Tuesday, August 25, 2009

August 11th

Three days in a row of working with Kily! Lacie had instructed me to retrieve him from his mew to be placed in the small raptor weathering yard for the day. I tried, I bribed but couldn't get Kily to come down from the rafters. It was late in the afternoon when Lacy was finally able to retrieve him. I think something scared him the night before and made him a bit nervous to come down. When returning Kily to his mew I placed his food cup on his feeding stump upside down and signaling him to it. When removing the cup Kily took to the air and flew around my body following the cup. In the process he gently raked his talons on my chest. It was as if a whirlwind had just spun me around. Not until after Kily landed on his perch did I realize he was staring at the cup in my hand, where he thought the food was. I signaled to the food and he quickly understood where his supper was located. Smart bird.

I knew this was coming from the past week of talk at the center but didn't want to believe it, Kodiak was being put down after work today. For months the small boreal owl has been sick with what Vickie believes is the signs of a brain tumor. The life expectancy of a boreal doesn't typically exceed 4 years in the wild, Kodiak has been at the center for four years so we knew he wasn't going to make it much longer. It was so hard not to swell up with tears when gazing upon the tiny bird in the huge eagle crate. Everyone was quiet in the ICU as we said our final good buys. You will be greatly missed Kodiak.


-Kodiak. Taken by Reece Flexner, 2008.

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