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!!!

Shocked Yellow-rumped Warbler Thought Everything Was Clear! Didn’t See the Glass!

Posted on November 10, 2016 by Monte Merrick

Last Friday a compassionate young man at his job site off Myrtle Avenue in Eureka found this Yellow -rumped Warbler (Setophaga coronata) on the ground beneath a window. After giving him a safe place to rest realized the bird needed care.

How alarming it is to see the passage ahead, the clear sky, the chosen path and believe it so much that you move in that direction without question, only to come to a hard and brutal invisible barrier. Window strikes kill hundreds of millions of birds in the United States each year!

This little guy was lucky. He was quickly brought into care and received anti-inflammatory medicine and a safe place to recover. Three days later he was released! (see video below of him back in trees, looking for insects)

If a bird strikes your window the first thing you should is move him gently into a box and call us. While a bird may fly off after an hour or so of rest, we don’t know that they are truly able to survive without care. It is surmised that many birds die of cerebral hemorrhging in the first 24 hours after the collision.

For ideas on how to prevent window strikes, check out this site.

As always, we are here to help wild animals who are innocently caught in the many pitfalls, traps and obstacles our modern world puts in their path. Your help ensures that we will always be here. Thank you for your generous support!

A Personal Letter from one of our Co-founders – Why We Need You.

Posted on November 7, 2016November 7, 2016 by Monte Merrick

Dear Supporters and fellow Wildlife Lovers;

I feel a pressing need to address you directly, as a person, as a wildlife rehabilitator, as someone committed to correcting the injustices our built world consistently inflicts on our wild neighbors, and also, and perhaps most significantly, as the person who is most directly responsible for communicating our work, our goals, and our needs to you, our supporters, followers and fellow wildlife lovers.

Talking about our work is easy. I am deeply committed to it. I love what we do. I feel privileged to be able to work so closely with wild animals. I am grateful for all that having been so close to unfettered freedom has taught me. Standing up in front of a room, putting my thoughts on paper, posting on the internet, is natural for me – as natural as rising early every summer morning and crossing the Arcata bottoms on my way to Humboldt Wildlife Care Center, our clinic in Bayside, to prep food for a couple dozen orphaned raccoons, offer mealworms to nestling songbirds, and return calls from people who’ve found an injured wild animal, or help them resolve a conflict with an animal who has wandered across one of our arbitrary and unnatural lines we’ve drawn between our world and theirs.

[You can click here to Donate Now]

My comfort zone includes some pretty awful things – broken wings, a car-smashed Opossum mother with babies still in her pouch, a thrush torn apart by a housecat and still breathing. My training and experience have taught me how to set aside immediate feelings and take action. It’s what I do. It’s what all wildlife rehabilitators do – every day of the year – here at Humboldt Wildlife Care Center, and in every other clinic – from well-funded organizations with a million dollar budget to the garage and shed of a “backyard rehabber” – which is by far the most common.

BAX supports all wildlife rehabilitators with education and workshops. As rehabilitators we know how critical good information is to do the job that we are each so passionate about – it’s one of our three primary missions.

We also provide direct care for wild animals in distress – at HWCC, but also as responders to oil spills around our state and beyond. One of our co-founders, Marie Travers, is currently in British Columbia, Canada, working with Focus Wildlife responding to a maritime accident that spilled thousand of gallons of fuel into a pristine habitat near the Great Bear Rainforest, one of the largest remaining unspoiled temperate rainforests in the world.

Promoting co-existence with the Wild is another of our critical missions. This takes many forms, including what you are reading right now. We go to schools. We go to conferences. We rely on the support of local media to help us bring a voice for the voiceless.

Arguing for justice is difficult and emotionally costly work, but it is very gratifying. The desire for justice, the urge to rise to the defense of the marginalized, is common, and who is more marginalized than the skunk hit by a car and carelessly, thoughtlessly, left by the side of the road, bloating and forgotten? There is an adage among conservationists, that “every victory is temporary, every loss permanent.” We feel the truth of this each day. And by and large, we remain undaunted.

