REGI Birds Write Their Views of the Cold and Rainy June

(Photo: Fonzie, REGI's Educational Great-Horned Owl is tired of looking like this.)

Hey folks, this blog entry will be written by us, the birds here at REGI. The staff and interns are all too crabby to write today. Yesterday kind of put us all over the top. We are all TIRED OF COLD WEATHER! Steve Fisher, our educator supreme, came in this morning saying that this past week had broken temperatures records back to 1909! We could have done quite well without that bit of information.

This is me, Fonzie writing this section. My picture is just above. I am a Great-horned Owl. The rain drenched feathers and my ear tufts laid flat on my ample head is not my best look. It makes my eyes look big. To be fair my eyes are pretty big, but normally my feathers and
facial disk fluffs out nicely. I look handsome most of the time and not bug-eyed.

It isn't the cold weather that bothers me, Great-horned Owls do great in cold weather. In fact, I spend the winters outdoors in my mew. Winter is kind of cool actually, no pun intended. The white of the snow emphasises my cryptic coloration. I look stunning in a winter landscape and it is not just me that thinks that.

Cold rain is another story. Rain and especially days and days and nights and nights of it just plain makes me LOOK BAD. I hate looking bad! I am a professional educator here at REGI. I have my self-esteem to protect. People take hundreds of pictures of me everyday. What IF they were here today and got photos of me looking like THIS!
I am SO happy they didn't have any tours today.

I like water as in bathing, but then it isn't all dripping all over my head and my ear tufts. My attitude is going downhill fast. I am going to take a nap and let that bossy Red-tailed Hawk Juliet take over the keyboard.



(Photo: Juliet, REGIs' Red-tailed Hawk is bored with the cold rainy weather and eats to pass the time.)

It is about time that weird owl gets off the computer. He is only a year old and thinks he owns the joint. My photo is off the the right. If you have seen any REGI programs over the past 18 years you have seen me. I am stunningly beautiful. Every person I ever met has said that so it must be true. I am self confident and love to be the center of attention in programs. I think that means I am a great educator.

I am not fond of owls of any kind. You would be amazed at how many humans like them! From my perspective however, they stay up ALL night long! When we travel to programs they always keep us hawks and the falcons awake with their hooting and chortling. My worst night EVER was spend with FIVE owl species in the same motel room. We all had our own boxes, but they are so LOUD! So take it from me, do not travel with owls if you have a choice. But I digress...

The weather has been nasty. I don't let it bother me too much, but the interns were laughing at me today and that was irritating. I am nearly as old as they are! They were not looking any too sharp themselves with dripping rain ponchos and hair that looked like they just got out of the shower. I got some of photos of THEM, and will see if I can get them into this blog entry. Look towards the bottom for their photos.

I have been dealing pretty well. As long as I have a fat rat or gopher in my talons I am pretty content. When I am bored, and I am in this crummy weather, I eat. I eat a lot, as much as I can fit in my crop. I am likely to come out of this week of cold weather and rain a bit portly, but still beautiful.

Wait until you see the next photo of the Golden Eagle, Zephyr. He is pretty cool looking but I think looks worse than any critter on the REGI property in the rain. ( Including the humans.) I didn't have the heart to tell him. He is also much bigger than me so I try to be nice to him. So, here he is and it is NOT an attractive look. He is easy going he didn't want to write to complain. He was snacking on a gopher when I last saw him. He is kind of a "my cup is half full" kind of guy. When you see him next it might be good NOT to tell him what photo I used in the blog. It will be our little secret OK?



(Photo: REGI's Golden Eagle Zephyr in the rain. He is so handsome when he has dry feathers.)

I am going to sign off now, but here are some photos of the staff and interns in the rain. They look happier in the photos than they did in real life the day the photos were taken.

Bye for now and look for me in programs soon.

Fondly Yours,
Juliet, Red-tailed Hawk


( Photo: Katie, Lance and Hunter dig worms in the rain. We need to dig LOTS of worms for the Woodcock in particular.)

( Photo: Katie is drenched and this is BEFORE feeding time. BURR Notice she is still wearing her winter jacket and it is JUNE!)

Chilly Weather/Washington Island Bird Festival/Adult PasserineToxins

More new patients are pouring through the doors. We admitted several adult passerines during the past few days including a Cedar Waxwing, Brown Thrasher and a Female American Robin to name just a few. The Thrasher and the Robin likely came into contact with a pesticide on the insects they ate as both suffered neurological symptoms. It is hard to see otherwise healthy adults in such a predicament. It is harder when you consider these adults likely have left a nest filled with babies. Understanding that what mom and dad eat, they feed the youngsters adds insult to injury. Many will die in the nest due to toxins. It is like a game of domino's. With the work we do we have a heightened awareness of the environment and everything that affects the balance. We would sleep better if we didn't. :(

My goodness, another week of "unseasonably cold weather", or as I like to call it " "unreasonable cold weather". For those of us in the north land that translates into suffering freezing temperatures all week. The forecast for next week may be more of the same. It is tedious to those folks that have to cover their tomato plants and flowers that were planted in an optimistic moment, but at REGI freezing temperatures mean all of our baby birds still have to some inside every night. Wild birds have their babies out with them, but have the advantage of not being raising in incubators. They are therefore more climate prepared than those raised at REGI. We have to step down the temperature gradually so their bodies can cope. Having said that, I suspect many species will have poor reproductive success this year due to the "unseasonable temperatures. It will be interesting to see how the bird counts go in the fall.


I was honored to be the guest speaker for the Washington Island Birding Festival Dinner this past weekend. The topic of the evening presentation was Wild Owls of Wisconsin. I brought with me four owl species native to Wisconsin. It is interesting for birders to see up close and personal some of the birds they often only hear or catch sight of as a fleeting glance. I had to laugh as my education birds are so well known they are often greeted by the audience as old friends. So many wonderful people attended. We talked on for hours even after the presentation.
What a terrific group it was. Many thanks to organizer Sandy -Ursula Petersen for inviting me.


The Wood Duck census is growing here at REGI. More tiny Wood Duck ducklings have been admitted. They are such tiny and fragile babies and will be able to join the older Wood Duck ducklings when they can tolerate life without a constant brooder and develop some size to prevent being picked on. They are eating LOTS of bloodworms and waxworms these days. We appreciate JADA Baits of Antigo so much for providing our patients with waxworms. Hearing our pleading voices on their answer machine cannot be easy.

We continued to have Internet connection problems this past week, but as of yesterday that appears to be a thing of the past. We will be able to update the Blog consistently now. I thank those of you that have written to me missing our daily updates. It is great to know we are missed!

That is all for now. Have a great day everyone. Ours will be busy with two patients have been admitted already this morning and it is only 6:30 A.M.
Best,
Marge Gibson 2009