Finally!

Now that I have the picture issue resolved, I can catch all of you up. Let me start by saying that I did miss two Saturdays since my last posting, but this will be a combination from the last two times I volunteered. So get ready for a LONG posting with a LOT of pictures!

Baby season has kicked into high gear, especially with the birds. We have all sorts of baby birds in right now, from baby sparrows (at least we think they are sparrows)........


to baby blackbirds and starlings..........

to baby robins.

Thanks goodness everyone is eating well and is therefore easy to feed.

We also have birds of the larger variety in. We got in an older great horned owlet. He is big enough to be outside in one of our smaller flight cages.

They can be pretty intimidating to the newer interns, what with them clacking their beaks and puffing up and all.

We also got in a great blue heron that is outside in our heron cage.

We learned an interesting factoid and I have been meaning to look this up. A marine bird specialist came in to do a lecture and informed everyone that more people die from blue heron attacks each year than are killed by lightening. Now, I don't know about you, but I have NEVER heard "And in the news at 10, a local man was killed by a great blue heron." But he stands by it. They go for the eye and the beak goes straight into the brain if the strike is hard enough. Needless to say, safety goggles are mandatory when dealing with these and a few other aquatic birds.

As for the mammals, we had, last time I heard, THREE fawns. Last time I was there, there were two. We had to get some of our outdoor mobile pens ready, as we put the fawns outside and away from people during the day, if the weather is nice. Now, one fawn is already too bonded with people. So to get him to come out of his carrier into his new surrounding was easy. Too easy.

The other fawn was a completely different story. I opened the carrier and waited...and waited some more. Finally I leaned over the back of the carrier and aimed my camera into the carrier to see what was going on.

Uh...yeah. We had to go in after him. And even after we did, he just tried to hide in the grass. They stuck them both in together after a day and last I heard they had been joined by the third one and they were all doing just fine.

We also got in a baby otter. Upon hearing we were getting another one in, you can imagine I had mixed emotions. I glared at the incubators we had left, even though they were NOT from the same manufacturer. Serena stopped me in mid-glare and said nope, he was too big for an incubator. I think everyone was relieved to hear that.


And how did we know it was a "he"?

Ah, the indignity of it all. Although he kind of looks nonplussed by the whole thing, doesn't he?

After he got examined and we put him back in his crate, he started to make the cutest chirping noises. While everyone was talking about how cute he was, I suddenly realized that one of our baby sparrows was "talking" to him. I started laughing and everyone asked me what was going on. So I got everyone to be quiet, pointed at the otter when he chirped and then pointed at the sparrow when it "answered" him. They sounded VERY similar. It was funny, but also a bit sad, as I was just SURE he thought one of his litter mates was nearby but couldn't see him. We got another older otter pup in later that night and they put them in together, so he has company now.

As a final thought, I am seriously considering changing the name of my blog to Hollow Happenin's, since all my postings have to do with Wolf Hollow. Just an FYI!

Well, that's it from my end. It will be VERY interesting to see what awaits me this Saturday. Til then.....