After 16 years of building our digital community of support, it’s time for us to reimagine and recreate a less toxic environment that reaches more people to secure the success of our mission!
Bird Ally X co-founder and Humboldt Wildlife Care Center/bax director, (me) talks about the successes of the past, the challenges of our present moment, and our commitment to the future.
Your support is critical. Without you, we are nearly paralyzed. Please help us meet this years;a challenges – wild baby season is well under way!
Thank you for everything, especially your love for the Wild, and of course, our Wild Neighbors.
Special to our website, Humboldt WIldlife Care Center’s Assistant Wildlife Rehabilitation Manager, Lucinda Adamson, tells the story of a pretty usual patient.
Working at a wildlife rehabilitation facility, you never know what to expect when answering the phone. Often it’s someone who has found a sick or injured animal and they are hoping they’ve found the correct place to bring the animal. They have! Sometimes it’s someone who is having a conflict with a wild animal in or around their house. We can help with that too! And then there’s the myriad of other calls that are impossible to predict. In late March, one of those unusual calls came in when someone called asking for help with an interesting situation…there was a Ringtail stuck in a washing machine.
A Ringtail in a washing machine? We repeated to make sure we had heard that correctly. Ringtails are not the most common animal to encounter. Although not rare, the small nocturnal carnivores are solitary and elusive, not often seen. We have treated only 6 Ringtails at Humboldt Wildlife Care Center since 2012.
Gathering more information from the caller, we learned that they were an employee at the recycling center in McKinleyville. The Ringtail had been discovered while they were processing an old washing machine that had recently been dropped off. This changed the scenario quite a bit. If the Ringtail had been found trapped where they lived, then leaving the machine open and providing a ramp for the animal to climb out on their own is usually the first advice we give. This is a common scenario with large holes in the ground, foundational window wells, dumpsters, etc. But this individual was potentially far removed from their home, and not knowing how long they had been trapped, we needed to evaluate their health before anything else could happen.
Safely capturing the small, fast, agile animal without getting bit and without the Ringtail getting loose and lost amongst all the large trucks and piles of debris at the recycling center could be a very challenging task. We sent an experienced rescue team out right away armed with nets, sheets, leather gloves, and excited well wishes. While no one ever wants to see any animal in distress, it’s still an undeniably rare experience and perk of the job to be able to see and help unique animals like a Ringtail when they are in need.
When staff arrived at the recycling center, we found the employee who had called standing guard over the washing machine in question. Fortunately, he had been keeping watch to make sure no one else accidentally moved the machine and ensuring the Ringtail didn’t get lost or become further injured. Wearing our leather gloves and with the net held at the ready in case the animal made a break for it, we cautiously opened the lid while simultaneously covering the opening with the sheet so we could safely evaluate the situation.
Coming eye to eye with the Ringtail, we first noted that they were, thankfully, fairly alert. Great for their overall health but it could make catching them more difficult. They must have been quite scared as the sounds of heavy machinery moving large piles of metal in the large warehouse were deafeningly loud. Luckily, with the confidence of many years experience handling wild animals, we were able to safely and quickly grab the frightened Ringtail and secure them in a box to transport them back to our clinic in Manila. We were also very fortunate to learn that the employees knew that this particular washing machine had come down from Hoopa, which would prove invaluable information when it came time to release the Ringtail back where they belonged.
Upon initial exam, our staff rehabilitators discovered that this adult male was slightly thin and moderately dehydrated but had no physical injuries. With his trademark tail longer than his body, big round eyes and short ears, he was ridiculously cute! Treating his dehydration was first on the agenda. Subcutaneous fluids were provided to overcome his hydration deficit. He was otherwise stable so we moved him to outside housing where he could have more privacy and de-stress from his ordeal. Almost immediately he climbed the wall and found a high spot where he could feel safer. A varied diet of rats, fruit, and insects was offered which he readily ate.
Over the next few days we monitored the Ringtail’s hydration, providing more fluid support as needed. We ran lab tests and treated his parasites.
Within a week, his condition had improved dramatically and it was time to take him back to his mountain home in Hoopa. Once his box was opened in a small forest clearing, he wasted little time observing his new surroundings before he ran from his box and into the cover of brush.
It was an honor to be able to provide the care he needed and return him to the place where he belonged. Thank you so much for supporting our work so we can continue to help our wild neighbors in need.
