Orphaned Raccoons Re-Enter the Real.

Posted on October 9, 2016October 9, 2016 by Monte Merrick

From admission as small 160 gram babies with their eyes still closed, to fierce and hefty predators weighing in at over 3 kilograms (metric converter) is a long process. The orphaned raccoons that we admit at Humboldt Wildlife Care Center are in care for four months or longer, while they develop, grow, and learn the skills they’ll need for their wild and free lives

As the Fall season swings into high gear, we’ve begun the process of weekly checks to determine who might be ready for release. Last week we did our first round. (Be sure to check out the photos and scroll to the end for video!)

[check out this story from last year’s raccoon release – awesome video of a young female catching a fish her fist time in the river!]

Orphaned raccoons in care learn that fish is found in the water, that bugs are found in the dirt, that fruit is found in trees, and that eggs are found in nests – all things they would have learned from their mother.

Next comes the real river!

It’s healthy to approach new things with caution! A young raccoon takes her time leaving the crate. The wild is much bigger than any of us dream.

The gravel floor of our raccoon housing is made of river bed, just like this river’s bed. Everything is made of the wild.

[We have plenty of expenses from our busy summer season still to be paid. Please help! We need to raise $7000 this month to stay in the black. Your love for the wild and your generous support makes our work possible. Click here to donate now.]

After exploring independently, these two meet up in the river to compare notes.

Off they go, into their real destiny.

Here is a five minute video of the release:

There is a kind of intelligence that can be easily found in our universe. A striped tail intelligence, curious, adventurous, playful – an intelligence that connects rivers with constellations and finds morsels under any leaf – a furred, masked, happy intelligence that knows what to do with a mushroom or an egg – a four-handed intelligence that sings water’s praises and wants nothing but freedom and a safe place to nurse her young. Any Raccoon is the living embodiment of this intelligence a generous and congenial way to navigate all that the real offers. When we consider all points of view, all perspectives, when we make decisions, when we plan our lives, we are foolish to ignore this wisdom. We are lucky to share this world with an intelligence like Raccoon.

Your support makes our work possible. Please help. Donate what you can, every little bit helps.

All photos: BAX/Laura Corsiglia – video: Lucinda Adamson/BAX

Bald Eagle, Lead Poisoning, and the legacy of Industrial Civilization.

Posted on October 2, 2016October 18, 2016 by Monte Merrick

On a late Friday afternoon at the end of March, our wildlife clinic in Bayside, Humboldt Wildlife Care Center, got a call about a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus). Some folks who live in a remote part of Humboldt, near the Lost Coast, had seen him (since he was on on the small side for an adult eagle we presumed male) sitting all day on a river bar. Their dog had even approached and the typically fierce bird was only able to fly to a low nearby perch. They called in their dog, and then they called us.

The next morning staff made the trip to the site on the Bear River. The eagle was still there.

[Your support makes our work possible! Help us meet our October goal of $7000. Click here to make a contribution today!]

After a relatively easy capture and the long drive back, upon examination we realized that we had a very sick bird in our care. Lethargic, now unable to stand, and very weak, we initially suspected an all-too-common killer of raptors across the state: rodenticide.

Transporting back to our clinic, even in poor health the eagle is a wary observer.

It’s not a bad guess. According to a study conducted by colleagues in Marin County at WildCare, well over 70% of the wildlife from across the San Francisco Bay Area tests positive for exposure to anti-coagulant rodenticides. Although some sales of over-the-counter rodenticide were banned recently, these poisons still make it into the wild and their legacy will be with us for a long time.

Although this eagle has likely been exposed to rodenticide, that wasn’t his problem. After a few days in care, we observed that his feces was a dark, fluorescent green. This nearly always indicates another toxin that is also a major threat to wild animals: lead poisoning. In 2006, over 50% of the sick eagles brought in to care in Iowa suffered from lead poisoning.¹

A sick patient needs nutrition. We make sure they get it.

A trip to the veterinarian for radiographs and blood tests confirmed our suspicions. A pellet lodge in his throat and high levels of lead in his blood. We immediately started the eagle on medication that binds with the toxic metal and removes it from the blood stream. We believe that the pellet was ingested rather than the result of being shot, since it was passed after a short time.

A hunter using lead ammunition shoots an animal, who evades capture, carrying the lead ammo in her body, and dies elsewhere, only to be found by a scavenger, such as an eagle. When a scavenger eats the dead body the toxin kills another, unless someone intervenes.

