And it tells me all I need to know about just how little you value my services as a wildlife rehabber and—more importantly—the very wildlife I care for. I’ll keep the doors open as long as possible, but as things currently stand, we’re looking at closing the doors for the remainder of the year by the end of the month.
To give you an idea of average expenses, a small order of mice to feed the raptors costs about $400. I have to place an order twice a month—it’s cheaper than losing a large freezer full of mice in one of our frequent rural power outages. A small order of mealworms (app. 20,000) sets the LWR account back $120. Because these are best fresh, I order them weekly. A can of dried bloodworms—a great self-feeding incentive for ducks, killdeer and some smaller songbirds and a nice treat for recuperating songbirds—runs almost $18. I go through 2-3 cans of bloodworms a week—let’s use 2.5 for calculation purposes. And then there are the puppy pads and human-sized incontinence pads that I use to line cages and boxes for waterfowl and raptors, and paper towels and tissues to line the songbird nests and enclosures—that’s another $60-100 a month—again, let’s use about $50 for calculation purposes…And that doesn’t even include the various nonprescription meds I keep on hand and the various feeding formulas. The total just for the items I listed prices for and approximate monthly usages of is $1510. That means from January through June, $9060 was required to feed, house and medicate the birds and flying squirrels who came through LWR’s doors—or were still here from late last year. I’m asking for just over half that amount to limp through the second half of the year. It’ll be tight but with the end of baby season—and assuming no late clutches of baby barnies come in again this year—it should be doable. I didn’t just randomly pull a figure out of thin air; I sat down and calculated the bare minimum I thought LWR could scrape by on for the remainder of the year.
To give you an idea of average expenses, a small order of mice to feed the raptors costs about $400. I have to place an order twice a month—it’s cheaper than losing a large freezer full of mice in one of our frequent rural power outages. A small order of mealworms (app. 20,000) sets the LWR account back $120. Because these are best fresh, I order them weekly. A can of dried bloodworms—a great self-feeding incentive for ducks, killdeer and some smaller songbirds and a nice treat for recuperating songbirds—runs almost $18. I go through 2-3 cans of bloodworms a week—let’s use 2.5 for calculation purposes. And then there are the puppy pads and human-sized incontinence pads that I use to line cages and boxes for waterfowl and raptors, and paper towels and tissues to line the songbird nests and enclosures—that’s another $60-100 a month—again, let’s use about $50 for calculation purposes…And that doesn’t even include the various nonprescription meds I keep on hand and the various feeding formulas. The total just for the items I listed prices for and approximate monthly usages of is $1510. That means from January through June, $9060 was required to feed, house and medicate the birds and flying squirrels who came through LWR’s doors—or were still here from late last year. I’m asking for just over half that amount to limp through the second half of the year. It’ll be tight but with the end of baby season—and assuming no late clutches of baby barnies come in again this year—it should be doable. I didn’t just randomly pull a figure out of thin air; I sat down and calculated the bare minimum I thought LWR could scrape by on for the remainder of the year.
Thankfully, given the funding crisis, this week saw only four new intakes; sadly, two of the four didn’t make it.
Last Sunday, a woman came home from a weekend trip to find an adult barred owl hanging by a string from a bush in her back yard. Before attempting to cut the bird down she called LWR for help and advice, which she followed perfectly. On arrival at LWR, the owl’s leg was still wrapped in string, with branches still entwined in the string. The leg was raw and irritated but not broken, and the owl was alert, well-fleshed, and vocal. He was also flexing the foot and putting full weight on both legs, so I had high hopes we could, with meds and time, get this bird back into the wild.
Last Sunday, a woman came home from a weekend trip to find an adult barred owl hanging by a string from a bush in her back yard. Before attempting to cut the bird down she called LWR for help and advice, which she followed perfectly. On arrival at LWR, the owl’s leg was still wrapped in string, with branches still entwined in the string. The leg was raw and irritated but not broken, and the owl was alert, well-fleshed, and vocal. He was also flexing the foot and putting full weight on both legs, so I had high hopes we could, with meds and time, get this bird back into the wild.
However, between noon and four Monday, the owl just keeled over. We suspect internal trauma of some sort probably caused his death.
Monday, both a robin and barn swallow came in, both late nestlings. Both are among my favorite species to rehab, because they have such great little personalities. The swallow was found on the ground with the remains of his nest and a dead sibling in a grocery store parking lot; the robin was found in a driveway with no signs of a nest nearby. After a few days of isolation, I put them together for the company, and they immediately nestled down and became best buddies. Rehab makes for strange bedfellows, but they’re cute together, and both seemed to perk up once they had a buddy.
Monday, both a robin and barn swallow came in, both late nestlings. Both are among my favorite species to rehab, because they have such great little personalities. The swallow was found on the ground with the remains of his nest and a dead sibling in a grocery store parking lot; the robin was found in a driveway with no signs of a nest nearby. After a few days of isolation, I put them together for the company, and they immediately nestled down and became best buddies. Rehab makes for strange bedfellows, but they’re cute together, and both seemed to perk up once they had a buddy.
That's not food on the barn swallow's wing; the robin pooped on him.
The windowstrike juvenile cardinal who came in Tuesday wasn’t as lucky. He remained unable to stand and required euthanasia.
Of the six mockers, two required euthanasia—oddly enough, it was the oldest and youngest, both of whom had come in after being rescued from ants. Both went from doing well to struggling to even stand within the space of hours, days apart.
Two of the nest of four mockers have been released; the other two are looking as if they’ll head out this week.
Two of the nest of four mockers have been released; the other two are looking as if they’ll head out this week.
The killdeer are ready to go and will be released this week.
The geese are also ready for release, as soon as I can get them to the site.
The pileated is also good to go; his escapes this week when his cage was being cleaned are evidence of that. No pix of his greasy little butt; he decided last week it would be fun to roll in his suet, so currently he could make a 1950s greaser weep in envy. He’ll need several more baths before release, and then holding for a few days longer, till he can “rewaterproof” his feathers.
The screech currently spends his days preening, sleeping, eating, and glaring at me—basically living the life of Riley.
The pileated is also good to go; his escapes this week when his cage was being cleaned are evidence of that. No pix of his greasy little butt; he decided last week it would be fun to roll in his suet, so currently he could make a 1950s greaser weep in envy. He’ll need several more baths before release, and then holding for a few days longer, till he can “rewaterproof” his feathers.
The screech currently spends his days preening, sleeping, eating, and glaring at me—basically living the life of Riley.
And the wood ducks are growing nicely.
The red tail is getting antsy, so I think the follow-up x-ray is imminent. Hopefully we’ll get good news, although she’s stuck inside till the juvie broadwing gets his act together. Bless his little heart, that may take a while…at least he’s mantling his food now, so that’s good, but he’s about as clueless a hawk as I’ve ever seen—that’s usually an owl thing. At least he’s adorably clueless…
I’ll keep the updates going until these babies are all released; as things stand now, I cannot afford to accept any new intakes.
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