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

Fall slowdown really begins!

11/16/2008

1 Comment

 

So far this month, only two intakes: a cat-attacked female cardinal we thought was in pretty good shape who died the next morning and a grazed-by-car adult squirrel who was merely stunned.

The cardinal had only a couple of small wounds and was missing most of the feathers on her right wing, and all but two of her tail feathers had been pulled out. Shelley Baumann agreed to stay late at Smalley’s so we could go ahead and start the bird on strong antibiotics, as cat bites are always fatal to birds otherwise, and we really thought we’d gotten to her in time: she was alert and aggressive that evening and the next morning. Within three hours of sunrise, however, she’d died. My guess is even though we treated her as quickly as possible, she wasn’t brought in soon enough after the cat attack, and the lethal feline bacteria had time to get into her system to the point that the antibiotics just didn’t help.

Of course, it could have been sheer stress, too. Adult wildlife generally doesn’t fare as well as juvenile in rehab, in my experience. The babies don’t know any better, so human handling doesn’t stress them as badly; the adults fear–or at least distrust–humans and stress out more severely.

The squirrel was relatively calm at Smalley’s but totally freaked out when I got her home, quite literally bouncing off the walls. Any animal that could be that active after an encounter with a car was obviously good to go, so I watched her for a while longer, just to be sure, and then released her.

As a rule, it’s better to release an adult animal where it was originally picked up, but in this case, I had no clue where she’d been picked up: the person who hit her was headed to work and dropped the squirrel off at Smalley’s because I’d met her there earlier in the year to take a dog-attacked hawk. So this bushy-tailed lady joined the coterie of squirrels in and around my yard!

Speaking of squirrels, Albert and Mini have left, although Mini still visits occasionally, when she decides she just has to "steal" food from the stash I keep in the pen for that very purpose.

Miss Little Dove continues to progress nicely, albeit slowly, and will be with me for the winter. She seems to be developing some strength in that injured wing now, so let’s hope her next step is to figure out the eating-on-her-own thing!

This time of year if you look and listen carefully, you may still see or hear some late-migrating birds around, especially if you live near a wooded area. A couple of days ago I heard a commotion in the woods behind my house–birds singing, lots of ‘em–so I of course went to investigate and found myself watching at least 200 robins gossiping loudly and flitting from treetop to treetop. It was amazing!

Funny thing is, robins don’t migrate out of the country; they generally winter in the South. Some even remain up North all winter. Bluebirds do the same thing: the bluebird population around here at least doubles during the winter, although some "blues" also winter up North. (The robins shown were a pair of juvies I "birdsat" for another rehabber when she was out of town for a few days a couple of years ago.)


Neat stuff, huh?! Want more? Steve Hicks of Bubba & Friends raptor rehab informed me this week that owls have generally mated by now and the females are either finishing up nests or already on the nest, so their babies will be hatching in the dead of winter. Since I don’t work closely with raptors, my role being to triage and transfer, this was new info for me, as well. I wondered why the barred, screech and great horned owls around my property had gone from noisy to seemingly non-existent in the space of a couple of weeks, and now I know...and you do, too! (The baby screech owl shown here came in last year with severe ant bites all over his body. I stablilized him and transferred him to a raptor-licensed rehabber.)


And finally, we had a full moon this past week, so here’s a nice photo for your viewing pleasure. Nope, not rehab-related; I just like the shot!


1 Comment
Monteen link
4/17/2009 02:24:12 am

(My Uncle) Russell Johnson in Dublin sent me the newspaper article a couple of weeks ago about the release of the Barred owl.

There are only SIX of us raptor people left in Georgia. Keep up the good work....m.

www.hawktalk.org
www.myspace.com/monteenmccord

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    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.