Our annual holiday card! Just mailed out today! You’re support is so important to us – you make everything possible! Thank for another beuatiful year caring for our region’s orphaned and injured wild animals. It’s been a good one. It’s been a tough one. Please help if you can.
Late on a Friday afternoon, a woman walking past a shuttered restaurant heard something that made her stop. Looking around she found the source – a large bin filled with old cooking oil – and also containing two juvenile raccoons. She called Humboldt Wildlife Care Center. Staff immediately was dispatched .
On scene we found two raccoons trapped in a large bin that contained several gallons of used cooking oil. We were saddened to find one of the raccoons had drowned.
The living raccoon was completely soaked in cooking oil. A small, juvenile male, he was in a lousy mood. With the oil soaking his fur he was cold and hungry. Tomorrow we could determine a course of treatment and determine the strategy for bathing him, but for the night we set him up with heat support and a decent meal. Perhaps many wouldn’t agree, but the raccoon found the whole fish, the egg, the live mealworms and the frozen rat we’d thawed for him to be appetizing. In the morning the food was gone.
We kept him indoors with heat support and food for a couple of days to make sure he was strong and ready to be washed. His size was working out in his favor. He was small enough that experienced staff members had no difficulty restraining him while he was lathered up with dish detergent (seventh generation free and clear) and rinsed of the foul smelling old oil which had darkened the suds and fouled the tub.
And then the bomb cyclone hit. This gave us plenty of opportunity to ensure that his fur would again protect him from the elements – the several days pre- and post-wash were good for his weight too. He’s a good looking raccoon and he looked it, even in the rain. A week after he’d been found in a situation that surely would have killed him without intervention, we released back to his wild freedom, a second chance in his grasp.
Disappearing into the real right before our eyes…
Your support, of course is why there was a place for the person who discovered this guy trapped in oil to call. Your support is what gave this raccoon a second shot. Your support is why a facility to properly provide his care exists. Thank you for helping us meet our mission, serving our region’s injured, orphaned (and sometimes half-drowned in cooking oil) wild animals in need of helping hand.
Thanks to many donors, building our much needed raptor aviary is now underway!
Many supporters contributed with donation since our call went out in August for help. Thank you so much. And very recently, Cal Poly Humboldt professor of marketing Dr. Sarita Ray Chaudhury, who put us over the finish line with a $5000 dollar donation!
Many other donors have provided substantial help rebuilding our facility, a project that still has some distance to go before we are finished! Our colleagues at Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue have generously supported our rebuild as have Julie Buchanan and more!
Our busy Summer is winding to a close and now begins our season of building projects!
Still to come: A Pelican, Gull and Cormorant Aviary (the PGC!) (estimated cost, $7000) Small Mammal Housing! (estimated cost $4000) Specialty Aviary for Swifts and Swallows! (estimated cost $4000) Laundry facility (estimated cost $6000)
We have big plans and major goals for the future of Humboldt Wildlife Care Center. An on-staff veterinarian with a well equipped surgical suite is a must! Our goal is to have this capability, thereby reducing the number of patients who we must transport to other parts of the state for critical surgical needs, by early 2026 – that’s only 18 months away!
In other words, while great progress is being made, we still have some distance to go. Your support is still needed, and in fact will always be needed! Thank you for helping us meet our mission of rehabilitating injured and orphaned wild animals. And thank you for your love of the wild!
A Beechcraft Bonanza is not as stylish or formidable as a Bald Eagle, but still it was with a certain amount of panache that the two-tone brown, trim and speedy plane touched down on the runway of the California Redwood Coast- Humboldt County Airport the early afternoon of August 7. Since the aircraft was bearing precious cargo in the form of one very important Humbodt County resident, a male Bald Eagle who resides with us here on Humboldt Bay, quoting Neil Armstrong to mark the occasion of his happy return home was only natural, perhaps even required: The Eagle Has Landed.
The Eagle is landing at the airport in Humboldt County…
The neat little plane, owned by Eric and Cindi Choate, was flown by Eric and carried, besides the Bald Eagle, Cindi, and Luis “Lou” Rivas of Flying Tails, an animal rescue organization founded by San Francisco Bay area news anchor and private pilot, Ken Wayne. Flying Tails has a remarkable list of achievements over the years, flying animals in need of help or rescue all around the state. Flying Tails has gotten many wildlife rehabilitation patients into care and released back to the wild.
