Monday, August 9, 2010

This Week at Liberty 08/09/2010

The intake total for this year now stands at 2664.
As you can see, the pace of intakes has slowed noticeably. This week, in addition to some new arrivals, we'll look at a couple of previous patients and update their progress. There's also a couple of mammals in the mix (and in the competition for "cutest animal of the week on TW@L"!)
Remember this bird from last December?
Horribly burned with a broken leg...
She has new feathers, a new name, and a new purpose in life!
Late last year, a young harris' hawk arrived after having had a close encounter of the worst kind with some electrical equipment. The bird had massive feather and tissue damage from the flash and a broken leg as well. There was even a hole burned through her left patagium which involved some tendons as well as the muscles and skin. This caused her to be non-releasable as her ability to fly properly was compromised. After all these months, the bird is hard to recognize as the same one that showed up in her original condition. She has been named "Hunny," a Yavapai word meaning "Healed," and hopefully will join our education team this year.
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A baby roadrunner is in the ICU.
A juvenile RTH is also under care.
Two juveniles that arrived this week are spending time in our ICU. One is a little baby roadrunner who is in a brooder for care and observation. Late babies are always of special concern to the Med Services team. He is joined by a young red-tailed hawk that arrived this morning from the Ahwatukee area. His survival was in doubt originally, but under the care of our team, he perked up within an hour of his arrival and is doing better.
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Sharon holds a black-crowned night heron.
A gorgeous bird as an adult.
We're currently treating an adult black-crowned night heron in breeding plumage. We usually see these birds as drab juveniles or out of season adults with less than colorful feathers. But when it's "that time of year," the males are stunning!
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Sharon examines a young GHO.
Biting the glove that holds him.
No matter what time of year it is, great horned owls always find ways of getting into trouble. This little guy came in with a broken wing and gets all the great care that the others get.
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Seen around the facility...
"Zorro," the osprey, is doing well.
Jennifer holds Hogan while the enclosure is cleaned. (photo by Nancy Lescault)
The big gopher snake is still hanging out under the eagle feeding station.
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A 'little brown bat' passes through the facility.
A shy baby pack rat is brought in.
Art feeds the little guy.

"I'd really like to go home now..."
OK, to give equal time to the mammals, several either arrived or passed through the facility this week. A tiny little brown bat (no kidding, that's what they're called!) came in and was taken for treatment by Rebecca, our local rep for Bat World International. The tiny pack rat is a native so he also gets a free ride on the "Liberty Care Train." And the raccoon youngster was thought to have been poisoned so he was transferred to SW Wildlife after Sharon did the initial rescue. It's sooo nice having some new blood on the mammal rescue squad. Sharon also rescued a little skunk recently that had a yogurt cup stuck on his nose! (Does that make him "Winnie the Pew?")

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm all for volunteermatch.com, too! That's how I ended up at Liberty three years ago! It has been a really cool experience.
Carol

Bethany F said...

I hope that little raccoon is okay. I have the SWEETEST picture of him on my phone, it just makes me cry. It took a lot of self control on my part not to attempt a "coon-napping"...sometimes cute overrules reason :-)

Anonymous said...

Love the updates on all the animals who have been around for a bit longer. Hunny is looking amazing so is Zorro! I will be back in town in the next week. Missing you guys lots.

~Amanda

Anonymous said...

great info and pics as always, many thanks, linda