Tag: wildlife rescue

Want to help us help our wild neighbors in need?

Posted on by Monte Merrick

You can help return an orphaned or injured wild animal to the wild! You can help keep wild families together! You can help keep our facility functional and clean! Volunteers are needed for all tasks. After putting our volunteer program on hold in March of 2020, we’ve been slowly rebuilding it, adding volunteers to our shifts as the pandemic has allowed, and now we are ready to add more.

Volunteers are a crucial element in the field of wildlife rehabilitation. All wildlife rehab facilitities operate on shoestring budgets and without the necessary help from volunteers, we’d never last. The pandemic has been brutal on staff and we are very happy to rebuild our core team of volunteers.

The life of a volunteer: One day you’re helping with an opossum, the next day a Bald Eagle.

Some of the tasks that volunteers help with:

1. Cleaning: First and foremost, from the newest, most inexperienced volunteer to the director of our facility, a major task for all of us is cleaning. Laundry, dishes, sweeping, mopping, sanitizing – these are mission critical in a hospital setting and your experience in your own life will serve here! If you’re new to this kind of maintenance, we can help you and you dont have to get a job in the food service industry to learn it (as many of us did, like me!). We also have to clean the patient housing, which means that you will be trained in how to work around a frightened wild animal, without making the stress much worse.

2. Feeding: Patient food must be prepared at least twice a day. Want to learn what it takes to emulate a diet that a wild diet in the setting of temporary captive care? It’s a great skill to have and it won’t be long before you’lll understand the intricacies, and the principles that support them, of feeding a wild animal a nutritional diet that is familiar and therefore stress reductive.

3. Examinations: Helping staff perform routine examinations of our patients. In order to perform an assessment of the condition of our patients, routine exams are given. Volunteers learn valuable handling skills that protect the caregiver and the patient from harm. Instructions, safety protocols, and personal protective equipment are provided as needed.

4. Transportation: If you can drive from Oregon to Laytonville and sometimes beyond, then you can help us with transportation for patients. The region we serve is huge and we have to travel as many 3 hours away to pick up orphaned and injured wild neighbors. Simply driving all day can be a very big help to an animal who desperately needs a second chance.

5. Rescue: Many times people report an animal in trouble, but they are unable to do anything about it. They call us. We go out on missions to rescue wild animals every day. Even as a new volunteer you can still participate simply by driving. Capturing wild animals in need is a skill, but you will be provided with the training and the safety equipment to be a hero!

6. Releases: Returning an animal to their birthright of wild freedom is a joy beyond compare. Transporting animals to their release site and helping to ensure their safe return to the life that they were born to is one of the regular bits of supreme awesome-osity that can be yours simply by being here helping!

7. Answering the phone: Helping people resolve conflicts with wild animals is an important part of our daily work. Keeping wild families together – in other words preventing wild babies from becoming orphans is a serious task, can be difficult, and largely happens on the phone in conversation with someone who may be at their wit’s end. Learn to advocate for wild animals in an effective manner by answering the phone in our clinic. It can be challenging, but that just makes our successes sweeter!

8. Humane Solutions! Sometimes keeping wild families together requires an intervention. In order to stop a trapper or some other cruel plan to get rid of an unwated wild animal, we go to the scene and work with the people to keep the wild family safe while conving them that it would be ebst if they moved on. This is delicate work that can also take us on an adventure through people’s crawlspaces and attics. Not for everyone, but if it’s for you, you’ll learn valuable skills in humanely solving people’s conflicts with a wild animal.

9. Ambassador: You can be a voice for the rights of Mother Earth and the Wild. Education and outreach are very important parts of our mission. Do you enjoy speaking in public? Do you have a passion for environmental education? Do you want to make people act right toward wildlife? We may be the droids you’re looking for!

Releasing an animal who was going to die without our care is one the greatest joys known to humanity.

These are some of the most common and important ways that we rely on volunteers to meet the challenges of our mission. Just about every wildlife rehabilitator working today began as a volunteer, and many still are volunteers. Many wildlife rehabilitators with their own facilities at their own houses are still volunteers! This is not a well-paid field, unless you factor in the job satisfaction, and in that sense, it’s unparalleled.

