in a funk

So I have been in and out of a funk lately.  You remember that this happened a while back and I thought it had passed pretty well, but after V-day I have just been humdrum.  My trip to Seattle was a bust for my mood, I was hoping seeing friend there would pick up my spirits, so to speak, but that didn't happen.  Literally, I didn't seen any major groups of friends even though 90% of them knew I was going to be in Seattle, it was a big bummer for me.  Making it happy to return to the island, but once I came back.. I again felt like I had been forgotten.  It is easier to sit at home and be connected to people just down the street through Facebook/scrabble/chess.  It was tough, b/c of my depressive mood I really needed some face time with someone!  Work has been tough, dealing with extraneous work that just seems old by now.. /sigh  it was tough.

Yesterday after I snoozed after my alarm went off, I was awoken by a text.  I stayed in bed for a bit longer.  Onyx was all snuggly and purring which made me feel slightly better (I have realized recently that what I have to look forward too, the snuggliest of a cat in the morning and that is about it)-- just like she is right now over my right arm.  Shortly after that I was up and heading into town to get breakfast.  After some running around.  It was out to bird watch.  Jason & I headed to Mt. Finlayson to observe the RTH's he has been watching.  One was putting on a show by doing stalls/loop to loops, tucking wings and doing vertical drops.  It was pretty damn amazing.  We headed down the road over by the light house and got to see the other 2 RTH (one we couldn't get a good id on but I will assume they have been hanging out in the area).  We walked to the lighthouse and hung out there for awhile, soaking up the warm sun, watching the sea birds, and listening to the sea lions.     

The rest of the day was pretty much just an lay low hang out kind of day.  I really should be cleaning my house right now especially since I won't be home for the next two weekends, but just don't feel like putting the effort in now.  Here are some photos I took recently:

A fox down by the cape sunning himself.. must be rough.

I think it has ear mites, constantly ear scratching.

The light house from the road.  If you look about 1/4 of the way from the left in the tip top of the not full tree you will see a bird, one of the Red-tailed Hawks.

Our Great Horned Owl patient!  His head even better yet.

covered

I woke up this morning to a covering of snow on the ground and all over my car.  I kind of thought this to be a possibility as there was an icy rain falling when I came home from work last night.  My doors were frozen shut, but not enough that I couldn't get it (I couldn't get into the hatch on the jimmy so I had to climb through the front to get my ice scraper and brush).  I had to throw it in 4x to even get to the post office where I picked up another 16 intern applications that I will have to read through in the next few days.  I was a little on the slow side today to the into gear, but soon I had all the animals fed & cleaned and my everyday projects down.  When Shona told me the Internet didn't want to work.  I tried with my laptop and sure enough it was down :(  She ran out to reset the system and as I looked out the window I saw a light buffy color fluff ball sitting on top of one of the shrubs out front.  I tried to get a photo from the front stoop, but it wasn't a great one, and when I zoomed in he/she flew off mid shot.  There aren't too many birds that are buffy/grayish white in coat, a tinge smaller than a robin, sits upright, and has a black eye stripe.  My guess, as well as Shona's after seeing the picture zoomed in as best I could, a Northern Shrike.  Yippee.

We spent most of the day trying to get my computer to link up to the Internet (our work one would, but my laptop not at all).  So instead I worked on writing questions to ask a potential Volunteer Coordinator, a new sign "Don't be a Fomite" to encourage proper glove wear and hand washing practices for Wolf Hollow, and washing walls in prep for paint.  Whew, all before lunch.  After lunch we had a few different visitors, one being our avian vet who came out to look at the newest radiograph of the Thayers Gull, who has a pellet lodged in the Ulna of the right wing.  The bone has fragmented a bit more, so we thought the outcome was going down hill.  Michelle suggested keeping it wrapped and "wait and see" re radiograph in 2 weeks.  Of course, we also caught up the Trumpeter Swan, who is getting very wise to the whole operation of being caught.  We used laser therapy on the hock again, it looks much better.  But it is hard to tell the how the foot all the weight is on is doing,   I can't say it looks better or worse just different.  We will now have to discuss where to go from here with her.  

Now time for a relaxing night, if the pager stays quiet, and working on laundry.

Hope you all have a nice evening as well.

