Thank you for supporting our work! Without you we wouldn’t exist. Please contribute if you can! The wild babies are coming as surely as Spring leads to Summer.
Thank YOU!!
Wild Babies Need YOU! (Video)
Tag: Keep Wild Families Together
The First Babies of 2025!
On the second of April, right after we opened, we admitted the first wild orphans of 2025. A student walking to school in Weott found an Opossum who had been hit by a car. In her pouch they found six tiny babies, eyes still closed, who were alive. They took the babies and wrapped them in a sweater and kept them warm. Until the babies could be brought to our clinic in Manila.
They’re doing well now, hydrated and becoming accustomed to a replacement milk. Thanks to this resourceful young person, these six babies have an excellent chance of getting a second chance at wild freedom.
These are the first six of several hundred wild orphans that Humboldt Wildlife Care Center will admit this season. we could really use your support. Without the donations of our human neighbors we would never be able to provide quality care for our wild neighbors. Please help! Thank you!!
2024: One heck of a year!
A lot happened in 2024. We treated 1,577 patients! We answered thousands of phone calls! We gave hundreds of second chances to our wild neighbors.
And it was with your help, your support, your generosity, that we could do any of it.
Thank you for making our second busiest year of all time a successful year. And please, if you can, support us going in to the future. Who knows what the new year will bring, but with your support, we’ll be ready!
Happy New Year!!!
In your mailbox soon!
Our annual holiday card! Just mailed out today! You’re support is so important to us – you make everything possible! Thank for another beuatiful year caring for our region’s orphaned and injured wild animals. It’s been a good one. It’s been a tough one. Please help if you can.
The baby season that began 3 weeks early.
It was the evening of March 31 that we were having a class on hatchling and nestling care for our staff and volunteers. Part of the material in the class was the approximate dates that we tend to start admitting certain species. Roughly, we had until the last few days of April, most years, before Mallard ducklings would begin to emerge. Nestling and fledgling songbirds start coming in about two weeks later.
As an aside to that, we talked about things that we would prioritize to complete in the next few weeks in preparation for the season before all of our time would be taken up by patient care.
The season had other plans. Three days later, April 2, our first hatchling ducks started to come in.
I often tell staff that the two gods I pray to are Necessity and Dumb Luck. I love them both. Necessity tells me what’s next and Dumb Luck helps make it happen sometimes, maybe, you can hope. Necessity said next up is a duckling pond for baby ducks old enough to be housed outside but who still need the heat support that would have been provided by their mother. Necessity also gave us a week to build it.
The part needed that isn’t Necessity or Dumb Luck is no god. That’s where each of us comes in. Elbow grease. Commitment. Community support. By the end of April we finished putting up a waterfowl aviary and adjacent smaller duckling pond, our first since moving to Manila in March of 2023. Maybe what I mean by Dumb Luck is the aspect of our work that requires us to believe that what is necessary will be done, because it must be done. In hindsight, after the accomplishment, one feels enormous gratitude, and also very lucky.
As it happened, the season just got busier and busier from April 2 on – by the end of the week, were getting very tiny Virginia Opossum babies whose mothers had been killed by cars or dogs. By April 11 we had tiny raccoon babies, who had been taken from their mother when their den was uprooted during some “brush removal” in Del Norte County, 80 miles north of us. With neonatal mammals, the feedings are as close to around the clock as we can manage – an inescapable part of parenting, as every parent knows – that we recreate as best as we are able.
So here we are, just past the midway point of the Season of wild orphans – we’ve been working 14 hour days for more than three months now. We still have about two months to go. The fact that we’ve even made it his far is in every way because of your support. Support that stays critical. We still have so much more to come this Season, and we still have a lot to complete to bring our facility back to its proper capacity. Your help is going to keep being needed, hopefully forever. If you can please donate to keep our season going, our doors open, our utilities paid, our food delivered, our medicines covered – our needs met. We do a lot on a little – we can do even more on more. Thank you!!!
