halloweek followup

This is the first year since I've started this blog that I didn't do a day-by-day recap of my Halloweek celebrations! Which is TERRIBLE. I love Halloween so much, but this year it was a bit rough blogging about my activities due to a number of reasons. So I now am going to do a Halloweek Followup!

Halloweek Followupppp

(imagine it sung like this).

what I did during halloweek

-carved pumpkins! I utilized the method of scraping off the outer skin to reveal the inner yellowish skin so the light glows through, and I like the result! I made Turkey Vultures! Dale (one of my roomies) carved the owl.



We watched Fern Gully while we carved them, which apparently 2 out of our party of 4 had NEVER SEEN. Preposterous.

-ate lots and LOTS of candy. I usually am not that into candy, but for some reason I've been super into candy this Halloween season. I can't stop.



Sour watermelons, 3 Musketeers, and Tootsie Pops have been pretty popular around here. Everyone was obsessed with Tootsie Pops for awhile because our executive director didn't believe that the Indian shooting the bow and arrow with the star was real, but it IS.

-visited an apple farm and bought the most delicious carmel apple I've ever eaten. Covered in gourmet carmel and Reeses Pieces



MMMMmmmMmmMm

-Drew my little bat girl and her friends



-Changed my mind about a Halloween costume 13,203 times. I was originally going to be Batgirl, so I bought a mask and a cape (which a cape can be used anytime, so I'm happy about that). But then everyone wanted to do a group costume, so we switched to wanting to go as Jurassic Park scientists and dinosaurs to Fern Gully characters to now Nightmare Before Christmas characters. I was down with all of them, but I can really get on board with NBC (clearly). I'm probably going as Barrel.



(skeleton boy, for you non-crazies)

-read scary stories! Creepypastas (or "spooky noodles") on the way home from programs, short stories lent to me by my mom, and a book called "Penpal" that was really creepy and heartbreaking. I recommend it, but you can avoid buying the book and just read the short stories that started it here.



(it's a real photo of me! No, really!)

-watched a TON of Halloweeny movies! I am incredibly satisfied by the amount of horror movies I watched. The reason for it is a) I switched my Netflix to disc so I can get them that way and b) we found the Family Video in town. I miss old school video rental places, I have a lot of childhood nostalgia for them: picking out a plastic cased VHS and our candy of choice, Fun Dip, for the weekend, or a random horror movie to start my Halloween Horror tradition (American Werewolf in London). They had a whole shelf of Halloween favorites for only a $1 for two nights, so we rented so many movies.

We watched







and of course



-we did an owl release on Halloween (as well as the week before). It entailed making pine cone bird feeders for kids, candy and drinks, an educational owl program with our Great Horned Owl, and then the release of two wild Great Horned Owls. The magic of seeing an owl flying into the dark woods on silent wings is really indescribable.



Happy Owloween!

We also took some photos of Fonzie (our owl) on gravestones in the cemetery. It was spooky and awesome.





We then spent the rest of the evening watching our final Halloweeny movies (appropriately, Halloween and Nightmare Before Christmas!) and drinking. We are planning on going to a Halloween party on Saturday, so no worries! I will get my dancing and drinking fix in, too!

Next October season I definitely want to do more: hiking, bonfires, leaf pictures, woodland explorations, REAL costumes, and a huge Halloween party! (or multiple...)

Better start planning! There's only 365 days left until next Halloween!

Happy Owl-oween!!!

Celebrated Halloween this day by dancing in the car to Thriller and Ghostbusters, eating a $3 breakfast special at a restaurant decorated with porcelain angels, taking photos of owls on gravestones, and doing an educational owl program in a cemetery, as well as a Great-Horned Owl release. Now I'm cozy inside watching Halloween movies while it's foggy and spooky outside :)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

a banding tradition

It seems to becoming a tradition to band owls during the month of October, as we decided for the second year in a row to leave the warm glow of our flatscreen TV to head out into the forest and find some owls. Last year we went to Duluth during Halloweek to attend "Owl Night", where they had an educational program and we finally caught two little Norther Saw-Whets at the end of the night. Then we got to hold them like little ice-cream cones :')

We first headed to Noodles and Company in Steven's Point for the company benefit, 10% of all proceeds went directly to our organization! For some reason, I really enjoy going out and playing around after dark in the city. Steven's Point is an adorable college town, which I also LOVE because there are still people out, people my age, hanging out, riding bikes, walking around in jackets and scarves and boots with their breath fogging their vision. I love fall nights, especially when they're illuminated by lamplight. We cozied up inside of Noodles and ate macaroni and told our infamous drinking stories. I have...more than I realized...

After Noodles, we headed out to Linwood Springs Research Station, which was deep in the woods (my homeland), and took a seat in the classroom. We were treated to an educational program on owls and then released two Northern Saw-Whets that we'd rehabilitated back to health.











Since we were in the darkness since, you know, owls are nocturnal (or crepuscular), there wasn't the best lighting in the world. Also it's hard to catch the exact moment the owl actually flies off, so I didn't get any cool pictures of the owls being released into the great wild woods. Instead I got pictures of people looking amazed or thoughtful as the owl fluttered away. Aka a little bit stupid.



Little guys back in their natural habitat! May you never have to be in contact with humans ever again!

After we'd released them, we headed out to visit the mist nets, where we'd already caught a little Northern Saw-whet! We brought him back inside and took some measurements, like tarsus length and wing chord, as well as judging the age by the wear of the feathers.







The lighting wasn't too great again since it was low and fluorescent, but still. LOOK AT THAT FACE!!

We caught three Saw-Whets and at the end we got to release them. Well okay, Marge's grand-daughter and Kelsey, the other education intern, got to release them. I sort of co-released one with another rehab intern. But it was still cool!



having a complicated camera means that a lot of your pics you get back are going to be blurry, especially in the darkness when there's nothing to focus on



taking some cool pics since the owl was super shocked and didn't realize he was free to go...



OWL!

The person taking our picture didn't even get an after picture of us looking up at the sky, so unfortunately I couldn't add that one to my collection



But I did get this one!





Kelsey waiting for her owl to take off.

All in all, it was another great night filled with owls! I hope this continues to be an annual October tradition!

HALLOWEEK STARTS TOMORROW



SO. EXCITED.

I started out this fall season (and an early Halloween season) by staffing a booth at an adorable fall festival at a farm. Halloween/fall was in full swing, and there was even A CAMEL. It was pretty magical.











I like to take pictures of signs with my name on them



My season













I want to compare this to Lenny's photo (our crow) and ask people which one they think is the real crow, because you know this one is pretty realistic...





Thank you!





Lenny is too smart for her own good





Scarecrow man playing catch with Lenny. Clearly she is terrified

Last week one of the other interns and I decided to go explore our new surroundings. We ended up at the Dells of the Eau Claire, which is filled with beautiful rock formations, tiny waterfalls, and amazing fall scenery.











Sometimes I just scream, "WAIT" because I absolutely HAVE to take a picture. This was one of those moments.



There was a tree spanning the water and I was like, "I have to climb this" while Kelsey (other intern friend) stared at me sardonically. I gave her my camera and phone to hold (considering there was a 95% chance I was going to fall into the water) and hoisted myself onto the branch. I was too comfortable with the idea of staying dry that I didn't go all the way over the water, but Kelsey decided to document it anyway.

These past few days have seen some AMAZING weather, rainstorms and mist enveloping the fall foliage. I had to snap a few pictures yesterday morning.







I am so psyched for this month's activities, SO MANY AWESOME THINGS PLANNED!!