A word of advice

I just finished reading another 30 intern applications.  This means that I have read 90 applications total for this years internships.  Our deadline for post date is the 28th so there is a guarantee that there will be more rolling in.  For anyone who has stumbled upon this blog while searching out Wolf Hollow wildlife and summer internships let me give you a few words of advice.

1) Please don't tell us you love animals. Of course you do nitwit.  We get that, you wouldn't be interested in an internship if you didn't.  We do, that is why we do what we do.

2) Read our website, realize who we are, who our staff is, and our facility.  Don't tell us you will need housing, if you read you will see there is housing provided.  Don't tell us how great you think it will be to work along side veterinary staff, we don't have a vet on staff.

3) Our internship is pretty basic and simple, don't think you have to have years of wildlife experience to apply.  We actually prefer the lesser.  This goes for a large quantity of vet tech experience.  You might get to observe the few, and far between procedures, but will not be directly involved.  Medications are administered by staff (exception is the seal meds that are put into their food and fluid supplements).

4) As much as we are flattered by you wanting to learn from the most skilled rehabbers.  (please see #2) You need to realized that the staff at our facility doesn't have that many years under their belts (except for our ed. Coordinator).  We do the best we can with the knowledge we have gained, and information passed on to us from other rehabbers.  We still ask questions and still have a long ways to go.

5) Yes we work to release all animals back into the wild.  There are very few that we place; this means that we have to euthanize some animals.  It is a sad process and we all grieve in different ways.  If you are accepted it may not look like the staff cares.  Please do not feel this way some ways that we deal with it is joke.

6) Yes we rehab Harbor Seals!  But we also have a species list of 210+ animals.  The seals are only one species that only encompasses a few months of the year.  They start to arrive around July 1st and most are grown and gone by the end of Sept (hopefully).  Where as the fawns, raccoons, and a few others arrive in May and will be there until October.  Even the baby birds who require feeds every 15 to 30 minutes are important.  Realize that you will have to help with these animals too.

7) I am glad to say most of you have realized that you will also have to help with laundry, cleaning cages, dishes, and the "non glamorous work".  PS in actuality it is all non glamorous; tv lies; trust me I was on it.  But thanks for knowing that you have to do this as well.

8) I have noticed a few applications stating how they are excited to learn about the ecology of the San Juan islands and that our education and outreach program will be a great thing for them.  Shona is our Ed. Coord.  She hires an ed assistant who helps her with her outreach.  You are applying for a rehab internship.  We will try to teach you and have planned learning times to gather and discuss topics you would like to bring to the table.  But mentioning this in your application is only confusing on what you think you are going to be doing (again see #2).

9) Last but not least, this is a job application.  Treat it as such.  Handwriting is meh..okay, typing is better.  If you misspell a word, they make this great product called white out; buy some!  Also it says in approximately one page describe.   This means that you don't have to use the lined 1/2 page that is there.  We need to get the sense of the real you.  Be quirky, be you, grab our attention.  But most of all be professional.

Okay sorry for this rant, and if I have turned anyone off from wanting to apply with us. I am truly sorry (though you know I have already read 90 apps for 9-10 spots, a few less wouldn't hurt me & if you think I am harsh then you might not want to work with me).  Thanks for letting me get this out, it is just hard to read apps and have roughly 65% start out with I love animals.... and later.. I am pre-vet so I would love to learn more about wildlife vet med.... 

Something new, something old.

So let's start out with the oldest part first. Recall a week back I went birding with Jason?  Well, over the weekend when I was down in Seattle I got the film developed from my Canon EOS Rebel G.  I can't give you any F-stop or shutter speed info as I was shooting on auto (something I never do, but my batteries were dying and it wouldn't let me shoot on manual).  I can tell you I was using a Quantaray lens 70-300mm, and I was at 300mm tele for all shots, I also was using a light block ring. So here we go.....

The Cattlepoint Light house from the bluff where we followed the fox.

The fox that was injured, 90% sure this is the one that came in the next day that had to be euthed.

The Northern Shrike perched on blackberry vines.  Don't forget you can click to see a larger image.

Two eagles perched in the upper left branch of the tree, again click to see larger image.

One of the RTHs in using the breeze to kite.  Sorry that it is just a shadow image, but gray day + camera on auto= dark photos.

