Comfort and Companions

Don't even read the title if you don't like Great Grey Owls.

2006-07-03T11:20:00.000-07:00

While we certainly don't get anywhere near as many as we do Great Horneds, it's not unusual for us to get Great Grey Owls in at the shelter. What is unusual is for me to photograph them. Great Grey Owls stress easily and badly. Obviously the majority of the birds I'm photographing would be happier not having a camera in their face, but there's a distinction. There's good agitation - the kind that keeps them alert and wary of people - and there's bad agitation. Great Greys are very prone to the bad kind. The kind that causes the kind of stress that is unhealthy. If I sense any hint of that kind of agitation I drop the food and leave, not making eye contact. It's rare that a Great Grey is in a mellow enough mood to be photographed.

So when, like today, a Great Grey is in a mellow mood, I practically fill the card. Today's post is a Great Grey a palooza. Off we go then... ready, set...

FuhLING!

I also avoid the flash to be as unobtrusive as possible.

Love that facial disk.

...and that's enough of that.

This title doesn't even begin to make up for how long it's been since I updated.

2006-06-17T20:25:00.000-07:00

Okay this is cool. Well I think it's cool.

Cowardly Owl's roomate found a hole in the mesh of his enclosure and got out. While Mr. G searches for the elusive opening Cowardly Owl's roomate is in the converted fox cage with Brigitte, Diva, and Brigitte's brother.

Cowardly Owl's roomate is about as dark phase as a dark phase Great Horned Owl gets, and Brigitte's brother is about as light phase as our Nothern light phase Great Howned Owls get. They were sitting side by side. Today I was finally able to fully appreciate how suprised people are by how pale our Great Horned Owls are up here. I've been up close and personal with about as many of one as the other for four years, but I guess I somehow had never seen the contrast presented so clearly.

They really look like they could be completely different kinds of owls. From now on I'll be less suprised when people ask if Great Horneds in educational displays are Snowy Owls. If you're only used to seeing dark phases that's not such a suprising guess.

Everyone seems to be getting along alright. Still a lot of checking each other out to be done, though, of course.

Everyone's still playing nice in Eagle daycare. I think the young guy looks to be fattening up nicely. He needed more meat on his bones, and our one concern with his going outside was that he wouldn't get his share of the food. Looks to be getting his share of everything he pleases.

Here's the Red Tail supervising my clean-up of the wind tunnel.

Here's the Ferruginous supervising my - and everyone else's, for that matter - work in the yard.

Here's a truly exceptionally bad photo of the Snowy Owl, but I like how you can see the centre of gravity shift happening.

Here's the baby with bed head from last week's post. He's a full fledged Dove now. That's him closest the window.

That's what this guy will look like in two weeks.

Yes he's looking a little badly photoshopped around the edges there. Doves are lousy housekeepers. No damn wonder Noah kicked them off the ark early.

Here's a little bird that I saw in the yard and actually got a shot of! Yeah it's nasty, but I only have 3X optical zoom, and those trees are damnably tall!

Another yeah it could be better but with my camera lucky to get anything at all shot. Pelicans flying over head. Be still my heart - I don't know if there's a sight in nature that I more greatly adore. Waxed moustaches aloft!

Lastly an almost impossible to get a bad shot of to make up for the amateurisms Raider.

Puppy tongue can absolve any esthetic crime.

I write the worst titles on Sundays.

2006-06-11T18:51:00.000-07:00

This is not a good shot, but I like it. It's just the kinda view that I look up and see when I'm just doing my thing.

This is an adequate snapshot of the Red Tail and Haircut (lost a fight with a swather) sharing a perch in their renovated wind tunnel. They're often to be found side by side, but Haircut has a habit of jumping off it whenever the camera is produced, so I was happy to get this.

Haircut definitely has one thing going for him these days - he definitely gives good Hawk Pants!

The Swainsons that Mrs. G and I attended to yesterday, pre-wing bandage.

A few weeks ago I took a pic of a couple of eggs in a dish. This is one of those eggs.

Just a little blonde left to lose there - I love the little squiggles on the top of it's head.

Scabby's looking fabby!

Very few if any raw spots left!

...and we're gonna need a bigger ball.

There should probably be some reference to birds in this title.

2006-06-10T18:57:00.000-07:00

The Broadwing would like to wish everyone a happy molting season.

Diva would like to wish everyone the opportunity to sit and post in peace...

...without getting bumped off their perches by Brigitte's hyper brother. Diva also wishes that dumb dog would stop looking at him.

A very different looking bird without his perch, our Diva.

The snowy wishes that said dumb dog would stop racing around her enclosure.

...but knows from experience that the silly beast won't.

