New Additions Coming! You Can Help!

Posted on February 15, 2016 by Monte Merrick

Help us pay for a new seabird pool! Each year we treat over 200 Seabirds and we only have one large pool! We’re getting ready to build a new one and we need your help. Donate today!

Your gift helps turn lives around - this orphan Common Murre formed a bond with an adult patient, as both recovered in our seabird pool. — Your gift helps turn lives around – this orphan Common Murre formed a bond with an adult patient, as both recovered in our seabird pool.

We’re also putting up a new small bird aviary. Hundreds of our patients each year, from Barn Swallows to Western Screech Owls will benefit. Want to help? Donate today.

5:19 hummingbird re-unite - 05

Mention either of these projects in the comment of your donation, please so we can be sure to thank you specifically for helping us get these projects completed!

As always, thank you for supporting our work and thank you your love of wildlife!

Storm-tossed Gull Finds Freedom on Christmas Day

Posted on December 25, 2015December 25, 2015 by Monte Merrick

Every day, whether weekday, weekend, or important national or cultural holiday, is still a day in the modern world for our wild neighbors – and that’s why Humboldt Wildlife Care Center is open every day of the year.

This morning, besides for the regular care our patients receive – bedding changes, food, medicine, regular exams – we admitted a new patient, a Pine Siskin (Spinus pinus) who had been caught by the family cat, and we cleared this Glaucous-winged Gull (Larus glaucescens) for release!

Over the past two weeks of wild weather, our wildlife clinic’s list of patients has leaned heavily toward marine birds – Gulls, Grebes, Loons, Scoters – several of each have passed through our care over the last 14 days.

Found in an Arcata backyard after a night of heavy rain and high winds, this disoriented gull was brought in two days ago. After an exam we found no injuries, or any other physical problems – so we held the beautiful bird for observation and flight testing. At this morning’s check, the gull had eaten all of the fish we’d offered and was flying laps around the large aviary. We decided that captivity was doing this guy no good at all. During an enjoyable break in the winter weather, the gull was released this afternoon.

GWGU release 12:25:15 - 01 HWCC Rehabilitator, Lucinda Adamson releases Glaucous-winged Gull at Arcata Marsh, Christmas day.

GWGU release 12:25:15 - 04

GWGU release 12:25:15 - 09

GWGU release 12:25:15 - 15 One of our happiest sights, a released patient moving quickly away from us back into the Wild.

When a neighbor calls us on Christmas day because she or he has found an injured animal, often we are thanked repeatedly for being here, for being open. On days like today, when our work’s value is so easy to see, it’s really we who are thankful – thankful for our wild neighbors who make our world so companionable, thankful to be able to help them when they are in need, and thankful to you and your generous support which makes our work possible.

All Photos: Laura Corsiglia/Bird Ally X

Freedom’s Greetings!

Posted on December 25, 2015 by Monte Merrick

2015-card-fox-FLAT copy

Season’s Greetings Friend of Wildlife!

Each year, as our days dip toward night and we turn toward interior pleasures with our families and friends, we have an opportunity to celebrate our past year, revel in our victories, and honor our losses.

In 2015, our wildlife ambassadors have gone to over a hundred schools and groups to promote co-existence with our natural world. We’ve helped more than 5000 callers with a wildlife concern. At Humboldt Wildlife Care Center we have treated nearly 1100 injured and orphaned wild neighbors.

Not every case ends as we wish, of course. Many patients are too severely injured to be successfully rehabilitated. We honor their memory. We redouble our efforts to help eliminate causes of injury.

And thankfully many of our patients do get a second chance!

Like the Gray Fox on this card: Brought to us on a Sunday morning in late Summer, this beautiful and fierce adult had her head caught in a hard plastic cup. Whether some kind of trap or a terrible accident, her predicament had been caused by people. Unable to hunt, she’d nearly starved.

We cut away the cup, treated her wounds, and provided her safe-haven so that her health could recover. When she’d nearly doubled in weight and was raring to go, she was released back to her wild and free life. And one small injustice among the daunting environmental challenges of our time was righted.

That’s how we work, case by case, life by life.

This season of gratitude and appreciation, we thank you for your support and for your love for all that is wild. Thank you for helping us give this fox and all our patients a second chance!

We wish you a happy season, a joyful solstice and prosperous new year. We look forward to another year of meeting our mission with your continued support

In alliance with the wild,
the Staff and Volunteers of Bird Ally X/Humboldt Wildlife Care Center

BAX Staff Activated by Oiled Wildlife Care Network

Posted on December 20, 2015December 20, 2015 by Monte Merrick

Last Saturday a truck hauling diesel fuel wrecked on US 101, near Big Lagoon in Northern Humboldt County. It was reported that approximately 1000 gallons of diesel fuel leaked from the overturned trailer and some of that made into the waterway. Diesel fuel is unlike crude oil or less refined fuels – it evaporates quickly but it also kills more quickly – causing severe respiratory injuries and skin burns.

