Hmmm......

Well, it is still REALLY slow at Wolf Hollow. So slow in fact that I didn't go in on Saturday, as there were only six animals in residence. We have also begun "summer intern season", with our first intern starting last Wednesday, so with so few animals, she really needed to get as much hands-on experience as she could. But I can give you some updates on animals that I have already told you about and show you some new ones.

First, the updates. Unfortunately, they aren't "happy ending" type updates. The baby bird, after doing so well, died last week and we don't know why. Youngsters can be like that sometimes. Also, we ended up euthanizing the raven. After weeks of rehabbing and antibiotics, he still couldn't fly, but more importantly, he never got over his breathing issues. They did a brief necropsy and found nodules in his chest cavity and he had this weird round depression on one of his lungs. So either it was an infection or possibly Aspergillus.

Now, onto something more positive and REALLY cute!

It's a Killdeer chick! I don't believe we have ever had one in, at least not that I can recall. Isn't it just precious?! It was about 5 days old when it was found alone at Oak Harbor. We placed it in an incubator with "mom" the feather duster, some food, including meal worms, and a mirror. And every time I peeked in on him, he just stood there, chirping at the mirror. It was kind of sad. The rehabbers read a report that stated that they can get so fixated by mirrors that they won't eat, so we were taking out the mirror at intervals to make sure that wasn't the case with this wee one. I did talk with Serena on Saturday and she said he was getting bigger and doing just fine, which was good to hear, as I guess they can be difficult to raise, as they are very "stressy" birds.

This Merlin was found on the road in Bellingham.

The initial reports were that it couldn't stand. But, by the time it came to us, it could stand and fly. The problem? You can't see it in this picture, but it has no tail feathers! They were all pulled out from the follicle, which is good, as broken feathers don't re-grow and we would have had to pull them out ourselves to allow them to grow back.

This Canada goose was found on the ground on Orcas Island, unable to stand or fly.

Upon admission it was given a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory in case it had a spinal injury. Unfortunately, when I came in on Saturday, it still had no DPR (Deep Pain Response) and they ended up euthanizing it later in the week.

Lastly is this beautiful House finch.

This beautiful boy, and you can tell it's a male because of his beautiful color, was found on Lopez unable to fly and using his left wing sporadically. His body was curled in a clockwise fashion and he had major balance issues. He was given a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory as well and by the time I came in his head was at least lined up with his body. His tail, however, was still curved off to the left. He is still there and improving.

That's it. I heard we got in 2 more baby birds and a young squirrel. Guess we'll see what's there next week. I did hear that a rehab center on the mainland got in 2 preemie seals a week or so ago from the coast. The seals on the coast almost always "pup" before the inland seals, so that gives us a good idea about how long we have before we may be seeing them come in. Til' next time...