A Mid-Summer Day’s Reality

Posted on July 14, 2018July 15, 2018 by Monte Merrick

On any day of the Summer, our busiest season, we rarely know in advance which new patients will be admitted. The phone rings, a car rolls up our driveway, someone carries a cardboard box through the door. What’s inside?

Yesterday the boxes held a fledgling White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys)who was chewed up by a housecat, a River Otter (Lontra canadensis) from Crescent City who’d died on the trip south to our clinic, a Common Murre (Uria aalge) found on the beach near Fort Bragg with a broken wing, a nestling Western Gull (Larus occidentalis) who’s “rescuers” kept him for most of his life. He was found in mid-June just after hatching and held four weeks before help was sought.

Like the River Otter, many patients die before we can help them, while many more are too badly injured to ever regain their wild freedom and are treated humanely, ending pain and misery. And of course, we admit patients everyday who need our care, who respond to our treatments, and who recover and return to the wild.

So far this year we are running about 2% above 2017, our busiest year to date, and we’ve just crossed the mid-year point. We’ve admitted about 620 animals for care in 2018. And our pace continues. Today we admitted four baby bats and one raccoon who were driven to our Bayside clinic from southern Mendocino County.

But for all of our out-of-area patients, the top ten locations from where our patients come are all solidly in the heart of Humboldt County. McKinlyeville, Arcata, and Eureka combined are where 70% of our patients so far this year have come.

The top ten locations where our wild patients where found.

A lot has already happened this year. We’ve admitted, cared for and released over two dozen Mallards, several baby songbirds, and over forty young Opossums. And right now we have over 70 wild animals in care.

Mallard ducklings released in June 2018

Our Spring fundraiser in May reached 50% of our goal of $25,000. Thank you to everyone who contributed! While we missed our mark by a wide margin, nevertheless we did raise over $12,000 which we immediately converted to raccoon milk replacer, eggs, vegetables, electricity, water, rent and more. We’re asking again. We’re going to admit another 600 animals this year. To be ready for them, to provide the proper care, the proper foods, the appropriate medicines, the experienced attention, we need your help. Without you we literally will cease to exist. Please donate today! Every mid-Summer day at our clinics different from the others. No two days are the same, and our patients are diverse and largely unpredictable. Yet, in another sense, each day is like every other. Each day we open our doors and we answer our phone. Each day we provide the care that we can and relieve as much suffering as possible. Each day we help some on to the next world, treat some who we believe we can help with a second chance and we work to prepare orphaned wildlife of any species,from Quail to Rabbits, care and education so that they can return to their wild and free birthright. Each day we succeed with some, and our days are filled with successful releases of our patients back to freedom. We’ll leave with this series of wild patients who got their second chance., thanks to your generous support.

***

An Osprey found wounded and unable to fly along the Trinity River in Hoopa, rescued and brought to our clinic by Hoopa Tribal Forestry staff (you guys rock!) need enough time to recover in our care, to regain her flightm, her sense of purpose, and to demand to be returned to her beloved river valley.

One of our dedicated HWCC//bax interns prepares to release the Osprey along the bank of the Trinity River.

Into the sky!

And away!

From the mountians to the sea in the course of the day: Early in May we admitted two juvenile Brown Pelicans. Fearing that this might be the beginning of another bad year like we saw in 2011 and 2012 with these iconic West Coast birds, we ramped up our readiness. However, unlike the rest of the Californian coast, we thankfully did not see a high mortality rate among juvenile Pelicans in our region.

After a long recovery, the door to wild freedom is opened!

Some part of us always soars with our patient.

In the last 7 months we’ve treated 18 Barn Owls at HWCC/bax, including these two young ruffians! We’d already been caring for the larger of these two nestling Barn Owl chicks when the the smaller one came to us from Lost Coast. As it turns our he’d fallen from a nest box that HWCC had installed nearly 20 years before! The young owlet was in good health so we prepared to return him to his nest when we realized that the family he was going back to would do a much better job raising his older hospital buddy. So we sent both young owls back to the barn by the edge of the sea. It was amazing how quickly the larger owlet accepted and formed an alliance with his new roommate after the smaller guy was admitted.
Boxing the young owls up for travel. Transport of wild animals is fraught with difficulties. We’re as cautious as we can be…
As close to paradise as some will ever get, a small farm by the edge of the North Pacific Ocean. Our two Bran Owl patients will learn to fly here…

HWCC/bax volunteer coordinator, Ruth Mock, brings the owls and supplies to the scene of the reunite.

The active nest holds other small owls. Soon they will all be fledged into the great wide open.