Lead-based ammunition has been banned in the US for hunting waterfowl (ducks, geese, etc) since 1991.² California recently began to phase out all lead ammunition because of its role in secondary wildlife deaths, but a complete ban does not go into effect until 2019.

These feet are formidable! We take precautions with all patients, no matter how sick.

Our patient is at his worst. Fortunately he began to recover within a few days after getting the right medication.

Our patient was very ill. For the first few days of treatment we were unsure if he would survive one day to the next. On top of his lead poisoning, the eagle suffered an upper respiratory infection. We gave him antibiotics along with his other medicine. We provided warmth. We provided safety. The eagle provided the will to live and the strength to endure. After five days in care he began to eat.

Often, although not always, the mark of a corner turned is the return of an appetite. His prognosis went from ‘guarded’ to ‘cautiously optimistic’.

After a few weeks, each course of medicine completed, we entered the long phase of recovery. Emaciated on admission, his weight had been rising slowly and steadily. Still very thin, and still relatively weak, we were able to move the eagle to outdoor housing, where he could perch, eat and begin to recover his strength in much greater privacy. Stress is a serious health risk to all patients, but especially for wild ones, who not only must contend with captivity but also the daily presence of caregivers who they regard as threats to their very lives.

A mighty eagle reduced to hiding in the aviary’s bushes might seem sad, but to staff, this is a photo of sure recovery.

Slow progress is still progress. It’s an important part of rehabilitation. We watch closely, from afar. Any sign of imporvement is noted. Stasis, or worse, decline, is also noted. If the patient is improving, we proceed. If not, we consider changines to the treatment plan. If we have a songbird who’d been hit by a car that can’t stand or move her legs? well, if each day she exhibits signs of sensation returning, we are given hope that recovery is possible. It seems obvious, but it’s not. We train to make observations. We learn a language of care that allows us to note small, incremental improvements precisely. Exactitude in our work saves lives.

Our patient had been in care for over two months before he was able to mount this perch!

Slowly, our eagle patient became more alert. Small things let us know that a full recovery was likely, like following our movement when we brought food into his aviary, or the vigor with which he stepped up to his perch. In time we added higher perching, so that he’d have to jump. And then higher still, so that he’d have to fly. And we fed him everyday. For six months his slow gains mounted until at last, he was recovered. His respiratory infection had cleared. He was flying with strength across his his housing. His blood work was excellent. Six months nearly to the day from his rescue, we took him back to a ridge above the river where he’d been found, near death.

This eagle got lucky. It’s no accident that he was injured. Industrial society has set traps as insidious as lead ammunition for a couple hundred years, at least. People need nature to live, yet our industries find Mother Earth and all her children to be either a source of capital, or an obstacle. Think of how coal mining jargon refers to the tops of mountains, the forests, the wild neighbors who call them home, as “overburden.” And even should we stop the machineries of death, the legacy of industry will linger in our environment, our home, for centuries to come – killing, injuring, displacing.

No, his poisoning was no accident – the accident, the twist of fate, is that he was found by caring, compassionate people who took steps to see that he got the treatment he deserved. And hopefully, we and our children and our grandchildren will always be there, ready to help those who we and our ancestors have harmed with our short-sighted schemes that have left perennial threats.

Every patient we admit is treated with dignity, no matter the species, no matter the injury. Every patient whose care we commit to is given the best we can give – whether a Bald Eagle or a Pacific Wren – a Mallard or a Gray Fox. And the care we are able to provide is directly the result of the support that you provide. Thank you for making it possible for us to help this Bald Eagle, and all of our patients, recover from the injuries our industrial society cause, and get the second chance that they deserve.

His ability to burst into flight like this took months to recover: this was a happy day!

The following photos are the sequence of his release!
Staff rehabilitator, Lucinda Adamson opens the carrier.

Released back to his home! A powerful bird, restored. At the bottom of this valley is the river where he was found.

Your support makes our work possible. We operate on the slimmest of margins, in a constant struggle to provide quality care. Want to help? Please donate today! Thank you!

All photos Bird Ally X/ Laura Corsiglia

Bird Ally X Celebrates Seventh Anniversary!

Posted on October 1, 2016October 2, 2016 by Monte Merrick

Seven years ago, six wildlife rehabilitators*, friends and colleagues, began meeting to develop a workshop on aquatic bird care geared toward other rehabilitators. Each had worked extensively with aquatic birds, including providing care for large numbers at once during catastrophic events such as oil spills, harmful algal blooms, and disease outbreaks, such as avian botulism, that can be driven by environmental conditions like drought.