Fast forward to today...bzbzzbzzzz....  It was a bit of a challenging day at the hollow.  Monday is my day all by myself, plus I was also coming back after 3 days off which can make things tougher too.  There have been some things moved around and what not, because of projects that were being worked on.  A combination of washing walls, moving cabinets for cleaning, floor waxing, and wall painting.  So, somethings I needed to quickly do before I could do my normal daily tasks.  The other thing, I picked up a new arrival on my way to work.  More on him later.  I did work on some extra projects today besides compiling our maintenance needs for the spring & continuing to read intern applications.  I painted the food prep wall, put items back up on a wall that was already painted, and then painted the cabinet that hold carriers and fledgling cages in the treatment/special care room.    But let's get to the real reason you are here, pictures of the  animals.

Look the GHOs head is coming back up!! He is eating on his own, and was very very hissy at me when I was in to clean.

Here is the new kid!  It is (most likely a male) Cooper's Hawk.  As you can see it is in his defense position and I only used the flash for this photo.  He was moving around quite a bit so there may be a bit of a blur in other photos; plus if you see dark edging it is the bars of the carrier.  I took all the photos through the carrier door as I didn't want to stress him more than needed.  I also only took the photos at the times when I was scheduled to check on the bird.  No additional peeks were taken, so that he wasn't being over stressed by me.  Once he became agitated and had his mouth and tongue protruding (a sign of stress), or was moving quite a bit in the cage (actually lunged at the door the second time I took photos) I quit disturbing him and left him in peace and quiet.  Tomorrow we will need to take a radiograph of the left wing.  It is hard to tell if it is broken or not.  As he does a broken wing display but I couldn't feel anything.  Again, I was by myself and couldn't wrap the wing properly.  So, tomorrow! Enjoy the rest of the photos!

Crazy red eyes, with wing in threat display.

Check out the back feather detail, the head feathers slicked back to a point and then "cow licked".

5x optical zoom of the face.

Hope you had a good day and enjoyed some photos.

lots of learning

So, as you all know I went down to Seattle this weekend to get attend a conference get some info from our local rehabilitation association.  It was good, I did get some new information to take back to the center.  I took a picture of the Olympic Mountains over Seattle from the bridge on 520 on my way to Washington Park Arboretum, but some how my pictures didn't save to my camera??  I then took pictures of the Cascades over Bellevue on my way back to North Bend from the conference and that too did not save.  My other pics are on the camera that I took that day, and they didn't save to the camera vs the card.  I can't test it right now b/c I need to charge the battery.. It makes me wonder if my battery was low enough that it would attempt to take the photo but couldn't succeed.  

Anyway, I spent last night at friend house playing games: Zombie Fluxx & then a Texas Hold 'Em.  I haven't played poker in a very long time so I was very rusty and became bored pretty quickly so I went all in on a hand I didn't have much of a chance on... oh well.

Today I spent my day coming back.  It was still very beautiful outside today on mainland.  It was roughly 60 degrees with the sun shining.  The island is a bit colder and covered with clouds.  Now, I need to find something to eat and then rest.

at the foothills

Last night, as you have read I fled the rock for the weekend, partially for work purposes.  Today was a day to myself, like most Fridays are.  I really didn't accomplish much, because I slept in later than I normally would (my brother and I played scrabble pretty late-- not on an really board between us, but via facebook).  Also, my sleep last night was sketchy; I was waking up frequently and my back hurt right between my shoulders and no where I moved helped.  After finally getting up and showered.  I sat down at the computer for a bit, imagine that, looked at work emails and so on.   One of the things I knew I needed to get done today was get my truck in for an oil change so around 11 am I headed the 5 miles to the Jiffy Lube.  The lines weren't that long, but it still took 2 hours!  The 2 cars ahead of me where both getting the works plus the shop manager had to head home sick, they were training a new grease monkey, and some lady had what she thought needed a only a fuel filter changed b/c her car would start.  The catch though... it was a limo out in the parking lot!!  Yeah, don't think so lady.  Anyway, the rest of the day has been filled with more scrabble and watching my cats interact.  Not too exciting.  My brother and I are gonna head towards Issaquah and Kent for some shopping.  There are things I need to get and something that my mom wants me to look at for my brothers house, hence the need to go to Kent.  

Other than that, not sure what else will happen, maybe a trip to the new casino, before hitting the hay for my early long day tomorrow.  Here are some pictures to share with you from last night and today.

Onyx in my lap as we are getting ready to depart the ferry.

Got anything in those coffee cups for me mom??

