She was this beautiful barn owl that was seriously the softest thing ever. They let us pet her feathers and get really close to her. They asked if we wanted to hold her but at the time I was a little bit afraid to do that. After that we rode around to check other traps. We went to the ARFF (Aircraft Rescue & Fire Fighting) building because they
had an owl nesting trap on the balcony there. They gave me the net and told me to sneak around the corner and put it over the opening. That made me a little bit nervous but I did it, and unfortunately, there weren't any owls inside. So we left. Braden got to hold the owl. We had to wrap her up in a towel like this when we were in the car for obvious reasons, because if she decided to flap her wings and try to get away, we would all be whacked with her giant wings, also, that would be hilariously terrifying.
We went back to the wildlife building and took her into the back room where they banded her leg and recorded some information about her. After that we went out riding around again, looking for large birds that were too close to the runway. We saw a couple of hawks flying around so we had to use the "Bird Banger" bullet type things that when fired from a small hand gun, make this annoying whistling sound and then make a little popping exposion noise when they get near the bird. (Don't worry, they don't hit the bird, and also, those birds are so darn stubborn that the noise hardly even phases them.) I felt like I was one of those "Storm Watcher" people that chase tornadoes. Imagine us riding wildly around the airport on the taxiways and also in the grass, all the windows down so that we didn't lose sight of the birds. Driving very fast, and Mike holding the gun out the window, shooting the noise bullets at the birds. It was highly entertaining. We also found some little pheasants and we hopped out of the vehicle again and I was handed the net and we chased them. They ended up flying up and over the fence so they weren't an issue anymore. I'm sure it was quite the site to see me running down the road along the fence with a giant net, chasing birds...
We went out and rode around the "duck club" area, it's just outside the outer boundary of the airport. Lots of rich people pay money for the land and pretty much preserve it for ducks and duck hunting. The main problem out there is the massive amount of pelicans. They are causing there to be less ducks and also they fly almost right in the middle of the arrival flight plan of the planes flying in. Most of the day was spent driving around looking for birds and animals, and it was quite enjoyable. Towards the end of the day, we set a live trap, with a little mouse in the bottom of a cage and traps that would ensnare a hawk if it came down to pick the mouse up. We drove out to where we knew there was a hawk sitting in it's nest and we dropped the trap and drove away to where we didn't look suspicious, yet we were far enough away that we could still see the trap. We could only leave the trap out in the open for about 5 minutes because it was so hot out that we didn't want the mouse to die. We watched the hawk and just when we thought she was going to leave her nest, we looked up and saw that she was sitting on her baby, keeping the sun off of it. So we drove over and picked up the trap and went back to the main building. I asked if I could hold the owl. I realized after we dropped the owl off the first time that that was probably my once in a life time chance to hold an owl. They gladly said yes and we went back, pulled her out of the cage and I put a giant thick glove on and grabbed a hold of her. 
It was one of the coolest things ever. She wasn't very heavy and she was pretty mellow. Each of us took turns holding onto her and of course, taking lots of pictures. I also snapped a picture of this other little creature, it's called a kestrel. He wasn't very happy that I was getting close to him. I kinda wanted to hold him but then I looked at what he had done to a sparrow, a.k.a. lunch... That was pretty much the whole day, counting, chasing, and capturing birds. It was fascinating and I learned a whole lot.
*peace out girls scout*
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