Thursday, August 27, 2009

pigeons and a baby seal!

Today I was on birds (everything but seals) all day. Me and another intern named Crissy fed the birds before we went out to collect browse for the fawns (we mainly get ocean spray because that's what they seem to like best). I also had fun picking and eating some of the blackberries that can be found all over the place. :) Oh, and when we went out we also got to release the crossbill!! That was neat, I have a pick of me and it that I'll put up later when I get it off of Crissy (as I still don't have my camera battery). We got a canadian goose in the other day that is really emaciated, we think she has worms. Poor thing keeps throwing up when we tube feed her, but I think she's getting a little better.

For lunch the center bought sandwich supplies and we all ate sandwiches together, that was nice. Later on I was sent out to take the ferry from Vesuvius Bay to Crofton (a 20 min ferry ride) to pick up two pigeons. The other day I did the same thing and picked up a Cedar Waxwing that had a bum leg.

At the end of the day I went with the vet, Marielle (she's French), and another intern (from Germany), Anne-Marie, and we picked up a baby seal from some people that brought it from another island in their sail boat. It is of course so cute!! Poor thing is really skinny (about 17 lbs when at that age they're supposed to be about 30-40 lbs), and she is missing her left eye (it's all pussy) as well as has bites all over her fins. Marielle let me name her (the name theme is type fonts) and so as she's a girl I named her Aquilina. :)

Other than all of that I just made food dishes for animals, fed them, cleaned, did some laundry, etc. I don't actually start on seals until Sunday, but I am really looking forward to it! :)

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Island Wildlife Rescue Centre

I have just arrived at the Island Wildlife Rescue Centre on Salt Spring Island, BC Canada! David, his dad John, and I all got up at 5:30 AM to head out and catch the ferry at 10:20 at Tsawwaasen (essentially Vancouver). We left some extra time for getting through Seattle traffic as well as crossing the boarder, but ended up having an extra hour at the ferry docks. We ate a little then walked around near the water and while making our way back to the van we heard a call that it was our rows turn to go so we ran. Luckily there was one car parked in front of us who's people hadn't gotten back yet so we didn't feel so bad. :P The ferry ride was about 3 hours because Salt Spring was the 4th stop out of 5. We talked a lot, looked at the scenery as well as had a bite to eat. It was really awesome, we saw two different pods of orcas!!!! That was my first whale sighting!! How awesome!! Later we also saw a sea otter, we barely saw him cause just his head was above water, but boy was he cute. :P

The centre is really neat, very beautiful! I will take some pics when I get my camera battery back. David and I went to Idaho on a camping trip to visit some of our friends from Moscow who live in Idaho City. We had a blast, but I accidentally left my camera battery in it's charger plugged into the wall, so one of my friends is sending it to me. :) One of the bosses here, named Yoch (a woman in maybe her 40's) showed me around a bit today. She's really kind of odd, but I like her a lot. :) She is a bit of a gypsy (she said so herself). She was an intern here last year and now she's on staff. :) She also spent some time in China, so I'll have to talk to her about it more as David and I want to go teach English there for a bit. :) Anyway, I should finish getting unpacked and such. I'll write again soon when I get the chance, it seems that I'll be fairly busy here. I have tomorrow off to get settled in a bit but will also be learning about birds. It's kind of sad they had two eagle chicks that they just released into the wild yesterday, so I just missed it. :( Oh well, :P There aren't any more raptors at the moment, but they have:
pigeons, squirrels, fawns, raccoons, a robin, starling (and two other such birds), a pelican (they plan on releasing her soon), 3 seagulls, and of course lots of seals. :) They are sooooo cute!!!!