Hey! Hey, you! Happy Friday! ❤️ Yolo

Lunch break!

Emu surprise

Icelandic horses, a most noble and ancient breed

No matter the species, geese are universally just as sassy 🪶

Yolo the baby king vulture showing up for #SoggyChildSunday with his adorable crossed toes! 🪶

Many thanks to everyone who came to visit our table at the IAATE/ABMA conference in Cincinnati last week! So many people advancing our understanding of animal behavior, welfare, care, conservation, and education work. It's always an inspiration to get the chance to learn from such amazing folks.

In case your day needs some cute: a yaklet born just two days ago, and some fluffy youngsters enjoying the first sprouts of fresh spring grass

If you live somewhere with spring thaw, take extra care to watch for birds and avoid speeding. Melting snow uncovers winter roadkill, which brings birds like this eagle to do cleanup. It's a time of year we see even more car strikes than usual, & soon with birds doing extra duty feeding nestlings. 🪶

Dodrio bathing time 🪶

Yellow headed vulture sketch painted in gouache.

Want to add a touch of class to any object? Put a peacock on it 🦚 Instant luxury

All of our wildlife patients this year so far have been owls, but this is our first short-eared. You can help prevent car strikes like this by obeying rural speed limits and not throwing any litter out of cars. Even organics like apple cores attract rodents to roads, which attracts their hunters. 🪶

With the weather warming, the emus are back to their regular shenanigans. Today's episode: Why are the edges of the entry rugs so shredded? A mystery for the ages. 🪶 #crimemus

Maximum round! Did you know 'borb' shape has a purpose? (Other than looking ridiculously cute) When birds become round fluffs, they trap a layer of warm air in their downy underfeathers, shielded by outer feathers, insulating themselves to stay toasty even in extreme cold! Cute and convenient! 🪶

Oh, to be a goofy noodle dog and live in simple, precedented times. #CyranoDeBorzoiac

An adult red-tailed hawk with big, mad feelings about a random juvenile being in its territory. We were just visiting for a short bit, a last hawking outing for the season. Falconry follows seasons like other hunting sports so as not to disrupt nesting locals and prey species. 🪶

Are vultures cute? Yes, and yes. Yes they are. Yolo is showing off his newly colored beak, shifting towards orange. His full transition to bright king vulture adult colors will take about five years! 🪶

Wings for days! (Featuring everyone's favorite yellow-headed vulture, Mr. Sev! He's got quite a bit of spring fever right now even though spring is still a ways off here. Me too, buddy!) 🪶

February is usually our coldest month, but a string of extremely warm days mean the birds have been thoroughly enjoying the winter reprieve. Here is Minerva the turkey vulture in her best toasty loaf form, soaking up the sun. 🪶

Spent the weekend at the Wisconsin Wildlife Rehab Association conference & touring multiple facilities to learn more about their aviary construction and programs. Incredible solar panels roof flight at Dane County humane society and huge span netted enclosures at the International Crane Foundation!

If a door gets left open here for any length of time it summons the elusive but impressive garage peacock.

Celebrating Superb Owls day, here are some of our burrowing owls being particualrly superb! Training isn't just tricks; medical behaviors like learning voluntary nail trims here mean not having to catch and restrain birds, much less stress for people and birds alike. #SuperbOwl

New hay bales means every silly yak plays king of the hill. (Momo here is half yak, half highland cow. Her mom, Appa, is pictured below).

For anyone else who might need a little timeline break today, here's Bluey the very soggy blue jay thoroughly enjoying a bath 🪶

Minnesota, my home, is carrying a heavy burden right now. Being kind is not being weak. The strength to care for others, to love and protect our neighbors, to be a shield and not a sword, to be warmth in the cold is true Minnesota nice. (Photo by local photographer Ricky Roman, MN)

Just received my new pins from Foxloft @foxfeather.bsky.social !!! They're so amazingly pretty omg even the box is beautiful

To be a mini donkey in a warm jacket on a cold day.

Hey, @foxfeather.bsky.social, I got shinies! They are so pretty.

On nice days during this deep winter time, the vultures get short jaunts outside to enjoy the sun and snow. Yolo the king vulture has a lot of fun exploring this bizarre winter world, then enjoys foot and face warming as soon as he returns inside. #lovevultures

Pretty boy BB-8 showing off his luxurious feather boa. It never ceases to amaze me how well that emus can adapt to winter!

Windows make all our buildings into human aquariums for the birds. They love to peep in and watch us work, it seems very entertaining for them.

So much treasure! Thankyou @foxfeather.bsky.social

I love seeing people getting their new pins! I'm so happy with how this entire batch turned out. Many were more detailed than any we've made before but I think they turned out extra beautiful :)

My box of treasures from @foxfeather.bsky.social latest Kickstarter came yesterday. I got two quail pins, already gave Paul one.

All the new Visionary Vultures pins have arrived and they're amazing! Shipping for campaign pledges is underway; I'm working to get them graded, assembled, packed, & out as quickly as possible. If you're waiting, look out for a tracking email soon! visionary-vultures-4.backerkit.com/hosted_preor...

Gauche sketch of @foxfeather.bsky.social’s baby king vulture, Yolo.

Yolo often stands with his little back toes crossed, which I find ridiculously cute! You can see vultures don't have bulky feet and talons built for grasping/carrying like other raptors. Their more chicken-like feet are meant for bracing on food to pull at it with their powerful beaks, instead.

The last few weeks I've been off chasing the world's largest owls (Blakiston's fish owl) in Hokkaido. These massive, muppety, eagle-sized owls spend their nights hunting fish in shallow streams in the Russian far east/China/Northern Japan.

Hola from Costa Rica! I am here for a work trip and the Raptor Research Foundation conference. We've seen nine king vultures so far, it has been absolutely incredible! 🪶

Nearly 90 degrees in Minnesota in October is crazy. Even the vultures have melted spectacularly in this weather. 🪶

They grow up so fast! Yolo has lost his floofy baby pantaloons and almost all his baby fluff now. It will take him about 4-5 years to get his full, bright, adult king vulture colors but he looks different almost every day! 🪶 #lovevultures

The next generation of peabirds is coming along nicely, tended to by diligent moms. 🪶 #overflowingwithpeacocks

Been out of town at a work conference for a week. It's hard to leave; dropped a nighthawk off at the big city rehab center literally on the way to the airport . As soon as I got home, this poor kid needed help. This young turkey vulture was hit by a car while trying to grab some roadkill breakfast.

I'm super excited to welcome and introduce our new Education Director, Sidney! Sidney brings with her a wealth of experience in managing birds of prey (and the people that work with them), and will be working with us over the next year to help grow and expand our education work.

It's been a very busy week! Almost all of our patients this week have been owls, mostly unfortunate victims of car strikes. You can help owls out by never throwing trash out of your car (even compostable things like apple cores) - these attract rodents, which attract their hunters to the road. 🪶

Hey! Did you know it's the best day of the year? International Vulture Day is here!! It's a day to celebrate, share & support vultures, the most endangered (and misunderstood) family of birds in the world. Take a moment to share a vulture with someone just how cool and important they are! #ivad2025

Burrowing owl clean-up crew, hard at work.

Got to meet some mini donkeys this weekend at a local farm, they are delightful!

Be careful not to leave your owls in the sun, they have a very low melting point. 🪶