Day 91 - Rehabilitation

Today was rehabilitation day. Rather then starting off the day with feedings I actually spent a good 10-20 minutes before 8am to help our executive director load up the canoe and various other canoe raffle supplies so she could set up everything at the farmers market. After this I head upstairs and got ready for the day before returning back down to start my rehabilitation stuff.

I got to feed squirrels today which meant feeding them formula and giving them food trays. Either squirrels later (3 Gray, 5 Red) and they all had clean cages, new food, and were formula fed. I then moved on to mice and cleaned/fed them. Some had little babies! Of course I snapped a picture.

I watched our three new resident snapping turtles also get fed minnows. It's kind of fun watching them go after the minnow because they move so slow then suddenly the minnow is gone in one quick gulp. The two little snapping turtles were just too cute to watch because of how small they were; they ate the minnows in bits and pieces.

Once mice were finished I moved on to other tasks like dishes and going outside to collect pinecones, branches, and berries for our squirrels. I only got so far when an intern came out saying that we had a mountain lion cub rescue. I knew mountain lion cubs were so rare so of course I was excited but it ended up being a prank. This is what us interns do best; particularly the one!!!!! Pranking people!!!

I forget what else happened before lunch besides 11am and 12pm squirrel feedings. For lunch we went across the street as a rehab team (two interns, two rehabbers) and go chinese! Tasted AMAZING and once again I left with a food coma. Chinese is too good to not eat. My weakness.

We then returned to work after, threw in some shenaningans involving clothes, and then did 2pm feedings before grabbing our snowy and great horned owl for their vet appointment next door. The vet was too busy so we simply put them back afterwards and ended up cleaning or feeding when necessary. We actually started closing tasks early because everyone wanted to be finished early so once these were done, 4pm feedings were taken care of, snowys bandages were taken care of, and 5pm feeding was finished we finally called the day to an end.

The other rehab intern took phone for the night (YAY!) and so all that's left is 8pm feedings and letting a rehabbers dogs out via request. As for the rest of the night I am thinking relaxing and maybe heading to bed early again to catch up on any possible lost sleep and to hopefully sleep off this back pain that has been bothering me the last three days.

Day 89 - OFF / Day 90 - Canoe Raffle

DAY 89

I was off today so I decided to finish watching the remaining episodes of New Girl. Now I will just have to wait for the next season to start playing on TV. If I miss any I can watch them on Fox's website. Love the series!!! Later this night I went out with all the interns, except one, and a rehabber to a mexican restaurant. It was our last dinner together as a group before everyone left. Funny thing was when there was a random Bald Eagle sitting on a building's roof next door. Random eagle just relaxing on a roof; normally in Ohio it's random crow or something but never an Eagle. Needless to say I was rather excited! Besides this nothing else really happened besides me being lazy.

DAY 90

Today was a canoe raffle day at Torpy Park; a park in "downtown" Minocqua. I went with a volunteer and together we sold roughly 70 raffle tickets which isn't bad! A rehabber showed up and we ventured around the park to look at all the booths. This event was a craft show which made me very excited! I LOVE craft shows around here because they are all northwoodys-like stuff or forest/animal/wildlife related which is nice! I bought some silver Common Loon earrings. I wanted to buy some pine cone earrings and a pine cone charm bracelet too but I didn't have the money. The loon earrings are enough to sum up and remind me of my whole Northwoods adventure here in all honesty. Loons are what made me fall in love with this, is something everyone here loves, and overall represents everything to me. I kind of wish our logo animal was a Loon. Still, more loon stuff will probably be purchased for me or for others as gifts before I leave (and if I have the cash). Im trying to save up what money I can for gifts and travel expenses back to Ohio.

Overall it was a nice breezy day and we enjoyed the relaxing time selling tickets and exploring. I did laundry today and was going to hang out with interns afterwards but thanks to a head pounding migraine I ended up going to bed a half hour earlier then usually. I slept it off and felt better the following morning but sadly did not get to hang out as said! Thankfully we went to dinner the night before.