Brigitte... ah, who knows? Brigitte probably wishes he was a hundered feet tall and trampling a metropolis, but this is Brigitte. He could just as easily be wishing he was an eggplant.

The Ferruginous wishes she was the most spoiled rottenest bird ever to stay at the shelter, and is quite pleased with how that's coming along. It's quite charming, actually. Mrs. G and I had been working with another bird, and Mrs. G - who runs the shelter with her husband - was cleaning it's cage before I put it back. She stepped into the other cage room on the other side of the main treatment area and I heard the sweetest bird call I'd ever heard, but a bird call I'd never heard before in my life. I asked Mrs. G what it was. The look of love flashed in that woman's eye, and she replied "that's my Ferruginous Hawk".

The Ferruginous has taken to commenting on my comings and goings in and out of her cage room too, and I know she does the same for Mr. and Lil G (the G's daughter). She really called for Mrs. G, though. How beautiful. For as hard as that woman works I'm not suprised that the most intelligent bird I've ever seen has taken a particular shine to her.

Beaver Pond Trail 2

2006-06-09T21:05:00.000-07:00

Beaver Pond Trail beckons you...

...then gives you a great breath of air...

...then draws you close....

...and keeps you close.

There are friends other than beavers to see there too.

I'm hoping to have moose sightings there this year as I have in the past. It's a moose friendly kind of place.

Of course oversized huskies like it too.

Landscapes open like portraits along the trail.

The light plays many games there.

This is what ten pm in Elk Island looks like in May.

Trails of a different sort can be seen.

Trails of a different sort of traveller.

I need to brush up on my weasel-ology. That and get a better zoom.

Never mind. What can be seen with the naked eye satisfies well enough.

The title's just here to distract you from the fine print.

2006-06-05T18:20:00.000-07:00

First a couple of crops from the shots I posted yesterday. I viewed them full size and just fell in love with the expressions on those silly birds and had to have them in my journal.

For contrast, the babe alone, pre-introduction. Any doubt that they're happier not kept as pets when you see the contrast?

Next, and I'm only going to say this once, so if anyone inadvertantly scolls past the warning and is squicked out don't come a squallin' at me...

MOUSES!!!

First up in this section, the cute. Welcome to the baby mouse ball.

Help yourself to a drink.

Yeah, their cages can get kinda icky. We don't clean them or move mice when there are really young ones in there. The colony's strong and can take it, though. In all the years I've been there I can count on one hand the sick mice I've seen.

Next up in this section, one count on that hand. Scabby the mouse.

We segregated him from the colony weeks ago. We segregated him because we didn't have the heart to euthanize him. We segregated him to allow him to die in peace.

He fooled us but good.

Two weeks ago that bald patch was one big scab. Last week it was half the size. I could have kissed him when I saw it was gone, but nnnnnnnnnnnyeaaaaah... I'm not kissing him.

Blurry shot, but that's because he's so active, and that's a good thing! You can kind of see how his one eye is still scabby here, but again, two weeks ago both eyes were just red raw:

When I gave him that wheel two weeks ago he could barely take two steps on it between scratchings. He kept on stepping though. I didn't even see him scratch once this week, and what's more he'd been so busy digging around all week I had to unbury a great bulk of it to make it usable again.

My little hero. The body he's trapped in might have a fierce case of the uglies at the moment, but what a lovely little being. With the quota of losses we face at the shelter, unexpected saves are cherished indeed.

It takes years to develop all the skills necessary to be a proper title.

2006-06-04T14:17:00.000-07:00

Eagle lessons, week one.

Thor supervises Totem Pole practice:

...aaaaaaaaand right, two three four...

...and then instructs a class in yapping 101:

Guest lecturer Mr. About To Be Released offers a workshop in flapping...

...with a special section on how not to get knocked off your perch.

Yes, Golden, some birds do need to be taught this stuff. Don't look so incredulous - you were awkward and graceless once yourself.

All is harmony and happiness by all appearance. Apparently I do, though, still bear the scent of satan to certain rebandaged individuals lurking behind the perches in the tall grass.

At least I didn't have to rotate the title 90 degrees.

2006-06-03T22:37:00.000-07:00

A long but lovely day at the shelter.

It's funny - I'm always very humbled by compliments on my photos. Very honestly so - I point and click and out of eighty one shots I get a handful of keepers. Yay me. I'm also always ready to admit that it's pretty hard to take a bad picture of such gorgeous beings.

Proving that my method can defeat the most spectacular subject matter, then, I present the following:

Our beloved, majestic Ferruginous Hawk, in a pose very similar to ones I've had immortalized, and which have inspired me to utter the unkindest epithets upon the photographer:

A shot of the Long Eared Owl that speaks for itself:

Happily persistence does pay off with these guys, and the perfection of design prevails.