Mt. Si view driving back from Snoqualmie.

The creek in my brothers back yard.

Mount Si from the kitchen window

Another shot of mount Si.

Onyx on the prowl.

I absolutely love this picture of onyx.  I laid down on the floor with here and she got rolly and cute, and then put her feet around the pool table leg.

Fallobur chilling out under the table.

Onyx is actually looking at Mark.

Who me.. you cant see me, the table is black.. but the floor is ohh... wait I guess you can see me.

Eagles to a carcass like moths to a light

We put another deer carcass out in our "field" today.  Man, let me tell you the eagles were a buzzing today.  At one point I counted 8 different eagles all perched.  I think I saw another 4 flying over head at that time too.  5 of the eagles were juveniles, and 3 were adult (balds).  It was pretty damn amazing!  2 juvi bald eagles were perched in one tree over our seal pools with an adult nearby.  3 more juvies were in a scraggly doug fur just across from the carcass.  Of course when I went to take a pic of them 2 of the three took off.  

I was able to get some great images of the light mottled eagle (my favorite Wolf Hollow visitor).

Adult perched in the tree.. very dirty head and beak.  Kept talking to the juvi

Order went in wrong, but this is the GHO in house.  still has a head tilt

One of the juvies in flight

Yum.. lunch

Look at that full crop

The two juvies.. you really wonder what the dialogue is between branch sharers.

They don't seem to bothered by one another.

At this point, I am in line for the ferry waiting to get off the rock for the weekend.  I am heading to the Western Washington Rehabilitators Association Conference.  I am excited to an off island adventure and getting to see some of Seattle friends again.  It has been too long.  But will probably have the chance again in just a matter of weeks when I head down to fly out to Chicago for the National Wildlife Rehabilitators Association Symposium.  Good times, good times.  We rehab ourselves as well as learn the newest in medical and treatment techniques.

I hope you enjoyed the photos and have a good night.. as for me.. I will be a travelin.

another dream

So I forgot to mention that the night after I had the snake dream. I had a dream that I was being chased by vampires.  Obviously the chase meaning remains the same, but I didn't look up what happens when you are chased by blood suckin undead.  And, no I haven't been reading any of Richelle Mead's books lately.

Anyway, that is it.  Goodnight.

Got

Things have still been slow at the hollow.  The Owl is getting stronger, but still needs to be force fed and his head is still tilted to the side. Time will tell.  The young gull is doing very well after being bathed of all the cruddy oil that was coating his feathers.  The adult gull with the pellet; well, he is being tougher.  He still hasn't decided to eat on his own, so we have been tubing feeding him.  Anyone who has worked with a gull knows this is quite a feat.  They aren't exactly the calmest animals, and generally have a tendency to regurg anything you put in them.  He is bringing some of the tubed food back up, but is keeping most of it down.  Today at the afternoon tubing he decided that he didn't like the process (though that isn't anything new).  He has been a biter since day one; today while I was putting the tube in, he was able to maneuver his beak to the side just a bit and bam.  He got me good; he got the point of his beak underneath my right middle finger nail.  OUCH!  It hurt so bad and of course proceeded to bleed.  It hurts to type it hurts to wash, it just plain hurts.  That lets you know that even "trained" professionals can get hurt by even an animal that doesn't seem so fearsome.  This is where I tell you again, do not try doing this at home.  I know of people who have been bit on the face by a gull, because they can get that head free and oh so quickly will get you!

Today I did a bit more painting, but not on the floor, on the wall.  After the flooding in the warehouse in January, the sheetrock had drawn up some of the moisture and of course mildewed.  So the goal yesterday was to bleach wash it, and today was to paint it with Killz.  I forgot just how badly that primer paint smells.  The worse part, it isn't water soluble!  I had to use mineral spirits paint thinner to wash the brushes and pan.  That meant of course that my hands (especially since my hands are soo dry they are absorbing everything), and clothes smelled like it all day long.  

Towards the end of the day we got a deer call from a property on island -that has deer fencing all around it, but they leave the gates open, awww... when we left there were two deer standing right inside of the fence, I don't want to think about them getting spooked and getting tangled in the fence.  Of course the outcome for the deer wasn't a positive one, but at least she isn't laying on the ground thrashing anymore.  

