flock

Four of my bird babies from yesterday's Audubon shift.

Harold, the attention-starved domestic Mallard

Great Horned Owl

Scared little Black-Capped Chickadee

New favorite bird of all time - a Pygmy Owl

(approximately 5" tall)

guild

I knew the weekend would be a busy one, with two different Audubon responsibilities and the not-awaited Super Bowl. I think being a non-early riser prohibits me from reaching my maximum potential. I really need some tips on how to get up earlier without too much agony. I know the sunshine streaming into our living room and a cup of coffee with an “official” breakfast would do wonders on the weekends….how do I achieve it?

It was cloudy but pleasant out as I drove toward Sauvie Island on Saturday for Audubon’s Raptor Road Trip. I checked in at Kruger’s Farm Market and then continued on to my post – a tall ridge dotted with telescopes, overlooking a lake and rolling farmland. I spent some time up on the ridge, fielding questions that I was completely unprepared to answer. In the midst of all that, I somehow learned how to identify the call of Sandhill Cranes flying overhead. I also was able to spot pure white Tundra Swans floating in the distance, a Great Blue Heron waiting in shallow water, and a mature Bald Eagle sitting in a tree far in the distance.

After a while of feeling like the most uneducated birder on the island, I decided to head down to the parking lot to play greeter to those arriving. After saying “hello” and “welcome” a bajillion times, I was ready to depart. I decided to take the long way off the island, as I’d never had a chance to explore it before. I hadn’t made it far from my starting point when I noticed several cars pulled off the road on either side. A few people milled about, aiming binoculars and cameras toward a tree right next to the roadway.

I couldn’t believe my eyes – a giant eagle sat calmly perched in the branches, soberly eyeing the crowd of humans below. I managed to get some photos and upon later examination, I am nearly certain this is an immature bald eagle. It was an incredible find considering the whole reason I was there was to hopefully check out some new species!

I needed to get a Valentine’s Day package together for Chloe, so I maneuvered through downtown rather than heading straight home. It was a very nice, overcast day, so I dropped coin after coin into a parking meter and set out on foot. After browsing through Finnegan’s Toy Store for quite a while, I grabbed a cup of soup (Mama Leone’s – my local favorite!) from the Flying Elephants branch of Elephant’s Deli and sat outside to eat. (Side note: Oh, bliss – look what I just found.)

 

I continued walking around for a while longer, feeling happy and relaxed, and then returned home to clean up a bit and start a sewing project. I’m so pleased to have finally dusted off my gifted sewing machine. This new hobby has been such a great fit for me – providing precise, detail-oriented projects that are both therapeutic and fun. And you can see progress both in the speed of completion of your projects and your skill level overall.

The next day, I had my usual 4-hour Sunday shift in the Care Center. It was a fairly uneventful day - spent getting ready for next weekend's Valentine's Day Open House. I did manage to snap some photos of a variety of our creatures while I was there.

Screech Owls

Aristophanes

Sweet Hazel

Jesse picked me up afterwards and we drove back to our apartment, where several friends had convened to watch the Super Bowl.  Thankfully, Clara came over shortly thereafter and we made drinking beer and chatting our priority.  The night passed quickly and before long, we were faced once again with an empty house. 

It was a fast, productive weekend full of fun, new adventures, and restorative weather.  This year continues to impress!

raptor road trip

Tomorrow I will be volunteering at the Portland Audubon Society’s Raptor Road Trip. I wanted to share the details of this event in case anyone is interested in checking it out.

The Raptor Road Trip is held annually on Sauvie Island in Portland and will occur both Saturday and Sunday, the 5th and 6th of February. The cost is $10 per vehicle and visitors will have the opportunity to spot a variety of birds, potentially including Great Blue Herons, Red-tail Hawks, Kestrels, and even Bald Eagles. There will be donuts and coffee available, along with binoculars to borrow if you don’t have your own.

Peregrine Falcon & Bald Eagle

Photo by Jim Cruce

According to Weather.com, there is only a 20% chance of rain on Saturday, and a 30% chance on Sunday – so some pretty good odds for great bird watching!

Click here to be led to the Audubon’s website for more information about this event.

zoonosis

On Sunday I had my second Audubon shift at the Wildlife Care Center. The weather was positively miserably; raining steadily, fog creeping up off the ground, a deep chill in the air. Things were slow from the get-go, with view visitors walking the Audubon grounds and very few new intakes for the day.

Luckily, another WCC employee had worn their rain boots that day, so Angela and I were assigned to the hospital. I walked in to see what kind of birds were in the various cages along the wall, and I couldn’t believe it when I saw a giant beaver tail sticking out from behind a towel in one. I could hear him crunching non-stop on a vegetable. I was told that the poor guy was found lying in a puddle in the middle of a road. He was eventually plopped into a large metal sink in the hospital’s back room. They put some water and more food in it so he’d be comfortable and have some room to move around. I wanted to hang out with him for my entire shift, and got to feel his tail and pet him. He was very relaxed and really only focused on eating everything he could get his little claws on. I loved him and wanted to take him home with me.