But satisfaction isn’t all that you’ll get out of helping us help our wild neighbors. You will get critical training that can be used here or in a larger context. As a member of the Oiled Wildlife Care Network HWCC/bax is your local path toward being qualified to help care for impacted wildlife if there is ever a catastrophic oil spill locally or across the state. Believe me, the only way to make these kinds of disasters less painful is being able to help repair and restore what was broken. Your desire to help begins here!

So if you want to help us help wildlife in a direct hands-on manner, let us know! CLICK HERE TO APPLY

And if your dance card or your plate is already full, you can always help us meet our mission with your generous support. Donations make our world go ’round. Without your financial help, our doors would close forever. PLEASE DONATE HERE

Thank you for your love of the Wild. Love is the most important ingredient in the conservation and protection of our natural home and our wild kin!




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Humboldt Wildlife Care Center Now Has A Dedicated Rescue Rig!

Posted on by Monte Merrick

One day last year our staff went out on a call about a sick deer. The people who called watched as we put the carrier with the deer into a small hatchback and they hatched a plan of their own. This Spring, when they purchased a new vehicle, they called to see if we could use their old car, a 1996 Volvo Wagon! They were very kind and wanted to be sure we could use the vehicle. We sure can!

The region we serve, Northern Menocino to Oregon, the Pacific Ocean to I-5, is over 20,000 square miles! (nearly twice the size of New Jersey, the state I was born in!) We put on a lot of miles and a reliable rig that is also safe is something we’ve wanted to add to our resources for years. And now we have one!

Now if you see a plain tan Volvo on the road, you never know, we just might be transporting a wild neighbor, who knows, a Northern Alligator Lizard or a Bald Eagle!

Or we might just be on our way to the North Coast Co-op, again, for more supplies for our ever increasing Spring and Summer caseload.

So to Fredyne and Gerald, who so generously passed their ride into our service, thank you!

And you know, not every donation is a car… without many small donations, we wouldnt be able to put gas in the car, or food in our patients’ bellies. If you can, please donate here. Thank you!!

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Great Horned Owl Spends the Night Stuck in a Wet Garbage Can, Released After Care.

Posted on by Monte Merrick

Not just an indignity! For a warm-blooded body the size of a Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) to spend the night stuck in can with inches of water on the bottom is life-threatening! Fortunately the landowners found the owl in the morning and got the soggy, angry, owl to our facility in Bayside.

Minor abrasions afflicted the undersides of both of their wings and all over, their feathers were soaked and very ruffled. The owl was also fairly dehydrated. Warmth and fluids helped both problems immensely and soon the owl was much less soggy, but no less angry.

After spending some time in our large aviary, making sure that flight and agility were unimpaired, we took the handsome bird back to McKinleyville and the area where no doubt there are eggs or owlets glad to have both parents back on the case!

After leaving the box, the Great Horned Owl wasted no time putting distance between themself and us.

It’s our community’s support that keeps our doors open, our freezer full of rats, and an aviary suitable for a bird as large and magnificent as a Great Horned Owl. Thank you for making our work possible. If you want to help please donate!

video and photos: Laura Corsiglia/bax

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Lower Klamath Refuge Botulism Response Wraps Up

Posted on by Monte Merrick

The avian botulism response on the Lower Klamth Refuge is at an end, thanks to the recent subfreezing overnight temperatures and rain in the region that eliminated the conditions in which the bacteria thrives.

233 aquatic birds were rescued, consisting primarily of freshwater ducks such as Mallards, Northern Shovelers, Northern Pintails and others, with 168 recovering and being released.

Northern Shovelers and other ducks in care at the USFWS/BAX avian hospital on the Lower Klamath Basin Refuge.

Support for the effort came from many sources, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, CAL- OR Waterfowl Association, long time BAX volunteers and donors, Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue, Wildlife Emergency Services, and staffing support from Humboldt Wildlife Care Center, the wildlife hospital operated by BAX as both an important part of wildlife care available in Northern California and a teaching facility introducing the next generation of wildlife care givers to our profession.