As one of the six, I can tell you that our primary motivation was to help make certain that hard-won knowledge didn’t end with specialization – that life-saving knowledge spread through our profession.

Across our state, our region, our continent and the world, wildlife rehabilitators work, often alone, with whatever species winds up on their doorstep. Knowledge of aquatic bird care at that time was mostly centralized, in the hands of experts – experts who had learned at the cost of many lost wild lives, experts who had access to money provided by oil companies legally bound to pay for damages (wildlife casualties) they’d caused.

We knew first-hand that many rehabilitators didn’t have the experience or the education to provide quality care for aquatic birds. Often rehabilitators sought help, advice and instruction – mostly they were encouraged to transfer their patients to expert with the knowledge, and even more importantly, the facilities to treat these patients with such unique needs.

It wasn’t long before we realized that our goal was much larger than a workshop could accomplish. Even seven years ago, it was easy to see that our future was quite rocky. Climate disruption, conflict with the oil empire, rising disparity in wealth – our world was clearly in turmoil.

It seems easy to imagine that funding for aquatic bird rehabilitation might evaporate, especially as coastal cities would be forced to divert resources toward infrastructure to cope with rising seas, as well as other consequences of our industrial age. In short, if whole oceans are dying, who will pay for the rehabilitation of marine animals such as Common Murres or Brown Pelicans.

On September 22, 2009, Bird Ally X was conceived in turmoil and hatched as a remedy.

Bird Ally X delivered our first workshop in 2010, An Introduction to Aquatic Bird Rehabilitation. Initially, workshop attendees were given a 50-page booklet as part of the course. By 2012, that booklet had been expanded to become our currently available book also titled, An Introduction to Aquatic Bird Rehabilitation. We’ve now delivered the workshop to hundred of rehabilitators around the country. Over the last seven years we’ve produced additional classes and workshops on different components of aquatic bird care, as well as focusing on different species of aquatic birds and their particular needs in care. We’ve developed workshops on the ethics of wildlife rehabilitation, on housing for wild patients, as well as being effective at helping people over the phone resolve perceived conflicts with their wild neighbors peacefully. We’ve produced materials for co-existing with aquatic birds and other wildlife for Federal and State agencies as well as our general community.

Many of our co-founders have served and still do as volunteer board members for state and national professional rehabilitation associations. Being able to work with our colleagues around the state and country to improve wildlife care as well as provide information that rehabilitators need and seek is an important part of our mission.

During this time, we have continued in our daily work of wildlife rehabilitation, either as staff at other organizations, on emergency response efforts around the continent, as well as producing educational and advocacy materials for collaborative efforts with other organizations and government agencies.

In 2014, Bird Ally X launched an online petition aimed at the United States Department of Agriculture’s highly controversial Wildlife Services, a shadowy, unaccountable program that is a sort of secret police against wild animals. The petition received over 175,000 signatures!

However five years ago we added to our mission in a significant way.

In 2011, with 3 of 6 co-founders living in Humboldt County, we were tipped off that young Brown Pelicans were sighted, contaminated, soaking wet and struggling at the public boat launch in Crescent City, about 90 miles north of Humboldt Bay. we investigated and discovered that not only were there young Pelicans in trouble in Crescent city, but all along the North Cast from Shelter Cove into Oregon. Since it was late in the fishing season, the problem soon ended for the year, but not before we’d rescued, cleaned and rehabilitated over 50 Pelicans who’d been contaminated by fish waste.

Fish waste going directly into the ocean at the public boat launch in Shelter Cove, California. Brown Pelicans and other birds were contaminated directly by this unorthodox waste disposal.

In order to meet that challenge, Bird Ally X partnered with the local wildlife care center, who we’d been assisting in small ways for years. With the facility they had in Bayside, we built the necessary infrastructure to take care of aquatic birds in Humboldt County – allowing for the first time in HWCC history for injured aquatic birds to remain in the region to receive care! That partnership led to BAX assuming HWCC as part of our organization, as of 2013. Now HWCC is the largest single aspect of our efforts. We treat over 1200 wild patients each year, and work every day of the year to provide humane conflict resolution for thousands of other neighbors human and wild.

Now, after seven years, we are still seeking new avenues to reach our colleagues and our community to improve the lives and care for injured and orphaned wild animals, to partner with other organizations so that we can prevent injuries in the first place (an ounce of prevention!!). Our work is far from complete. With the addition of HWCC to our organization we have a working lab for developing affordable and achievable techniques and solutions to the problems of shoestring-budget wildlife rehabilitation. We have an internship program that allows us to train the next generation of wildlife rehabilitators.

