What a day I've had!
Posted: 2003-04-05 05:41pm
Background: I'm not sure if I've posted this before, but every Saturday I volenteer 5 and a half hours at a local bird of prey sancuary, Last Chance Forever. I've been doing it for almost 3 years now(since I was 15) and have enjoyed it very much. There is a chance I could be a Falconer and I plan to be an ornithologist(bird scientist). I've worked with Pygmy Falcons and Owls weighing in a a few ounces, and I've worked with a 20 pound Andea Condor.
Well today, they decide to take me on a show to the local botanical gardens(they've done it once before, since I was so young, and for a while worked with my lazy stoner friend, my progress has been slow). The first show was pretty tame, I let a vulture our of his crate and opened it for him to walk back in. After that 2 of the employees went to take care of the birds at the sancuary. One Employee remain, with the head of Last Chance forever(John Karger), and 3 other volenteers, so I got a lot more responsiblity. I let the Vulture out again, but this time I followed him out and worked him with the John, first time I've ever worked a Vulture and I'm doing it in front of 300 people. Well, that went off really well, John lead me through it, but I did real good. Then I had to open the crate so the Great Horned Owl could fly in. First time I did that, too, but wasn't that hard. The last thing I had to do was, once the Lanner Falcon was done being flown by John, I was going to go pick him up, and carry him back to his perch.
Well, things didn't go as planned. John thinks he just catched a strong thermal and flew with it, but whatever the reason, he flew off instead of coming back at the lure. He didn't come back, and since everyone else had to do something, and John couldn't stop the show, I had to run off alone to find him. After searching for about 20 minutes, and getting another volenteer helping look, nothing. She goes off to get the telemitry(whenever we fly a bird, we put a transponder on them) I head over farther down where some people told me they went and see a bird flying. At first I thought it was a Grackle, but then I see that it has jesses(leather straps attacked to a leather band around their leg so we can keep a hold on them when they are on the glove) and run after it across a uneven hill. Nearly break my ankle running accross that hill, but I get to where he is. He makes a few passes over me before finally perching on a smoke stack thing on a green house. Luckily I had a glove on me, but unfortunately I didn't have time to grab any meat. For a little while I just held the glove up and made a clicking sound with no luck. Finally I get the idea to pick a wood chip off the ground and pretend it was a piece of meat. It fools him and he flies down and onto the glove. Although it was pretty likely that he would have come back, I was sort of the hero of the day. The show had ended by the time I got back, but a group of girl scouts leaving from the show ran into me, I told them a little about the bird and took a picture with them. Sorta became famous there, several people asked me as I was leaving the gardens if I had found the bird.
Here's a picture of the little guy. Atlast I think it is him, it's the same breed, a Lanner Falcon.
But yeah, I had a pretty interesting time today.
Well today, they decide to take me on a show to the local botanical gardens(they've done it once before, since I was so young, and for a while worked with my lazy stoner friend, my progress has been slow). The first show was pretty tame, I let a vulture our of his crate and opened it for him to walk back in. After that 2 of the employees went to take care of the birds at the sancuary. One Employee remain, with the head of Last Chance forever(John Karger), and 3 other volenteers, so I got a lot more responsiblity. I let the Vulture out again, but this time I followed him out and worked him with the John, first time I've ever worked a Vulture and I'm doing it in front of 300 people. Well, that went off really well, John lead me through it, but I did real good. Then I had to open the crate so the Great Horned Owl could fly in. First time I did that, too, but wasn't that hard. The last thing I had to do was, once the Lanner Falcon was done being flown by John, I was going to go pick him up, and carry him back to his perch.
Well, things didn't go as planned. John thinks he just catched a strong thermal and flew with it, but whatever the reason, he flew off instead of coming back at the lure. He didn't come back, and since everyone else had to do something, and John couldn't stop the show, I had to run off alone to find him. After searching for about 20 minutes, and getting another volenteer helping look, nothing. She goes off to get the telemitry(whenever we fly a bird, we put a transponder on them) I head over farther down where some people told me they went and see a bird flying. At first I thought it was a Grackle, but then I see that it has jesses(leather straps attacked to a leather band around their leg so we can keep a hold on them when they are on the glove) and run after it across a uneven hill. Nearly break my ankle running accross that hill, but I get to where he is. He makes a few passes over me before finally perching on a smoke stack thing on a green house. Luckily I had a glove on me, but unfortunately I didn't have time to grab any meat. For a little while I just held the glove up and made a clicking sound with no luck. Finally I get the idea to pick a wood chip off the ground and pretend it was a piece of meat. It fools him and he flies down and onto the glove. Although it was pretty likely that he would have come back, I was sort of the hero of the day. The show had ended by the time I got back, but a group of girl scouts leaving from the show ran into me, I told them a little about the bird and took a picture with them. Sorta became famous there, several people asked me as I was leaving the gardens if I had found the bird.
Here's a picture of the little guy. Atlast I think it is him, it's the same breed, a Lanner Falcon.But yeah, I had a pretty interesting time today.
