Author: Monte Merrick
be an ally to the wild!
Bufflehead, one of the smallest ducks, named after the mighty mammal of the Plains!
The teenager who called our clinic late on Monday thought the duck he’d found had a broken wing. We asked where he’d found the bird.
“On a sandbar in the river.”
He said the duck was black and white.
Finding a wild animal out of place – a baby bird on the ground, a bat in a doorway, a hawk by the side of the road – is outside the ordinary. Many people live their lives entirely without this experience.
Our clinic had already closed and the young man and the bird were an hour away with no way to get here. We would have to ask a volunteer to drive down to Rio Dell the next morning. We gave him instructions on how to keep the bird safe overnight – to place the bird in a box with a towel at the bottom and a lid that closes, to not give food or water, and to keep the injured and frightened animal away from any people or pets and our noises – an unused room is ideal. A heating pad on low can be placed under half the box so the animal can move toward or away from the heat, whichever is more comfortable.
Of course, over the phone it is impossible to be certain what the real situation is. But it is hunting season and this kid was down by the Eel River. It was perfectly imaginable that a goose or duck had been shot and wounded. We have treated many waterfowl who’d been shot and found, still alive, but flightless, trapped on the ground, helpless. We treat and release geese and ducks with this kind of injury commonly. It’s also true that many patients who’ve been shot do not survive.
One of Humboldt Wildlife Care Center’s regular volunteers came in first thing the next morning. He was happy to make the drive.
It takes a little bit of courage to transport injured wild animals. Injuries, especially gunshots, are not that much fun to see. Often we bring patients in who must be humanely euthanized due to the severity of their wounds. It may seem like a simple task – drive there, drive back – no radio or chit chat or smoking when the patient is in the car, but otherwise, simple. In fact it is an act that can change a volunteer’s entire perspective. While navigating the traffic of any town with an injured wild animal in your car you can’t help but begin to see a city through wild eyes.
As it turned out the duck was indeed a black and white duck. She was a Bufflehead – cousin to mergansers, scoters, eiders, goldeneyes, and long-tailed ducks – an awesome little duck who winters all around Humboldt Bay. You will see Bufflehead out in the open water of the bay, in the nooks and crannies of the bay’s shore as well as in the wide parts where rivers cross their flood plains on their way to the bay. Bufflehead are almost everyhere in winter.
This lady duck seemed perfectly healthy. Her exam revealed no significant injuries. Her small feet had a few very small scrapes. She definitely did not have a broken wing.
Often people who rescue birds, especially marine birds, assume a wing injury is the reason that the bird doesn’t fly away. Some animals live so remotely from most human experience that we don’t even recognze them when they come near. Everybody can identify a robin and would know if one is in trouble. In the case of aquatic birds, especially those who spend their entire lives on water, simply being on land is a sign that something could be wrong. Often these birds require an expanse of water to run across, building speed to become airborne. On land, they are grounded.
The thick coat of feathers seaducks and other primarily aquatic birds wear is what allows them to spend their lives in cold rivers and salt chucks. With no other obvious injury, the next possible problem we look for is with her waterproofing. A duck who gets wet, especially all the way down to her skin, will not be able to stay in water. This leads to death, eventually – water is where the food is.
To test her waterproofing, we have a specially-built warmwater tank (warm water is safer – if she is not waterproof, she won’t get cold). After a period of time we evaluate her feathers to make sure they are keeping her dry.
Each time we checked on her, she was under water swimming in circles looking for a way out. While she was obviously feeling stressed, her constant diving was a good sign.
Soon we moved her to a cold pool. She dove immediately. We rigged a food dish in her pool – fish, mealworms – and gave her a small platform made of netting in case she needed to get out of the water. We planned to leave her in the pool overnight.
While the duck swam in the cold pool, the young man who rescued her called. We let him know she was in good condition, no wing injury, no fractures.
“So, you found her at the river?”
“Yeah, she couldn’t fly away.”
“Well, you know ducks like her are mostly on water. They can’t really walk or run on land – they need open water to get back in the air. If you hadn’t rescued her, she would have been really vulnerable to a predator, like a coyote.”
“Yeah,” he said, “there were cats all over there.”
“Well, it’s lucky for her you came along, then.”
And it’s true. This Bufflehead was lucky this young man had come along. She’d suffered a common mishap. For whatever reason, sometimes water birds find themselves on land, stranded. Often it’s wet pavement that looks like a body of water. Sometimes rough surf tosses birds to the shore. Occasionally, injuries or contaminants, like oil, force aquatic birds from the water. In her case, we’ll never know. We only had her vibrant and healthy condition to go on.
