Celebrating My Birthday with a Few Hoo Friends
A crappy day weather-wise produced an unusual opportunity for me. Couldn’t work at Christ in the Wilderness, so I opted to spend a few hours volunteering at Hoo Haven Wildlife Sanctuary. This also happens to be my birthday; and I honestly can say that I could not have picked a better way to celebrate it.
After meeting the volunteer coordinator, an animated woman by the name of Gloria, I greeted my fellow volunteers for the day, most of whom were fairly new to the place. The only veteran amongst the crew was a retired fellow by the name of Don, whom I’d met last Thursday during the tour I took with members of my Master Naturalist class. Super nice guy. He and I hit it off right away. He’s been the primary caretaker of a hawk that I helped get there about two weeks ago. He’s doing much better, thanks to Don and the rest of the staff’s efforts.
Don and I spent our time this morning cleaning the kitchen area and taking brief breaks to interact with the animals. My first task was to clean up Broccoli and Scooby’s pen. The former is a white pelican, about a year old, and the latter is a domestic rabbit, age unknown. They get along well, best I as I can tell and from what the other volunteers claim. Fish guts, old fruit and veggies, plus poop made up the bulk of the mess. I used a broom, a mop, scrub brush, very hot water with suds and baking soda, along with rags, to do the best job I could to get Broc and Scoob’s place looking and smelling a lot tidier. Broc did her best to nip me with that fearsome looking bill of hers while she played with her food; Scooby pretty much ignored me, apparently used to the routine. Took a good hour but the joint looked so much better when I finished.
Next up I emptied and then refilled the little swimming pool a snapping turtle resided in, which sat in another pen adjacent to the one I’d just cleaned. Getting the snapper out of the pool went easier than I thought it would: just picked him up by the tail and set him on the floor, out of the way. Lots of old food had sullied the water pretty horribly, and I felt bad for the poor turtle having to have laid in it for a few days. I’m going to make his care a priority when I’m there up until the day he’s released.
After the turtle pool, I helped get the rest of the floor swept and mopped. Gave a few neglected areas a much-needed scrubbing with suds and vinegar, including spots behind the kestrel cage and beneath the main food prep area. The kestrels are gorgeous little falcons, common to the Midwest. The pair at Hoo are in bad shape. One had such a horrible eye infection that it can no longer see; the other has a very mangled leg and foot. I spent quite a bit of time keeping watch over them, reflecting the fact that kestrels are by far my favorite raptor. When I lived in Chicago, I’d spend hours monitoring their behavior at two cemeteries near my home, which included the hunting of dragonflies, a formidable species of insect prey that is a predator itself. Excellent fliers, the “dragons of the air” seemed to give the kestrels fits as they turned on a dime and zoomed straight up and out of harm’s way.
I also had a chance to spend time with owls, robins, sparrows, squirrels, hawks, a goose, a crow, a starling (another favorite), a couple of pigeons, a mourning dove and a turkey vulture, which Don says has quite the beak on her. All in all, a great way to spend a few hours. Learned a few things and I hope I lent some good to the proceedings as well. Can’t wait for next time!