We have an education program that brings a message of humane co-existence to classrooms and organizations across our diverse community.

And most importantly, we have the capacity to provide care and save wild lives. As we continue to grapple with the dictates of our work and strategize the future of our efforts, I’d like to close this retrospective with the most important part of the last seven years – the support we’ve received and the wild neighbors we’ve helped!

Want to help? Great! We need your support! Click here to Donate Now!

*the six are – Shannon Riggs, DVM; January Bill; Vann Masvidal; Marie Travers; Laura Corsiglia; Monte Merrick

All images belong to Bird Ally X, thanks!

Much maligned, but so refined, an elegant Skunk is released.

Posted on September 18, 2016September 18, 2016 by Monte Merrick

Nearly three weeks ago we admitted a patient for care, a juvenile, very thin, suffering from parasites, and barely able to stand. At this time of year, struggling young wild mammals are a relatively common patient for us. Youngsters run into trouble, on their own, and once weakened, succumb to all sorts of perils. Internal parasites, dogs and cats are life threatening to a youngster, and if you happen to be one of the most unloved and misunderstood animals who commonly live near the world of industrial civilization, people can be the biggest threat you’ll face – which is why this young Striped Skunk (Mephitis mephitis) was very lucky that he stumbled into the backyard of someone who took pity on him instead of freaking out.

Freaking out when seeing a skunk is pretty common. Of course, skunks are relatively harmless. While they may suffer from rabies, though it’s not common, their only real threat is their ability to leave a lingering pungent aroma that most of Mother Earth’s children find unpleasant. Consider that the next time you pass the lingering odor of skunk dead on the side of the highway who’s only crime was trying cross the road, and who’s only defense against a thundering automobile was his unique musky spray.

Those who keep chickens, of course, need to provide their animals with a safe enclosure that keeps out all predators, if they wish them to not be eaten. Most wild animals are drawn to human households by food, water or, in the right season, an attractive den site. It is as much our responsibility to keep our wild neighbors safe from conflict with us as it is to keep our livestock, pets and property safe from damage caused by nature that is only doing what needs to be done for survival.

This young skunk needed only anti-parasitical medicine and safe place to eat a natural diet and regain his body mass. After a few days he was stable enough to be housed outdoors. After a few weeks, he was fit and ready to return to his free and wild life. We released him into the same area he was found. As you can see in the following phone pics, he made short work of dashing for cover…

And then he was gone….

Your support makes our work providing care for our wild neighbors who’ve become orphaned or injured due to our built world possible! Without you, neither this skunk, nor the other 15 skunks we’ve treated in 2016, nor the other 900 wild animals, as well as the thousands of wild animals we’ve helped by counseling people in the middle of a conflict with the principles of humane co-existence with the wild animals and Mother Earth, would have gotten the help they needed and deserved. Thank YOU!!!

We are still $5000 dollars away from our critical goal of $7000 raised for the month of September. You can help us reach it by donating today!

Sustaining Members Sustain Us!

Posted on September 16, 2016September 17, 2016 by Monte Merrick

Some seasons are busier than others. Spring and Summer are filled with orphaned wild babies, displaced nests, denning mothers and an endless string of conflicts to resolve that arise when Mother Earth needs to grow, renew, give birth, regenerate in the midst of industrial society’s desire to confine, contain, and contract the natural world. In Fall and Winter we admit wintering seabirds who struggle in occasional storms on our coast where dwindling fish make resources more scarce. We treat far more injured adult wild animals, many hit by cars as the shortening day brings rush hour traffic into the nighttime world. In large measure, Fall and Winter is our time to repair and improve to our facility, Humboldt Wildlife Care Center. But no matter the season, we are here each day, and each day is filled with many of the same tasks.

Every morning we have a blinking phone to greet us: messages from overnight and the early hours of the day: a sparrow caught by a cat, a skunk getting into trash and spraying the caller’s dog, some kind of bird stranded on the beach, another person saw a bear in an orchard and wonders if he should call a trapper. And we have our patients who need breakfast, morning medicines, their hospital housing cleaned. Pools need daily maintenance. Laundry. Dishes. And more cleaning.

It takes a lot to provide direct care for over 1200 wild patients each year. It takes a lot to help thousands of people each year chose to resolve a conflict with a wild animal peacefully, without bloodshed.

