Meet Beth and Benjamin

It's not every day that a person gets to say they spent two weeks taking care of baby barn owls. But thanks to a very kind donor at St. John's College and a very trusting raptor trainer at Eagles Flying, I got to do just that. I had barely stepped out of the car into the pigeon- and peacock-filled yard of the centre when Lothar told me, "I think you're going to take care of the barn owls." I just shrugged my shoulders and said, "Okay!" Though barn owls weren't my favorite of the raptor world, I wasn't going to turn down an assignment like that.

It was the end of the first day, a bit misty, getting dark. I went out into the barn owl aviary which was home to two adult barn owls and the two "baby" barn owls (I say "baby" because, though they're young, they had all of their adult feathers so didn't really look like fledgling owls). The two as yet unnamed babies were smushed inside a little alcove in the wall, and stared at me suspiciously when I came in. 

I was prepared, though. I had my awesome leather satchel filled with chick meat cut up in bite-sized pieces. I lifted my left hand to them, holding a piece of food, wiggled the fingers of my right hand on top of my left fist (owls have bad eyesight close up and this helps them locate the food), and whistled. They just stared. I did it again. They stared. I did it again. And again. And again. At some point one of them (later to be named "Beth") flew to me once, maybe twice. It was an accomplishment. I chased them around a bit and then brought them into the house. That was Day #1. 

Despite some protests from my housemates, I ended up naming the two Beth and Benjamin. I have no idea if they were male or female, but the names ended up sticking. Beth was the more active flyer, more eager, but more easily distracted. If she flew to my hand and got a chick head, she'd fly to the ground and then proceed to play with it, ignoring me no matter how many times I called to her. Benjamin didn't fly to me as often, but he was much better at stepping up to and down from my hand. Neither of them appreciated when I came to get them in the morning. They would sit on top of their birdcage, just out of my reach. Or, even worse, they'd hang out on top of the bookcase and I would chase them around the various sculptures precariously placed along the surface. Good thing most of them were made out of wood since I or the owls must have knocked them over at least once a day. 

Over the course of two weeks I saw incredible progress. Every morning I retrieved them from the house and released them into their outdoor aviary. Every evening I flight trained them to fly to my hand for food, then brought them back into the house. By the end of the two weeks they would call to me for food as soon as I came walking up the hill. They would fly to me regularly across the entire expanse of their aviary. They would sit on my shoulder and chirp in my ear. They would let me rub the backs of their necks and stroke their feathers. 

Leaving them was really difficult. I wish I could have brought them back to SANC with me, but sadly we can't have non-native raptors in our program. I recently found out that one was sold, probably to the Dublin Zoo. It would be amazing if I ever got to visit and see little Beth or Ben all grown up.

It wasn't a long time, but two weeks was enough for me to bond with these gorgeous, hilarious fluffballs. I will always remember the time they were both so excited to fly to me that they collided in mid-air. Yes. That happened. I will always remember Beth sitting on my shoulder, snuggled in my scarf and my hair. I will always remember holding both owls on one hand, them leaning on each other for support as I hiked through the woods, their little talons wrapped around my finger. Barn owls were never my favorite, but after meeting these two, I'm completely sold. How could I not be?

Welcome...to Jurassic Park (Well, not quite, but there are raptors!)

Whoa. Okay, do we want to even bother talking about how long it's been since I blogged? Maybe I'll just give you a quick summary excuse for my business: horseback riding, dance lessons, two essays a week, SBR committee, producing two plays, reading endless amounts of Greek tragedy, fancy dinner parties, practical criticism, lots of lectures...shall I go on? No, I don't think I shall. 

Let's move on. Let's talk about Eagles Flying. What IS Eagles Flying you ask? It's the Irish Raptor Research Centre located in Country Sligo, Ireland. Thanks to a magnificent St. John's College travel grant I got to go there and do a two-week internship working with lots of animals, most of which were raptors. I'm planning on having three or four blog posts detailing all the fun stuff I did while there, but this first post will be a introduction to life at Eagles Flying.

Let's jump right in!