Please take a look at our slide show of photographs from what so far has been, it cannot be denied, a WILD WILD BABY SEASON.
Our duckling pond and waterfowl aviary were completed just in time for the 30 Mallards and 6 Gadwalls we’ve treated so far this year! These Mallards are being released into the same lake where we gatherd the duckweed we offered them while in care. 
We treated 11 Canada goslings this year! Each baby is big!! 
Mid-May we admitted a Pigeon Guillemot who had derelict fishing line tangled around their body. After removing the line providing some time in our new seabird pool, we took them back to Trinidad to resume the baby season, no doubt an important member of the baby feeding team. 
Every now and again we admit Western Spotted Skunks! These young skunks were found in Del Norte County and through a series of volunteer drivers, were transported to our clinic on Humboldt Bay. We had them in care for a month until they were ready to face the wild on their own. We took them back to Crescent City. 
After a month in care these orphaned Western Spotted Skunks were released near the location they had been originally found. 
Re-uniting fledgling songbirds with their families is one of our important tasks all Season long. This Cedar Waxwing fledgling was soon the object of great concern when we brought the young bird back to their nest’s location. Adult Waxwings immediately took charge of the situation. 
An adult Cedar Waxwing watches with great interest when weput a Waxwing fledgling we believe is their baby back where the rescuer found them. 
Soon after realizing their baby was back, the parents immediately began to offer food! 
There is no joy like the joy of reuniting families. 
A juvenile Steller’s Jay is released back into the Community Forest where they were found as a nestling on the ground. All corvids are challenging patients in the same way as all gifted and talented children. This Jay was no different – bold, bright and curious! 
Every year we provide care for a few to half a dozen orphaned Gray Fox kits. They eat a lot of rats! Frozen rats cost anywhere from two to four dollars each. When the kits are eating 6 a day, that adds up fast! 
Two brother foxes, who came in when they were still fluffballs with their eyes only recently opened, were released in Mid-July. 
Foxes are amazing animals. They climb like cats, look like dogs, and bark and hiss and scream. Once while we were picking these guys up to do a routine examination, a wild and free adult Gray Fox came near our outdoor fox housing to see what was the matter. Thanks to your suppoort we were able to provide them their needs while they learned to hunt and care for themselves. 
A Red-shouldered hawk, no doubt with a nest and parental duties, was struck by a car on 299, near North Bank Rd. Amazingly the raptor had no injuries! After a day of observation, we returned the hawk to their neighborhood along the Batowat just north of Arcata. 
We’ve treated over half a dozen Brown Pelicans, in a small mirror of the pelican mortality event that occurred in much greater numbers further South, from the Bay area to San Diego. This juvenile Pelican came in emaciated and very cold. Once stable and ready to be housed outdoors, we converted our recently completed waterfowl aviary to meet the needs of a recovering Pelican. After three weeks of rest and plenty of fish, the big young bird was ready to return to Humbold Bay and beyond. The photos that follow are the in sequence of his release on the Samoa Penminsula. 
A month ago, a biologist working out past Willow Creek found a Trukey Vulture baby on the ground in the forest. We’ve had the bird in care for a month now, and let’s just say it takes a lot of carrion to make a grown up Turkey vulture! For a short time, we were able to house this baby with an adult Turkey vulture. The arrangement seemed to work out for both of them. 
An adult Turkey Vulture was found by the side of the road in Fortuna. When our staff arrived on the scene, the bird was very lethargic, barely able to move. Several times over the first few days of care, it seemed they were about to die. But with fluids, nutrition and rest, soon the vulture was awake and alert. Within a week they were strong enough to feed themself. After three weeks, they were ready for the open sky! 
We took the Vulture back to Fortuna and released them by the banks of the Eel River. 
Every once in a while we get a call about a Bald Eagle in trouble. Even less frequently, the animal in trouble actually is an eagle! Grounded, with minor injuries in the woods just east of Arcata, we beleive this adult, presumably male Bald Eagle had tangled with an Osprey over the rightful ownership of some fish. 
