Day One

The Wildlife Center looks like a giant warehouse - in fact, that is exactly what it is.  You can still see the faded name of the previous tenant on the awning above the door.  I had grand plans to come down the day before my first shift to get my bearings and make sure that I knew how to get to the center.  Of course, like so many good intentions, that didn't quite work out.  So at 6:45am I could be found making a mad rush from the hotel toward the right part of town but making all types of wrong turns and continuously cussing at Google Maps.  My closest friends and family will not be surprised at all by this revelation since I am somewhat notorious for pushing everything to the last available moment and then wondering why I am always 10-15 minutes late.

So I finally arrived at my destination and came busting through the front door with my backpack and purse in hand.  I had the strangest sensation that reminded me of the first day at a new school - you walk in going through the list in your head of all you would need for the day and suddenly it feels like the whole room turns to look at you while all you can do is smile and hope that you don't look like too big of a dork.  As it turned out, everyone was very nice and helpful although some were a little slower to warm up than others.  The other "rehab-ers" are all women as of now- three from California and one other Alabama girl.  Once we started working together it was much easier to get to know them all - there's nothing like a bunch of girls bonding over injured birds!

The front room of the warehouse serves as the meeting room, break room, business office and file room.  As you walk through the next set of doors, you enter an enormous space that has been divided into a "kitchen" (for the animals' food, i.e. fish in a refrigerator), two exam areas-one for initial intake and one for medical evaluations and testing, and lots of smaller spaces for housing critical patients.  Each area is enclosed with large blue tarps that serve as dividers.  Outside there is a large covered solarium with 12 individually divided aviaries.  Each of the aviaries has a small pool for swimming or wading, depending on the type of bird that will be inhabiting it.  This is the halfway point for recovery since the birds need both water and dry areas to build up the waterproofing on their feathers once they have been thoroughly cleaned.  There are also 6 open air pools that serve to allow the birds to acclimatize to the heat while staying mostly in the water. 

My first day consisted of washing dishes, cleaning out pools, feeding birds and generally trying to get a feel for the routines.  I've never been around seabirds much but they are such amazing creatures.  The one thing that I definitely noted, in case you are curious, is that they all eat fish.  This fact was somewhat hard to ignore since I was constantly tossing fish to gannets, restocking bowls of fish for the pelicans and gulls, cleaning fish out of the pools and force-feeding fish to one very strong-willed juvenile pelican.  By the end of the day, I had been splashed and soaked so many times that my clothes smelled like fish all the way down to my running shoes.  I had been standing for the great majority of 12 hours (my back and feet were so tired), I had been in and out of the 100 degree temperature all day (I now have a lovely farmers' tan and red neck) and my hands were dry from the water and Dawn detergent.  And did I mention that I smelled like a fish????

It was the best first day at work I've ever had......