Accidentally Amagical: Last shift at the raptor center

Technically today was my last shift at the Southeastern Raptor Center, yet I said I would come back Wednesday to do some data entry, help out if need be, and have lunch with my "supervisor", Liz, because we were just too swamped to do it today. It may be because I just don't want to let go. This place has been almost a second home, a safe haven, a break in the monotony of school work, and quite honestly one of the best experiences I could have ever dreamed of. Disclaimer: this may be a long post. It is really hard to sum up 3 years in a short post.

When I quit my full time job as a lab gopher in 2010 I had every expectation to get my degree and work with wolves, big cats, or some type of large American wildlife. I never had a real love or passion for birds. As a kid I had a pair of zebra finches that lived for maybe a week and my mother had a cockatiel for the longest, but I was never attached to them like I were my furry pets.

During my first semester at Auburn one of the few friends I had at the time mentioned going to the raptor center after lab for her volunteer shift. I was curious and I was starting to realize how valuable hands on experience in ANYTHING animal related was, so I contacted the center and arranged to start volunteering during Christmas break.

My first day was the day I was hooked. After I signed my name to pieces of paper that stated I would not sue the center if I was to be hurt, I went to look for another volunteer that was going to show me the ropes. The doorway to the treatment room is windowed so I could see that there was a hawk sitting on a high perch a few feet into the door. I walked in looking for the other volunteer only to have this large bird fly towards me. That should have been clue number one that this was not for the light hearted. I later learned that hawk was Meiko, one of our education birds, who is quite sassy. I took that moment to be Meiko testing me. What was going through my mind, however, was I really had no clue what I was doing here.

I then learned the boring task of cleaning cages in the critical care ward (CCW). After sweating like a man in the 80 degree room full of birds who could rip my eyes out of my face, one of the volunteers asked if I would like to help train the two red-tailed hawks. He explained how we put a small piece of food on our glove (these are special leather gloves folks), hold out our gloved arm, pat the glove and then call the bird to our glove. Simple. Kind of like calling a dog with a treat. That is if your dog has a 4 foot wingspan, sharp talons, and a sharp beak. The moment I felt the wind rush to my face as Foghorn flew to my glove was my Ah Ha moment. That was the coolest thing EVER! When I finished that shift I called both my parents and my grandparents. I don't think I stopped smiling all day.

I signed up for a volunteer shift every semester there after working my way up eventually to shift leader. During my three plus years at the center I learned how to do raptor physical therapy, draw and administer medications and fluids, handle every sized raptor from the smallest eastern screech owl to golden eagles!, assist in procedures such as surgery, eye exams, ECGs (which was so neat) and radiographs. I even got to push the red button to take the radiographs one day. I found a new found appreciation, curiosity, and awe of some of the smartest, most majestic animals that were ever created.

Granted there were bad days such as cleaning eagle cages (their poop is like concrete), having a great horned owl find a hole in my glove with it's talon, being bit, scratched, going home with who knows what on me, and the heartache of the death of a bird. There were some birds that you just knew would make it and then the radiographs would just look mangled or even those that died with out warning.

But the good far out weighs the bad. For example, I've seen just this year a red-tailed hawk that was on the cusp of being put down because of multiple issues that would not lend to an ideal quality of life. That bird is still alive today and they are looking for a educational facility to place it in! Or even nestling orphans that were brought in that had to be fed and cared for every hour on the hour that were released back in their natural habitat once they were old enough. I have been extremely lucky and honored to be able to be a part of this process, the beginning and the end, the bad and the good. That is the best feeling in the world.

I love this place so much I even asked to have my graduation pictures taken with Foghorn, my first raptor love. I have had people ask, "what are we going to do with out you?", but I think the real question is, "what am I going to do with out them?".