It’s a Thin Line Between Town and Bay

Posted on December 17, 2016December 18, 2016 by Monte Merrick

It’s a thin line, between Town and Bay
It’s a thin line, between Town and Bay

It’s nine o’clock in the morning
and we’re just getting in –
we open up the front door
and a new day begins.
Check the pools, ‘cuz it
rained all night, but they’re okay.
Feed the birds, get the meds out
and plan the day

And then the phone rings – yeah the phone rings and
there’s a “shorebird” on the ground
“got a broken leg
or something, but too big
for me to help.”
So we drive on over, to the western edge of town
where the bottoms and the bay
look the same, cuz there’s water all around

It’s a thin line between Town and Bay
It’s a thin line between Town and Bay

The strongest bird in the world
could be the weakest bird in the world
if the place isn’t right
A Common Loon is the toughest in the sea
but on land, can’t do anything right.
Stuck on the ground just half mile from
everything good that helps her thrive.
So close to home but so far away
If she doesn’t get help, here she’ll die.

We treat her in our hospital and soon
she’s in our pool
She’s looking good and when we try to catch her
she makes us feel like a fool.
Check her blood work, and her body mass
She’s a beauty, sure and strong
We take her the extra mile
to the Bay shore,
when she’s free she sings her song

It’s a thin line between Town and Bay
It’s a thin line between Town and Bay*

It’s a thin line between between life and death, between freedom and despair between success and failure. Your support is the only thing that keeps us afloat. Thank you.

*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thin_Line_Between_Love_and_Hate

Aquatic Birds in Care

Posted on November 21, 2016November 21, 2016 by Monte Merrick

Every year, as our busy wild baby season comes to a close, aquatic birds, who breed elsewhere, come back to the Pacific Coast to overwinter. The famed Aleutian Cackling Geese, Brant, Grebes, Loons, seaducks, dabbling ducks, all use our relatively mild winters with historically food-rich waters to while away the hibernal months.

At Humboldt Wildlife Care Center, the arrival of wintering aquatic birds means a dramatic change in our caseload. Already this Autumn we have provided care for dozens of adult and juvenile aquatic birds.

For adult birds, this season is a time of comparative ease, without the responsibilities of rearing young. For this year’s young, this is their first season in the world of adults, a time of learning – learning to hunt, where to find food, learning their way around the real world, becoming independent.

The real world naturally holds threats – not every juvenile bird lives. Adults die in storms. They are caught by predators. Old age takes its toll as well. Still, it’s rare that we admit patients suffering from these natural calamities and processes.

Most patients are admitted in poor body condition – emaciated, anemic and dehydrated – obviously suffering from starvation.

This year, the usually “productive” California Current is not providing the quantity of fish needed to support the wintering population. As we noted earlier in the year, Common Murres, who raise their young on the North Coast experienced complete colony failure this year due to the absence of appropriate prey fish. (Even at our clinic we are struggling to stay in supply of food to feed our patients, due to this shortage!)

There are other causes of injury. Some of our patients this season were entangled in derelict fishing gear, and no doubt we will treat more. Derelict fishing gear is a global problem that makes itself known locally everywhere.

Typically each year we treat waterfowl, geese and ducks, that have been legally shot by hunters, but not killed, that have been found later by someone else. And sometimes we admit aquatic birds with traumatic injuries that we can’t ascribe to any particular cause – wing fractures, leg fractures that may be from collisions with human infrastructure, boats, battering surf – we just don’t know.

In all cases, however, our trained staff and purpose-built facilities allow us to provide excellent care for aquatic birds – noe of which would be possible without your generous support. So as we continue through this season, scroll the photos below to see some of our recent and current patients. And get out and enjoy our wintering wild aquatic neighbors! And as usual, if you can help us meet our mission with financial support, please do! We need you!

Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata)in care, moments before her release evaluation, demonstrating that explosive flight is well within her capabilities.

Female Northern Shoveler during her release evaluation exam

Northern Shoveler wing, extended for examination. Note her delicate blue and green speculum.
Northern Shoveler flies free!

Western Grebe (Aechmophorus occidentalis) feet! Very awkward on land, in the water, these feet become propellers, as the bird swiftly pursues fish for her meals.
Western Grebe wing.
Each bird receives nutritional support, is treated for parasites and given supplemental vitamins while in care.

Like many aquatic bird species, Western grebes are social and seek the comfort and safety of a like-minded community.
Even a Pacific Loon (Gavia pacifica) can be part of the gang!