Day 88 - Education

Today was an education day which meant starting off with cleaning tasks. The other intern swept and cleaned windows while I used the vacuum to sweep rugs and mopped. After that I honestly sat down because I felt both sick and very tired so my energy was gone. I later realized I forgot to take my iron pill and did so. I also drank some Advocare Spark (Cherry) so by combining spark and advocare's Coreplex with iron I was able to get the energy I needed to get through my day without crashing. Im personally getting tired now because I am finally relaxing but still have energy to continue if necessary. Though I must admit I hope not to currently because I am thinking of watching Season 2 of New Girl and heading to bed early.

Other then cleaning tasks this morning I had to set up a sign stating we had an educational program today at 4:30pm. Guess who's program it was today? Mine! I had my second/last Bat Ecology program which went very well. I had a crowd of about 15-20 people who were very involved and overall enjoyed my program! I was very happy! They even added in their own experiences and overall a very involved group with a lot of brain storming questions I was actually able to answer :)!

Between placing the sign out side and ending my day with this program I gave excellent tours people (both new and old visitors) were pleased with, did a lot of call backs, and answered phones in general. Basically call backs are where we call people back who called us regarding animal calls. Its our way of following up with the status of the animal or what may have happened to it if someone sighted one but never brought it in. I covered at least 10+ but there are still a lot more left that hopefully others will work on tomorrow.

I do not have pictures for this post in all honesty; I wish I could have had one snapped of me doing my program but it was dark in the room with a powerpoint so it wasn't truly possible anyway. Other then tours, phones, and program not much honestly happened today.

Overall, excellent day and tomorrow I am off. It may very well be my last day off because I will be returning to Ohio in less then a week :)

Day 87 - Rehabilitation

Sorry this post is late; once again it will make sense why after reading!

Today was a rehabilitation day and I was in charge of feeding squirrels for today. So this morning I stated off throwing out all formulas that went bad this particular day and made all new formula for all the squirrels (and rabbit). Once everyone had new formula I quickly made three squirrel trays up. The two gray squirrels and our three babies (who are growing fast!) each got a tray. We had another single red squirrel that recently was moved from the nursery to the cage room; he also received a tray. All squirrels mentioned had their cages cleaned and got fresh water as well. After doing all this I started to formula feed all the squirrels previously mentioned and a single red squirrel baby, that came in recently, in one of our incubators. His eyes are not even open yet just like the other three we had!

Once all squirrels were fed and cleaned I finished up all their charts and with that morning feed for squirrels was finished. We had volunteers in so they took care of any resident feeding and cleaning/feeding mice so I helped out the other intern by starting raccoon bowls for our outside raccoons. A volunteer, other intern, and myself worked together until I started doing dishes as requested. I then went back into the nursery and later bleached the counters to keep things sanitary.

Besides this I had other feedings at 11am and 12pm depending on the squirrel so I fed whomever. Not sure what happened between all this time but we took lunch after 12pm feedings were finished until roughly 1:25pm. After lunch I realized we had a Great Blue Heron come in! Not an adult but a younger bird (fledgling?). I managed to snap a picture of him in our isolation room. After 2pm feeding we loaded him and a possibly Chipping Sparrow fledgling into one of our vehicles to transport both birds to Raptor Education Group Inc (REGI). It was truly nice/pleasant to leave so early rather then late at night and driving back later; it takes up most of your evening.

 

I ADORE Great Blue Heron! LOVE LOVE LOVE them!
This is all thanks to my Capstone project; I had to right a research paper and had a presentation on Great Blue Heron. They are VERY interesting birds! Which one isn't though right? Still!

Okay I love birds in general.

So between 2 and roughly 5 or so I was driving to/from REGI. When I returned I had time to type this up but ended up playing some facebook games for a while, fed squirrels at 8pm, and then all interns watched a movie called "The perks of being a Wallflower". Rather interesting movie I never heard of before. I kind of liked it. I went to bed shortly after this though; was just tired after the REGI drive in all honesty.

