Now as Busy as a Bee

Whoa, look, I'm back!

Hello again, people. Thank you to everyone who commented on my last post: I didn't know that many people could care that much about something I do, but now that I have that knowledge, I will make my life even more entertaining for you.

Let me start off by saying, this week has been weird. The increase in sleep and the decrease in homework have really confuzzled my stress-o-meter; my body and brain felt bored and dead from the lack of labor. But, worry not, because I was soon able to find relief in Liberty Wildlife. I just started my first week, and this place is amazing.

In all its glory

When I first arrived, I was given another tour, led by my on-site supervisor Carol Suits, that focused more on where I'd be working. I got a door-opening badge thing and my own personal desk where everyone can see me, both of which make me super official:

It's a desk! 

I was given the opportunity to hold this little baby pigeon. It was adorably well-behaved and liked to make little cooing noises at me.

It's a bird!

I then walked through the rehab center, where I saw the "foster parent" ("foster parent" here means that these owls are kept in order to raise infant owls that may come in) Barn Owls and Great Horned Owls. 

It's two more slightly angry-looking birds!

After that, I settled in and began my research on which species of bird I should study while at Liberty. Jan Miller, the Animal Care Coordinator, and Ms. Suits were both extremely helpful and suggested I begin with raptors like the Great Horned Owl, Red-Tailed Hawk, and American Kestrel, while maybe even looking into some "backyard birds," like the common dove or pigeon. After a few hours or so, Jim, my neighbor desk buddy, suggested I look into the new Arizona invasive species of the Peach-Faced Lovebirds, who are apparently slowly conquering Scottsdale and southern Phoenix.

The face of evil!

My second day at Liberty was a lot more mellow. I walked in with my fancy new badge and immediately began my research again. About half an hour later, I decided I was done sitting and began organizing a bunch of records from last year into some filing cabinets. This was very helpful as about two hours later, I needed to access those files to learn which animals were brought and why. So, I spent another good two hours making a Google Sheets with shorthand records of all the potential birds I could study. By the end of it, everything looked really pretty (maybe I'll have some graphs on my next post) and I felt complete. But not everything was just paper. I was also able to meet some more of the animals that Liberty has at the moment. Here's a little prairie dog named Carl, just begging for some treats:

Rar

So, that concludes my first week working at Liberty Wildlife. For all of you wondering which species I've chosen, you'll have to keep wondering. Sorry. I'll wonder with you. I'm definitely a lot closer to choosing than before (all those species I mentioned are definite options), but there's still a bit more files for me to go through, especially concerning the Red-Tailed Hawk and American Kestrel.

Before I end, I'd like to talk about our star animal of the week: the llama!
                                                                                                                 

Hi, I'm a llama.

     



Now, this vote personally made me very happy as I am of Peruvian descent, which means the llama (native to Peru) is basically family. So, fun fact: we all heard about how llamas spit if they get agitated. Apparently, the llama will also stick out its tongue at an aggravating llama or human to express its annoyance to the world. You may have already known that, but I thought it was pretty hilarious since I also tend to stick my tongue out at those who irritate me (you see, we really are family). If you aren't impressed by that fact, then I can also mention that their fibers are fireproof, so now you can play with fire, kids! (I'm kidding, never play with fire unless you're a professional fire-player.)

Well, that was more or less a very long post with many pictures and gifs, so congrats if you were able to make it to the end. Your prize: a sense of accomplishment.

Have a nice life, and don't run with scissors.

Goodbye Llamas