Tag: Humboldt Wildlife Care Center

One morning on the 101, two sibling Hawks cause more than a few to take notice.

Posted on by Monte Merrick

It was an ordinary Wednesday morning at Humboldt Wildlife Care Center, including the ringing phone and the person calling who’d seen a hawk by the side of US101 in the “safety corridor” between Arcata and Eureka. That section of highway, from the Eucalyptus trees that are slated for destruction to the bridge over the Eureka slough is a favorite hunting place for Red-tailed Hawks (Buteo jamaicensis). We frequently gets calls from concerned commuters about hawks on the ground – in the median, or by the side of the road – who seem unable to fly.

Rarely is the hawk actually in trouble. After eating it can take a raptor a while to be ready to fly again. For some reason the passing traffic does not seem to threaten the birds as they recover from a large meal (not exactly asleep in front of a televised Thanksgiving Day football game, but similar.). However, just because it usually isn’t an emergency, and just because the hawk is almost always perfectly fine doesn’t mean we don’t take these calls seriously. We treat plenty of hawks and other birds each year who’ve been hit by cars, and until we investigate we can’t know what the situation is.

As we mounted a voyage of discovery to that area to see what was going on, the phone rang again – and again. And again. Within an hour we’d received close to 30 calls about the hawk!

Soon our team was back. They’d caught the hawk easily. She’d been standing very close to traffic on the side of the highway beneath the eucalyptus trees. A juvenile whose tail was far from being red, she had no injuries that we could find. We set her up with a safe place and some mice as a meal. Immediately, she ate them.

Meanwhile, the calls kept coming! Apparently another hawk was near the same location, but in the median and closer to the bridge.

Another staff member went to check the second reported hawk out, finding a healthy looking bird that did not seem to need assistance. However, the calls did not stop coming in and with rush hour approaching, concerns about people trying to stop to help the hawk in heavy traffic, as well as the hawk’s safety during that time prompted us to try and catch him as well. Using a lucky break in the traffic we were able to safely net the hawk and bring him to our clinic for evaluation. Our staff noticed that a large adult Red-tailed Hawk, quite likely mother to both of these youngsters, was perched on a light post nearby watching as our captures unfolded.

Neither hawk had any injuries. Both were in relatively good condition although mildly dehydrated. We gave supportive care (i.e., food and fluids) and housed them for the night. The next day we moved both siblings (by their sizes, we believe that one, the larger, is female and the other is male) to an outdoor aviary in order to evaluate their flight.

On Friday, both hawks were evaluated for release. Both were flying very well, but the male was still mildly dehydrated, moreover, he hadn’t eaten while in care. We released the female and gave the male another day to eat and also to get more fluid therapy. The next day, he’d eaten and his hydration was returned to normal, and he was also released.

We took them near to their capture site, in the Fay Slough Wildlife Area, a safe distance from the freeway and very likely close to where they’d been raised. In fact on the first release, the adult Red-tailed Hawk we’d seen watching these birds’ capture was present. The female juvenile was released in her view, and both birds ended up flying off together. The next day, when the male was released, he was joined by his sister as soon as he took flight into nearby trees.

The power, the grace and the single-minded devotion to raptorizing… she’s got it all!

Even with all those advantages, she’s still just a juvenile with a lot to learn. In captivity or by the side of the road, young hawks sometimes find themselves in very awkward situations.

One of the best moments in a rehabilitator’s day – opening the box!


The young female takes flight, not yet aware that her mother can see her.

Perched in nearby vegetation while her mother watches from a much higher perch behind her, our former patient surveys her re-gained freedom.

The daughter…
… and the mother, last seen flying off together…

Volunteer Katharine Major enjoys giving a wild hawk her second chance.

Alone in our aviary for a day, the male ate well.

An additional day in care was all the brother needed before he could be released. Dehydration, even mild, is serious enough to address and well within the scope of what we can immediately do for our patients. Caution rules the day!

A minute on the ground to get his bearings… it’s not unusual for a young patient to need a moment out of the box to see which way the wind blows… see if there’s any food in the field and woods rat burrows.

And then he goes! Birds flying away is a favorite thing of ours…

Our ex-patient flies to the trees where his sister is waiting.

The siblings, free and together again, in the wild.
Happy interns Brooke Brown (left) and Tabytha Sheeley enjoy the fruits of their labors!

Intent, strength, and nearby parent – this young aerial ballerina (and her brother) has everything she needs – including this second chance – for a live well lived on the shores of Humboldt Bay.

While these hawks weren’t injured they were in a very dangerous location. Their reluctance to fly away on their own was causing all kinds of commotion with our human neighbors. It was prudent to catch these birds to make sure that all was well with them, as well as making sure that no one was harmed trying rescue them themselves. These two sibling hawks illustrate that we serve our wild neighbors first, but we also serve our human neighbors as well. Your support makes our mission possible!

