It's Starting to Wind Down....

Yes, things are finally starting to slow down, not that they were ever REALLY hectic to begin with, compared with past years that is. I have some long overdue updates and new residents to share with you all, so let's get to it!

The fox kit, remember her?

Well, after staving off many an escape attempt by her...

...notice the nice big hole and subsequent repair job....we decided it was time for her to take her leave of us, and preferably on our terms, not hers. So we decided on a nice, quiet location that would have a good food supply and went down to coral her into a crate. Boy, do I wish I could have gotten the next half hour on video. As it was, I was too absorbed, watching her bounce off the walls of her cage, literally, while Serena tried to catch her and Jen tried to block her from getting over the top of the carrier that we had wedged in the inner doorway.

But get her in we did and off we went. One would think, after the ruckus she made while trying to catch her (Did I mention that she lunged at Serena and tried to bite her face when she finally grabbed her?) that she would have been out of the crate like a SHOT, but.....

..uhhh....hello? Anyone in there? I mean, it's been REALLY lovely having you, but now you gotsta go!! We finally walked towards the back part of the crate, which was enough incentive to get her out.

I don't know if her fear of being in the great outdoors again, this time without her mother, was overwhelming or what, but after she came out, she just kinda stuck around the crate.

It was only when she started walking back towards us and the crate....

...that I finally walked quickly towards her to scare her off. She ran off and I am sure she is doing just fine.

After the raccoons' escape from their own private Alcatraz, they were moved to the large, and their final, cage out in the woods. Even with that cage being so much bigger than the weaning cage, you go down there and it still seems like they...

...are....

...EVERYWHERE!

Actually, with over 15 of them in there, they really are everywhere!

We got this Pelagic cormorant in about a month ago.

It's only the second one we have had in while I have been at WH. It was found on a boat in Anacortes. It was very listless and thin. We gave it fluids and vitamins to get his hydration levels back to normal and to kick start his appetite. It worked VERY well.

This was just after he had been moved to a wet tub. It was after he was moved to the chain-link Mammal cage that he became a real freak about food! Observe.

Here we see the smelt-obsessed freak trying to cram his body through a small hole in the wood barrier to get at his bowl o' smelt. When that didn't work, he got a wee bit pissy and tried another route, this time trying to go through the chain-link itself...

...this time at EYE LEVEL! That's right, this guy is balancing on a 1/4" edge of plywood to try and get at his fish bowl through the fence!! I have NEVER seen an animal SO fixated on food before. What you don't see is what happens next. You gotta be smarter than what you're working with folks and I definitely wasn't in this case. For some stupid reason, I decided to open the door while he was still at eye level, where upon he launched himself at the bowl of food I was holding, causing water and fish bits to go EVERYWHERE, including all over me and my camera. The cormorant couldn't have been happier and before my very eyes turned into a smelt-o-vac, running around frantically inhaling all the fish pieces that were flung to the four corners of his enclosure. After that fiasco, we decided to toss the smelt into his pool from outside the cage. And while I would like to say this story has a happy ending, unfortunately it doesn't. He ended up dying last week and we don't know why. He obviously had something initially wrong with him and maybe a ready supply of food just prolonged the inevitable. We'll never know. It was a huge bummer as we all had gotten quite attached to him. Sigh.

Last, but in no way least, we have an update on our downy Red-tailed hawk. He has grown a chest feather-hair-type thing! WOOHOO!

Can you see it kinda sticking out there a bit? Hey, I know it's not much, but at least it's SOMETHING! We are still looking for someone to take him as an Educational bird...hopefully some place that's warm! Because it's gotten colder out, we have moved him back indoors.

That's all for now. Til next time...