Surf Scoter (Melanitta perspicillata) being released after two weeks in care, regaining lost body weight and strength.

Another Western Grebe released.
This Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) collided with a building suffering very little injury. Still this male needed a few days to recover. Upon release in his home territory at Big Lagoon he immediately circled around calling and joined a female, his likely mate.

An incredible moment as the Kingfisher flew a circle around his caregivers immediately after release.

Belted Kingfishers, like all aquatic birds, require specialized care. Bird Ally X was founded as a means to bring quality aquatic bird care to the more remote areas of our coast where experience and resources are scant. This male’s care and release at Big Lagoon is a testament to that mission.
In an awesome update to a recent story, this Pacific Loon, who was found by HWCC staff on the beach in Samoa entangled in a discarded fishing net, was just released today!
Releasing any patient is an immeasurable reward, but in another way we have a direct measure – your support. This Loon’s second chance was bought and paid for by your donation! Thank you!

Your support for our work during every season is critical. We have nearly a dozen aquatic birds in care right now, in addition to our other patients. We anticipate more to come. Each month brings us new challenges – some predictable, like the return of wintering seabirds, others less predictable, such as failing prey fish populations, sudden storms, and other emergencies. Being able to rely on you allows us to prepare for both. Your donation (click here) to help us meet our November goal of $7000 will go directly to the care of these remarkable birds who live so near to us, but whose lives are so different. Thank you!!!

Great Egret Back in the Game!

Posted on July 19, 2016July 20, 2016 by Monte Merrick

Last Saturday at the end of the work day, Humboldt Wildlife Care Center’s staff wildlife rehabilitator, Lucinda Adamson, took a call. An Egret was struggling in the water at the Eureka Marina. The caller told Lucinda that he had already pulled the struggling bird, who he’d thought was tangled in fishing line from the water once, but that the bird had fallen back in…

When Lucinda arrived on the scene she found a water-logged and apparently dead Great Egret (Ardea alba) floating next to the dock. But as she bent to lift the spent body from the water, she noticed a soft and shallow breath.

Unresponsive, soaking and dangerously cold, the bird needed immediate help. Lucinda brought the brought the barely conscious Egret back to our clinic in Bayside. With a body temperature of 95˚F, there was little else to be done but provide warmth and warmed fluids.

Within a few hours, the Egret was again aware and alert, with a normal body temperature, dry and able to stand. Lucinda offered a handful of fish and privacy for the rest of the night. Come morning, the Egret was alert, standing, distressed by captivity and full of fish. All of the night’s dinner had been eaten.

Now stable, we performed a full examination. The Egret was in good shape. Well muscled, hydrated, – even the bird’s blood was well within healthy parameters. The only thing amiss was that her (or his) feathers were very disheveled. We placed her back into our large bird recovery housing and misted with fresh water all of her impressive white plumage, to encourage our lucky patient to put things back in order. The regular work that birds put in to feather care, preening, we call it, is a time-consuming and a very necessary part of the beauty of feathered flight.

Humboldt Bay is home to a large population of Egrets and Herons. We see them everywhere – hunting for rodents in farmland, fishing in marshes, moving softly on broad wings across the sky. On an island between the Samoa peninsula and the city of Eureka is a “rookery” where hundreds of Snowy Egrets and Great Egrets raise their young each year, May through August, looking like white blossoms on the stand of non-native Monterey Cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa) that these quintessential marshland birds have (de)colonized and redeemed.

By the end of this Egret’s first 24 hours in care, frustration with captivity had become his or her biggest problem. It began to seem likely that this adult had a family that needed attention. At the end of the second day, now certain that all of our patient’s feathers were restored, we released the Egret in view of the island of Egrets.

Help us reach our July goal of $5000 raised for our many wild patients this summer! Click here to contribute!

After leaping into flight and freedom out of our carrier, the Egret landed in an adjacent cove and took stock of the new situation. Soon the bird put some greater distance between us, flying to an exposed part of the mud flats farther into the bay.

And after a brief stay, the Egret lifted into flight again, this time flying high and directly toward the ‘rookery’ on the island of Egrets, toward what we hope is a happy reunion.

Our patient no more, simply another incredible Great Egret, alive and returning to his or her partner and young after a brush with death and a mysterious encounter – living into a second chance.