We also got calls about a "harbor seal" with lacerations up by the logs on a very frequented beach.  One of our volunteers went out to take a look because the MMSN coordinator was on her way back on the ferry.  Well, it turns out to be a small elephant seal, who is going through his catastrophic molt.  So, it looks like it has many cuts and bit out spots, but really this is all natural.

She sent me a photo tonight which I am sharing.  Again time for another reminder, the marine mammal protection act says to knowingly stay 100 yrds away from marine mammals.  The problem with where this ele is, if you don't know it is there, than basically it gets walked right by.  Please do not approach MM! Thanks.. Beware image #2 could be more graphic than you want to see, so if you are squeamish.. don't look.

Ele resting, it takes a lot of energy to go through what they are.

The skin/hide molting away.

coincidence

coincidence??  after the dream I had, they say there is no such thing.  lol it made me laugh

Love the part about the blind cavefish.. that is for you Jason!

Disconnect

I have been feel a bit of a disconnect the past few days. I don't know why or what has brought this about, but it just makes me keep thinking how I need to take a vacation from myself.  If anyone has any grand ideas on how this can be done, please let me know.  Again, I really don't know the reasoning behind this, but it makes me not even want to get out of bed in the morning.  I don't have any problem with work, but when I am there all I can think about is wanting to go home and crawl back into bed.  I will probably take a few days off of blogging, as my visitor numbers have dropped a bit.  I think that is because everyone is sick of seeing the same pictures of paint drying, eagles, the south end of the island, me and Guinness.  

PS happy 2 years to me on the island.. wohooooo.... 

Yeah, that being said, I was able to get 3 animals out for release today.  The barred owl that was a very short term visitor (Fri-Mon), and the other 2 saw-whets that I have posted numerous photos.  

This basically just being a random post, because of the my head screaming lately.  Last night I had a strange dream where I was out doing field biology work with someone (somewhere in the Southwest).  We were in a field IDing, counting, and measuring snakes.  I was standing in the back of the truck when the other person was out on the ground catching some up.  We were looking at rat snakes, another snake spp. that really reminded me of Burmese pythons, and we would every once in a while come across a young diamond back rattle snake (very strange since rat snakes generally keep rattlers away).  Someone suddenly appeared beside the truck and they were holding a rattler letting it strike and using it to attack me and the other person I was doing field work with.  He was really good at dodging the striking rattler and I don't think he ever got hit when he was jumping back into the cab of the truck.  After that the stranger turned his attention and snake towards me.  I was able to dodge the strikes, jumping out of the truck bed and running.  When I jumped out another rattler under the truck struck at me, but only caught the bottom hem of my jeans.  Some where around this time I didn't fully awake from the dream, but came to enough to question what the hell I was dreaming about.  Today of course I was curious on the dream meaning.  Using the glorious tool of the Internet for dream interpt here is what I found:  

      To dream that you are being attacked by someone, signifies questions on your character and the need for you to defend yourself. You are feeling stressed, vulnerable and helpless. You may also be faced with difficult changes in your waking life. Dreaming of an attacks provides a way for you to confront a situation that you are avoiding in real life.

To dream that you are being attacked by an animal, is a warning to be careful with those around you. Take notice on who you know in your waking like that shares and exhibits the same qualities of the animal that attacked you in your dream.

To see a snake or be bitten by one in your dream, signifies hidden fears and worries that are threatening you. Your dream may be alerting you to something in your waking life that you are not aware of or that has not yet surfaced. Alternatively, the snake may be seen as phallic and thus symbolize temptation, dangerous and forbidden sexuality. If you are afraid of the snake, then it signifies your fears of sex, intimacy or commitment. The snake may also refer to a person around you who is callous, ruthless, and can't be trusted. As a positive symbol, snakes represent healing, transformation, knowledge and wisdom. It is indicative of self-renewal and positive changes.

To see a rattlesnake in your dream, represents the passage of time.

Really don't know what that still means, but I will work on that.

Last bit of randomness of my blog.  Today I was in a mood to search out King Lear quotes.  I don't know why, I vaguely remember reading it in my high school Shakespeare class, but I do recall really liking it.  Maybe I need to reread it again.  Here are some of the quote I pulled that seemed fitting today.

We all laugh at gilded butterflies. King Lear

As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods.
They kill us for their sport. King Lear

we make guilty of our disasters the sun, the moon, and the stars: as if we were villains by necessity; fools by heavenly compulsion; knaves, thieves, and treachers, by spherical predominance; drunkards, liars, and adulterers, by an enforced obedience of planetary influence. King Lear

Anyway, back to real life.  Catch you on the flip side.