As it happens, Mr Wayne’s plane was being serviced on the day of the Eagle flight, so Lou was able to secure a ride with his friend, Eric, who also happens to be a Civil Air Patrol volunteer.
Not the aircraft in question, but it was just like this one…. a real cutie-pie!
On the first of July is when this Eagle’s story in care begins. As so often happens in our work, it began with a phone call to Humboldt Wildlife Care Center/bird ally x. The caller was reporting that a Bald Eagle appeared to be injured in their driveway. The Eagle had been there all morning and they had seen blood on one of their wings.
We launched a crew to investigate. I took one of our seasonal rehabilitation techs, Na’Mae Gray, with me to help with the rescue as well as learn the techniques of injured raptor capture. I wasn’t convinced yet that we were going to find an Eagle. Eagle calls are much more less common than false alarm Eagle calls. Every wildlife rehabilitator can you tell about the time a caller brought them what they said was a Bald Eagle baby who turned out to be a nestling Pigeon.
But in fact the injured bird was indeed an adult Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)! And while he couldn’t fly, he could run like the dickens. Around the ferns in the forest above Cal Poly I chased the Eagle with Na’Mae blocking possible escape routes. Shortly I caught the wise and wily bird in my long handled net – soon he was in our crate to be transported back to our clinic in Manila. (Remember we are at a new location: 68 Mill St in Manila!)
In our exam room, HWCC staff rehabilitator Ash Shields got a chance to help with their first Bald Eagle admission examination. Although my first time was nearly 25 years ago in Seattle, I can still remember the thrill and anxiousness of holding a Bald Eagle in my hands the first time. I mean I can remember the thrill from my first time seeing a Bald Eagle in the wild (near Shasta). I knew that Ash was probably feeling a complicated mix of excitement, fear and responsibility. “I was nervous,” they said, “but in awe of the strength this eagle had, and how powerful of a bird they are!”
During the exam, we found nothing really major wrong with him. We did note his slightly smaller stature, which we took to mean that this bird is a male. He was in decent body condition. There was some bleeding from a couple of his primary feathers, but no fractures. Still, a grounded Eagle has no future – dehydration and then starvation would claim him without our intervention. It seemed like the most he would need was food and time in an aviary recovering his ability to fly. The people who found him said he’d had a fish with him they first discovered him. We conjectured that he’d tangled with an Osprey over that fish and that the Osprey had managed to get their own licks in, even though they’d lost the fish. It’s a tough old world.
Opening our transport crate to get the Eagle out for his admission examination.Ash Shields, holding a Bald Eagle for the first time, is an asset to our field. Yes, that’s a halo above their head.Palpating the shoulders for injuries, swelling or anything that might explain the matter. It takes the three of us, – Ash, myself and those are Na’Mae Gray’s hands helping keep the Eagle still by holding his head and right wing.The Eagle is in pretty good shape overall.
Needing aviary time, however simple a treatment plan, still presented us with a problem. Our eagle aviary was lost in our move from Bayside to Manila and we haven’t yet rebuilt it. (want to help rebuild our raptor aviary? donate here!) Sure, with your help we’ve rebuilt a lot in the last 18 months, but we still have a lot more to do! And this bird didn’t have time to wait for the end of our hectic wild baby season – no doubt he had his own baby season he needed to get back to. His partner was now a single parent.
Fortunately, just a four-hour drive South, is Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue. Their executive director, Doris Duncan, and I have know each other for nearly twenty years. At SCWR they treat thousands of wild patients each year, as well as maintain impressive programs to promote co-existence with our wild neighbors for rural, agricultural, suburban and urban areas. I reached out to Doris and she readily agreed to help us with this Eagle. The next day Bird Ally X co-founder and chief photographer administrator and general utility player, Laura Corsiglia and Ash took the drive to Petaluma and SCWR to deliver one Bald Eagle in need of an aviary and some quality care.
On site at Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue.SCWR is a beautiful facility. HWCC is working hard to finish building our capacity in order to meet the needs of our patients.
Doris Duncan of SCWR is a fantastic resource for wildlife rehabilitation, and she’s an excellent advocate for our profession. With her organization, she has also supported our work here in Humboldt County helping us when we were building and expanding our capacity at the old Bayside site.
After about 4 weeks, she texted me that the Eagle was ready for release. It was thrilling news! We started to arrange a team (probably Laura and one of our staff) to drive down to Petaluma to get him!