As we near the end of this very challenging year, with so many demands on our attention and resources, we are forced to ask over and over again for your financial help. Keeping our clinic open to the myriad phone calls and emergencies isn’t easy and with out you it would even be a possibility. On this day, when we celebrate with gratitude our lives, our loves, our families and our shared world, please keep in mind the wild – without which none of anything would even exist.

all photos: Bird Ally X/ Laura Corsiglia

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Barn Owl Hit By Car and Left for Dead Treated at Humboldt Wildlife Care Center (VIDEO)

Posted on by Monte Merrick

One of our biggest challenges at Humboldt Wildlife Care Center is the sheer enormity of the region that we serve. From the Oregon border to northern Mendocino county and from the Pacific Ocean to Weaverville, our region is more than double the size of each of the 9 smallest states in the union.

(scroll down for release photos and video!)

When we got the call that an owl was found on the side of the road in Smith River, about 100 miles north, right at the state line, we set into motion a dedicated group of volunteers to start the relay to bring the injured bird south to our clinic in Bayside.We routinely admit patients from all over the North Coast. Volunteers in Del Norte County met volunteers from Humboldt in Orick, between Patrick’s Point and Klamath, to hand off the owl. Just another day meeting the needs of wildlife in a territory larger than many states!

It turned out that the bird was a Barn Owl (Tyto alba) who’d likely been hit by a car. Although there is always some degree of guesswork to figure out what happened to our patients that caused their injuries, because the owl had been found on the side of the road, was suffering from severe dehydration, but was in relatively good body condition, had no broken bones, but was unable to fly, we deduced that the s/he’d been hit by a car. Often smaller owls and other birds who are hit by cars escape serious injury, suffering only a concussion that can still be debilitating for the first few days. Without treatment they will likely die, but with treatment they recover quickly. The degree of dehydration, suggested that the owl had been on the ground for at least a few days. If the owl hadn’t been seen, dehydration would have likely been the immediate cause of death. We treated with fluids and anti-inflammatory medicine.

[We need your help! Please donate today!]

For severely dehydrated patients, the most critical treatment we can give is fluids.

After fluids, medicines, warmth and a safe pace to recover are next on the list.

Within a couple of days, with continued fluid therapy, we were able to move the owl to an outside aviary, which would reduce stress and give us the opportunity to observe the bird’s recovery. With hydration restored and with a good appetite for the mice we offered, the owl’s health had improved quickly. After 6 days, we evaluated the owl for release.


When a patient recovers we have ways of analyzing their health. Sustained flight and ability to evade capture is definitely part of what we look for!

A small blood sample lets us know how things are going physiologically. In order to be released, a patient needs to have plenty of oxygen-transporting red blood cells!

The moment of release is always quite thrilling. After 6 days in care, this owl was ready to go back to Smith River!

Birds flying away is a very gratifying sight.

This Barn Owl’s rescue, treatment and release was the result of a dedicated team of staff and volunteers working across two counties and scores of miles. Every aspect of care, from the medicine to the gasoline spent in transport, was made possible by community support. In these difficult times, when so much needs our attention – elections, fire disasters and more – your gift, no matter the size, is critical to our survival. Please help. Contribute something today! Thank you!!!

photos/video: Bird Ally X/ Laura Corsiglia

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Aleutians Falling Down Like Hail (in other words, we’re admitting a lot of Cackling Geese!)

Posted on by Monte Merrick

Each Autumn, the common sadness of Summer’s end is brightened by the return to our region of many species of aquatic and semi-aquatic birds who find our temperate winters a good place to live away from breeding grounds further North or inland. Many ducks, loons, grebes, and shorebirds arrive here with the rains that turn meadows and mosses green again in a kind of second Spring.

One of the most visible of our winter neighbors is the Aleutian Cackling Goose (Branta hutchinsii). From when they depart in late April and early May bound for the Aleutian Islands to raise their young of the year, until they return in late September and early October, the meadows and pastures of the bottom lands of Humboldt and Del Norte counties can feel very empty. All winter we enjoy the splendor of their melodic high pitched voices as they rise and fall in flocks sometimes numbering in the thousands throughout our winter days.

The higher numbers in their populations is a relief. Aleutians were initially listed as endangered under the 1973 Endangered Species Act, but since their decline was reversed, they were taken of the list in 2001. In fact, their numbers have recovered to the point that the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has given waterfowl hunters a special 16 day season late February through early March strictly for the purpose of hunting the geese who use private land in an effort to drive them off, just as tens of thousands of individuals are arriving from around the state in a pre-migration staging here on the North Coast. Pasture land in our region is dedicated to ranching and the geese are seen as direct competitors with beef cattle for grass.

