Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Date change for fund raiser

Hey ya'll,

The date for our fund raiser has been pushed out about two weeks because my event planner wants some extra time to make sure we will fill up Champps. I apologise for any inconvenience.

My phone line/internet is down so I'm borrowing someone's wi-fi to get this out.

I'll blog more later about the Haiti charity we attended Saturday past and my new patients!

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog....m.

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

HawkTalk on Comcast!

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Still, my heart is an open secret...someone tell me, have I been gifted or robbed?

Hey ya’ll,

The life of a rehabilitator is full of ups and downs. Here’s the down - Last week I had to euthanize Stephanie, the Great Horned owl. She started going downhill over a period of about 36 hours. Her poor head FROZE upside down and neither she nor I could right it, so she couldn’t feed herself because she couldn’t swallow. At the same time she started using her right wing as a kickstand because her balance was so off. I cried hard for a day on that one. When you have so much time invested in a bird, only to watch it go south…**sigh** Thanks to Jeff, the Good Samaritan, who stood watch over her that day so nothing would happen to her until I could come pick her up and made a substantial financial contribution to help me feed her. I tried so hard. I am sorry.

We also had to do a second surgery on the Barn owl, Icabod. Things were coming along nicely until about 10 days after the first surgery, when he start chewing his wing. Not good. Put him back on pain meds and we had to go back in to remove more bone. He’s a very quiet, well behaved patient. I will keep my fingers crossed that he will adjust to a life in captivity and will become a good teacher. Barn owls are so different anatomically, they have their own sub-family of owls… They are space creatures, to be sure. With the most asymmetrically placed ears of all the owls, Tyto Alba can catch food in almost complete darkness. Don’t let that sweet countenance fool you, he will bite the crap out of you and not feel the least bit sorry!


On a happier note - All the babies are out! Woo Hoo! It’s important for the Screech babes to keep a VERY low profile during the day so they aren’t eaten by larger raptors, so I go up at night to ‘trill’ the baby Screech owls in for supper. They are so funny as they zoom from tree to tree and then glide down to the hack board for a mouse… The bell is what I use for the young hawks during the day. SO, there are two serving shifts at my house right now. NO vacationing for moi! Chef Boy-Ar-Teener!

Hmmm…this is like Piccadilly Cafeteria! Which one do I want?


They will come every night for a while, then as they start to find food on their own, they will come less frequently, thus, weaning themselves of my help. Raising them to come to this hack board is called ‘operant conditioning’ and is crucial to the survival of babes that don’t have parents to teach them what to do… The ‘trilling’ I do when I come up the trail to feed them, I start when they are still captive and gets them to associate that sound with supper, like ringing the proverbial dinner bell! Pavlov’s owl, so to speak.

The Ledger News of Cherokee County posted a very nice article about the release of Hollis the Hawk… Thank you, Jessica, for a spiffy write-up! We appreciate it very much! This pic was taken at my home, the day before the release. As you can see, Hollis is READY!





Me, Hollis, Holly Springs Mayor Downing, Officers Carswell and Ladner


Here we go! The release was behind this abandoned house just off the road where the nice officers stopped and directed traffic around the downed bird. Of course, what does Hollis do, but promptly drop to the ground, rather than shooting out at Mach III. I had to go get my gloves, pick him up and set him aloft. As he flew away, a feather drifted down… It was lovely. A happy ending, indeed…


Dear Grace has been doing so well since her other surgery to remove the right hallux talon, I keep forgetting to mention her sweet self! She has now been transferred from REHAB over to POSSESSION so I can now start working with her as an educational ambassador. The purple stuff on the right stub are the sutures that will eventually fall off. Thanks to Dr. Martinez and all the loving hands at Loving Hands Animal Clinic over in Milton! I love you guys!


Once again, thank you for taking the time to read my blog and if you have something to donate for the auction, please call me to arrange the pick-up. Your ten dollar ticket will buy 20 whopping mice! Click on www.paypal.com to 'send money'. Plug in our email address - monteen@hawktalk.org and it will walk you through the rest! ….m.

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Breaking News! A date for the fund raiser!

Hey ya'll,

Well...here we go. Please Mark your Calendars for Thursday, July 29th! I haven't wanted to mention this until I was sure it would happen... I have been meeting with an event planner AND celebrity chef by the name of Sean Patrick O'Keefe.

Here are a couple links about Sean:

http://flyingchangesweightloss.blogspot.com/2009/03/day-81-chef-sean-okeefe-its-all-good.html

http://www.karlwells.com/aug2006.htm

Champs over at North Point in Alpharetta has agreed to host two fund raisers, the first being July 29th and the second one about 6 weeks later. The tickets are only $10.00 each and HT gets to keep all ticket sales. (Just to put things in some sort of perspective, ten dollars will buy us 20 jumbo mice and will feed one of my big birds for 10 days!)

Hawktalk.org's site is down due to mean old hackers that stole into BlueHost, the server that our site is hosted by, so I cannot direct you over there to click on the PayPal icon for the ticket. But, it's just as easy to just go over to www.paypal.com and click on SEND MONEY and it will walk you through the rest. Easy as pie!

For the ticket price, you get a drink and FOOD. We will be there with a bird or two and we are now in the process of gathering auction items. If you have anything you would be willing to donate for the auction, please call me to discuss 770.720.1847, for me to pick up or mail the item to:

HawkTalk
P.O. Box 130
Holly Springs, GA 30142

If you need to send it to my physical address:

Monteen McCord
6730 Union Hill Rd.
Canton, GA 30115

For those of you who know me personally, you know that I keep a rather low profile. Why, some would even call me a loner and a recluse, so Sean is trying to raise our profile a little so people will know what the heck HawkTalk is all about. He's lined us up to be at one of his other charity events for Haiti over at a wonderful estate built by Larry Dean called...Dean Gardens, on the evening of Saturday, July 17th. If you haven't seen these gardens...well, you're in for a treat.

You can take a virtual tour by going over to http://homesoftherich.net/2008/08/dean-gardens-alpharettas-finest-mega-mansion.html

Holy cow, is all I can say. This place is unbelievable.

I have bird news, too...of course, but I will write that in another blog because I don't want to make this one too long.

Even if you can't come, you can still be a part of it by purchasing a ticket (or multiple tickets:) or donating an auction item.

As always, thank you for taking the time to read my blog and on behalf of Sam, Scully, Grace, Maxine, Artemis, Jeffrey AND Nigel, we appreciate your continued support....m.