Letting Nature Take ‘Its’ Course.

Posted on August 29, 2016September 20, 2016 by Monte Merrick

It’s a common expression: let nature takes its course – and we learn it while we ‘re young. It can be used in many ways, but in the end, what it always means is that the best outcome can be achieved by doing nothing – that left alone, the inevitable outcome is the preferred outcome.

As wildlife rehabilitators, we hear this expression every day.

Two months ago, a man called from somewhere out Highway 36 – he’d found a fawn by the side of the road with a dead doe, presumably the fawn’s mother, most likely hit by a vehicle. The caller had already talked to a local government agent to find help. “The ranger said it would be better to let nature take it’s course,” he said, “but I couldn’t just leave the little guy there. Will you take him?”

Of course we would. And we did.

The fawn is doing well, is now being weaned from a bottle to foraging for greens, in the company of other fawns, untamed. If all continues to go well, he will soon be released back into a wild herd.

Two weeks ago we released an Osprey who’d been hit by a vehicle and picked up from the shoulder of a two-lane blacktop that skirts the western edge of Lassen National Park. The woman who found the bird talked to an employee at a park information booth who told her the best thing she could do was put the grounded bird back and, yes, let nature take its course. She said she couldn’t do that, so the employee found her a box and gave her a phone number for a veterinarian in Redding. When she got to Redding, the veterinary clinic wasn’t open (nor were they permitted to treat wildlife).

So she found us on the internet. Since she was already headed to the coast she was able to bring the Osprey to our clinic. It took all day, but eventually we had the bird in care. While in relatively good shape with no external injuries, the Osprey was slow to respond, seeming dazed. Within a couple days, however, in the safety of our clinic, the plunge-diving raptor regained his wits and was flying well and in a very dissatisfied mood.

As soon as he was ready, our staff took him on the 5 hour drive back to Lassen, back to his lake next to the volcano. He needed nothing more than some time in care – a safe haven where food and safety are provided.

If you put the Osprey back on the side of the road and “let nature take its course” – disoriented and grounded by his collision with a vehicle – it’s predictable that the Osprey will die. With no treatment, who knows how long it will take for him to recover his wits, if ever – and with no food or water, his slow decline gathers momentum until he’s too weak to seek shelter, let alone regain his ability to meet his own needs. Another car, another predator, or a slow death by dehydration is as certain as night follows day.

If you provide care – hydration, food, anti-inflammatory medicine, a safe aviary, reduced stress – and let Nature take her course – the bird stands a very good chance of healing and getting a second chance.

Do all of the animals who we treat recover? Of course not. Many animals do not respond to treatment – the antibiotics are too late to prevent the death of a Barn Swallow bitten by a house cat, the neurological trauma that leaves the Raven with paralyzed legs doesn’t resolve. More often, the patient’s injuries are simply too severe. The only course we can take is to humanely end the suffering. Any hunter can tell you that you don’t let an animal wander off to a slow death from the wounds that you’ve caused. You don’t gut-shoot a deer and then “let nature take its course.” Wild animals who’ve been injured by the human-built world at least have the right to a humane death.

The person in uniform, or the biologist, or the front desk clerk, who recommends letting nature take its course may not be able to diagnose the injury, may not be aware that treatment is available, may not be informed at all on this topic. Often the person functioning as the authority is merely parroting a worn phrase we all know so well.

‘Let nature take its course’ is not a fact-based recommendation, it is not science based. Now of course there are many ways to use this phrase in many situations, but to be clear, when we’re talking about injured and orphaned wild animals, letting nature take its course means not taking responsibility for the injury and suffering our society has caused. It is irresponsible even though it parades as the dispassionate, wider-scoped perspective, not the uneducated sentimental feelings of compassion. And in this way, Nature is made out to be the culprit – Nature is cruel, and the compassionate person is a fool. A logging truck full of trees hits a deer and kills her, leaving her young stranded – too small to survive. The local ranger says the fawn should be left alone, that we should let nature take its course, and it is Nature who is cruel.

Meanwhile, who destroys Nature foolishly? Is it the person who blunders in picking up a fledgling sparrow thinking that the bird was in trouble and not simply in an awkward phase of learning to fly? Or a bison calf? Or, is it the builders of pipelines, the levelers of forests, the polluters of the sea? Why is it only fitting for nature to take its course when an individual is suffering an injury caused by industrial society?

