Week 9:
Responsibility and Challenges

July 21, 2021

This week my responsibilities at the Iowa Raptor Project changed. My coworker, Amanda, was taking over for Holly Anthony while she was on maternity leave. Now that Holly is back, Amanda is now a volunteer, so she answers to the interns, Lyndi and me. Lyndi and I have been gained a lot of trust throughout our internships. Ryan trusts us to do basically anything on our own now. This includes onsite programs and tours along with offsite programs.

One day this week was very long. The day began with Lyndi and I going to our first program completely on our own without Ryan or Amanda. The program took place at Cedar Rapids Early Childhood.  The children we presented to ranged in ages from three to five years old. We brought five raptors with us, Omaha, Saguaro, Little Horn, Wannago, and Fennamare. We presented the birds twice because there were two groups, which was a little stressful for the birds but manageable. Presenting to these kids was different due to their age. We had to talk about the birds using words they would understand, which was a challenge. Since the kids were so small, they were a little noisy, but they did not ask many questions, making the presentation shorter. Overall, the programs went well, and it allowed us to present offsite without the pressure of Ryan or Amanda.

Just as we returned from the programs, a group of individuals from The Arc of Southwest Iowa were waiting. The Arc is a place for people with disabilities of all sorts, making the program a challenge for us. The group had scheduled a program with us, but it was not on the schedule. Even though this was a surprise to us, we could present a couple of raptors to them. We talked about Omaha, Saguaro, and Zorro, whom they really enjoyed seeing. This experience tested our responsibility and time management skills. We were able to balance the program with putting the birds away and cleaning out all the boxes after all of the programs. Just as we started doing paperwork, the wildlife camp showed up asking to see a raptor. I presented Zorro to the group for about half an hour, and they really appreciated it.  We choose to present Zorro to spontaneous groups because he is one of our most human imprinted raptors and he loves being around people. Due to this, he is very sweet and easy to grab out of his mew because he would rather be around people than on his own.

This week, we had four other programs, two more with wildlife camps, one at Regina Elementary, and an onsite tour with two groups of Frog Hollow kids. The programs with the wildlife camps were on different days, and they were just like any other wildlife camp program onsite. The program at Regina Elementary went well. We presented three owls to about 13 kids ranging from 3 to five years old. We brought Little Horn, Fennamare, and Wannago. They loved the owl theme of the program. Our final program was with kids ranging in age from Frog Hollow, a daycare. We split into two groups, gave tours of the site, then presented a few birds to the entire group. The kids asked some great questions and enjoyed their time seeing all of the raptors.

This week I learned a lot about my internship. I learned how to be independent and reliable when given tasks and put on a tight schedule. I gained trust through my internship, which showed me how dedicated I am. I learned about the training process of young raptors through feeding and was entrusted to do it myself without supervision. My work ethic at my internship shows how far I had come in terms of what I can do now compared to when I first started.  From the very beginning, my boss, Ryan Anthony, trusted me a lot. I returned his trust with my dedication to the internship and my hard work ethic. I am excited to see where my internship takes me these next couple of weeks!