September 2026 – Bird Ally X

“The youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or, perchance, a palace or temple on the earth, and, at length, the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them.” – Henry Thoreau

When I dreamed up bird ally x in the early spring of 2009 I meant something sly, something covert, something along the lines of Zorro, but leaving an X instead of a Z, as we avenged birds everywhere. If you look in the column to the right at the archives, you’ll see they go back to 2009, when our website was nothing but a blogspot.com thing I kept.

The dream of bird ally x was born in frustration, as many dreams are. Dissatisfaction drives so much. Be thankful for it. The place I worked was incredible in so many ways. When I was hired there it felt like getting called up to the big leagues and I was so young in the field! I’d had a job as a wildlife rehabilitator at that point for 2 years, after a year of being a volunteer. The big leagues was oil spill response and aquatic bird care. During that time, outside of oil spills, most of the birds we admitted for care came from other facilities closer to the coast who transferred them to us, the experts. Sometimes this meant a journey of hundreds of miles to get a bird like a loon or a grebe into treatment.

I wanted to share the skills. We needed to give our colleagues the benefits of our experiences, so that they could provide quality care also. As it turned out I had colleagues who shared that perspective. When Shannon Riggs DVM, Laura Corsiglia, Vann Masvidal, January Bill (at the time with OWCN) and Marie Travers and I, all of of us colleagues in oil spill response, seabird wrecks, harmful algal blooms and more, began working on a workshop to be called an Introduction to Aquatic Bird Rehabilitation, I saw that we had the crew of the good ship bird ally x already assembled. We had an after work meeting to continue working on our workshop plans one day, September 22, 2009. After we finished working, as we were saying goodbye, Laura and I said “hey, can you guys stay for a minute?” That was the day bird ally x became real.

It’s been 17 years since that day. We meant to build a powerful force in our profession that improved care for all wild patients, we meant to provide reference materials. We meant to advocate for the Wild with our entire being. Providing care for wildlife demands that you renounce your human privilege and think in terms of real freedom with nothing but complete love. This makes you poor company at many sorts of social events. But that’s not why we’ve been less than revolutionary. We’ve been mere people, schooled people, mediated people, nature deficit disordered people, since before any of us alive were born. The temerity of our desire to help the Wild, as members of the species who are the reason the Wild needs help, is astonishing. But we have no other choice. We are all Wallace Shawn (sorry, couldn’t find a link to his interview where explains his ability to be a traitor to his upper class origins.) So we persist. Against all odds we persist. Bird ally x has survived and thrived in 17 years. We haven’t redefined or revolutionized our field, but we’ve contributed. We’ve added significant data points that will reduce the amount of dead reckoning required by them who come after us. By our future selves. We exist.

Thank you for making that possible.

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Everywhere I’ve lived, East coast or West, SoCal or Seattle and all points between, there have been people outside of town who don’t want no revenuers coming by and when you ask them where they live they say some thing like “why do you need to know?” or, “about a half hour out of Garberville,” even if why you need to know is due to the fact they are bringing you a couple of nestling Acorn Woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus) who they say they found on the ground that morning, never mind that their feathers are damaged from captivity and that they already like being fed by people.

Such is the nature of working with people. It takes, as they say, all kinds.

Catching up the Woodpeckers for a routine examination

We can’t force people to give us critical information. We can’t force people to be honest about when or where they found a wild animal, or how long they’ve had an animal in their possession. We aren’t law enforcement. It would be better if people in general understood that our mission is to serve the patient, not drop a dime on whatever fiddle they’ve got going on. Regardless, without the information of where their lives began, we admitted the two young woodpeckers from one of Humboldt’s warmer drier regions and began their care.

Woodpeckers of all species are a delight to know. These two babies were no exception.

Weight checks are an important way to monitor a youngster’s development.

When they were first admitted both young birds were missing all the feathers on the top of their heads. Not the best look for them, but the time they’d need in care for developing and learning to eat on their own and to fly would be long enough that their head feathers would re-grow in time for release. One of the woodpeckers had an older leg fracture that was healing well.

Care for these two was mostly opening the hatch on their nest box where we housed them before they were flying, giving them mealworms and crickets, keeping their environment clean and monitoring their steady progress. They were terrific eaters.

After moving to the aviary when they began to fly, they were wiping out crickets like mad… if youre going to make some Acorn Woodpeckers, first thing is to start with an unimaginably large pile of insects.

As with all babies, success means a time comes when they must launch into their own lives. Fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly. since we knew that these birds had originated a “half hour out of Garberville” but we didn’t know which direction, we decided to release them in Tooby Park, a large mixed forest, field and riparian park below town. It was a warm Sunday morning among the oaks there when arrived, a striking contrast to the chilly gray Manila weather we’d left behind.

Removing the temporary plastic band that helps us tell one patient from another.

Out of the box and into the Oak tree, the source of all things Acorn.

The habitat was rich with bird life. Many varied songs could be hear throughout Tooby Park

While in care and during the car ride down to Garberville, the woodpeckers voices consistently reminded us of the sounds baby raccoons make. It leads one to wonder: Acorn, Racon? Just a coincidence?

Caring for these young Woodpeckers was a privilege, but it wasn’t without costs. This Summer has been very challenging, keeping insects on hand – between the high temperatures causing shipping problems for live insects, there were other shortages across the nation as well. Costs for bugs were nearly doubled this year, and our need for them was up. It was a tough Season and now we really need your help refilling the tank. We’re on empty.

The care we provide is on a shoestring budget. Thank you for helping us keep our doors open and mealworm bins full. Your support has already helped a thousand wild babies this year.

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Month: September 2026

Seventeen Years

Acorn Woodpeckers are Coming For Your Heart.