Hollow Happenings

Eagles to The Left of Me...Eagles to The Right of Me

2010-03-21T21:27:00.000-07:00

Yes, we have had more than one eagle come into Wolf Hollow over the past month or three. Let's start out with the one I alluded to in my last post.

This eagle is one from here in San Juan Island. It came in very weak, unable to fly, and with a squeaky rasp when it breathed in and out. They drew blood to send to the lab to test for lead poisoning but since it takes a day or two to get the results back, we decided to treat it as if it might have been poisoned and flushed him with a coal solution just in case. He was also given electrolytes for dehydration and vitamins. He was skinny enough to start on emaciation protocol so that's what we did, starting out with straight fluids and then gradually introducing liquids into that mixture that have a bit of easily digestible sugars in them, like Ensure. The lab results came back and sure enough he had lead poisoning. If I have said it once I will say it again...ALL LEAD PRODUCTS, INCLUDING BULLETS AND SHOT, NEED TO BE OUTLAWED!!! I am so tired of seeing these gorgeous animals come in suffering from the horrid effects of having ingested lead in one form or another, not to mention what lead does to the environment!

So we immediately started him on a calcium compound to hopefully help neutralize whatever lead was still in his body. Even after a few weeks he was still regurgitating a lot of his slurry formula and still had the wheezing going on. At this point he was given an anti-fungal medication in case he had some fungal infection in his lungs due to his immune system being so depressed. And while his fecal eventually changed from the bright green indicative of lead poisoning, it then went to the dark green of emaciation and stayed there. He also wasn't perching and was lying down some of the time.

That's NEVER a good sign. We then started him on some meds to hopefully help with his digestion issues. Many talks were had about if he should be euthanized, but as in a few cases we have had, you start talking like that and the next day the animal seems to improve just enough that you decide to wait a few more days...just to see how he does. Well, gradually the wheezing just presented itself when he was stressed, especially when being held during tube feedings. Then he started keeping his slurry down and his fecal started to look almost...normal. Then the wheezing stopped altogether. We started adding more venison to the slurry and less electrolytes. Then we started doing one feeding of force-fed venison in between tube feedings.

I have to admit that at this point I started thinking "Geez! He just may make it!" Shona then had to point out that while he was keeping meat down now and his fecal was looking normal, he still wasn't perching. Nope, he wasn't, but he was feeling good enough now that when you went back in to the Indoor Mew to release him, you had to try and get partway back at the door before whipping off the sheet he was covered in, as he turns around and tries to attack your legs and feet! Yep, he's a feisty one! And that IS a good thing!

I went in last Sunday to help with tube feeding and when I walked into the building, Vanessa came up to me and said, with a huge grin, "He's perching!" I immediately ran back to the Quiet Room and peeked through the window and saw this:

YES!!! And not only was he perching, but as you can see, for the first time that I have heard, he did the pissed off eagle yell at me! YES²!!!! At that stage we started trying to get him to eat the venison on his own. Shona said that they could get him to take the first piece off the forceps but after that they had to pry open his beak. I told Shona that if we got to the point where he could be released, he would be one of our greatest success stories ever!

I took a weekend off to take my 3rd IOSA class, Search and Rescue of Oiled Birds, and the next weekend I came back to a completely different bird from the one I dealt with 2 weeks before! He was obviously not feeling well at all and I was told he had started back sliding the week before. They had taken blood from him and his lead levels were back to normal but who knows what kind of permanent damage the once toxic level of lead did to his body.

Once again he let me pick him up without a struggle and when I went to release him he just sat there. I was also told that he had been given food with fur/bones and he wasn't pelleting these items. They did an x-ray but didn't see anything that looked like a blockage. I called this past Friday to see what the latest was with him and was told he had died earlier that day. Sigh.

The next eagle we had come in was a youngster which weirdly I seem to have no good pic of. He came in from Fir Island and was emaciated and weak. Blood work showed him to be anemic and dehydrated. He was given vitamin shots and was tube fed as well. Unfortunately after one tube feeding session he regurgitated some of his slurry and started coughing. Vanessa took him back out of his carrier and leaned him over to help get whatever he was coughing on out of his mouth and he died in her arms. Obviously there was something majorly wrong with him to begin with, but this also goes to show that, as big as they are, they are a bird and can react negatively to stress just like the tiniest of song birds.

