This Week at Liberty 06/21/2010

The total intake number for the year is now at 1827

Whew! The pace of intakes has slowed - a little. We're still getting birds in at an astounding rate, but it has stabilized and is at least manageable. Now we're getting in more young and fledgling raptors and not so man y eggs or tiny orphans. But still, the preponderance of the arrivals are youthful. It's fun and exciting to see so many birds in their early stages of flight and plumage!

Calum, Anita, and Cheyenne do a shift in OC.

We have a lot of new Orphan Care volunteers this year. It's heartening to see these caring individuals come week after week and spend hours feeding and cleaning the helpless little birds who arrive at our window. Their dedication is inspiring to say the least!

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The raven babies are getting big.

Thankful for Liberty Wildlife...

Pretty soon all the baby ravens will be outside and no longer require hand feeding. My desk space was the home for the raven brooder and for the past several weeks, every 30 minutes or so, the begging would begin as they got hungry and called for food. Nina, Jan, Holly, and the rest of the staff did their turns plopping a mixture of MEB (Meat Eating Bird diet) and mouse mash (uh, you still don't want to know...) into open beaks upturned like rosy pink flowers, seeking some food distributed fairly and with love from surrogate moms...

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Tiny baby barnie is fed often.

Hard to believe he'll look like this in a few weeks!

The tiny barn owl hatchling is growing up under the watchful eyes of the Med Services team. His eyes are going to open soon and he'll have to be fed with full camo to avoid imprinting on his human surrogates. We also got in a beautiful fledgling/juvenile BO that is already outside with the foster family.

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Arlene checks a wing for damage.

Sharon puts a band on one of the orphans.

This wing seems good!

Our friend in Sierra Vista, Christie Van Cleve, sent us two fledgling red-tails this week. They arrived after a three legged relay from Christie to Tanya Adams, to myself and both appear to be mostly healthy and have been banded and placed with our RTH fosters. (One had been straddled by a moving vehicle but seems to have suffered nothing more than some stress and a few ruffled feathers!)

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Another fledgling cooper's hawk.

More juvies like this pretty little cooper's hawk are showing up. Accipiters are notoriously cranky and difficult to rehab but our hopes are high for this bird who is now in an outside aviary and learning some flying skills.

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A baby burrowing owl goes outside.

Primary colors for babies.

Two baby burrowing owls were brought in last week. They were evaluated and found to be in fairly good health despite losing their parents. They were both banded and are now in a new enclosure with Digger, their foster dad.

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Toba and Sharon perform some physical therapy on a peregrine.

A very handsome bird.

Adult feathers (the gray ones) coming in.

A recent arrival, a juvenile peregrine falcon, is being treated for some possible wing injury. This little guy is nearing the end of his fledgling period and is about to get his first year adult plumage. A lot of juvenile male birds are mistaken for adult females as their first feathers are more brownish, like that of the females. When we spread his wings and tail to check for injury, we can see the bluish-gray feathers coming in symmetrically on his wings and tail, identifying him as a young male. Hopefully this handsome youngster will progress well enough to be replaced into the wild gene pool!

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Jan performs a sniff test.

Sometimes birds will exude a specific odor that can be a clue as to their internal condition. Last week during Vet Night, Jan gave this "sniff test" to a little female kestrel that had arrived for treatment. The most important part of this exam is: WATCH YOUR EYES!!!

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A TV gets a band.

Sharon and Toba got the honor(?) of examining and banding a young turkey vulture this week. Of all the birds of prey we deal with, TVs are some of the most likely to bite, and are the ones most assuredly to throw up on you! Special handling techniques are called for and Sharon was up to the task!

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"Are you lookin' at me?"

OK, one more shot of one of the baby BuOw's. Is it any wonder that these little birds are a big hit where ever they are found? Sometimes, being too cute can be a drawback!

Hoots, Howls, and Hollers 06/14/2010

In his wisdom John Muir said, “When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.” We are interconnected, and there is no way around that truth. With that in mind I have a few thoughts on the current disaster in the Gulf. My apologies if you want to plug your ears and run screaming into the street. Bear with me.

Every time I receive some media related to the oil spill I want to shout at the top of my lungs: “MAKE IT STOP!” I not only mean the oil spill, but also I mean the blaming, criticizing and out guessing….it isn’t productive, doesn’t make a difference, doesn’t heal anything. We need to look at ourselves and take personal responsibility for the part we play…you know what I mean.

The extremes of opinions on the subject are vast. I heard a biologist from the northwest criticizing rehabilitators for working so hard to help the oiled animals. His justifications for his pontifications were that in the 1989 oil spill in Alaska there didn’t seem to be much success with the released oiled birds…many of the tagged birds didn’t live more than a few days….so he says. But, there was a tagged pelican that lived at least 19 years…not too shabby. I would like to see his results. There were many variables at work that might have impacted things. I just don’t buy it!

