Young Peregrine Falcon Re-united with Family!

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

Late in the evening, June 5 our facebook page for Humboldt Wildlife Care Center received a message. A paddle-boarder had rescued “a hawk of some kind” who had been struggling in the water of Humboldt Bay.

The next morning, right after we opened the clinic, the kind person brought in a young Peregrine Falcon.

After an examination, it was obvious that the bird must have fallen from the nest. Her primary feathers, which are needed for flight, weren’t grown in sufficiently for a fledgling – a real shame. She had no injuries except for dehydration and exhaustion from her watery ordeal. If she had been old enough to fly we could have provided her with fluid support and some nutrition then released her back to her family. But this bird was about a week shy of that and would need to go back to her nest, which we couldn’t accomplish, or we would have to raise the youngster until she was old enough to reunite with her family.

The young Peregrine Falcon in our purpose built aviary, the Merry Maloney Raptor House

A Peregrine Falcon is a very special kind of animal that presents steep challenges to successfully raise. While every species has its own advantages and unique characteristics, some animals represent the outermost limitations of life – the Blue Whale is largest, the Ocean Quahog is a clam that can live to be 500 years old, and the Peregrine Falcon can top 200 miles per hour when diving toward prey. Providing the environment they need to become successful wild adults is filled with special problems. Simply offering thawed mice and room to fly, while critical for her care, wouldn’t be enough for such a specialist to learn to how to survive on her own.

Learning to fly

Unfortunately, by the time our patient was flying, her family had already left their nest. In fact, we’d even responded to a call from a Eureka resident about a bird of prey exhibiting strange behavior near the Humboldt County Library. When we’d arrived on the scene we found an adult Peregrine Falcon (now saddled with a radio transmitter) protecting one of her young ,who had fledged from the nest and was still getting the hang of flight.

If the parents weren’t at the nest, and if we weren’t able to predict where they would be, it looked like we wouldn’t be able to re-unite this family after all.

Raising self-sufficient predators is a task best left to their parents. But if re-uniting wasn’t going to be possible, then we had to start planning for this one’s education. So we began developing the curriculum for our new course, Becoming a Peregrine Falcon.

She was doing quite well, regularly finding and eating the mice we provided, as well as developing better flight skills. In the middle of designing a method to simulate hunting ducks on water, which is one of the Peregrine Falcon’s specialties, both she and we got a lucky break.

While running errands, we saw the parent falcon near the nest site, days after having been sighted at the nearby library. Given that our patient had already demonstrated rudimentary hunting skills and that the parents were staying close to the old nest site, we seized the opportunity to release the young falcon with confidence that the bird would have ample time to rejoin her parents.

BAX/HWCC staff rehabilitator, Lucinda Adamson, captures the falcon for release.

Last Saturday, after 2 weeks in care, we took the falcon to the area where we’d last seen the adult. We chose a spot where she would have plenty of opportunities to hunt while waiting for mom or dad to show up. When the box was opened the bird jumped out to the ground, took a quick look around, then launched into flight. The bird crossed the water, making a beeline for the library.

From the car as they followed, our release team was able to see the youngster flying toward an adult Peregrine Falcon, who was up above the library building. The two birds immediately began calling to each other and circling nearer. Less than ten minutes out of our hands, this wild family was together again.

The parent falcon, in a photograph enlarged many times

The young falcon in flight, far from our team, close to her parent.

Thanks to the support you provide, Bird Ally X/Humbodlt Wildlife Care Center helps keep wild families together all over the Redwood Coast, and beyond. Thanks to your support, this falcon will learn to be a falcon from the best in the business, her mother. If you want to help us directly feed our predator patients, you can support us through our supplier of frozen rodents at Layne Labs, with a gift certificate, or you can use the donate button on this page. Thank you for being a part of this life-saving work!

all photos: Laura Corsiglia/Bird Ally X

Eat Delicious Chocolate, Save Wild Animals in Trouble

Posted on May 14, 2015May 14, 2015 by Monte Merrick

Humboldt Wildlife Care Center’s chocolate tradition gets a re-boot!

