Board of directors member and HWCC rehabilitator, Nora Chatmon (r) talks about human/wildlife conflict as Assistant Rehabilitation Manager, Lucinda Adamson (l) listens.
For the latest episode of New Wild Review, four-fifths of Humboldt Wildlife Care Center’s clinic staff got together in February to talk about our Humane Solutions program – a backstage unfiltered eavesdrop as we talk about our work, our frustrations and some of the misconceptions about our wild neighbors that work against peaceful co-existence…
Rehabilitator and Humane Solutions consultant Brooke Brown.
Nora Chatmon, Lucinda Adamson, Monte Merrick and Brooke Brown discuss our Humane Solutions program, in a backstage way…
The discussion took off, lasting much longer than expected. In this epsiode, part one of our staff roundtable discussion, featuring Lucinda Adamson, Nora Chatmon, and Brooke Brown, we cover many of the frustrations – next episode the meaning, the awe and the victories – coming soon, the second half, in S2E3…
We hope you enjoy this discussion and remember! – our successful work keeping wild families together comes from your support! Thank you!
As anyone with a bird feeder in their backyard can tell you, Winter 20/21 was filled to the brim and overflowing into the saucer with Pine Siskins (Spinus pinus), a member of the finch family (Fringillidae).
Irruptions like this aren’t that unusual – happening every few years or so – but over the winter, southern Canada and large parts of the United States saw the largest irruption in ‘recorded history’.*
Irruptions occur when a critical food in a species’ wintering grounds is in short supply – for Pine Siskins this means conifer seeds, and Spruce seeds are a favorite – driving the birds south in search of a meal. Starving and desperate, backyard bird feeders must seem like the luckiest break in the world to them.
A newly admitted Pine Siskin gets an intake examination
Unfortunately, when large numbers of birds are concentrated at feeders, the condition are perfect for the spread of an ordinary bacteria, Salmonella. Carried in the intestines of birds and shed through the feces, the closely grouped finches hungrily foraging are constantly exposing each other to the bacteria. The disease that results from the infection, salmonellosis, is often fatal, causing irreparable harm to each bird’s gastro-intestinal tract. Once visibly sick – unable to fly, lethargic, emaciated – nearly all Siskins die. This is the result we saw all across North America over the Winter.
In response to the enormous flocks of starving Pine Siskins, and the attending salmonellosis outbreak, a massive campaign to stop the infectious spread was mounted, with Federal, State and non-governmental organizations stepping in to recommend that all bird feeders be pulled until the outbreak was over.
Another day, another few Pine Siskins. From our first admission of the irruption on Novemebr 16, 2020 until now, HWCC admitted an average of three Siskins a day
At Humboldt Wildlife Care Center, we admitted our first Pine Siskin of winter on November 16, 2020. He died two days later. By the end of 2020 we admitted 20 Siskins and only one survived to be released, but that bird did not have any symptoms of salmonellosis upon admission after hitting a window. We have now admitted 55 Pine Siskens, between November 16 and today, March 5. Today, we have one Siskin in care, another window strike, who is otherwise in good health. It was early-mid February when dying Siskins stopped coming in to our clinic. Since then, each bird has been cat caught or a window strike. Because the disease seems to have slowed considerably, the birds we’re admitting often have a much better prognosis.
Of the other 54 Siskins, 9 have been released, 7 came in DOA, 22 died in the first 24 hours in care, 3 died after a day had passed, and 13 were humanely euthanized due to the severity of their infection, or wounds caused by window strikes or house cats. Of course there was some overlap between sick Siskins and cat caught Siskins, due to the sick ones being more vulnerable.
HWCC did not join in the chorus of those recommending that bird feeders be taken down, on the simple reasoning that starvation was driving this concentration of birds, and that reducing available food would make it worse, further reducing availble feeding locations and increasing the density of birds, or simply move the tragedy to a place where the death and suffering wouldn’t be seen.
Catching a recovered bird in our aviary can be stressful! This Pine Siskin is looking good and ready to go home!
There is no easy test to determine if our patients have salmonellosis. We rely on clinical symptoms and context. An irruption coupled with Siskins admitted who are very thin, lethargic and sick is the only real diagnosis we have while the patient is alive. While some suggest that euthanasia is the only responsible course of treatment, without solid proof that these birds suffer from the bacteria, that is not a course we could follow.