Ruth places the birds back in the box…

Storm Petrels, tiny seabirds barely larger than a Robin, are frequent visitors to our region. This small cousin of the Albatross, was found in a gas station parking lot in Crescent City after a foggy night. It’s likely the bird was disoriented in the fog and landed on wet pavement mistaking it for the nearby ocean or harbor.

Checking the feather condition of the small seabird after 2 days in our 1000 liter salt pool.

Cleared for release!

Another ocean voyager leaves the safe harbor for destiny!

As the season proceeds we’ll be asking for your support regularly. The 1200 wild animals who we admit for care each year, as well as the thousands of others who we help over the phone, wouldn’t be heard at all without you and your generous support. Please, donate today! Thank you!

all photos: Laura Corsiglia/ bird ally x

Feathers Badly Singed in Fire, Osprey Fitted For Second Chance.

Posted on July 28, 2016July 28, 2016 by Monte Merrick

Earlier this summer, we admitted a weakened and burned Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) who’d been the victim of a nest fire northeast of Weaverville, well over 100 miles away from our clinic.

[July is nearly over and we still need your help reaching our goal of $5000 raised by the end of the month! Please donate! And thank you to everyone who has already! ]

The burns that the bird suffered had a good prognosis, and generally speaking, the “fish hawk” was in good shape, except for one critical component: all of the Osprey’s primaries, or flight feathers, were singed beyond usefulness, as were all of his tail feathers.

Without these feathers, our patient couldn’t fly, let alone plunge feet first from the sky into Trinity Lake, and then muscle his way back from the water into the air, carrying off a large fish for a meal for himself or his young.

In this condition, the Osprey was far from releasable. We gave him a safe aviary and plenty of fish and looked for signs that he was entering his molt cycle, the time of year when birds renew their feathers… Osprey do replace them at this time of year, so we hoped for a natural cure.

After a few weeks though it became clear that waiting for a molt was going to take too long for this bird. So we turned to another option.

Imping is a process by which old feathers can can be replaced. Of course, donor feathers of the same species are required. In February 2012 we’d released a Thayer’s gull whose primary feathers on one wing had been crushed. Using similar gull flight feathers we successfully imped them to the cut shaft of the damaged feathers. This isn’t surgery. This is more like furniture repair, or life-saving hair extensions.

The success of that patient’s treatment led us to start a feather bank, just as there are blood banks and organ donors. Back in April of 2014, we’d admitted an Osprey for care who’d suffered a severe humerus fracture. Humane euthanasia was the only appropriate treatment. Once the bird’s suffering was over, we removed a complete set of primary feathers and tail feathers. Stored against damage from elements or insects, these feathers were in the same condition, over two years later, as when we’d first collected them.

Now this Osprey of 2016 will get a second chance.

Complete set of the primary flight feathers for the right wing of an adult Osprey. Flight feathers are called remiges, a latin word combining the word for oar and the verb to drive – it is accurate to think of these feathers as the oars birds use to paddle through the air.

First new flight feather, alongside the damaged one.

A heated scalpel blade easily slices through the keratin shaft of the feather.

A small dowel is glued into the hollow shaft.

The same is repeated on the other side.

We stopped after replacing five feathers on the right side. Being handled for any length of time is very stressful for wild animals. We gave the Osprey a 20 minute break. Also it was time for our baby opossums to be fed and we needed the room!

We came back and repeated the process, but on the left side.

After finishing the five feathers on the left, the Osprey got another break. Each wing had taken approximately 30 minutes. The feather imping team could use the break too. The task isn’t technically difficult, but the stress level is high for everyone. After the break, that sad tail gets attention.

Because one of the Osprey’s center tail feathers has grown in, we decided to replace only the outside four on each side.

As the primary flight feathers are known scientifically as remiges, the tail feathers are known as rectrices. Rectrice, from the Latin, rector, or helmsman, rudder. So the flight feathers are the oars and the tail feathers are the rudder. And the bird who uses them is a sky kayaker.

After some time, we’ll evaluate for replacing the center damaged feathers as well. If we don’t need to, that would be terrific. Reducing the stress of our patients is a critical component of our care and we strive for the least invasive treatment possible.

This bird’s care isn’t over. He’s not even out of the woods. To be released we need to be confident that this bird will be able to survive on his own. After the full set of feathers has been imped, the strength and durability of the glue bond will be tested in our aviary. Once reasonably assured that the bond will hold the rigors of freedom, it won’t be long before this Osprey is growing in his own replacement feathers on his own time, in his own home – the wild.

Feathers are worth an entire life of study! An amazing evolutionary development that not only allows flight, but also allows a life at sea, a life in the arctic, a life in equatorial regions… closely related to hair, nails, claws and scales, feathers are a natural wonder the importance of which can’t be overstated. Want to learn more about feathers – start here.