And, we in the rehab community have come a long way since 1989. We know now that certain things predict success in the release of these damaged animals: the species affected (loons and grebes are very delicate while gulls and penguins and probably pelicans are much tougher), the time the animal has been oiled, the amount of internal impact on the gastro-intestinal system, or the damage to the respiratory system to name a few. We also evaluate the time and situation of releases much better. Since the oil industry is using the same methods to plug the well that they have used since the 1979 spill in the Gulf of Mexico with the same poor results I would say that maybe the rehabbers are the ones that have learned since then and should be recognized rather than chastised for their work.

At the other end of the extreme are people like me who are devastated watching the reports of damaged animals suffering and dying through no fault of their own. Every compassionate person, rehabber or not, feels frustrated at not being able to do anything about the mummified looking pelicans or the dead and dying sea turtles gasping their last breaths. At Liberty there are many individuals who would love to go to help and because of our reputation we would certainly be welcomed.

I have those thoughts too, but I keep thinking of Muir’s quote and realize that what we are doing here is important also. We need to make sure that in the horror of the nightmare in the Gulf that we don’t forget about the fragility of all wildlife…. especially our desert animals. When there is something horrific happening every second of every day in a specific area it is easy for it to take precedence over all other things, but with this we run the risk of crowding out all of the environmental issues that we fight for daily. These issues remain worthy of our attention and let me remind you of their interconnectedness…..”he finds it attached to the rest of the world.”

No matter where you stand on the continuum there is a right way. Let’s acknowledge that all of these animals, no matter where they are and who, through no fault of their own, are injured and suffering, deserve a second chance. The right way is to do something to help somewhere. Leave a positive mark. You may be a “think globally, act locally person” or just the opposite. It doesn’t matter…just do something. And finally, do it year round, not just in a catastrophic situation. We (including our wildlife neighbors) will all be better for it.

This Week at Liberty 06/14/2010

The intake total for the year as of today: 1684

The intake number for the week is impressive since it is, after all, 200 more than last week. But the really impressive thing is that almost 75% of those new intakes occurred in three days! I'm not sure what happened, but last week it was raining birds of all species! On Wednesday evening, the last couple of arrivals had to spend the night in their rescue carriers (after evaluation, fluids, and some food) as every brooder, incubator, and cage, was occupied. The gulf coast rehabbers are definitely swamped, but so are we!

It was a very busy, very hectic, and very emotionally draining week.

Little boy kestrel surveys the ICU.

Our strange little owl is still hanging on.

While all the other stuff was happening, the usual rehab activities were going on in the background. A cute young male kestrel was treated with care among several other little falcons that arrived. And the little great horned owl with the small eye and the flat head continues to get treatment as he improves slowly. His candidacy for release is doubtful, but he probably has a bright future as a display/education bird.

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A tiny gaper gets a gentle bath.

A newly hatched barn owl is fed.

Holly has a picnic in the sun with some of the baby ravens.

Nina feeds some others in a brooder inside.

The torrent of babies is still keeping everyone busy with feeding duties. I now share my desk space with several baby ravens that get fed every 30 minutes or so, and the raven mew outside is absolutely cacophonous! We seem to be beating the 80% rule (only 20% of baby birds will survive their first year) and these little corvids are doing better all the time.

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One of many baby cooper's hawks to arrive.

Another fuzzy bird-killer-in-the-making.

Kristine gives fluids carefully.

"The Wild Bunch" - from three nests.

It was the "week of the cooper's hawk" as in 5 days, we got in a total of 9 of these gorgeous hawk babies. Several did not survive their fall from high places, but some are hanging on tenaciously. Predators have an important place in the environment so these avian specialists get the same terrific care that all our intakes receive.

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Gilda has 24 foster kids!

Part of Hogan's family.

Sedona's group (Who's that little guy on the top shelf hiding under mom?)

Back in the foster area, the number of tags is astounding! Gilda, our foster mom kestrel, is again leading the pack at 24! But Hogan and Sedona are both doing wonderfully in rearing large broods of GHO orphans. In fact, I couldn't get all of their respective groups in one picture.

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Dr. Orr checks on the fledgling bald eagle.

Bright eyes and a good attitude.

Kyle measures her beak.

The federal tag is attached...

...then the AZ tag goes on.

25Y weighs in at 3.8kg (8.4 lbs)

Ready for the trip back home.

Late last Tuesday evening, AZGF brought in a young bald eagle from the Chino Valley area. She had been found on the ground and appeared weak. She arrived and was examined and blood taken for testing. The next morning, Dr. Orr gave her a more specific exam and found her to be in good health generally. She had been given fluids and some food and her spirits were good (meaning she was NOT enjoying her confinement.) As she was very close to fledging, Kyle came back on Wednesday afternoon to weigh, measure, and band her. They wanted to get her back to the nest ASAP as she obviously wanted to fly! Art did the holding duties as Kyle worked, and by 1:40PM, she was back in the carrier and on her way back to her home nest. The very next day, she flew!

Then, on Friday morning, she was found under a power pole, having been electrocuted by landing on the lines above.

The young of all species makes mistakes, hopefully to learn from them. Sadly, in nature, the test often precedes the lesson. This beautiful young eagle, with all the promise her life held, made one tragic error in judgement and paid the ultimate price. We hope her parents try again next year.

"The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long."