For many years our chocolate bars have been available around the county with all proceeds going toward the care of injured and orphaned wild animals… well, now a local chocolatier (Thank you Sjaak’s in Petaluma/Blue Lake!) has teamed up with Bird Ally X to bring new flavors and an informative label to help us treat your sweet tooth while you support our work!

With labels designed in house by BAX art director, Laura Corsiglia, and with new flavors that are “wildly delicious” it’s now tastier and more interesting than ever to support your local wildlife rehabilitators and advocates. Plus, our new chocolate is certified organic, fair trade and vegan! Look for our new chocolate bars in area stores or stop in to our clinic in Bayside and get one or five today! (or tomorrow, or the next day…)

Mallard Mothers Want Your Help.

Posted on May 11, 2015May 11, 2015 by Monte Merrick

Helping Wild Mothers on Mother’s Day (and every day)

mallard 2015 - 2

This year’s Mallard babies at HWCC. We have two dozen mallard babies in care already!

Every year wildlife rehabilitation facilities admit huge numbers of orphaned ducklings for care. In California, Mallard ducklings top the list annually for numbers brought in to our state’s permitted rehabilitators. This amounts to tens of thousands of young Mallards each year who are raised by people instead of their mothers. The number of ducklings who die without being found is unknowably large.

The most common cause of separation is the death of their mother. Often, Mallard nests are far from water, safely hidden. But the journey to a pond, stream or river bottom that a mother duck must lead her babies on is fraught with hazards, and human activity is the most dangerous.

Automobiles and dogs are the primary reason the mallard ducklings are brought to our facility on Humboldt Bay. Humboldt Wildlife Care Center, because of our rural location, sees far fewer ducklings than facilities in San Francisco, Sacramento or the Los Angeles area, but still we get over two dozen each year.

So how can you help? There are many ways!

• See Wild Animals: Wild animals of all species need to be able to move from one area to another. Our complex of roads and highways makes simply getting around the world a life threatening activity. Watch out for wild animals. Don’t hit them with your car!

• Contain and Control Your Pets: Wild animals have natural rights to live and thrive on Mother Earth. Be a responsible pet owner and don’t allow dogs and cats to roam unattended. The fawn your dog brings back to the porch, or the ducklings who are orphaned when your dog attacks the mother, songbird babies left behind from your house cat’s carnage would have fared much better if left to live and learn form their mothers.

• Share the Wonder of Nature: Wild nature, of which we are a part, is a beautiful mystery. Happiness depends on our participation in this wonder. Wild animals have better chances when they are loved and respected by the humans who share their world. Be sure to love from an appropriate distance, though!

• Help Wild Animals Caught in Society’s Traps: If you see a wild animal in trouble, call us! 707 822 8839 If you have a conflict with a wild animal, call us! If you have time, volunteer with us! If you have money, help us pay for our wild patient’s care. The injuries that our human world causes to wildlife is OUR problem. Help us fix it!

Juvenile Mallards in our specially built Waterfowl Aviary enjoy their duckweed!

Thank you for a being of our lifesaving work!

Black Phoebe Fledgling Home Again!

Posted on May 5, 2015May 6, 2015 by Monte Merrick

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Spring is in full swing now and wild babies are showing up in the world, getting found by kids, cats, dogs, and other suburban challenges!

Last week, a youg Black Phoebe, fresh from the nest, was found by students on the ground at East High, an alternative high school in Fortuna. Brought to our clinic, we quickly determined that the young bird was a fledgling, not injured. Although songbirds live among us, closer than almost any other wild animals, many people remain unaware that fledgling birds often spend up to a week not quite ready to fly, but more than ready to jump form the nest. This is a very vulnerable time for these little guys, but it’s a time that every adult bird you see has passed through. Of course our modern world, with housecats, dogs, and cars lurking behind every moment, presents some dangers that natural life on Earth doesn’t, but still the best place for a fledgling bird is with her or his parents.

After giving this Phoebe an exam and some food, we started to arrange for the best possible plan – reuniting the family.