A happy rehabilitator! Lucinda Adamson after the bird has flown…

What saved this bird’s life? Your support. Your support makes it possible for us to have dedicated staff members, like Lucinda Adamson, who is the first full-time staff person HWCC has ever hired. Our growth in the community has meant an ever increasing caseload, and as our capacity increases with your support, so does the community that relies on us. Your support makes this all possible. Without your support there would be no wind beneath this Egret’s wings. Thank you for helping us help our wild neighbors.

All photos: Laura Coriglia/BAX

Pooling Resources for Aquatic Birds

Posted on March 25, 2016 by Monte Merrick

The welcoming committee was slightly outlandish.

Posted on September 21, 2014 by Monte Merrick

In early July, on the beach at Big Lagoon park, a young Common Murre (Uria aalge) was found struggling in the surf. Too small to be in the ocean, certainly too young to be alone, without rescue certain death awaited the young bird.

Common Murres, like most alcids, spend their entire lives on the sea, coming to land only in Spring for the annual rites of renewal. Found all around the Northern Hemisphere (circumpolar), Murres nest in large colonies on rocks, seastacks and remote cliffs that are safe from predators. Before they can fly, when their wings are still quite undeveloped, parents, typically their fathers, lead the chicks from the colony out to sea and good foraging areas.

The ocean is a big place, though, and for any number of reasons, a chick can become separated from her or his parent. Without a father, the only hope these young birds have is to wash up on a beach and be found.

After a week in care, still sporting the nestling fuzz

Weighing in at 159 grams on his/her first day in care, a heatlamp and food were offered, as well as a quiet place to become accustomed to this sudden turn of events. For the time being, there would be no parent, no rolling swell of the North Pacific, no live fish freshly delivered. For the first two weeks in care, we had to put whole fish in the young seabird’s mouth to ensure s/he was eating.

While the Ancient Mariner’s complaint of “Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink” may be true for humans, seabirds do drink salt water. A special gland – the salt gland – filters out the excess salinity. Exposure to salt is important for this gland’s development. For this reason, among others, we provide a salted pool for young, growing seabirds.

Salting the pool

Provided that a juvenile Murre is healthy enough to be housed in the pool without losing waterproofing or body temperature, then treatment is a relatively simple matter of periodic examinations and a lot of fish. This young bird, who at adulthood will weigh a little under two pounds (about 900 grams) ate two-thirds of a pound of fish each day, or about 40 pounds over the course of her/his care.

In the big pool for the first time

A growing baby after 8 weeks in care

From less than 200 grams to release, our youngster had to gain nearly 800 grams! Common Murres are wing-propelled “pursuit divers.” This means that they chase down fish underwater, using their wings to move – essentially flying beneath the surface of the sea! When s/he began diving in the pool we offered live fish, so that s/he could begin learning to hunt.

At last, on September 8, the young bird was as ready as s/he’d ever be for release.

Netting the Common Murre from the pool for release evaluation.

Rehabilitator Lucinda Adamson evaluates our patient for release.

Humboldt Bay opens into the North Pacific through a channel kept open by constant dredging. Not only does this allow a wide range of vessels to the bay, the channel, known locally as the Jaws, is used by seabirds of many species. At this time of year it is very common to see Common Murre fathers and their young foraging here. We chose this place to release our Murre so that s/he’d be close to his/her own kind, with the hope that they would finish teaching all that we couldn’t. (A 2500 gallon pool in Bayside is not the Pacific Ocean!)

The “Jaws” connecting Humboldt Bay to the Pacific Ocean. A “feeding frenzy” awaits our patient!

When we got to the rocky bank of the Jaws, the tide was out and the water was unusually calm. Rehabilitator Lucinda Adamson and volunteer Jeannie Gunn made their way down to the edge. A hundred yards out, a large group of birds was feasting upon an unseen school of fish. Brown Pelicans (Pelecanus occidentalis), Double-crested and Brandt’s Cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus and Phalacrocorax penicillatus, respectively) Caspian Terns (Hydroprogne caspia) and, most happily, hundreds of Common Murres were all diving and calling. A symphony of Murre calls, as fathers and their young stayed in contact, rang out, louder than all else.

Here’s a short video from that day:

Out of the box, into freedom.

Back in the Ocean, our patient takes a moment to see “which way the wind blows.”

To sea!

Soon after hitting the water, our youngster swam out from shore, toward the large group. A pair of Murres, an adult and juvenile approximately the same age, swam up to our bird. Immediately they began diving together, one of them surfacing with a fish. And then they melted into the group and “our bird” was ours no more. Now s/he was her own bird, just as s/he always had been.

