snow :(

We got our first egg yesterday. It is from a Red-crowned Crane pair, You-Yi and Zoah Ming. They hadn't really made a nest, but today they had made a little bit more of a nest around the egg. We are letting them incubate the egg because You-Yi has a very small beak (she broke the majority of her beak off a long time ago) and they want to see if she can properly rotate the egg. If she can, they may use the pair as surrogates in the future.
I was shown the ISO facility today (the building for isolated chick rearing). It is a newer building and seems really nice. I'm excited to get to help raise the chicks - I'll have to wear a crane costume!
It started flurrying around 5 today, and it has already started accumulating a little. They are predicting around 5-7 inches, but I don't think Baraboo is supposed to get it quite as bad as Madison and other close areas.

There has not been a lot going on . . . I jumped into the work week on my own, done with training. I'm driving vans and golf carts, and learning more about the birds. Yesterday a staff member gave us a little intro to egg/incubation procedures. Eggs should be coming any time now.
I bought an Albino Clawed Frog last week. He is nameless as of right now, so I am open to suggestions. He's very small right now but will get up to about 4-5". He is really scared and not eating much at the moment so hopefully he makes it! When he gets a little less freaked out I'll try to take some pics of him.
Today I went out and explored Baraboo some more. I found a couple more neat shops downtown, and went in Baraboo Candy, which is the "home of the Cow Pie." I also went to Wisconsin Dells, which is about 10-15 minutes from my apartment. It was really weird driving through the Dells. It is a very touristy area, and is full of attractions and water parks. It reminds me a little of what I remember about Gatlinburg. I tried to snap some pictures while I was driving through, so they aren't the best pics (hard to aim while driving!). There was hotel after hotel, water park after water park, and most hotels had water parks. There were lots of other attractions and it was a little overwhelming. I stopped at one store and headed back to Baraboo before I got lost. I already put up the pics on Flickr.

Baraboo

Today was extremely nice out so I explored Baraboo some more. The town is actually really neat. I found some cute shops downtown, and I didn't even go everywhere. All these shops are making me wish I had money to spend :P I found an awesome shop that is called Wild Bird Shop. It has animals of all kinds, but there are a lot of bird things - Decorations, puzzles, feeders, houses, etc. I was in heaven! The lady that was working said she is a bird rehabilitator. Everywhere you go here there seems to be outdoor/wildlife things . . . its really nice. I visited the Oschner Park and Zoo today, which is a small free outdoor zoo and park within about 3 minutes of my apartment. They actually have some cool animals there, though some were not visibly on display today. I took some pictures that I'll post on Flickr later. Although its small, its a really nice zoo to go to. All of the animals were donated, and they use donations to work on their dispays as well. I think it would be great if there were more places like this - families could go any time they want for however long they want without spending money.

Today was my first day off. I went out and looked for jobs so I'll have some extra money and something to do on my weekends. I applied at a few places and I'm planning on looking more tomorrow. I discovered that most places around here are not open until 10am.
I also attended a 2 hour talk today given by a University of Wisconsin professor. I am trying to take full advantage of this experience. When I was going to the talk, 7 Sandhill Cranes flew over.
For anyone interested, I started a web site to post my pictures on. So far its only pictures of my apartment. http://www.flickr.com/photos/penguina08/

crane species status

My mom asked me yesterday if cranes are endangered. Many of the 15 species are at least at risk for becoming endangered. If you're interested, ICF's website has a map and data on cranes. If you just run your mouse over one of the crane pictures it will pop up on the map and show whether or not that species is endangered. I think the data may be a few years old, but it still gives you an idea. http://www.savingcranes.org/speciesfieldguide.html

random thoughts

Today I was able to assist in a couple things the vet was doing. I helped hold Tempest's head still while the vet cleaned her wounds again and gave her an anti-inflammatory. I also helped hold Elpis's head (Siberian Crane) still for a beak trim.
Today was my second to last day of training, but I was able to do some of the services on my own. Starting Wednesday I will not be training anymore. I got a set of keys yesterday, which was exciting.
I saw my first wild crane today - a Sandhill Crane flew over while we were servicing Crane City this morning. I will most likely see a lot more . . . they fly over fairly often, but a lot of them walk down the roads at crane city, since they hear and see all of our cranes.
The other interns that live at the guest house invited me over tonight for game night, and I think we are seeing a movie tomorrow night. Everyone gets along real well so far.