Black Phoebe eating mealworms while in our care ……….. (video BAX/Lucinda Adamson)

Two days later, we took the little Phoebe back to Fortuna, back to the exact location where s/he was found. Adult Black Phoebes were flying all over the area. A hole in the wall of an outbuilding appeared to have a Phoebe nest. Our staff placed the young bird as close to the nest as possible, off the ground and hopefully out of danger.

BLPH re-unite 5:1:15 - 05 Black Phoebe adults in flight – are these our guy’s parents? (BAX/Laura Corsiglia)

BLPH re-unite 5:1:15 - 01 The young Phoebe sits waiting for parents. (BAX/Laura Corsiglia)

Soon the youngster made a short flight to the roof of the building. Almost immediately an adult approached. Success! Soon the fledgling’s parents were bringing food. We stayed to make sure that all was well and then left this wild family to their own world, right out in the open, in the middle of our world, yet so mysterious!

BLPH re-unite 5:1:15 - 10

BLPH re-unite 5:1:15 - 11

BLPH re-unite 5:1:15 - 29

BLPH re-unite 5:1:15 - 31

Thank you for supporting our work! Your donation goes directly to our efforts to provide care for injured and orphaned wild animals, and to promoting co-existence with all of our wild neighbors. Please share our work, and if you can, donate today!

All photos (BAX/Laura Corsiglia)

Thank you!

Posted on January 4, 2015 by Monte Merrick

A heart-felt thanks to all who made our 2014 Holiday fundraising efforts successful! Your support goes directly to injured and orphaned wildlife care! Together we’ll meet our mission in the coming year ! And if you haven’t yet contributed, you can start your 2015 tax-deductible giving now!

Merry Maloney, NorthCoast Wildlife Superstar!

Posted on December 16, 2014 by Monte Merrick

by January Bill, Bird Ally X co-founder

I was watching a Red-shouldered Hawk perched on a snag outside my window the other day. My 4 year old son pointed him out to me, commenting on how he blended in with the plants. I immediately started thinking of a friend and well-known community member, Merry Maloney. In truth, I think of Merry every time I see a raptor in the sky or when we are rehabilitating one at the Humboldt Wildlife Care Center because when I first met Merry her passion for wildlife drew me to her. I was lucky to have worked with her almost daily for years doing wildlife rehabilitation in Humboldt. Her knowledge, inspiration, and humor helped keep me on my path to a life devoted to a career in wildlife rehabilitation.

You may know her, she is an exceptional person all around and is active throughout our community, but I would like to share with you the world that I know her from, and that is wildlife rehabilitation. Once she retired as a school nurse in her first profession, she began her second career as a volunteer with the HWCC in 1999 as the Education Team Leader and Raptor Rehabilitator. She opened up her and her partner Barb’s (who has supported her every step of the way) home for housing HWCC’s educational wildlife ambassadors. This was an extremely selfless act and was also a huge personal and financial commitment. Most of the wildlife ambassadors continue to live and be cared for on their property.

Merry attended international conferences and networked with national raptor rehabilitation organizations to ensure stellar care was given to the local injured and orphaned raptors in her charge, giving hundreds of individuals, from Bald Eagles to baby Quail, a second chance at a wild and free life.

She developed and presented over 1,000 educational presentations to schools (preschoolers to grad students) and many community organizations, never turning down an educational outreach opportunity. Recently Merry had to retire from the work to which she had devoted her life because of her health. Yet her devotion to wildlife, to the environment, to children and wildlife education continues on through the work of BAX/HWCC’s staff, volunteers and interns, and all who have been inspired by her to be wildlife stewards of our shared world.

Merry Maloney is a true wildlife advocate and hero in our community. For all of her contributions to the HWCC and our community, we honor her by naming our recently-built raptor conditioning aviary the Merry Maloney Raptor Flight House.

Merry, thank you for doing this life saving work. Thank you with all of our hearts for everything you have done to make this world brighter for both the people and wildlife. We love you.