I texted Doris that we were ready to travel, but she replied, “No need! Flying Tails will bring your Eagle home!”
And there we were, on the 7 of August, at the airport, waiting for the Eagle to land. Our release site would be a field very close to the capture site, not 300 yards away, which happened to be at the home of one our board members, Lisken Rossi, as well as her parents (and HWCC supporters), Gail and Tony.
(l-r) Laura, Ash, Na’mae, waiting for our ship to come in at the airport with a very long name, in one of the very few pictures not taken by Laura.Lou, of Flying Tails (foreground) and the pilot Eric bring the Bald Eagle out from the hangar where they’ve left the lovely little Beechcraft.Cindi Choate and Na’mae leave restricted areas in pursuit of the Eagle’s return to freedomThe ground crew meets the air crew!At the release site, Ash and Na’mae carry the crate to the field of the Eagle’s dreams.Na’Mae waits for the Eagle to emerge!And suddenly he decides to fly!The Eagle left the crate and flew out of the field and about 60 feet up into a nearby Redwood, where he reclaimed his mastery of all he surveyed!Happy staff! Alondra Cardena, Ash and Na’Mae enjoy the successful release!Alondra shares her video of the Eagle leaving the crate with Ash and Na’Mae – and they make a fine staff group photo at the same time! Below is the video Alondra shot.
This Bald Eagle’s rescue was very much a group effort. The concerned callers who originally found the injured Eagle, HWCC/bax, Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue and Ken Wayne’s Flying Tails all worked together to give this beloved member of the Humboldt Bay community a second chance.
Of course, we are very committed to being able to provide quality care here in our region for all the wild patients we serve, so that means we need your help continuing to rebuild our capacity after our swiftly done relocation last year. So far, with your help we’ve been able to make great strides in building back our capacity and expanding it over what we had lost! Our new yard for orphaned fawns is a perfect example of our improved facility, made possible with your support. Our new waterfowl aviary is as well. A raptor aviary is next on the list. With your help we’ll soon get it done! Thank you for making our work possible!
It was the evening of March 31 that we were having a class on hatchling and nestling care for our staff and volunteers. Part of the material in the class was the approximate dates that we tend to start admitting certain species. Roughly, we had until the last few days of April, most years, before Mallard ducklings would begin to emerge. Nestling and fledgling songbirds start coming in about two weeks later.
As an aside to that, we talked about things that we would prioritize to complete in the next few weeks in preparation for the season before all of our time would be taken up by patient care.
The season had other plans. Three days later, April 2, our first hatchling ducks started to come in.
I often tell staff that the two gods I pray to are Necessity and Dumb Luck. I love them both. Necessity tells me what’s next and Dumb Luck helps make it happen sometimes, maybe, you can hope. Necessity said next up is a duckling pond for baby ducks old enough to be housed outside but who still need the heat support that would have been provided by their mother. Necessity also gave us a week to build it.
The part needed that isn’t Necessity or Dumb Luck is no god. That’s where each of us comes in. Elbow grease. Commitment. Community support. By the end of April we finished putting up a waterfowl aviary and adjacent smaller duckling pond, our first since moving to Manila in March of 2023. Maybe what I mean by Dumb Luck is the aspect of our work that requires us to believe that what is necessary will be done, because it must be done. In hindsight, after the accomplishment, one feels enormous gratitude, and also very lucky.
As it happened, the season just got busier and busier from April 2 on – by the end of the week, were getting very tiny Virginia Opossum babies whose mothers had been killed by cars or dogs. By April 11 we had tiny raccoon babies, who had been taken from their mother when their den was uprooted during some “brush removal” in Del Norte County, 80 miles north of us. With neonatal mammals, the feedings are as close to around the clock as we can manage – an inescapable part of parenting, as every parent knows – that we recreate as best as we are able.
So here we are, just past the midway point of the Season of wild orphans – we’ve been working 14 hour days for more than three months now. We still have about two months to go. The fact that we’ve even made it his far is in every way because of your support. Support that stays critical. We still have so much more to come this Season, and we still have a lot to complete to bring our facility back to its proper capacity. Your help is going to keep being needed, hopefully forever. If you can please donate to keep our season going, our doors open, our utilities paid, our food delivered, our medicines covered – our needs met. We do a lot on a little – we can do even more on more. Thank you!!!
Please take a look at our slide show of photographs from what so far has been, it cannot be denied, a WILD WILD BABY SEASON.