While there are no studies to support this view, it seems that when hungry refugees show up at your door, the thing to do is provide, not deny, succor. Taking into consideration the unhealthy density of Siskins at feeders leads us to think that other areas could be used to provide more food, in a less concetrated manner than backyard feeders. Why not distribute food freely across parks and refuges? Intervention in nature when nature has been razed, pummeled, roped, when “they’ve tied her with fences and dragged her down” is the only morally responsible thing to do.
Release to Freedom, by any other name, would still be just as sweet!!
For now, the irruption in our region is over. Soon migration will completely make over our world and a whole new cast of characters will be at our feeders, in our yards, singing in our forests and towns. And when the human-modifed world causes our wild neighbors harm, we’ll be here to do what we can that is best for each individual.
Our doors are open each and every day of the year to our region’s injured and orphaned wild neighbors in need. Your support makes that possible. Please DONATE today, if you can! Thank you!!!
2021 and hopefully new hope are here! For the first podcast of the new season, here’s New Wild Review, vol 2 ep 1; – in which first we look at post release studies, and the limitations our obligations as caregivers place on invasive practices. Then we turn our attention to protecting wild families by protecting wild mothers – in this case skunks looking for mates and dens during the winter. Hope you find it informative and useful!
Thank you for helping us get through a difficult year!!! DONATE today to help us rescue injured and orphaned wild neighbors.
Want one? We have them at HWCC for $10. Like every year, this mug was drwan by our in-house artst, Laura Corsiglia! Your support goes directly toward keeping our clinic open, ready to help our regions wildlife in need, especially during this global pandemic!
Want to hear about all the trials and tribulations we endured to meet our mission during this fitful year?
Me neither!
This was a tough year for everyone in our commuity (the world), but for the most part, we came through the last ten months stronger, more resilient, and more able to meet the challneges of providing care to our wild neighbors in need and promoting co-existence with the Wild (the highest reality).
So instead of touring through our troubles, here are some photographs of our patients and staff as we did our jobs, all of which was made possible by your generous support – a critical feature of all that we do, and the most necessary thing that’ll get us through whatever 2021 has in store. We need you like an orphaned family of raccoon babies needs Humboldt Wildlife Care Center.
Some of the pools at the BAX Botulism Response field hospital
From Mountain Lion Kittens orphaned by forest fire, to dozens of orphaned Common Murre chicks, from orphaned Gray fox kits to Great Blue Heron chicks blown from their high nest in a freak Summer storm, from caring for 3000 ducks and shorebirds driven to near death by botulism in the Lower Klamath Refuge to cleaning 14 fawn bottles three times a day until all the fawns are weaned and released, staff was ready, pandemic protocols in place, to do the job we’ve always done – helping our wild neighbors in need.
All of us at HWCC/bax thank you deeply for all that you did to help us durvive this year. We wish you a much better 2021, and a return to good graces with nature, Mother Earth, and the wild.
When the pandemic first hit back in late February and early March, I was terrified. Of course I had the same concerns we all have for the safety of our community, our friends, and our loved ones, but more than that I was afraid for what the pandemic and our response to it would do to our mission. At the time it seemed entirely possible that Bird Ally X and all of our projects, including Humboldt Wildlife Care Center could be swept away in the tsunami of economic damage suffered bay our community as well as the overarching concern for human not wildlife health.
By July, after three months of skeleton staff pandemic protocols, HWCC was running on fumes. Our resources were dwindling rapidly as our caseload rocketed. With no volunteers helping us, our small but mighty crew took care of 25% more wild patients between May and August than in 2019, our busiest year to date. In all of California north of Santa Rosa we were the only facility still able to admit orphaned deer fawns. We provided four months of care to more fawns this year than any previous year.
But that wasn’t all 2020 had in store for Bird Ally X. The worst outbreak of avian botulism in over twenty years occurred in the Lower Klamath Wildlife Refuge just north of Shasta. For the last 3 years BAX has operated a field hospital on the Refuge to treat waterfowl and shorebirds impacted by avian botulism. 2020, however, was significantly worse than previous years with tens of thousands of birds killed by the early heat and dry conditions of this season. As with HWCC, our Lower Klamath field hospital was severely understaffed due to the circumstances imposed by COVID-19.
In the face of these challenges and in the midst of the pandemic, you came through for our wild neighbors. You made sure we could get through our difficult season! If you hadn’t we might to be here today. The support that you gave at the end of July did more than pay bills, it gave our staff the lift they needed to persevere. Thank you. The support you provided our botulism response on the Lower Klamath made possible the care of over 3000 ducks, sandpipers, stilts and more during the Summer outbreak.