Your support makes our work possible. Without you, this Osprey, as well as the baby Opossums who were in this room in an incubator just a few feet away during the entire procedure, would have no hope, no second chance. Want to help keep our work going? You can donate here.

All photos: Laura Corsiglia/Bird Ally X.

Osprey Returned to the Wild! (with pictures!)

Posted on October 7, 2015October 7, 2015 by Monte Merrick

Over the Summer BAX/Humboldt Wildlife Care Center has been treating two Osprey (Pandion haliaetus), one of whom came from Red Bluff and the other from Modesto. (read more about their care here)

A fire swept through an Osprey nest in Red Bluff, CA, a small city in the far northern end of the Sacramento Valley. One adult and one nearly fledged (ready to leave nest) chick were rescued and taken to Tehama Wild Care. After stabilizing the birds their only injuries appeard to be the singed feathers both had suffered. Feathers of course are a critical component of any bird’s health and well-being. Feathers make flight possible. Feathers allow hot-blooded birds to maintain a stable temperature (normal for most birds is between 103 and 106 degrees!). Unhealthy or damaged feathers could cause life-threatening challenges. Early in care, the young bird died, while the adult did well. Still the adult was very stressed by captivity and would dive in a threatening manner toward her human caregivers!

Soon after we admitted another Osprey chick who had been found out of her nest as a very small bird and hand-raised by our colleagues at Stanislaus Wildlife Care Center, near Modesto. This young bird now needed time in an aviary to be able to develop flight skills and also be monitored for appropriate behavior and fear of humans. Fortunately for her, we had an adult in care and good housing for the job so the young bird was sent north. The two birds quickly bonded, assuming a kind of parent/chick relationship. We knew then that the prognosis for a happy outcome was good.

After 5 weeks in an aviary together, gaining weight and strength, developing flight and eating a lot of fish ($ = fish!) we were able to determine that their feather conditon was adequate to be released – no good would come from more time in the aviary, with the layer of stress caused by captivity factored in, and the need for the young bird to learn real world skills that her new surrogate mother could teach her in the wild. Strong and healthy and sick of us, it was time for them to go.

[Fall Fundraiser: Bird Ally X/Humboldt Wildlife Care Center need your support! Summer bills must be paid. Winter maintenance must be done. Food and medicine for patients must be purchased. Utilities too! Without you we cannot keep our doors open, ready to accept into care all native California wildlife, orphaned or injured by the impact of our towns, our highways, our trash, our reckless disregard for our wild neighbors. Please contribute today. Any amount helps. Please give what you can.]

Yesterday, BAX co-director Laura Corsiglia and volunteer Bonnie MacRaith took the two birds on the long drive back to Red Bluff, back to adult’s home place and with her new kid in tow.

After returning to Humboldt, Bonnie stopped in at the clinic – this had been her first wild release… her eyes welling up, she reported the joy of seeing the adult fly out over the Sacramento River, and the youngster, who had come out of the carrier first and stood looking about, leaping into flight right behind her and following out across the river and into the sky and into perfect wild freedom.

Another open door to a wild and free future!

Juvenile Osprey wonders what to do with the wide open possibilities.

The adult Osprey seemed to know exactly where she was and what she wanted. Out of the carrier and into the sky!

And the youngster followed close behind…

The last glimpse! Good luck fishing!

As is always the case, our work is possible because of mutual aid between wildlife rehabilitators, help from agencies like the US Fish and Wildlife Service and CA Dept of Fish and Wildlife, and most importantly, your support. Your donations pay for everything we do! Food, medicine, appropriate housing – all of the critical elements to these birds’ happy outcome is the direct result of your donation. We are a very small organization with a huge task to do. Please give what you can today!

All photos: BAX/Laura Corsiglia

Osprey in Care – the Fish Hawks

Posted on August 26, 2015August 26, 2015 by Monte Merrick

Love is a hunting osprey
above the charging sea –
Silver fish beneath the sky
expose their dreams to fly.

The Osprey (Pandion haliaetus), the Fish hawk, an easily observed raptor who plunge-dives feet first from the sky to catch fish, lifting themselves and their prey straight back into the sky. A familiar sight: one of these large, long-winged birds carrying a trout or a perch, or any other of the over 80 species of fish that make up nearly all of their diet.(1)

We don’t often see these birds in care. When we do, often we are only able to help them out of this world due to the severity of their injuries – collisions with industry, fishing gear, and other hazards industrial civilization has brought to rivers, lakes, shorelines of fresh and salt water. Rarer still that we raise their young as orphans.

The challenges of raising wild predators are steep. Predators need to learn how to hunt. This is something that parents teach their young, something that adults of a family group can teach, even, in some cases, a foster parent. We can place young nestling hawks into a another nest of the same species and the new “parents’ will care for the young newcomer as their own.

