Kingfishers

The November issue of National Geographic Magazine highlights the beauty and awe of kingfishers. The story features photos taken by Charlie Hamilton James, who has been photographing kingfishers for over 20 years. You can read the story and see a gallery of kingfisher photographs at http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/11/kingfishers/holmes-text.

A beak and pedi

The talons and beak of wild birds in captivity grow and they aren't naturally trimmed as well as in the wild. In the wild they would chew more on bones and such things more than they have the opportunity to do in captivity. Ghost the Snowy Owl's diet is mainly mice and he eats them whole. I vary his diet from time to time with rabbit, chicks, rats and pheasant. He also chews on the astro turf that I have on his perches. But his beak still grows and needs a little help being trimmed or coped.

Ghost has never needed his beak coped before. His talons get trimmed several times a year though. He maintains his beak pretty good. A few weeks ago, I asked Cindy to check out his beak while we were at a presentation. She said he was borderline needing it coped. So I made an appointment for it to be done today. It's not something you can do by yourself and I know of no one in Bird TLC who has more experience performing them or is there anyone I trust more with Ghost than Cindy.

For something that's not natural to him, having a Dremmel run around his beak, he handled himself well. The whole procedure with talon trimming and all took less than five minutes. Ghost is still molting even though it's getting below freezing at night. When he was let up and got back on fist, feathers went everywhere.

So now he has a healthy shaped beak and trimmed talons. I gave him a frozen mouse as a treat. Maybe I should have offered one to Cindy since she did all the work. Well, thanks anyway Cindy!

Volunteer Orientation

We have a Volunteer Orientation about once every October. It's aimed mainly at volunteers who are interested in presenting the Bird TLC Education Birds. A lot of people see us out in the public presenting these birds, but they don't realize what all is involved. So they get to spend about 6 hours getting a thorough orientation tell them all the good and bad things involved.

Each of our Ed Birds are required by U.S.F.&W.to be shown at 12 presentations per year. Bird TLC requires every Education Presenter to present 12 times a year. Each bird could have several presenters, but most have just one. Last year Ghost and I did 60 presentations together. It would be nice to have another presenter checked off on him to help carry the load.

Each presenter in training is mentored by another presenter that has been checked off on that species and has some good presenting experience and bird handling under their belt. I was mentored by Cindy and after 2 years of presenting Ghost, she still gives me some good pointers.

Depending on the person and the bird, it usually takes 3 to 6 months before they are ready to be checked off as a presenter. Large raptors like eagles could take longer. Bird TLC requires eagle presenters in training to take and pass the Alaska Falconry Exam.


Expenses will include buying your own glove, transportation expenses, and leashes. Some presenters help the presenter / caretaker pay for food for the bird, but that is up to the individuals.

Dedication is the key. It all looks like fun and it is, but first the person must be trained with bird handling and the background of the species being presented.

Good luck everyone and I hope to see you presenting soon!

Photo Credit: Dick Williams / Bird TLC

Good things happen

Thanks to our new friends at Rusty's Towing and Recovery, an eyesore was removed from the Bird TLC property over looking Potter Marsh.

Over a month ago someone or someones deposited this relic over the bluff making it extremely hard to retrieve. Also, with the end of summer, the ground was real muddy, so a recovery vehicle couldn't get back into where it needed to.

I called Rusty about 2 weeks ago. He asked for me to call back when the ground had hardened. It finally had and he sent a wrecker out in between other jobs. What's humorous is that Dave the wrecker driver had just dropped an injured yellow warbler off at the clinic this morning. Before that he had never heard of us.

You could tell that Dave had done this type of job before. He had the experience, the personality and the truck. TLC volunteer Greg took the cable down the bluff and attached it to the car. Within 15 minutes it was at the top and ready to go to the junk yard.

Thanks to some misguided citizens we aquired this car. Thanks to a generous local businessman in our community and his professional employee we had this fine Detroit specimen removed. Thier phone number will be the only one I give out when someone needs their service.

Rusty and Dave, Thanks a bunch!!!!

New blog

I had nothing else to do, so I started another blog. I call it Around Anchorage. My stories and lots of pictures will be what adventures Ruth and I go on around our home town and some from around the state. I still have some fine tuning to do but it's up and running at Around Anchorage.

This in no way will effect this blog. I'll still be doing Bird TLC related stories here as always. Check it out and let me know wha you think.

#1 is Done

Alex Katzenson from BSA Troop 230 was able to raise the funds to purchase the materials and build Bird TLC a much needed new mew #1. With his crew that he assembled he started and completed construction in 5 days.

Alex had several challenges to work with.

One is at Bird TLC we have a requirement that the mew must be assembled so it could be un-assembled in sections in a short period of time. If there is another major oil spill, Bird TLC must evacuate the premises within 48 hours. He also must build to USF&W requirements.

