New Things I Did at Skywatch.

Today at Skywatch I had I did a couple of things that were new to me. For one, there is a seagull as a patient. He has wing damage and has not been eating. Today I replaced the papers on the bottom of his cage. It upset him and he jumped around quite a bit. I tried to do it slowly and non-threateningly and I think it helped a little. I gave him a bowl of water. He started to drink immediately! I put a fish in the water bowl but he snatched it a swallowed it right down! I guess he is well enough to feed himself now! Amelia (the director)doctored some fish with meds and vitamins and fed him those as well.

Another patient is a hawk named Eva. She has wing damage and a bone protruding from it. A local vet will operate at lowest possible price, but it is still expensive. (See https://www.facebook.com/pages/Skywatch-Bird-Rescue/339912439377214 .) To change the dressing, Amelia donned her falconers' gloves (leather up to the elbows) and removed the hawk from the cage holding the feet. (They have pretty massive and sharp talons.) When she took Eva out of the cage I put a pillow case over Eva's head to help keep Eva calm. Amelia put Eva on her back on the table and somehow held the feet while taking off one of the gloves. I put the gloves on and then took over holding the feet while she changed the dressing. Amelia took over, I took off the pillow case and Eva went back into her cage. I then hand fed her, with gloves on of course.

 Because of her injury Eva won't be able to be released. She will make a good education bird. She is young and Ameilia has adapted her to the glove. She likes being fed and Amelia can use that to influence her behavior. Older birds will not cooperate at all. They just fight, try to escape, and may injure themselves (or me)!

One other thing.  I unpacked 3000 crickets!  Some of the birds need them so they are ordered by the box-full.  I dumped them into a wooden box with a hinged, mesh lid.  The box is deep enough to keep the crickets from jumping out.  I fed some of the crickets to the ducks, who find them especially tasty.

It was an interesting day.