At first, it was believed that all of the spilled fuel had been contained and that none of our wild neighbors had been impacted. However, early Monday morning, local Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) personnel spotted two Ruddy Ducks that appeared to be contaminated by diesel.

By Monday afternoon BAX staff along with other responders from CDFW and the Oiled Wildlife Care Network (OWCN) were in the field searching for any wild animals impacted by the spill.

Big Lagoon Spill 2015 - 1

Lucinda Adamson, BAX/HWCC wildlife rehabilitator at the Big Lagoon spill last week. (photo: Bird Ally X)

Big Lagoon Spill 2015 - 2

BAX responder, Elissa Blair surveys Big Lagoon early in the morning searching for oiled wildlife. (photo: Bird Ally X)

By late Wednesday, no live oiled animals had been found. One dead Ruddy Duck (Oxyura jamaicensis) was found that was later confirmed to be oiled.

One death is too many. And no doubt there were other wild animals not found who were killed by the diesel. Still, this could have been much worse. Big Lagoon is a naturally attractive waterfowl area, with thousands of birds of many species using it as a winter home. Perhaps fortunately, the Lagoon breached over the weekend as well and the water level fell considerably, possibly helping dissipate the petro-toxin. As the saying goes, the solution to pollution is dilution.

Instead of a major disaster we experienced a trial under live fire – which we can use to improve our capabilities and insure preparedness for any future accidents or spills. Preparedeness is the first and most important step toward meeting the mission of the OWCN.

The Oiled Wildlife Care Network is a little known agency in California – jointly administered by UC Davis’ Wildlife Health Center and an oilspill-specific department within CDFW, the Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR)* – that is unique in our country and maybe even the world – a network of universities, agencies and wildlife care providers dedicated to providing the “best achievable capture and care of oil-affected wildlife.” The OWCN has nearly 40 member organizations and several primary care facilities purpose-built for large scale spill responses all along the California coast.

BAX was founded by wildlife rehabilitators and spill responders who each have a long history with the OWCN. We’ve worked hard to bring HWCC up to the standards required to be a member organization. When oil spills here in our backyard or anywhere in California (as we saw last Spring in Santa Barbara), BAX staff can be mobilized to provide whatever help is needed.

If you’re interested in becoming a qualified oiled wildlife responder, volunteering with us at our Bayside clinic is an excellent first step!

And as always, it is your support that makes our work possible. Thank you for your generosity and for your love for the Wild!

* the alphabet soup gets thick fast! Basically UCD-WHC with CDFW-OSPR runs the OWCN of which HSU-MWCC and HWCC/BAX are members, or just read the story above and let the acronyms dissolve into eternity….

Rent Party! Saturday December 12, 7pm

Posted on December 7, 2015December 7, 2015 by Monte Merrick

Our annual volunteer appreciation party and fundraiser to help defray the costs of Humboldt Wildlife Care Center’s annual rent.

Music! Dance! Poetry!

featuring

Synapsis aerial dancers!

Musical perfomances by

Rob DiPerna!
Morgan Corviday!
and
Medicine Baul!

Refreshments for young and old!

$20 admission. Help us meet our mission and help us acknowledge and thank our dedicated volunteers!

Wood Duck Flies!

Posted on November 3, 2015 by Monte Merrick

A recent patient, this female Wood Duck was reported to have hit a barn trying ot out fly a Falcon. She was found stunned on the ground. She made a complete and quick recovery and was released back to the area she was found!

Help support our efforts to raise healthy, wild orphans and provide quality care for all wildlife caught in civilization’s many snares. Please contribute to our Fall campaign today. $ = food, medicine, water. Every donation helps!

video: Bonnie MacRaith/Bird Ally X

November Donation Jar Picture!

Posted on November 1, 2015 by Monte Merrick

nov jar pic 2015

If you see this picture on a donation jar at various businesses around Humboldt County, please, drop some money in! Thank you for supporting the care of our injured and orphaned wild neighbors!

Orphaned Raccoons, Field and Stream (Cool video!)

Posted on October 25, 2015October 25, 2015 by Monte Merrick

As we posted a couple of weeks ago, it’s the time of year that the orphaned raccoons we’ve cared for over the Summer are reaching an age that we can return them to their wild, free lives.

We often talk about the efforts that we can all make to co-exist with our wild neighbors as well as the work we do to keep our patients wild. No cuddling, we keep our voices down when we work near them. We strive to respect their wild natures and to protect them from the harm that comes to wild animals who don’t have an appropriate aversion to humans and human activity.