Merry with Carson, an unreleasable Peregrine Falcon, named for Rachel Carson. (photo: John Griffith)

Northern Fulmars, seabirds of mystery

Posted on December 2, 2014 by Monte Merrick

from the Bridge of a crabbing Ship
in the middle of the night on the southern Bering sea –
Wakened by the Rolling Sea.

it is december and in a locker on board
hang orange suits Meant to
Protect human Life
should the Vessel go Down.

otherwise, says the pilot
we have five minutes at Most
before we Succumb to the Cold
and we Drown –

the Bow points to the Sky,
then down into the Trough
the lights cast a wide arc and we see
peppering the Crests,
Heads Tucked, at rest
northern Fulmars,
common Murres, asleep.

Northern Fulmars (Fulmaris glacialis) are mysterious birds. Their pelagic lives rarely intersect our land-locked habits. When they do come ashore, to rear their young, they choose remote sea cliffs at the edge of ice-covered oceans. At sea, because they follow the fishing industry’s floating slaughter-houses, perhaps those who know them best are whalers and commercial fishers.

Infrequent visitors to land, they are less commonly admitted for care than other seabirds who stay close to the coasts. As with all tasks, increased exposure improves our skills. So for many years, Northern Fulmars were regarded as a difficult species to treat, and many of these birds died while in our care.

When caring for a wild animal, besides treatment for whatever the injury or condition, the primary care given is husbandry, which amounts mostly to diet and housing. When we tried to find how to provide better care for fulmars, these are the areas we had to study.

Early in treatment, in a small tepid salt pool. The environment is meant to be stress-free.

Northern Fulmars eat anything – aquatic invertebrates like krill, small fish, squid. And they live on the open ocean. While their habitat is impossible to recreate, it still is relatively simple. Open sea.

In late fall of 2003, there was a Northern Fulmar wreck (a seabird wreck is an unusual mortality event involving large numbers of the same or mixed species – while these have occurred throughout time, warmer oceans, acidified oceans, and nitrified oceans are playing an increasing role) in which hundreds of these birds were beached from Baja to British Columbia… sadly very few birds were released. Most facilities did not have proper pools and lacked experience. Along the coast, most birds died.

Evaluating feather condition and ablity to stay dry in water, or waterproofing…

At the facility where I was the care manager, we realized that our diet, established to provide high calories without fat, so that oils wouldn’t contaminate the pool, was not merely not helping, but was actively harming the birds, who were dying, several a day. We switched to a fish-based diet, and immediately, birds began to respond. We managed to release 7 of the 75 in our care. While we were encouraged by our improvement, still this was a dismal result.

Regular examinations and blood tests allow us to track the patient’s progress.

In 2007, along the coast of Monterey Bay, another Fulmar wreck occurred – much smaller in scope, only birds in the bay were affected, not the whole coast. Still we had 140 birds in care! We were seeing similar results, roughly 10% of the birds were looking good, appearing to be headed for release.

By coincidence, the facility we were using had seawater pools that were available for Sea Otters. Because of the large numbers of birds in care, we had to use these pools as well. Imagine our shock when nearly all the birds on seawater suddenly became voracious eaters, vocalizing and highly active. While we had no physiological reason for these birds not thriving on freshwater (many other seabirds do fine on freshwater while in care) our eyes told us all we really needed to know. Northern Fulmars require salt water.

As their health improves, a larger salt pool and far less handling are required for continued recovery.

So last month, when we got four fulmars in from local beaches in Humboldt County, the first thing we did was salt our pools. In fact, our pools are built with pumps that allow us to switch back and forth between salt and fresh water for just this reason. We use salt for all pelagic birds now – while it is more expensive to add salt to a pool, certainly, but salt, especially for Northern Fulmars, is the difference between life and death.

Your generosity supports innovations like these. Without you we would not be able to provide the best care we can, and “push the envelope” to improve, to learn, and to be able to save more wild lives. Thank you so much for making our work possible. Scroll through the following pictures of our Northern Fulmars recently in care… and when you feel good about their release, please, feel free to feel good about yourselves for helping to make it happen.

