These days are so long. I know they’re like normal work days, but at least when you’re working a normal job you can go home and do home stuff and relax, etc. rather than study and do homework. I think we get one weekend day off, which is silly and not enough. Oh well, a student’s life for me. I have the feeling I will go a little nuts my actual rotation year.
I did some physical exams on red tailed hawks that are in a flight room (vs. individual cages. They’re closer to being released than other birds). One of the volunteers who have been specially trained to handle the birds restrains and I do the physical exam stuff. Hands on stuff with these animals is amazing! They are so strong yet so fragile. A prime example of this is how, to open their talons, we pull on their 2nd toe pretty much as hard as we can until we hear this awful cracking type of noise. It’s not damaging to them, it just is a horrible sound. Yet, you have to be so incredibly careful around their primary flight feathers. An interesting dichotomy. I learned how to do head grabs on the red tailed hawks. Scary! It involves sliding your hand behind the head, using your thumb to keep the beak closed and then holding on below the mandibles on either side with index and middle fingers to gain control of the head. Then, for examining inside the mouth, you pry open the beak with your thumb of the same hand, which I can’t do, or your other hand and then slide the restraint hand’s thumb inside. The side of the beak is actually soft tissue so you don’t get injured/bit unless you do something stupid, which, as I am incredibly inexperienced, I am afraid I will do. I peeled some crud off the roof of one’s mouth. Fucking majestic, that :P
I also did some blood drawing. I failed with one of the red tailed hawks. We’re supposed to bend our needles at a 45 degree angle because it’s hard to access vessels, more specifically the ulnar vein where we typically drawl blood, with a straight needle. This extra dimensional thing confuses me greatly. I was in the vessel briefly and got about 1/3 of the blood I needed, but then I lost it and couldn’t get back in. ::shrugs:: Successfully drew from a golden eagle, though. You don’t bend needles for them and they are considerably larger, both of which helped me greatly. It’s OK, I’m learning.
Rotation mate and I worked on an anatomy assignment in the afternoon. It involved dissecting a great horned owl. I simultaneously hate and enjoy dissection. It is oddly soothing because it’s methodical but get’s so incredibly tedious and takes forever. Plus, it felt somehow wrong to pluck an owl. I think rotation mate gets tired of how quiet I am, but I don’t care. Some people I click with right away and have great conversations with them and others, it takes more time or it never happens. He falls into the latter categories. Nothing against him, he’s perfectly nice and all but I have nothing I feel the need to say to him unless it’s rotation related, for the most part. I do wish I was better at small talk but, meh. It is what it is and I’ve beat myself up over it enough over the years.
I think food is happening. And then a shower, though I’m almost tempted not to because I’m just going to get covered in dead owl feathers again tomorrow while we work on the 2nd half of our dissection thing (today was the pectoral limb, tomorrow we’re doing pelvic limb). Rotation mate has dreads and one lady I work with had B.O. today, so it’ll be OK if my hair’s a little dirty and I don’t smell like a rose garden tomorrow, right? The birds don’t like me either way, anyway :P Maybe I’ll just ponder going to bed absurdly early. Mmm…sleep.
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