But for me, there is one task that requires me to steel my nerves, gather my courage, and plunge in. And that is asking for your support – your money – your check. It’s obvious, of course, that all of what I’ve described above – the thousands of animals we’ve cared for, the thousands more we’ve prevented from becoming casualties, the people we’ve reached, the wild lives and the human lives we’ve helped – can’t be done in our world without money. So, regardless of my discomfort, I ask for donations. I ask often. Some people might be good at it. Maybe I am, I don’t know. I just know that what we need and what we have don’t match. So comfortable or not, good at it or not, I have to do it – just like I’m doing now.

Every month I set a goal. The last few months the goal was $7000 – honestly, that’s not quite enough, and if it wasn’t for the holiday and end of year fundraising, as well as a reliable foundation grant, we wouldn’t meet our needs on $84,000 a year – a terrible crisis – we can’t spend what we don’t have. Yet, the last two months we haven’t even come close to meeting our $7000 goal. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried.

Worrying about the care we provide is part of my job – I accept it – worrying about our volunteers and staff – that they’re being treated well and getting the opportunities to learn they want and need – is also part of my job. Worrying about the money? It’s part of my job, but it’s the one that scares me the most. The other aspects are in my control. Our quality of care, our intern program – those are ours to make as good as we can. The support required, well, that depends on me asking, but it really depends on our community providing. We are only as strong as you make us.

We have a relatively small budget. In our dreams, we’d have $250,000 a year to spend. We’d be able to fund every program we’ve designed and pay the staff meager salaries to get it done. As it is, we make it all work, for now, on about $100,000 per year. We have one full time and one part time staff person. Everything else goes to our patients and our wildlife ambassador birds. Right now, we are $10,000 short of our usual annual donations. So far, we are continuing to meet our mission – you can scroll though our past stories to see the work we’ve done – from returning a local Bald Eagle who’d suffered lead poisoning to the wild, to delivering our aquatic bird workshop to rehabilitators on the Oregon coast. Yet, we have expenses, such as food and medicine, still unpaid from our busy summer season. Our suppliers know that we work hard, but that doesn’t mean they give their products away.

Now as wintering seabirds and geese return to our region, our expenses will increase again. Additionally, this is the time of year when repairs and maintenance to our facility must be completed.

In short, we need your help.

As this year’s contentious election season comes to a close, and the anxiety of our uncertain future looms – climate chaos, toxic spills, international instability, here at home, no matter what happens, our wild neighbors will need us. Wild animals will still be the most marginalized victims of the hazards of the world we humans have built. And we’ll need to be here for them.

Only your support makes that possible. Which is why I fight my discomfort and ask for your generous donation. Please, we need you. [You can click here to Donate Now]

Thank you for your past support, and thank you for enduring my constant appeals.

Take care,
Monte Merrick
co-director Bird Ally X, director Humboldt Wildlife Care Center

Halloween Mask? No Problem!

Posted on October 31, 2016October 31, 2016 by Monte Merrick

It’s Halloween and two of our Raccoon patients were released! These masked juveniles won’t be trick or treating the neighborhoods however. They’ll be strictly wild, thanks to your support!

raccoon-11-31-16

There is still time to help us close in on our October goal of $7000 – although time is running out! Hopefully we won’t turn into a pumpkin at midnight!

Click here to support our work!

Limited Edition Merganser T-shirt – Art by Laura Corsiglia

Posted on October 23, 2016 by Monte Merrick

Mergansers are awesome ducks. Everyone thinks so! Now you can support our work and show the world your love for these remarkable birds. Celebrating the mysterious beauty of the female Common Merganser, these shirts were printed locally by Blackjack Humboldt taken from original art made by internationally known artist Laura Corsiglia (who happens to be a co-founder and co-director of Bird Ally X! Laura also takes most of our photographs!)

