Wildlife = Giant Alien Robots. Obviously!
Our main bird person at the park where I work moved to part-time, so I've been doing a lot more direct handling with the education birds recently (which I much prefer to the paperwork end of things - finished the last ghastly-tangle-of-red-tape wildlife permit report and renewal today *heaves sigh of relief* we're good for another year!) And if the Protectobots are my baby opossums, then this fellow is Sunstreaker:
He's a Great-horned Owl with a permanent wing injury, making him non-releaseable. NOT a tame birdy, not at all. He...tolerates us, barely, but give him any excuse and he'll be happy to put his talons through your arm/face/whatever. (I know of people who have gotten their whatevers taloned. It is not a happy fate.) When I get him up on the glove, HE is holding me, not the other way around.
Here's a short video clip of the Great-horned Owl in his travel crate after a program. He's not real happy about me holding his door open and pointing this camera thing at him - here you see him trying to decide whether to bash himself against the crate walls or just go ahead and disembowl me. Anyone else get Sunstreaker vibes, or is it just me?
Click to viewRandom Photo of my shoveled driveway, because I'm very proud of it. Actually, it doesn't look so impressive here I think, but it was a two day project, gettin' that puppy cleared!
Here, have a seat on the bench!