The next morning when we checked her, she was perfectly dry and still diving to get away from us. She was clearly ready to get back home.
The same volunteer who’d gone to Rio Dell to pick her up was available to release her. Considering how many animals he’d brought in who didn’t make it, it was especially nice to ask him if he wanted to ride with her back to the Eel River for her return to her wild and free life.
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Want to help return an animal to the wild? We are now accepting volunteers. And as always, your support makes our work possible. Your contribution goes directly to the rescue and care of injured and orphaned wild animals and to educating toward a responsible and respectful relationship with Mother Earth. Thank you!
(all photos: Laura Corsiglia/BAX)
Dog Intentionally Poisoned
Wilson’s Snipe Treated and Released
Wilson’s Snipe, a widespread and common member of the Sandpiper family (Scolopacidae), can be found along stream beds, marshy edges, meadows, bogs, and other open grassy habitats – in other words, coastal Humboldt County is a terrific place for birds such as these.
31 January, we received an injured Wilson’s Snipe brought in by a resident of Humboldt Hill, just south of Eureka. From the mouth of the Elk River in Humboldt Bay, up through the river’s valley, excellent snipe habitat is easy to find.
Unfortunately so is US101. Numerous other roads, plate glass windows, grassy fields divided into backyards with family dogs and outdoor cats, littered trash and more present a daily threat of catastrophe to these broadly adapted birds.
Upon initial examination the snipe appeared to be in serious trouble. A head wound, swollen and bruised was causing what we hoped was only temporarily impaired vision. Our seemingly blind patient struggled in the small, soft-sided enclosure we’d set up for initial care. Multiple food dishes were presented to make it less difficult for the bird to eat. It was apparent s/he knew when we were near, hearing us, but unable to see our hands or instruments placed before his (or her) unblinking eye. A course of anti-inflammatory medicine, nutrition and rest were the backbone of our treatment plan.
We’ll never know with certainty what caused the injury – most likely, the snipe, who is slightly larger than a robin, collided with a glass window or had been hit by a car.
As with every wild patient who we are able to release, patient 14-61 was one of the lucky ones. A study published in The Condor earlier this month estimated that collisions with windows kill between 365 and 988 million birds in the United States alone (second only to the death toll taken by homeless and free-roaming house cats) with nearly half that number resulting from collisions with residences 3 stories and less – people’s houses in other words. While there has been attention given to birds and skyscrapers, the same study found such collisions contribute only 1% to this staggering number.
Vehicle collisions kill millions of wild animals each year as well. A study conducted in Canada in 2013 estimated that 13.8 million birds (mostly songbirds and raptors) are killed annually on that country’s primary and secondary roads. This was was approximately 5% of all avian collisions with human-built infrastructure. Applying that figure to the estimated annual mortality in the window strike study above would mean between 18 and 49 million birds killed in the United States by vehicles each year.
Last year, Humboldt Wildlife Care Center treated 927 wild animals, 77 of whom were known to have been hit by a vehicle. A River Otter, dozens of owls, hawks, songbirds, rabbits – the list is long and diverse. In the first 6 weeks of 2014, we’ve treated 6 animals that we are certain were hit by vehicles.
For the Wilson’s Snipe in our care, we were able to provide the medicine and support needed for her (or him) to recover. Soon s/he was able to detect light from shadow. Within 2 days s/he could easily find the mixture of insects, aquatic invertebrates such as blood worms, the bit of clover and other typical food items on which these birds thrive. Our purpose-built shorebird aviary made for a good place for the lucky bird to regain coordinated flight. After 10 days, s/he had recuperated and was ready for release. Taking the snipe back to the Elk River valley, as far from highways and structures as possible, the bird flew free, back to the wild contract and a second chance we thankfully could provide.
Please Donate. You support helps us meet the needs of injured and orphaned wild animals. Your support makes the care we provide possible. If you find a wild animal in jeopardy call 888-975-8188 or in Humboldt 822-8839. Thank you!
Because getting home from a day of work is better than getting killed by a cat.
Red-tailed Hawk Released in Redway
On Christmas day, a young Red-tailed hawk was found on the shoulder of US101, near Redway, in southern Humboldt County. His rescuers kept him overnight, bringing him to our clinic, Humboldt Wildlife Care Center in Bayside the next day.