At some point today our three new resident snapping turtles came in (no names yet); two are babies and one is an adult female. The previous owner attempted to raise them and many more to eat but the DNR found out and confiscated all turtles. Poor turtles! I don't mind people eating turtles but at least follow the laws and hunt like everyone else. Little guys never had a chance to even live life outside! Since turtles require a specific home range that cannot be released or would die otherwise. So they must live their life in captivity now. At least we can use them for educational purposes rather than turtle soup!

Day 85 - Canoe Raffle (Pig in the Pines) / Day 86 - OFF

DAY 85

So today was a canoe raffle kinda day. Another intern and I set out this morning around 10am (we got to sleep in some!) and head to St. Germain, Wisconsin where the Pig in the Pines was taking place. Normally canoe raffles are at craft shows but this event was more of an eating/music kind of event. There are five different BBQ vendors with stuff like rubs, pulled pork, and more. There are ice cream vendors, kettle corn, funnel cake, and cheese curds.lots of food and directly to our left is a live cover band playing country music - Luke Bryan, Eric Church, Jason Aldean, and more. More of less this is my kind of event! The weather, although breezy, is spectacular! Earlier it was chilly but in the afternoon it was in the comfortable low 70s. Later that night it got cold of course! We ended up selling 100 tickets, tried some good food, got to listen to some good music, and so overall it was a great day!

I actually was able to finish half of a book and in the afternoon I participated in a rib judging! Basically they brought out 5 different ribs (Two in a box) from the five vendors and we judged based on tenderness, taste, and appearance. It was difficult because it was all so good!!! My favorite ended up being a place called Pigfoot but the two Ohio vendors were close second and third (one point difference). Overall the Texas vendor one (go figure).

Not much to say otherwise besides we stayed until roughly 9pm, when it got dark, and enjoyed out day! Very relaxing and almost felt like a day off!!

Live band and our canoe!

DAY 86

So lets be honest, today was another day I did not go anywhere. I watched the remaining first season of New Girl and intend to start season 2 on my next day off. I did leave the center for roughly 30 minutes to an hour by going across the street to a Chinese buffet for lunch with a rehabber, an intern, and an interns friend. Good food. Otherwise I hate two granola bars and a pork sandwich I bought at the Pig in the Pines today. Needless to say didn't eat much, move much, and overall rellllaxxxedddd. Today was a good day!

Day 84 - Education

Finally back on education after what feels like two weeks! Not sure if it was actually that long and it was my fault for switching with everyone. I truly enjoyed the rehabilitation and days off but sometimes education side of things feels almost like a day off when not many tours roll through the doors. I want to say I gave at least five tours today and even got two hugs out of one! My longest tour was today; 50 minutes! Truly I was not supposed to go this long at all but people surely enjoyed it and there wasn't any tours waiting afterwards so everything was okay.

Besides tours I answered a few phone calls; one of which was about the swan rescue from yesterday. It turns out since Mute Swans are considered invasive we cannot rescue it and therefore the Wisconsin DNR must be called to take care of the swan any further. I was sad to inform both people who called about the news but they completely understood and appreciated that I went out yesterday to check out the situation. At least they understood and someone was able to go out and identify the swan correctly. Originally it was mistaken as a snow goose based on the descriptions but after some analyzing and looking back on a book things were figured out.

Since the swan could not be rescued the rehab side had time for other things to tend to instead. Meanwhile we had tours and phones as said until 4pm. The day literally FLEW by. One minute I thought it was 12:30 and the next it's 4. Overall it went very well for education stuff.

We then helped out on rehab stuff. I swept and cleaned off some counters while the other education intern did dishes and later mopped. Meanwhile I helped the rehabber grab a bird that needed some wing maintenance; antibiotics on a wound. We hope to take the bird and our Snowy to the appointment thursday; meaning hopefully the vet is back and able to do the appointment. We then returned inside and the other education intern grabbed the snowy owl while I did her bandages while the rehabber left. After Snowy I fed the squirrels and the other education intern fed raccoons. The rehab interns were outside cleaning the ORC and filling out charts from feeding our residents. One ended up leaving and the other had to go to REGI because of a a young robin and a young blue jay that came in so she preparing for that and ended up leaving as well.

