Last Week At REGI

Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Well, after last week bragging about the spring like weather, the cold returned for part of our last week. Back to long sleeves, sweat shirts and multiple layers in the morning. We were even under a frost advisory but we had none in our area. It did frost in some townships just north of Antigo. The trees and flowers are still beautiful and we definitely enjoyed our stay.

It was another very busy week working with Y2V at REGI -with lots of sore muscles and aches. We, along with Joe, spent the first four days this week completing the repair/replacement of the green fabric on a total of 3 large enclosures – approximately 600 linear feet of fabric. We had additional help from various other hard working team members at different times during the week and could not have completed the project without their additional help.

One of several folks who helped us with the fence fabric. Much of the fastening had to be done on your knees.

Joe and Max finishing the last of the green fabric

The finished crane and swan enclosure fence. The trees and vines hide some of its beauty.

This sand hill crane was quite annoyed with us …

… because at times we were working pretty close to its nest.

On Friday morning we worked with Joe and Phil to empty, pull out old carpet and level with stone a storage room for a golden eagle enclosure. After that was completed, we worked on the rustic fence project with other team members. Together that team was able to complete that project too by the end of the day. Together our team completed at least 19 items that were on the REGI “list”. Gary and Dave completed the new 80×80 parking lot/RV parking area. The eagle flight was re-graveled. A passerine was re-screened. The basement was painted including the new epoxy finish on the flooring. All the display shelving in the education building was repainted beautiful “REGI green”. The turkey vulture enclosure was re-screened and roofing repaired. New signs were installed. New fire pit was built. That’s just some of the things I can think of right now. Shar will send us a complete list in a few days. And we had a potluck, taco Tuesday, evening camp fires, and lunch with all the REGI staff.

The welcome center put back together with the REGI green shelves

Lots of fences rails and post were brought in and installed.

Marcel is one of the cutest of the residents at REGI. He is moving to Penn State to serve as an educational bird.

He got to sit outside for a while and watch the team working on the new fence.

Some sections of the new fences that replaced the old stacked split-rail fence. In addition to his work on the parking area, David did a great job smoothing out the driveway.

The stuff we moved out of the storage room to redo the floor. When we arrived two weeks ago the green fabric we needed to hang on the 12′ tall chain link fences was still frozen to the ground in this room.

It took several wheelbarrow loads of gravel to cover the ground.

We hope the gravel will better protect the things stored in here.

Gary and David worked hard on the parking area. This is how it looked on Tuesday.

The finished parking area looks great. We hope it gets lots of use.

On Friday the REGI staff provided us lunch and ice cream cake. Max sat at this table.

We also got to observe Marge and the staff assess and treat a female bald eagle who was brought in after being found in a field acting strangely. The eagle had organophosphate poisoning as a result of the insecticides being sprayed on the fields in the area prior to planting. Fortunately, the x-ray indicated there were no broken bones or lead pellets. She was severely dehydrated. Blood work did not indicate any lead poisoning but of course did confirm the poison. They gave the eagle activated charcoal to absorb any of the poison that was possibly still in the stomach, and washed the feet really well because there was visible poison on the feet and can be absorbed through the skin. When we left Friday afternoon the eagle was making slow improvement. At this time the staff thinks she should be able to be released, but probably not until November/December.

The poisoned eagle that we saw brought in being assessed. (Photo credit: REGI)

Watching the staff assess and treat the eagle reminded us of seeing human patients assessed in the emergency room. (Photo credit: REGI)

As we were leaving Antigo, just after we turned onto Hwy 64, a bald eagle flew beside us for a few moments – almost as if to say “Thank you” and “Godspeed”.

This was an excellent project with a very cohesive team. We thank all the team making it that way and especially Shar and Phil for organizing and leading the project. We hope we can work with all these guys again soon.