B: Good evening, readers. While the number of mammal intakes has slowed at SCWC, the baby birds are increasing. Already we have several dozen nestling House finches, House sparrows, European starlings, Black-capped Chickadees (a house favorite), White-breasted Nuthatches (another favorite), Common grackles, American robins and a lone Carolina wren.
A: These young birds have to be fed every hour, which adds up to 13 feedings a day. Lucky for us, our dedicated volunteers are ready and willing to lend us a hand with feeding these many hungry mouths. Between the bird feedings every hour and the mammal feedings every four hours, we're certainly kept busy but we still have found time to upgrade our "teenagers", release the healthy adults and check in new patients...
B: ...which partially have consisted of adult songbirds trying to pick fights with their own reflections. Northern cardinals and American robins will always see their own reflections as a rival for the affections of their chosen female. If you find that this is a common occurrence at your windows, simple decals or even aluminum foil can deter even the most jealous of males.
A: We also get plenty of Mourning doves who fly into windows but that is typically the result of a frenzied escape during which a house got in their way. Mourning doves rely on a flurry of feathers and movement to escape from any would-be predators. Unfortunately, buildings are a development that they have yet to accommodate.
B: The jump-into-flight-right-before-you-get-attacked method works so rarely for doves that we always wonder why they have not developed a better method for avoiding predators. C'est la vie de la columbe. Two new four week-old groundhogs were checked in the other day, much to my ultimate delight. I have already been up at midnight tubing some of my 33 cottontails, so it made sense to the rest of the staff to add the earthpigs to my "collection".
A: Particularly since all my opossum babies are now old enough to forego their middle-of-the-night feedings. For the first time in weeks my bedroom if free of baby wild animals and my cat couldn't be more pleased. The 'possums are happily getting tubed during the day and munching on banana and chow at night.
B: A Barred owl brancher (raptor lingo for fledgling) was admitted this morning by our Office Manager, showing symptoms of impact trauma. After receiving anti-inflammatories and cage-rest time, this wildlife rehabilitator took over, as everyone in the Center expected. Barred owls are my favorite bird (stemming from a country childhood) and everyone in the Center tends to defer to my judgment. After 20ccs of subcutaneous fluids, the baby was much more lively and I look forward to offering him/her some food (in the way of mice fillets).
A: Other interesting new cases include an adult Canada goose, joining us from the District of Columbia, more specifically from a mud hole in which she was trapped. I feel very fortunate to have checked in this animal as she has rapidly shown great improvement and I am touched by her apparent will to live. After I gave her fluids, anti-inflammatories, food and water, she regained the ability to stand and walk and is currently undergoing treatment for the head injuries she sustained several days prior to her intake. My guess is that she got hit by a car and managed to walk away, only to be stymied by her head trauma and eventually wound up too weak to extricate herself from her muddy trap.
B: All of us here at SCWC are pulling for her complete recovery, as we do for every patient that walks through our front door. Another raptor that was admitted today was a Screech owl (red phase) who had a bad run-in with a car on the Bay Bridge. The concerned citizen who found him immediately wrapped him up in a pillow case (as towels can get annoying caught in sharp talons) and drove him the three hours to our Center (never underestimate the sheer drive of a concerned citizen). His left eye is swollen and bloody, there was dried blood around both nares and the left ear, and there may be some damage to his left wrist but after some anti-inflammatories and some subcutaneous fluids, he felt the need to fight back. Hard. I may have scars.
A: Never underestimate the ferocity of an angry Screech. Just like a Great Horned, only six inches tall. Well, I hear the baby 'possums calling my name as I am sure the groundhogs are doing for Britt. Time for the all important, last-feeding-of-the-day. Thanks so much for tuning in and we hope you'll visit our blog again next week!
B: 'Til then, if you find a baby bird, please make sure you can put it back in the nest before trying anything else. And always: when in doubt, call your local wildlife rehabilitator!