January Bill and Marie Travers, who co-led this response have done another fantastic job of providing quality care for the innocent victims of human meddling, such as the water wars of the west have caused with chronic misuse of this precious resource that we all need to survive.

Thank you to everyone who donated to support BAX in our mission, wherever it takes us, providing direct care for wildlife in need as well as education and support to both colleagues and communities, wherever it is needed.

Everyday we are here for our wildlife neighbors. Everyday we need your support. Thank you!!

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144 Botulism Patients Released! Lower Klamath Response Update.

Posted on by Monte Merrick

With nearly 200 aquatic birds rescued in the avian botulism outbreak on the Lower Klamath Wildlife Refuge, to date 144 have been released. Currently there are 19 birds still in care at the BAX/USFWS field hospital. Since temperatures are supposed to dip below freezing this week, it is believed that the outbreak will soon be over. Your support covering our costs and providing treatment for those birds still in care is greatly appreciated. Please help us care for these and all of our patients! Thank you!

Mallards and others recover in pools that allow them to go in and out of water as they desire – an important step as they heal!

DONATE HERE


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Current Avian Botulism Outbreak in Lower Klamath Basin Heats Up

Posted on by Monte Merrick

UPDATE: 100 birds currently in care on Lower Klamath. Your support urgently needed. Please donate today

The avian botulism outbreak response on the Lower Klamath Basin Refuge was just on the verge of being ramped down when dozens more ducks turned up sick from the bacteria. Up until yesterday, 3 birds, a Mallard, a Gadwall and a Northern Pintail had been released and 2 Gadwalls were in care and improving. It was beginning to look like a much less serious year until yesterday afternoon over thirty birds were brought in to the facility on Highway 161, north of Shasta, on the Volcanic Legacy Scenic Highway (more info to follow.)

To support the effort, Humboldt Wildlife Care Center/bax has sent a staff person to help with the sudden influx.

A new incubator purchased with the support of donations and grants helps make this isolated location north of Mt Shasta into a functioning wildlife rehabilitation facility.
Our new incubators first botulism patient, a Mallard in the paralyzed phase of the illness.
First recovered patients are released back into the Refuge in an area unaffected by the outbreak.

You can help too! Your material support of Bird Ally X is what allows to meet the challenges of our times support imperiled wild animals. Help save these ducks and all of our wild patients. Please donate today.


DONATE HERE

photos: January Bill/Marie Travers/BAX

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Avian Botulism Outbreak at the Lower Klamath Basin: BAX Responds

Posted on by Monte Merrick

Four wild ducks are being treated for avian botulism infection at the hospital Bird Ally X built on the Tulelake Wildlife Refuge last year.

Two BAX co-directors, January Bill, who lives in the region, and Marie Travers, will be leading the effort. A botulism outbreak on the Klamath Refuge in 2018 resulted in over 400 wild birds, predominantly waterfowl, to be treated for the bacterial infection, and thousands of other birds deaths. (read more about last year’s response.)

Marie Travers (left) and January Bill examine a patient during the 2018 botulism response on the Tulelake Refuge.

January and Marie also led last year’s response, which resulted in hundreds of birds saved from the paralyzing disease, as well as the development of protocols for care which were shared around the western states, where avian botulism is becoming a chronic problem, as well as the entire wildlife rehabilitation community.

Avian botulism is caused by bacteria that is commonly found in fish. During dry hot spells, as water levels drop and water temperatures rise, infected fish who are killed by the environmental conditions are then eaten by piscivorous (fish-eating) waterfowl. Avian botulism is neuro-toxic, causing paralysis and death. Infected dead birds contribute to the virulence of the outbreak, as their carcasses are also eaten by other wildlife. Because water is at the heart of the problem, managing the conditions is fraught with all of the political obstacles that water wars in the West have historically presented.

Effective protocols can give botulism patients a good prognosis, but the first few days of treatment require intensive hands-on care. Here, January Bill administers IV fluids to a suffering duck.

