…for all friends of wildlife to come to the aid of their local rehabber(s). To paraphrase a famous quote, slightly—sorry; couldn’t resist. But I digress…
For some rehabbers, depending on location and species rehabbed, baby season has been underway for a good month or more, due to the spring squirrel breeding season; for those of us who do mostly birds, our baby season is just around the corner—and indeed, downy great horned owls are beginning to show up already. What can you do to help?
Rehabbers need—no, rehabbers LOVE—volunteers. Any time of the year, a volunteer is a great thing; during baby season, when meeting someone to pick up a baby bird would mean loading up every other baby bird in our care, having someone who can pick up and transport is beyond amazing. Even someone to help clean caging would be a huge help—and the training process for both is short, simple and free. So if you’re interested in helping your local rehabber(s) this year, give ‘em a call and see about volunteer opportunities!
The weather prevented the flyers from going into the pre-release caging last week. The weather’s prevented me from doing a lot of stuff I needed to have done this fall and winter and now, with baby season around the corner, I’ll be scrambling to play “catch-up”…par for the course.
But lookie here what we had come in last Sunday: another flyer, a little female, 2-3 weeks old at time of intake. She’s the youngest flyer I’ve had to date, and she’s just adorable. Of course. As if flyers have any other personality!
For some rehabbers, depending on location and species rehabbed, baby season has been underway for a good month or more, due to the spring squirrel breeding season; for those of us who do mostly birds, our baby season is just around the corner—and indeed, downy great horned owls are beginning to show up already. What can you do to help?
Rehabbers need—no, rehabbers LOVE—volunteers. Any time of the year, a volunteer is a great thing; during baby season, when meeting someone to pick up a baby bird would mean loading up every other baby bird in our care, having someone who can pick up and transport is beyond amazing. Even someone to help clean caging would be a huge help—and the training process for both is short, simple and free. So if you’re interested in helping your local rehabber(s) this year, give ‘em a call and see about volunteer opportunities!
The weather prevented the flyers from going into the pre-release caging last week. The weather’s prevented me from doing a lot of stuff I needed to have done this fall and winter and now, with baby season around the corner, I’ll be scrambling to play “catch-up”…par for the course.
But lookie here what we had come in last Sunday: another flyer, a little female, 2-3 weeks old at time of intake. She’s the youngest flyer I’ve had to date, and she’s just adorable. Of course. As if flyers have any other personality!
Because her fur's still coming in, you can see this flyer's patagia, or skin flaps, very well!
Another downy GHO also ended up at LWR after a pack of free-roaming dogs killed his mother. As best the rescuers can guess, baby fell from nest, dogs converged, and Mama GHO flew down like an avenging angel to protect her baby. Hearing the commotion, rescuers intervened to save the baby, but it was too late for Mama. She did manage to inflict serious injuries on several of the dogs, the people said. They looked for a couple of days after bringing me this little guy for other babies, as just one in the nest is unusual, but no others surfaced. This little guy was quite voracious the first couple of days…
This little red-phase screech may be the luckiest owl in the world. He flew straight into a young woman’s vehicle, wedging his head between the hood and the grille. Believe it or not, aside from a massive concussion, he was uninjured! Vision and hearing fine; no broken bones—I mean, really—what a lucky bird! Some pain meds initially, and then food and rest for a few days, and he was good to go!
Giving me the stink-eye.
And just today, this black vulture came in. They’re slightly smaller but more aggressive than turkey vultures—and okay, let’s be honest, they’re also slightly better looking! His rescuers said he wouldn’t fly although he’d spread both wings. He walked around, and near dark, when they went out to catch him, he was sitting in water—not bathing, just sitting there in the water in the twilight. Weird… He’s thinnish but alert and aggressive. Nothing appears to be broken, but he sits back on his hocks, and his poop looks a little off, which is worrisome. I always worry that raptors coming in with vague symptoms got hold of poisoned carcasses or maybe ingested lead shot from their prey…We’ll see how he does tonight and go from there.
Nothing wrong with his eye; I caught him in mid-blink.
And finally, we’re trying the Ruby Tuesday fundraiser a little differently this time. For three days this go-round, from March 15-17, anyone who presents the flyer (click on link below) to their server at the Dublin Ruby Tuesday will have 20% of the total cost of their meal donated to Laurens Wildlife Rescue. So all you local folks, please share this flyer and help support our work. Print it out and make copies for your friends and co-workers. I mean, really—how easy can it be to support us this way? You eat out, something you’re gonna do at some point anyway, and part of your meal price is donated to LWR!
| rt_march_fundraiser.pdf |
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