You Never Know What You'll Learn on a Field Trip

Anyone who knows my daughter well, knows that she loves animals.  She's never been into dolls.  She's always been into stuffed animals and even rubber or plastic animals. 

And her all time favorites for the last few years have been birds (exotics) and dolphins.  Considering how smart these animals are, she knows they can be trained so that is now what she wants to pursue.  So when one of the homeschool groups we are a part of set up a field trip yesterday to a local "zoo" that is known for it's birds, I jumped at the chance.  I guarded that day from work like you wouldn't believe, because I knew she would LOVE this trip.

And I was right!  Not only did we get to see lots of birds,

I'm guessing there were at least 20 - 30 macaws.

We got to see a reptile show,

Seriously not willing to get close to that.

A wildlife show,

This owl had some character.  I loved watching his "horns"

And a bird show. 

One of the more famous birds: Frosty was on the Ed Sullivan show in the 60's riding his unicycle.

And after the bird show she got to hold one of the birds from the show (not Frosty).  Can you say happy?!?

Their claws apparently tickle.  The marks left behind make me think otherwise.

We also got to ask the trainer what she studied in college so we now know what my daughter needs to focus on (biology of course, but psychology too - who knew?). 

Overall, a great day:  The kids had lots of fun, we made some new friends, learned lots, and it was a beautiful day to top it off.

Belated

Almost 3 months ago my daughter turned 7.  I didn't post a blog article about it because we decided to postpone her party and I wanted to blog about that.

You see, she wanted a pool party and I could not in good conscious have other kids come over and turn to little icicle in our pool.  So we decided to have her party shortly after we returned from Virginia in late June.  Not only would that mean the pool would be warmer, but her Grandma and Grandpa would be here for the party as well.

Ever since she watched the movie Rio she has been obsessed with parrots.  In fact, she would love to have one as a pet.  Her Dad and I however are less than thrilled to bring a loud bird that could outlive us into our house.  So, instead we settled on exotic birds as the the theme of her birthday party.

I was able to find some decorations and plates that had various exotic birds on them (at the dollar store - yay!). 

And in addition to lots of swimming the kids got to play pin the tail feather on the bird (which I didn't seem to get a picture of).

Of course there was a cake that was decorated with a parrot on it.  Can I just say how thankful I am that Grandma brought her cake decorating supplies with her from Virginia.  Made it so much easier to do.

My inspiration

End product (almost) - doesn't include edging and her name

And as a party favor we gave away small bird houses and paint for the kids to take home to paint.  They were also my back up plan in case it rained  ;-)

You can see the birdhouses on the table.

Needless to say, she was a very happy girl who thoroughly enjoyed playing with her friends.  I wonder what animal will be the focus of the theme next year.  Any guesses?

On a Wing and A Prayer

As I was winding down after a rather busy day yesterday, the phrase "On a wing and a prayer" kept popping into my head so I looked up it's meaning.  It means "In poor condition, but just managing to get the job done."  It originated from WWII when planes were attacked and were badly damaged but could still fly.

The reason this particular phrase came to me was because a few days ago we discovered that we had a birds nest in a box in our carport.

We've been watching it for a few days and hadn't seen the mother near the nest for at least two days.  It used to be that when we would walk past the box, the baby's would open their mouths and chirp at us wanting food.  Yesterday, when we got home from a school trip we realized the birds weren't active. AT. ALL.

My daughter is all about animals.  Dolphins and birds in particular.  We've been to aquariums to see dolphins but haven't been able to see many birds up close.  So when it looked like the mother bird hadn't been to the nest in at least 2 days, and the baby birds weren't acting "normal" my daughter begged me to try to see if they were still alive.

They were all on top of each other so we took them out of the nest one by one to see if they were alive (and of course I let the kids hold them briefly).

After determining they were, she wanted to try to nurse them back to health.

I've read that there are numerous birds that are actually illegal to take care of at home so I decided it was better if we leave the job to professionals.  It was almost 5PM so I knew there was a chance we'd at least have them overnight (if they lived that long).

One of the aquariums we go to is located next to a seabird rescue organization so I called them to see what our options were.  They told me what we could try to feed them (small pieces of fruit or scrambled eggs dipped in water oddly enough) and we agreed that I'd bring them by this morning.

Yesterday, the birds were the epitome of the phrase "on a wing and a prayer."  When we first brought them inside we had to open their mouths for them (not easy let me tell you).  This was a painstaking process at first.  The kink in the neck I got from it, meant hubby and I took turns.

After doing that a couple times, they started to open their mouths again on their own when we would tap on the box. By the time I went to bed around midnight, they'd all eaten on their own (meaning they opened their mouth and I put something in their mouth).

When I woke up in the morning they were all still alive and a few of them opened their mouths for more food.  So after breakfast for the humans and birds we were off to the bird rescue hospital.

Our 5 little charges (species yet TBD).

While dropping off the birds we got to go into areas that people don't usually get to see.  We saw a macaw walking around on the floor like it owned the place.  We saw a couple others in cages as well as various other types of birds.  And we learned that volunteers there must be 18 (my daughter was bummed about that).

The other good thing that came of this is that since we were next door to the aquarium we stopped by for a little while (I had to get back for an inspection but there were also a couple field trips that had it crowded so it wasn't as long as we would have liked).

All in all, this experience was great and very eye opening for all of us.  It taught us that we can take care of more than just cats (but I will say keeping the cats away from the birds was something we had to watch).  I learned that my daughter's current priority with animals is birds and not dolphins any more.  Considering she makes and plays with paper birds constantly I suppose I shouldn't be too surprised.  Perhaps we discovered a veterinary specialty out of this... 

I also learned that my son is way more capable than I give him credit for (he actually helped feed a bird when he noticed it was begging for food and I wasn't nearby).

UPDATE: Just called and checked on the birds and they are doing fine.  Still don't know what they are though  :-)