Available in many sizes, the t-shirts are 100% organic cotton. But we have a limited number! We’re offering them for $35! Stop by our clinic in Bayside to get yours! We’re open every day from 9 to 5. Not in the area? Well you can order online (there will be a $4.99 shipping/handling fee)! Just click here.

It’s a thrill to be able to offer these shirts. The original drawing was done as a gift for another co-director but it’s too lovely to keep to ourselves. Vote Merganser!

A Falcon’s Peregrination Through Recovery

Posted on October 22, 2016October 22, 2016 by Monte Merrick

As September drew to a close, on its last Monday, a young Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus) was hit by a car on Samoa Boulevard (route 255) near the intersection with V street, just west of Arcata. Samoa is a highway notorious for its danger to our wild neighbors. Every day a casual survey will find the dead body of someone – a raccoon, a gull, a skunk, a coot, or an opossum – and who knows how many small birds are never seen, who’ve been hit and killed and thrown into the vegetation on either side of the road. Samoa Blvd is a ridiculous name for the route – it should be called the Wildlife Watchout.

[We need your help! We are several thousand dollars away from reaching our October goal of $7000! Our work relies completely on your support. If you can, please donate today! Every little bit helps.]

This falcon was spotted, alive, sitting by the side of the road. A kind-hearted man stopped and scooped the world’s fastest animal (242mph in a dive!) and brought him to our Bayside wildlife hospital, Humboldt Wildlife Care Center.

It is thought by some that Peregrine falcons got their name from people who captured them as juveniles who’d wandered from their nest site, since those nests were usually too remote to reach or even find. It’s not very clear if this is the case, and the source material is vague – but if accurate, since the theory alludes to falconry and the practice of stealing wild falcons and keeping them captive, then we have a parallel in our own time and place.

For many of the last several years, a Peregrine falcon pair have nested in high profile location near Eureka. Local birders and ornithologists tried to keep the site a secret to protect the falcon family from falconers who might try to steal a juvenile. As with the centuries old conjectured etymology, it would have been nearly impossible to reach the nest’s location, but as soon as the juveniles fledge (fly from nest for the first time) they would become easy targets. In fact, over the last few years HWCC has often been called in to give one or more of the young falcons a helping hand, since their first flights usually take them into the heart of downtown Eureka.

A juvenile Peregrine Falcon in care at HWCC in 2012. This youngsters only problem was that her (or his) first flight from his nest landed her on Eureka’s waterfront. Too young to know better, she was easily picked up by a well-intended person and brought to us. After a day of observation to insure she was in good health, we returned her to her family.

When we performed this Peregrine falcon’s initial examination, he (presumed male due to smaller stature) was in good health with the exception of a fractured right ulna. As fractures go, this is one of best he could have gotten. Whether bird, human, other mammal, even dinosaur, vertebrates with limbs have ulnas – it’s one of the many clues that we really are all related. The ulna is the thicker of the two bones, the other being the radius, that make up our forearm, extending from elbow to wrist. Since his radius was intact, it formed a natural splint. A couple of weeks spent with his wing immobilized, his ulna had a very good chance of healing – this bird’s prognosis for release was excellent.

Receiving medicine during initial examination.

Keeping a fierce, wild being in a small enclosure for 2 to 3 weeks is risky – especially for the wild being. While his prognosis for recovery was good, in captivity, anything can happen – accidents with the housing, stress-related trauma – nearly every advance in the husbandry of our patients that rehabilitators have made has come at the cost of patient’s life. So with this in mind we provided a perch that would prevent pressure sores on the bottoms of his feet that can develop when a bird is grounded. We housed him in a soft-sided pen to prevent injuries to his unwrapped wing. We kept him isolated from our noise and commotion to reduce the stress of being unable to put the distance between that he would have greatly preferred.

Every so often we checked the fracture site in order to track the healing process. At last, after 18 days, the fracture was stable with a well formed calloused around the break. We removed the wrap and moved the falcon to an outdoor aviary. To our great pleasure, he immediately burst into flight. All that was needed at this point was some time in the aviary for him to regain any lost strength and for us to make observations that let us know he would be fine upon release.

