Major support for Oregon Field Guide is provided by... [ ♪♪♪ ] MAN: My rappel!

MAN: Oh, my gosh, it's beautiful.

MAN: Good morning, everybody.

Woo!

Let's do it again!

MAN: Nicely done!

MAN: Oh, yeah!

Fourteen and a half.

Yes, that was awesome!

[ people cheering ] There you go, up, up... ED JAHN: Next, on Oregon Field Guide: Altimeter... set.

These teenagers are flying-- solo-- before they're even old enough to drive.

Then, it's a moment of peace in Portland's tranquil Japanese Gardens.

But first, we take you behind the scenes in one very busy doctor's office.

I'm going to hand you this guy.

He's all done.

When we humans get hurt, we can just dial 911.

That's not so easy for a hawk or a coyote.

But if you're here in central Oregon, you've got a fighting chance.

Compared to most of us, Pauline Hice has an unusual job.

So we're feeding out some mealworms, some rodents, as well as a couple day-old chicks.

I've probably disemboweled about 2,000 rats or mice.

So I've gotten pretty good at it and pretty quick at it.

It's gross at first, but then once you see where it goes to, it's pretty cool, and it makes it worthwhile.

[ chuckles ] Pauline is fixing this specific morsel for a great horned owl, one of her patients at Think Wild, a nonprofit wild animal hospital and conservation center near Bend.

So the great horned owl was admitted five days ago and likely was hit by a car.

This owl did sustain very severe eye trauma which will likely require us to remove the eye at some point.

[ chirping softly ] A lot of times people think, "Well, they need their eyes.

How are they going to survive without them?"

But they've evolved to be able to hunt primarily with their ears.

So owls are the only raptor species that we can release even if they have one eye.

The owl is just one of probably two dozen raptors, rodents, and other wildlife Pauline is taking care of today.

Okay, great.

There's a red-tailed hawk, a morning dove, some raccoons, a Cooper's hawk, some skunks... [ Pauline laughing ] and a good number of the tiniest of the tiny.

Most of the orphaned birds that we get in are during this very sensitive stage of fledgling when they're learning how to fly but they can't really get up off the ground.

That makes them vulnerable to outdoor cats.

These baby birds are incredibly stressed.

They still interpret us potentially as a predator, and unfortunately in wildlife rehab, stress can be lethal to a lot of our patients.

[ phone rings ] Think Wild, this is Molly.

Of the approximately 2,000 calls Think Wild gets each year, about half of them can be handled over the phone.

The phone generally starts ringing around 8:02, so never a slow moment.

[ chuckles ] Hello.

Over the course of this day... You rescued a baby bird?

...Molly Honea will handle upwards of 30 calls.

How's he doing so far?

Amazing.

He's trying to get out of the box and... -Oh, good.

-He's like...

Trying to fly, yeah.

Okay, so he is alert and active.

Actually, we have a couple other baby blue jays in our care right now, so after 24 hours, once we make sure he's in good shape, then he can have some friends.

-Yay!

-Yay!

[ shrieking ] PAULINE: Initial exam showed no puncture wounds, but out of an abundance of caution, we did administer antibiotics because even the smallest puncture wound from a cat is lethal to baby birds.

So prognosis looks really good for this little scrub jay.

State regulations limit the kind of animals Think Wild can treat, but all their patients are native species.

And between 60 and 70 percent of those are birds.

We want to promote co-existence, and with Bend's growing population, the risk of human/wildlife conflict increases, and we are right at that interface, and we are the people that help respond to those.

By midday, the team is rounding up some very cute... [ high-pitched chittering ] and very noisy raccoons.

WOMAN: The majority of these are orphaned, so either kidnapped inappropriately, mom got hit by a car, something happened to mom.

Most of these guys are just healthy babies.

Do you want to practice some medical math?

Always.

Veterinarian Laura Acevedo is giving all these kits checkups.

So we'll sedate them, we'll do a physical exam on them, we'll get updated weights, we'll draw blood, and then we will give them their vaccines.

Working just part-time, Dr. Acevedo is Think Wild's only staff vet.

Wildlife and zoo animals have always been very exciting to me.

They're exciting to most people, but as a veterinarian, learning a new biological system and what medications each animal can or can't get, that just excited me a lot.

Along with hospital and rehab care, Think Wild's handful of staff can serve beaver habitat, lead summer camps, and manage volunteers.

PAULINE: All of our funding comes from private donations or grants, so we probably rely about 80 percent of all of our care on volunteer help.

LAURA: One kilogram, 717 grams.

All right, our first two are ready.

So we'll get a heart rate on both of those.

We'll just alternate flow-by.

I'll start with a physical.

If two people want to go in and poke the next two... All right.

Do you mind writing for the female that she has listed complete deciduous dentition.

You can just say "baby teeth."

Um, I'm going to hand you this guy.

He's all done.

All right, let's get a new towel, clean up for the next guys.

She's fine.

You're fine.

[ line rings ] MAN [ on phone ]: It's still alive, albeit I don't know how long.

