new year’s eve – Bird Ally X

Want to hear about all the trials and tribulations we endured to meet our mission during this fitful year?

Me neither!

This was a tough year for everyone in our commuity (the world), but for the most part, we came through the last ten months stronger, more resilient, and more able to meet the challneges of providing care to our wild neighbors in need and promoting co-existence with the Wild (the highest reality).

So instead of touring through our troubles, here are some photographs of our patients and staff as we did our jobs, all of which was made possible by your generous support – a critical feature of all that we do, and the most necessary thing that’ll get us through whatever 2021 has in store. We need you like an orphaned family of raccoon babies needs Humboldt Wildlife Care Center.

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Some of the pools at the BAX Botulism Response field hospital

From Mountain Lion Kittens orphaned by forest fire, to dozens of orphaned Common Murre chicks, from orphaned Gray fox kits to Great Blue Heron chicks blown from their high nest in a freak Summer storm, from caring for 3000 ducks and shorebirds driven to near death by botulism in the Lower Klamath Refuge to cleaning 14 fawn bottles three times a day until all the fawns are weaned and released, staff was ready, pandemic protocols in place, to do the job we’ve always done – helping our wild neighbors in need.

All of us at HWCC/bax thank you deeply for all that you did to help us durvive this year. We wish you a much better 2021, and a return to good graces with nature, Mother Earth, and the wild.

We’re counting on you.

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Every year Humboldt Wildlife Care Center admits nearly 100 gulls of various species. Many of these gulls are injured beyond all help but a humane end to their suffering. The most common causes of injuries to gulls are trucks and cars, and the most dangerous place, it seems, are the parking lots of area shopping centers.

It seems strange that parking lots would be the most dangerous, since traffic in lots is already very slow, the presence of children and people pushing carts would make driver’s more aware and able to avoid collisions with gulls and other birds. Of course, we’ve all witnessed the sad fact of young men trying to run down pigeons and gulls in parking lots with their vehicles. Purposefully trying to hit wild animals with a vehicle is an act of senseless cruelty and a troubling sign. While we don’t know if many of the gulls we treat suffered intentional cruelty, whenever we admit an animal found in a parking lot, we wonder even if we’ll never know. What we do know is that a large number of those gulls don’t make it.

A few days ago, however, we admitted a Ring-Billed Gull (Larus delawarensis) who’d been found on the ground, barely able to move, unable to stand in the parking lot for a shopping center on Broadway Avenue in Eureka. At first we were concerned that the gull had been hit hard enough to fracture his or her spine. But both feet were responsive to touch.

With no palpable fractures, we assumed either acute toxicity, or a collision that had cause swelling. Treated with fluids and anti-inflammatory medicine, the gull soon was standing again.

Recovery was fast. After a few days in our aviary, the gull was flying very well and ready for freedom. The following photos are in sequence from the today’s release. The gull leapt from the carrier and never touched the ground…

A nice way to end a challenging year! A gull’s second chance in a dangerous world!

Your support means that this gull, one of the last patients released in 2017, who would’ve died last week, vulnerable and wounded on an acre of pavement where people stash their cars while shopping for trinkets, an all too common fate, instead is flying above Humboldt Bay, free right now, using a second chance that your generosity provided. Our human-built world takes little heed of our wild neighbors. Your support helps fix that problem, case by case, one wild neighbor at a time.

Thank you for supporting our work in 2017. From all of us at HWCC/BAX Have a wonderful and safe New Year’s Eve and we’ll see you tomorrow, as we enter 2018 with an open door for our wild neighbors. Thank you.

photos: Bird Ally X/ Laura Corsiglia

Tag: new year’s eve

2020 was a year…

Ring-Billed Gull Beats the Parking Lot