It seems like YEARS since I last did a post, so let me try and catch you all up on all the happenin's at the Hollow.
First, let me start off by having you look at this little cutie! Its' a Small Brown Bat!!!
I am sure I have expounded before about how much I just LOVE bats. And while I never think it's a good thing that ANY animal has to pass through our doors, there are some that get my blood racing a bit more than others and bats are one of those creatures!
From what I was led to understand, some locals came home from a long weekend away to find that the curtains in front of a window in their home had been shredded by their cat. They then found out that was because this little guy had somehow gotten himself in between the window and screen and couldn't get out. He came in dehydrated and hungry. Now, we have only had one other bat in that I have gotten to see and the situation was a "hurry up and take the pic because we are releasing him" situation. I actually got to help FEED this one!!
He's a good little eater, isn't he?! Now, what, you may ask, do you feed the likes of him? Well, we feed them bloodworms and meal worms. And with the meal worms you have to.....hold on to your stomachs....tear off the heads and squeeze the body from the tail up, just like a toothpaste tube, to get the insides out onto the tweezers. It is NOT a fun process. And it was a bit of a moral dilemma that I have been trying not to think about too much, as it means I am valuing one animal's life over another's. Needless to say I apologized to each meal worm and killed it as quickly and as painlessly as possible.
Did I ever show you this guy? It's a Green Heron.
Now, believe it or not, this guy freaked me out WAY more than any large Great Blue Heron. I mean, look at him after we put him in an outdoor aviary!
He just stares at you down his beak with those yellow eyes...freaked me out so much I started calling him "sir", as in "Please, Sir, don't fly at me and peck my eyes out." VERY unnerving!!
I can't begin to tell you how much I adored this little one when he came in!
This is the VERY FIRST cormorant I have gotten to work with and this one is a youngster. He was so cute and very docile.....too docile. If you have read this from the beginning you know by now that my theory is that if an animal comes in and isn't throwing a fit about being messed with, then something is wrong. And something was. He didn't make it but a few days and then died. They did a necropsy on him and he had all sorts of internal weirdness going on.
Meet Tucker the Turkey!
Bet you didn't know we had a wild turkey population on our island....did ya? Well, that's okay, as I didn't either until I spotted this guy in the middle of the road by my place. We think the nearby logging ruined his habitat so he was just hanging out in the street. I know that I personally got out of my car more than once to shoo him off the road. And WH staff kept getting calls from a lady nearby saying people were DELIBERATELY trying to hit him!?! Once you get to that point people, it's time to leave the island!! But get hit he did, deliberately or not we don't know. He came out of it with a broken wing/wrist bone, hence the green figure eight wrap on his wing, and a big patch of skin missing under his other wing. But he is doing just great and will be released with another group of turkeys well away from any roads and stir crazy motorists.
The fawns have lost their spots and with that their rights to formula. It's always a bit weird weaning them as they are bottle fed for so long. Aren't they just gorgeous?!
We got this red-tailed hawk in after a girl ran over it with her car, drove I don't know how many blocks with it trapped under her car, got to her place of employment, ran over it again when backing into her parking space, and then just walked away to her job. This was witnessed by a former WH volunteer who immediately called for help for this poor thing. On the outside, he only had a scratch on the foot. On the other hand, after we tubed him to give him fluids, there was fresh blood on the tube, so we have no idea what may be happening to him on the inside.
I mean, WHAT THE HELL PEOPLE?! If you hit an animal, stop and see if it is still alive. If it is, call someone for help or take it to a vet office. If it's dead, show the animal some respect and move it off the road!!! GODS, this is SUCH a pet peeve of mine!!! Sigh. Okay, I'm done ranting now and am most likely just preaching to the choir on that subject.
Well let's end this posting on a brighter note. And that means a Sedna update!!!! This picture was taken of her hanging out amongst other sea lions at the end of August!
She's the one in the center that looks like she is wearing a pillbox hat, which is her tracking device. It has since stopped working and will fall off the next time she molts. According to Matt, she looks great and is healthy and hopefully happy being amongst her own kind once again. What a great success story for Wolf Hollow and all the other folks at the Dept. of Fish and Wildlife who helped her.
That's it for now. I won't be at Wolf Hollow this upcoming weekend but will try, for any of you interested, and get a personal blog going to post pics of my sister's wedding and of Riley, who has been turning my household upside down and backwards for a week now! Til next time...
3 comments:
Thanks so much for your rehabbing. I wish more people felt as you do. And thanks for the blog. I love to read about happenings at the Hollow.
Yay, you're back and with heron photos! Hope your recovery goes okay.
I enjoy your blog tremendously and was overjoyed today to see "Bob" - the turkey that had been living in my parking lot and suddenly disappeared. I've been very worried and am relieved to see that he's doing well and is on his way to find a little harem to call his own.
Thank you so much for everything you do!
Laura Kahl
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