I put it in the shade, hoping its mom would come back.

MOLLY: Will you take a photo and text it to me at this hotline number?

And then I will text you right back with the plan.

MAN: Okay, thanks, Molly.

Mm-hmm.

Bye.

Wildlife technician Taylor Dimmick evaluates the orphaned raccoon.

MOLLY: He's unable to walk or move.

Tries to lift his head when he approaches him, but not successfully.

Okay.

If he can bring it in, that's cool.

Okay, thank you.

With the orphaned raccoon on its way in, Taylor brings in the next patient.

-LAURA: Sleepy?

-TAYLOR: For her, yes.

This bird came in with a kind of mushroom-capped bullet in her left wing, and the plan is to take that bullet out today.

We're concerned about that lead leaching into the system.

You want to get started getting some monitoring on her?

[ beeping ] Can I get a 22?

And a 3 cc?

I'm worried that the bone has started to encapsulate it, in which case, I won't be able to get it out.

Just like anything, the body starts to develop scar tissue, it starts to kind of wall things off if it doesn't want it there.

So I'm either going to have to get through a big capsule of bone or a big capsule of tissue.

You can kind of see that there's some bone surrounding this bullet right here.

If I get in there and it requires breaking the bone to get it, I'm not going to do it.

[ gasps ] That's loose.

That'll pop out.

-Ooh!

-That'll pop out.

Exciting.

With the hawk now sedated... All right, can I get some of that bupivocaine?

...surgery gets under way.

I might be okay.

Okay.

WOMAN: Pretty big.

[ Laura sighs ] LAURA: That'll break a bone on impact.

Thankfully, it was superficial.

Super superficial.

I don't know if the body was trying to push it out or what, but, yeah, that was an ideal bullet removal.

All right, big girl.

We have some eyes opening.

Hey, sweet girl.

Hi!

All right, you can pull it.

Good girl.

Now that this is out, we're going to put her in a flight enclosure for two weeks, and if she's flying well, she can go.

That bit of very good news is balanced out by the arrival of the orphaned raccoon.

Well, I just walked out into the backyard, and there the little guy was, you know, lying on his side, breathing really fast.

And we didn't know what to do, so we... here we are.

TAYLOR: I'd say he has a pretty guarded prognosis.

A raccoon coming in that sad and depressed and sleepy, to me, he's probably pretty hurt.

But we will do our best.

WOMAN: Thank you so much!

-Thanks for helping him.

-Thank you for being here.

Yeah, we appreciate you.

He's still breathing, but he's...

He's in such bad shape that it's-- I don't-- he's not necessarily reactive at all.

MOLLY: Do you think we'll opt to euthanize or let nature take its course?

He's in such rough shape that I don't know if it's something that we could fix.

Right now, he's not stable enough for an exam.

Unfortunately, sometimes the waiting around is... is the hard part.

PAULINE: It's not always rainbows and sunshine.

I mean, there are winning moments, and we really try to focus on those.

But by the time a wild animal is admitted to our hospital, we are really their last chance, and sometimes bad things happen.

We tried our best, and at least that animal got one last chance at being able to survive, whereas otherwise it would've died out there.

A couple of weeks later, the red-tail hawk is ready for release back to where she was found.

-Just careful.

-Yeah, I got her.

Okay, ready?

One, two, three.

Come on, stinker.

Oh, come on!

Or maybe not?

It's funny, every other red-tail would just fly away.

She looks like she's still trying to pick a fight.

[ sucks teeth ] She's running like a chicken, but she can fly.

She's probably just so stressed that she's not right now.

WOMAN: Did she fly?

Oh, thank God!

LAURA: She's on her way, but on her own terms, apparently.

I'm glad she at least showed on camera that she can fly.

[ ♪♪♪ ] For a lot of folks, getting your driver's license for the first time is a major life milestone.

I met some teenagers in Hood River whose first license won't be to drive a car, though, it'll be to fly one of these.

This is Fox.

His favorite thing in the world is to fly gliders.

No promises.

This may not fly.

[ chuckles ] [ chuckles ] Oh!

So maybe Fox isn't so successful in flying his homemade gliders.

My final attempt.

It might fly a little better.

Slightly better.

But Fox hasn't invited us to Hood River just to watch him crash his homemade gliders in his backyard.

Fox flies real gliders over his larger backyard, the Columbia River Gorge.

Okay.

And today, he'll earn his wings by soloing for the first time.

Altimeter... set.

But I should probably mention Fox is only 15, not even old enough for his driver's license.

MAN: He's been flying here for over a year.

He's had many practice flights.

He's fully prepared.

So I'm going to go relax.

His mother over here is probably not...

I wouldn't say it's the most relaxed I've ever been, no.

[ laughs nervously ] [ indistinct chatter over radio ] Dive brakes and canopy is closed and locked, ready for takeoff.

MAN [ over radio ]: Front line to glider, get ready to take off.

FOX: Wind direction, calm.

Trim set.

The glider is towed by a plane higher and higher.

Fox watches his altimeter.

