Logged in and noticed a few watched.
Please if you want to see new photos go here:

Thanks.

My photography account name is changing.
it will be a bit before I can upload new photos but I will cross post a few of my favorites to my new account.

I am no longer a skunk hybrid so this username is no longer suited to me.

Find me here

My art account is staying the same

My relationship ended and now I'm couch surfing with my parents and friends.
My camera is still at my ex's house. I will get it back eventually. I gotta still get the sensor looked at.

Sorry for the lack of photos... life has been hard and it just got worse.

I.E. Necropsy day and I did a necropsy on a Great Horned Owl.
It was one very interesting learning experience if I do say so myself.
It also made me wish my camera wasn't out of commission so I'd have more than just the photos a volunteer took for references.
Oh well... eventually I'll be able to get it fixed... maybe.

Speaking of things being out of commission, I'm not.
On my art account I am open for commissions and even have a sale going for ACEOs.
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/8870138/

Please check it.

I have them again.

Moving day is upon us. Time to get our things to the new house.
Unsure how long I'll be without internet when we're in the new house.
About to hit the grocery store and fill the fridge while the boys move our furniture.
--

The landlord of the house we're moving out of tried to schedule a showing with a 2 hour notice for today.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... NO!

Like we need some random person walking around a house with our shit in it while we're moving out of the damn house.
Also, wtf don't you wanna wait for us to move out and clean the house before you show it?
I mean isn't that the more common sense way to go?

So my camera... needs to be fixed. Something it up with the sensor but hell if I know what.
Sadly I cannot afford to pay to have it fixed this month so it will need to wait until at least September to get fixed.

So I'll still be here to fave and comment but you won't see photos for at least a month unless I come across some old ones I want to share.
I also might be making some stock packs like I did for the owls.
Might... if I'm not so lazy.

If I do you'll see them uploaded in my scraps and linked to the download file on DA.
For now please feel free to see my other artworks at

D:

It's official, in the month of August we will be moving into a new house.
It's a 2 level 4 bedroom and almost twice the size of this one.

I GET MY CAT FREE ZONE! Which hopefully after i get my brain back in order I can start oil painting again.
I'll also be saving for a bird. I'm still leaning Conure but may go with a Green Cheek over a Sun just to save the ears to those i live with. We'll see what happens when the time comes and which feathery creature choses me as it's human.
--

Interview to get my Provisional License with the Department of Wildlife as an official rehabilitator is today.
I'm nervous even though I know who's conducting my interview and have worked with her in the past at the Raptor Center. O.O
--

After a week in California.
My favorite part was the day with my sister in San Francisco.
I did other cool stuff too like going to a park infested with wild skunks and the Winchester Mystery House.
I have some pictures (none of the house I left those for Sam to take).
I'll work on getting the ones I like posted and shown.

I am debating on starting to upload a lot of photos in packs for reference/photomanip use.
The zip files will be found on DA like this one here: http://fav.me/d52ev84

I don't want to waste the effort in compiling and organizing photos to do this if people aren't interested so any feedback is wanted.

I'll be posting a picture with a link to DA anytime I do here for your convenience.

I found out if you say "oh it's just a fledgling" to a fledge Great Horned owl on the ground it will turn around and jump into the lake behind it.
So I spent all day with my shoes soaked and pants soaked almost to my knees. Little Owlman is now with Aggie since the park he was in is about to have a HUGE event weekend and he was just not safe on the ground, next to the lake (especially since he was all soaked from jumping into a lake).


P.S.
That Golden Eagle is in the flight cage flying.
A few weeks of exercise and we're positive he'll be going back to the wild.

I know some of you guys wanted an update on the guy.
You can see it here since FA gets butthurt at animals eating animals in photos.
http://fav.me/d50d8y5

So today I go into work. One of the volunteers has been wanting to hold an Eagle forever. He's held hawks for me before so I decided he was strong enough and this Eagle is weak enough. I let him.
He did great holding him... now about the Eagle.
I go to grab the back of his head to hold it still so I can force feed him.
THE DAMN BIRD LOOKS DIRECTLY AT MY HAND AND TRIES TO BITE ME!
-
So.. he can see at least a little bit now out of both eyes. He has pupil response in both eyes and the best part, HE'S TRYING TO DEFEND HIMSELF!

Needless to say, it was exciting news to everyone that he tried to bite me.

