Foxfeather Zenkova

Two black vultures sitting side by side. One of them is laying down, relaxed into a flat pancake shape.

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

A closeup of a young king vulture standing on a branch

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

A peahen and her chick sitting atop a mesh coop door in front of an old barn

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

Young turkey vulture standing beside a gravel road

Young turkey vulture nested on some towels in a cardboard transport box, one wing skewed outwards

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.

Distilled essence of coyote

An 'About Me' collage graphic of photos and text introducing Foxloft Conservancy's new Education Director, Sidney Campbell. Expanded text version at: https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1EJfA4n4Sr/

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.

I did it before too, before I knew! I figured compostable things wouldn't hurt anything but hadnt realized it causes all sorts of animals to come to the road. Thank you so much for changing your actions, too, it really can make a difference! :)

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. 🪶

That is absolutely fantastic. Child you and child me would have gotten along!

So-so! The bees themselves are doing alright but its been a very slow year because we had a ton of rain but at exactly the wrong times and solid weeks of wildfire smoke from Canada making our air quality awful (and inescapable). So not bad but not an ideal year for them (or us!)

Scanning for yum-bats

Should have known better than to order the BORRZOIÅNGAD from IKEA, everything from there is like that

Sized and materials - the huge ones can be a bit heavy but the one I have is medium canvas type and never bothers me with weight. I have a fancier leather one from another company for 'dress' but its not significantly heavy either. My first one lasted til literally the threads disintegrated :)

I do, I cant carry a typical bag/purse/shoulder carry things because of neck/back issues. The hip/leg bags take the weight off those areas so are my daily go to. Theyre also really nice for travel (cant just be grabbed and taken) since multiple straps hold them on. There are a bunch of options for

It is! I adore it, its my second (the first finally disinterested after more than a decade of heavy use). Do you use one too?

Closeup of a baby king vulture looking down at the viewer

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

All of them were super sweet and quite mellow, excepting one bottle boy (mother rejected him so was no other choice) who was quite pushy/mischievous and still in the process of learning manners around people (typical bottle baby traits!). Super nice little animals, very affectionate!

1000% less ornery and difficult, for sure!

100%

Burrowing owl clean-up crew, hard at work.

Mbala may have plans for that!!

They're micro minis and are ridiculously, delightfully little!

A grey and white mini donkey walking towards the viewer

Closeup of a grey and white mini donkey

A man crouching near a very small black mini donkey

A very young black donkey foal pushing its nose into a hand

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

All four of ours were doing it at once this morning! :) I just couldn't get them all in 1 photo

Yes, exactly! Sunning spread out like this exposes the feathers to UV light, which helps cleanse them and also can kill hiding parasites like mites. It's instinctual, and many birds do it. It also can help warm them up and likely feels very good!

A burrowing owl sunning, laying down with its wings and tail spread

Two burrowing owls sunning, laying down with their wings and tail spread

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

An extreme closeup of a young king vulture face, its beak taking up most of the frame.

Baby!

They are my favorite little softbill! Bearded reedlings and long-tailed tits take the crown for roundest, most delightful little birds :)

If your day might benefit from the quiet zen of bearded reedlings incubating eggs, we have a nest cam running! Come join us at:
www.twitch.tv/thefoxloft

#birds #livestream 🪶

A male bearded reedling sitting in a grass nest hidden behind reedy green stalks

Three small eggs in a woven fiber cup nest

Dad on duty!
Our bearded reedlings laid their first eggs, which is super exciting!
Both male and female reedlings share incubation duties, but Okolo here seems to want the job most. He's almost always on the nest when I check. 🪶