A “Birds of Prey” Day…

Getting up at 4:45 AM 3 days a week is tough, but it was definitely worth it today! As I hurried to get my usual early morning activities done such as getting ready to school, taking the dogs out then feeding them and then letting them go back to bed (haha), I  couldn’t wait to leave for school. I rushed out of the house just before 6 am with my shoelaces still untied and a protein shake in my hand. Today we actually get to touch an animal at the zoo!!! In fact we get to hold Owls on our arms!!

Every other early morning at the zoo, our group of 25 students pile into the classroom for role call, usually tired and trying to hide in our hoodies. Today there was excitement in the room! We all got to go down to the Mews where the Birds of Prey reside, and 2 of them were taken out for us. We have recently learned how to tie a Falconry Knot and we had to demonstrate this first, then we got to go line up to take turns holding each of the owls on one arm, then tynig the knot with the other hand. Nova was the Great Horned Owl and Sweet Pea was the Barn Owl. This experience was awesome and really reminds me of why I am here and what is yet to come : )

withsweetpea

withnova

The hardest part of this week has been the weather – its been SO incredibly hot here. It was over 90 degrees in the shade yesterday at the zoo.

We have just learned about Animal Attacks and what to do if we get attacked by various animals. Nothing has happened yet but it can happen and probably WILL happen. When we’re working with dangerous animals, anything can happen. Even a seemingly nice and calm animal can suddenly change.

The only thing so far that’s happened to me since I got here is I was bitten by a rat. It bled, it hurt for several days but in the grand scheme of things it’s incredibly minor as I’m sure much worse will happen….