As he reaches about 3,000 feet above Hood River, the familiar landmarks of his house and high school and even the farm fields and orchards appear tiny, far below.

Fox checks to make sure he's in completely clear airspace.

He's clear.

I'm clear.

Fox pulls the release and disconnects the tow rope.

He banks the glider and is now truly flying on his own.

Because a glider has no engine, it is now essentially in a controlled fall, being pulled back to the earth by gravity.

What powers a glider?

One word: gravity.

However, when the sun hits the earth and it warms up the air, it gets less dense and it starts to rise.

That air, if it is rising faster than the glider's coming down, will actually have the glider rising significantly.

Pilots call rising air "lift," and the skies over Hood River have a lot of lift.

Besides the rising pockets of air known as thermals, there is ridge lift from the nearby ridge lines and a phenomenon called mountain wave.

The Cascade range being here, and especially Mount Hood and Mount Adams, when a substantial wind hits those, it skips up, often as high as 20-, 25,000 feet, and if they can catch it right, it looks like a vacuum cleaner taking them up.

I've had a flight once where I gained 5,000 feet, but that was just in 15 minutes.

And obviously I had to stop there, because I started getting worried about oxygen.

If he flies too high, there's no supplemental oxygen in the unpressurized cockpit.

But if he doesn't find lift, the glider will begin to fall.

And if he's not close enough to the airport, he'll have to make an emergency landing.

Bailing out isn't an option.

There's no parachute.

The only way Fox can stay in the air is to find another pocket of lift.

Birds, they're often looking for lift, too, so we often follow birds.

We imitate birds because we know that they can find a lot more lift than we can.

And there are some magical days where just the whole valley is lit up with lift.

Fox is part of the Hood River Soaring Club.

The youth program teaches students how to fly.

They start as ground crew and then graduate up to instructed flights.

And then, eventually, to take their first solo.

BRIAN: The ground crew is the youth.

But they're all in training.

They're doing the glider launches of all their comrades here and flying.

The students can start as young as 12, and the older ones are just 15 and 16.

Today, Anastasia and Johnathan are helping out as the ground crew.

Sharing an interest with gliding, flying gliders, and being in the group of kids at the same time, it's just...

I don't know, I find it really fun.

You just, you gotta remember a lot of things.

It teaches you responsibility, I think.

Air is going to be warmer than the surrounding air.

So this is what you call conditionally unstable air.

The students learn one-on-one from experienced pilots.

Many of the mentors have had long careers in aviation and are now passing down their knowledge.

If it's pointed this way and you put on the brake, it's going to go this way.

-ANASTASIA: All right.

-Okay?

Flying is not inexpensive and would be inaccessible for a lot of kids, like Fox.

When somebody mentioned to me the club, I said, "I can't afford to send my child to glider club."

FOX: My dad died when I was young.

My mom's a single parent.

But sometimes she'll work extra shifts to help me fly.

ERIN: So some days, it's kind of like the sacrifice of, "I'm going to be going to work at the hospital for an extra shift, but that's going to get you X amount of glider rides."

Okay, you ready?

-I am ready.

-Okay.

I'll work.

I'll try to apply for scholarships, and I'll do yard work, like mow lawns and stuff.

ERIN: He's always been smart and interested in the world around him, always open to learning new things.

It's part of his education, and so if I work a little harder, it's worth it.

FOX: Okay, turning final... ERIN: Happy to see him coming down for a safe landing.

As Fox approaches for his landing, his mom has brought something special for him to commemorate his first solo.

This, it's a watch that was his dad's, so I've been saving it for today to give it to him after his first solo flight.

The winds that make Hood River famous make it an especially challenging place to land a glider, and touching down on the runway may be the most critical test of Fox's preparation.

FOX: There's almost always a crosswind in Hood River.

If you come in straight down the runway, you-- the wind will just blow you off.

So they have to aim a different direction than they're moving in order to get to the runway.

GEOFF: Looked good to us, Fox.

FOX: Thanks.

ERIN: How did it feel?

Good.

I was shaking a little.

Yeah?

Safely on the ground now, there is one more tradition of a student's first solo.

GEOFF: Tail of the shirt.

Now you know what goes back probably to the Wright brothers or something like that, I don't know.

Whenever there's a first solo, the shirt tail comes off.

There you go.

ERIN: This was your dad's watch.

Oh, cool.

Yeah.

I've held onto it for a long time, and I think if he could've seen you today, he would've been very amazed... -Uh-huh.

-...at what you've accomplished.

Thank you.

This is amazing.

Thank you.

[ both laugh softly ] I'm glad you're back on the ground, though.

Fox plans to continue his training and eventually become a professional pilot.

It has made me mature.

It gave me, it feels like, almost a purpose.

I'll never stop flying gliders.

I will move on to getting a power plane license, but it's not the same as gliding.

And so, yeah, I'll always keep gliding.

[ ♪♪♪ ] [ water burbling softly ] [ ♪♪♪ ] You can now find many Oregon Field Guide stories and episodes online.

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