And frankly, we do this in a world that, as you may have already noticed, races forward in the destruction of the wild. So we also have to work at slowing them down. That’s why we help educate our children, our community, our community leaders on how to co-exist with the wild. Our Wildlife Ambassador team makes hundreds of visits each year to schools, clubs and community centers each year to help teach the importance of our wild neighbors and how we all can help make the world safer for all wild animals. We have to follow the killing of wolves. We have to help ban the trapping of Bobcat. We have to work to ensure that our state protects endangered species, such as the Tri-colored Blackbird, or the Spotted Owl.

It takes a lot to keep our work going.

That’s why we are seeking Sustaining Members. Sustaining members are exactly like anyone who supports our work financially. Except you help us every month. Our Sustaining Members, some give $5 a month, others give $250, form the core of our contributors. Your donation each month not only provides money to accomplish our mission, your contribution also shows your commitment to our success, and the success of our wild neighbors. Seeing your name pop up every month is an invaluable encouragement! And your contribution really adds up! For our regular membership (thank you, everyone who has ever donated!) we ask $25 per year. If you signed up for $5 a month, that’s $60 a year! Because we operate on a shoestring, we know how much difference that $35 difference makes!

$60 feeds the orphaned fawns in our care for five days! Your $5 each month will keep our lifesaving phone service on for one month every year! If you become a Sustaining Member who gives $10 each month you will provide 100 pounds of fish! 100 pounds will feed a recovering Brown Pelican for 20 days. $20 each month will cover the gasoline for 12 trips to Crescent City or Laytonville or Weaverville to transport an orphaned or injured wild animal. Want to bowl us over? A monthly gift of $1000 will cover the cost of our tenancy at Jacoby Creek Land Trust!

What will you receive in return? Well, the most important thing that you receive is the satisfaction of playing a critical role in our lifesaving work. In addition, we do currently have canvas tote bags that were embroidered with the Bird Ally X logo by Betty Travers, our treasurer and co-founder, Marie Travers’ mom. We can send one out to the first ten Sustaining Members who request one at the time of donation. Also, Sustaining Members will receive a special email update on one patient each month with a photo of the patient during the course of treatment or at release.

[So, how do you sign up? Easy! Just click on our Donate Now link and when you make your contribution, check the box that says to make it monthly!]

We often ask for your support. Without it we can’t exist. And we often say that all donations are important no matter the size. Well, it’s true. Think of every bird you’ve ever seen. Without receiving a small bit of sustenance on a very regular basis, that Sparrow or Thrush, Eagle or Crow would have never flown.

Thank you for keeping us in the air.

Big Release Day!

Posted on September 3, 2016September 3, 2016 by Monte Merrick

This holiday weekend got off to a great start; filled with the best outcome for our work- multiple releases!

Friday we released 11 of our patients back to their free and wild lives after recovering from being orphaned or injured.

Four Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) juveniles were released. These birds were siblings whose nest was illegally removed by a maintenance person at the request of the homeowner. It’s a crime to remove a migratory songbird’s nest. Most migratory birds are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Sadly, this nest was the second one for this Barn Swallow pair to be destroyed this summer by the same person! Both sets of babies were brought to us to be raised. Of course we explained the law, so hopefully next summer, if the parent birds return to the same location, they might have a chance to raise their own babies!

Also released was a Great Egret (Ardea alba) who’d been found in a ditch, covered in mud and very thin. After a two weeks of care, this bird was doing very well, using our aviary for built specifically for herons and egrets, as well as dabbling ducks. Check out the video of the heron’s release:

A few days ago we admitted for care both a Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) and a Virginia Rail (Rallus limicola) who’d collided with windows.

Window strikes can be deadly, especially for a larger bird like a woodpecker, who’s mass increases the force of the impact. There are several things you can do to minimize the risk of a bird colliding with your windows, including stickers, sprays, objects or anything that can make the window either visible or inaccessible. You can go to Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s website for more ideas on making your windows less dangerous.

Fortunately, both the Woodpecker and the Rail were only disoriented and stunned by their collisions. Only a few days in care were required before they were released. Here’s a video of the Woodpecker:

We also released two Western Gulls (Larus occidentalis) One, an adult, was found unable to fly in a backyard in the community of King Salmon on the edge of Humboldt Bay. She’d been there for a few days, eating chicken scratch. Weak and very thin, the bird was enthusiastic about the fish diet we served. After several days in care she was flying in our gull aviary. After 3 weeks she was ready for freedom!