The dates of this year’s waterfowl seasons are posted on our dry erase board at HWCC so that staff is aware of conditions that might threaten wild neighbors. We usually admit one or two geese per year who were shot but not killed or recovered, found near a road, or on the beach. Depending on the nature of the wounds, we’ve been able to treat and release several gunshot victims.

Since 2012, Humboldt Wildlife Care Center/bird ally x has treated 66 Cackling Geese as of November 1, this year. In 2018 alone, so far we’ve treated 19 individuals, 10 in the last two weeks!

While it’s typical that we admit a few cackling Geese at this time of year, the numbers we’re treating this year are clearly spiking up! It’s ordinary for some of the young of the year to meet difficulty when completing their first migration from breeding grounds on the Yukon Delta, say, two thousand miles south to Northern California. All geese use a significant amount of their own muscle-mass to fuel their journey, which is conducted non-stop.

Upon arrival, nourishment is the first order of business. Only those birds who are in excellent condition can make the trip, and only those birds who, through luck, guidance, intelligence, instinct and timing, arrive and find immediate food will survive. Most cackling geese who we admit at this time of year are juveniles, often found on the regions beaches, rolled by the surf. It’s possible that they just couldn’t fly the last leg and resorted to paddling ashore. In any case, a young Cackling goose being rolled in the surf is not going to recover from this dilemma alone.

And that’s where our community comes in. People on the beaches, or in the parks, or even driving along the roads of our region will find geese in trouble, often doing what they can to capture and bring the goose to our clinic in Bayside. Other times people call us and we go out to find the goose. We don’t always find the wild goose on these chases, but usually we do.Upon admission each goose is given a physical exam and treated for many of the basic problems that all face. They are treated for both internal and external parasites, such as tapeworm and feather lice. While all while animals carry some parasites without a negative impact, a young bird starving death needs all of the calories s/he can get. We make sure to reduce the competition.

Usually each new goose patient we admit comes in cold and dehydrated. Stabilizing the patient is mostly a job for fluids and warmth. We take a small sample of blood of which a rudimentary analysis can let us know basic parameters such as total protein solids in the blood and percentage of red blood cells. This knowledge helps us plan the patient’s recovery, from housing to diet to any additional medications required.

HWCC/bax intern Brooke Brown (left) is learning from wildlife rehabilitator Lucinda Adamson on how to procure a blood sample from a  newly admitted Cackling Goose patient.

After a day in a climate controlled environment, provided with a regular schedule of warmed fluids delivered orally, or intravenously or subcutaneously depending on the needs of the patient, often the debilitated geese will be ready to be housed outdoors with access to water. Eating, maintaining a consistently good body temperature and restored hydration are the main criteria for moving forward in treatment at this time. Until then though, it’s strictly indoors where caloric expenditure is kept as small as possible.

Rehabilitator Stephanie Owens gives a brand new Cackling Goose patient the first of series of hydration tube feedings. This method getting fluids into a patient is very reliable as long as the patient is awake and alert and can hold up their own head. Otherwise other routes of delivering fluid therapy are needed.
Warmed water is a critical part of our patient’s early treatment, just as a cup of hot tea would aid a lost hiker.

Our treatment board… if you can’t decipher it, it says that we have 5 Cackling Geese (CACK) in care, 3 housed outdoors in an aviary and 2 indoors in “room 3”.

Once stable and ready, the geese are moved to an outdoor aviary, housed together and left alone for longer periods of time between checks. It takes between two and three weeks for a cold, emaciated, dehydrated goose to recover well enough to be released. During that time we keep them well fed, in as stress-free of an environment as we can create, that still allows us to provide care. Slowly, yet really pretty quickly when you think about it, our patients go from cold, wet sandy and dangerously close to death to flying, strong and anxious to return to their wild lives! Healing and recovery are as common as life and just as wondrous.

Being housed with others of their kind is a comfort to animals in care who prefer flocks. Each on of these geese is helping the others recover.

It’s a wonderful feeling to step into the aviary with breakfast and see that someone is now string enough to fly. It’s just a matter of time now. Only the stress of captivity could cause anything to go wrong at this point.

With heat support, fluid therapy, medicines, food, and an environment built to encourage recovery, a time comes when we evaluate for release. Each goose is given an examination similar to the one they each received upon admission. The differences are astounding – a typical emaciated goose gains 300-400 grams in care – going from 900 at admission to 1200 or 1300 at release.  Another look at their blood work is important. The presence of red blood cells in sufficient quantity indicates that the patient has a much improved oxygen carrying capacity, critical for strong, high altitude endurance flyers like Cackling Geese. As long as all of the parameters are met, the only thing left to do is take the patient out to the bottomlands and find a flock of geese… open the box and let nature take her course!

Proper housing for all our patients of myriad species is the foundation of the care we provide. Our aviaries are critical for the care that we provide.