As the world spins into its unsettling future, with fires raging across the equator and arctic, we know that wildlife tragedies like this will increase, everywhere. We also know that our wild neighbors, innocent of this disaster, will suffer as much or more than the human communities that are also being deeply harmed – including our own, wherever we are.

With your support, BAX will always be here, committed to helping the wild victims of human catastrophe, providing care for those who survive. Your support is what makes our response to botulism in Tulelake, and all our work, possible. We need you now. Thank you!

Click here to help save waterfowl impacted by Avian Botulism

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After Being Ensnared by Derelict Fishing Gear, a Young Gull’s Second Chance.

Posted on by Monte Merrick

Over the Fall and Winter months, as young gulls disperse from the rocky shorelines where they were raised and develop into mature gulls who by simple circumstance learn to use the unnatural resources that human cities and towns provide, at Humboldt Wildlife Care Center, we see a dramatic rise in gulls admitted for care – from birds that have been hit by cars somewhere along US101 as it delivers a steady stream, thousands daily, of cars and trucks close to Eureka’s gull-rich waterfront, to gulls found poisoned by rodenticide and other toxins and, of course, the common killer of so many marine and terrestrial wild animals, derelict fishing gear.

From the the drifting and sunken ghost nets and traps of the open sea to the tangles of mono-filament that cling to the branches of trees along nearly ever river in the land, derelict fishing gear kills an unknowably large number of animals. While the numbers of animals killed around the world by derelict fishing gear may never be known, we can measure the money lost when a “fishery” is impacted, and we can know that, as an example, their are over 85,000 lost lobster and crab traps ghost-fishing right now in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary.

[We interrupt this story to remind you that we are currently in the busiest year of HWCC history, with nearly a thousand patients, from Barn Owls to Raccoons, already treated. This is the most financially challenging year of our existence and we need your help. Please donate today! Thank you!! ]

In a world so polluted it makes sense that we routinely admit patients who’ve been ensnared in derelect fishing gear.

At the end of last week, just as staff was completing tasks and closing for the day, we received a call from the person working at the Interpretive Center at the Arcata Marsh. A gull entangled in fishing line was stuck on an island in the middle of Klopp Lake, the last big pond at the Marsh. Accessible only by boat, clinic staff got permission from the Arcata Environmental Services Office to put a boat in the lake. We are careful to get permission for rescues such as these – the people of Arcata enjoy the marsh and protect it. With permission, now if someone who saw our team paddling out to an island to “harass” wildlife reported us to the city, the city would already know.

Our clinic staff that day, Stephanie Owens, wildlife rehabilitator and Ruth Mock, volunteer coordinator, then sprang into action. Here’s Ruth’s description

“Stephanie and I drove to her house and stopped by to grab [Stephanie’s partner] Damian, from his work on the way. We loaded three kayaks up on two cars and deployed to the marsh. We were able to quickly get to the middle island and find the gull. Damian stayed in a kayak to block any attempt for the gull to flee into the water and to start cutting the lines that he was caught in. Stephanie and I cut off what we could just to free him and found a hook through his feathers. It wouldn’t budge. We got him boxed and sent him off with Damian to get him secured and calm in the car while we quickly removed the remaining line to prevent other entrapments from happening. On the exam table, we saw that the hook was a treble hook and was entangled in the shafts of the feathers only.”

HWCC/bax staff rehabilitator, Stephanie Owens at the scene of the rescue.

Our latest wildlife rescuing recruit, Damian, ferries the gull back to the mainland.


Part of what was removed – a ‘cute’ little device with it’s ghost fishing days now behind it.

The young Western Gull (Larus occidentalis) was in fairly good shape. Neither the fishing line nor the hooks had caused any significant injury. Constriction wounds caused by tightly wound fishing line, not mention the damage hooks can do, especially when swallowed, can make these cases especially heartbreaking. The gull did have several deep cuts, or lacerations, on the top of his head, which we cleaned and closed. These cuts were possibly caused by other gulls, who were reported to be pecking at him while he was trapped.

