Working the Weekend

Oh hi. Yesterday afternoon was kind of my weekend because I'm working through this one. But fun stuff first.
I banded my first bird yesterday!!!!!! It was a purple finch, I got to hold it and do some measurements, then stick a metal band around its leg. Super cool to hold a wild bird, even though it maybe didn't like it so much. I'm hoping to learn a whole lot more about how banding works here. Last night I handled another wild animal- Hunter the great horned owl again. I got to have him on my arm, feed him lots of bloody mice pieces, then put him  back in his mew (room/enclosure/cage) after the raptor program. The raptor program happens about once a week here, and if all goes well I'll be giving the program later this year.

Complete change of topic- the leaves are changing and it's so beautiful. I took a little walk to try to snap some photos, and I also collected lots of the leaves. (There is a slideshow at the bottom of this post.) It's so very peaceful when there aren't children screaming everywhere. There were some deer on the path that weren't frightened of us at all. I also took a few pictures of chickadee landing because it's creepy. The idea is that the birds will get used to the fake people, and then kids could take their place and feed birds out of their hands.

Then because I was feeling really ambitioius, a friend and I hiked up Mystical Mountain for the first time. It's not an official trail so it's a lot more intense. At one point you are using a rope to climb up the cliff (photos in the slideshow.) But it was well worth the effort. We got out of their quick because we noticed rain coming our way but I can't wait to explore off it later and during the day, maybe even camp up there before it gets too cold.

On a downer note, I have my first class this afternoon for grad school. We will be having 4ish hour classes once a week either here at WR or down at UM Duluth. The professor is coming here for this first one. I have a ton of readings to do still, so this post is definetly a means of procrastination. I am also teaching this weekend. We have two adult groups on campus. One is a group on retreat, average age 60, from a nature center in the twin cities, and the other is a community college. I'm teaching the community college kids Beavers Saturday and Sunday morning. I guess for this weekend they are getting a PE credit...so we'll be doing lots of hiking. I'm hoping they're into it, and if not I plan on being super weird to make them get into it :)