A small amount of blood is drawn one last time.

An open box!

And take to the sky…






And then the young goose, on his second chance (thanks to your support!) joins in the flock and is our patient no more.

We don’t know exactly why we’re admitting so many more Cackling Geese this year compared to other years. It’s a mystery that may take a while ti understand, a few years before a more clear pattern emerges. What we do know is that we have commitment to be here each and every door for them and for all of our region’s wildlife in trouble. It’s been a hard year. And we need your help more than ever. Please donate and help us give innocent injured animals a second chance. Thank You!!!

all photos: Laura Corsiglia and bird ally x

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When the door is open, freedom is restored.

Posted on by Monte Merrick

If you follow wildlife rehabilitation on social media or other locations you might see all kinds of release techniques. From throwing eagles into the air to tipping over a box and dumping its passenger out. At Humboldt Wildlife Care Center, we take a different approach. After selecting a release location as near to the patient’s original rescue location as prudent or possible, we set the transport vessel down, open the lid or door to an unobstructed avenue of escape and step back. At this moment, our patient ceases to be our patient. They are released from care and all the decision-making about their destiny is restored to them and their true autonomy. In other words, they leave the box when they are good and ready.

We waited for six minutes for this young female Striped Skunk (Mephitis mephitis) to emerge from her carrier and re-enter the dune world a few hundred feet from where she was first found, a few days before trapped in an outbuilding in Fairhaven. Uninjured, we took her back to a nearby location to release her. Six minutes is a long time when you’re stuck in traffic, but it’s nothing when you’re returning a wild neighbor to her home.BAX staff carefully places the carrier down so that our skunk patient can exit with ease once the lid is open.

So we patiently waited for our former patient to emerge, with one check to make sure that she is okay and not tangled in the bedding that’s also in the box. Eventually our young patient steps out of the box of her own free will (she begins to leave the box at 5:48) and then quickly makes her way to cover and then (out of view of the camera) up and over the dune along a trail that the we hadn’t noticed before she used it.

Rescuing wild animals who are injured, orphaned or  otherwise caught in one of the myriad traps our human-built world has created, providing appropriate treatment, and releasing those who fully recover back to their wild and free lives is how we spend every single day of the year at HWCC/bax. But not without your support. We are in the middle of crucial fundraiser right now to help recover the costs of our incredibly busy year. We need to raise $10,000 by the end of October, in order to pay our rent and other critical bills! As of the 15th we aren’t even halfway there, which is cuaseing us some concern! Please help if you can! Donate today! Every little bit helps!

photos/video: Bird Ally X/Lucinda Adamson

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Last American Wigeons from Klamath Basin Botulism Outbreak Released!

Posted on by Monte Merrick

As we described in past posts, in the middle of August, staff at the Lower Klamath Wildlife Refuge, which straddles the state line between California and Oregon, discovered an outbreak of avian botulism that was killing ducks by the hundreds.  Managed by BAX co-directors January Bill and Marie Travers, and working with Refuge staff, our response successfully treated and released 297 ducks and shorebirds.  The last three ducks in care, each American Wigeons (Mareca americana) were transferred to Humboldt Wildlife Care Center because they weren’t ready for release  and could take advantage of our seabird and diving duck pools.

[Our goal of $10,000 by October 31 has not been met! In fact, we are far from it. Our resources are emptied after a busy baby season. Thank you to everyone who has contributed during this drive. We need your help. If you want to donate now, click here ]

After a week in our pool, each duck was ready for freedom. Fortunately, at the nearby Arcata Marsh, there are hundreds of overwintering Wigeons with plentiful food available. It’s possible these three wigeons would have made it to Humboldt Bay this Winter anyway.

In any case, after a brush with death by botulism, a lifesaving trip through our rapidly manifested “Duck Hospital” set up near the Lava Beds, followed by some time spent in our pools, gaining weight, improving feather condition, restoring red blood cells, and gaining strength, these Wigeons returned to their wild and free lives, healthy and ready for a winter of easier times.

The first American Wigeon was released several days before the other two. She made short work out of getting hid in the vegetation of the pond.

Thick with duckweed and other food, the Arcata Marsh proved her a soft landing at release.

About thirty feet away scores of wintering Wigeons make use of the Marsh as well.

Providing a hiding place for our patients lowers their captivity-caused stress and helps them focus on recovering. This female Wigeon lurks behind her blind, hoping to avoid capture.

Of course, when that capture is intended for healing and release, we take liberties that ordinarily would be unethical, handling and housing without consent.

Rudimentary blood analysis will provide data that confirms our impression that she is ready for release. Here a small sample is collected to be given a ride in the centrifuge so that we can measure percentage of red blood cells – as the carriers of oxygen through the body, they are critical for all aspects of life. We can also get indications of possible unseen infections and other maladies which can affect total protein solids in the plasma that is separated from the red blood cells, which we also measure.

