August 10, 2021 | I learned a lot throughout the last two and a half months as an intern at the Iowa Raptor Project. Before I started as an intern, I did not know much about birds of prey. Now I can identify and handle birds of prey, know when they are stressed, and distinguish their feathers. I am […]

August 4, 2021 | This week I did a lot of self-reflection. Throughout this internship, I have been trying to figure out where this opportunity will take me in life. I have learned a lot about what my passions are and how I plan to pursue them. I initially thought I wanted to pursue a field in US Fish […]

July 28, 2021 | This week I spent a lot of time training Tigerhawk, the Peregrine Falcon. The person who trains raptors is known as a falconer. Falconers participate in falconry, which is when people use birds of prey to hunt for them. This is similar to how people use dogs for hunting. For example, the falconer will flush […]

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 […]

July 14, 2021 | This week I got the opportunity to handle raptors I initially felt uncomfortable handling due to not handling them too much. I trained Lyndi how to handle all of our raptors, so she felt more comfortable around them. This allowed me to handle the owls more. I have been afraid to handle the owls due […]

July 8, 2021 | This week I passed a few milestones, and I feel great about everything I have learned so far. My week started with being in charge of a program on-site with a small family. I gave the family a tour and presented a couple raptors. After the program, I trained a volunteer on tier 4 raptors. […]

July 8, 2021 | This week was crazy! We started to get a mew ready for our new raptor, which is a full-grown golden eagle. This eagle came to us from Bramble Zoo in South Dakota. He has an injured wing and needed a place for additional rehabilitation to be released back into the wild. This eagle will be […]

June 24, 2021 | After this week I am feeling accomplished! To be qualified to handle raptors and do programs on my own, I had to pass the written exam, which I did! This also means I am now able to train my coworker on handling the larger raptors. I am practicing handling the different raptors so I feel […]

June 23, 2021 | This week I spent a lot of time handling almost all of the raptors we have on-site. I really enjoy handling them. I learn something new about each raptor we have on-site each day. I learned how to hold each raptor in the following order: Omaha the American Kestrel, Little Horn the Eastern Screech Owl, […]

June 8, 2021 | My third week at Iowa Raptor Project was very eventful. I learned a lot and I got a couple opportunities to ‘fly solo’. The week began with learning how to clean the mews. In order to do this, we started by taking each raptor out of their mew and putting them in a hood. Not […]