How can so much time pass between postings? This is getting out of hand!
Let’s see. What has happened since my last post? All of our birds are quite comfortable inside the Center and we’ve started moving them into other areas to expand their comfort range. The hawk, vulture, and owl have all made it into the Draper Natural History Museum. That can be a very scary ordeal—if you look at it from a wild animal’s perspective, anyway. Think about it: bears, wolves, elk, moose, and other birds are all around you. There are nature sounds pumped in at every elevation, so you are hearing and seeing “the wild” yet it’s not quite right. Nothing is moving but you aren’t positive the other animals won’t suddenly spring to life and eat you. That’s scary.
Surprisingly, though, they’ve all handled it very well. I’m hoping that this week we will get the peregrine into the Draper. She has been on “perch rest” for the last two weeks while two of her feathers finished growing out (the only time feathers have a blood supply is while they are growing and her two outermost feathers were “in blood” and vulnerable to cracking or breaking). She was back in the spotlight this afternoon, however, and was loving every minute of it!
We’re also busy getting the birds ready to start traveling to school programs. We’ve been working on loading them into their travel boxes and having them comfortable for longer and longer periods of time in there. Next we’ll begin moving the boxes around and then moving them into vehicles for longer and longer drives.
The next “big adventure” for the birds is the Center’s upcoming Holiday Open House. An estimated 3,000 to 4,000 people will come through the doors to enjoy holiday entertainment. We will have the birds out for three hours, their longest gig yet, and it could easily be a madhouse around them. They will take turns in public so they won’t get overwhelmed, but it will be pretty crazy none-the-less. Here’s hoping it all goes smoothly.
