Kestrel

We had a pizza party today for a family who won a silent auction. They got to eat with the birds. We called it Pizza with Pippin (one of the ed birds). Pippin was the host and sat near the table. He was served with the guests, his mice on a plate and napkin. He was weary of the plate. Once dinner began, though, me and a few other volunteers rotated birds around. I had Sweetpea, Rusty, and Willie. Sweets did okay, considering that her and I don't like each other. Willie was a different story. I had never worked with her before and she isn't flighted. She ended up hopping off the fist and couldn't get back up and I couldn't swing her back because I had no idea how the center coordiator wanted me to do it compared to my falconry sponsor (which is also done with a flighted bird). I also didn't know Rusty liked to play dead in his travel box and that was an adventure. (Edit: oops. Wrong (ish) thread. Still good thing tho)

THIS BIRD HAS TRAPPED GROWN MEN IN HER MEW BEFORE SHE GOES RIGHT FOR THE EYES

Nah Sweetpea hates people and would rather be in her nestbox. She was an angry little fuzz muffin.

Uh an updated photo with a bird on my fist because that's my eternal state of being now? Its Sweetpea and I at our last education program. Her and I were both mega uncomfortable. She doesn't like me very much and has drawn blood from my finger numerous times.

Tfw your apprentice license application is in the hands of the state now I need to take my test but I am waiting for paperwork processing. And once I take my test there's more paperwork processing. And then game warden inspections and more paperwork processing And then getting a hunting license and more paperwork processing.

I just beat the second island. Honestly I've been speed running this. I am going to hoard rowlets and type: null. I just know it.

Jar jar binks

*comes back from a haitus, sees this* Welp. No idea who everyone is now, I suppose. *returns to the recess of the internet abyss*

Try to find some fanart from an artist on deviantart or something. Some people sell prints of their art.

Updates: I have a falconry sponsor and am working on getting my apprentice license. I will be hunting with a passage red tailed hawk.

I raise you the secretary bird. Also called the marching eagle. We now have a peregrine falcon in our rehab, which is rare and awesome! We'll have to release him in a week if we want him to hit his migration, however. I've also gotten to hold a cooper's hawk recently. What a nutty bird. Also, kestrels are the most fun to have sit on your fist. They are so curious.

Being in a flight cage with them is bad enough, lol. I've been swooped at a few times.

Esos! I love our screech owls! Yep, ours do make that noise. But frankly, whoever named screech owls has never heard a barn owl. Our barn owl, Willie, loves to nap, and if you wake her, she does the annoyed hissing scream barn owls do. Its terrifying. Our rehab birds do it more; they also hunch over and make themselves all leg no bird.

They are! They're only about the size of your fist and weigh only about 100 grams (4 ounces!)

This school year hasn't felt real honestly.

I've been mainly putting this in the Random Stuff thread but heck, I'll be posting it here now to keep it all in one place. For those of you who don't know, I now volunteer at a bird of prey rehab/sanctuary. If you have any questions for me please don't hesitate to ask. I help out mostly in rehab, the area where wild birds are brought in to be treated. I am training in education, which consists of our birds who can never be released into the wild. We sit with them, hold them, and train them to fly and return to our gloves. So... the best part, our education birds! These are only a few of our ed birds. This is Zeus, one of our two red tailed hawks. He is our biggest bird. He was electrocuted and has a wing issue, which is why he's with us permanently. He's a sweet bird, even if he does tend to puncture the strongest gloves with those sharp talons of his. This is Rusty, one of our three Eastern screech owls. He's a brown morph form. This is Orion, our other red tail. He's a goofy bird; he has a swing perch in his mew and he loves to swing on it. This is Xena, our peregrine. She's an old bird, but still very beautiful. She's a moody bird, though. She's sassy. she needs a napkin. And finally, our cutest education birds, in my opinion, our american kestrels! The males have the gray, the females do not. My first time holding a bird was actually with one of our kestrels, a male everyone calls Baby (the public gets to name our birds). I got to hold and feed him under the supervision of the education director. He ended up getting away once; I got too comfortable and let go of his jesses. I wasn't about to let that happen again, so I clenched my fist really badly and ended up cramping my hand like no tomorrow. But it was fun; he seemed to enjoy it because he puffed up really big and rested on one foot, which is a sign of comfort in kestrels. I've seen so much awesome stuff so far, and I have learned a lot about these great birds. I wish to be a falconer some day so this is a great opportunity for me to learn about the back end of bird care.

I'm honored. I'll tell her next time I see her. She shall be thrilled! u kno what i came out to have a good time and

Illegally cute. I call foul. Ed bird doing her education job. Educating us on cute.

Hm let's see here... I have been attacked by a few rehab birds, but was wearing gloves and with small birds so had no damage. A few small scrapes, but my cat has given me worse. Them attacking is always good; it means that they are afraid of you and aren't used to humans, all the better for them to be released into the wild again (they won't equate humans with food and care, unlike our education birds). All of the birds are unpredictable, even education, but I've never been hurt in education nor have I seen anyone hurt in ed either. The most an ed bird has done is "foot" someone, which is a term in falconry when the bird accidentally gets your bare hand while you're trying to handle them. Most of our ed birds also don't like being touched, so watch your fingers when trying to feel the weight of the bird. However my coordinator did get hurt the other day; that was an adventure. We were working on a cooper's hawk's head (hawks are the worst as far as rehab goes) and the lady holding the bird down loosened on the foot just a little and he reaches up and struck my coordinator in her bare hand; got to her bone. It didn't make a scratch, luckily, just a puncture. It wasn't good; she flushed it out and walked around with a glove all day. But she's fine now. I love all the raptors! But my favorites have to be the kestrels and golden eagles (which we don't have sadly). Harris hawks are also beautiful birds. My favorite specific birds are Baby, one of our kestrels, Miki, our Mississippi kite (who was my first bird I've gotten to handle! She's so sweet but we're worried about her, she's the oldest), and Orion, our goofy red tailed hawk.

Does he know he's cute? An education kestrel I worked with today. We're calling him Baby for now.

Well, some brighter Harry Potter stuff. I went on my first program with the raptor center yesterday and it was to a Harry Potter themed camp. We brought our owls. Here's Rusty, an Eastern Screech Owl, posing.

Man, I stopped following it once the plot synopsis got released. It makes no sense in canon. But. Oh well I guess.

*is too lazy to go back and read* is this about cursed child?

Because I'm trying to seperate all my non-official accounts from my official ones. I changed my Tumblr and Flight Rising as well. The only thing that stayed the same was my YouTube and Deviantart.

He has feathers missing on one wing. He was rehab but they never grew back, so he's with us now. He's been there a few years. Birds of prey are really great because they're super smart. Most don't like being around people but Beaker and the other wild ed birds know that humans give them food and the like so they aren't very stressed. Same thing with falconry. The birds used to hunt are usually trapped wild animals but they stay with their handlers because the handler provides them food; some even come back after being released! Its super neat.