The case of our 3rd eagle had a very weird beginning. People had heard a loud CRACK and then she fell out of the sky. I went and picked her up at the airport and I didn't hear any noise coming from the carrier at all, which I thought was a bit odd. When I got her to Wolf Hollow, Vanessa peeked in and said she thought she was dead. Shona peeked in and said she thought she may be right but she was putting on gloves just in case. The eagle was literally lying there with its eyes open and not blinking. Shona nudged her with a finger and one eye moved. Very strange. It was when she went in to grab it and took it out of the carrier that she exploded, struggling this way and that! Once she was gotten under control again she kind of slumped over as if exhausted. Very weird!

Then we got started with her physical. We first checked her over for any visible signs of a wound, as one of the first things we wondered was if she had been shot, but we found no such wound.

Then we checked her wings.

While nothing seemed too droopy she did seem to be not using her left wing as much as her right and on palpitating the wing bones, we discovered a break. We would need to finish the exam, as a broken wing bone shouldn't have her acting the way she was.

We then checked out her legs...

...My! What big talons you have my dear!!.......

...and then checked her pupillary response to light.

While her left pupil was a bit slower to react, it was nothing so noticeably different to really be noteworthy.

What WAS noteworthy was how squinty-eyed she seemed to be.

We decided to draw blood on her to check a few things out, like her protein levels, and that's when the next odd thing appeared.

When one goes to draw blood using a vein in the wing, the vein is standing right out, as it goes over one of the wing bones. On this eagle, however, it wasn't noticeable at first. There seemed to be a fatty layer right under the skin, skin which had almost a yellow tinge to it. Vanessa had to swab down the area a bit before it popped up enough for her to see it to draw blood from it. Shona, who has been with Wolf Hollow for over 15 years, says she has NEVER seen anything like that before. And when she makes remarks like that, you KNOW that it's an odd situation!

The pipettes, or as they are technically called, the micro-hematocrit tubes, are run through the centrifuge and then are placed on a card with the top of the serum and the bottom of the red blood cells aligned with the top and bottom lines on the card. This allows you to see what percentage of buffy-coat (i.e. white blood cells) are in the blood sample. Anything over 1-2% can mean there is some kind of infection going on.

Hers was about 2-3% but this could have been due, in her case, to the wing break. During this same period you look at what percentage the red blood cells make up of this whole tube. Normal for an eagle is ~30-50%. Hers stood at ~56%.

Then came a part of the blood analysis that I have seen done before but have never actually gotten to do. A big thanks to Vanessa for asking me if I wanted to do this part, 'cause I really did! You take this long, skinny, and triangular shaped file and you scratch a line in the tube as close to the buffy coat as you can but in the clear/serum section. This line helps you cleanly break the tube at that point.

You then carefully place a drop or two of serum on the face of this gadget, called a Refractometer, and close the clear cover over the top of it.

Am I dating myself if I say this thing looks like it is straight out of a classic Star Trek episode? Probably. Ah well! This tells us what the Total Protein level is in the blood of the animal....basically the animal's nutritional state. Normal for an eagle is ~4.4 and hers was ~5.3. With both the Pac Cell Volume and the Total Protein levels being higher than normal, the first thing this indicates is that the animal is probably dehydrated, as not enough fluids will make everything more concentrated. So we tubed her with fluids!

Later that afternoon we got her out to give her some meds for pain and to x-ray her left wing.

And there it is...an oblique fracture to her left radius. The good thing about fractures to the radius is that the other bone, the ulna, acts almost like a splint for it. At this point we decided to not wrap it and to just keep her in a dog kennel where she had minimal space to move her wings. The only worry was that sometimes breaks can calcify in a way that spans across to the ulna. We were going to have to keep a close eye on that.

After a couple of weeks her wing was x-rayed again and it looked great!!!

It was calcifying nicely and wasn't bridging across to the ulna. It was decided at this time to put her outside where she had a bit more space, as she was going a bit stir-crazy in her kennel. When I saw her next, she was acting prettty agressively towards anyone who went out to feed her in her mew.

Yep....threat displays and all! She was looking great! Now she has started the gradual progression to larger and larger flight cages. She is now in the Heron cage, which is the last stop before hitting the Eagle Flight cage.