We met our August goal of $7000! Thank you!! Our goal for September is to build on that, pay summer bills and prepare for winter. You can help! Please click here to DONATE NOW! Thank you!

Released with the adult was a juvenile gull who we admitted several weeks ago. His parents had the misfortune of nesting on the deck of a sail boat in the San Francisco Bay area. When the boat sailed for Humboldt midsummer, they brought this baby with them. Since therew as obviously no way to get himback to his parents, we provided fish and safe housing. Once he was ready to fly we moved him into the aviary with the adult. Both were released on the same day, together.

Here’s a fuzzy video that does at least show their excitement upon release from captivity.

And that’s not all! We also released a California King Snake (Lampropeltis getula californiae) and the last Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) in care from our summer ducklings.

The King Snake had been wrongfully held captive. He only needed time to prove that he knew what his natural food should be and that he was acclimated to life outdoors.

As a late season baby, the Mallard duckling had been alone for a few weeks in care. But released, she was soon in the comapny of her kind at the Arcata marsh, where food is plentiful and the chance to socialize and prepare for winter as a proper Mallard will finish her education.

Each of these wild neighbors would have died without your support. Each of them received the best care we could provide at the only available wildlife clinic on the North coast. Thanks to your generosity and your love for the wild, we are here every single day of the year. If you’d like to help us meet the challenge of our mission, donate today! Thank you!!

Last chance to help pay our August bills

Posted on August 31, 2016August 31, 2016 by Monte Merrick

Right now we are $1800 short of our August expenses. We need to raise $7000 dollars this month. Reaching this goal is critical to the success of our mission. Can you help? $1800 will cover our rent and water bill, our electric bill and our part of our fish bill. Long term, of course we’ll need more, but right now, $1800 will go a long way toward keeping our mission on track! Help us continue to provide care and advocacy for our wild neighbors on the Redwood Coast! Please help, you’re all we’ve got! Thank you!!!

CLICK HERE TO DONATE NOW! THANKS

Letting Nature Take ‘Its’ Course.

Posted on August 29, 2016September 20, 2016 by Monte Merrick

It’s a common expression: let nature takes its course – and we learn it while we ‘re young. It can be used in many ways, but in the end, what it always means is that the best outcome can be achieved by doing nothing – that left alone, the inevitable outcome is the preferred outcome.

As wildlife rehabilitators, we hear this expression every day.

Two months ago, a man called from somewhere out Highway 36 – he’d found a fawn by the side of the road with a dead doe, presumably the fawn’s mother, most likely hit by a vehicle. The caller had already talked to a local government agent to find help. “The ranger said it would be better to let nature take it’s course,” he said, “but I couldn’t just leave the little guy there. Will you take him?”

Of course we would. And we did.

The fawn is doing well, is now being weaned from a bottle to foraging for greens, in the company of other fawns, untamed. If all continues to go well, he will soon be released back into a wild herd.

Two weeks ago we released an Osprey who’d been hit by a vehicle and picked up from the shoulder of a two-lane blacktop that skirts the western edge of Lassen National Park. The woman who found the bird talked to an employee at a park information booth who told her the best thing she could do was put the grounded bird back and, yes, let nature take its course. She said she couldn’t do that, so the employee found her a box and gave her a phone number for a veterinarian in Redding. When she got to Redding, the veterinary clinic wasn’t open (nor were they permitted to treat wildlife).

So she found us on the internet. Since she was already headed to the coast she was able to bring the Osprey to our clinic. It took all day, but eventually we had the bird in care. While in relatively good shape with no external injuries, the Osprey was slow to respond, seeming dazed. Within a couple days, however, in the safety of our clinic, the plunge-diving raptor regained his wits and was flying well and in a very dissatisfied mood.

As soon as he was ready, our staff took him on the 5 hour drive back to Lassen, back to his lake next to the volcano. He needed nothing more than some time in care – a safe haven where food and safety are provided.

If you put the Osprey back on the side of the road and “let nature take its course” – disoriented and grounded by his collision with a vehicle – it’s predictable that the Osprey will die. With no treatment, who knows how long it will take for him to recover his wits, if ever – and with no food or water, his slow decline gathers momentum until he’s too weak to seek shelter, let alone regain his ability to meet his own needs. Another car, another predator, or a slow death by dehydration is as certain as night follows day.

If you provide care – hydration, food, anti-inflammatory medicine, a safe aviary, reduced stress – and let Nature take her course – the bird stands a very good chance of healing and getting a second chance.

