We’ve started building our raccoon housing at our new site, but it’s Summer and our resources are thin! We need your help! Please donate to help us develop our new facility and keep our patients fed – we have nearly 75 orphans in care! Thank you for keeping our doors open and always striving to improve!!!!
Every summer at HWCC/bax is a hectic and frantic season of orphaned wild babies by the scores, long days, great sorrows and thrilling joys. We prepare for wild baby season each year as best we can, with regular trainings for experienced staff and new volunteers alike, marshalling resources, stocking up, and generally getting ready for five to six months of an intense workload.
This summer, 2023, of course is complicated by our recent relocation from Bayside to Manila. We took possession of our new location in early March and it was early April before we could begin the process of transforming our new building into a functional clinic. By early May we already had orphaned babies in care and by early June we were deep in the season.
We built some of our crucial new patient housing before the season really hit – we’ve got a songbird aviary, a fawn yard, housing for small mammals like opossums, and housing that we’d intended for chipmunks and squirrels but which has been dedicated to orphaned Mallards since the middle of May.
Since moving our operations to Manila we’ve admitted over 750 wild patients! I’ve said it more than once that we’re building the ship while we sail it, and it might seem impossible, but believe me, when Necessity is your only boss and a supportive community is your greatest ally, it’s astonishing what you can do.
There’s a lot more housing needed, such as a raptor aviary, more songbird aviaries, a pelican aviary, a proper aviary for ducks, geese and herons, more mammal housing – and for all of this we need time and materials – and that means your support!
Every year at this time we run low on resources – time is tight, patient needs are high, and spending a lot of time getting the word out and raising funds is difficult to accomplish! But the simple fact is we need you badly. In order to keep going through our busy Summer, feed our patients, pay our small staff, keep the electricity on, pay our mortgage, and so on, we need to raise several thousand dollars! We can’t print money, but with your help, that won’t be necessary! Please donate if you can! Our wild patients now and in the future need you!
Wild Baby Season of 2023 is nearly halfway through as we continue to build our vessel as we sail it. We need your help! Help us feed 10 Fawns, 15 Swallows, 3 Owls, 10 Mallards, 5 Skunks, 10 Raccoons, a Gray Fox and more! Please support our work if you can!
Just finished on Saturday, already has 3 patients making use of it on Sunday! And we need so much more!
Please help! Your support has gotten us this far, thank you! And we still have a long way to go!
video shot/edited by Laura Corsiglia
A video of a recent day at our new facility in Manila!
You can help us stay afloat!! Please donate to help us rebuild, and most importantly, care for the hundreds of wild orphans that are coming our way no matter what! WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!
Thank you!!
video shot by Monte Merrick and Laura Corsilgia, edited by Soro Cyrene and Laura. (thanks Soro!!!)
We still have a long way to go to rebuild our patient housing, such as our aviaries and pools that we couldnt move, but we are now admitting wild animals in need at our new facility, thanks to you!
Check out our video to see the progress your support has secured!
Obviously we have a lot more to do and we need your help very much! Spring baby season is almost upon us and we still need songbird aviaries, an appropriate aviary for hawks, for Mallard ducklings, a better laundry facility – also a roof repair! I know that many of you have been very generous already – our appreciation can’t be overstated! Thank you!!! But we still “have miles to go before we sleep”. Please donate if you can!!
video edited by Soro Cyrene! (Thank you, Soro!!!)
With your generous support, we’ve achieved our first goal of raising the money for our downpayment and closing costs! Now we move on to permitting and then making the move! Your help is still needed of course, but we are deeply grateful and kind of blown away by the support you’ve given! Thank you!!!
Thank you so much for helping us help wildlife! and if you’d like to support our work and our move to be secure and sustainable please donate here!
video editing: Soro Cyrene
With a 3 month extension on our current lease, it’s “GO-time” for Humboldt Wildlife Care Center to secure the financing for our new location and make our move! It’s exciting, stressful, thrilling and a little scary and you can help make it all better!
Thank you for supporting us since 1979! Thank you for helping with this bold effort to make our future more secure, our work sustainable and to be here to help our region’s injured and orphaned wild neighbors without interruption! If you can, please DONATE to help us make our move!
video editor: Soro Cyrene
In mid-November, Humboldt Wildlife Care Center took a call about a fox found lying in the middle of the road near the Shelter Cove Fire Department. The fox couldn’t walk, could barely move.
Shelter Cove is a considerable distance from HWCC – getting help for the fox meant coordinating with the firefighter in Shelter Cove and the staff of Garberville Redway Veterinary Group who generously agreed to take the fox for the night and provide stabilization treatment while we arranged transportation for the following morning.
After driving to Garberville the next day, we had the Gray Fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) in care.
Although he could not use his legs, he did have sensation in his back feet, and tried to move them as he was being handled. A good sign.
Within a few days the fox was able to stand and take a few weak steps. After six days, he could walk and stand easily. We moved him to outdoor housing to test his ambulation. Immediately he ran to the far side of our mammal housing. He did stumble a bit when he reached the other side, about 30 feet away, which was important to note as an observation. Nevertheless his run was a very remarkable display.
Over the next couple of weeks his coordination continued to improve, until we could not perceive that he’d ever had a problem. He was in fine form. At his release examination, he answered all the questions correctly, including his four hundred gram weight gain in three weeks – having come in at 3500 grams, he was going home at 3900! He liked his thawed rats from Layne Labs
At the first break in weather after the recent storms, BAX boardmember, release photographer, wild family reunion specialist, administrative miracle worker, and fine artist Laura Corsiglia and one of our wonderfully giving HWCC volunteers, Christine, took the Gray Fox back to Shelter Cove. Ordinarily Laura gets incredible shots of patients at release, as can be seen on this very site! But not this time. When Christine opened the door, the quick gray fox jumped through the hated door and was gone. Laura did get this video.
Thanks to your support over the last 44 years, HWCC has been here for wild animals in need, doing the best we could do with what we had. This fox had a place to heal because you provide the resources that are needed. Now as we go through the stress and excitement, the fear and the promise, of moving our facility, we and our patients need you. Please help keep our doors open, so we can keep opening doors for our wild neighbors who need a second chance. Thank you!!!!
photos/video: BAX/ Laura Corsiglia
