mysterious flycatchers, a chachalaca, and an amazing job

Well, apparently baby season is in full swing. The Golden-fronted Woodpeckers have fledged! They're practicing their flight skills and their typical woodpecker stubbornness. They've become picky about what they'll eat and they, so far, haven't started eating on their own. The Great Kiskadee chicks are doing well - growing like crazy! Although, they've started making Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher squeaky toy vocalizations (did you click on the link? So not kidding about squeaky toys). Their coloration doesn't quite seem Great Kiskadee-esque either, but I guess I'll know for sure in a few days. Tuesday evening I received an egg. It had been rescued from the ground in Bullet Tree Falls about two weeks ago, set in a box with a night light as a heat source, and amazingly started hatching on Tuesday! The egg was a chalky color, smaller than a chicken egg, and it had a hole about the size of nickel in it. I could see a little beak; the chick was quite strong and peeping away. After a little persuasion (my peeping vocalizations, scratching on the egg), the little guy spun around and started chipping away at the rest of the egg. About an hour and a half after I received the egg, out popped a little Plain Chachalaca! What a privilege to see that little guy hatch. He's doing pretty well so far. Precocial species are a bit less demanding than the altricial species. Chachalaca parents still "hand" their kids food so I've been giving him little bites throughout the day in addition to him eating on his own. I don't have any literature on raising a Chachalaca chick so it's all guesswork. I'm offering all types of food and a lot of protein. Many precocial species easily imprint and to deter imprinting, I've been keeping myself hidden. I wear a sock on my hand when feeding and (get ready to laugh at the image in your head) a hijab made of pillowcases on my head/face. I've gotten laughed at several times and called a ninja but hopefully this little guy won't be human friendly. It's going to be tough since he's on his own.

On a sad note, I received a Great Blue Heron this evening from Caye Caulker. He died within 30 minutes of arrival. A post-mortem showed that he was extremely skinny and had an old open fracture to one of his legs. A old open fracture, especially on a species of bird that has to have both legs in order to survive, is a death sentence. I haven't seen one of these herons in hand before... what a beautiful bird!

Yesterday left me feeling extremely overwhelmed and frustrated, mostly because the woodpeckers weren't wanting to eat. This morning I woke up in a better mood and my devotion (thanks mom!) included Philippians 4:13. So after a fresh start, I started thinking about how I'm thankful that I, for some reason, made the insanely crazy decision to put my life on hold and move to a foreign country for a year.

Things I currently love about my job and my life in Belize:

1. The patients. The variety is amazing, as are the different personalities. Call it anthropomorphism, say they're just birds, but you really have no idea until you're working with them. The woodpeckers are feisty and hilarious. One naughty bird even jumped on my head today. After the spoiled flycatchers start getting full, they don't even beg - they just open their mouths for more... and I'm happy to oblige. I might just be raising some fatties.

2. The creativity. I don't have a lot to work with since most things available in the states aren't available here. Thank goodness a volunteer brought down reptariums... because with my one lonely cage, I wouldn't have had a place to put one of the woodpeckers after the other had started becoming aggressive. The ants are still a huge problem. The little crazy ants (something loco in Spanish) are wrecking havoc in the clinic with all the food available. I've run out of water trays and now I'm down to my last bits of tupperware to dissuade them. How does one even make a waterproof container with next to nothing? But facing these new-to-me issues makes me think outside the box and with it just being me here, I have to rely on my instincts, creativity, and knowledge. It's quite rewarding, really.

3. The freedom. Albeit, I am tied down to feeding every 30 minutes and, most of the time, one feeding bleeds into the other.. but hey, that's why I'm here! I do have the ability to do (mostly) whatever I want, however I want. Also, I can have a beer (or two) in the middle of a 15/16/17 hour work day. With the exception of the past two days, I had been able to fit in a twenty minute nap between feedings... on a sheet, in the surgery room of the clinic. It's the only way to deal sometimes. I don't have a uniform. Generally, I wear a scrub top and shorts. I could probably wear a bathing suit if I wanted. That would help with the sweltering heat (it finally stopped raining about 2 days ago) but I'm pretty sure it would make the rest of the staff feel awkward.

4. The sweating. Sure, it's gross but at the same time, it's kind of liberating. I no longer care that I look like a sweaty mess. The animals don't care, the people don't care, therefore... I don't care either. Really, there's no way to stop it or anything to do about it. The clinic gets so incredibly hot that I sometimes even have to turn off the heating pads for the babies so they don't fry. Everybody's a sweaty mess here and it's okay.

5. The people. Yes I get frustrated, but then there are days like today when all is forgiven and there's hope. Everybody at work was in good spirits even though we were all unbelievably busy. I also met a very promising young person from Pro-Belize this morning and that gives me hope for this country in which there are so many people who just don't care.

There are more things but after a super long day of work, that's all I have time to divulge. I do have to say that my favorite time of the day during baby season is after the 7:00 PM feed. Everybody has gone to bed and it's a bit of an accomplished feeling knowing that everybody is fat and happy and that I had a ridiculously full day of work.

I'm more or less completely exhausted (partially self-inflicted due to having somehow developed a social life) but it's a good feeling. I'm going on week three (or is it four?) without a day off. I'm averaging about 16 hours of work a day and I'm okay with it. For now anyway, who knows when I'll actually crack. Anybody reading this has my permission to punch me if I ever complain later in life about ridiculously long work hours. Seriously, I give you permission.

One of my favorite parts of today was when I was told "I like your enthusiasm" when I was talking about CASA, conservation, and birds. I take that as a compliment... probably one of the best I've had. Today was a good day and my heart is full.