She really is one gorgeous bird!

Well, that's it for now. It truly has been beyond slow at the Hollow, so I will wait until next time to tell you about this feisty wee one.

Til next time...

I Can Get a Wee Bit Distracted at Times!

2010-01-31T20:20:00.000-08:00

If you haven't guessed from my posts over the years, I find most things in the natural world kinda fascinating. Now, don't get me wrong, I don't see that as a bad thing at all! But it makes tasks take a bit longer than mayhaps they should. I am fortunate that the great people at Wolf Hollow are understanding about my photographic addiction and have only once, in the 5 years I have been there, asked me upon my return "So, did you get lost on the way out there or on the way back?" Fortunately it was said with an indulging smile. Don't know what I mean? Okay, let me give you an example. In early December we had pretty nippy noodles weather here. Therefore, frost was everywhere when I went down to feed the fawns. And here is how that trip went:

Starting from about 30 feet outside the front door I saw this:

I love when I see the moon over Wolf Hollow in the mornings! And then, after another fifty feet or so, there was this:

I never could get the sparkliness of it all! And then the next thing to catch my eye on the way down the the fawn pen was this:

The entire branch was like this. I found it very captivating! And lastly I saw this:

By this time I was feeling a bit bad, so I rushed the rest of the way down there and fed these beauties:

On the way back, there were still other things that caught my attention, like these red berries that just pop out against their grey backdrop....

...and these white berries all clumped together.

Even on the way home, the crispness outside made Mount Baker shine out like a beacon in the distance. So I parked my car in a small pullout and took to the middle of the street to get first this shot...

...and then this one.

I just love intertwined trees and these two seriously look like they are reaching towards each other.

But that's not all that can distract me obviously. I can get distracted by mushrooms, especially if they are oddly shaped...

...which I'll admit was a slight issue since Wolf Hollow exploded with fungi over a two week period this past year.

Then there are the teeny tiny players. Like these fungal type growths one finds on an old wooden fawn pen fence.

And then there are the crawly ones that have always intrigued me...

...as they can be so easily overlooked if you aren't keeping an eye out.

And last, but certainly not least, are flowers. Sigh. Flowers of all kinds have me breaking out into super-macro mode. It can be any kind of flower, from ones I find in a planter box at a local coffee house...

...to the minute flowers that one finds growing in the moss.

I told you folks, it's a serious addiction and it's one I hope to never get over! Yes, this world we live in is filled to the brim with wonders!

Okay, so back to the Hollow. I actually didn't go in last week as I traveled to Lopez Island to take the Island's Oil Spill Association's Oiled Bird Class. Since I took my HAZWOPER class earlier, this means I am officially on-call if they have a major oil spill where wildlife might be impacted. Of course one hopes that never happens, but if it should, at least now I can do something to help!

The first part of the class was about the different types of birds we might be dealing with, how oil spills affect them, and how they are checked in to be treated once caught. Then it was hands on time.

Wolf Hollow keeps some dead birds in a freezer for hands on purposes and so does Julie Knight, who not only is our Executive Director of Wolf Hollow, but has also been a main player in IOSA since it first started over 20 year ago.

Here Julie is sitting amongst the trainees, helping people identify what they are holding and what special features that particular bird might have. What can I say? Julie is awesome! Jackie Wolf has also been a main player for 10 years now and she is great!

Here is my friend Traci with one of the birds.

Whatcha got there Traci? Looks like a waterbird of some kind!

Here Jackie is chatting with Traci and Tiffany while Tiffany learns to tube a bird for the first time. Everyone who hadn't done this before started out tubing one of the dead birds first. Then it was off for some live hands-on training!

We were all sent to stations where all the tools and instruments needed to intake an oiled bird were setup for us.

Intake sheet, leg band, thermometer, scale, stethoscope, tube feeding setup...you get the idea. And then we met our "patient." Here are Traci and Jenice.

Jenice, also a Wolf Hollow Board member, is going over proper handling technique, which means supporting the legs, making sure the front bend of the wing is held securely, and that the head is restrained. All-in-all it was a great class! Thanks Julie and Jackie! See you March 6th for the Search & Rescue of Oiled Birds training!

