Wild Baby Season of 2023 is nearly halfway through as we continue to build our vessel as we sail it. We need your help! Help us feed 10 Fawns, 15 Swallows, 3 Owls, 10 Mallards, 5 Skunks, 10 Raccoons, a Gray Fox and more! Please support our work if you can!
Just finished on Saturday, already has 3 patients making use of it on Sunday! And we need so much more!
Please help! Your support has gotten us this far, thank you! And we still have a long way to go!
video shot/edited by Laura Corsiglia
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.
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!!!
A video of a recent day at our new facility in Manila!
You can help us stay afloat!! Please donate to help us rebuild, and most importantly, care for the hundreds of wild orphans that are coming our way no matter what! WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!
Thank you!!
video shot by Monte Merrick and Laura Corsilgia, edited by Soro Cyrene and Laura. (thanks Soro!!!)
We still have a long way to go to rebuild our patient housing, such as our aviaries and pools that we couldnt move, but we are now admitting wild animals in need at our new facility, thanks to you!
Check out our video to see the progress your support has secured!
Obviously we have a lot more to do and we need your help very much! Spring baby season is almost upon us and we still need songbird aviaries, an appropriate aviary for hawks, for Mallard ducklings, a better laundry facility – also a roof repair! I know that many of you have been very generous already – our appreciation can’t be overstated! Thank you!!! But we still “have miles to go before we sleep”. Please donate if you can!!
video edited by Soro Cyrene! (Thank you, Soro!!!)
With your generous support, we’ve achieved our first goal of raising the money for our downpayment and closing costs! Now we move on to permitting and then making the move! Your help is still needed of course, but we are deeply grateful and kind of blown away by the support you’ve given! Thank you!!!
Thank you so much for helping us help wildlife! and if you’d like to support our work and our move to be secure and sustainable please donate here!
video editing: Soro Cyrene
With a 3 month extension on our current lease, it’s “GO-time” for Humboldt Wildlife Care Center to secure the financing for our new location and make our move! It’s exciting, stressful, thrilling and a little scary and you can help make it all better!
Thank you for supporting us since 1979! Thank you for helping with this bold effort to make our future more secure, our work sustainable and to be here to help our region’s injured and orphaned wild neighbors without interruption! If you can, please DONATE to help us make our move!
video editor: Soro Cyrene
In mid-November, Humboldt Wildlife Care Center took a call about a fox found lying in the middle of the road near the Shelter Cove Fire Department. The fox couldn’t walk, could barely move.
Shelter Cove is a considerable distance from HWCC – getting help for the fox meant coordinating with the firefighter in Shelter Cove and the staff of Garberville Redway Veterinary Group who generously agreed to take the fox for the night and provide stabilization treatment while we arranged transportation for the following morning.
After driving to Garberville the next day, we had the Gray Fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) in care.
Although he could not use his legs, he did have sensation in his back feet, and tried to move them as he was being handled. A good sign.
Within a few days the fox was able to stand and take a few weak steps. After six days, he could walk and stand easily. We moved him to outdoor housing to test his ambulation. Immediately he ran to the far side of our mammal housing. He did stumble a bit when he reached the other side, about 30 feet away, which was important to note as an observation. Nevertheless his run was a very remarkable display.
Over the next couple of weeks his coordination continued to improve, until we could not perceive that he’d ever had a problem. He was in fine form. At his release examination, he answered all the questions correctly, including his four hundred gram weight gain in three weeks – having come in at 3500 grams, he was going home at 3900! He liked his thawed rats from Layne Labs
At the first break in weather after the recent storms, BAX boardmember, release photographer, wild family reunion specialist, administrative miracle worker, and fine artist Laura Corsiglia and one of our wonderfully giving HWCC volunteers, Christine, took the Gray Fox back to Shelter Cove. Ordinarily Laura gets incredible shots of patients at release, as can be seen on this very site! But not this time. When Christine opened the door, the quick gray fox jumped through the hated door and was gone. Laura did get this video.
Thanks to your support over the last 44 years, HWCC has been here for wild animals in need, doing the best we could do with what we had. This fox had a place to heal because you provide the resources that are needed. Now as we go through the stress and excitement, the fear and the promise, of moving our facility, we and our patients need you. Please help keep our doors open, so we can keep opening doors for our wild neighbors who need a second chance. Thank you!!!!
photos/video: BAX/ Laura Corsiglia
After nearly a year of watching the latest outbreak of a virus in wild birds and commercial flocks travel across the US, reaching California at the Summer’s end, Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) has recently been detected in Humboldt County.