Another thing that we work for, when it comes to raising orphaned wild babies, is developing ways for them to learn the skills they will need to survive on their own. This is the hardest task of all, and involves every aspect of their care! Housing set-up that includes natural elements to imitate forest, field, stream or ocean, as best we can, foods selected that are similar to what an individual of any species might eat, and presenting the food in a manner that will teach hunting or foraging skills are all important aspects that must be included.

For raccoons, this task is as complex as they are. So, at our last release we were very gratified to watch one of our patients, moments after release, make her way downstream about 50 yards and then, to our happy surprise, start fishing! We are thrilled to see our hard work pay off and to see this young raccoon demonstrate that she knows what to do when presented with a real field and stream.

Check out this 3 minute video of our latest release (including the act of catching her first wild fish) and enjoy it too, because it’s your support that makes this work possible. So THANK YOU!!

Exploring the wide and wild world!

Agility and strength – fostering these while in captivity is a challenge when raising wild orphans! Our staff and your support make it possible!

[We are still deep in our fall fundraiser, nearly halfway to our goal of $10,000! Last week it seemed we would never make it and now it looks like we have a fighting chance! Help us cross the finish line! Every donation is tax-deductible, and every donation, no matter the size, goes directly toward meeting our mission! Your help is essential! Donate today!

Thank you for being a part of this live-saving work. Thank you for your love of the WILD!]

video taken by Laura Corsiglia and Lucinda Adamason for Bird Ally X; all photos Laura Corsiglia/BAX

Young Seabirds Rescued and Released

Posted on October 13, 2015October 13, 2015 by Monte Merrick

2015 has not been a very good year for Common Murres (Uria aalge californica) on the west coast of North America. From Southern California to British Columbia, thousands of these seabirds, mostly young of the year, have been found on beaches dead or dying of starvation.

Bird Ally X co-directors Marie Travers and Shannon Riggs, DVM have been responding to this “crash” in Southern California at Pacific Wildlife Care in Morro Bay where Dr Riggs is director of animal care. This year they’ve treated well over a 150 young Common Murres. San Francisco Bay area wildlife care providers have been inundated with starving young Murres as well.

On the North Coast, the situation has been slightly different, our cooler temperatures and distance form the larger fishing ports and urban impact has left more room in the ocean for our seabird neighbors. Even so, Humboldt Wildlife Care Center has admitted nearly 50 starving juveniles since the “die-off” began in July. That’s a lot of work for our small facility and it’s a lot of fish, too.

[Help support our efforts to raise healthy, wild orphans and provide quality care for all marine wildlife caught in civilization’s many snares. Please contribute to our Fall campaign today. $ = Fish, medicine, water. Every donation helps!]

We posted earlier this Summer when we had a pool full of these beautiful elegant birds. Now as the season turns cool, many are ready for release back to their oceanic lives.

Thank you for being a part of this life saving work. Your support keeps us and our patients afloat.

Video/Photos: BAX/Ruth Mock, BAX/Stephanie Owens

Raccoons Raring to Re-enter the Real (video and photos)

Posted on October 9, 2015October 9, 2015 by Monte Merrick

[Help support our efforts to raise healthy, wild orphans and also prevent disruptions to wild families in the first place. Please contribute to our Fall campaign today. Every donation helps!]

Each year at Humboldt Wildlife Care Center, we can expect to treat a certain number of orphaned raccoons (Procyon lotor). Although we engage in outreach to promote humane solutions to denning mother raccoons, trying to keep wild families together, the simple fact is that several times each Spring and Summer we admit small groups of raccoon babies whose mothers have been either shot or trapped and “relocated” (illegal and inhumane, usually results in the death of the mother and, unless they are found and taken to a wildlife rehabilitator, the death of her babies that remain). On average we raise 20 to 30 raccoon babies at our Northern California clinic every season. This year we’ve had 25 (19 right now!) babies in care.

Although caring for orphaned raccoons is a common task for wildlife rehabilitators across the continent, it’s a very specialized skill, requiring experience, commitment, financial resources and appropriate housing. Without a mother who will show them the ways of the world, orphaned raccoons in care must learn to hunt, forage, climb, fish in rivers and most importantly remain wild and “untamed.” One of the cutest animals, people often try to raise raccoons as pets. This is never a good idea. Raccoons are wild animals, not pets, and deserve their freedom as much we deserve ours.

At BAX/HWCC we put a lot of effort into making sure the raccoons we care for eat the most natural and nutritionally complete diet we can provide. We place great emphasis on keeping a solid barrier between them and us, their care providers. Their survical depends on their fear of humans. An orphaned raccoon’s best shot at a happy life depends on all of these elements.

After four months in care, we just recently released the first 6 youngsters who were ready to begin their lives back in the wild. Check out the video and the photos – watch wild raccoons enter the wild for the first time since they lost their mama…