Two was he must raise all funds himself. Bird TLC has no money in the budget for new mew construction. All wood must be treated wood.

Three was that the north and east wall must be solid walls.

Four was that the door must face the center of the mew yard.

Five was the roof must be slanted for snow run off.

I must say he did a heck of a job. The first bird to use it won't know how lucky it is to have a brand new mew to recuperate in.



Good job Alex!

Say Goodbye to #1

Mew #1 that is. Wednesday I go into the clinic to tear down # 1 to make room for a new mew. Most of our mews are built by Boy Scouts working on their Eagle Rank. That's what is going to happen here and we'll have more on that story in the near future.

Mew # 1 was old when I came to Bird TLC about 5 years ago. It has received the needed repairs over the past few years but it is just plain old and out dated. The roof has weakened and last winter we wouldn't keep an eagle in it because of the snow load weight. So we used it to keep our over stock of salmon. During the winter you can keep your frozen food outside. It just needs to be protected from Ravens, dogs, bears, etc.

Over the years it has held a lot of large birds from hawks to mainly eagles. Some of the more famous ones (Bird TLC famous that is) like Beauty and most recently Petra while her mew got repaired.

# 1 has served us well but it's time to update with a more less dungeon looking mew. One with a strong roof and no rotted wood. We'll keep you updated on the new mew as it gets built.

Do birds visit other birds in the hospital?

I mean do they stop by to see how they are doing or for other reasons. Corvids are the smartest bird species. Ask Amy over at WildBird on the Fly. I can never get their picture doing this, but I've seen them land on the Ravens mew roof and look over the edge at the Raven patient inside. I've seen the Raven patient take food from it's dish and share it with the Ravens outside. I mean, hasn't someone you visited in the hospital before offered you their Jello?

They will make their calls to one another through the mesh. I don't know if the one on the outside feels sorry for the one on the inside or what. They'll peck at the mesh, but they can't hurt that.

The Magpie's visit all the mews. I guess you can say they make the rounds. They are brave little suckers too. They will go in the Eagles mews to steal salmon. They know that the Bald Eagles won't bother them. They'll find a slat that's wide enough or a hole in the roof and they come and go as they please. Bird TLC unintentionally feeds most birds in our neighborhood. You'll never hear of a starving bird found right outside of Bird TLC.

Out at the flight center we had a Golden Eagle that we thought wasn't eating. We brought it back to the clinic to check it out. It's weight was fine and it ate at the clinic so we took it back. We discovered that it preferred the Magpie's that got in the flight center but couldn't get out fast enough.

Do you think I should talk to Cindy on Monday about setting up visiting hours?

Spread a little gravel

In June we had several dump truck loads of gravel donated and delivered. Unfortunately we didn't have anything big enough to spread it around as needed. It was a lot of gravel and if you remotely suggested shovelsto anyone, you got this killer stare as an answer.

In Alaska, summer is the construction season. There is some during winter, but the bulk of it is done during the short summer months. Our friends at Airport Equipment Rentals were willing to loan us a skidsteer as long as one was available and not scheduled to go out on a rental. Winter is comming and we probably had about 3 or 4 weeks before that gravel would start to freeze and become a permanate fixture until next summer. Another problem was where the gravel was. It was right smack dab in the middle of the mew yard. So if it snowed, there was going to be no plowing.

Finally, Airport Equipment had a skidsteer available today. Today being Wednesday (I don't work on Wednesdays) was perfect. They needed it back tomorrow morning, so it needed to be completed today. Cindy and I went to lunch and when we came back I went at it non-stop until she was done. Ruth jumped in when she got off work and did the shovel and rake jobs around the edges.

Doesn't it look great. Things should be a little nicer now. Level ground, water can run off now. Thanks once again Airport Equipment. You saved mine and other volunteers back.

Click on picture below to see more.....

Mew yard gravel

2 X 2

Northern Goshawks and Great Gray Owls are fairly common in Alaska. We don't get a lot of them in the clinic. But right now we have 2 of each and all were hit by a car.

We've gotten in the habit of when we see road kill close to the road, we stop and throw it farther from the road. Why you ask. Because all raptors are opportunist, they will eat from the carcase of road kill. If that road kill is too close to the road and a car comes along, the bird doesn't have time to escape from the vehicle path. Then it's next meal is from Bird TLC.

You'll get some strange looks sometimes, but you'll get back in your car with a smile on your face.

Ruthie made me do it

I don't work Wednesdays. I haven't since about the beginning of the year. I like a 4 day work week. I'd rather have a no day work week, but that's just not in the cards yet. This past Wednesday, Cindy and I went out to the flight center to get an eagle that was getting released that night (flight center photo's to follow soon). After we were done I had a presentation with Ghost at the Eagle River Campground.

