Laurens Wildlife Rescue
  • Home
  • I found a wild baby - what do I do?
  • How can I help?
  • Contact us
  • FAQ
  • This week in wildlife

Two weeks, one intake—fall slowdown is officially here

10/14/2012

6 Comments

 
I’ll be dropping back to two updates a month—around the first and the fifteenth—for  the remainder of the year, unless I have an unusually heavy week of intakes or an especially interesting or rant-inducing intake.

The last of the gray squirrels is officially gone—he’s not coming around for handouts now, but I did catch him at one of the feeders last week and snapped a photo for your viewing pleasure.

Picture
The doves have been released; I still see the mourning doves on the fence every now and then, but the Eurasian collared dove has totally flown the coop, no pun intended.

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
The flyers continue to grow and are becoming shyer and less willing to come out of their little nest to be fed; I’m putting the syringe at the opening and letting them pop their heads out to eat. And, of course, they’re getting a wider variety of solid foods each week, including the occasional pecan treat!

Picture
Picture
Picture
The one intake for the past two weeks was a DOA juvenile peregrine falcon. The finder and the transporter both said the bird, who was unable to fly, was active and aggressive when captured and during the ride to me, but when I opened the box to examine it, it was dead. Apparently it had died fairly recently during the trip, as it was still warm and rigor hadn’t set in. A post-mortem exam showed no broken bones, no puncture wounds—not a feather out of place. Given that his beak was full of fresh, dark blood, my guess is that he was a victim of rodenticide poisoning and the thrashing the transporter heard in the box was the seizures of a dying bird.

Picture
Picture
No necropsy will be performed, since rehabbers in Georgia do not have ready access to necropsies; the one university in the state that performs them charges both us and DNR for them. DNR has faced budget cuts in recent years, and as you all know by now, rehabbers pay our operating costs out of our own pockets and the few donations we receive in any given year. This means that too often we’re left making educated guesses as to the cause of death, but necropsies aren’t cheap, and those funds can be better put to use on saving other critters under our care.  Sad to say, it comes down to a matter of priorities—do we spend the money on a necropsy to confirm our guess as to cause of death, or do we use that money on resources needed for our living intakes? I can’t help the dead; I can help the living. Yeah, I know that sounds harsh—welcome to the world of wildlife rehab.

6 Comments

New month, new critters

10/2/2012

6 Comments

 
Well, technically, the new critters all came in last month, but hey, that doesn’t make for an interesting header, now does it?

The gray squirrels that were slated for return to their finders instead found the “escape hatch” on their pre-release pen, which I had neglected to latch properly out of habit—it’s to allow squirrels the opportunity to come and go as they please until they “don’t please” to come back anymore. These two are untouchable now and very seldom visiting their pen these days.  It’s actually best for the squirrels, though, honestly, as this is the area they now view as their home territory.

Another gray squirrel came in last week; the finder thought he was a fox squirrel because of his reddish tint. The squirrel was old enough to be on his own but was very lethargic and docile. I started him on fluids and meds, but he didn’t make it through the afternoon.

Picture
This fledgling dove was luckier. She was found wandering around a back porch in a neighborhood of free-roaming cats.  The general rule of thumb with uninjured fledgling birds is to leave them alone and allow their parents to continue to care for them, but in cases where the bird’s life is in danger, it’s best to remove the fledgling from the potentially life-threatening situation. This baby was pretty close to independence, so she’s in the flight pen with the other doves, and they should all have flown the coop by the end of the week.

Picture
As an example of what happens when cats are allowed to roam freely, take a look at this poor female summer tanager. She was found wandering the sidewalk in a town a few counties away on Sunday the 30th , and when the finder brought her to me, I knew with one glance that she was the victim of a cat attack. The cat had punctured the tanager’s head right at the beak, and the right wing had a nasty open fracture.  She died during the night.

Picture
Picture
Picture
Soapbox time: People, domestic cats belong INDOORS! If you absolutely must allow your cat outside, there are cat runs that will protect our native wildlife while safely giving the cat a taste of the great outdoors. Check any pet supply website, catalog or store; I’m sure you’ll find numerous variations on these safety enclosures, and many of them are portable.

A second flying squirrel came in last week; he was found on the porch by a husband headed to work in the early AM, and his wife brought the little fellow to me. He’d fallen from somewhere hard enough to bloody his nose, his jaw was a bit swollen, and his left front leg was bruised and swollen but not broken. I started him on meds, and he’s doing just fine now. He and the older flyer are in the same cage and share layers of the same blanket but otherwise ignore each other.

Picture
Picture
The older flyer is more active at night now and is eating solids, but will remain on formula feedings for a while yet, as well.  Flyers mature a bit more slowly and tend to stay with their mothers longer than gray squirrels:  fall babies often overwinter in the nest with their mothers.

Picture
Picture
6 Comments

    Archives

    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010
    October 2010
    September 2010
    August 2010
    July 2010
    June 2010
    May 2010
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    January 2010
    December 2009
    November 2009
    October 2009
    September 2009
    August 2009
    July 2009
    June 2009
    May 2009
    April 2009
    March 2009
    February 2009
    January 2009
    December 2008
    November 2008
    October 2008
    September 2008
    August 2008
    July 2008
    June 2008
    May 2008
    April 2008

    Categories

    All
    Baby Birds
    Baby Deer
    Baby Opossums
    Baby Possums
    Baby Rabbits
    Bluegray Gnatcatchers
    Carolina Wren
    Common Loons
    Epd
    Fawns
    House Finch
    Mbta
    Migratory Bird Treaty Act
    Mockers
    Mockingbirds
    Orphaned Birds
    Orphaned Deer
    Orphaned Fawns
    Orphaned Opossums
    Orphaned Possums
    Orphaned Rabbits
    Orphaned Wildlife
    Squirrels
    Wildlife
    Wood Ducks

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.