After being a volunteer at the World Bird Sanctuary
headquarters since I was thirteen, I thought I’d gotten a decent handle on the
various day-to-day tasks and how they impact the birds in each section of the
Sanctuary. It wasn’t until I moved
to Milwaukee for the summer to work World Bird Sanctuary’s bird show at the
Milwaukee County Zoo that I learned just how intricately related the tasks and
birds really are.
The first new adjustment I had to make was that of the
start time – my workdays start at 8 AM and run until around 5:30 PM. These days are filled with things all
of which need to be done to keep the birds we work with happy and healthy. The first of these tasks is weighing
the birds, and we have 18 birds to weigh.
Keeping tabs on the weights of our birds is the best way to make sure
that they are healthy.
After being weighed, the birds move outside to hang out
and soak up the sun until it’s time for our first show of the day.
Before the first show can begin, the cleaning must
happen. As you can imagine, 18
birds can create a lot of cleaning to do, as well as a lot of bird food to prepare. Once the food is prepared, the birds are brought back closer
to our building so they can be on hand for the show.
During the shows there is audience participation, which a
trainer will explain to the participating audience member before the show
begins. The lucky audience member
chosen gets to help demonstrate just how easy it is to recycle by having our
Pied Crow fly to them, take a can or a plastic bottle,
and fly back to the recycling bin and drop it in.
After the show is over, if the Pied Crow or the
White-necked Raven has any leftover food, we either make them a toy, or play a
game with them. One of Othello’s
(the Pied Crow) favorite games is rings.
In this game, rings get stacked based on color and size until they have
all been stacked. Once the game
has been completed, they get rewarded with the extra food, because let’s face
it, food is a great reinforcement.
Depending on how much cleaning was finished before the
first two shows, the time before the third show is either spent finishing up
the last bit of cleaning, catching up on news from various places, or enjoying
a bit of a well-earned break.
Then, on to the third show, after which we give our birds some time to
sit and digest their food. After
they have digested, all of the birds are moved inside for the night.
After all of the shows for the day have been completed
comes training time for our newer birds.
The places we train the bird’s free flight patterns depend on the birds
themselves. Sometimes the bird
will be flown stump-to-stump, such is the case with our one-year old Great
Horned Owl, Reese. Instead of
giving Reese his treats out of the glove, we instead put the treats on the
stumps to help visually reinforce flying to them. After Reese is done flying, we bring him inside to let him
take a break and digest his food.
Finally, once everyone has digested their food, we check
all of the birds, as well as all of the various books we record information in throughout the day, to make sure everything is good
for the night. After everything
has been checked, we head out to return to our apartment to relax, eat dinner,
and turn in for the night in order to repeat it all the next day.
1 comment:
Hey Matthew! Great photo of Reese in flight! I'm the one who raised him after he was abandoned. We sent him to WBS from the Gladys Porter Zoo in Brownsville, TX. I'd love to hear how he's doing or see more pictures. If there's any way we can connect, let me know. Thanks!
- Alex Echenberg
(look me up on FB, or my email is akechenberg@gmail.com)
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