Here we examine a previously swollen foot to see if the problem has resolved well enough that she will be fine in her natural environment. The answer was yes!

About a week after being transferred from Tulelake, the two last Wigeons were released in to the same pond as the first Wigeon. Each bird is her own person and does what she wants. The first Wigeon we released dove for cover in the vegetation, this one flew as quickly away as she could.

The third Wigeon swam away, accompanied by a Mallard who we’d also treated at HWCC and released that day.

The Arcata Marsh is one of the gems of our neck of the woods. Knowing that these birds are making there way with quality food available and in the freely-chosen company of their kind after their long ordeal is very relieving. The habitat of our home is not just for show. It’s the actual living place of our wild neighbors. It’s our home too. Our wild neighbors aren’t just like some new family who recently moved here from Atlanta but who will soon be moving to Seattle. They are our kin. We have the same needs. Our shared home is worth loving and respecting.

HWCC volunteer Katharine (l) and 2018 Intern Desiree Vang (r) are displaying the typical expressions worn by members of their species who are experiencing fulfilling joy. Warm smiles. Successful releases of our wild patients are like that.

The challenge of 2018, so far the busiest year in HWCC history, has been at times a joy and at other times deeply stressful. The avian botulism outbreak in the Lower Klamath Basin, a region that is just on the other side of Shasta, just up the Klamath River, was difficult but also very fulfilling – launching a successful emergency wildlife response is a very gratifying experience. The privilege of doing our work is something no wildlife rehabilitator takes for granted. So far in 2018 we’ve met every challenge but the financial one. We need your help. In the midst of these ever greater demands, our resources aren’t merely not growing to meet them, but are shrinking. The world is full of demands for support, pleas for generosity. The world is in upheaval right now. We know, we work on the front lines of the devastation. And the only thing that keeps us here, keeps our pools functioning, keeps our facility’s rent paid, keeps our phone on, keeps our care improving, keeps our reach expanding, is you. Please donate today. We need your help. Thank you!

 

photos: Laura Corsiglia/Bird Ally X

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Video! Pelican, Chickadees, Raccoons and Finches, plus an important plea for help

Posted on by Monte Merrick

We’re at that time of year again when our coffers are depleted by our annual wild baby season, exacerbated this year by our record setting caseload! Nearly 1000 wild neighbors cared for already and still 3 months to go before the year ends! We need your help! Our goal: $10,000 by Halloween!  Donate here if you already know you want to help, otherwise check out these videos presenting various patients from this very busy Summer…

Also, BAX is still in the middle of an avian botulism outbreak response at the Lower Klamath Basin Wildlife Refuge! Please help us meet the costs of caring for hundreds of impacted waterfowl there! Nearly 300 birds successfully treated and released so far!

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Rescued! The Luckiest Unlucky Raccoon Ever!

Posted on by Monte Merrick

We take calls at Humboldt Wildlife Care Center every  day regarding a wild animal in trouble somehow. Often we can help over the phone, but sometimes we have to go to the scene. Last Tuesday, a phone call came in just after we finished morning tasks, such as feeding all our patients and cleaning their housing. The caller was distraught: a raccoon had gotten stuck in their warehouse. Somehow he was trapped behind a structural member of the building and the siding. Unsure what to expect, we sent two of our interns Lindsey Miller and Bekah Kline, over to see what they could do. After arriving Lindsey texted this photo:


Trapped at the bottom of a corroded post, unable to climb back the way he came and no way to move forward, if his paws hadn’t been visible it is doubtful that anyone would have ever found this guy. This predicament would have killed him.


The building’s owner drilled into the steel post above where the raccoon was trapped to gain access.


It took less than an hour to make an opening large enough to free the raccoon.

Once the hole was large enough, Lindsey pulled the raccoon up out of his jam.


She and Bekah secured the rescued Raccoon for transport back to HWCC/bax for an evaluation. At this point we hope that he will be in good health, able to be released right away.


The raccoon was uninjured. We offered him some snacks and observed him for a few hours to make sure that he was able to properly use his limbs and was fully capable to return to his free life.


Very near to the warehouse where he was rescued there was a suitable release site. Raccoons live everywhere that we do. Industrial areas, residential neighborhoods, mountain retreats… Raccoons are truly one of our most common wild neighbors, with whom we share so much, including a habit of misadventure.

LIndsey, after releasing the Raccoon she’d helped rescue. Wildlife rehabilitation interns get a pretty remarkable view of the world, not one that many see. Interns, volunteers, staff – all of us spend a lot of our lives looking, or trying hard to look, at the world through the eyes of our patients. We learn to see that the wild is always here, always near. We learn that at our very core of minerals and cells, we are wild too. It’s a simple fact that’s right here to be seen, and raccoons are just the ones to point it out.