Staff member Ash Shields, in the moment when they are holding an injured eagle for an exam for the first time in their life. The occasion is momentous. 
The chance to examine any wild patient is also a chance to teach and to learn. Every patient has something to teach us. This Bald Eagle was no different. 
Because our facility isn’t finished being rebuilt after our move last year, we transferred the Eagle to Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue for further recuperation in their large aviary. When the handsome fellow is ready for release, he will come back to Humboldt. Members of Arcata’s dedicated birding community have reached out to us, hoping to be reassured about the his prognosis. While nothing is certain until release, we beleive that this Eagle has a very excellent chance of soaring again soon over Humboldt Bay. Meanwhile, we are hoping to begin building a new large aviary here by the end of Summer. Your help will make that possible!
We really need your help to keep going this Summer. We still have 2 months or more left of the Season and several hundred animals to admit. Please help us help our wild neighbiors in need! Thank you so much!!!!
A glance inside our clinic after a year in our new location!
Baby season is upon us and we need your help. Please donate if you can. Ducklings and skunk babies and raccoon orphans need you! Please help if you can. Thank you!!
An Eagle Scout in the Making Makes a Huge Difference for HWCC’s Wild Patients!
(Manila) – A young man is a step closer to earning his Eagle Scout badge after raising $1,400 for Humboldt WIldlife Care Center!
The young man, Quentin Chase (17) worked with McKinleyville Ace to support the only wildlife hospital on the North Coast with hot dog sales on three Sundays of the Summer, with the proceeds to benefit our clinic!
When asked why he chose HWCC as the beneficiary of his effort, Quentin said, “I was thinking of the wild animals that get injured yearly and thought the money would go for a good cause.” giving up three Sundays in the Summer to sell hot dogs at the local Ace Hardware definitely requires commitment, but QUentin did much more than that! For those hours on those Sundays Quentin was representative of the idea that our wild neighbors in need deserve a place to receive treatment. And he not only advocated for our wild neighbors, but he accomplished palpable results! Beside his time tabling for HWCC and selling hot dogs, Quentin also put in some hard work helping to get our Racoon patient housing at our new facility finished!
“My favorite part was doing the work to get to the end,” Quentin said, “like raising the money and building some of the cage.”
Quentin said, “It’s rewarding to make something happen to give to someone else. I’m especially glad that the raccoons will have a chance of survival in the wild when they are released.”
For the future, Quentin said, “I hope that there is more wilderness, and wild animals will return safely over time to regrow the animal populations.”
For us at HWCC, Quentin’s hard work, compassion and generosity meant a signicant boost in a challenging time! His contribution helped us make significant progress rebuilding our facility after needing to re-locate. When asked what the experience meant to him, Quentin said, “I learned that it means a lot to others when you give up time out of your day to help others in need.” Characteristic of this thoughtful young man, he added, “Thank you for helping me go through this whole project, and thank you to the crew that help wildlife in need.”
Love for the wild is as natural as getting born. Turning into a fine young person ready to chip in and help takes some commitment. Knowing that our young people are ready to join us oldsters and take up the challenge of building a beautiful future while we help restore the damage our society has caused the Wild is a more important gift than proceeds and a day’s labor, important though they are! We really thank Quentin Chase for his commitment and follow-
through and very real contribution that made a big difference for the wild patients of our region. We’re glad to know that Quentin’s generation is coming, and they are ready to work!
If you want to follow this young man’s committed and generous example, please do so!! You can donate today to help wild animals in care today, tomorrow and sustainably into the future.
New Raccoon Housing Coming Soon with Your Help!
We’ve started building our raccoon housing at our new site, but it’s Summer and our resources are thin! We need your help! Please donate to help us develop our new facility and keep our patients fed – we have nearly 75 orphans in care! Thank you for keeping our doors open and always striving to improve!!!!
A Summer Like No Other!