When we finished up though we returned upstairs and have been up here since. Currently we are watching a movie "Hes just not that into you" and shortly after will probably be bed! Tomorrow I don't have to wake up until around 9/930 to go to St. Germain for a raffle. So I get to sleep in, yay!

One of our three Red Squirrels we released. I saw two of the three today.

Video of our three red squirrels. Remember the new borns? This is what the looked like now! They have been upgraded from the incubator to the heating pad and now the cage with a heating pad beneath. Hopefully they will start eating solids very soon!!! Growing up fast!!

Day 83 - Rehabilitation

I cannot recall much from today because I had to type everything out the next day. I never had time on this day to actually type out everything due to being busy.

Basically when the other rehab intern and I went downstairs we started 8am feedings. We managed to feed all the raccoons and squirrels, and then worked on charts for all the critters. I personally fed raccoons and had help carrying out bowls. We had three volunteers in today because one normally helps feed mice and doing cleaning tasks while the other feeds/waters residents. She was helping out the third volunteer by teaching her the ropes of feeding, watering, and charting everything when it comes to our residents.

Once 8am feedings were finished, the other intern and I grabbed a flamethrower and head out to the mammal enclosures where we proceeded to flame throw two cages. All the wood chips had been scrapped out since the raccoons were moved to the ORC so the flame throwing process was next to 100% disinfect the cage so that more animals could be put inside. I must say, flame throwing was awesomingly fun and I know for sure that I have a touch of pyro to my nature haha

After this we honestly were not sure what to do since the rehabber was not quite around yet. He had to run some errands because he was trying to get our truck phone fixed. There's been some difficulty involving verizon so hopefully it will get taken care of soon. We basically went inside and looked for jobs the other two volunteers had not covered. For example doing dishes, cleaning off counters, and doing whatever feedings when necessary. The rehabber showed up but I cannot recall what all we did by then. Eventually lunch rolled around so we finished 12pm feeding and took lunch for an hour.

Once finished we went back downstairs and since the rehabber was not back from lunch yet because he had to pick up a squirrel near his home. So we came back down and I grabbed a bucket with soap water, a trash bag, and some plastic gloves then went out to Errol the Great Horned Owls enclosure and started picking up any feathers, feces in his gravel, owl pellets, and scrubbed at some dirty spots when necessary. I wasn't able to 100% finish because by 2:20pm I rushed back inside because the Snowy Owl had a vet appointment. However when I returned inside it turned out the vet was on vacation so the appointment was cancelled.

Instead of cleaning more owl enclosures I head into the Raccoon Isolation Room (RISO) instead and started scrabbing and disinfecting any cage I could. The trays were removed and were meant to go outside but I ran out of time because the other intern needed help with the snowy owls daily maintenance. I managed to finish all the interior parts of the cages but the doors still need work and the trays till need washed. The carrier inside needs removed and washed as well but either I will get to it when I am back on rehab or someone else might end up washing the stuff but who knows.

After helping with the snowy owl we eliminated 4pm feedings, did our closing tasks (sweeping, mopping, dishes), and just before we were about to load up a Bald Eagle that came in earlier in the day (due to being caught by a leg hold trap) a call came in about a goose with a broken wing. So instead of going straight to REGI the goose situation had to be taken care of first. I drove to it with a box and everything by myself and it turned out the goose was actually a Mute Swan. The rescue was unsuccessful since it went straight into the water but afterwards I was able to take the Eagle to REGI. I didn't arrive until roughly 10:30ish but Eagle was taken care of, I got to watch the initial examination and process after, then I got to see a juvenile red-tailed hawk before heading back to the center. I didn't get back to the center until 12:30am. Shortly after I went straight to bed. 5 hour drives are becoming easier to me but still are very tiresome!