When it was over and I was leaving, I turned my cell phone on just in time to take a call from Ruthie. It was slow at her work so she took the rest of the day off and wanted to go for a long ride. I took a little convincing, but I said OK. So back to the house and I put Ghost in his mew. Ruth already packed a late lunch, snacks and drinks. There was little waiting time when we were on the road to Hope, Alaska and all points in between.

First stop was Girdwood. It's a land that's stuck in the late 60's and early 70's. It's also the place to go skiing during the winter. We checked out the flowers and the bakery. Had a good break and then headed off to Hope.

Hope is an old town dating back to the early 1900's. If you have a strong arm you can throw a rock from end to end. Be careful not to hit a building or you may knock it down. They had a lot of fishing going on and the campground was full. After checking things out for a while it was time to head back. We felt like we knew where to find something that would really struck our interest.

Our next stop was in the Turnagain Arm area. I don't want to get specific. There we found a very active eagle nest. I took the picture at the left and submitted it to Channel 2 and it made their Weatherpic of the day. It made our day just seeing the nest. We hiked back to the truck and headed to Portage.

Portage is the home of Portage Glacier and a couple dozen people. It's also the only land link to Whittier. To get to Whittier you must drive through a train tunnel. The only other way is by boat. We didn't go to Whittier this day, but remember this part for a future story. Portage is also where Ruth and I picked up a Great Horned Owl with a broken wing a couple of winters ago.

On the outskirts of portage we saw Ma and Pa Swan with their youngsters. We enjoyed watching their outing for a while before it was time to head back home. The weather was great and it was a welcome break in the middle of the week. I sure like having Wednesday's off.

Photo credits: Dave and Ruth Dorsey / Bird TLC

Memorial

There will be a memorial for Leslie Lancaster on Thursday, July 26 at 9:15 AM at Providence Hospital's Memorial Garden. The garden is located just south of the parking garage. A plaque will be unveiled at the memorial.

Leslie and her daughter Morgan lost their life in a car accident on December 2, 2006. Full story

In a writting funk

I didn't miss the 4th of July. I just didn't have my head together to write an appropriate post. I did have a good time though. We had a neighborhood bbq. We haven't had one since the summer before last. It was way overdue. We also had some new neighbors joining us. Nice couple, but I'm not sure what he thinks of me. I keep screwing his name up.

After the bbq I fell asleep on the couch for a while. I woke up at the time I usually go to bed, so needless to say I'm wide awake. I'm also hungry but still stuffed from the bbq. I answered a few emails and then I started reading post I did on the blog from this time last year. Man, what a difference. I got into reading them. I can't say I can with what I've been writing lately. The information is good, just not the writing.

So what to do? Maybe a brain enema. There's a bunch of stuff up there that needs to be cleaned out for sure. My heads innards have been through a lot in the past year. I won't get into telling everything, but it needs a overhaul.

I've been putting in extra time at TLC. When I'm there, any and all other issues take a back seat. Actually I forget about them all for the time I'm there. A good bird rescue or exam or even a good paint job or mew repair makes the brain cramps go away. I enjoy the work and the people at TLC, so it's a good trade off.

The blog is also a part of my work for Bird TLC. I put out what I consider valuable information. The more people that know what we do at TLC the better the support we get. Also, hopefully the information I put out helps educate people. Maybe it will help them change things that cause birds to get hurt. Maybe they'll also learn about different species of birds. So, I need to make that information more interesting to our readers. I'm not meant to be an answer for sleep deprivation.

So look out and be prepared. Also, let me know if you see a difference or I've slide back into my funk.

In the Anchorage Daily News

On Monday

There's no link or article online, but in todays ADN there's a picture of Bird TLC Volunteer Dr. Mike Riddle and Gary Bullock, AFD Battalion Chief and new Bird TLC Board Member releasing an eagle at the Eagle River Nature Center. You'll have to buy the paper for that one.


On Sunday

The Evolution of Potter Marsh (click for story)
Silting alters avian population even as managers plan new visitor facilities

What's going on in the neighborhood

Anchorage is feeling the affects of wildfire. This morning, the city awoke to a smoky haze that turned the air an amber color. The smoke blew in from the massive fire on the Kenai Peninsula. And amber-colored air isn't the best to breathe, so the city health department issued a health advisory for Anchorage residents. Check out story on KTUU Channel 2. We can use some rain. Photo borrowed from Mike Nederbrock/KTUU-TV .

Ghost is doing awesome. He has been doing his mating calls for the past 2 months. He usually starts about 4:30 AM. The neighbors haven't complained. He's in a full molt right now also. I'm picking up feathers everyday. He's been doing a lot of presentations and he does a great job too. He loves an audience. He has also casted a pellet at 3 presentations now to the surprise of the audience. He doesn't know what all the fuss is about. July should be an easy month for him.

