful right about now..



In refuge news, this Short Tailed Hawk seems to be doing pretty well. He may never have full extension of his left wing, which makes him (her?) unreleasable, but he could do a lot of good educating people about Florida buteos, and why they shouldn't take pot shots at birds.



We spent a day last week making new jesses - the anklets and leather straps they all wear - for some of the birds. Here's Shortie sporting his new duds. It's kangaroo leather! It's less stretchy, and softer on their ankles than other types of leather - who knew? Some of the birds have black anklets from an old batch of leather, and it stretches out something horrible. Henry, the barn owl, sometimes sports a black beak from tugging on it.



Saturday was the Florida Wetlands festival, and we were invited to bring some birds out. So many people came by to talk about our raptors! Our table had twenty people around it at times, and more kids than I can count tried to pet Callie, an American Kestrel. She's an imprint, and more than a bit of a brat, so a lot of our time was spent trying to shoo tiny fingers out of danger.



Carol gave an awesome talk about raptors and owls, and Henry put on a little show of his own. We may be getting a flighted barn owl from a theme park - which shall remain nameless - that isn't allowed to fly their birds! It sounds like he does poorly on the glove, so they can't use him in their park.



Hunter rode on his block (with Zoey) for the ride out to Christmas. A cuter passenger I never have seen.



Raptors? Whoo-hoo!

Birds and Bees

With no Peep, the last week was really hard. She was always around somewhere, mugging for pets, or chewing on something important, and there is a palpable absence without her in the house. Coming home seems silly, because there's no excited bird waiting for attention. It may seem a trivial thing to lose sleep over - a tiny bird - but she was not, and so it goes.

The birds at the ARC have been helping with my parrot withdraw.



Willow - the Swallow-tailed Kite lacking a swallow-tail - has been enjoying the sun this week. In a different life, she would be spending our winter in in another latitude, 4,000 miles south of Florida, with the rest of her swallow-tailed friends. Due to her imprinting - and determination to bust every one of her beautiful tail feathers - she's stuck in Florida, for the (relatively) cold winter. But on warm days, she cries for sunlight, and when it doesn't make it through her window fast enough, she gets an escort into the sun.



The warmer days also mean baths for everyone - dirty kestrels, and eager eagles with muddy feet.



Lots of people have heard that birds of prey don't need water to survive. It's true that they get most of the moisture they need from their food, but they love a bath, and many will dive into fresh water just as quickly as they do for fresh quail.



This guy has been at the center for a couple weeks now, and it looks like he'll end up as a permanent resident. He's a dark Florida morph of the - rather rare - short tailed hawk, and very pretty. I've never even seen one in the wild, but someone thought to shoot him in the wing, and now he's in a mew, unable to get more than twelve inches off the ground.

Oh, birds.



I've been painting at the beehives a bit too - 100% inspired by Kelli Bickman. I learned about her through Neil Gaiman's blog, and was struck. I never took to painting before - it was too hard to try and recreate proper skin tones, leaves, bark. All her stuff is so playful and fun! I've never painted with anything more than crayola watercolors, and it's helpful to have someone to emulate. A bit of color for the field.

Oh sweetie..

Our fresh new day was not so wonderful after all.

My sweet Peep birdie is dead.

And I am mourning.

Obama-day

Today is a chilly day, but things feel fresh and new.

I'm ready to watch an epic inauguration, and biding my time by painting our beehives. No bees yet - they get here in April. I took a page from Neil Gaiman, which says that colorful hives make for happy bees. I don't have Kelli Bickman to paint them for me, but I can give them a nice yellow, at least.

From the ARC

There's been a lot going on in bird-land recently - Gully, the female Great Horned Owl, is sitting on eggs, and keeping us guessing on whether or not they're fertile. They think Gordon (Mr. Male) was taken out early enough so that they're just dummy eggs, but no way to tell for sure just yet.

It's funny - someone said the other day that birds of prey attract other birds of prey, and I'm starting to believe it. It might just be the location, but every Saturday the birds are out, the wild birds come for a visit! There's been a family of red-tails, a curious coopers, and even a daring little boy Kestrel who tried to challenge Cora in flight.

or maybe, once you start looking, you just notice that they're everywhere! We went canoeing on the Econ river for New Years, and I swear, we saw more fluffed up red tailed hawks on that river than I'd ever seen before. Between them, and the flocks of American Robins migrating through, I was wishing we had thought to bring the telephoto out.

(Two canoe tippings later, I was glad we left it at home.)

Hunter was surprisingly talkative today - usually he just sits there and winks at all his visitors, but I caught him mid-trill.



Hunter gets a lot of visitors who thinks he's stuffed, or a toy bird, so much so that they've even had a sign put up, in hopes that people will stop trying to poke at him. He really is a sweetie though.



This European Barn Owl, Henry, has been my buddy lately. He's patient with the glove training, and light enough that my arm doesn't want to fall off after a day toting him around.



He's a real looker too. People are really drawn to Henry because of his coloring - the soft white feathers are why they used to call them Ghost Owls, and sadly, why misinformed farmers used to chase them off their land. To think of all the mice they could have been rid of.



Our female Kestrel, Callie, has been giving me less issues. She's at the center because she and her sisters were taken from their nest by a family looking for pets, and had imprinted on humans. Imprinting makes all birds unsuitable for the wild - they lack vital instincts, and other birds can sense, and will fight against, their oddness. It effects their personalities differently - where imprinting has made Mr. P, a Barred Owl, calm and sweet, it has made Callie a brat.

She's learned that we won't hurt her, so she thinks nothing of diving at stray fingers, or swiping at clothes. I appealed to her stomach today with some fresh picked grasshoppers.



While her attitude was cool today, her behavior was silly. When I went to give her some grasshoppers later in the day, she started manteling - spreading her wings to hide her food from other birds of prey. But she didn't have any food to hide! Eventually she jumped out and started beheading grasshoppers again, with wild abandon.

Birds n'such

Some neat things have been happening at the Avian Reconditioning Center, despite the cold.

Lockheed Martin was shooting a commercial here this week! I pulled up on Wednesday to a giant green screen blowing in the wind, and men in middle eastern clothes walking around the mews. Turns out - they wanted a falcon flying in their promo video for an upcoming convention, or something like that. So, they had to have a falconer to fly it, and due to some Fish and Wildlife legalities, could only shoot on site, and pay with a nice fat donation to the ARC!

Cora, a Peregrine Falcon, already a huge Diva, got a kick out of it. She's already such a ham whenever Falconer Scott flies her for visitors that she was a natural in front of the crew. Its not uncommon for her to buzz the crowd before wheeling up for the lure. She didn't complain when they needed extra shots either - it just meant more quail for her!

It's really amazing to watch them fly - the fact that they're let go, and then come back at all is just incredible. When they fly for live quail, and suddenly they've gone from hundreds of feet in the air, to right in front of your face in the blink of an eye - it's jaw dropping! Enough falcon gushing though.

I didn't get any pictures of all this stuff, I feel awkward whipping out the camera, but afterward I always wish I had.

I did get some pictures of an eagle who paid us a visit a couple weeks ago. Flew right overhead, like he was saying hello to all the birds stuck on the ground.

Happy New Year!

2008 has come and gone, it was a blast, and I'm thinking 2009 will be even sweeter!



I never really make concrete new years resolutions, I usually just start (and end) things willy nilly during the year. There does seem to be a cycle of activity in the spring, a summer project, and general relaxation in the fall, so we'll see how that goes.

So far this year we've played a lot of rock band, camped in an RV, gone canoeing down the Econ, and saw lots of family. There's lots of plans for the next year.. we'll see what turns up!