Raison d'etre.

Another fun day of volunteering at Hawk Creek yesterday, and a REALLY wonderful high point: we released a hawk. It was a red-tailed hawk, a species that is common in this area, and it had come in to the center with injuries sustained from flying into a fence. But he'd recovered and was ready to be released. Six or seven of us trudged up the hill behind Hawk Creek. It was a gorgeous fall afternoon, with a strong, cool wind under crystal-clear blue skies. Some cooler weather earlier in the week finally convinced the trees that it was fall, and they've turned beautiful bright reds and yellows. After a careful transfer from handler to releaser, and some last-minute instructions ("Just throw him into the air?" "Yes, he'll know what to do"), and he was away, happy to be gone, flapping over fields, scaring some doves into the air.

It was really a great feeling, watching him fly away. I do a really odd variety of things at Hawk Creek, from cleaning poop and rat guts, to helping with the address book database. But watching that bird fly away today gave me a wonderful feeling of THIS IS WHY I DO IT.

Yesterday was a pretty good day in general. We got there and the weather was nasty - in the 50s and pouring with rain. We had a second classroom session for our handling class, then braved the rain to work with the birds. By the afternoon, the clouds had gone and it had become a blustery, sparkly, clear fall day.

(I wrote the above yesterday, and forgot to post it).

Today it's a bit warmer; on the agenda: Cycling! I'm shooting for something in the 30 mile range, as this could very well be the last weekend of decent riding weather for the season.

Hawk Creek Exhibit!

Today was a pretty good day. I'd wanted to get up early and go for a run, but didn't get to bed last night until 1, and the alarm was set for 7:30.... so no run. But Sonya and I got up early, had breakfast, and drove to the Lewiston Power Center (which sounds either like a bad 80s band, or a mega-industrial facility-- it was the latter), where there was a wildlife festival. We've both worked plenty of exhibits before with Carolina Raptor Center, but at those exhibits, the birds always hung out on perches. At this exhibit, the birds that were out were on someone's glove.

Now, a 1 lb peregrine falcon doesn't seem like much, but at the end of your arm, a pound becomes pretty heavy pretty fast. It was neat, though, being able to hold the birds and answer questions. Next on the agenda: Dinner.

If I can get up.

Oh, so tired.

Chair so comfy.