As for Wolf Hollow, yes, I did go in yesterday so I will update all of you on the current patients in my next post, including this Bald eagle suffering from lead poisoning....

...and who knows what else. Yeesh! Til next time...

By the Skin of Its…..Head

2010-01-14T19:46:00.000-08:00

We have another Bald Eagle in and it's an eagle that is VERY lucky. And why is that you might ask? Because it flew into a power line! Yes, this eagle may not have nine lives, but it obviously has at least two!

Being an adult, it is pretty sketchy around people, so this first pic I took was through the window looking into the Indoor mew, hence the reflectiveness of the photo. It was also mid-feed, hence the feather in its beak. As you can see, it has wounds on its head and on its beak/nare area. It was missing feathers on the top of its head and in their place were 1st and 2nd degree burns. It was given an anti-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication for pain and a mild anti-bacterial/antiseptic cream was put on its head. Obviously, the pain and discomfort have had no effect on its appetite!

After the wounds on the head healed....

...we waited a bit more to make sure the nare wounds were healing and weren't going to be an issue when we placed it outside.

But after being inside for almost a month, outside it went into the Heron Cage....

...so it could start building up those flight muscles again. After a few weeks in there, and after the then-current-resident of the Eagle Flight Cage was released, in it went, to the final stage before release.

Hey! Learning how to land on a rope perch is hard...it IS!

Owls....who doesn't love them? Yes, that was rhetorical. This cutie of a Western Screech owl came to us from nearby Lopez island. Seems like it did a face plant into a car and was subsequently found sitting in the middle of the road.

When he first arrived he held his left eye shut, but by the time Saturday rolled around it was open. But, as you can see, it is still more dilated, and squinty, than its right eye. He, too, was given an anti-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication for pain and swelling.

When he was eating on his own for awhile and his eye was better, he was moved outside to a small mew.

He didn't do so well the first time out. He actually stopped eating. Getting any animal ready to be released is always a gradual process and they will let you know if they aren't ready for that next step. So back inside he came for a few days. When he went back out again, we placed him in one of the aviaries, where it was a little bit darker and not so exposed to the weather.

When I went out to check on him in Aviary 3, I just peeked through the left-side feed door. It's less intrusive that way and there pretty much isn't any area you can't see by looking in one feed door or the other. Hmmm....where is he? I couldn't see him anywhere. I then put my camera through the opening and viewed as much of the aviary as I could via the camera's Live View screen. Still nothin'. I have to say, that's when I started getting a wee bit nervous. So over to the right feed door I went. I STILL couldn't see him. That's when I started my plea..."Please don't be dead...please!" Finally I put my camera in, looked all around again, and then turned it straight up and back to the corner right above the feed door and saw this glaring down at me:

Whew! He has since been released!

Our rehabber Penny was flying solo last Sunday, so I told her to feel free to call me if she needed help with anything and she actually took me up on my offer! She called me at 10am saying that she was getting a hawk in and she could use my help with the exam, so in I went.

It ended up being a Red-tailed hawk and gads..what a MESS it was!

Its a youngster, either this year's or last, and it came in with both eyes crusted shut and white cheesy-looking stuff in its mouth and plugging up its nostrils. When Penny checked its chest muscles to see how thin it was, she looked at me and said "It's still pretty well fleshed!?" I immediately asked how that could possibly be, as it had to have been down for awhile. She had no idea. So then we started wondering what we were dealing with that could cause these types of symptoms in what appeared to be a relatively short amount of time. Even with everything that was wrong with it, it was still upright, so that was a good thing. So, after Penny cleaned up his eyes as much as she could and then added ointment to them, she cleaned out its mouth and nares and took samples of this stuff and proceeded to walk me through the process of making culture slides.

First she spread a thin layer of the cheesy stuff on 3 separate slides and "fixed" the stuff to the slides by applying a flame to the underside of the slide. Then each slide went through a series of...

...stain cycles with rinsing of the slided in between each stage. Each different colored stain will color different part of cells to highlight them. Then we set them on end to dry.

After they are done drying, you slap them in the microscope and hope you have,, between the 3 slides, an answer as to what is affecting the hawk and therefore what is needed to treat it. Boy did we ever luck out! Behold!