And there’s no room to mention the fires of Autumn…
We don’t know what the future will bring, but we do know that we need to constantly rebuild ourselves more resilient, more adaptable, more ready to meet the challenge of a life on earth in which all bets are off. For now, please just accept our heartfelt gratitude for the help you gave us this year. We’re still here, thanks only to you.
Please enjoy a beautiful season of gratitude for the love and beauty that still fill our lives even as our world is rocked by troubles. And let’s all wish for each other a healthy and safe and better New Year.
In alliance with all that is wild and free and on behalf of the pandemic crew of Bird Ally X, Monte
With wildfires ravaging Mendocino and Trinity county forests and rural communities and threatening Humboldt county, Humboldt Wildlife Care Center/bird ally x has admitted a few wild animals who were refugees from the flames. Some of these patients have recovered well, but we’ve been made aware of more wild animals that may have been rescued from the fire but are unable to be brought into care at HWCC/bax due to limited resources, road closures, and evacuation orders.
A Western Grebe (Aechmophorus occidentalis), with fire in his own eyes, enjoys the wet soggy dripping water of our seabird pool after spending too many hours in the August Complex Fire, currently surrounding Ruth Lake. This highly aquatic bird was found on the ground near the mountain community of Mad River by Heidi, a local resident. She kept the bird safe for a day and then transported to Hydesville where HWCC/bax staff met her to complete his trip to our facility.
HWCC/bax will accept any and all wildlife impacted by the fires. Our facility and staff are ready. Even wild animals with injuries beyond our capacity to treat locally but which have a good prognosis with the proper care can be stabilized here at HWCC and transported to our colleagues in other parts of the state with more advanced facilities.
Western Grebe, stranded in the fire zone, finds freedom and the safety of the sea in Humboldt Bay.
If necessary, our staff will organize a pickup point near the evacuation areas. If you have a an injured wild animal in your possession or care, we want to help you get that animal the care and treatment they need and deserve. Let us know. We can and we will help. Report fire-impacted wild animals on our hotline 707 822 8839. And please, be as careful and as safe as you can be.
As always, our work is dependent on the support of our community. Without you, our doors would close forever. Please donate if you can. Thank You!!!
We’ve fallen behind in reporting on our hectic Summer season, due in part to the global coronavirus pandemic, and also to our sudden huge increase in patients over previous Summers. So let us take a breath, slip away from the clinic and our never-ending tasks and catch you up with some of our cases and releases from over the hectic baby season. Here’s a little tune to accompany you.
https://youtu.be/UdYGRnM8JN4
Three of the six young Gray Foxes (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) we provided care for at Humboldt Wildlfie Care Center, Summer 2020.A young fox surveys their freedom after release.Orphaned Gray Fox at release performs the title song from the smash hit Broadway musical, Into the Woods. No Zoom app required.Two nestling Great Blue Herons (Ardea herodias), blown from their tree during a late Spring wind storm, get the hang of eating human caregiver delivered fish.In the early days of the Herons’ care we offered their fish on long hemostats. Quickly they began picking up their fish all by themselves. Soon after that they were hunting live fish in a pool.Launching into flight at the release site, just south of the Hoopa Reservation, where the two Herons came from. Covid 19 restrictions kept us from taking them all the way home, so a few miles from home would have to suffice.Great Blue Heron puts a lot of distance between themself and the humans who tried their best to provide good care. We did our jobs. But the stench of humanity still lingers…Caspian Tern (Hydroprogne caspia) in care: This Tern was found struggling in the surf. Without any injuries and in good body condition, we presumed the problem was an accidental dunking. After a few days of fish and rest, this bird who barks like a cat was raring to go!Released back to Humboldt Bay, where a large colony of Caspian Terns raise their young every year, this beautiful bird was one good tern…As the saying goes, one good Tern photo deserves another. Each year mother Mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) make their nests near Humboldt Bay and other bodies of water and every year when they lead their precocial babies to that water they have to cross roads. Mayhem ensues. Of the 24 orphaned Mallards we treated this year, 16 of them were found on the highway with their dead mother. Caring for Mallard babies until they can be released is a privilege, but returning them to the wild that is a lustrous green carpet of duckeed is one of life’s marvels. The Arcata Marsh, home to many ducks and aquatic birds, is rich with nutritious and natural duck food.Nature is perfect.A juvenile Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis), very thin and full of lice was admitted this Summer after she turned up on a farm in Arcata (very out of place). Here she is being checked out after 27 days in care. A release exam is given to all our patients before we return them to their wild freedom. Dylan says that ‘to live outside the law you must be honest’ – well, maybe so, but you also must be as fit as a fiddle.In our Pelican Aviary, this 3 months old female is flying well again!After being found in a field with dairy cows in the Arcata Bottoms, our former patient is ready for a world of flight, salt water, diving and the company of her kind.
