DURCKIES!

A few people have wondered about what kind of animals I've been working with in my new amazing 'Aviculturist' position at the Alaska SeaLife Center. I'm in the eider position, which means I help take care of our endangered eider duck species. Above is a male Steller's Eider, which has had about a 96% decline and is very very endangered. We have two research flocks: one of Steller's eiders and one of Spectacled eiders. They're research birds which provide us with a lot of information we didn't previously have about these endangered ducks. We have the wonderful position of being really the only facility in the world that can breed and research this very pretty bird! And being that it's breeding season, we've got over 30 Steller's eggs right now, not all of which we'll be hatching. We have 6 currently incubating, so hopefully in about 22 days, we'll have some baby Steller duckies! I have limited picture space on my blog, so I'm only showing you the male spectrum of the Eider duckies. This is a male Spectacled Eider. They're really my favorite duck because not only do they have spectacles from the minute they're born (much like I had spectacles from a very early age) they also have green mullets! The females are also a very pretty duck, with chocolate brown coloration. They're very large sea ducks, and can dive very deeply, which is rare overall in duck species. Most ducks, although waterfowl that spend a substantial portion of their lives on the water, can only pivot, not dive, in the water. But see how big his feet are? He can swim super well with them! This is a spectacled eider egg in a nest box! We currently have 4 eggs incubating that should hopefully hatch in about 9 days. I can't tell you how excited I am for the super cute little ducklings!! 

This is a picture from our aviary: a rhinocerous auklet! They're super cute sea birds, which we use for public presentations and whatnot. They're very good at standing on my hand!  And this is a very cute little horned puffin! He is another bird that we're able to utilized for educational presentations. And he's soooo cute! 

Just wanted to update everyone a little on what I was doing. Hope you enjoy!