After 25 days in care, the falcon was ready to go.

Trying to evade the net while being captured for his release evaluation.

Thinking outside the box!

A new volunteer on her first release – these moments are the joy of our work.

… back into wild, blue yonder …

While we wish every patient who’d been hit by a car that we treat could have such an awesome outcome, the truth is that it’s rare that anyone survives such an impact. But for wild animals, without someone stopping to get them help, and without people like you who support our work, none who are injured would survive. If not for you, this bird, and every other patient we admit, would have been an uncounted statistic of the damage to nature caused by civilization. Thank you for your support!

Want to contribute? Click here!

All photos: Laura Corsiglia/BAX

Raising Common Murre Chicks in a Changing World

Posted on October 18, 2016December 9, 2016 by Monte Merrick

All along the west coast of North America, on the rocks and cliffs of the crumbling edge, Common Murres (Uria aalge), elegant seabirds with a large local population, gather each Spring to mate and raise their young. Highly dependent on the cold nutrient-rich waters of the California Current, these birds are strictly fish eaters, diving to depths of 180 meters and maybe deeper*, using their wings to “fly” beneath the waves to catch their prey.

Common Murres leave their nest site long before they are fully grown or independent. Jumping from the rocky cliffs, the young seabirds join a parent, almost always their father, at sea to continue feeding, growing and learning. For over 20 million years, Common Murres (also known as Common Guillemots) have lived in this manner, through the ice ages, the warmings, and the shifts in coastline and habitat that have occurred.

[We are in the middle of our October fundraiser and need your help, urgently. We must raise $7000 by the 31st! We are still several thousand dollars away. Please support wildlife rehabilitation and advocacy for the wild on the North Coast and beyond! Click here to donate now.]

Our world is wild. We can’t really say that one part is more or less wild than another, but certainly we can say that the ocean, in the best of times, is a challenging environment. In our current age, the age of human interference with natural cycles so severe that impacts are seen at the planetary scale, the challenges may be insurmountable.

So while it has been normal in each year for Humboldt Wildlife Care Center to admit 30 to 40 Common Murre chicks during the months of July, August and September, due to the a wide assortment of causes, we knew something was amiss when this Summer we admitted only 6 young birds. Just as our typical season of raising orphaned Murre chicks began – late June and early July – it also ended.

A very young Common Murre, on admission day, rests in our incubator, exhausted and nearly starved to death.

After warming up, a full examination is performed. Supplements, such as vitmain B, and anti-parasitical drugs are given.

Each chick is given an identification band so that we can accurately track her or his progress.

Common Murres are colony-nesters and housing them with others helps ease the stress of captive care.

Our patients this year came in very young – each of them was well under 200 grams which is approximately their weight at the time when they usually leave the nest. As you can imagine, a young bird without a parent floating across the coastal waters of the North pacific will be in pretty rough shape by the time she or he is beached. Very thin, dehydrated and close to death, we immediately provide supportive care – fluids and warmth.

It’s a tough thing, having a setback like this at such a young age, and not every orphan will survive. Th early days of care are the worst, and we lost two within their first 24 hours of treatment. In the end, of the 6, we released 3. They spent over two moths with us, first housed indoors under a heat lamp and then moving outdoors to our newly built saltwater pool.

In our newly built seabird pool. Magnetic-drive pumps, unlike most swimming pool pumps, allow us to switch between fresh and saltwater, as the needs of our patients dictates.

Each bird ate nearly 50 night smelt each day. Over the course of two months, that’s a lot of fish!

2016 on our coast was a bad year for Common Murres. There simply hasn’t been enough fish. Lack of fish, leads directly to fewer young seabirds. Common Murres are long lived and can absorb the occasional bad year. If fish populations recover, so will they recover. But current conditions don’t seem to be signs that we are living in a time of recovery.