The juvenile hawk was in very poor condition – he’d lost 50% of his normal body mass and was also critically anemic. Had the bird died during transport from 70 miles away, had the bird died overnight his first day in care, or at any point in the first few days of treatment, it would have been sad, but we wouldn’t have been surprised.
Fortunately his attitude was astonishing and the emaciated young fellow lived. He not only lived, but he did so with gusto! As soon we deemed it safe for him to begin eating whole food, he was voracious. First only eating a few mice, soon he was eating two rats a day and putting on 30 or more grams at every daily weight check.
After a week in care, the trouble began.
First his left foot swelled badly. Along the side of his foot a newly opened wound began to ooze pus. This could have been a very bad development. A trip to the veterinarian to take x-rays and flush the wound revealed an infection but no injured bone. Still, we were disappointed that his recovery had an obstacle.
Within a day of this, the condition of his right foot also deteriorated. No swelling, but what we’d assumed to have been an old and healing wound incidental to his primary problems now was another source of concern. Antibiotics and wound care became part of the hawk’s daily treatment adding another layer of stress to his captivity.
This was especially nerve-wracking because the ferocious bird had been quickly regaining his wild intensity. Entering his aviary sent him into frantic flight and we worried he might injure himself.
After three weeks in care, we were dealt another setback. The skin over his crop (a sort of pre-stomach in his upper esophagus) split open.
While of course we would have preferred this not occur, the continuing appearance of major wounds revealed something very important: our patient had likely been electrocuted.
As raptor rehabilitators everywhere can attest, electrocution can be one of the most heartbreaking conditions. Life-threatening or fatal internal injuries take time to become apparent. After a week in care what had been healthy skin starts dying and sloughing off, toes suddenly turn black. Everything goes wrong and the patient dies.
In the case of this Red-tailed hawk, the wounds on his feet were probably where the current had entered his body when he perched on a transmission line near the freeway. The wound at his chest marked the current’s exit.
While these wounds were ugly, ultimately they were limited to skin and other soft tissue that healed quickly. Within two weeks, the crop wound and his feet had healed. He was strong, weighed twice what he had when we admitted him and, as was true from the moment he entered our care, he was extremely anxious to put some miles between himself and our helpful hands.
February 1, a Bird Ally X intern, along with the people who had first picked him up from the side of the road, took him back to Redway. Once the transport box was open, he launched toward the forest, the sky, and his free and wild life.
Your support allows us to care for these victims of industrial civilization. The modern world is filled with traps that wild animals, present on Mother Earth for millions of years, can’t recognize. With your help, we are able to provide skilled staff and appropriate facilities to nurse wild animals like this young hawk back to health, and give them another chance. Please contribute what you can. Thank you for being a part of this life saving work!
(photos: Laura Corsiglia and Bird Ally X)
Wild animals live here too!
Influx of Injured Western Grebes
17 January at Humboldt Wildlife Care Center, we admitted a Western grebe who’d been found on Centerville beach near Ferndale. The deep puncture wounds on his flank and belly, as well as crushed bones in his wing, were too severe for treatment. While we greatly prefer to treat injured animals and release them back to their wild lives, to be able to humanely end the suffering of an animal too wounded to ever live freely again is also an important part of our mission.
Later that day another Western grebe, found several miles north at South Jetty, was brought to our clinic. This bird, with similar wounds, died on the way.
And so began a five day run in which 11 of these elegant seabirds with deep puncture wounds and occasionally with a crushed wing or leg, came to our small wildlife hospital on the Redwood coast. Many of the birds came from Crescent City, a few were found between here and there – Manila, Clam Beach, Trinidad.
As of this writing, only two have survived. Both are currently in care.
This is somewhat unusual. Typically, when more than a few of one species of seabird are found struggling, the birds suffer from emaciation, a condition brought on from a lack of nutrition. For as long as seabirds have been observed, mass starvation events have occasionally happened. Such occurences are often called “wrecks.”
Nowadays, overfishing, climate change and host of other ocean ills cause these wrecks to occur more frequently. While there are many possible causes for this kind of starvation, the cure is relatively simple: stabilization (fluids and warmth) and food.
When emaciation isn’t the problem, the next most likely scenario to cause large numbes of seabirds to run into trouble is a toxin in the environment, such as petroleum spills, harmful algal blooms (often caused by agricultural “run-off”, sewage, fish waste.
The wounds we’ve seen look like predator bites. Our working hypothesis is that sea lions are hunting these birds for food, or what seems more likely is that these grebes were bitten while pursuing fish in the same school with sea lions. There is precedent for marine birds injured by Sea lions while foraging. Whatever the case, currently we have no direct observations or conclusive results.
