Day 45 - Education

Good old switching back and forth between education and rehabilitation. Today started off like every education day of course. For those who still do not know what this means - sweeping, vacuuming, and mopping. I did the first two while the education intern did the other and cleaned the bathrooms. I also washed the front windows and window to the nursery before sitting down until 10am doing call backs. Every person that calls about an animal we add to the phone log and if a call back is necessary we state so for others or yourself at a later date to call the person back. These call backs are meant to either update the person on how the animal they brought in is doing or for them to update us in case they were monitoring an animal.

For example, a bird is hopping around in your back yard because its learning how to fly. Since you are not aware of it learning how to fly you call us in and we inform you based on the details you give us then ask you to monitor it. Chances are the bird will fly away in a few hours to days and if you're a witness to it you update us so we can then update the phone log. The public truly appreciates call backs for sure. Have not had a bad one yet (knock on wood) and typically hear "thank you for doing what you do" or in one case "you sound like a very nice person, good luck with your future endeavors and never stop helping wildlife". So far the later is my favorite. My least favorite is when someone asked for my personal number.....no.....just no.....I am taken and 100% content with that. Period.

In other news, gave the first tour to a group of high schoolers. They were entirely interested which made me happy. It feels weird being a college student teaching high schoolers about the animals because well...2-3 years ago that was me and I am STILL not used to the fact Im beyond high school. (and almost beyond associates degree in one more year too!)

Once tour was up this meant time for another protocol party! The other intern gave the next two tours while I worked on protocols. While I was away she was doing callbacks as well which makes me very pleased. Better then sitting around like a bump on a log. The fact she gave tours gave me plenty of time to work on the songbird protocol. When she returned we had some dry periods besides the occasional phone call. This period ended into lunch where we got a 30min break each. She took another tour I think but I ended up giving at least two today. I think she maybe gave three though so almost even. You could say answering a lot of phone calls until 5pm evened it out in a sense.

For the most part majority of the day went towards protocols though I did move around a bit. After lunch I did the rehabilitation side a favor while they were still on lunch and cleaned the exam room. This includes dishes and disinfecting surfaces/scales/exam table. Started to work on the kitchen until the education director pulled me to the front to show me how to clean our Florida Soft-shell turtles cage. I am taking care of her for this summer (we each received different animals - I have the eastern screech owls and the great horned owl too).

Hubertus - Florida Softshell Turtle

The director showed me how to take apart the filter, how to remove the water with some hoses, and pointed out that I needed to scrub the sides. I helped scrub at least but overall he honestly did the rest. Feeling guilty about it but he understood I was busy. I felt like I was jumping back and forth between rehab and education towards the end of the day. Was periodically going over how to clean the enclosure then jumped back to make squirrel trays then was grabbed again. He was busy as well so we were both in the same boat. I still soaked all that I could in by watching. The filter may not need changed again until the next internship season rolls around (Aug-Sept) but just in case, I have a decent understanding and can at least work on "cage cleaning" protocols. At least... I think that's what they asked us to do when we get the chance. Not sure. Need to ask but either way even more protocols. Good practice though for writing out documents and learning about all the species depending on which protocol. So far its been heron, egrets, bitterns, and songbirds (passerine and non-passerine) for me (minus warblers). One of the rehab staff members did 90% of the songbird protocol while I am just helping her fill in the basic information for each species. Not to hard, just formatting and filling stuff in. The formatting portion is done, just need to complete the filling in part.

After all this was over two staff members, two interns besides me, and one volunteer went to a Snowshoe baseball game. Never ever heard of it before but its where the play baseball in snowshoes! The field is mainly sawdust and the ball is more like a soft ball but everything else is the same. This was treat to us three interns for selling the most fishing tickets (we tied by selling 2 each). The volunteer said that if we did he would take us to the game and buy us food. We each got a brawt (best and only brawt i have ever loved) and a piece of pie (caramel apple cheesecake) with a water. I could not thank him enough for this huge treat!!!! Had a complete blast and wish I took pictures but was having so much fun that I kind of actually forgot to. Good break from protocols and loved hanging out with everyone. Managed to eat another piece of pie I think and also a cheeseburger too. Two other waters later.... I was full and feeling it too but so worth it.

We even hung out by Lake Tomahawk for a good while there too. Clearest lake I have even seen, it was gorgeous. One thing I did not like though was the fact that docks moved with the water. So they would shake or move when you walked too. Not an Ohioan thing, couldn't handle it! haha.

Overall, fun day and very productive too but also it has left me very tired. So I managed to catch up by cranking out this post, hopefully will stay caught up tomorrow, but otherwise good night everyone.