Freed from a certain death, thanks to the compassion and the actions of the people who found him, our lucky unlucky Raccoon patient disappeared back into the wilds of Eureka’s first ward, just a few blocks from where he’d been found.

Your support makes rescues like these possible. Not all of our patients are cut out of steel traps, but each of them faced a certain death, caused in nearly every single case by some human invention, were it not for the generous donations you make, that keep our doors opened and telephone turned on. Thank you!  And if you’d like to support our work, just click on the donate button! Your gift goes directly to the care of our patients, and efforts to prevent injuries in the first place. Thank you!!

all photos: Bird Ally X

 

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Mule Deer Fawns Released! (Pictures!!)

Posted on by Monte Merrick

Fawn calls are the most difficult. When a compassionate person stumbles across a fawn bedded down near a road, or near a construction site, or some other hazard created by people, and with no doe in sight, it can be very hard to think they should just leave the fawn alone. If they call us, we can usually discover through questions and conversation the situation and determine if the fawn needs care. Convincing a concerned person to put a fawn back in what clearly looks like an unprotected location can be challenging, even though in many cases that is exactly what the fawn and the fawn’s mother need. Often however, there is no way to put the fawn back. The caller got the fawn from someone who got the fawn from someone, or a dog dragged the fawn to the porch and no one knows from where, or the person has had the fawn at their house for many days and now the mother is no longer nearby – in these situations, it often means a perfectly healthy family is broken up, but there is nothing we can do but raise the fawn as an orphan. But no matter how difficult these calls can be, the worst is when it is clearly obvious that the fawn needs help. The worst are when the fawn is lying next to her mother, who is dead, hit by a car or a truck.

[Our fawns are all Black-tailed Deer, a subspecies of Mule Deer, the deer of the West]

Fawns who are truly orphaned seem to be traumatized when they arrive at our facility. Sometimes it can take two days before the fawn will express any interest in a bottle of milk-replacer. Convincing a traumatized fawn to take a bottle of milk is the same task as consoling a heartbroken child, so that he can eat, sleep, and resume his life. In a way it forces the wildlife care provider to form a bond with the newly admitted fawn, an idea that is at the very opposite of wildlife rehabilitation. Keeping wild patients wild, with a healthy fear of people, is as important a piece of our work as providing a proper diet and treating wounds. So warily, we proceed with fawn care.

As soon as a young fawn takes a bottle of milk (in our case, goat milk donated by local goat-keepers – and lots of it! hundreds of gallons! thank you!) we discontinue contact and start to use a bottle rack that puts a barrier between us and our patient. Once a fawn accepts a bottle in a bottle rack, he is ready to join in with our “herd” – the fawns we already have in care who are housed outdoors, and who we rarely see during the four months it takes to wean them from milk to vegetation. But those two days of close contact early on, while the fawn puts them behind her, the care provider cannot forget what it feels like to have a young deer close, who suddenly decides to accept your care and your bottle and drinks hungrily after barely moving from her corner in 48 hours.

[Please help us pay for the expenses of our busiest year ever. Your donation goes directly to the care of our injured and orphaned wild patients. Please, donate today! Thank you!]

In contact only with other fawns, over a period of months our patients are gradually weaned from milk on to vegetation, “browse” we call it, that staff and volunteers collect each day. Young deer eat a lot of leaves! Toward the end of their stay with us this year, we were collecting several wheelbarrow loads each day!

Once weaned and when we are certain that they are eating enough each day to thrive, and their spots are fading fast, we look up from our hectic summer days and see that, yes, indeed it is turning autumnal and a deer release is imminent.

One fawn per crate, each is brought to the release site. We are lucky that a good release site, protected against hunting and full of choice deer habitat is remote but not that far from our clinic. A nearby pond, forest and meadow, and the presence of a deer herd make this a great spot for our youngsters to begin their second chance at wild freedom!

It’s a great moment when the crate’s door is opened and your patient immediately puts distance between you and her!



Once safely away, a newly released fawn stops to consider the change of scenery.


Another fawn bolts for the cover of the trees.

Another fawn turns to assess the danger her caregivers pose…

Six fawns were released!

After this fawn reached the pond he stopped to cautiously consider us.

Zoomed in, it’s easy to see that this guy just doesn’t trust us, even though we delivered him over 200 bottles of milk and scores of wheelbarrow loads of leaves. His mistrust is a terrific sign of our success!


Nothing brings smiles to HWCC/bax volunteers faces like giving our wild neighbors in need a second chance at freedom!

A healthy, independent wild youngster rushing to meet her own destiny on nature’s terms… this is always the best view to be had.

