News From The Mews

Rummaging through old files, I found a treasure: the notepad where I recorded my first training sessions with Carson the Red-tailed Hawk.  When I first started at the Museum in 2016, I asked her to step on my glove (a behavior she had done with other trainers) and she ran away from me. We had such little trust that she wouldn't even eat in front of me. That was my first goal to overcome, highlighted at the top of the notepad:  To get to that point, I started by leaving a piece of food on a perch, stepping out into the hallway, and waiting for her to eat it. Sometimes she ignored it and I took the food away after 3 minutes. After a few tries she started eating the food. On the third day, she was waiting for me at our training spot, eager to take food! Carson waited for me at our training spot in 2016. We started with the bar pretty low. Since I took the time to start our training with the very basics, Carson gained confidence quickly. Fast forwarding to 8 months later, I found ...

 Aldo the American Kestrel preened deep behind his wing on this sunny day!

I stepped into the Curiosity Center to check on the herps. Digger the hognose snake basked under her heat lamp. Emory the rat snake lay coiled under her rock hide. The tree frog was next on my list and I checked his favorite spots. Was he on the upper backdrop ledge? Nope. In the back corner? Empty. On the branch hiding under leaves? Not there. Where could he be? Can you spot the tree frog? My nose came close to the glass as I searched the rest of the habitat from every angle. On the back wall? Behind a different group of leaves? Under the moss? Nothing. At this point I was getting worried. Where else could he possibly be? Did he escape? I stepped back to mist the habitat with my spray bottle and I jumped with a gasp. The tree frog was sitting on the branch right in front of me, front and center. Was he there the whole time? He had quite the "hiding" spot!

Carson the Red-tailed Hawk watched me closely at her window as I rinsed out water pans. Once clean, I brought in her empty bath and placed it on the gravel floor. I turned to grab a bucket of water and when I looked back, Carson was already in the bath pan! She was so excited for her first bath of the year that she hopped in before I was able to fill it up.

 Digger the hognose snake peeks through her cardboard tube, a new enrichment item.