Since people wanted to know.
Day 2 of the bird's care revealed he has heavy head injuries and obvious swelling in his brain.
It's something we just have to give him time to work out. He was bleeding from his nares for about 3 days but that has since cleared up and he's breathing better.
He regained vision back in his left eye but still has none in his right. We're unsure how clearly he sees out of his left eye but he does see movement out of it for sure.
It's been almost a week and we are still force feeding him chopped up rats since he won't eat on his own (this consists of one person holding the bird while the other forces his mouth open and stuffs pieces of the rat down his throat). He has gotten to the point where we don't have to stick the food in the back of his mouth to force him to swallow. As long as we get the food into his mouth he does willingly swallow it on his own.
He does play around with his water dish and perches sometimes but not very well.

We're unsure if he'll survive at this point but we won't give up on him. Some birds make a full recovery from head trauma and some don't.

First... Colorado should NOT BE UP TO OVER 90F DEGREES IN THE FIRST WEEK OF MAY!
What the heck.
Where was the snow?
What's with the lack of rain.
WHY IS THERE AUGUST WEATHER!

Please let this "cold front" coming bring us rain. Or at least temps under 80. o.o
--

So today the high at the center was 94.
Recently it was decided the center's facilities should get more attention by the powers that be (most the maintenance is usually done by myself, my boss or the volunteers and we don't have time for gardens).
We had no water all day. Apparently the lack of water pressure we had all been use to became NO WATER AT ALL when they tried starting up the old defunct sprinklers for the new gardens we're getting donated by Eagle scouts.

So we spent all day in record high temperatures with no water while they dug up and gave us an entirely new waterline.
Needless to say myself and the birds were displeased. I at least had my boss and a volunteer in the morning but after lunch I spent my usual Saturday ritual of working alone. I apologized to the birds multiple times because I could not soak their cages with cold water from the hose.
I fed everyone larger meals today, I doubt they'll all eat because they were too hot.

We all made it through the horrid swelter though I'm kinda grumpy this evening.
--

So now you all probably wonder by it says something about an Eagle being hit by a semi in the title.
Well yesterday I'm working with a volunteer who I believe is Wonder Woman after she retired.
She claims to be a retired art teacher but really... she's in her 70s and can do almost anything, even with a fake knee.. but she isn't really part of the Eagle's story.
So I get a call about an hour and a half before we close from one of the states wildlife officers. He's heading into the mountains to pick up an injured Golden Eagle and asked if an hour later I could meet him about 35 minutes from the center to transfer the Eagle to my care.
Of course I would. So I left Wonder Woman to close the center for me while I headed out to get this bird.
What I take out of the crate to put into one of our crates in the center's van is barely a Eagle.
He's bleeding from his nares (nose) and is obviously in shock and panting heavily.
I drive the half hour back to the center and bring the bird into ICU.
He's still panting heavily but the bleeding from his nares had calmed down and there were no other obvious wounds.
Alone there was nothing I could do for him, he needed to really just be left alone for the night with hopes he survived it. I made him a nest out of towels and laid him down in it so he'd be comfortable. He was sleeping and still breathing heavily when I left work last night.
I didn't expect to come back to a live Eagle let alone what I saw when I walked into ICU this morning.
My boss is in but she's frantically giving all the rodents water before they shut the water off for the day and they all go thirsty so she asks me to make sure the ICU birds are all ok.
I look in the Eagle box (giant cage in ICU for eagles) and the Eagle is standing up and and looking at me. All you hear out of ICU is "HOLY CRAP, YOU'RE ALIVE!"
So we pull him out of the cage and my boss holds him while I feel for any wounds.
I feel first for the common breaks, wings and legs.
No broken wings, no broken legs... No broken bones.
He's bruised and has some internal injuries (which may or may not kill him it's just a wait and see thing) but he's alert, nothing is broken and he was trying to defend himself. He was a strong bird, his muscles were amazing and wow is he beautiful!
We're going to keep him in ICU a few days, if the internal injuries and his bruises don't hinder him we'll take him home ad release him back where he was hit. He probably has a female and chicks somewhere who need him home as soon as we can get him there.

Hope for the best and wish him good luck.
For a bird who got hit by a semi-truck to survive is amazing, that nothing is broken is a miracle... if we can get him back to the wild in under a month would be nothing short of nature's spirit giving him the power to get home.

My vacation got postponed last minute. Sam's boss got injured and he will be out of work for 6 weeks. With only 2 competent security guards at the place they can't function with both Sam and his boss gone.
We ended up having to pay extra in plane fees to reschedule the flight but at least it wasn't totally cancelled.
We're trying again in June to have a vacation. We can't afford the reschedule fees again so regardless of what anyone says or what happens we're going to fucking go.

Needless to say I am disappoint but at least Sam's boss will be ok.

OMG!
My boss just texted me that we got the first baby Great Horned Owl in of the season.
Of course the first Thursday I have off in... almost ever and we get the first baby hoot in of the season.