After a day inside, the gull was moved to our specially-built gull aviary (we also house Pelicans and Cormorants in this aviary, when necessary. We call it the PGC Aviary)


After five days in care, the gulls wounds on his head were healing well, and his weight had climbed to a healthier number. His flight, which had been impaired only by his initial exhaustion, was in excellent form. It was time for him to return to HUmboldt Bay and wild freedom.

Released at the Arcata Marsh, the young bird wastes no time getting out of the box.


Just a short stroll…

…to his favorite watering hole

And then goodbye…



Another gull, wild and free, with a second chance…

Over the last 7 years, BAX has worked hard to build HWCC into a facility for the injured and orphaned wildlife of our region that could provide high quality care as well as be a place to develop and train future wildlife rehabilitators for the enormous challenges, environmental and societal, that everyone, including our wild neighbors, will be facing in the coming decades. We’ve come a long way on very little. Our staff is currently the best we’ve ever had and our facility is able to meet the needs of almost all of our patients, but we still have a lot of work to do! Without your support none of our new capacity would have been possible, and without ongoing support, we won’t be able to sustain what we have, let alone improve on our work.

This gull is the recipient of our last 7 years of work. His second chance was provided by the skilled team that your support ensures is here, at the ready. Thank you for keeping our work alive! Thank you for your support. Please donate today.

all photos: Bird Ally X

 

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Rescued! The Luckiest Unlucky Raccoon Ever!

Posted on by Monte Merrick

We take calls at Humboldt Wildlife Care Center every  day regarding a wild animal in trouble somehow. Often we can help over the phone, but sometimes we have to go to the scene. Last Tuesday, a phone call came in just after we finished morning tasks, such as feeding all our patients and cleaning their housing. The caller was distraught: a raccoon had gotten stuck in their warehouse. Somehow he was trapped behind a structural member of the building and the siding. Unsure what to expect, we sent two of our interns Lindsey Miller and Bekah Kline, over to see what they could do. After arriving Lindsey texted this photo:


Trapped at the bottom of a corroded post, unable to climb back the way he came and no way to move forward, if his paws hadn’t been visible it is doubtful that anyone would have ever found this guy. This predicament would have killed him.


The building’s owner drilled into the steel post above where the raccoon was trapped to gain access.


It took less than an hour to make an opening large enough to free the raccoon.

Once the hole was large enough, Lindsey pulled the raccoon up out of his jam.


She and Bekah secured the rescued Raccoon for transport back to HWCC/bax for an evaluation. At this point we hope that he will be in good health, able to be released right away.


The raccoon was uninjured. We offered him some snacks and observed him for a few hours to make sure that he was able to properly use his limbs and was fully capable to return to his free life.


Very near to the warehouse where he was rescued there was a suitable release site. Raccoons live everywhere that we do. Industrial areas, residential neighborhoods, mountain retreats… Raccoons are truly one of our most common wild neighbors, with whom we share so much, including a habit of misadventure.

LIndsey, after releasing the Raccoon she’d helped rescue. Wildlife rehabilitation interns get a pretty remarkable view of the world, not one that many see. Interns, volunteers, staff – all of us spend a lot of our lives looking, or trying hard to look, at the world through the eyes of our patients. We learn to see that the wild is always here, always near. We learn that at our very core of minerals and cells, we are wild too. It’s a simple fact that’s right here to be seen, and raccoons are just the ones to point it out.


Freed from a certain death, thanks to the compassion and the actions of the people who found him, our lucky unlucky Raccoon patient disappeared back into the wilds of Eureka’s first ward, just a few blocks from where he’d been found.

Your support makes rescues like these possible. Not all of our patients are cut out of steel traps, but each of them faced a certain death, caused in nearly every single case by some human invention, were it not for the generous donations you make, that keep our doors opened and telephone turned on. Thank you!  And if you’d like to support our work, just click on the donate button! Your gift goes directly to the care of our patients, and efforts to prevent injuries in the first place. Thank you!!

all photos: Bird Ally X

 

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