Agricultural runoff introduces nitrogen in to the sea which increases the frequency of harmful algal blooms. Plastics and other garbage pollutants wreak havoc on the food chain. Overfishing depletes the ocean of the resources which all species depend on to survive and thrive. Rising ocean temperatures as a part of anthropogenic (i.e., human-caused) climate change are destroying the web of life as it has evolved over the vast fabric of time. We have no idea which species will survive, or what the outcome will be for “the wheel’s still in spin.”

Still, for the birds that we admitted, prompt care and proper facilities (provided by your support!) allowed them to recover and be released back to their wild and free lives… which come with no guarantees.

We may not know what our future holds – this has always been true – but we do know that, no matter how much damge there is – no matter the extent of the injuries that we cause – we owe to Mother Earth and all her residents the best possible care for the victims of human industry, human carelessness and human indifference. We do what we can with what we have and without you, we’d have nothing.

Volunteer staff takes our three Common Murre patients to the bay for release.

As birds who spend nearly their entire lives on water, they don’t walk very well. We place them directly in the bay.

We do what we can. Yes it feels good to help. It’s one of the ways that we know that helping is the right thing to do.

Paddling out to deeper waters to join others out beyond the old formation. From 150 gram babies to nearly grown adults over 900 grams, this is the second chance that you provided with your support.

Your support means the difference between these birds dying on a beach and getting a second chance. Please help. We need to raise $7000 before the end of October. Help us help our wild neighbors. Click here to Donate Now. Thank you!

All photos: Laura Corsiglia/ Bird Ally X

*Diving Depths of Four Alcids (1984)Piatt, John F.; Nettleship, David N.

Bald Eagle, Lead Poisoning, and the legacy of Industrial Civilization.

Posted on October 2, 2016October 18, 2016 by Monte Merrick

On a late Friday afternoon at the end of March, our wildlife clinic in Bayside, Humboldt Wildlife Care Center, got a call about a Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus). Some folks who live in a remote part of Humboldt, near the Lost Coast, had seen him (since he was on on the small side for an adult eagle we presumed male) sitting all day on a river bar. Their dog had even approached and the typically fierce bird was only able to fly to a low nearby perch. They called in their dog, and then they called us.

The next morning staff made the trip to the site on the Bear River. The eagle was still there.

[Your support makes our work possible! Help us meet our October goal of $7000. Click here to make a contribution today!]

After a relatively easy capture and the long drive back, upon examination we realized that we had a very sick bird in our care. Lethargic, now unable to stand, and very weak, we initially suspected an all-too-common killer of raptors across the state: rodenticide.

Transporting back to our clinic, even in poor health the eagle is a wary observer.

It’s not a bad guess. According to a study conducted by colleagues in Marin County at WildCare, well over 70% of the wildlife from across the San Francisco Bay Area tests positive for exposure to anti-coagulant rodenticides. Although some sales of over-the-counter rodenticide were banned recently, these poisons still make it into the wild and their legacy will be with us for a long time.

Although this eagle has likely been exposed to rodenticide, that wasn’t his problem. After a few days in care, we observed that his feces was a dark, fluorescent green. This nearly always indicates another toxin that is also a major threat to wild animals: lead poisoning. In 2006, over 50% of the sick eagles brought in to care in Iowa suffered from lead poisoning.¹

A sick patient needs nutrition. We make sure they get it.

A trip to the veterinarian for radiographs and blood tests confirmed our suspicions. A pellet lodge in his throat and high levels of lead in his blood. We immediately started the eagle on medication that binds with the toxic metal and removes it from the blood stream. We believe that the pellet was ingested rather than the result of being shot, since it was passed after a short time.

A hunter using lead ammunition shoots an animal, who evades capture, carrying the lead ammo in her body, and dies elsewhere, only to be found by a scavenger, such as an eagle. When a scavenger eats the dead body the toxin kills another, unless someone intervenes.

Lead-based ammunition has been banned in the US for hunting waterfowl (ducks, geese, etc) since 1991.² California recently began to phase out all lead ammunition because of its role in secondary wildlife deaths, but a complete ban does not go into effect until 2019.

