June 2nd

-Eagle and the moon.


-4th year bald eagle.


-Next stop the inside passage.


-Mt. Edgecombe at sunset.

May 31st

I was a volunteer today helping prepare diets. I never though that I would be able to handle cutting up the raptors rodent meals but turns out I can. Preparing the mice wasn’t so bad because they are so small and easy to handle. The rats on the other hand absolutely stink when you cut them open and remove there intestines. After they are removed we quarter the rat and cut the head in half for easier access for the birds. Quail isn’t so bad to work with as they don’t stink like the rats. Fish are alright however they are very slippery to hold onto for cutting. When all the meat was cut Zoie, one of the centers keepers and I placed each appropriate food morsel into individual container for the different species of raptors. We weighed the meat to give the correct amounts and recorded the data in the diet kitchens log.

Later, I got to assist in taking Kodiak, our boreal owl out for some exercise. This little guy is the cutest thing I ever seen! I swear he has more head than body. Kodiak was hit by a car on the Kodiak Island, giving him his name. Now he has just 25% of his original vision because of the collision. He is a fast little devil often running right into the wall during his mad dashes.

That night we all gathered at Adam’s parents house for a cookout. I have never seen such a large grill in my life like the one they own. You could literally lie down and cook yourself in this thing. Morgan had a good time playing around with the burgers and laughing hysterically at the similarly large spatula.


-Adorable Kodiak.


-So small.


-Morgan and the grill.

May 30th

I just love the trails here! The park service does such a wonderful job making nature more excisable to explore. You can walk though the muskeg areas by planked boardwalks and small bridges. If you wonder off them you can sink down into the bogie wetland for many feet. People have died walking over sinkholes where there entire body was sucked under the surface. It takes years for the muskeg to recover if someone disturbs it by tromping around. Many beautiful things grow here and all the foliage is in full bloom.


-Bridge at Gavin Hill.


-Myst on the mountain.


-Bog.


-Boardwalk.


-Beauty in the bog.

May 29th

Volta hasn’t been cooperating lately with much of the Raptor Centers staff. Lacie, Sitka’s handler is a tad intimidated by him as he isn’t the friendliest bird towards her. Diana, Volta’s past trainer came up from Oregon to give Lacie a hand and a few days off. Lacie has been working non-stop as the center currently has only one handler, so she needed a much deserved break. Everyone at the center was a bit curious to see if Volta would recognize his old trainer and willingly work with her. We were all surprised and excited when Volta appeared on stage. He indeed remembered Diana and was very comfortable in his old familiar surroundings.

May 26th, 2009

I was working in the ticket booth today when a fairly odd lady walked up. She was carrying a small bag containing two yorkshire terriers. When I told her that no dogs were allowed on the property, even in a bag she figure she would just leave them sit outside for awhile. I couldn’t believe she would just leave her obviously pampered positions sit outside unattended. On top of that it was raining fairly hard. I was a bit disgusted by this idea and asked if she would leave them in the booth with me. She did just that and was in the center for over a hour! For awhile I thought perhaps she had left without her pooches because she exclaimed earlier that she would just be gone for a few minuets. I couldn’t believe how those two dogs stayed in that small bag the whole time! The lady returned to the booth later very wet with a handful of different plants that she had collected from our hiking trails. From our brief discussion I learned that she is a nurse from San Diego and has a fascination for plants. She slung the dogs around her back and was on her merry way.


-She was just going to leave them out in the rain!


-I couln't belive how much these guys heated the booth.


-My God, they were so cute!

My short walk home was more beautiful than usual for some reason that afternoon. I came across a few banana slugs. Even though these guys look huge to me everyone says there get much bigger. I touched one once. It’s really gross! They cover your hand in a very sticky gooie film that takes forever to come off. Jenna licked one last year because she heard that it makes your tongue numb and indeed her tongue went numb.

May 24th, 2009

I had off today so for some reason I decide to see how long it would take to walk to the airport on Japonski Island. It was a beautiful walk. I got a bit sidetracked and explored everything that looked interesting so how long it actually took I’m not sure of.

Latter everyone gathered for a walk on the Indian River Trail. Some decided to camp for the night including Zach, Skyler, Steve and I. The campsite was gorgeous, right on the river. The rushing water was so loud putting us to sleep as soon as we laid down. I remember thinking, well that's good we wont even here the bears coming.


-Glacier bear display at the Sitka airport. I never new these guys existed.


-Me, Jenna, Skyler, Zach, Morgan, Steve and Forest. Photo by Steve Abbott.


-The camp sight. Photo by Steve Abbott.

May 23rd, 2009

I volunteered today! It was a very different experience being inside of the birds enclosures rather than looking in from the outside. Lacie our centers handler introduced me to the individual birds diets and cleaning materials. I started out working in Main Flight with the wild bald eagles. How cool is that right! I was told not to make eye contact with them because that is the sign of a predator. We want these eagles to be as relaxed as possible and not add to their stress. All the eagles in the Main Flight (Flight Training Center) are recovering from a traumatic incident. Some will be released back into the wild if their injuries heal well enough. Others will be placed in a zoo or other educational facility because their individual damage is to severe for them to rejoin the wild population.

After finishing cleaning M.F. and placing the eagles food, I moved onto our corvidae mews. Martin and Atra are the two ravens located in this facility. These birds haven’t been successfully introduced to people yet and working in there space made them very uncomfortable. I finished cleaning and placed there meal consisting of quail, rat, bear, jelly on bread and left over chinese food in the enclosure. Raven eat just about anything so some of our left over lunches tend to go to them.

I also had the privilege assisting taking Sitka to the river. Sitka can be a handful so its always good to have a bunch of people on hand if she would undo her jesses and run/fly off. Before we left I was shown the fine art of how to capture a fleeing bald eagle with a blanket. Thank goodness I didn’t have to use my new knowledge. Sitka day out was fairly uneventful. She didn’t move around a whole lot unlike Volta who swims around and baths constantly. I really enjoyed watching this magnificent bird and took a few photos.


-Sitka's handler Lacie admiring her favorite pupil.