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!

Let's Talk About Raptors

No, not velociraptors.

No, not even philosoraptors.

Let's talk about raptor raptors. You know, birds of prey. You have no idea how many times I have to specify to people when I tell them I work with raptors. "Velociraptors?!" "Yes, velociraptors. Did you know we have a secret velociraptor rehabilitation center in southern Wisconsin?" *sigh* To clarify: raptors are birds of prey that are primarily distinguished from other birds of prey (such as robins) by the fact that they hunt with their talons. Hawks, owls, eagles, and falcons are the primary raptors.

As many of you know, I spent almost three years working at magnificent placed called SANC (the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center). Though I study English literature and creative writing, birds have always been my passion, as many of my friends will already know (I am the “bird nerd” after all). Since moving to England I've desperately missed working with the birds. When my college hosted a Harry Potter themed Hall, they brought live owls to the dinner. Awesome, right?! The birds were from The Raptor Foundation, so I knew I had to make a trip out there. I contacted them about volunteering, and they told me to come visit and talk to the trainers. So I did.

I saw a live flight show, which was pretty awesome I must say. The trainer had a spotted owl on a creance, followed by a free-flown hawk. He put the hawk up on a tower across the field, then went and stood up on another tower. The hawk flew back and forth between the two.

Next he opened one of the mews behind us and a hybrid owl flew out. It was the most relaxed owl I've ever seen in a show. It walked around on the ground and the benches around it, it flew right over them!

It seemed very comfortable with the trainer and vice versa. When it was time for the owl to go back into its mew, the trainer just walked away, leaving the owl sitting on the benches with us. When the owl didn't follow him right away, the trainer called for it, and it took off, flying in between all of the mews until it hopped into its own. Now that's what I call training!

Next the trainer took out a young falcon and he demonstrated how a lure is used in falconry to train the birds. At one point the falcon flew on top of one of the mews. Apparently this is his favorite hangout spot, but usually he's too “chicken” to come down, or so the trainer claimed. :) 

They were training the birds with chick legs, a less messy, though slightly creepier (IMO) version of our rat tidbits. Though I can't decide if having chicken legs hanging out of your pockets is more or less classy than mouse tails. For another time...

Though I enjoyed the show, one element I thought was lacking was their presentation skills. The program didn't seem very organized, and the trainer told us nothing about the bird itself--both it's personal details and about the species. Though it was entertaining, it was seriously lacking an education side. That's one reason why I think SANC's program is so successful: the trainers know their stuff inside and out, and if they don't they're very willing to learn. Education of the public is a major goal in the SANC program and I think it's a very relevant and necessary one.

After the show I wandered around the center looking at their massive collection of non-releasable raptors. It was great being able to see some birds I've never seen before.

I got to talk to the trainers about the way their program works. They have about six times as many birds as SANC but about a third (or less) of the volunteers. I have no idea how they run the place, but they seem to be doing well. I was a little disappointed in their volunteer scheme. A volunteer doesn't get to start handling birds until a few months into the program. 

One of the elements I really appreciated in the SANC raptor program is that you're usually handing a bird on your first or second day working. I think it's a great way for a volunteer to see if she's really bird person. It also works as great encouragement for volunteers to keep coming back. After having so much experience working with birds and also having an incredibly busy schedule, it would be hard for me to justify a one-hour, two-bus trip ride to the center (and that repeated on the way back) if it's months before I get to even hold a kestrel. Still debating volunteering there; we'll have to see...

In other, more relevant news: In September I will be doing a two week internship at Eagles Flying, the Irish Raptor Research Centre in Sligo, Ireland. And, even better, most of the excursion will be covered by a St. John's College travel grant! Success!

I'm really excited about learning about Irish raptor education and training. The Raptor Foundation has showed me that raptor training varies across the pond, and I'm intrigued to learn some new techniques from the Irish. On top of that, I'll be able to work with the birds right away. I can't wait to handle some new birds; I'm hoping I get to hold my first eagle!

I'll have an awesome post up at the end of September about my time at Eagles Flying. In the meantime, I'm counting down the days until I get back to SANC and hang out with my feathered (and non-feathered) friends at the center.