Penny was able to take this picture of a fungal remnant through one of the eye pieces. So she immediately decided to start it on oral anti-fungal medication.

He was still doing well the next morning and was alert when she checked on him at Noon. But when she went in at 2pm, he had died. It's a bit harder to take when they are upright and seem alert and then they literally drop, versus when they act sick and you have a feeling they may be on their way out. To paraphrase Penny after she found him dead: Losing patients sucks most times. I'll second that.

To end this posting on a MUCH brighter note, do you all remember this beauty?

This juvie Trumpeter swan came in over a year ago, in November 2008. If you recall, she was found by her lonesome. Her family had flown away and left her by herself, which is tough, as they remain with their parents until full grown. So she came to us and we kept her for a few months, but the longer we kept her, the more things kept popping up, like her knee swelling.

The problem was, by late February/early March, the swans would start migrating again and we desperately wanted to try and get her back out in the wild with any group of swans so that she could hopefully fly off with them. So once her swollen knee calmed down a bit it was decided to get her back out on the water, which would also take the weight off of her legs and give them time to heal the rest of the way.

So she and I took a road trip northwards to a wildlife area that had a MASSIVE lake on it. A lake where we were assured that there were still swans there on a daily basis.

So she got a leg band and a neck band of sorts, courtesy of Brad Otto from the local Dept. of Fish and Wildlife.

It was made of very light weight plastic, and its big letters/numbers allows a wildlife biologist to read the band from afar.

The she was released....

...and she actually caught air for a bit!

Considering how long she had been with us....about 4 months...this was a great sign! But I also remember thinking, as much as Brad said we would get updates when and if she was spotted, that we would probably never hear about her again.

Well, imagine my surprise when I went into Wolf Hollow a few weeks back and was told she had been spotted on Fir Island, which is south of us. Yep, she's alive and doing great! Woohoo!

Til next time...

See Ya 2009! Don't Let The Door Hit You On Your Way Out!!!

2010-01-04T19:49:00.000-08:00

Yes, after a drama filled 2009, I am more than ready to start the new year off right. And by that I mean sitting down and doing my first posting of 2010!! I'll wrap-up some adventures and I'll tell you about our latest residents! Sound good? Well let's get 'er started then!!!

The fawns...they came in so long ago. Some had issews....

...and some were quite distinguished!

It seems like time went by so fast. They went from being inside, then to being outside in the mobile fawn pens, and before you knew it, they were out in a section of the "big fawn" outdoor pen.

Then they went off the bottle, lost their spots,....

...you find yourself helping to setup the fawn trailer next to their pen,....

...and then they're gone! Sigh.

Then there was this juvie Bald Eagle.

It came in last June after being found on the ground, unable to stand, and very thin. Its feather-tips fascinated me!

Once it started eating on its own we were pretty sure we were in the clear, and within a few weeks it was well enough to be moved outside to start building up its flight muscles.

It started out in one of the smaller flight cages and over time it was progressively moved up to larger and even larger flight cages until it made it to its final destination in the journey through the ranks of Wolf Hollow...the Eagle Flight Cage.

And there it stayed until we were told that the salmon run had started in the Skagit River. During this time a LOT of eagles congregate there to pick off the spawned out salmon. So, because the eating is good and easy, we try and release eagles there so as to give them the best start they can get upon release back into the wild.

Well, this one wasn't released but a few weeks ago! Yep, it was with us for 6 months! Penny volunteered to drive it up to the Skagit when she headed off-island for the holidays, so I am borrowing her photos for this portion.

Looking at it in its crate, I wonder what it was feeling, smelling the fish and hearing all the eagles?

It certainly was anxious to rid itself of our company, as once Penny opened the carrier....

...off it flew! So long and good luck!!!!

Now, onto some of our 2010 residents. Have I mentioned the Turkey Vulture yet? No? REALLY?! Sheesh! I am behind then!

This interesting bird came to us from nearby Orcas Island. When it was found, it was thin and dehydrated, most likely due to the fact that it couldn't fly really well, what with it missing its secondary flight feathers on both wings and feathers on its back.

We tube-fed it fluids to rehydrate it and it was eating on its own after the first day. Pretty soon after that we got it outside to give it some wing room. First it was in one of the mews out in the woods...

..and then it was moved to the Slatted Flight Cage....