Release!

Rehabilitator Lucinda Adamson (left) and wildlife student/volunteer Lisa Falcao watch their patients fly away.

All Photos: Laura Corsiglia/Bird Ally X

Western Grebes Need Your Help

Posted on October 27, 2014 by Monte Merrick

Young birds, tossed by big seas, struggle on area beaches. Over 50 Grebes rescued so far! Bird Ally X/Humboldt Wildlife Care Center needs your help providing these birds a second chance.

Western Grebes, elegant and graceful, recover in our seabird pool

During the second week of October a period of rough ocean conditions began on the North coast with breakers higher than 16 feet. Immediately Humboldt Wildlife Care Center/BAX began admitting immature Western Grebes who had been tossed on the beach by the big waves.

A young Grebe in a transport carrier. Eye protection is a good idea when handling these birds!

To date, we have admitted 50 of these elegant black and white birds for care. All of them are young birds. Western grebes raise their families all over the west on freshwater lakes. Once their young can fly and hunt for fish on their own, they depart the lakes to spend the winter along the coast on bays, inlets, river mouths and on the open ocean, often seen just beyond the break in large groups called rafts.

Checking body condition: many of our patients are emaciated.

Young birds who are unfamiliar with the ocean can struggle with storms and high seas, leaving them vulnerable. A few days of not being able to eat and they may find themselves too weak to recover on their own. Add to this mix the modern challenges of unpredictable ocean health due to a disrupted climate, overfishing and the pollution stream that comes from all sides, and the near-shore environment can now be seen as a much less hospitable place for young seabirds.

Blood is drawn for simple tests that can help us determine the overall health of each bird.

Once in care, all oceanic birds require resource-intensive treatment. Each bird eats a pound of fish a day! Rehydrating fluids, anti-parasite medicine and nutritional supplements also are needed.

After millions of years of evolution, Grebes are unable to tolerate being on land, or any hard surface, and must quickly be housed in pools. Clean water is absolutely necessary for their recovery. We conserve our resources as much as we can, but we still need your help providing these fundamental necessities for our patients.

A slightly warmed pool helps weakened Grebes get back on water – a must if they are to survive.

Each bird eats about a pound of fish a day.

Some tossed fish encourage our patients’ appetite while in the stressful captive environment.

Fortunately Western grebes are highly social and prefer to be with others.

Once healthy, the young birds are released into Humboldt Bay, where many species of prey-fish are abundant.

Thanks to community support we have released 18 of these birds back into the wild. We still have 14 Western Grebes in care who need you to help cover the costs of their ongoing treatment. A few more are admitted each day. Please give what you can.

Our mission to help individual animals survive against the challenges modern society has placed on the natural world is only possible with your support. As you scroll through the photographs of our patients, you can enjoy knowing that your contribution provides the best care available for struggling wild animals here on the beautiful Redwood Coast. Any amount helps. Besides financial support you can also help spread our work by sharing this page. Invite us to present at your club or organization. We love to talk to our community about wildlife and how we can all help. Contact us at info@birdallyx.net!

all photographs Laura Corsiglia/BAX

Can You Help?

Posted on October 11, 2014 by Monte Merrick

Each year BAX/Humboldt Wildlife Care Center raises a certain amount of money. Without this money we could accomplish nothing. Our supporters make a big difference everyday in the lives of injured and orphaned wild animals.

Food for our pateints.
Medical supplies.
Patient housing.
Water.
Electric.
Gas for rescues across our huge geographical area
Small stipends for our most critical staff.

These are the direct costs of helping individual wild animals and wild families. We also advocate for wild animals in an effort to shift public policy toward peaceful co-existence with our wild kin. Producing workshops and educational materials for wildlife rehabilitators is another way that we work to improve the conditions and ameliorate some of the negative impacts our society has on wild animals.

Your support is critical to these efforts. And we need your support now.