Do all of the animals who we treat recover? Of course not. Many animals do not respond to treatment – the antibiotics are too late to prevent the death of a Barn Swallow bitten by a house cat, the neurological trauma that leaves the Raven with paralyzed legs doesn’t resolve. More often, the patient’s injuries are simply too severe. The only course we can take is to humanely end the suffering. Any hunter can tell you that you don’t let an animal wander off to a slow death from the wounds that you’ve caused. You don’t gut-shoot a deer and then “let nature take its course.” Wild animals who’ve been injured by the human-built world at least have the right to a humane death.

The person in uniform, or the biologist, or the front desk clerk, who recommends letting nature take its course may not be able to diagnose the injury, may not be aware that treatment is available, may not be informed at all on this topic. Often the person functioning as the authority is merely parroting a worn phrase we all know so well.

‘Let nature take its course’ is not a fact-based recommendation, it is not science based. Now of course there are many ways to use this phrase in many situations, but to be clear, when we’re talking about injured and orphaned wild animals, letting nature take its course means not taking responsibility for the injury and suffering our society has caused. It is irresponsible even though it parades as the dispassionate, wider-scoped perspective, not the uneducated sentimental feelings of compassion. And in this way, Nature is made out to be the culprit – Nature is cruel, and the compassionate person is a fool. A logging truck full of trees hits a deer and kills her, leaving her young stranded – too small to survive. The local ranger says the fawn should be left alone, that we should let nature take its course, and it is Nature who is cruel.

Meanwhile, who destroys Nature foolishly? Is it the person who blunders in picking up a fledgling sparrow thinking that the bird was in trouble and not simply in an awkward phase of learning to fly? Or a bison calf? Or, is it the builders of pipelines, the levelers of forests, the polluters of the sea? Why is it only fitting for nature to take its course when an individual is suffering an injury caused by industrial society?

And there is this: the heavy line drawn between the human and the natural, between society and the wild is religious, not scientific. It is a belief, not a finding. Who among us has the hubris to say where that line runs, or if it exists at all.

In the end, ‘letting nature take its course’ is a fallacy, an error, a hypocrisy, a lie.

Right now, in Washington state, wolves are slated to be slaughtered for having killed cattle that were put out to graze at the wolves’ den site on public lands. No cries from the biologists, the wardens, or the clerks now to let nature take its course – no cries at all.

We are in the last days of our August fundraiser and we have not yet reached our necessary goal of $7000. We have nearly $2000 to go!! Click here to help us pay our bills and continue to provide our region with its only native wildlife hospital. Without your help, we wouldn’t be here! Thank you!

Thank You!

Posted on August 25, 2016August 25, 2016 by Monte Merrick

Thank you! Response to our appeal has been really encouraging! Supporters, friends, and colleagues have brought us to within $2000 of our goal this month! From as far away as Halifax, Nova Scotia, from all across California, and the country, we’ve received nearly $3500 over the last week that will go directly to the care of our wild patients! In the same span of time we’ve admitted raccoon, seabirds, songbirds and other orphaned and injured wild neighbors. Your support will ensure that they are given the best care we can provide. Thank you!

And if you’d like to help, we still have 6 days to make our goal of $7000!

Please help if you can!

CODE RED – We Need Your Support!

Posted on August 19, 2016August 19, 2016 by Monte Merrick

Dear Supporters of Bird Ally X and Humboldt Wildlife Care Center,

Because I write most of the material that BAX and HWCC publishes on our website, social media, and mailings, it’s likely that if you have responded to one of our appeals for support in the last five years, I wrote that appeal. However, it isn’t often that I write in first person singular. In a departure from the usual, I’d like to talk to you directly, as the person largely responsible for the day to day operation of HWCC and a co-founder of BAX. And what I want to talk to you about is money.

[URGENT APPEAL – OUR FUNDS ARE DWINDLING BUT OUR WORK IS NOT!]

Raising money isn’t my background. I am a wildlife rehabilitator and poet (don’t worry – none of this will be in rhymed couplets), not a salesperson, not a lobbyist, not a fundraiser. That however doesn’t absolve me from the responsibility to ensure that our clinic has the resources we need to meet our mission. I worked with the rest of BAX’s co-founders on our mission statement, and it’s a mission that we take very seriously:

Bird Ally X is a collective of wildlife care-providers committed to raising the standard of care available for sick or injured aquatic birds and all wildlife. Bird Ally X works to help wild birds and all wildlife in their efforts to survive the hazards of civilization through:

the direct action of caring for wild animals in distress

supporting other rehabilitation groups through workshops and consultation

generation and proliferation of educational and informational materials and literature, for our colleagues and our neighbors

Bird Ally X will build, strengthen and further develop the resources available to ensure that excellent care is provided by working with colleagues in wildlife rehabilitation to maintain an environment of mutual aid and benefit.