I arrived in Ireland on September 6th. It was raining. Or, at least I think it was. It probably was. Anyway, I arrived at the centre smack dab in the middle of their work day. I only realized what bad timing this was AFTER I had worked there a few days. I spent most of Day 1 standing around like an idiot asking people to give me jobs so I didn't look useless. Thankfully that useless stage didn't last long and I got LOTS of jobs to do. My day usually broke down as such:

MORNING (wake up at 6:30am): clean three top mews (pheasants, barn owls, long-eared owls), feed pheasants, transfer barn owls from house to mew, bring show birds out to their weathering area, clean show bird birdhouse during first flight show.

LUNCHTIME!: eat SAME EXACT SANDWICH every day for two weeks (mayo, ham, cheese, tomato...in case you were wondering), drink lots of tea, occasionally watch short documentary on sea eagles.

AFTERNOON: clean barn mews (goshawk/buzzard and lanner falcons), clean eagle owl mew, clean sea eagle mews, wash dishes, occasionally clean gannets or ferrets, help out in the petting zoo (play with mice, pester the mink, attempt to teach the African Gray how to say "apple", sweep A LOT).

EVENING: prep food, wash more stuff, wash EVEN MORE stuff, bring birds inside, fly Harris' hawk, flight train baby barn owls, chick count for food, wash perches and fill water bowls, occasionally wrangle chickens.

NIGHT (home at 9:00pm): go home, occasionally CYCLE home (only occasionally, thank the Lord), put on PJs, eat dinner, check email, chat with housemates, occasional dance party, write in journal, go to bed.

And that, ladies and gents, was my day, everyday. It got a bit Twilight Zone-ish when I'd wake up and go to work and do THE SAME EXACT tasks I did the day before and then I would have this weird feeling that time never passed and I was stuck in some awful hell where I just had to keep cleaning the same owl cage over and over again, but it never actually got clean. Thankfully that feeling usually passed by 10:00am when I'd fully woken up. 

But let's talk about topics that are a bit more fun. First, let's meet all the awesome people I got to work with. Here are the folks that run Eagles Flying, the lifeblood that keep the place alive:

First up: Lothar and Regina, the husband and wife team that own and run the centre. They came to Ireland to retire. Clearly that didn't work out.

Next are the hired hands, Sketch and Joe. I have very fond memories of them making fun of me 24/7. I also have a fond memories of the three of us (plus a doberman and a vulture) attempting to chase a chicken into a barn stall. This has been caught on video if I ever need to blackmail them.

These two were my housemates, Per and Renee. They are absolutely hysterical and amazing people who somehow put up with my incessant rambling and complete inability to cycle uphill. We lived a lovely two weeks together in a little house in the middle of the Irish nowhere countryside. Renee made the fire and, often, dinner. Per made lots of Viking references. Lots of time was spent in our underwear. There was a dance party once, I think. Maybe it was just Renee dancing. Per taught us how to sword fight. I introduced them to sweet potatoes. It was a lovely relationship.

Obviously I loved working with the people at Eagles Flying, but the centre wouldn't be what it was without the animals. I'll have more detailed blog posts about some of my work with specific birds, but here's a little introduction to the furred and feathered creatures that call Eagles Flying home.

Puppies Galore!

I have never been around so many dogs in my life. The centre had ten dogs, three adult German shepherds named Rob, Bella, and Seamus, one adult doberman named Tariq, and six puppies named (let's see if I can remember!) Ozzy, Bubbles, Lucy, Erik, Robson, and...crap. Oh well. The ones you need to know are Lucy and Erik because I wanted so desperately to take them home with me. Both were white/sable puppies and they were gorgeous! Erik walked with a limp which made him even more precious in my eyes. All of the puppies were super rambunctious and got into so much trouble! A favorite memory: Robson knocking my entire container of pheasant food all over the grass, forcing me to pick up lots of itty bitty grains by hand. Guess that's what I get for leaving a very exciting tin can balancing on a fence at puppy height.

