Bug Bites and Bobwhites

I am a senior studying animal science going into my last year at MSU. When I came to KBS, I had basically no knowledge or experience with exotic animals, much less birds, since animal science focuses largely on agriculture. As much as I enjoy my major, I’ve always wanted to branch out into wildlife and conservation, and this summer I finally got that chance. I enjoy animal care jobs and volunteered and then interned at a horse rescue, so this felt like an ideal opportunity to me, and I think it turned out perfectly.

I was so excited to get this internship but still a little nervous coming to KBS—surely I’d be homesick for my little decrepit college house in East Lansing. When I arrived that all went out the window. As the weather warmed up for summer, I warmed up to this completely new environment. I love been surrounded by people as passionate (and nerdy) about ecology as me, and KBS is in such a beautiful part of Michigan that I had never seen before. I went swimming for the first time in years, finally started reading the Lord of the Rings, and have randomly gotten into friendship bracelets—and that’s just what happens when I’m not at the Sanctuary!

Northern Bobwhite Quail Chicks

Every day, normally in the morning, we feed, water, and clean each of the bird groups—waterfowl, gamebirds, and raptors. After bird chores are over, anything can happen! We looked for Monarch caterpillars, weeded raptor pens, and sometimes worked with the other staff to put together projects like the storybook walk. This summer, we also brought our new Eastern Screech Owl, Little Professor, outside from where he’d been quarantining, and got six new Northern Bobwhite chicks!

In May, there were several field trips that I watched my mentor, Brenden, present to with Toby the Red-Tailed Hawk. Each time the kids were so excited when she came out onto the glove, and equally excited (or maybe disgusted?) when she pooped. I’m generally scared of accidentally running kids over, but I can definitely appreciate how important education and outreach are.

I also loved getting to know each of the birds’ personalities, especially when it was just me doing animal care on the weekends. Since they aren’t domesticated the way production animals are, there’s less petting and more admiring, but that makes it even more special. It’s easy to forget raptors are apex predators when Chestnut the Red-tailed Hawk is sunbathing or when Odin the Barred Owl is dangling from the ceiling like a bat, but I’ll always be awed that I get to care for such beautiful animals.

Towards the end of my internship, Brenden and I worked with Toby to get her on the glove on my arm. The beginning was a little rough and included some chicken dances and flapping around on both ends, but we figured it out and she was a perfect presentation bird!

To me, conservation is as important to wildlife as sustainability is to agriculture and animal production. I wish there would be a way to mesh that all together into one big major, but that would take about fifteen years and thousands of credits. For now, whether I end up with cows or geese, I will treasure my time at KBS forever.

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Eileen Chen is a rising senior at MSU, majoring in animal science with a minor in music (hopefully). She came to KBS with roughly no knowledge about birds, having spent last summer working at MSU’s dairy farm and was the 2025 Avian Care Intern! She is in MSU’s Dressage Club and plays tuba in the Spartan Marching Band, which takes up most of her free time during the fall. She loves all kinds of animals and has a soft spot for rodents because of her rescue guinea pigs, and likes finding weird produce to try with them! She is on the pre-veterinary track and hopes to work in shelter or rehabilitation medicine after college.