your friday is my wednesday

Last night at some time one of the pairs of Hooded Cranes (Niles and Tempest) got into a bad fight. . . Niles apparently was pecking at Tempest's head, and caused some injuries. This morning I got to see her and watched the vets clear the area of feathers and clean up the wounds. It was pretty sad, she is a fairly friendly bird. She was really good while they were cleaning the wounds, considering.
Another aspect of the day that was different was a cleanout of one of the indoor pens at the pod. The birds were locked out and we completely cleaned out the inside area. I think they do this about once a year. It was a lot of work, shoveling out all the wood chips - I'm pretty beat today. If only it were my Friday . . . I'm not off until Monday.

brr

Well, today was day 3 of work. It was about 20 today but the sun was out. Yesterday was really bad - it was about 15-22 with extremely high winds. I'm still in training, but I'm starting to get the hang of things. The nice thing here is that the interns are considered staff members, so we are included in just about everything. I attended a staff meeting today, which lasted about 3 hours (I don't think that is typical). I am getting better at knowing my crane species - I still need to practice a couple of them though. The hard part will be learning all of their names and where they are located. That will mostly just take time, getting to know each one. Yesterday I observed the socialization of two black-necked cranes. I watched them for almost 2 hours, recording down behaviors to see how the two will do as a pair. Today I watched some videos of crane behavior which I thought was really helpful. I also had the honor of collecting a few fecal samples today.
The roads around here are becoming more familiar to me, and I actually know where I'm going most of the time. I have yet to get really lost (knock on wood).
I'm getting to know my roommates better also. One of them (Maureen) is an intern in the field ecology department and the other (Cynthia) is a little older and is a temporary hire in the education department. I expected I would get to know Maureen better than Cynthia since we are about the same age, but Maureen tends to keep to herself a lot. I have been talking to Cynthia a good amount when we are both home. She lives in Madison, so she will be going home on the weekends. Maureen is actually from Toledo.
I thought being away from home would be hard, but so far it hasn't really seemed different than being at college. I'm sure after a couple months I'll be wishing I were only an hour away. I guess a few days isn't long enough for the reality to sink in.

1st Day of Work

Work was good, it was pretty laid back. I worked at "Crane City" in the morning, cleaning/feeding the birds. After lunch I did some reading on cranes and helped with various tasks, and ended the day by going to "the pod." This is where the public can visit to view the birds. Today was a check day, not a service day for the pod, so we just made sure their water and food was okay and checked the birds, instead of doing an all out cleaning. Everyone seems really nice. It was weird having down time in the middle of the work day, but it was nice not having to rush around to get things done all day. The only real bad part is the weather. It was really cold and gross out today - lots of fog and the ground is all snowy and muddy. It looks like tomorrow is going to be even worse - its supposed to get really cold and possible high winds.

Welcome to Wisconsin

I left at about 7am Ohio time Sunday and arrived at about 3pm Wisconsin time. Considering the weather, 9 hours was pretty good time. The drive went well aside from the rain/ice/snow I hit for the last 1/3 of the drive.
I was supposed to go to my apartment when I got in town, but no one had a key for me and my other roommates were not home. I ended up staying at the guest house last night and moved into the apartment this morning. The apartment is really nice, and the other interns I have met were very nice and helpful.
Wisconsin is definitely different - from the roads to the stores, it will be an adjustment. I realized on my drive that I won't be able to eat Skyline here . . . the stores don't even have Skyline products :(
I guess that's all for now - I start working tomorrow.