Adorableness is almost impossible to screw up, thankfully. You can certainly always count on a Short Eared Owl for adorableness, too.

He really was in just the sweetest mood. While he was in a spare cage having his cleaned I took the opportunity to score a shot with some itty bitty owlie feet (there are a lot of owl feet fans in the world!).

He was easy to pick up and handle, and when I went to put him back he stood calmly on my hand looking for a good place to land. When he spotted the food I left on his tree stump he leapt and landed on it, and couldn't have looked more pleased. That moment was simply too cute to disrupt with photography.

Speaking of cute, you can't beat Kestrels for that.

Especially not two Kestrels with one wing each that devotedly leap to protect one another whenever their cage door is opened.

They were in mellow moods too, though. I didn't get screamed at even once. That's no mean feat with Kestrels.

Here's a fellow that doesn't know the meaning of the word mellow. I've learned to crack the door of the room he's in open and wait for him to stop bouncing off the walls before proceeding. I waited until all was quiet, and as soon as I opened the door just wide enough to get my body through I was punched in the gut with a Cooper Hawk body slam.

I'm thinking a very releasable bird, that one. Unlike, of course, this one.

Chubby little Brigitte here is an imprint. He (yes he - at least that's the current guess. Obviously there have been different guesses in the past.) had just had a squabble with his brother, and went crying and squalling over to Diva there for consolation. It's always something with Brigitte. The dynamic between the three Great Horned Owls really seems to have de-Diva-ed Diva, too. He's so mellow now, and seems really happy in there. He was totally cool with Brigitte coming over... almost as if he were used to it...

...I get the feeling I'm calling the wrong owl "diva".

Last but far from least, a brand new Dove. You can never have enough Doves.

Beaver Pond Trail

2006-05-29T21:13:00.000-07:00

What's the last thing you expect to see on a trail called "Beaver Pond Trail"?

Well it is, really. I think I'd swerve off the road out of sheer shock if I ever saw a deer crossing at a deer crossing sign. They don't know what those signs mean.

Of course the deer don't put those signs up themselves, either. Beavers are considerably more proactive about declaring their presence.

A random title for some random shots.

2006-05-28T19:46:00.000-07:00

Here's a Red Tail whose injury is pretty self evident displaying the most could barely be bothered to display display I've ever seen. She's definitely not habituated - I think she was just being lazy.

Here's the Bald Eagle we have scheduled for release. Not a technically great shot, but I like getting shots of attitudes that don't generally get published. It's not elegant or breathtaking or majestic, but it's as interesting a phase of flight as any other.

Here's our resident Golden reacting to all the Bald Eagle releasing/catching/re-releasing activity going on in her aviary.

Okay, maybe it's more accurately a shot of the Golden not reacting to all the Bald Eagle releasing/catching/re-releasing activity going on in her aviary. We're definitely not concerned with the effects of stress on her metabolism.

Here's the beautiful, soulful Barred Owl.

Those deep brown eyes own my soul.

If I don't read this title often enough it'll turn feral.

2006-05-27T18:48:00.000-07:00

The young eagle has continued to improve, but has not stopped exhibitting clear signs of habituation. The only possible cure for that is a bunch of other eagles.

I hauled him outside.

He took flight.

He baffled himself.

Don't look at me, eagle, you put yourself there.

He found his way down.

He surveyed his new roommates.

He took flight again.

He... well, he's young.

He settled in.

Yeah, that's him on top. That's our resident Thor with the open beak vocalizing his opinion of the seating arrangement.

The eagle closest to the foreground is the one that's been flying around. He's due to be released amid much pomp and ceremony. A local lodge is holding a pow wow for him.

The eagle hiding and running away in the back is hiding and running away from me. After hauling the baby out I hauled him in for a wing check and rebandage (visible on his wing there), so he doesn't like me very much. His wing's doing well.

All three will survive their maladies. In the case of the baby it's a true miracle. I only today found out what his bloodwork results were when he was admitted. Well below the threshold at which birds are expected to survive.

It's the year of the eagle indeed. Happily it will be a successful year.

Meanwhile I'm just delighted that Thor has company.

It's too late to write a decent title too.

2006-05-26T21:42:00.000-07:00

Why are beavers beloved by all of nature?

Because they make the trees smile!

The rain that has been refreshing us by the bucket allowed enough of a reprieve to get out today. Now it's late and I'm tired, but full very pic intensive posts about Beaver Pond trail are forthcoming!

I wrapped the title in old grocery bags to keep it dry.

2006-05-23T23:56:00.000-07:00

Today it rained. Hard. I stayed at home, but my mind was back on Hayburger trail with the butterflies.