There is no getting around that 2020 has been a very difficult year, for our clinic, for our staff, for our community, for our nation, for the world. Yet, in these really difficult days, we’ve treated, as of this writing, September 10, 1,227 patients. Right now we’ve treated 300 more patients, year to date, in our small hospital on Humboldt Bay than any year in our 41 year history.
In March, as the pandemic was first hitting, it seemed entirely possible that our mission would be crushed under the weight of so much turmoil and uncertainty. It seemed possible that we wouldn’t make it through the Summer. But in fact, we’ve not only kept our doors open, we’ve managed to handle thousands of phone calls that often are better than the hands-on care we provide since these consultations and house calls prevent injuries and keep wild families together. We’ve learned as we went along how to do our work with a skeleton crew and with a shoestring budget. We’ve learned how to communicate effectively, how to keep our cool, how to appreciate the beauty and humor of life without seeing each other’s smiles or laughter. And none of this would have been possible without your support.
By the end of this month we will have treated more patients at HWCC than any previous year and we’ll still have three months to go. We have no idea how disastrous the rest of the year might be, or if we’ll ever return to what used to be normal. But as we’ve all been learning, we’ll keep on keeping on. Our wild neighbors will continue to have a place where they can be treated, cared for, and when possible, released back to their wild freedom. This is our commitment and promise and with your continued support we’ll keep it.
The Pandemic year is putting our facility at risk. As our human community grapples with the health and economic challenges of COVID19, donations have fallen sharply even as our admissions of wild animals in need is up nearly 20% over last year! WE NEED YOUR HELP BADLY!
2020 began in turmoil. First of all, as wildlife centered caregivers, the fires in Australia, with their incalculable toll on wild animals was difficult to watch without understanding that climate chaos threatened all that we hold closest to our hearts, all that gives life on our beautiful green Earth meaning.
Second of all, our fundraising in 2019 did not keep pace with our caseload, which had increased over 2018 by nearly 15%! We finished the year, down $8000 from our usual yearly amount, and short of our actual needs.
And then, in February, it became apparent that the novel coronavirus, COVID 19, was going to impact our daily lives here in Humboldt County.
In early March we put our volunteer and intern programs on haitus, reducing clinic staffing to the few members of our paid part-time crew, and myself, the director. We hoped, naively, that a few weeks would see us return to our usual Spring and Summer.
Needless to say, its been anything but usual.
Our caseload is heavier than any year in HWCC history. We wondered how the pandemic would impact our work, speculating that people might not be out and about as much and therefore finding fewer orphaned or injured wild animals. But such is not the case at all. As I write this, just past noon on July 28, we’ve admitted 940 patients this year so far, about 170 more patients than last year to this date. 170 is the number of patients we typically admit in our busiest months, June and July – so this year it’s like we got an extra June thrown in with our regular June.
This year we are treating well over a dozen orphaned seabirds, mostly Common Murres and Rhinoceros Auklets, over a dozen Black-tailed Deer fawns, we’ve cared for and released two dozen orphaned Mallard ducklings and nearly a dozen Canada Goslings – many House Finches, White crowned Sparrows, Violet Green Swallows, – we’ve provided care and housing to more baby Robins this year than the last 8 years combined! With our masks on and hearts engaged we’ve helped nearly 30 homeowners and renters peacefully resolve a wildlife conflict, keeping wild families together.
Our staff is well-trained, dedicated, and willing to make sacrifices. The long hours are part of the job, as are the joys and the heartbreaks. But this pandemic year is asking more than we are able to give. We can summon the energy to rise to the occasion, to meet the challenge of our tasks, but we can’t print our own money. When the electric bill (thankfully shut-offs are postponed during the pandemic) and the water bill come due, no amount of staff member sacrifice will be accepted as currency. We need money.
I don’t particularly like discussing the details. But they go like this. Every year we set a goal for our fundraising. Every year we fall short. In 2011, when I came to HWCC, we had an annual budget of about $50,000 a year, one paid staff member and almost no patient housing, no pools for seabirds, no aviaries for raptors or ravens, no place for raccoons or opossums, no waterfowl aviary for ducks and geese.
