News From The Mews

The Curiosity Center has a new resident! This young male Tiger Salamander is settling into his new home and eagerly gobbling up worms. He likes burrowing under his rock hide, but see if you can spot him peeking out next time you visit the Museum!

I love the sounds of early summer. Each bird song I hear on a walk around my neighborhood transports me back in my memories. My mind wanders to the people and places where I first learned each song.    White-throated Sparrow - the first bird song I learned to identify.   When I hear "Poor Sam Peabody-Peabody-Peabody," it brings me back to my college field station where our professor played a recording of the White-Throated Sparrow's song. To our delight, a sparrow outside the classroom window started singing back! We were excited to point out the song every time we heard it that afternoon. By the evening, we realized that they sing non-stop and it became wearisome. " There's the White-throated Sparrow...again...and again.. ." A repetitive, up-and-down whistle calls down from a tree and makes me imagine looking down The Stairs of Health and Happiness, so-named to keep kids (and adults) excited about the trek up 245 steps to reach the top of Wolf Ridge Environ...

"Chick-a-dee-dee-dee!" The little bird repeated his namesake call angrily. I couldn't blame him for being upset. At the time, I was accompanied by a large predator perched on my glove. Carson the Red-tailed Hawk had been soaking in some sun, but she came on alert with the chickadee's chatters. That call, so familiar to most people, is also recognized by other chickadees, nuthatches, and other small birds (including tropical birds that don't naturally live with chickadees!) to mean "watch out for danger!" Nearby birds will flock to the "chick-a-dee" alarm, ready to help chase away a predator. This little chickadee didn't know that Carson already had her breakfast and posed no threat to the backyard birds. Carson kept a careful eye on the situation while I unlocked the mew door. We went back inside before the mob could chase us away!

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.