Help us reach our August goal. We need to raise $7000 this month to keep up with our busiest year so far! Please help!
2016 has been a busy year. Since Bird Ally X took over the management of Humboldt Wildlife Care Center five years ago, nearly every year has been busier than the one before, the exception being 2012, when we we spent the summer months caring for over 250 fish waste contaminated Brown pelicans in addition to the normal injured and orphaned wild animals that we treat.
2016 is set to topple even that record. As of the first of August, our annual caseload is the heaviest it has ever been. Yet, there is no particular crisis this year, such as 2012’s Brown Pelican disaster, no seabird wrecks, such as we had in October 2014 when we took in nearly 100 storm-tossed and hungry juvenile Western Grebes. No, 2016 has been as normal as normal gets. Each day is another ordinary day in the life of our clinic, just 15% busier than any other day… 15% more expenses, 15% more work, 15% more care provided, 15% more heartache, 15% more joy – 15% more need.
Summer is always a struggle for us financially. Right now we are going through 25 dollars of fish each day, 15 dollars of goat milk, 10 dollars of medicine, 12 dollars of electricity, 14 dollars of rent, 100 dollars of salary, 3 dollars of phone, 10 dollars of baby formula, and 10 dollars of facility maintenance. That’s 200 dollars each day to operate the only native wildlife hospital from Laytonville to the Oregon border, from the Pacific Ocean to Weaverville – an area the size of New Jersey!
Raccoons learn to forage in captivity to prepare them for a life of freedom.
It might not look like much, but this tiny concrete river is where the orphaned raccoons in our care learn to fish! Check out this video from last year of one of our released raccoons immediately catching a fish within her first minutes of freedom!
A very young Opossum about to be fed replacement formula. Soon she’ll be weaned. Opossums grow up fast! In just a few more weeks she’ll be released to her wild and free life!
Osprey uses new feathers to fly in our aviary. It won’t be long before we make the trek back to Lewiston Lake, where this intense, plunge diving raptor was found after losing his feather to a power line fire.
Common Murre (Uria aalge) with a head wound recuperates in our newest seabird pool. Soon “he” will be joined by our three orphaned Murres. Common Murres are often generous with their concern for murre chicks not their own.
Three orphaned Common Murres soon to be introduced to the adult Murre.
A raccoon heads for a quiet place to eat her fish… This youngster still has a t least a month inc are before she will be ready for release.
Your support is the only thing that keeps us going. Your support is the difference between our region being able to provide care for our wild neighbors who are either orphaned or injured by their contact with the human-built world. Please help us keep going. We need you, our wild neighbors need you, our human neighbors need you. If we raise $7000 in August, we’ll be able to cover our expenses plus pay for food and medicine expenses that we’ve already incurred since our busy wild baby season began. Please help us reach this goal. Thank you for your generous support, and mostly thank you for your love of the wild.
Photos: Laura Corsiglia/BAX
