Raccoon Housing Repairs Complete! (Short video tour!)

Posted on June 9, 2017 by Monte Merrick

A couple of months ago BAX launched a crowd-sourcing fundraiser for the repairs we needed to make to our Raccoon (Procyon lotor) housing at Humboldt Wildlife Care Center. This housing is a critical component of our orphaned raccoon program. It’s where the babies we care for grow, develop, and learn.

Those repairs are now complete. Here’s a glimpse into the housing that teaches wild babies the skills they’ll need to thrive in their wild freedom. Thank you to everyone who contributed to this campaign!

Also, thank you to all our supporters. These are tough, lean times for us and it seems they’re only getting tougher. Every dollar contributed helps. Your support makes a big difference for our wild neighbors. The food and water our raccoon kits need, the fish we provide all of our patients, the thousands of insects we feed baby orphaned songbirds. Our medicines and supplies – all of these real things cost real money – money we wouldn’t have without you. Want to make a donation now? Follow this link! Thank you!

We’ve Started a GoFundMe Campaign for Raccoon Housing Repairs

Posted on February 27, 2017February 27, 2017 by Monte Merrick

Your help needed! Just click on the screen shot below to go to read about the project and Donate! Thank You!!

Orphaned Raccoons, Field and Stream (Cool video!)

Posted on October 25, 2015October 25, 2015 by Monte Merrick

As we posted a couple of weeks ago, it’s the time of year that the orphaned raccoons we’ve cared for over the Summer are reaching an age that we can return them to their wild, free lives.

We often talk about the efforts that we can all make to co-exist with our wild neighbors as well as the work we do to keep our patients wild. No cuddling, we keep our voices down when we work near them. We strive to respect their wild natures and to protect them from the harm that comes to wild animals who don’t have an appropriate aversion to humans and human activity.

Another thing that we work for, when it comes to raising orphaned wild babies, is developing ways for them to learn the skills they will need to survive on their own. This is the hardest task of all, and involves every aspect of their care! Housing set-up that includes natural elements to imitate forest, field, stream or ocean, as best we can, foods selected that are similar to what an individual of any species might eat, and presenting the food in a manner that will teach hunting or foraging skills are all important aspects that must be included.

For raccoons, this task is as complex as they are. So, at our last release we were very gratified to watch one of our patients, moments after release, make her way downstream about 50 yards and then, to our happy surprise, start fishing! We are thrilled to see our hard work pay off and to see this young raccoon demonstrate that she knows what to do when presented with a real field and stream.

Check out this 3 minute video of our latest release (including the act of catching her first wild fish) and enjoy it too, because it’s your support that makes this work possible. So THANK YOU!!

Exploring the wide and wild world!

Agility and strength – fostering these while in captivity is a challenge when raising wild orphans! Our staff and your support make it possible!

[We are still deep in our fall fundraiser, nearly halfway to our goal of $10,000! Last week it seemed we would never make it and now it looks like we have a fighting chance! Help us cross the finish line! Every donation is tax-deductible, and every donation, no matter the size, goes directly toward meeting our mission! Your help is essential! Donate today!

Thank you for being a part of this live-saving work. Thank you for your love of the WILD!]

video taken by Laura Corsiglia and Lucinda Adamason for Bird Ally X; all photos Laura Corsiglia/BAX

Late Summer, and We Need Your Help!

Posted on September 1, 2015September 1, 2015 by Monte Merrick

Our summer bills are piling up, our babies need food and we need you! Want to help wild animals in our region? Donate today!

It was four years ago this week that Bird Ally X teamed with Humboldt Wildlife Care Center to rescue over 50 fish waste contaminated juvenile Brown Pelicans found at the public fish cleaning stations at Crescent City and Shelter Cover, on California’s beautiful and rugged Redwood Coast.

What began as an emergency response developed into a permanent partnership, with Bird Ally X and HWCC merging into one organization. This began an intense period of infrastructure building. We’ve added seabird pools, a pelican aviary, a raptor aviary, raccoon housing, other small mammal housing, a waterfowl aviary, renovated our songbird aviary, and more!

We have a permanent full time staff and our clinic is open regular hours every day of the year. These are substantial improvements. Because of these improvements, with these our organization is now a member of the Oiled Wildlife Care Network, and we stand more ready to help in the event of an oil spill in our region.

We have advocated for our wild neighbors, promoting co-existence and working with communities and policy makers to reduce the injuries that our society heaps upon the wild and natural world. We have treated nearly 5000 wild animals in these last four years. In short, it has been a period of exponential growth and advancement – none of which would have been possible without your support.

And we still need your support. We rely on your donations to accomplish all that we do. You make it happen. You buy the baby formula. You buy the frozen fish, the frozen rats, that the meat eaters we treat must have. You pay for the electricity that keeps our incubators and pool pumps running. You purchase the medicine. You pay for the gasoline that takes our education team and wild ambassadors to schools all over Humboldt County. You provide the eggs we feed our raccoons. Without your support we wouldn’t have the water for the zucchini patch that all of the omnivores we treat rely on – raccoon babies, skunk babies, and baby opossums. You even pay for the tortilla chips and salsa that we provide for our volunteers, many of whom come in for full day shifts.

Your support is needed now to help us catch up on our summer expenses (water bill! food bill! electric bill!) and prepare for winter and the return of seabirds to our region as well as the season when we can improve and repair housing after the wild babies in our care are old enough and ready to be released.

… and also caring for the wild babies still in our care! Right now we have 23 orphaned raccoons, many of whom will be with us for another couple of months, learning to hunt, forage, and provide for themselves before they will ready for return to the wild. Help us provide the natural diet that they need to learn to be the best raccoons they can!
Raccoon formula keeps the young orphans moving forward. Still, mom would be a lot better, so we work hard to keep wild families together!
After weekly exam, young raccoons are returned to their freshly stocked housing, fish, vegetables, rodents, insects and more!

As soon as staff returns these youngsters to their housing, they get as far from us as they can.

All photos: Bird Ally X