And there is this: the heavy line drawn between the human and the natural, between society and the wild is religious, not scientific. It is a belief, not a finding. Who among us has the hubris to say where that line runs, or if it exists at all.

In the end, ‘letting nature take its course’ is a fallacy, an error, a hypocrisy, a lie.

Right now, in Washington state, wolves are slated to be slaughtered for having killed cattle that were put out to graze at the wolves’ den site on public lands. No cries from the biologists, the wardens, or the clerks now to let nature take its course – no cries at all.

We are in the last days of our August fundraiser and we have not yet reached our necessary goal of $7000. We have nearly $2000 to go!! Click here to help us pay our bills and continue to provide our region with its only native wildlife hospital. Without your help, we wouldn’t be here! Thank you!

Rescued, Raised and Released – Woodpecker Babies Home Again!

Posted on June 30, 2016June 30, 2016 by Monte Merrick

In May, five young Downy Woodpeckers nestlings, not yet ready to fly, were rescued on a stream off the Klamath River, near Happy Camp, nearly three hours north-east of our clinic. Their tree had fallen in the river, their nest waterlogged. (read original story)

Each of the five nestlings had been contaminated by the inappropriate diet that their rescuers had fed them after looking for help on the internet. (Please, call us or your local wildlife rehabilitator if you find an orphaned or injured wild animal. Rehabilitators have the knowledge and the facility to provide the proper care, feeding and housing!) These young insectivores were fed a mash of wet cat food and raw egg! Remnants of the food was dried and caked in their new feathers, putting them at significant risk of loss. Loss of feathers would have greatly increased their time in care. We gave them all baths in warm soapy water.

Our young patients, still wet from their bath, drying in a warm incubator.

The cleaning process is very stressful, potentially life threatening, and is only undertaken by trained staff as a last resort. Fortunately, each bird survived being cleaned.

Because of concern for their feathers and our uncertainty that they could withstand the rigors of being housed outdoors, we kept our fragile young patients inside for several days misting them with clean water multiple times each day to encourage the inexperienced new feather owners to preen (the process by which birds keep their feathers in good shape, clean and tidy). Soon they were ready for an outdoor aviary. Although confident that each bird could fly, we housed them in a smaller “fledging box” outside but under cover. We needed to be sure they would stay warm and dry before we could expose them to rain. As you can see in the video, they occassionally escaped from the fledging box into the bigger aviary.

After ten days in the aviary, they had demonstrated beyond doubt that they were ready for release. Self-feeding, clean, dry and nearly impossible to catch! It was time to take them home.

The road to Happy Camp CA. BAX/HWCC is the only licensed all species wildlife rehabilitation facility in an area the size of New Jersey! We are on the road a lot!

BAX/HWCC staff rehabilitator, Lucinda Adamson prepares to release the five young Downy Woodpeckers.

Freedom Now!

Back in their forested mountain home, enjoying their second chance!

Every case, every animal, every story has all of the worries, all of the joys many of the frustrations of our profession. Treating these young woodpeckers was an honor that our staff won’t ever forget. Successfully returning them to their free and wild lives, which had very nearly been cut quite short, is the happiest outcome we could have imagined. Your support made this success story possible.

Right now we have nearly 100 young wild animals in care. Your help providing their care, in the form of financial support, in the form of sharing our work, and as a volunteer in our clinic or as driver across our vast territory is appreciated more than we can say. Thank you!

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

Young Western Grebes in Trouble

Posted on October 15, 2014 by Monte Merrick

UPDATED: 15 Western Grebes admitted for care today. More possibly coming tomorrow.

Please help!

Over last weekend Humboldt Wildlife Care Center/BAX began admitting several Western grebes into care. Battered by unusually high surf, these young birds, freshly arrived from lakes across our region, have been beaching from the Samoa peninsula to Crescent City. Right now we have eight in care, with at least that many awaiting rescue. These elegant birds, black and white with long necks, pointed bills, and red eyes, are rarely seen on land. Evolved for pursuing fish beneath the waves, on beaches they are in serious trouble.