Two Cackling Geese (Branta hutchinsii) and Greater White-fronted Goose (Anser albifrons) that Humboldt Wildlife Care Center submitted for testing, as well as a Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) carcass found in Orick and submitted for testing by the National Park Service, have been returned with prelimnary positives, and have been sent to a national laboratory for further confirmation. Since then, three Ravens (Corvus corax) have also tested positive for this deadly strain (H5N2).
Avian influenza is a common disease. Waterfowl act as a reservoir species for the virus, often showing no signs of illness. But during outbreaks, especially virulent strains can lead to mortality events among wild birds, and staggering losses in commercial poultry flocks. What distinguishes HPAI from other avian influenzas is that HPAI kills 90-100% of chickens in a lab setting.
The most susceptible wild species, besides geese and ducks, appear to be Raptors (hawks, owls, falcons), Corvids (ravens, crows, jays, etc) and Gulls. Songbirds are not considered to be high risk species as they have a very low infection rate and shed very low quantities of the virus. At this time there is no need or recommendation to take down songbird feeders unless you also have a backyard flock of ducks or chickens. (see more about avian influenza and songbirds)
For more information on HPAI in commercial flocks and wildlife
For more information on human health related to HPAI
https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2022/s0428-avian-flu.html
During the course of this outbreak, HWCC/bax is still admitting all wild birds in need for care, but with strict guidelines to protect our patients and also monitor the virus as it spreads through local populations. Our staff is prepared and ready to aid birds, as well as help local resource agencies monitor and slow the advance of HPAI. If you see or find a sick bird, please CALL 707 822 8839. If you have questions or concerns about this virus, feel free to call us – our staff will be happy to answer any questions that we can or point you to more resources that will help you protect any birds you have.
Thank you for your support during this time, and thank you for caring about wild birds, and all of our wild neighbors. Your support now, and always, is what keeps our doors open. You make our work possible. Thank you.
Wildlife rehabilitation is a complex field, where a seemingly endless amount of information must be mastered in order to become a competent and skilled wildlife rehabilitator. Wildlife rehabilitators need to learn how to care for hundreds of species, each with their own unique requirements. It is natural to feel overwhelmed as a new wildlife rehabilitator. However, you don’t need to know everything in order to have a good foundational knowledge of wildlife rehabilitation practices. In order to provide basic, quality care to patients, wildlife rehabilitators must understand three key concepts: warmth, hydration, and stress.
Warmth
Maintaining an appropriate body temperature is critical for all life on Earth. A hypothermic patient is unable to benefit from care while its low body temperature is left untreated. If you attempt to feed a hypothermic patient, it is unlikely to be able to process the nutrition well and the feeding may even lead to the patient’s death. It is crucial to bring a patient’s body temperature to its ideal range before administering other forms of care. This can be done using an incubator, warm towels, and/or heating pads. Hypothermia is common in new wildlife patients, but hyperthermia can also occur. Understanding the normal body temperature ranges for species that you treat, and how to properly measure temperature, is essential for providing quality care.
Hydration
Dehydration is very common in new wildlife patients. It is critical that patients are sufficiently rehydrated before they are started on a feeding and medication regimen. Hydration can be assed using a variety of methods, from skin tenting to observing saliva consistency. The way in which you rehydrate a patient will depend on their condition. For example, a comatose patient should never be given fluids orally due to risk of aspiration, while a hypothermic patient should not be given subcutaneous fluids, as that can lead to a further drop in body temperature. Hydration should be regularly assessed for all patients throughout their entire rehabilitation process.
Stress
Undergoing rehabilitative care as a wild animal is inherently extremely stressful. Not only is stress unenjoyable, it has also been shown to reduce an animal’s ability to heal. Thus, the more stress that an animal is under while in care, the longer it will take for it to recover, and the more it will suffer. It is vital that we take every possible step to reduce the stress in our patients as much as possible. Stress can be reduced in many ways. Some examples include providing visual barriers (for example, sheets over patient enclosures so that they cannot see human caregivers every time their enclosure is passed by), reducing handling time as much as possible, speaking as little as possible while in earshot of patients, providing suitable enclosures that mimic the patient’s natural habitat, and providing housing with conspecifics or closely related species. Additionally, animals should be released as soon as they are ready to return to the wild. It is unethical to retain a fully healed patient for several days or weeks, simply because a release date hasn’t been set.
Understanding the importance of warmth, hydration, and a low-stress environment is critical for successful wildlife rehabilitation. These three concepts should be front and center in your mind for each patient you care for, from the moment they arrive to the time they are returned to freedom. We will be providing an in-depth class on each of these topics in the future, so stay tuned!
