Thursday, July 20, 2006

SEVENTEEN!!

That's how many seals we had in by the end of Saturday. Thank goodness there are 4 now permanently out in the "big seal" pools, as the seal tubs are reaching maximum capacity. Humuhumu and Seaweed are part of this group!

We also had a new group of seals out for their first swim in the big pools.

Yep, that's Kelp....I think....trying to coax our little Sea Star in for her first real swim. She did great and was VERY upset when she was finally removed from the pool and put back in her tub!

This guy came in after being attacked by another seal.

As you can see, he has quite a few head wounds, including one on the area above his left eye. These types of situations are always handled differently, with the examination coats we wear for the initial exam then ONLY used for that particular injured seal, in case of infection.

Here are a couple of crows that we have had in for a bit. One of them, obviously, has only one eye.

I heard that a few weeks ago the one with the two good eyes was actually feeding the other one! That was not the case when I went last Saturday, as the second I put the food down the one-eyed crow began picking out and scarfing down all the meal worms.

We have a new Barn owlet in. Like I have mentioned before, these are one of my favorites to work with at Wolf Hollow. This one, frightened by the onslaught of the feeding tweezers, did the typical wing spread and then bowed his head and shook it from side to side.

I ALWAYS end up muttering "Nope..nope..nope" in time to the head shakes, as it looks like they are in complete denial that something scary is coming towards them. I mean, how do they keep an eye on anything in this position? Luckily, the tweezers weren't there to hurt him, but instead were there to bring nourishment to our wee one. Having determined this to be so, he quickly gave up the defensive head shake to inhale scrumptious mice pieces.

Keeping with the bird theme, we got in a young Cedar Waxwing. I just think these birds are so cute! And they have QUITE the mouths on them!

We also have in what I believe to be Towhees. They move around quite a bit, and quite jerkily at that, and tend to hide behind things, so getting a decent pic was a bit of a challenge.

And lastly, we have a LOT of Robins still in residence. There are ten out in one of the aviaries, so I thought I would go out and check out how they were all doing.

They seem to be doing just fine and are very close to being ready to be released.

That's all for now. I won't be going in this Saturday, as I am off to the Powwow at the Daybreak Star Cultural Center located in Discovery Park in Seattle. I did hear, however, that we got in a Screech owlet and young Bald Eagle during the week. So I am going to try and sneak in on Sunday, when I am back on island, to get some shots. I just LOVE Screech owls! Til next time....