A Random Assortment of Critters

Eagles Flying is a rehab centre as well as being home to permanent residents. It has a cute petting zoo in conjunction to its raptor show, and I spent quite a lot of time in the Hall (as the barn was called) doing bits of cleaning, entertaining guests, and hanging out with the animals. The centre also had a ton of animals just wandering around: geese and chickens, horses, sheep, donkeys. It was pretty cool, except when you had to keep peacocks from coming into the bathroom with you. Or when you had to try to catch a chicken (yes, I'm mentioning THAT again). Here are my favorites of some of the non-raptors:

Black Horse: gorgeous and mysterious; he wandered on the outskirts of the centre, and just once he let me come up and touch him.

Gannets: Jannet and Plannet; got to hand-feed them and they swallowed massive fish whole, which is a sight to see. Otherwise they usually just stared at me in a hilariously disapproving manner.

Grizzly: a raccoon, which apparently is a really exciting animal to see in Ireland. She's been trained to "pick-pocket" guests, which was so much fun. Put a little cat food in your pocket and Grizzly will find it in a an instant!

Lady Amherst Pheasants: really pretty, make the cutest noises. Were really scared of me at first, but after two weeks of me cleaning their cage, they finally came up to me and would eat grain out of my hand.

The Wiggles: the collective name for the ferrets. I don't think they had individual names, or if they did, I certainly didn't know them. The one time I went in their cage to clean it, they came running out and spent the whole time scampering between my feet and investigating all of my cleaning supplies. A good five minutes were spent crawling around inside an empty bucket. Quite adorable, if you ask me.

And Finally...the Raptors!

The centre is home to over 100 raptors who are permanent residents. The centre takes in injured birds, releases those it can, keeps those it can't. It also breeds raptors, keeping some and selling others. There were so many raptors to keep track of that I actually didn't even get to see a bunch of them. There were so many hidden mews that I didn't even know were there until someone pointed them out. Sneaky birds. While there are too may raptors to list here, let me mention the ones I particularly worked with and/or bonded with the most.

Leilah: a saker falcon, one of the star flyers in the raptor show. I'll talk more about that later, but she was just incredible to watch. She was also such a gentle bird and I often handled her without a glove (despite what you see in the photo...first day...was still using my glove security blanket!).

Sabhdh: (pronounced "Sive" or "Sife"...don't really know which with everyone's accents) a female Harris' hawk. I spent most evenings free-flying her across the fields. There's really nothing more breath-taking than standing in the mist in a gorgeous green field in Ireland, watching a hawk soar across to you and land on your bare arm!. People pay incredible amounts of money for that experience. And I was being paid to do it. (Though I was paying for it, in a way. The majority of the fine white scars on my arm are from those beastly talons!)

Kahn: a male steppe eagle that I had the great pleasure of hand-feeding every evening. I would hold my glove to him, say "Up!" and then once he was sitting on my glove I'd let him eat the chick I was holding. I would always attempt to avoid the yolk squirting in my face. I was only successful half of the time. Kahn was a hilarious character. With a head disproportionately smaller than his body, and with his chest puffed out, he was a bit comical for his name. But he was always a gentle giant and I loved working with him.

Aisling and Lorcan: sister and brother Eurasian Eagle Owls. Both were magnificent flyers for the show. Aisling was the largest owl I've ever seen, and the heaviest I've ever held. Both looked and sounded like surly cats.

Nujo: a rascal of a kestrel that bit me so hard my entire finger swelled up to the point where I couldn't even bend it. Other than one time, he was usually a very nice bird. 

Sheikh: a male saker falcon who once had been an extraordinary flyer but a bout with cancer put an end to that. His name is pronounced "Shake", which probably refers to the slight trembling that comes over him often. He was gorgeous bird and he would always sit so nicely on my hand.

Kelley: the first eagle I ever held, a tawny eagle who spent most of her time hunched over making a warning call that sounds a bit like "nyuck!" Still, a really stunning bird to see, especially when she was showing off during the raptor show.

And that, my friends, a very brief (that is, long) introduction to the centre and it's inhabitants. If you actually read top to bottom this whole post, then a massive thank you! The only way I could be happier is if you a.) left a comment and/or b.) signed up to follow my blog. 

I've got two more exciting posts on Eagles Flying. They will be focused on 1.) the workings of the show, with some great photos of the birds flying, and 2.) my time spent with Beth and Benjamin, the two "baby" barn owls I helped train. If you're as much of a bird nerd as I am then you'll really like what's coming next!