Providing a safe and healthy environment for our wild orphaned patients is a critical part of meeting our mission. Requirements are skill, experience, dedication, hard work and the resources to get it done. We bring what we can to the task, but without your support, your generosity, it would be for nothing. Thank you for making our work possible! Please contribute something today. Each gift matters in the lives of our wild neighbors.

All photos: Bird Ally X

One last picture:

This fawn, burned in the Carr Fire near Redding in July was brought to HWCC/bax for treatment. Sadly, after several days in care, this brave youngster succumbed to her injuries. She tried hard. We’ll always remember her.

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To Date, the Busiest Year in HWCC History (the times they are a-changin’)

Posted on by Monte Merrick

More patients have been brought to HWCC/bax this year than any other year, so far, and we need your help. Reaching our goal of $12,000 raised by September 15th means our summer expenses will be paid. It means we’ll be able to make necessary repairs and improvements for the coming season and the wintering ducks, geese and seabirds who are our primary patients at this time, as well begin the improvements we need for next summer’s busy baby season, with its untold surprises! Your support is the only thing that makes our work possible. Click here to donate now! Thank YOU!

It’s been a hectic Summer, full of baby Barn Swallows, Vaux’s Swifts, Raccoons, Chestnut-backed Chickadees, baby Barn Owls, Brewer’s Blackbirds, Crows, Black-tailed Deer fawns, Common Murre chicks, an oil spill in Wisconsin and a botulism outbreak on the Klamath Basin Wildlife Refuge.

So far in 2018, at Humboldt Wildlife Care Center we’ve admitted nearly 850 orphaned or injured wild animals. We’ve answered thousands of phone calls helping people choose the best action when struggling to co-exist with our wild neighbors. So far in 2018, we’ve admitted more patients than during any other year in HWCC history, dating back to 1979.
Two baby Common Murres we raised and released this year at HWCC.

For the first time in two years the local Common Murre colonies, who nest on the sea stacks just off shore all along the Redwood coast, had enough successful young fledge (leave the nest) that we actually ended up treating a few who got into trouble. In 2016 and 2017 we admitted no babies at all, so while we never want to see young birds orphaned, the fact that some were separated from their fathers means that others were probably fine, a nice reversal of recent times.

House finches, whose nest was destroyed by badly timed pruning, were raised as hatchlings until old enough to be released. Still on the formula that we feed these strict granivores (seed-eaters) in this photo, soon they were finding their own food and wanted nothing more to do with us.We raised two Western Tanager  babies this year, the first we’ve had in our care in over 7 years! (and that’s HWCC/bax’s indispensible Assistant Rehabilitation Manager, Lucinda Adamson’s capable hand offering the worm!)When workers at PG&E replaced an old utility pole in Blue Lake they were surprised to find five nestling Chestnut-sided Chickadees in a cavity at the top end of the pole. For three weeks we made frequent trips to the aviary to make sure they had all the mealworms they could swallow.
Four Brewer’s Blackbirds were found along a drainage ditch in Loleta. While such an odd place is a normal nesting area for these birds, the closeness to the road was more than the compassionate rescuer could take. Unable to find their parents, we raised them until they could be fostered to a flock of adults of their species near our facility.

A nest of Acorn Woodpeckers, above as featherless hatchlings and then as their colors begin to show. Now they are mostly self-feeding and are close to being releasable.

Our two songbird aviaries have never been busier. Right now four Acorn Woodpeckers, found as featherless hatchlings in Hoopa, are nearly ready to release – each eating hundreds of mealworms every day. Barn Swallows, Swainson’s Thrushes, House Finches, Chickadees, Swifts and more have occupied our other aviary. At the peak, we’ve been feeding 20,000 mealworms each week!
Because our patients need nutritious, healthy food, and because everyone deserves to be treated with respect, we offer the mealworms we feed out as good a life as possible in the short time they’re themselves, before they become songbirds, raccoons, opossums, or doves.

A very young orphaned raccoon is fed a milk replacer with a feeding tube. From when their eyes open until they are weaned  usually takes about six weeks, which is followed by another ten weeks learning how to be adult raccoons. Staff and volunteers who tend the raccoons in their housing call themselves “raccoonnookkeepers”, which sets a record in the English language for number of consecutive double letters (6!).

In our raccoon housing, fish is presented in an artificial river, fruit is hung on tree branches, eggs are hidden in fake nests, all so that our young orphans have a chance to learn what they need to know in order to succeed as adults in the wild.