These feet are formidable! We take precautions with all patients, no matter how sick.

Our patient is at his worst. Fortunately he began to recover within a few days after getting the right medication.

Our patient was very ill. For the first few days of treatment we were unsure if he would survive one day to the next. On top of his lead poisoning, the eagle suffered an upper respiratory infection. We gave him antibiotics along with his other medicine. We provided warmth. We provided safety. The eagle provided the will to live and the strength to endure. After five days in care he began to eat.

Often, although not always, the mark of a corner turned is the return of an appetite. His prognosis went from ‘guarded’ to ‘cautiously optimistic’.

After a few weeks, each course of medicine completed, we entered the long phase of recovery. Emaciated on admission, his weight had been rising slowly and steadily. Still very thin, and still relatively weak, we were able to move the eagle to outdoor housing, where he could perch, eat and begin to recover his strength in much greater privacy. Stress is a serious health risk to all patients, but especially for wild ones, who not only must contend with captivity but also the daily presence of caregivers who they regard as threats to their very lives.

A mighty eagle reduced to hiding in the aviary’s bushes might seem sad, but to staff, this is a photo of sure recovery.

Slow progress is still progress. It’s an important part of rehabilitation. We watch closely, from afar. Any sign of imporvement is noted. Stasis, or worse, decline, is also noted. If the patient is improving, we proceed. If not, we consider changines to the treatment plan. If we have a songbird who’d been hit by a car that can’t stand or move her legs? well, if each day she exhibits signs of sensation returning, we are given hope that recovery is possible. It seems obvious, but it’s not. We train to make observations. We learn a language of care that allows us to note small, incremental improvements precisely. Exactitude in our work saves lives.

Our patient had been in care for over two months before he was able to mount this perch!

Slowly, our eagle patient became more alert. Small things let us know that a full recovery was likely, like following our movement when we brought food into his aviary, or the vigor with which he stepped up to his perch. In time we added higher perching, so that he’d have to jump. And then higher still, so that he’d have to fly. And we fed him everyday. For six months his slow gains mounted until at last, he was recovered. His respiratory infection had cleared. He was flying with strength across his his housing. His blood work was excellent. Six months nearly to the day from his rescue, we took him back to a ridge above the river where he’d been found, near death.

This eagle got lucky. It’s no accident that he was injured. Industrial society has set traps as insidious as lead ammunition for a couple hundred years, at least. People need nature to live, yet our industries find Mother Earth and all her children to be either a source of capital, or an obstacle. Think of how coal mining jargon refers to the tops of mountains, the forests, the wild neighbors who call them home, as “overburden.” And even should we stop the machineries of death, the legacy of industry will linger in our environment, our home, for centuries to come – killing, injuring, displacing.

No, his poisoning was no accident – the accident, the twist of fate, is that he was found by caring, compassionate people who took steps to see that he got the treatment he deserved. And hopefully, we and our children and our grandchildren will always be there, ready to help those who we and our ancestors have harmed with our short-sighted schemes that have left perennial threats.

Every patient we admit is treated with dignity, no matter the species, no matter the injury. Every patient whose care we commit to is given the best we can give – whether a Bald Eagle or a Pacific Wren – a Mallard or a Gray Fox. And the care we are able to provide is directly the result of the support that you provide. Thank you for making it possible for us to help this Bald Eagle, and all of our patients, recover from the injuries our industrial society cause, and get the second chance that they deserve.

His ability to burst into flight like this took months to recover: this was a happy day!

The following photos are the sequence of his release!
Staff rehabilitator, Lucinda Adamson opens the carrier.

Released back to his home! A powerful bird, restored. At the bottom of this valley is the river where he was found.

Your support makes our work possible. We operate on the slimmest of margins, in a constant struggle to provide quality care. Want to help? Please donate today! Thank you!

All photos Bird Ally X/ Laura Corsiglia

Bird Ally X Celebrates Seventh Anniversary!