Our duckling pond and waterfowl aviary were completed just in time for the 30 Mallards and 6 Gadwalls we’ve treated so far this year! These Mallards are being released into the same lake where we gatherd the duckweed we offered them while in care.
We treated 11 Canada goslings this year! Each baby is big!!
Mid-May we admitted a Pigeon Guillemot who had derelict fishing line tangled around their body. After removing the line providing some time in our new seabird pool, we took them back to Trinidad to resume the baby season, no doubt an important member of the baby feeding team.
Every now and again we admit Western Spotted Skunks! These young skunks were found in Del Norte County and through a series of volunteer drivers, were transported to our clinic on Humboldt Bay. We had them in care for a month until they were ready to face the wild on their own. We took them back to Crescent City.
After a month in care these orphaned Western Spotted Skunks were released near the location they had been originally found.
Re-uniting fledgling songbirds with their families is one of our important tasks all Season long. This Cedar Waxwing fledgling was soon the object of great concern when we brought the young bird back to their nest’s location. Adult Waxwings immediately took charge of the situation.
An adult Cedar Waxwing watches with great interest when weput a Waxwing fledgling we believe is their baby back where the rescuer found them.
Soon after realizing their baby was back, the parents immediately began to offer food!
There is no joy like the joy of reuniting families.
A juvenile Steller’s Jay is released back into the Community Forest where they were found as a nestling on the ground. All corvids are challenging patients in the same way as all gifted and talented children. This Jay was no different – bold, bright and curious!
Every year we provide care for a few to half a dozen orphaned Gray Fox kits. They eat a lot of rats! Frozen rats cost anywhere from two to four dollars each. When the kits are eating 6 a day, that adds up fast!
Two brother foxes, who came in when they were still fluffballs with their eyes only recently opened, were released in Mid-July.
Foxes are amazing animals. They climb like cats, look like dogs, and bark and hiss and scream. Once while we were picking these guys up to do a routine examination, a wild and free adult Gray Fox came near our outdoor fox housing to see what was the matter. Thanks to your suppoort we were able to provide them their needs while they learned to hunt and care for themselves.
A Red-shouldered hawk, no doubt with a nest and parental duties, was struck by a car on 299, near North Bank Rd. Amazingly the raptor had no injuries! After a day of observation, we returned the hawk to their neighborhood along the Batowat just north of Arcata.
We’ve treated over half a dozen Brown Pelicans, in a small mirror of the pelican mortality event that occurred in much greater numbers further South, from the Bay area to San Diego. This juvenile Pelican came in emaciated and very cold. Once stable and ready to be housed outdoors, we converted our recently completed waterfowl aviary to meet the needs of a recovering Pelican. After three weeks of rest and plenty of fish, the big young bird was ready to return to Humbold Bay and beyond. The photos that follow are the in sequence of his release on the Samoa Penminsula.
A month ago, a biologist working out past Willow Creek found a Trukey Vulture baby on the ground in the forest. We’ve had the bird in care for a month now, and let’s just say it takes a lot of carrion to make a grown up Turkey vulture! For a short time, we were able to house this baby with an adult Turkey vulture. The arrangement seemed to work out for both of them.
An adult Turkey Vulture was found by the side of the road in Fortuna. When our staff arrived on the scene, the bird was very lethargic, barely able to move. Several times over the first few days of care, it seemed they were about to die. But with fluids, nutrition and rest, soon the vulture was awake and alert. Within a week they were strong enough to feed themself. After three weeks, they were ready for the open sky!
We took the Vulture back to Fortuna and released them by the banks of the Eel River.
Every once in a while we get a call about a Bald Eagle in trouble. Even less frequently, the animal in trouble actually is an eagle! Grounded, with minor injuries in the woods just east of Arcata, we beleive this adult, presumably male Bald Eagle had tangled with an Osprey over the rightful ownership of some fish.
Staff member Ash Shields, in the moment when they are holding an injured eagle for an exam for the first time in their life. The occasion is momentous.
The chance to examine any wild patient is also a chance to teach and to learn. Every patient has something to teach us. This Bald Eagle was no different.