New Recruits.

Not that at this time of year we are begging for new animals to come in, but it does break up the monotony of scrubbing floors, painting, and cage repair.  From Wednesday to Thursday we took in five animals.  On Friday another new animal.  I have a picture of a few of these but not of all.  So here is the run down.  We got in two ravens (one of which we euthanized do to a badly broken wing and a severe avipoxvirus), two glaccous winged gulls (one who was shot in the wing, with the pellet fragmenting into the ulna; the other a young gull covered in fryer oil), a great horned owl, who was tagged by a car and has some neuro trauma, and a barred owl who got tangled in light bird netting beside a golf course.  I don't have any pictures of the raven (that is still alive, and I am not going to share pictures of the raven I euthed, b/c we took pictures of the pox for documentation for future reference) and I also don't have any of the barred owl at the moment, this bird went outside pretty quickly and I let my volunteers take care of him today (though they helped me with the other birds as well).

Here is the GHO, notice the tilt of the head to the left.

His Nystagmus has improved greatly, and his head tick is now very slow.

The adult Gull that had been shot.

Here is the pellet lodged in the bone, the vet said we will remove it if needed but right now, we are leaving it in.  The recovery would be quicker if it can function with the pellet still in the bone.

The young gull, this was taken after the bath process.  Looks soo much better.  It may need some touch up spots, but right now looks 1000% better.

Here is a bird who is not a new recruit, but someone who is enjoying the "handouts" we currently have.  From a previous post you have seen one of the other Juvi bald eagles who has been feasting on the left over deer carcass.  This is the other one I have been seeing hanging around.  This juvi landed in a tree right over our seal pools and hung out there for several hours today.  Meaning I could get some lovely shots of him enjoying the sun. He even attempted to unload on me.  Though I saw the ques for this and backed up.

Look at that beak..

Beautiful eyes...

Not much else besides having to do some tougher supportive care.  It is never fun to tube and force feed animals.

I hope you all had a productive day.  If you live around here, got a chance to get out and enjoy the sun.

The day I wasn't

Yesterday started out like the typical Friday for me.  Laying in bed yelling at Onyx because she is playing with something way to early in the morning when I am trying to sleep in on my day off.  Getting up and dressed, turning on the coffee pot to warm my left over coffee (yes feel free to make fun of me for it others already do :)), turning on the computer, and contemplating what to make for breakfast.  I had just sat down with pancakes and coffee when I got an IM from a friend on Facebook, typical chit chat happened and then a statement about heading to Rocky Bay for coffee.  Since I was already half way through with breakfast I just told him I would head down and grab some coffee with him.  It had to be better than what I was drinking, which I dumped out after about half a cup.  Walking down I cut across a commonly cut across field to find out it was soaking wet in the middle-- white shoes not so white any more,  I spooked a bird out of the soggy section. I couldn't quite make it out, as it wasn't a "normal" bird I see regularly.  I was describing (which me describing it isn't basically useless) it to Jason and we were both a bit puzzled.  It wasn't until later that I knew it was a female Western Meadowlark all the pictures I can find on the web show males with their bright yellow chest but she didn't have that.  Anyway, heading back towards home from Rocky Bay, Jason said he has been watching the red-tailed hawks down at Mt. Finlayson and he was thinking about heading down there and doing some birding today and I could join if I wanted.  

What else am I going to do on a Friday?  I asked if we could stop by my apartment so I could pick up my good 35mm camera w/ long lens before heading out.  Of course we did, and I picked up the UPS box on my doorstep (more on that later).  Him and Monika have been birding in the area for awhile, but of course I am generally at work and don't get much of a chance to out with other people.  Jason has seen a rufous morph red-tailed hawk down in that area and a lighter morph.  He was interested in the rufous, as for me, I LOVE the really light morphed RTHs.  The two we know we saw for sure where a lighter morph, but still the much normal RTH color patter.  Of course we saw a few eagles, but around here they are close to a dime a dozen.  There was a female Harrier Hawk kiting in the breeze at redoubt probably hunting for mice.  I love these hawks, they have such an interesting face, they almost have owl type faces.  Jason had been hunt on seeing a Northern Shrike, he had heard reports of them in the area but had yet to see one in awhile.  I hadn't seen one since I did rehabilitation work in Texas, and they were always one of my favorites to get in.  I loved the babies!  Well we were in luck, one went zooming by us and landed a short distance away in a shrub while we went out to follow a fox that had come to the road and looked like it was limping, of course I was quite worried about it.  I don't have pictures today of this, because it was a bit too far away, but I was able to snap some photos with my 35mm with a long lens.  So hopefully when I am in Seattle next weekend I can get them developed and share them with you.  After the shrike left us we had another bird come undulating flying by, with the sweet sound.  A Meadowlark, this one being a male (At this point I realized what I had seen this morning).  He landed in a tree, I hope I got some pictures with my long lens, but we were able to view him through a spotting scope for awhile.  What a sweet bird.  