Once rescued, they will receive expert care at our facility in Bayside. Please help us provide food, medicine and clean water. Your contribution will go a long way toward giving these birds another chance. Thank you for being an ally in this life saving work.

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.

Lost Juvenile Found in Redway

Posted on August 12, 2014 by Monte Merrick

Hungry, Anything Helps

In care at Humboldt Wildlife Care Center after making some inexperienced choices.

Sometimes when you first leave home, things don’t work out as you had hoped. Take a wrong turn and, instead of clear skies and easy sailing, you’re caught in one of the traps that seem set for the wayward juvenile.

This young Brown Pelican, like all the other pelicans her age, had recently left her hatching grounds far to the south and made it all the way to the North coast. And then for some reason, who knows why, she strayed from the sea, the only place where she can eat, and wandered into Redway. She was found walking along the road.

Day 12 in our August fundraising Drive: So far we’ve raised $600 of our goal of $5000 by the end of the month. Your help is needed. Every donation helps. Thank you for being a part of this wildlife saving work!

Emaciated from starvation and very weak, with a few scrapes as badges of her courage, she was plucked from certain death by a kind woman in the area.

Feeling better! Brown pelican exercises her wings in our Pelican aviary in Bayside, CA

To recover from severe emaciation, as long as no other problems are present, takes about 3 weeks. Once the young Pelican was stable we housed her in our purpose-built aviary. Each day she consumed 3-5 pounds of smelt, a kind of small fish that is safe to feed in captivity to aquatic birds because it has less oil content than other fish and is less liklely to soil very important feathers. In all species of birds, clean feathers are critical, but for aquatic birds, contaminated feathers are a fast-acting death sentence.

With routine checks performed every few days, we knew she was doing well and bouncing back to her normal weight. At each examination we discovered that her strength was returning as well.

Soon she was flying well and using the high perch in her aviary. (see top photo) When she was ready to go, her health good, her flight strong, her feathers impeccable, our interns and staff took her to a spot on Humboldt bay favored by pelicans. We were glad to see several adults in the group she joined. Hopefully they can show her a few more of the ropes she’ll need to make it in the wild world.

Your support made her rescue, rehabilitation and release possible. Thank YOU!

(All photos Laura Corsiglia/Bird Ally X)

Hermit Warbler Nestling Falls to Ground in the Arcata Community Forest

Posted on June 23, 2014 by Monte Merrick

A nestling Hermit Warbler is always ready for bugs! (scroll down for more photos)

As we’ve been mentioning at every opportunity, this is wild baby season. Wild animals all around us are busy raising their young. Step outside at any moment and watch Barn Swallows swoop and glide across fields, marsh, and highways (yikes!!) in their constant aerial search for the insects that are about to become this year’s model swallow.

Skunk babies might be seen playing in the front yard, freshly emerged from their den – yes, they were there the whole time, right beneath your feet, under the shed, growing, nursing and today – ta da! – exploring the wide world for the first time.

As with all life, in this one and only world of ours, things don’t always work out as planned. A young bird might step too close the edge of the nest and fall to the base of the tree, or the building, or the parking lot. In such cases, it’s almost always a one way trip. It may be that what goes up must come down, but what goes down stays down unless help comes.

But sometimes help does come. Today in the Arcata Community Forest a nestling Hermit Warbler was found on a trail through the Redwoods. Andrew, a wildlife student at nearby Humboldt State University, was birding in Arcata’s popular park when he heard the small bird calling and saw the adult Warblers feeding their baby there on the ground. Andrew knew this wasn’t right – without flight feathers this bird should still be in the nest. Left here, the tiny bird would never make it.

So he called Humboldt Wildlife Care Center to see if he could bring the bird to us. After a few questions, we felt that the best chance for the bird was to stay with his parents.

Andrew was worried. “There’s a cat nearby,” he warned.

This was easy to believe. Feral and free-roaming cats are everywhere. The truth about their impact on wild animals is so alarming that many people have a hard time accepting it. Even if this had been a case where the bird was supposed to be out of the nest, cats still pose an enormous and relatively new risk. It wasn’t that long ago that a Warbler could jump form nest to ground without worry that a cat was near. Still, all the birds flying today made it through their fledgling stage.