Because our facility isn’t finished being rebuilt after our move last year, we transferred the Eagle to Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue for further recuperation in their large aviary. When the handsome fellow is ready for release, he will come back to Humboldt. Members of Arcata’s dedicated birding community have reached out to us, hoping to be reassured about the his prognosis. While nothing is certain until release, we beleive that this Eagle has a very excellent chance of soaring again soon over Humboldt Bay. Meanwhile, we are hoping to begin building a new large aviary here by the end of Summer. Your help will make that possible!
We really need your help to keep going this Summer. We still have 2 months or more left of the Season and several hundred animals to admit. Please help us help our wild neighbiors in need! Thank you so much!!!!
(Manila) – A young man is a step closer to earning his Eagle Scout badge after raising $1,400 for Humboldt WIldlife Care Center!
The young man, Quentin Chase (17) worked with McKinleyville Ace to support the only wildlife hospital on the North Coast with hot dog sales on three Sundays of the Summer, with the proceeds to benefit our clinic!
McKinleyville Ace Hardware provided the space for this fundraiser put together by Eagle Scout candidate Quentin Chase! McKinleyville has helped HWCC before with wildlife rescues!Eagle Scout candidate Quentin Chase and Bird Ally X co-founder, Laura Corsiglia at the booth for HWCC at McKinleyville Ace Hardware.
When asked why he chose HWCC as the beneficiary of his effort, Quentin said, “I was thinking of the wild animals that get injured yearly and thought the money would go for a good cause.” giving up three Sundays in the Summer to sell hot dogs at the local Ace Hardware definitely requires commitment, but QUentin did much more than that! For those hours on those Sundays Quentin was representative of the idea that our wild neighbors in need deserve a place to receive treatment. And he not only advocated for our wild neighbors, but he accomplished palpable results! Beside his time tabling for HWCC and selling hot dogs, Quentin also put in some hard work helping to get our Racoon patient housing at our new facility finished!
“My favorite part was doing the work to get to the end,” Quentin said, “like raising the money and building some of the cage.”
Quentin said, “It’s rewarding to make something happen to give to someone else. I’m especially glad that the raccoons will have a chance of survival in the wild when they are released.”
Quentin Chase presents HWCC/bax director with checks for $1400 from donations raised, plus hot dog sales!
An orphaned Raccoon raised at Humboldt Wildlife Care Center a few moments after being released back into the wild.
For the future, Quentin said, “I hope that there is more wilderness, and wild animals will return safely over time to regrow the animal populations.”
For us at HWCC, Quentin’s hard work, compassion and generosity meant a signicant boost in a challenging time! His contribution helped us make significant progress rebuilding our facility after needing to re-locate. When asked what the experience meant to him, Quentin said, “I learned that it means a lot to others when you give up time out of your day to help others in need.” Characteristic of this thoughtful young man, he added, “Thank you for helping me go through this whole project, and thank you to the crew that help wildlife in need.”
Love for the wild is as natural as getting born. Turning into a fine young person ready to chip in and help takes some commitment. Knowing that our young people are ready to join us oldsters and take up the challenge of building a beautiful future while we help restore the damage our society has caused the Wild is a more important gift than proceeds and a day’s labor, important though they are! We really thank Quentin Chase for his commitment and follow-
through and very real contribution that made a big difference for the wild patients of our region. We’re glad to know that Quentin’s generation is coming, and they are ready to work!
If you want to follow this young man’s committed and generous example, please do so!! You can donate today to help wild animals in care today, tomorrow and sustainably into the future.
Every patient in our care has been through a traumatic experience, and had we our druthers, we’d wish that it had never happened and we never saw them in our clinic – their wild, free lives uninterrupted by human society.
Stil, providing care for young Swallows is a transcendental joy and a supreme privilege. This summer so far we’ve admitted scores of Swallows – Barn swallows (Hirundo rustica), Cliff swallows (Petrochelidon pyrrhonota), and Violet-green swallows (Tachycineta thalassina). Of the swallows admitted, 24 were nestlings (still in the nest, not fully feathered) or fledglings (fully feathered but still need a parent and may have just left the nest or may have fallen out too soon).
Of those 24, two are currently in care and 20 thrived and made it back to wild freedom!
Providing care for all of our patients is a joy and a privilege. Swallows can’t help it that their elegance and grace and delightful personalities are so terrific! For me, personally, stepping into the aviary to feed them is like a restorative vacation in the middle of the incredible caseload of Summer. Most of them are out there now, meeting their intended destiny. And the reason we had the aviary, had the food, and had the facility to provide their care is because of your support. Thank you for making our work possible!