In all efforts, Bird Ally X is committed to continually elevating the quality of available care, and providing uncompromising advocacy on behalf of wild birds and all wildlife.

Promoting co-existence with our wild neighbors, which means preventing conflicts, senseless deaths and injuries, and keeping wild families together, is integral to our work. It’s when we ask for support that we have our clearest opportunity to accomplish this aspect of our mission. This blog, our mailing list and our social media outlets, as well as our wild ambassador program are the everyday methods we have to accomplish this task. To persuade you that your money is contributed to something worthwhile, we have to describe our work. In order to describe our work, we must describe how our patients become jeopardized, what threats and challenges our society places in the free and wild lives of our wild neighbors as well as how these threats can be eliminated or at least minimized.

Awareness is raised. And hopefully your support is won. And BAX/HWCC can continue our work.

So I struggle with the task of constantly pleading for money, striving to ensure that our fundraising efforts also be educational and mission-oriented.

As a supporter of other non-profits, as a citizen, I have always preferred to support those organizations whose work and fundraising were linked. Working on a fundraising campaign that does not include an educational message seems to me a waste of time and materials, a waste of your consideration. So we are scrupulous that our appeals to our community for support also carry practical messages regarding co-existence, regarding information on injured wildlife, and regarding the ways that we can make our collective voices heard to impact policy or procedure (or the status quo) when these things are killing wild neighbors or causing any to suffer.

In strictly practical terms, our clinic staff is very occupied with our clinic work – we can’t work on unrelated tasks – car washes, yard sales, booze cruises, it doesn’t matter – any of these fine things are fine, but they aren’t mission-oriented. We are a very small organization with an enormous challenge – our focus needs to be on our work and not our fancy ball!

Money is such a difficult subject. We all exist in a world that values currency over nature; – absurd to pretend otherwise. If it weren’t the case, the forests of the world would still be intact. Yet, currency provides the fish our patients eat. Currency provides the water our facility needs to provide pools for waterbirds. Currency keeps our lights on and our pumps running.

Of course, the primary reason we never stop asking for money is obvious. Patients never stop coming through our door. Today is Friday. Since Monday we have admitted over 20 patients. From a nest of Barn swallows to a Long-tailed Weasel. Each in need. Each the result of some conflict with our society – hit by cars, caught by pets, nest illegally destroyed – and more.

Each day we open our doors to receive the injured wild animals our human neighbors find by the side of our metaphorical and actual highways. Not the roadkill, just the road-maimed who would have suffered and died a cruel and senseless death. Even though we have outreach efforts into every corner of our community, still each day we are told “I didn’t know you existed! I’m so glad you are here!”

We are here. We are here because of your support. Right now we are in dire need. This year is on track to be our busiest in the history of HWCC. Yet we are not in the midst of some emergency, as has happened in past years, during which we send out a special appeal, and take extraordinary measures. We are just struggling along… with this Red-shouldered Hawk, this Cedar Waxwing, this Gray Fox.

So far in 2016 we have provided direct care for 800 wild animals. We’ve handled thousands of phone calls that often result in an injury prevented, or a wild family kept intact. We’ve admitted patients from as far away as Mount Lassen and Sacramento. We’ll likely admit 500 more patients before the year ends.

So we’re in jeopardy ourselves. Without your support, we won’t be able to meet this intense challenge. We won’t be able to keep our doors open. We won’t be able to pay for the water, the food, the medicine, the gas, the electric, the trash pickup, the propane, the rent, the salaries of our two paid staff members who are critical to ensuring quality of the care we provide.

I’m pleading with you to help us with any amount you can… if half the population of our local community each gave us one dollar, our expenses would be paid through the end of the year! Imagine if only 1% signed up to be a sustaining member at $10 per month! In any case, your support goes directly to our work helping the injured and orphaned wildlife of our region. We need $7000 by the end of August. We’re on our way but still far from that goal. Please, every little bit helps…

Thank you for your consideration, your support, and, mostly, thank you for your love for our wild neighbors.

Take care,
Monte Merrick
co-director/co-founder Bird Ally X