We sent a team out to assess the situation while Andrew stayed near to make sure the cat kept his distance.

Upon arrival, BAX/HWCC personnel, Lucinda Adamson, assistant rehabilitator, and Cheryl Henke, intern, found the baby under a shrub begging for food.

“Andrew came down to meet us,” Lucinda related, “and since the baby was healthy and uninjured, we put him in the nest basket while we searched for a nest.”

They couldn’t find the nest but both parents were seen repeatedly as they searched. Lucie said that, “the baby and parents were talking the whole time. So we put the basket in the tallest tree we could access which also happened to be the tree the parents kept perching in.”

The parents never left. Once finished Lucinda and Cheryl placed the baby inside and moved back to observe. Immediately they saw the parents rushing in to feed their little guy. After watching for a few minutes, our awesome team was sure that all was well. As they left, the parents watched them go, vocalizing the whole time. Was this scolding, thanks or something else? Who knows.

What we do know is that this little bird just got a second chance, thanks to Andrew for calling us, and thanks to you for supporting our mission and making rescues like these possible.

Cheryl scopes out the location.

Secured but not yet concealed.

Nearly invisible, our alternate nest will hopefully provide a safe place for this young Hermit Warbler to finish growing.

(Please consider making a contribution. Your donation goes directly to supporting our volunteer work caring for injured orphaned and displaced wild animals! It also gives us hope that one day we will be able to pay awesome teammembers like Lucinda and Cheryl a real salary.)

(All photos: Lucinda Adamson/BAX)

The star-crossed (and then uncrossed) Red Crossbill

Posted on June 22, 2014 by Monte Merrick

The Red Crossbill, with the self-explanatory name, is a seed cone specialist.

Cheryl Henke, an ornithology student at Humboldt State University is also working as an intern at Bird Ally X/Humboldt Wildlife Care Center. Between her studies, her part time job and her schedule at our Bayside clinic, somehow she still finds plenty of hours in the week to pursue her passion for birding.

Last Friday, June 13th, Cheryl headed down to the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge with the hopes of seeing Red Crossbills. As she made her way along Hookton Road, suddenly, she spotted what she had come for – a Crossbill. Unfortunately the bird was lying in the middle of the road.

Cheryl quickly pulled over. Almost immediately a truck sped past her (Hookton Rd. is like that!) nearly hitting the wounded bird.

As soon as she felt safe, Cheryl picked the Crossbill up, noticed that he was bleeding from his head, and brought him to our clinic.

Red Crossbills are a perfect example of how animals and habitats change to fit each other. With their unique bill structure, these birds are masters at prying open the cones of evergreens to get at the seeds within.

A small laceration above the bird’s right eye produced a fairly large amount of blood. After cleaning the wound and surrounding feathers, we provided a mild pain reliever and set up the Crossbill in his hospital housing with plenty of sunflower seeds and some spruce cones to make him feel more at home.

You can support our work rescuing injured and orphaned native species. Your contribution goes directly to their care: medical supplies, housing, food, transportation and advocacy to prevent injuries in the future.

Please help.

Click here to become a part of our life-saving work. Thank you for all that you do and for your love of the wild!

Over the next few days we could see that the wound was minor and his attitude was major. He spent one day in our outdoor aviary flying frantically from one end to the other calling over and over. After three days in care, we decided the best course of action was release.

Cheryl was on the schedule that day and when she arrived we let her know her rescued bird was ready to go. She was thrilled. Cheryl and Laura Corsiglia (BAX co-founder and graphics director) took the Crossbill back to Loleta, off Hookton Road. As you can see in the photos below, this beautiful bird knew exactly what to do with his second chance at wild freedom.

Immediately, the Red Crossbill put his amazing adaptation to work!

(All photos Laura Corsiglia/BAX)

Release the Mallards!

Posted on June 21, 2014 by Monte Merrick

Every year in California the number one bird species brought to wildlife rehabilitators for care is the Mallard.

Whether you think of the bright green heads of the males or the lovely brown females, Mallards are the iconic duck of North America.

At Humboldt Wildlife Care Center we raise many orphaned goslings and ducklings each Spring and Summer. By far, Mallard ducklings are our most frequent patient, too.