This year we’ve had more wild patients brought to us than ever. Now we need your help more than ever. After a very taxing Spring and Summer we need help now recovering from our costs. We need help making the needed repairs to our facility. We need help paying our water bill. This is the very ordinary, very work-a-day, real word of direct animal care. Loving wild animals means providing clean water for pools. It means laundry soap. It means late nights writing letters to our policy makers. We express our love for baby wild mammals with food that will help them grow and learn what it means to be a a wild and free adult.

Help us grow so that we can provide for all of Northern California’s wildlife. Help us build our Aviary in Manila specifically for pelicans and other large seabirds. Help us provide the kind of professional staff our region’s wildlife needs and deserves.

Please donate. Please.

Thank you for being a part of this life-saving work.

Unified, to better serve Wildlife

Posted on October 7, 2014 by Monte Merrick

Bird Ally X/Humboldt Wildlife Care Center are one wildlife service organization!

This is such an important occasion for us! After 3 years of partnership, BAX/HWCC have merged our distinct organizations in to one to better use our resources and be more effective at meeting our mission. We are excited and optimistic for this opportunity to expand our capacity to meet the needs of injured and orphaned wildlife on California’s North Coast and beyond and to practice and teach proven best practices and foster advances in wildlife rehabilitation.

As the region’s only permitted all-species wildlife rehabilitation clinic, we serve an enormous geographical area, covering nearly 20,000 square miles. Extending from northern Mendocino County to Curry County, Oregon, and east as far as Weaverville in Trinity County, our responsibility to provide care for injured and orphaned wildlife is weighty.

This region is more than simply large, however. Radiating out from our clinic in the heart of the Jacoby Creek Watershed through the ancient Redwoods, the dune forests, the near shore ocean, and the mountains to the east, our home-place is a potentially critical refuge. As the reality of climate change takes hold, it is becoming apparent that temperate North American rain forest – stretching from here to Alaska – may be key for many species’ survival. As a committed ally of the wild, BAX/HWCC doesn’t take this lightly.

A sense of urgency is growing in communities everywhere, that we must act now, and with intelligence, if we are to preserve ourselves and our wild neighbors.

In these shared current circumstances, joining together makes sense.

Unquestionably, a major component of protecting wild animals from injury and keeping their families together is to advocate for and practice place-based, energy-aware wildlife care.

BAX/HWCC, with your support, is able to provide leadership and innovation as we accept the challenge of making true progress for our relationship with our wild neighbors, especially as viewed by the generations that will follow ours. Together we match extensive professional wildlife care experience – from around our state, our country and our world – with the rooted knowledge and deep affection long time residents of our region have for our home.

Bringing familiarity with “state of the art” facilities, combined with the organic know-how, responsible husbandry and sustainable practices needed to reduce waste and repurpose the material wealth of our world, BAX/HWCC offers a possibility for the future of wildlife rehabilitation that is adaptable and resilient in uncertain times.

Most importantly, and most practically, this union allows us to streamline our efforts at outreach and education. Encouraging co-existence with our wild neighbors is as important as providing quality rehabilitative care. Because we reach out to a diverse community, our message of humane solutions for human/wildlife conflicts is one of our most effective forms of animal care!

As one entity our materials and programs can be efficiently designed and the burden of costs can be jointly shouldered. Our ability to ensure that the overall community is aware of the services to wildlife we provide will be enhanced by this streamlining as well. We look forward to producing more quality materials for schools, agencies and organizations.

We also will be “rolling out” our new website by the end of the year with expanded resources, thanks to support from the McLean Foundation and the Humbodlt Area Foundation.

There is, in short, a lot of work to be done. Against all our modern catastrophes, hands are needed everywhere. At Bird Ally X/Humboldt Wildlife Care Center we are committed to the rescue, rehabilitation and release of injured and orphaned wild animals. We believe that no matter what crises we face, these individual animals whose lives are disturbed by the industrial world, will always deserve the best available care.

Thank for your support of our organizations in the past, and for helping us reach this exceptional place. Now we ask for your continued support as we embark on this new era.

With warm appreciation,|
The Board, Staff and Volunteers of Bird Ally X/Humboldt Wildlife Care Center