Baby Junco's and baby Magpie's are everywhere. No, we aren't throwing them away. Even though there's lots of noisey construction going on, they are all around.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers and dads out there. Like the old saying goes "Any guy can be a father, but not anyone can be a dad". That saying is so true. I know guys that almost act like they are scared of their kids. I don't know if they are afraid of growing older or what. Some of them don't even know their kids.


My father was a dad. We called him "Dad" but referred to him as "Big George". He was a big guy, he was a fireman and he was the head of the household. When I was 16, I thought he was the dumbest man in the world only to find out a few years later that I was the dumbest and he was the smartest.

His dad was a Baltimore City Fireman. He drove 10 Truck, a hook and ladder truck. He died at the young age of 33 from a heart attack. He left behind a wife and 5 kids, my dad was the oldest.

After my dad was discharged from the Army after WWII, he joined the BCFD and was assigned to 10 Truck. He started out as a tillerman. That's the guy who steered the back of the truck. He retired at a mandatory age of 55 Spending most of his career at 10 Truck.

When I was a kid he would take me to work with him on his off day when it was time to pick up his paycheck. He would put me behind the steering wheel of the reserve engine and I would play while he went and visited with his co-workers.

My dad was my hero. I miss him everyday. There's not a day that goes by the I don't think of him and he's been gone almost 15 years now. I was lucky to have a dad like him. I could go on for pages talking about him.

Happy Fathers Day!

Thanks Lynn Johnson

You did a awesome job of building us a custom stainless steel sink for the kitchen.










Ghost and I are going out of town for the weekend. You can catch us at the ....

June 9 & 10, 2007

at Soldotna Creek Park in downtown Soldotna, AK

Mew Renew for #3

Which mew looks a little more cheerful and brighter? Well they both are the same mew. In February, Dr Michael Riddle, DVM, paid $350 to have his own mew. Well for $350 we can't build a new mew, but we can rebuild an old mew. So that's what we did.

We started at the Mew Yard Spring Clean Up. With all of that help we were able to tear off all of the dungeon looking old material, remove and replace the old rotted roof and add a slant for snow run off, replace the door with a more friendly looking one and do a little painting.

However, the mew wasn't done. It still had places a talented bird could escape through. It had to wait a couple weeks. The weather wouldn't cooperate. Rain, what else. Then the other stuff, presentations, the paying job, etc. Finally I got off my duff and went in on Wednesdays to finish it off.

So, you tell me which one looks better. The old one or the new one? For $350 we got a nice clean updated mew that will last quite a few years longer. Thanks Dr Riddle.

Also, thanks to all of the talented volunteers who helped out during MYSCU.

Turn on the vacancy sign.

Photo's by Dave & Ruth Dorsey / Bird TLC

Don't call me Norman

It's Norma.



Our education Lapland Longspur that's kept in our lobby for all to see, showed us. Didn't she? Her name is no longer Storming Norman.







Here's a video of a Great Horned Owl and her 2 chicks in their nest not far from the Bird TLC propertyat Potter Marsh. Click here.

Video credit: The video is courtesy of Todd Hardesty with Alaska Video Postcards and KTUU 2.

Memorial Day

I have mixed feelings for Memorial Day. I do enjoy the extra time off to work in my garden, ride the Coastal Trail on my bike, do a little birding and play with my new camera, or just taking it easy at home. We generally don't go out of town for the holiday. We let everyone else leave.

I do start thinking about the veterans in my family who are no longer with us. That list is getting bigger since the majority of them are or were WWII veterans and age is taking it's toll. My Mom's brother, my Uncle Len was the last one to pass away just two weeks ago. He was a proud WWII Navy veteran. All but one of the WWII Veterans in my immediate family has passed on. Uncle Joe is the youngest and he's still with us. My dad was Army. His desert training did him well going all over Europe in WWII. He's been gone almost 15 years now. I have a picture of him and his brother Buck on my desk. Both in uniform. I miss my Dad everyday.

The next big war (police action) was Vietnam. My two brothers were Navy and my brother in law Mike was Army. Mike was the only one to go to Vietnam. They are all still with us and doing well. I'm considered a Vietnam Era Veteran, but the war was officially over while I was still at Lackland AFB, Texas. I was lucky to stay out of harms way in my 20 year career.

Veterans are the ones that provide for what we cherish the most, freedom. Freedom to live, work, worship, disagree and so many other things. They protected us when we're awake and asleep. In my career I worked many holidays, birthdays, days and nights. I've been to places that were awesome and places I don't want to even think about again. My own safety was in the hands of others, white, black or yellow. Didn't matter. You watched out for them and they did for you, not thinking of your own safety over theirs.

I think it's right to remember these people with a long weekend enjoying whatever we want to do. They made it possible. Thanks Veterans!