16 orphaned Raccoons, now weaned from our milk replacer, learn to hunt, fish, forage and climb in our specially-built raccoon housing. Brought in as orphans found in crawlspaces, or attics, disrupted by construction, or illegal trapping, soon the oldest will be ready for release. Meanwhile, a new litter of “eyes-closed” tiny young raccoons was just admitted at the beginning of this week after their mother was found dead

At the height of our busiest time, we were down a crucial local staff member (co-founder Laura Corsiglia) when three of BAX’s six co-founders responded to an oil spill in Wisconsin as part of Focus Wildlife‘s team, capturing oiled wild animals, providing care, and also monitoring oil at the scene and protecting as best they could other wildlife, primarily birds, from becoming contaminated. Besides traveling to Wisconsin, one of our co-directors even traveled to Holland to help with an oil spill there that had severely impacted swans.
Two BAX co-founders, Laura Corsiglia (left) and January Bill, while scouting release sites on the shore of Lake Superior for rehabilitated oiled wildlife in Wisconsin.

Currently BAX is helping at the Klamath Basin Wildlife Refuge, where a botulism outbreak is causing harm to hundreds of waterfowl and shorebirds. BAX co-director January Bill is managing our emergency response, setting up our field hospital on the refuge, assisted by other BAX co-directors and interns from this summer at HWCC. As of today over 40 ducks are in care, and over 20 have been successfully treated and released. Still, it is feared that conditions that favor botulism may persist until early October. More on this response will be available on our website in the coming days. (want to help botulism victims? follow this link)
BAX co-directors Marie Travers (left), January Bill (center) and HWCC/bax intern Courtney Watson (right) admit a Northern Pintail suffering from botulism at the Klamath Basin Wildlife Refuge.

BAX co-director and co-founder January Bill leads the effort to rehabilitate botulism impacted waterfowl and shorebirds at the Klamath Basin Wildlife Refuge.

It’s been so busy that we haven’t had time to simply stay in touch with our supporters to let them know in depth what’s going on. Staff is strong and committed but we’re also tired. For this reason, among others, the return of students to school is good news for us! Old volunteers who know the ropes are back in town! We’re super glad to see them return to HWCC! They’re a big help at this time! Without the help of volunteers HWCC/bax could not accomplish anything. Our gratitude to our volunteers is immeasurable!

You can be a big help at this time too! It’s normal for us to be scraping the bottom of the barrel at this time of year – as our busy season nears its completion, our incoming resources can’t keep up with the outgoing costs of electricity, rent, water, food, medicine and critical staff. Your support at this time of year is needed more than ever. We need you.

If you can help us reach our goal of $12,000 by September 15, we will be able to close the books on this summer and begin to prepare for the coming season of overwintering seabirds and other common Fall and Winter patients as well as make necessary repairs and expansions for next year’s season.  [click here to DONATE NOW]

This year it’s become clear that predictable patterns are askew. We’ve recently admitted a young orphaned fawn from the Bridgeville area – the latest in the season that we’ve admitted such a young deer. Crow fledglings can still be seen as well. We’ve treated less than half the raccoons as last year, but three times the songbirds. While the future is as uncertain as ever, now we must  accommodate new rhythms, which means new planning for our capacities, from staffing to housing to the balance in our bank account.

We are in a new normal, as they say. No matter where in the world we work, wildlife rehabilitators are adjusting to a changing environment, and we are sorting it out on the job, as we go. Of course we can’t say what that new normal really is because the wheel’s still in spin and….


All photos: Laura Corsiglia or BAX staff

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A Fledgling Hummingbird is Reunited

Posted on by Monte Merrick

Curiosity is the hallmark of childhood. Every day, for the young of any species, is a voyage of discovery. A child outside has no limits but her own between herself and the whole wide world. A young kid turns over rocks, follows a trail that leads under bushes. A boy finds on the ground a tiny buzzing bird and picks the bird up and carries the bird home in his jacket pocket.

Each year during Spring and Summer at Humboldt Wildlife Care Center we admit more than a few young fledgling birds who were picked up by kids and brought to the classroom or brought home. If these birds aren’t injured and we can learn where the kids found them, we try to get them home, back to their parents, and their interrupted lives.

At the end of July, a young Allen’s Hummingbird (Selasphorus sasin), just learning to fly, was found by some children near the school in Samoa, on the peninsula across Humboldt Bay from Eureka. The tiny bird was in good health, without injury. After some careful questioning of the kids’ mother, we had an idea where the young hummingbird was found by the young human. So we set out in search of the bird’s parents.

Our admission examination found no injuries or problems – just a healthy fledgling bird who happened to be seen by a curious young kid while vulnerable during first flight attempts.

The dune forest where the young bird had been found.

Adult hummingbirds were seen immediately in the area.

We placed 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 is as important a component of our work as the care we provide and the injuries we prevent through consultation and education.

What follows is a series of photos of the adults repeated trips to feed and care for the young bird that they nearly lost.

     
     
     

Caring for injured wildlife, helping resolve conflicts between human concerns and the needs of wild animals, reuniting wild families: each of these are a critical part of the work we do – work your support makes possible. So far, 2018 has been the busiest year HWCC has ever had in its 39 year history. We need your support now more than ever. Please, help us help our wild neighbors.

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