A red phase Eastern Screech Owl female. Then I met a gray phase male. Then a dark phase Red-tailed hawk.
What a great day. I am flying high, one step closer to handling birds again. I truly underestimated how this would feel.
Several weeks ago, I spoke to N at Audubon about working with their education birds. Today, after working five hours in the Nature Store (The manager had the day off and I was on my own), I met N at the mews. He introduced me to the three birds currently in residence. The American Kestral is rehabbing at his home - his wife is a vet. He gave me the keys, so to speak, to assist with cleaning and hang out with the birds so they can get to know me.
Either he forgot or misunderstood me weeks ago because he seemed to think I just wanted to help with their care. “If you think you’ll be comfortable later on, maybe you’ll consider doing programming,” he said.
“Oh, I definitely will do programming! I can talk about owls for an hour!” I refreshed his memory, “When I was at the Aviary, my favorite thing to do was to have a bird in hand and stand in the hallway talking to visitors about the bird.”
When I reminded him that I had handled Red-tailed hawks before and much bigger birds like Eurasian Eagle Owls, he got a gleam in his eye. “If you could focus on handling the red-tail, that would be great. Right now, I am the only one who can work with her. Everyone else seems to be afraid of her.” I think it was pretty clear that I am not afraid of raptors. I had the red screech owl in hand for a few minutes and I removed her equipment. It felt so good to put a glove on again.
One of the things N thought that I could do in the near future was to have one of the birds hang out with me in the store while I work. I already mentioned this to S, my boss. She loved the idea. N wants the birds to be around people more so they get comfortable. It’s also a great way to bring attention to the mission and programming.
I spent an hour with N and the raptor trio before heading home. Don went to a ballgame with a friend tonight (“Hon, would it be OK if I went to a game with B?” He’s so sweet.) so there was no-one at home to share my excitement. I called KC. He is very excited for me. He understands, as I knew he would.
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