Thursdays are my volunteer days at the Outdoor Learning Center, which means I get to spend some time working with Arden, our unreleasable red-tailed hawk (poorly healed wrist injury — she can mostly fly and prefers to perch high, but she has a knot of scar tissue on her right wrist, and it was determined by both veterinarian and rehabber that she would struggle if released.)
She’s (mostly) fearless, and very opinionated. She’s wary of crates, cameras, excited tiny humans. She flat out does not like changeable weather (changing barometric pressure –> restless bird). She could take or leave showers from the hose, and prefers to bathe when no one is around. When she’s wound up or stressed out, she’ll sometimes hang from the ceiling (which is not a thing we encourage, but it’s also not a thing we’re going to harass her to stop).
But she seems to appreciate being outside on summer mornings when it’s a little bit cool and breezy. We have a water feature, so as often as we can, we go hang out there. We can listen to the water and enjoy the cool morning.
But, add too much attention from the camera to a distraction overhead and you get this:
Sometimes even Arden can be a little derpy.
She’s perfect and I love her.
Carmen Yount 