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While I was interning, I was able to spend two hours training with Otus, Piedmont Wildlife Center’s Eastern Screech Owl.
I read once that practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect, and that’s what I had the opportunity to do today: practicing owl handling technique with Otus the Eastern Screech Owl. While there was practice, it was not always perfect. The conditions were less than ideal. I had chosen to primarily work with the animal inside a back room of the cabin and minimize our time outside, where it was hot and we were both sure to be uncomfortable. Unfortunately, construction noises outside the cabin did not exactly make the backroom an oasis of peace and tranquility for the bird either.
But ideal situations tend not to present themselves in the real world, which actually made this practice session pretty perfect. I practiced placing Otus on and removing him from an A-frame perch, with varying degrees of success, and tying knots and untying them in order to secure his leash to the frame, which I did well. I observed when he was going to bait and tried to get his attention in order to prevent him from doing so. I noticed when I was rushing him and when I provided an unstable perch. I made minor corrections on my handling technique as I took Otus for a walk, away from the noise and the stress of the surrounding environment, by relaxing my shoulders and resolving to take smaller, more sure-footed steps.
The times that Otus baited I did handle pretty perfectly, feeling more confident than when asking Otus to perform when all was well. The final test was putting all that practice to work when I placed Otus back into his cage. Singlehanded, I removed the leash from his jesses. I lowered my body and his toward the ground in order to approach his perch with nary a flutter from the bird. I turned my hand towards the perch and opened it up, placing the owl smoothly on its perch. Perfection.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
The wildlife conservation interns, accompanied by education coordinator Sarah Haggerty, explored Leigh Farm Park in the vicinity of the new owl, kestrel and black vulture cages.
The natural world is full of signs that can reveal many things about our environment. These markers can identify passersby or give us insights into the world of animal communication. These marks can also be things of beauty or a call for help.
Jess, Fritz, Sarah and I found lagomorph tracks in the foundation of a raptor cage in the process of being built. Lagomorphs include hares, rabbits and pikas. Because the cage’s base is filled with sand, it resembles a shallow sandbox and acts as an inadvertent tracking box. Before I took a Piedmont Wildlife Center tracking intensive class last Sunday, their telltale sign of big back paws in the front of the track and smaller front paws in the back would not have been “telltale” to me.
We also saw the bark of a young red cedar scraped two feet off the ground and on one side of the one inch-thick tree—a buck rub of a young buck. We looked around to see if we could spot anymore since buck rubs usually occur in a line. Bucks like to mark their territory with buck rubs. They also urinate at the tree’s base and scratch in dirt. If the rub were higher and on a bigger tree, it would likely indicate an older or adult buck. The young bucks appreciate the springiness of the young trees because they provide resistance against its velvet. Velvet is the highly vascular skin that supplies oxygen and nutrients to growing antlers.
We saw cross vine, which we could identify by its purple underside, opposite leaves, and the lobes it had on its leaf bases. Its underside is not always purple, but the color can be a useful field marker. Cross vine is a vine native to the area that competes against the invasive honeysuckle. It spiraled around the trunk of a buckeye tree marked by heart-shaped leaf scars. A leaf scar remains on a stem after a leaf falls and is a means of tree identification.
Sometimes, the most powerful cries are silent. We witnessed a diseased white oak that looked jagged and misshapen, its white bark looking almost like fire-hot white ash with a bit of black edging. It was dying from the top down, and we could see twig-thin distress shoots emerging from the base of the tree. Tree branches tend to grow from the top, where their leaves can access more sun for photosynthesis.
We spotted limb scars on trees where branches will never again grow, cyst-like growths indicating viruses or diseases in trees, and various other markers. These signposts can demonstrate the natural order of things or be red flags for unhealthy elements in the environment.
By Margaux Escutin
Thursday, February 10, 2011
This semester, the wildlife conservation interns will work on a variety of hands-on, engaging projects, including working on a box turtle connection research project, creating a wildlife-friendly pond, constructing wildlife gardens, and participating in a biological inventory program. Despite all the projects going on, we still have the opportunity to explore the woods and learn field natural history. Today, we took a turn from more widely traveled trails on Leigh Farm Park and opted to take the less-traveled Merganser Trail, making observations and asking questions about the natural world and learning, always learning, from our environment.
The Merganser Trail’s namesake is that of a large diving duck found in the Northern Hemisphere, but we were not on the lookout for species of the billed variety. Our goal was to clip branches in bud in order to be able to identify wintertime trees denuded of leaves. PWC emphasizes that its interns find the time they spend here enriching and that interns work on projects that challenge and interest them, as well as build knowledge in areas where we are deficient.
What I love about these woodsy rambles is that Sarah, PWC’s Education Coordinator, addresses the random questions I have or that we are allowed to stop when we observe something of interest and ask a question. We also have to opportunity to delve into topics we want to explore more. These enrichment walks allow participants to shape this time into something relevant and meaningful for them.
Nature is in constant flux, and the woods are a teacher with an ever-changing syllabus. We stop to look at the various trees we observe and find a variety of tracks in the woods, a good deal of which I can identify. I know I probably would not been able to before I started my internship at Piedmont Wildlife Center.
We admire the pale gold leaves that cling to the branches of the Southern Sugar Maple. We marvel at a gall in a tree that an insect created as she laid her eggs. We see rows of holes created by the yellow-bellied sapsucker and learn how the bird revisits the sap wells for trapped insects. We see what might be the native crossvine and learn about how it sometimes has a purple underside as a field marker. We examine trees with opposite branching and learn a pneumonic device to remember their names: MAD CAP HORSE, which stand for maple, ash, dogwood, Caprifoliaceae, horse chestnut, followed by Paulownia and Catalpa. We find vernal pools inside the forest, prime real estate if you are an egg-laying amphibian, and the less desirable ephemeral pools, which can evaporate, beyond its edge.
It’s amazing how much you can learn just by keeping your eyes and ears open during a pleasant stroll in the park.
If you have wanted to help with animal care at Piedmont Wildlife Center, now is the time to get started. On Saturday, September 11th, we will hold our autumn 2010 animal care training session. Only one training session is required to begin volunteering with our non-raptor weekday and weekend animal care and outreach programs. New volunteers or current ones who want to refresh their training can sign up by completing this brief form.
Piedmont Wildlife Center Volunteer Services 