For a wild animal like the Osprey, the challenges are clearly greater. It’s a rare species that produces young who don’t do better with their parents help post-natally. For young Osprey, an adult to lead the way is crucial. For wildlife rehabilitators to successfully raise any wild animal, serious attention to that patient’s natural history and a means to replicate those principles as best we can are essential. For orphaned Osprey, recreating the juvenile period of education requires a degree of specialization.

Our work with other plunge-diving species, like the Brown Pelican or Belted Kingfisher, coupled with our work with more commonly admitted land-using birds of prey, such as the Red-tailed Hawk, give us the tools and experience we need to provide good care for these unique birds.

And this Summer, those tools and experience are being put to the Osprey challenge! We have both an adult and a fledlging in care.

Our adult Osprey patient, brought to our facility after intial treatment at Tehama Wildcare, outside of Red Bluff.

Our Juvenile Osprey patient was brought to us from Stanislaus Wildlife Center in Stanislaus County.

The Adult, we believe a female, was a victim, along with her entire family, of a nest fire. In early July, her nest in Red Bluff came in contact with utility equipment (Osprey often nest on utility poles and towers). Her feathers were badly singed. She and a nearly-fledged chick were taken to Tehama Wild Care in Tehama County. After being stabilized, she and her chick were transferred to Humboldt Wildlife Care Center for long term care. Unfortunately, her chick died soon after arriving at our facility, possibly due to stress.

At this point the adult Osprey has an excellent prognosis. Her feather damage is severe, but she is able to fly, and we anticipate a full recovery.

BAX/HWCC rehabilitator Lucinda Adamason meets Karen Scheuermann of Tehama Wild Care in Weaverville to bring the adult Osprey and her chick to Humboldt for continued care.

The adult’s feather damage is apparent as she is perched above the pool in our Aviary developed for patients who dive for fish.

At feeding time, we have opportunities to take photographs. This bird has no desire to be around people and protests loudly when her “space” is violated. Keeping our movements hidden from a sharp predator like her is difficult, but we try so that her stress level stays as low as possible.

Our second Opsrey patient, a juvenile from Stanislaus County.

After nearly in month in care, we admitted another Osprey, a juvenile who’s been raised by Stanisluas Wildlife Care Center near Modesto. Fearful that the youngster was becoming too accustomed to people, with help from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the bird was transferred to Humboldt Wildlife Care Center to provide an opportunity for recovery. Between our large aviary as well as the company of the adult Osprey , this bird also has a good prognosis.

This bird has some feather damage as well, so, even if all else about her (we believe based on her large size that she is also female) is fine, it will be some time before she will be released.

The initial exam. The feet that we hope will soon be lifting fish from rivers and lakes!

A small amount of blood is periodically collected and tested to make sure that general health is maintained while in care.

The day after the new juvenile arrived we introduced her to the adult with whom she’ll be spending the rest of her care. While it’s hard to tell what any raptor is thinking, the introduction went well – both birds became more interested in each other and appeared less stressed in general. Now it is our hope that they form a bond of some kind – for both of thier sakes.

Because the damage to their feathers may extend their time in care, we have an opportunity to give the young bird the chance for an education in hunting. Because of the adult, the juvenile may actaully wind up with a foster-mother, and the time spent in our aviary will provide her chance to to learn to hunt.
Introduction day. While it is hard to ever say what any wild animal is thinking, let alone a raptor, the introduction went well. Both birds became immediately more interested in each other than us. Each appeared to become less stressed by the company of the other.

Stocking the pool with goldfish to begin the process of learning to hunt.

Four years ago we began the hard work of rapidly increasing the capacity of Humboldt Wildlife Care Center. Four years ago, HWCC could have not taken these patients. Four years ago long-term patients, most aquatic birds and others were transferred to rehabilitation facilities in the Bay area.

Thanks to your support we are emerging as the kind of wildlife care facility we’ve long strived for, a place that is respected throughout the state for the quality of the care we provide. We still have more progress planned, and there will always be advancements to make. But with these two Osprey, sent to us from hundreds of miles away, we have the chance to acknowledge the distance we’ve already traveled.

Thank you for helping making Bird Ally X/Humboldt Wildlife Care Center into the place we are today. And thank you for looking forward with us, and supporting us in our continued improvement and development – for providing the best care we can, working for the best injury prevention, for continuing to improve co-existence with our wild neighbors and for training the next generation of wildlife caregivers.

Thank you for being a part of this life-saving work! Your support is 100% tax-deductible!

All photos Laura Corsiglia/BAX

(1)http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Osprey/lifehistory