Simmon's Trail

2006-05-22T16:10:00.000-07:00

I am so in love with this trail.

Just be careful about walking in someone else's footsteps - especially after a rain. Someone might be living in them.

Hayburger Trail

2006-05-21T18:30:00.000-07:00

It actually is pure coincidence that the first trail I'm writing about in this blog is trail #1. Does make me think, though, that it would look ever so tidy if I were to both introduce and revisit the trails in numerical order throughout the year. That's fine and dandy for trails 1-3. That might become a problem by trail 4. Moss lake. That is not an easy hike, and I learned today that a lot of my hiking muscles are still in hibernation. I usually like to spend awhile hiking for an hour or two a day before attempting that one.

I'm not saying it's not going to happen. I'm just saying I'm not going to force the issue.

I do love Hayburger. It has the foresteyest looking forests.

I think of it as a storybook hike.

I've named portions of the trail to orient my personal sense of place. You have to pass the halfway mark before you reach what I think of as the chapel.

It's a comfortable place. Close and shaded. Not without it's reach for heaven, though.

Appropriately enough I think of the next portion of trail as the Cathedral, where the intimacy gives way to majesty.

I didn't consciously assign these names. They just occured to me the very first time I hiked the trail, and as a result they stuck.

This I haven't named. It's just a lovely, quiet space.

Hayburger has a lot of different spaces. Come to think of it, I think that's when I tend to wind up on the Hayburger Trail - when I'm craving space.

I had to sketch this title from memory too.

2006-05-20T20:01:00.000-07:00

Things I didn't photograph today because I forgot my camera:

- two gorgeous brand spanking new fresh out of the egg Doves
- a Bald Eagle careening around the large flight aviary in pursuit of a Pigeon
- a Cooper's Hawk hopping through the rafters in the main treatment area (my fault - bad door monitoring)
- a Broad Winged Hawk cockily displaying next to a Ferruginous Hawk (my fault again - not a day that will go down in my annals of greatness)
- a successfuly rehabbing Red Tail Hawk and Swainsons Hawk settled in their new outdoor enclosure, perching side by side and looking gorgeous

I guess I was meant to just enjoy the day and not immortalize it. It just figures that in the two years that I've had the camera the first week I forget to bring it is the week I start this blog.

Thankfully I did have my camera with me for my shift at the Raptor Shelter last week when I got to meet this guy - a fourth year Bald Eagle (hence the not quite pure whiteness of his "baldness" and dark beak) that is, by all appearance and behaviour, an imprint. He acts like a puppy. His feathers show signs of having been confined.

He seems to prefer being hand fed. What's more during my last interaction with him of the day last week he asked me for food.

So I gave him some food.

I've seen dogs less at ease eating with someone hovering over them. I changed all the newspapers all the way around his block while he ate. I was barely glanced at, but definitely acknowleged.

Obviously not a releasable bird if he doesn't start to show signs of independence, but a wonderful teaching bird for the shelter if does need to be kept. I've made it clear that I would like to be very involved with his training if that is to be the case. He's exhibitted nothing but the sweetest temperament since being admitted, and I'm keen to learn. The hope is that we'd both benefit from time spent together.

He was found emaciated on a golf course. My wondering is if those strange circumstances don't indicate a clandestine surrender. You've been keeping an Eagle illegally, it gets sick, you can't take it for treatment without being charged, you drop it off in a safe place where it's sure to be found?

Well at least that would indicate that the jerk that ruined his life loved him. It's not everyone that can say that.

On a clear day you can see this title for miles around.

2006-05-20T00:51:00.000-07:00

Definitely one of my favourite views in Elk Island Park:

...and definitely one of the stronger motivations for keeping this blog - to document the changing of it's complexion through the seasons. If the past is any indication of the future to come, that complexion will have bison beauty marks from time to time.

Hopefully I won't find any bison here:

One of us would have to turn around and go back, and intuition informs me that it wouldn't be the buffalo! Thankfully I don't think a buffalo would be even slightly tempted to traverse it, but it is their park - noone would stop them if they were!

Even the tiniest critters can completely transform a view.

I'd be interested to know the story behind this transformation:

....but then the mystery is the beauty in so many ways.

I had to chew all day to get enough pulp for this title.

2006-05-18T20:22:00.000-07:00

It's just so hard to sit in front of a glowing box when the rest of the world's drenched in sunlight. Quick n' dirty photo post time!

The shy ones are in the water.

...and then he got even closer.

...and then I apparently did something disagreeable.

Don't let the lack of orange signs fool ya - this is a construction zone:

The other title startled and ran off.

2006-05-17T22:53:00.000-07:00

It's hard being shy when you're naturally conspicuous.