The prognosis for the two birds in care is hopeful. While their wounds are severe they are healing and all other aspects of their health are good.
Western Grebes are aquatic birds – they spend their entire lives on water. Even their nests are aquatic, built on floating vegetation anchored to reeds and other aquatic plants. Once they hatch, grebe babies ride on the backs of their parents and from then on they are either on water, under water in pursuit of fish, or in flight. For these birds to heal successfully they need to spend most of their time in care on water. Right now, providing that housing is the challenge we face.
Our facility in Bayside is small and most of our equipment is improvised or re-purposed. (For example, plastic 55 gallon drums house our homemade filters on our pools.) Your support provides the means for our skilled staff to build the infrastructure necesssary for the care of all wildlife that meets the specific needs of each animal.
If you see a Western Grebe on the sand, there is a strong likelihood that something is the matter.
If you are able to do so safely, toss a towel, sheet or jacket over the bird’s head to protect yourself from the sharp pointed bill. Western grebes have very long necks – hold the bird low, near your waist, at arm’s length. Your safety must come first.
Once you have the bird wrapped in a towel, or ideally in a box, you can transport her or him to our clinic.
If you are unable to do this, call us and we’ll try to help. (locally 822-8839 or our statewide hotline 888 975 8188.) As always, thank you for your support. Thank you for being a part of this life-saving work.
Rock Pigeons: Native to Cities (and some farms)
Given that roughly 80% of North America’s human population lives in an urban environment, it’s possible that Rock Pigeons are our continent’s most widely recognized birds. Although they are often the targets of abuse, derision and harsh measures to discourage their presence, the cityscape wouldn’t be complete without pigeons.
Rock pigeons have been domesticated for so long that precise knowledge of their original homeland may never be known. However, fossils over three hundred thousand years old have been found in present day Israel. Generally, they are thought to have occupied a band that stretches from North Africa and southern Europe across Mesopotamia and into India and southwestern China.
As their name suggests, Rock Pigeons are naturally cliff dwellers, nesting along the sea coasts of the Mediterranean, perhaps the foothills of the Himalayas. Powerful fliers evolved to these habitats, city pigeons in the skycraper canyons of Vancouver or New York are second-nature.
The first Rock Pigeons are believed to have come to North America in 1606, brought to Mi’kma’ki, by French settlers to be raised for food. Over four hundred years later, feral pigeons have spread throughout the Americas, occupying all but northern Canada. Yet, unlike the European Starling and the House Sparrow, both species introduced by European settlers who drive native songbirds from habitat and nesting grounds, Rock Pigeons in America, perhaps because of their city and farm habitat, their near complete use of the urban environment, do not appear to pose much threat to native wildlife.
Last week, a kind man stopped at the intersection of 4th and Q in Eureka, CA to scoop up a younger, possibly female pigeon who was flightless in the middle of the street. He brought her to our clinic in Bayside, Humboldt Wildlife Care Center.
Upon admission the bird was given a complete examination. Because we found no broken bones, it seemed most likely she had been hit by a vehicle, suffering only a glancing blow.
BAX and Humboldt Wildlife Care Center are concerned by the damage that introduced species may cause. For this reason we are cautious about rehabilitating and releasing non-native wild animals. However, every animal, including non-native species that damage native wildlife also deserve humane treatment, even when eradication is deemed scientifically, ethically and legally right to pursue, as in the case of introduced rats on islands that are important for seabird breeding and rearing of young. Introduced non-native animals are not guilty of anything and do not deserve our wrath. They deserve our compassion and our respect. If we can’t see this fundamentally true thing, then what business have we interacting with any species at all?
The life of an urban pigeon, replete with resources in the form of human discards, is still dangerous. Fishing line, twine and other traps abound. Vehicles run birds down in every neighborhood of every city every day. Look more closely at a flock of pigeons. Notice how many pigeons have injured or missing feet, how many have poor feather condition, how many are dead in the gutters.
In the case of this young pigeon? We’re glad we could give her a second chance.
After a week of supportive care and anti-inflammatory medicine, the pigeon had resumed graceful, coordinated flight. We released her back in the only habitat she and many generations of her ancestors have ever known, the urban wilds of Eureka.
Your support makes care for injured and orphaned wild animals possible. Thank you for being a part of this life-saving work.
photos: Laura Corsiglia/Bird Ally X