Since 2015, we’ve raised about $110,000 each year, with which we developed our facility as best as we can within our space and financial limits, and added part-time staff to our crew. Our caseload has risen from 900 animals per year in 2010 to last year’s high of 1332 wild animals in need. We’ve added important services which reduce the number of injured and orphaned wild neighbors, such as advocating for policies that protect the Wild, and most critically, our humane solutions program which peacefully resolves human/wild conflicts keeping wild families together – this helps stop illegal trapping of wild mothers, like Raccoons, and stops their babies from becoming orphans.
Now here we are, the end of July, and we are more than $22,000 behind our most recent years. This is serious. We cannot sustain such a deficit for long.
Every day when people bring us injured wild animals they’ve found, they often say, “Oh my god, we’re so glad you’re here, we didn’t know what to do.” When this pandemic started, and businesses were first being closed, and medical supplies became hard to get, I voiced to close friends my private fear that the turmoil caused by the novel coronavirus could swamp our small wildlife hospital and few would even mourn our passing in the greater losses all around us.
But we are still here, and we have a hundered patients currently in our care, and probably another five hundred coming before this year is over. We cannot disappear! I promise that I and the rest of HWCC/bax staff and interns (we brought a few back in June) will be here – caring for our patients as best we can. Quality care though, depends on people who are able to help us out with the things that we can only get with money. Please donate! Please dont let the only wildlife hospital serving Humboldt, Trinity, Del Norte and Mendocino counties be another casualty of COVID19.
It’s a chaotic time in the world and in America especially, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic striking right when public leadership at the highest level in this country is at odds with public health. Every single day Humboldt Wildife Care Center/bird ally x opens our doors to the needs of our wild neighbors and no matter how frightening the times, our dedicated staff show up and get the job done. This is the first in a series of quick posts to catch up the news of our mission.
Here we are, past mid-July, and our pandemic year is only intensifying. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to take the time to write about our work. We rarely have time for more than a brief social media post to keep our supporters aware of how things are going. Our volunteer program remains in hiatus – to protect them, but also to protect our clinic and our mission. Our small wildlife hospital on Humboldt Bay is the only thing of its kind across three counties and we must stay covid-free. Most days we are grossly understaffed. On top of that our caseload is greater than ever – we’ve already provided care for nearly 900 wild neighbors this year to date! Since its founding in 1979, HWCC has not treated so many patients in one 6 and a half month period. In 2013 we treated just over 900 animals for the whole year!
Through our humane solutions program, we’ve helped keep dozens of wild families together, preventing senseless deaths of mother raccoons and skunks, and protecting their babies from becoming orphans. Still, even with these efforts, we currently have more than 75 orphaned wild babies in care.
Right now we are caring for 11 Black-tailed Deer fawns, 14 baby Raccoons, a dozen Striped Skunk babies. Two days we ago released four young American Robins we’d cared for since they were nestlings. We’ve treated Western Gray Squirrels, Deer mice, Opossums, various species of Swallows. Today or tomorrow we’ll be releasing 2 young Great Blue Herons whose nest was destroyed in the windstorm of mid-May. Now they are fully grown and able to hunt for their own fish. We’ll be taking them back to the Trinity River.
For the last two months, four young Gray foxes have been growing up in our care. The stage where we provide them live crickets to begin their lessons in providing their own meals has begun. The joy of helping these young intelligent predators reach their true destiny is indescribable. Pictures help!
Four Gray fox kits warily watch their caregiver as she prepares to capture them for their weekly examination. Keeping these wild predators wild is critical to their successful release!
Currently we also have 3 baby Common Murres in care, and several more brought to us as they were dying. Sad as this is, it might be a good sign for the local population of Common Murres, as the last few years their breeding colonies had largely failed, and this might mean that there are more babies making it to sea this year.
Not only our increased workload with decreased staffing has cost us, though; a huge stress has been the funding. As the pandemic has hit our human economy hard, it has taken a toll on the resources available for our wild neighbors, wild neighbors who are in our care because of what the human built world has done to them. It’s been hard to ask for financial support during a time of such economic stress, but we aren’t going to be run on magic forever. We do have a real electric bill, water bill, rent bill, fish bill, staff wages and more to pay. Right now we need your help. It’s critical.
To all who’ve been supporting us through this, thank you. Your contributions are more than material. You lift our spirits too.
Please contribute if you can. Every little bit helps.
