[…]raccoons. Lacking a mother, their education falls on us. So we prepare our young patients to forage for appropriate, natural food, become familiar with natural features, even find fish in a stream in our simulated river that runs through our raccoon housing! Fruit is found on trees, insects in logs, fish in streams – this knowledge plus a healthy fear of human beings is our recipe for raccoon success. In some ways, we are in the same boat as our raccoon patients, struggling to live right, facing a separation from Mother Earth that we didn’t ask for yet need to […]
[…]after four months in care, learning as much about the wild world as they can in care. In these photos, taken by Laura Corsiglia, one our staff, Brooke Brown, releases three raccoons, two sisters and a male who was housed with them. It’s always a joy to see these bright young minds when they are first released into the blaze of reality. Your support makes our work protecting the young of the wild possible. Please help us keep our doors open and our wild neighbors in need with the care they deserve. Thank […]
[…]miles and a reliable rig that is also safe is something we’ve wanted to add to our resources for years. And now we have one! Now if you see a plain tan Volvo on the road, you never know, we just might be transporting a wild neighbor, who knows, a Northern Alligator Lizard or a Bald Eagle! Or we might just be on our way to the North Coast Co-op, again, for more supplies for our ever increasing Spring and Summer caseload. So to Fredyne and Gerald, who so generously passed their ride into our service, thank you! And you […]
[…]the Kure Stuyvesant Trust and support from the USFWS and California DFW. This poster is available for FREE while supplies last, plus shipping & handling. Available as a paper or all-weather vinyl poster. Free (plus $3.99 shipping & handling. Please note PayPal will charge $0.01 + […]
[…]the fledgling on a nearby branch Our reunite team backed up to allow the adults to feel more comfortable in approaching the young bird. In moments an adult female came down the fledgling and began to offer food. One of the great joys of wildlife rehabilitation is the chance to reunite families. Too often we aren’t able to get young back with their parents. In those cases we have good practices that help us raise healthy juveniles for release, but we don’t kid ourselves. NO one is a better hummingbird parent than a hummingbird’s parent. Making wild families whole again […]
[…]to opossum babies still coming in even this late in the year. Thank you for keeping us open, and for providing the only wildlife rehabilitation clinic on the North Coast, from northern Mendocino to the Oregon border. Want to help? Great, because we need it! You can donate here to help us meet our critical expenses, or if you want to join our team of volunteers, click here! all photos: Laura Corsiglia/ Bird Ally […]
[…]care we could provide was to end their suffering, but we don’t often take our supporters and community members through that process. It’s our task and we perform it as we need to, without regret, because it is a simple fact of wildlife rehabilitation that most of our work consists of ending the suffering of animals still alive but battered, sometimes beyond recognition, let alone repair. Also, we don’t often share the stories of animals who are still in care. The primary reason is that for wild animals, captivity itself is life threatening. The stress of being in a caregiver’s […]
[…]only the expenses of February, March and April, but we’ll enter May with the resources on hand and the facility prepared to begin meeting the following months, our busiest time, Half of the animals we treat in any year are admitted in June, July, and August. Your support this Spring will give us a strong place to stand as we enter the most difficult part of our year. Our community’s support is how we meet the challenge of treating hundreds of wild neighbors each year, helping resolve thousands of wildlife conflicts peacefully and prepare the next generation of wildlife caregivers. […]
[…]orphaned Mallards find safety under a heat lamp, huddled together with a feather duster as a comfort against the loss of their mother. Old playpens are very useful for small animal housing. They work for Mallard orphans exactly as they do for human children – keeping them safe and contained. Of course for ducklings, some crucial additions are needed – such as a small ‘pond’ filled with the most important diet item we offer – duckweed! Boxed for daily weight checks: before these youngsters can move outside and face cold nights with no mother, they have to gain some body mass. […]
[…]Sonoma County’s Board of Supervisors opted not to renew the county’s contract with Wildlife Services and is now conducting a review of its wildlife policies. Marin County cancelled its contract with Wildlife Services 14 years ago and implemented a nonlethal predator-control program. As a result the county has seen a 62 percent decrease in livestock predation at one-third of the former cost. Since 2000 Wildlife Services has spent a billion taxpayer dollars to kill a million coyotes and other predators across the nation. The excessive killing continues unchecked despite extensive peer-reviewed science showing that reckless destruction of native predators leads […]