Looking of fish

A colleague!

An adult in background

A fish for a youngster?

Happy wildlife caregivers enjoying the beauty of their work

An adult Brown Pelican does a flyby

Sandpipers on the wing across the Jaws

Your help is needed. The specialized care that seabirds require is made possible by your contribution. Please help us help wild wild animals in distress. Give today.

all photographs: Laura Corsiglia/Bird Ally X

The Babies Have Landed!

Posted on May 3, 2014 by Monte Merrick

Wild baby season has begun in earnest in Humboldt County. In the last 5 days the number of animals in care at Humboldt Wildlife Care Center has tripled. And this is only the beginning of the season … While the babies we raise are unquestionably adorable, as a hospital it is a simple fact of life that none of our patients have a happy story that brought them here. From the time of their admission, we strive to improve that story.

Each of the Canada goslings in our care are orphaned. Three were found between Eureka and Arcata, alone, frantically looking for safety along Jacobs Ave, stranded between the nesting place in the fields on the east side of US 101 and their desired destination on the west side and marshy grasses that ring Humboldt Bay. Each year geese families are killed trying to make this crossing. Two others were found at Moonstone Beach, with another sibling killed, probably by a dog, left lying nearby.

Canada geese are legendary for their devoted parenting. In fact, it is possible to allow another pair of geese adopt orphaned goslings. They will often readily accept the newcomers into their family group as if they were their own. We attempt this whenever possible. While we do have a purpose-built facility for their care and upbringing, a mated pair of adults of the same species are obviously going to be much better surrogate parents.

We also have neonatal (or newborn) opossums in care. These tiny babies haven’t opened their eyes yet. Their mother was hit and killed by a car in Garberville, several of her babies died in the collision and three more succumbed to related injuries.

Right now the three little survivors are doing very well. It will take at least 8 weeks before they are old enough to be on their own. Opossums, unlike many mammals their size, have a very short life span, averaging only 1.5 to 2 years in the wild.

In another sad and frustrating case, Friday night we received a call from a veterinary clinic in Eureka. Someone had just accidentally taken down a Song Sparrow nest while cutting limbs on a tree. This is frustrating, of course, because tree limbing shouldn’t be done in nesting season for just this reason. But more so, because we have no idea who dropped these hatchlings at the vet, or where they came from. If we knew where the parents are, we could build a false nest for the babies and the Song Sparrow parents would continue to care for them until they were ready to fly. Instead these three babies will be raised by us.

Reuniting wild babies with their parents is the first choice whenever possible. Humboldt Wildlife Care Center offers Humane Exclusion services for situations like this, for raccoon babies under the house, for nests made in chimneys, or whatever wild/human conflict you might experience.

No matter what the situation, please contact us:

822-8839, or
humane-exclusion@birdallyx.net

There’s a strong possibility we can help achieve a positive outcome for you and for the wild family.

Your support is what makes our work possible. Without you, we would be unable to care for these babies, and meet the diverse needs of the wide array of native wild animals who live among us. Thank you for your contribution. You rock!

Horned Grebe Click Bait!

Posted on March 4, 2014 by Monte Merrick

Mid-February a Horned Grebe was brought to Humboldt Wildlife Care Center after being found on the strand of South Spit following a brief storm that brought a heavier swell to our region. The North coast of California, is winter home to almost all species of North American grebes.

This grebe’s only problem was being too thin. Otherwise, the storm had probably beached the little bird. Because all grebes are strictly aquatic (they even build floating nests!) once beached, getting back to the water isn’t that easy. Evolved to a life of diving in pursuit of fish, their legs are positioned far back on their bodies. Walking for these birds is nearly impossible. They also need a fair amount of open water to get into the air. In this vulnerable state, it was fortunate s/he was found by a kind-hearted person rather than a dog, or some other animal known to harm to wildlife…

After two weeks in care, the grebe was ready to get back in the ocean. Lucinda Adamson and a couple of our beloved volunteers, Matt and Jeannie Gunn, took him to the Samoa Peninsula. Humboldt Bay is a bird’s world and this bird was eager to rejoin it! (see pictures below!)

Your support made this bird’s rescue possible. Aquatic species require specialized that cannot be accomplished without skill and specialized equipment. If you haven’t contributed, please consider making a donation or sharing our stories with your neighbors and friends. As always, thank you for your love of wild animals and thank you for being a part of this life-saving work.

Back into the sea. Jeannie Gunn places the Horned grebe back into Humboldt bay.