Posted on October 1, 2016October 2, 2016 by Monte Merrick

Seven years ago, six wildlife rehabilitators*, friends and colleagues, began meeting to develop a workshop on aquatic bird care geared toward other rehabilitators. Each had worked extensively with aquatic birds, including providing care for large numbers at once during catastrophic events such as oil spills, harmful algal blooms, and disease outbreaks, such as avian botulism, that can be driven by environmental conditions like drought.

As one of the six, I can tell you that our primary motivation was to help make certain that hard-won knowledge didn’t end with specialization – that life-saving knowledge spread through our profession.

Across our state, our region, our continent and the world, wildlife rehabilitators work, often alone, with whatever species winds up on their doorstep. Knowledge of aquatic bird care at that time was mostly centralized, in the hands of experts – experts who had learned at the cost of many lost wild lives, experts who had access to money provided by oil companies legally bound to pay for damages (wildlife casualties) they’d caused.

We knew first-hand that many rehabilitators didn’t have the experience or the education to provide quality care for aquatic birds. Often rehabilitators sought help, advice and instruction – mostly they were encouraged to transfer their patients to expert with the knowledge, and even more importantly, the facilities to treat these patients with such unique needs.

It wasn’t long before we realized that our goal was much larger than a workshop could accomplish. Even seven years ago, it was easy to see that our future was quite rocky. Climate disruption, conflict with the oil empire, rising disparity in wealth – our world was clearly in turmoil.

It seems easy to imagine that funding for aquatic bird rehabilitation might evaporate, especially as coastal cities would be forced to divert resources toward infrastructure to cope with rising seas, as well as other consequences of our industrial age. In short, if whole oceans are dying, who will pay for the rehabilitation of marine animals such as Common Murres or Brown Pelicans.

On September 22, 2009, Bird Ally X was conceived in turmoil and hatched as a remedy.

Bird Ally X delivered our first workshop in 2010, An Introduction to Aquatic Bird Rehabilitation. Initially, workshop attendees were given a 50-page booklet as part of the course. By 2012, that booklet had been expanded to become our currently available book also titled, An Introduction to Aquatic Bird Rehabilitation. We’ve now delivered the workshop to hundred of rehabilitators around the country. Over the last seven years we’ve produced additional classes and workshops on different components of aquatic bird care, as well as focusing on different species of aquatic birds and their particular needs in care. We’ve developed workshops on the ethics of wildlife rehabilitation, on housing for wild patients, as well as being effective at helping people over the phone resolve perceived conflicts with their wild neighbors peacefully. We’ve produced materials for co-existing with aquatic birds and other wildlife for Federal and State agencies as well as our general community.

Many of our co-founders have served and still do as volunteer board members for state and national professional rehabilitation associations. Being able to work with our colleagues around the state and country to improve wildlife care as well as provide information that rehabilitators need and seek is an important part of our mission.

During this time, we have continued in our daily work of wildlife rehabilitation, either as staff at other organizations, on emergency response efforts around the continent, as well as producing educational and advocacy materials for collaborative efforts with other organizations and government agencies.

In 2014, Bird Ally X launched an online petition aimed at the United States Department of Agriculture’s highly controversial Wildlife Services, a shadowy, unaccountable program that is a sort of secret police against wild animals. The petition received over 175,000 signatures!

However five years ago we added to our mission in a significant way.

In 2011, with 3 of 6 co-founders living in Humboldt County, we were tipped off that young Brown Pelicans were sighted, contaminated, soaking wet and struggling at the public boat launch in Crescent City, about 90 miles north of Humboldt Bay. we investigated and discovered that not only were there young Pelicans in trouble in Crescent city, but all along the North Cast from Shelter Cove into Oregon. Since it was late in the fishing season, the problem soon ended for the year, but not before we’d rescued, cleaned and rehabilitated over 50 Pelicans who’d been contaminated by fish waste.

Fish waste going directly into the ocean at the public boat launch in Shelter Cove, California. Brown Pelicans and other birds were contaminated directly by this unorthodox waste disposal.

