Day 10/11

I combined Day 10 with 11 because on Day 10 I was off and honestly did not do much at all. I figured taking a day to relax was a good idea given my feet being tired and the fact I needed to do laundry; which is what I did. I birded out the window a little while working on the Dosage sheets for every main drug used here at Northwoods. I made some progress but want to see if the style and such is okay before continuing. When I did laundry I read a few months in Aldo Leopold's book 'A Sand County Almanac' ♥. I then went out with the interns and a rehab staff member to a local Chinese place, yum yums. But I never did get groceries, like I need to, but I did watch an episode of Grimm with two interns (love the show now and want to watch more) and eventually went to bed. So some fun/exciting things on said day but at the same time just a relaxing day so not much went on.


DAY 11- Rehabilitation

Today I was on the rehab side of things. Of course the morning started off with feeding all our patient Eastern Gray Squirrels, Red Squirrels, and Eastern Cottontail Rabbits. Someone else took care of our mice while a staff member and I worked on feeding everyone else and giving them fresh water. Tack on cleaning cages to this as well. 

After feeding and cleaning was done the other intern and I went out and hung up new hammocks for our racoons to use. When we went back inside I was then sent out to hang branches up that had fallen in a raccoon cage plus hang a hammock. I should have looked at the cage more but I was under the impression that only two cages were getting hammocks; seems there was a misscomunication of sorts there. When I was sent out to do this job the other intern went elsewhere.

I spent a good portion of time doing this because I honestly could not get the branches to hang despite my efforts and was conjuring up some sort of plan for them as well. Truthfully the raccoon I was in the enclosure with makes me nervous since he loves to growl and mock charge. I didn't have steel toed boots or gloves either. I was perfectly fine and honestly I think I would have remained fine but I still did not want to get too close. At the time my branch job may not have been the greatest but was still decent. Later on I discovered it turned out poor because the branches slid or even fell down. I wish I did a better job honestly but at least I tried. The wire I was working with just would not go around the beams like the others had theirs. Plus the raccoon as said before.

Once this once decent job was finished I helped our other new summer intern with a door she was building to go between two of the raccoon cages. Three of our raccoons were only supposed to use cages 5 and 6 but they also used cage 4 since they could breach the previous door. I mainly held it for her as she cut and installed bolts. Once we went over to the raccoon cage I got in the side with the raccoons since she was 10x more nervous around them then I was. She went on the other side and screwed in the bolts tight and thus sealing off the entrance. Hopefully this at least held or else I honestly would feel lousy regarding this day. Truthfully I was tired as well which I know is no excuse but uh, I keep forgetting too take my dang iron pills every morning and being anemic it makes me feel fatigued and possibly look paler throughout the day.

After the door was up and going I believe we went too lunch. If not then we prepared food for all the animals again and went around feeding/watering before we went to lunch. I recall returning sometime around 2pm from lunch but otherwise this whole portion of the day is hazy, I cannot remember what exactly happened since I was tired and so much goes on every day. Once the animals were all fed again though and the intern and I cleaned up the dishes, swept, mopped, disinfected surfaces, etc I was then sent on call to take an Eastern Phoebe, whom was dropped off earlier in the day, to REGI. REGI is Raptor Education Group, Inc. We have to take all birds that we receive to REGI because the rehabers here do not have advanced license and the rehaber that did no longer works here. Once they gain their advanced license we will see birds, bears, deer, and practically anything else wild you can think of so long as there is a protocol for it.

Anyway it took roughly 1.5 hours to get to REGI. Once I did I pretty much though I went to bird heaven because that is all they take is birds so you can imagine the number of birds they had. I heard an owl to start, birds were all over the feeders and in the balcony of the house the main staff woman lives in, and when I followed said woman into their rehab building she took the Phoebe, told me my IDing was correct, and then showed me various birds. She lifted a towel covering a box and I saw a living breathing Common Loon up close. She then moved over and grabbed a Red-throated Hummingbird out of a box and was like "want to see him feed, they have the cutest tongues" so of course I said sure and so that is what I saw. It was the closest I have ever been to a hummingbird and I wish I got pictures of these two birds, especially the hummingbird, but the Pheobe needed tended too so we rushed about. I mean I could practically see the iridescence in the feathers of the hummingbird. When she put it back I could even hear its wings buzzing in the box. Imagine the sound of a bee buzzing by by faster; same thing practically. She then pulled out a Baltimore Oriole and I was able to see it too! I never knew they were so small, I have only see Orioles with binoculars up in a tree. It practically fit in your hand; crazy. She put this one back too and we chatted about birds and how we both loved them.

What caught me off guard was when she said "well if you ever change your mind about your internship you can come here, here's an informational guide". Awkwardly I told her maybe next year because changing internships like that is just not right at all and completely against my morals. I would never turn my back on these guys here; especially when Northwoods is the whole reason I am in Wisconsin right now. It's like saying "hey thanks for taking the time to get my here, teach me everything, now see ya" ... very wrong indeed. So yes, maybe next year if I don't try elsewhere and honestly I would love the birds experience but God I love the mammal, amphibian, reptile experience currently and cannot wait for birds and more to be added on. It would be amazing without a doubt since they see TONS and TONS of birds, which is what I love, but once again this experience in absolutely amazing as well and I would never turn my back at all. I love it here, plain and simple. I give her credit for asking me like that though. Gotta say that much though I am worried about other interns taking that offer. Looks bad on any said interns part though.

After leaving REGI and making my way back towards Northwoods, I received a call about picking up some baby raccoons. I thought I was heading towards the house and instead of taking 5 minutes I ended up taking roughly 30+ minutes because I did not know where I was or anything. The guy ended up walking me through to where his house was via phone call. I, of course, apologized a ton but he was completely fine and understanding. Especially when I said I was both new and from Ohio; they were simply happy that the raccoons babies were getting taken somewhere who takes care of them. Which we did. 1.5 hours drive time later and I returned to Northwoods. It was roughly 10:30 I believe. Once a staff member showed up were set up an incubator for them in the Isolated Room for Raccoons and we weighed and began to prepare feeding.We had 3 boys and 2 females whom I think she said was roughly 3 weeks old. Cannot recall exactly but they are young enough to have their eyes open but movements are still tricky. They are adorable as all get out and eventually I will snag pictures before they get too big. Maybe I will give multiple pictures of them as they age from young to adult and hopefully pictures of them being released too; I mean why not. Raccoons were fed and stimulated to use the restroom and then I shortly went to bed around 11:30pm; when everything was all said and done. Work tomorrow at 8am as always.