A little while later, a very large juvenile Red-tailed Hawk was brought in. The bird had flown straight through a plateglass window into someone's garage. Not realizing this, the homeowners let their dog into the garage as they left for a few hours. Fortunately, it didn't seem as though the dog bothered the hawk (probably because the hawk was large, fierce, and very agitated). He was suffering from injuries inflicted by the window glass, including cuts on his talons and a sizeable gash across his throat. Experienced hospital volunteers were able to grasp the hawk safely and apply topical and intravenous medication. They sheathed his tail in a cardboard sleeve so he wouldn't injure those feathers while in captivity and set him up in a big cage to rest and heal up.

I spent some time cleaning the mice tanks. Mice are raised in the hospital and allowed to breed to provide food for the birds. Several of the tanks had tiny little "pinky" babies that are no bigger than a thumb nail. I've been told not to get too attached to these creatures (i.e., naming them). I don't think there's too much danger of that happening.

A couple of the caged birds needed oral medicine administered to them, so I volunteered to get a robin from its temporary home. I was reassured that no work gloves were needed for this task, as a robin can only do minimal damage to human flesh with its beak and feet. What a relief.

I slowly opened the cage door and stuck my hands in. The bird jumped around, squawking like crazy, and I panicked -- yanking my hands back JUST enough for the bird to push past me and jump out of its cage. Good job, Sara. Angela and I chased the robin around the room, as gently as we could, finally getting close enough that I could pick it up. Scary.

Next up was a "ruddy duck." I set my mind to retrieving this plump, unamused little guy without incident. Though he tried to grab me with his flat, rubbery bill, I didn't let him. Ducks sure do feel weird and squishy when you pick them up.

The rest of the day was very slow and uneventful, as the weather continued to be wet and depressing. I watched as Hazel, Ruby, and Jack were weighed and then I headed home to prepare for the week.

hero

And then there was Sunday. I slept in late (top 3 bad habits) and quickly ate my morning Voodoo. Jesse drove me up the road to Audubon for my first day in the Wildlife Care Center (WCC), which would consist of one hour of orientation and four hours of training. I didn’t even feel nervous.

While I was waiting, a man brought in a Cooper’s hawk that had died in transport after crashing, in flight, into a horse. Volunteers determined that the bird was very malnourished, which probably contributed to its death. I met with Deanna, the Volunteer Coordinator, in her office to review the orientation packet (while a sweet dog named Emma barked incessantly). Some of the things I learned are top secret.

We then walked over to the Care Center so Deanna could give me a tour and I could participate in “rounds,” when daily updates are given about animals already in some phase of care and those who will be arriving during the shift. I learned that the duties of WCC volunteers are broken into four main areas, which each individual rotates through on a weekly basis. The four stations are:

Kitchen/Laundry – Preparing meals for the birds (more on that later), doing dishes, and washing many, many, many towels.

Educational Birds – Cleaning the “ed” bird enclosures and feeding them their evening meal. The current ed birds include:

Syd, a Red-tailed Hawk
Ruby, a Turkey Vulture
Julio, a Great Horned Owl
Jack, an American Kestrel
Hazel, a Northern Spotted Owl
Finnegan, a Peregrine Falcon
Aristophanes, a Common Raven

The Mews – These are outdoor enclosures for birds recovering from abandonment or injury. These duties include cleaning the enclosures, preparing and distributing meals, and moving birds around if necessary.

Hospital – This is where the most seriously injured birds are housed indoors. Duties include taking blood, measuring and feeding medicine, setting injured wings, preparing and distributing meals.

Aristophanes

After the tour, I was tossed immediately into work! First, I accompanied a new co-worker, Angela, out to the mews. I watched her enter each enclosure (very carefully, to avoid any escapes) and retrieve any uneaten food from the previous meal and dump out and retrieve water dishes. I then tried this on my own, entering the enclosure housing an annoyed Red-tail Hawk that glared at me, psychically threatening to jump and grab me with its talons, as I went about my job.

Later, I assisted with recording measurements and photographs taken of another Red-tail that is having beak problems. I also learned how to measure out liquid medications and feed them to birds, avoiding the glottis cavity at the back of their throat which leads to air sacs rather than a stomach. I held a Mourning Dove as it was fed candy-pink Amoxicillin and then fed the same medicine to a Robin.