Mallard mothers build nests in many locations, often in our own backyards, but perfectly hidden. When her eggs hatch, unlike songbirds, her ducklings are already fuzzy with down and able to follow her to water to feed. Momma Mallard’s task is to keep her babies warm and safe and show them how to find the good food (Duckweed!)

Unfortunately there are many obstacles between the nest and the water. Along the way sometimes a few ducklings might become separated from the family group – by cats, dogs, kids, streets and roads and more.

And that’s where we come in. At Humboldt Wildlife Care Center we have an aviary built especially to take care of pond-loving birds like Mallards. While in care we provide them with all the duckweed they can eat.

These ducklings get their first taste of freedom since they hatched over 6 weeks ago!

The three ducklings we released last Wednesday were brought in over 6 weeks ago. Now they are old enough to keep themselves warm, stay out of trouble and find their own food.

At our nearby marsh there are ponds perfect for ducklings. Many Mallards and other birds already take advantage of the plentiful food and relative safety that our marsh provides.

The Arcata Marsh: A duckweed smorgasbord!

If you’re looking for something awesome to do, head over to the Arcata Marsh and check out all the birds and wildlife. Who knows, maybe you’ll see these three Mallards. Thanks to people like you who support our work, these young birds are truly lucky ducks!

Happy rehabilitators glad to see these Mallards return to their wild and free lives!

Your Donation Saves Wild Lives! Please support our work. Click on the donate button to make a tax-deductible contribution. Thank You!

(All photos: Laura Corsiglia/BAX)

Friday the 13th a ‘lucky’ day for this Peregrine Falcon

Posted on June 19, 2014 by Monte Merrick

Usually when a call comes in to Humboldt Wildlife Care Center, our clinic in Bayside, about a bird of prey who’s been struck by a vehicle, it doesn’t end well. So when the kind man who stopped to scoop up a Peregrine Falcon from Myrtle Avenue last Friday (the 13th) pulled up to our door, wildlife rehabilitator Lucinda Adamson was hoping for the best, but prepared for the worst.

Lucinda greeted the rescuer and went out with him to his truck.

Inside the covered bed, the falcon had gotten loose and was trying to fly.

“The rescuer called on his way to say the bird must have only been stunned,” Lucinda recalled, “he asked me, ‘should I just let him out?’ – I said no bring the bird in… might as well check him out.”

Lucinda had to get the falcon from the truck with one of our aviary nets. While the rescuer provided some basic information, she gave the bird a quick exam to see if he could be released.

Peregrine Falcons, like Bald Eagles and Brown Pelicans, were nearly extirpated in the United States due to exposure to the pesticide DDT. While other factors, such as wanton killing and habitat loss, contributed to their vulnerability, banning DDT and offering the protections of the Endangered Species Act allowed the world’s fastest animal(over 240 miles per hour!) to survive.

Peregrine Falcons were removed from the Endangered Species list in 1999.

While the population is on much better footing now, threats to individual birds still remain. Gunshot, fishing line entanglements, and vehicle strikes are common causes of injury to these birds.

This falcon, most likely a male judging from his relatively small size, was first seen in the road eating a dove. The bird’s rescuer said it caused him concern so he turned around to check on him. When he passed again the falcon was splayed on the pavement. Seemingly dead, he was easy to pick up.

Lucinda Adamson, HWCC/BAX Wildlife Rehabilitator, checks the weight of the lucky Falcon (photo: LCorsiglia/BAX)

Remarkably, upon Lucinda’s intial examination, no bones were broken. The only thing amiss was a small amount of blood in the bird’s mouth, possibly belonging to the dove. She decided to keep the bird in care for observation and further evaluation. After receiving a mild anti-inflammatory and fluids, the falcon was placed into his temporary housing. Immediately he was attempting to fly from the small enclosure.

An exam the next morning, so far so good! (photo: LCorsiglia/BAX)

The next morning the bird seemed as strong and determined as ever. He was desperate for freedom. An additional exam confirmed that the bird had no signicant injuries.

We took him back to the neighborhood where he was found. Lucinda opened the carrier, greeted by his intimidating glare. Once he saw his chance, the falcon sprang from the box into flight.