View of the Olympic mountains

After returning to town we broke into the UPS box, which contained a couple of dart sets and accessories for darts.  Jason and his roommate, Lyle had me order them sets when I placed an order for tips and flights.  So of course we had to break them out and throw a few rounds of cricket.  As we were finishing up, I got a call that my truck was done at the shop.  FINALLY! So, Lyle took me over to get it.  I went home and got cleaned up before heading back over to the boys house to throw more darts and talk about heading to a potluck.  

The potluck was half the people I see regularly, the other half were new to me (I didn't know that was possible as in 2 days I will have officially been here 2 years).   It was a "come as you aren't" potluck.  That can have so many implications, I searched around my apartment and found my old devil horns.  It works, because everyone knows I am a true angel ;).  Jason borrowed a skirt from me, and actually looked like a waiter in a swank restaurant.  Lyle, put on some bib overalls and off we went to wonder around the grocery store to find something to take.  It is a fun trip to the grocery store especially in a small place like San Juan because you can get away with dressing out of norm; there really isn't a norm.  Moving on- good food, good wine, good company all made for a good evening.

Jason in his swank garb, with a bottle of Barbera wine

Jessie, the track star!  use is Ukulele as a drum, Colin drums in his snowsuit.

Lyle pimps it.

After returning home, we played another round of darts and then walked home to bed.  It was quite a day.  Not the typical day, and now I look around and think of all the stuff I need to get done today because I won't be home next weekend and realize I better get started.  

PS Happy Single Awareness Day.

Happy Darwin Day

Today is the anniversary of Darwin's birth, 200 years to be exact.  It is amazing the concepts he was so vocal about are that old, but alas they are.  Of course, Scientific America has had some great articles in it this month about Darwin and evolution and how there is more scientific proof every day to support such a theory.  I suppose some of you will tell me I am wrong, and me coming from a pretty devote Roman Catholic background I don't blame you.  But I have just learned so much through college and even the work I do, that some things have evolved, adapted, and changed.  One good example of adaptation can be seen in this crow video.  

Other than that.  My day has been filled with a raven with a broken wing and a severe case of poxs.  Two Glauccous-winged Gulls, one with possible bb shot, the other covered in fryer oil.  And the butchering of a beautiful 3 point buck, I picked him up on Tuesday night and had him in our walk in fridge as there was no time yesterday to do any kind of meat salvage of him.  This morning I did.  Now that I am done with lunch it should be time to x-ray the gulls wing to see if there is indeed a pellet in there, and if it hit a bone.

Well, I'm back to finish my blog after a full day.  Yes there is a pellet in the gulls wing, and it is actually lodged in the Ulna.  We will talk to the vet to see if she wants to remove it or just leave it.  I also picked up a hit by car Great Horned Owl.  He was absolutely gorgeous.  It has a pretty bad head tilt, and nystagmus.  I wanted to take photos but I spent all afternoon taking photos of eagles visiting the deer carcass (though they aren't too great), as well as, pictures of the poxs on the raven.  As we were checking in the GHO- someone else stopped in with another raven, this one too was covered with Pox!  We will see if he eats and then go from there.    There were a few other calls & then finally got to go home.  Now I am waiting for dinner to cook and then probably a night of tv. 

Onyx, pissed off laying on me last night b/c I kept flipping her ears back.

The "unique" eagle that hangs out.  He has such a spotty chest.  It is hard to believe it is an eagle.

Isn't he gorgeous?

And adult sits in the trees, there were 4 of them 2 adults, 2 juvi/subadult coloring  feasting on the eagle.

Lots of pictures of the goreous eagle.