A laminated “menu” resides on a double-door fridge in the kitchen. It sets out daily meals for every category of bird, both in content and amount. I’m not going to go into what their meals consist of. I prepared meals for the birds in the mews and Angela and I went out to divvy them up. Our supervisor then notified us that the two Screech Owls in one of the mews needed to be moved to a different enclosure so that a Barn Owl, which had arrived that day, could be placed there instead.

The supervisor and I each captured one of the Screech Owls and hiked over to their new enclosure. My owl was very small and adorable, and I could feel his tiny heart beating in his chest. I carefully released him into his new home and he flew up to a tall perch and sat staring at me. Angela and I got the travel carrier containing the Barn Owl, and she slowly opened its lid. The Barn Owl came flying out wildly, brushing over our heads in a flurry and finally landing on a perch.

I cleaned out the screened-in duck enclosure with a hose while three of them walked around my feet. We did some final clean up in the Center and it was time to go home. I realized that this is a pretty serious job and a very real commitment. This is going to be fun!

st. christopher

This has been quite a week, including slight progress toward my overall goal of making creativity a priority and experiencing Portland to its fullest. The one hitch to note is that my pretty $1.99 plant from IKEA died because I forgot about it.

poor baby

One thing that I think I need to keep in mind is that I can’t try to be good at everything. I’m tempted to give pretty much everything (except scuba diving) a try, but even that hyper-experimentation isn’t necessary. With that said, I’m officially not adding gardening to my list of skills to improve upon.

One challenge recently arrived in my inbox out of the blue, and after very brief consideration, I decided to accept it. The job? A weekly 4-hour shift at the Portland Audubon’s Wildlife Care Center. I have been volunteering with Audubon since September, and working in the Care Center was high on my list of long-term goals. In the meantime I had been working at individual events like art festivals and open houses, generally just once per month.

So now I’ll be at Audubon every Sunday from 1pm to 5pm! I’m not yet sure what my exact duties will be, but the Center accepts injured and orphaned birds and other wildlife and nurses them in the hopes of rehabilitation and eventual release. I hope to gain immense knowledge about the birds in this area and ideally, having a scheduled event in the middle of my Sundays will help me to use the time before and after even more wisely.

I also just registered for my first sewing class! I’ll be attending the Sewing Machine Basics course at PDX Seamsters on January 23rd. Joining me will be my friend, Clara, and her friend, Jena. (Both enviably great bloggers, I should mention.) All three of us have sewing machines that we don’t know quite how to use, but we’re very excited to learn. One order of business to be completed before the class should be getting the latch on my sewing machine case repaired… Any tips on how to accomplish that?

Lastly, I found a great deal on a book called 1000 Fonts: An Illustrated Guide to Finding the Right Typeface. I intend on using this reference as a jumping off point for my hand-lettered broadside posters. Jesse is conceptualizing one using Modest Mouse lyrics, while I’m thinking about a David Gray song. (Note: I just realized a lovely coincidence that confirms my choice of lyrics is meant to be transcribed in a gorgeous way.)

To top things off, my sweet husband is taking me out to dinner tonight. Due to divergent work schedules, we don’t have as much time together as we’d like. Now I’ll be cutting into that further with the Audubon gig. He, however, is fully supportive of my endeavors and I’ve realized that’s a valuable, valuable thing.

Hope the New Year is going well for all of you, too. If your resolutions are losing their shine and becoming hard to stick with, check out this article at Real Simple.

books books books

It's Halloween! I'm decked out in my Builders & the Butchers crow shirt and Audubon crow earrings, feeling good. I'm musing over my conversation this morning with my stepdaughter who turned 8 today. She told me an elaborate story about the time her dad accidentally decapitated her at the beach. She was really mad at him. As my dad (an extremely proud new grandpa) says, she is a delight.

So... I've been entering a lot of contests lately. And by a lot, I mean a lot. I won an essay contest through work a few months back and it got my sweepstakes competitiveness raging. On one hand, I sort of feel like spending hours entering contests is a waste. On the other hand, you WIN STUFF!

Last week Jesse called me at work to let me know that a big package had arrived from Simon & Schuster publishing company. I was too curious to wait, so I had him open it. Inside was a letter saying that I had won their summer reading contest! I won 7 books worth almost $150 including:

• Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner
• Chasing Harry Winston by Lauren Weisenberger
• Full of Life by Nancy O'Dell
• Mommywood by Tori Spelling
• My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult
• The Love of Her Life by Harriet Evans
• The Lovers by John Connolly

Okay, not exactly the kind of books I normally like to read, but free books is better than no books!

In other book news, I've started work on my "Pay It Forward" books. It has been too long since I built a book, but I've found that the skills are relearned quickly. It helps that all my supplies were recently categorized and stored in an easily accessible fashion. Here's a sneak peek at the first of the 6 books I'll be constructing.