It was past closing time at Humboldt Wildlife Care Center last Friday, approaching early evening, when our phone rang. Typically after hours we let the answering machine pick up our calls as we finish the late day feedings of our many patients.
[Currently we have 62 wild animals in care! Please help us help them, donate today!]
Staff could hear the message: a raptor, possibly a Peregrine Falcon, had come through a window and was now inside a house, in the living room. The caller said that the bird was bleeding and that they wanted to bring the bird to us right then.
All wildlife care providers learn that there is rarely a convenient time to stop working. Our decision to close the clinic at the end of the day isn’t because no animals are injured or found as orphans overnight. We simply don’t have the resources to maintain longer hours, and besides, our patients need a break from us. Captivity is a terrible stress for wild patients and the presence of us, human caregivers, is high on the list of the worst stressors. But a bleeding bird in need is a strong motivator to work a little late.
Birds fly into houses through windows all the time. Each year we go on dozens of calls to help free birds trapped inside, unable to find the window they came in through. Not so typical, though, is that the window they came through was closed.
About 15 minutes after the call we admitted an adult Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) who had flown through the glass.
An examination revealed a strong and healthy female, over a thousand grams in mass, with a laceration on the top of her head and a smaller cut on one of her toes.
Her first night in care she refused her food, or perhaps never even noticed it. Often highly stressed patients won’t eat. Her thawed quail remained untouched. Single-minded in her desire for escape, she struggled at every necessary handling. We closed the two wounds she’d gotten crashing through the window and moved her to an outside aviary in the hopes that her stress would be reduced once outdoors.
At this time of year, it is likely that she has young for whom she still provides. Having left the nest, her young fledglings are reliant on her as they struggle to learn to use the tools of their trade. It’s easy to imagine that her determination that her young thrive contributed to her collision with the window. She is on a mission.
Windows exact a terrible toll on wild birds. From skyscrapers to small cabins, the shocking indignity of the invisibility of glass kills as many as a billion birds in the United states each year. [For measures you can take to reduce bird collisions in your home, click here] At HWCC/bax, so far this year, of the 517 patients admitted, 19 have been birds who collided with a window. Of these 19, only 6 were able to be released. Skull fractures are the most common injuries, as well as irreparable damage done to shoulders and wings.
After 48 hours in care, we examined her again. Confident that her wounds would heal without further care from us, and concerned that her frustration with captivity could cause her further injury, we released her back where she was found.
A large and powerful Peregrine Falcon, the fastest vertebrate on Earth, leaping into the sky from the box you’ve just opened can be startling, even though you are well aware of what’s to come.
The great mystery that surrounds us, the wild universe that’s as far away as our own pulse of blood, as near as the most distant star, is also our home. We are that mystery, and this Falcon is our kin. Your support keeps our doors open and our phone on. Your support is the only thing that makes sure that we are here, to give a determined parent the second chance she needs, after a collision with the civilized world, to return to her own family, and resume her own mission.
Please. Help make sure we’ll always be here for our wild neighbors in need. Donate today. Thank you!
All photos: Laura Corsiglia/BAX
