Is This Thing On?
Good lord, has it really been almost 3 years since my last LJ post? In my own defense, I have been extremely busy...both in work and life in general. I'm in my 4th year as a naturalist for my local municipal park service and am still living my dream! My creative juices have been in full flow with program planning and assisting other parks with large events. I'm also stretching my wings, so to speak in regards to my bird of prey skills.
I've worked with raptors for many years but only recently have begun to get involved with the nuts and bolts of falconry equipment (ie: constructing perches, cutting & conditioning jesses, etc). I just got an email from my supervisor that our red-tailed hawk has lost a bracelet (leather band around leg held in place w/a grommet) and I'll have to replace it this week. No worries but it will be a 3 person job, not a 2 person job as he thinks. 1 to immobilize the bird, 1 to hold the leg in place and myself to hammer a new bracelet onto her leg. As we will have to replace the missing one, I am going to do both of them so that we won't have to repeat the process again in the near future and subject the bird to more stress.
Our hawk is a great bird. She's the calmest red-tail I've ever handled and I want to keep her that way. She is a joy to work with, wonderful on the glove and in most programming situations.
My reason for digressing on all this is that these type of duties are what I have to look forward to when I go to work each day. I LOVE MY JOB!!! How can you not be happy when you get to do things like this?!
I'll also try to get back to updating my nature LJ blog on a more regular basis: Roadnature
AK
I've worked with raptors for many years but only recently have begun to get involved with the nuts and bolts of falconry equipment (ie: constructing perches, cutting & conditioning jesses, etc). I just got an email from my supervisor that our red-tailed hawk has lost a bracelet (leather band around leg held in place w/a grommet) and I'll have to replace it this week. No worries but it will be a 3 person job, not a 2 person job as he thinks. 1 to immobilize the bird, 1 to hold the leg in place and myself to hammer a new bracelet onto her leg. As we will have to replace the missing one, I am going to do both of them so that we won't have to repeat the process again in the near future and subject the bird to more stress.
Our hawk is a great bird. She's the calmest red-tail I've ever handled and I want to keep her that way. She is a joy to work with, wonderful on the glove and in most programming situations.
My reason for digressing on all this is that these type of duties are what I have to look forward to when I go to work each day. I LOVE MY JOB!!! How can you not be happy when you get to do things like this?!
I'll also try to get back to updating my nature LJ blog on a more regular basis: Roadnature
AK