Every summer at HWCC/bax is a hectic and frantic season of orphaned wild babies by the scores, long days, great sorrows and thrilling joys. We prepare for wild baby season each year as best we can, with regular trainings for experienced staff and new volunteers alike, marshalling resources, stocking up, and generally getting ready for five to six months of an intense workload.
This summer, 2023, of course is complicated by our recent relocation from Bayside to Manila. We took possession of our new location in early March and it was early April before we could begin the process of transforming our new building into a functional clinic. By early May we already had orphaned babies in care and by early June we were deep in the season.
We built some of our crucial new patient housing before the season really hit – we’ve got a songbird aviary, a fawn yard, housing for small mammals like opossums, and housing that we’d intended for chipmunks and squirrels but which has been dedicated to orphaned Mallards since the middle of May.
Since moving our operations to Manila we’ve admitted over 750 wild patients! I’ve said it more than once that we’re building the ship while we sail it, and it might seem impossible, but believe me, when Necessity is your only boss and a supportive community is your greatest ally, it’s astonishing what you can do.
There’s a lot more housing needed, such as a raptor aviary, more songbird aviaries, a pelican aviary, a proper aviary for ducks, geese and herons, more mammal housing – and for all of this we need time and materials – and that means your support!
Every year at this time we run low on resources – time is tight, patient needs are high, and spending a lot of time getting the word out and raising funds is difficult to accomplish! But the simple fact is we need you badly. In order to keep going through our busy Summer, feed our patients, pay our small staff, keep the electricity on, pay our mortgage, and so on, we need to raise several thousand dollars! We can’t print money, but with your help, that won’t be necessary! Please donate if you can! Our wild patients now and in the future need you!
Happy Mother’s Jay!
A small bird with a big belly, covered in short blue-gray feathers with hardly a tail to speak of, a pair of big eyes and an impressive pinkish mouth, with a really splendid gravelly voice – this young Steller’s Jay (Cyanocitta stelleri) was found alone on the ground in an alley in Eureka and picked up by a kind member of the public.
Upon examination at our clinic, the little Jay was found to be in good health with no injuries. The only thing we were concerned about was the welfare of the family. The rescuer had wondered if the parents had been killed. The best thing to do would be to return to the site and look for the baby’s family, and if possible, attempt to reunite them with their parents. If no parents were found, the baby would come back to HWCC to be raised as an orphan until they could take care of themselves in the wild.
Like most parents, Steller’s Jays don’t abandon their babies. But tragedy can occur in a world full of cars, cats, windows, and natural predators – we treat nearly 200 orphaned songbirds each year!
We followed the address deep into Eureka, armed with binoculars and carrying the baby in a box lined with a soft pillowcase. We arrived at the site and proceeded to watch for Jays.
If we can determine that the baby and parents are aware of each other and in communication, the family will be considered reunited. We stand back to observe, keeping a close eye on the baby.
It’s awesome that this Jay’s mother and father were still present and that the youngster could return to their family. Of course, many young birds are actually orphaned and do need our care. While you can read on the internet that intervention may be the wrong thing, and that if you don’t know, you shouldn’t act, we can easily turn this reasoning around. In many cases we might not know enough to not act. To decide to do nothing might have consigned this wild animal to a needless death. The kind-hearted people who brought us the baby Jay were not able to tell that the baby wasn’t alone. They observed for a considerable time but didn’t see anything to allay their fears. This is perfectly fine! They aren’t professionals. They did the right thing. They called our clinic and told us what they’d seen. WIth no parents observed and the bird in the middle of an alley, with possible injuries, we suggested that they bring the baby to us. In this way we all played our part in helping protect this bird and gave them a second chance.
Want to help us provide the kind of care and attention that all wild neighbors in need deserve? Please consider donating! Your generosity is what makes our work possible. Without you there would be no one to call, no one to intervene, and no one to make sure that fledglings who’ve wandered far from home will get the attention and care they deserve. Thank you!!!