BABY SEASON IS MY FAVORITE SEASON! The majority of the birds we get in are youngsters with no injuries that can be released once they grow up so we have a few months of lots of happy events to overshadow the sad left by all the injured guys who don't make it.
-
I'm sure Aggie the foster momma owl will be so happy to have a little fuzzball to raise. She loves babies.
http://fav.me/d3ksaa6 <--That's Aggie with some of last years babies.

Going to be gong with my boys to see Echo's family and enjoy a much needed vacation.

California- Depart Apr. 28th, Return May 5th. It sucks I won't be able to stop and see friends who live out there but I get to stop and visit with my sister for a day. Echo wants to have a him and his mom day so we figured me and Sam could take his mom's car and drive down to see my sister. Also did I mention NO FREAKING CAR RENTAL PAYMENT! Echo's mom is just gonna let us borrow one. Thanks, holy fuck that will save us a few hundred bucks.

We know for a fact we're also going here: http://www.winchestermysteryhouse.com/

It's something I've known for awhile but it still amuses me.

---Male Peacocks will attack their reflections in dark shiny cars because they think it's another male.---
I have witnessed this.

Today I learned how to euthanize a bird.
You can read about it here.

http://mazz.livejournal.com/1316070.html

One of the center's Education birds died.
He was old and had some bacterial infection that laid dormant for years until hitting him a few months back in full blast.
We tried everything to kill it and he started to get better. In the end though his age was just too much for him to keep fighting and he crashed on us and stopped eating. We decided euthanasia was the only thing left we could do for him as he was just going to slowly starve to death if we did nothing.

So Arthur the Prairie Falcon. I'll miss you.
You taught a lot of children, touched a lot of lives and made me smile when hamming it up for my camera.

I'll miss you buddy.
http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6077834/

I'm one of the artists participating in an auction for a lovely person currently fighting breast cancer.
We're hoping to get her some help with the bills because even with insurance she is over 800 in the hole and she's just started treatments.
She's here on FA if you want to wish her some luck and love: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/rattie-cookie/

There are 4 separate auctions, with different artists. You can see who's art is in which auction by checking out the links. You can even collab with friends to split the cost and then share the bounty.
SO MUCH AMAZING ART!
You can get originals, prints (of art and photos) and much more.

The links can be found here!

http://www.thedealersden.com/auctio.....tion_id=108495

http://www.thedealersden.com/auctio.....tion_id=108496

http://www.thedealersden.com/auctio.....tion_id=108498

http://www.thedealersden.com/auctio.....tion_id=108499

Please do your best to spread the word! Make an FA journal telling your watchers - Tweet about it - tell your furry Facebook pals - update your LJ - encourage your friends to do the same!

If you don't know I also draw go here:

I am going to open up for commissions.
I draw birds A LOT.
From now on anyone who wants a bird picture can pay by donation to the center I work at.
You can either send the money to my paypal or send the donation directly to the center's paypal and show me a screen shot of the transaction being completed.

Sketches start at $5
Full color pictures with a background box will go up to $40 depending on medium (watercolor is more, colored pencil is cheaper).
Pictures will go up to 8x10sih, if you want a full color picture for say $20 I will do around 5x7. These sizes are approximate, I do not measure my paper when drawing but I get close.
Feral bird pictures only.
I am not open for commissions as donations for personal characters. If you want a personal character that will be for profit to myself only.

For quotes note me.

I am going to open up for commissions.
I draw birds A LOT.
From now on anyone who wants a bird picture can pay by donation to the center I work at.
You can either send the money to my paypal or send the donation directly to the center's paypal and show me a screen shot of the transaction being completed.

Sketches start at $5
Full color pictures with a background box will go up to $40 depending on medium (watercolor is more, colored pencil is cheaper).
Pictures will go up to 8x10sih, if you want a full color picture for say $20 I will do around 5x7. These sizes are approximate, I do not measure my paper when drawing but I get close.
Feral bird pictures only.
I am not open for commissions as donations for personal characters. If you want a personal character that will be for profit to myself only.

For quotes note me.

If you want examples go here: http://ravenskunk.deviantart.com/gallery/30897952
You can show me a picture I've already done if you have a particular style medium you want. (note a lot of my markers are dying so I may need an extra $5 for marker commissions to replace dead/dying markers which cost about $5 a pop).

People already know this who watch my art account but... I got puked on by a Turkey Vulture.
The epic smell kills. D:

On the up-side Izzy our Vulture in training stood on my arm for almost 10 minutes before baiting.
Though I hope she doesn't make a habit out of puking on me. I had to hold her for 5 minutes covered in vulture vomit to make her not associate puking with us putting her down. D:

I like birds.