In order to meet that challenge, Bird Ally X partnered with the local wildlife care center, who we’d been assisting in small ways for years. With the facility they had in Bayside, we built the necessary infrastructure to take care of aquatic birds in Humboldt County – allowing for the first time in HWCC history for injured aquatic birds to remain in the region to receive care! That partnership led to BAX assuming HWCC as part of our organization, as of 2013. Now HWCC is the largest single aspect of our efforts. We treat over 1200 wild patients each year, and work every day of the year to provide humane conflict resolution for thousands of other neighbors human and wild.

Now, after seven years, we are still seeking new avenues to reach our colleagues and our community to improve the lives and care for injured and orphaned wild animals, to partner with other organizations so that we can prevent injuries in the first place (an ounce of prevention!!). Our work is far from complete. With the addition of HWCC to our organization we have a working lab for developing affordable and achievable techniques and solutions to the problems of shoestring-budget wildlife rehabilitation. We have an internship program that allows us to train the next generation of wildlife rehabilitators.

We have an education program that brings a message of humane co-existence to classrooms and organizations across our diverse community.

And most importantly, we have the capacity to provide care and save wild lives. As we continue to grapple with the dictates of our work and strategize the future of our efforts, I’d like to close this retrospective with the most important part of the last seven years – the support we’ve received and the wild neighbors we’ve helped!

Want to help? Great! We need your support! Click here to Donate Now!

*the six are – Shannon Riggs, DVM; January Bill; Vann Masvidal; Marie Travers; Laura Corsiglia; Monte Merrick

All images belong to Bird Ally X, thanks!

Much maligned, but so refined, an elegant Skunk is released.

Posted on September 18, 2016September 18, 2016 by Monte Merrick

Nearly three weeks ago we admitted a patient for care, a juvenile, very thin, suffering from parasites, and barely able to stand. At this time of year, struggling young wild mammals are a relatively common patient for us. Youngsters run into trouble, on their own, and once weakened, succumb to all sorts of perils. Internal parasites, dogs and cats are life threatening to a youngster, and if you happen to be one of the most unloved and misunderstood animals who commonly live near the world of industrial civilization, people can be the biggest threat you’ll face – which is why this young Striped Skunk (Mephitis mephitis) was very lucky that he stumbled into the backyard of someone who took pity on him instead of freaking out.

Freaking out when seeing a skunk is pretty common. Of course, skunks are relatively harmless. While they may suffer from rabies, though it’s not common, their only real threat is their ability to leave a lingering pungent aroma that most of Mother Earth’s children find unpleasant. Consider that the next time you pass the lingering odor of skunk dead on the side of the highway who’s only crime was trying cross the road, and who’s only defense against a thundering automobile was his unique musky spray.

Those who keep chickens, of course, need to provide their animals with a safe enclosure that keeps out all predators, if they wish them to not be eaten. Most wild animals are drawn to human households by food, water or, in the right season, an attractive den site. It is as much our responsibility to keep our wild neighbors safe from conflict with us as it is to keep our livestock, pets and property safe from damage caused by nature that is only doing what needs to be done for survival.

This young skunk needed only anti-parasitical medicine and safe place to eat a natural diet and regain his body mass. After a few days he was stable enough to be housed outdoors. After a few weeks, he was fit and ready to return to his free and wild life. We released him into the same area he was found. As you can see in the following phone pics, he made short work of dashing for cover…

And then he was gone….

Your support makes our work providing care for our wild neighbors who’ve become orphaned or injured due to our built world possible! Without you, neither this skunk, nor the other 15 skunks we’ve treated in 2016, nor the other 900 wild animals, as well as the thousands of wild animals we’ve helped by counseling people in the middle of a conflict with the principles of humane co-existence with the wild animals and Mother Earth, would have gotten the help they needed and deserved. Thank YOU!!!

We are still $5000 dollars away from our critical goal of $7000 raised for the month of September. You can help us reach it by donating today!