...Isn't it cute?!...and it was just recently moved to the Heron Cage.

For me, this vulture differs from the one we had in years ago. That one never seemed to get too agitated when I went in with it, as opposed to this guy, who, even if I just look at him sideways, does what every good vulture does when threatened....he pukes! Yep, everything in his crop comes out. It's an interesting defense mechanism, as what animal is going to go after some huge moving bird when it can have an easy and free meal? I am sure I will get plenty of opportunities to see this in action over and over again, as we are having to winter it with us, 'cause feathers or no feathers, it's too late for it to migrate.

And, to round out the post, I would like to share the story of this GORGEOUS fella with you!

This male Wood Duck was found on the mainland and shipped to us. Upon closer inspection, a puncture wound was found under its left wing. It immediately was started on antibiotics and a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory.

Most people thought it had likely been shot, so an x-ray was scheduled. So x-ray it we did, and this is what we saw.

Absolutely nothing. No pellets, bullets, or broken bones. So now we aren't sure what caused the puncture wound. It could have been predator related I guess, but we will never know for certain.

So for now, it stays in the crate while its wound heals and then it, too, will go up through the ranks of flight cages until it is ready for release.

I would like to end this post by wishing everyone a year full of love, wonder, happiness, and peace. Til next time...

A Stroll Down Memory Lane 2007-2008

2009-12-03T20:36:00.000-08:00

It's been pretty slow at Wolf Hollow and I have had some time away, what with me taking the Island's Oil Spill Association's HAZWOPER class (gotta take it if you want to help in an oil spill crisis, even if it's rescuing wildlife) 2 Saturdays ago and then only going in for 2 hours last week due to down-to-the-bone exhaustion, so now is the perfect time to continue our stroll. Shall we? Let's!!

2007

This eagle below is one of our greatest triumphs!
This was just one of a few eagles that came in that was poisoned from eating a chemically euthanized horse that wasn't properly disposed of. When I left, he looked like this, after being tubed off and on all day with charcoal in an attempt to neutralize the poison. No one thought he would survive the night. Next time I saw him....

...he looked like THIS! It was the only one that came in that survived and honestly, it was miraculous that he did!

2008

Til next time...

We Otter Detour Here........

2009-11-04T21:05:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know...that was bad...really bad. I can hear you groaning all the way from there. But we needed to take a quick jump back to the near past, as I thought we might wrap up our otter adventures for this year.

They came in so long ago, some of them all the way back in April!!!

They were so teeny tiny when they came in. The first group was so small that their eyes were still shut!

They quickly grew, however, and went from being bottle-fed and then going comatose....

...to the weaning stage...

...where you desperately try to teach them that what's in the bowl is to be eaten, not played in!! Needless to say, there were quite a few baths given at this stage.

They also started getting to go out for swims in a tub.

This was the highlight of their day!! They had started to eat solid food by this point and they definitely weren't looking or acting like babies anymore.

It wasn't long after that, after the Wet Pen was vacated of its current resident, that they were moved outside.

They got used to more space and had a deeper pool to swim in. Oh yeah, and the slide. Can't forget about the slide!

Part of getting them ready to go back into the wild is helping them with food choices. So, we decided to introduce them to a food source that we thought, when they saw it, they should be able to identify as food. So out came the crabs!

We weren't so cruel as to give them live Dungeness crabs, as we didn't want to set them up for failure right from the start. And it's a good thing, too, as they were totally baffled by this alien being!

A few got brave and gave it the once over.....

...while one just viewed things from afar...

...until it was deemed safe enough to come in for a closer look.

We ended up having to break a leg off so they could figure out that yes, there was something edible under that tough exterior.

Once we did that, the crab was up for grabs, with it being drug into the pool...

...then back out again...

...and then back in again...

...you get the idea!

Then, a few weeks ago, it was finally time to let them go and have at it on their own. A really nice volunteer, Chad Foley , took us by boat to a secluded area, away from any houses, where there was suitable places for them to hole up and find food. Thanks for the help Chad!!

One never knows if they stay there, but at least we know they were dropped off in a good location. They were released from their carriers...

...and the exploring began!

And then comes the first dip into salt water!

And then they are swimming!

It's always at this stage, and I wonder the same thing with the seals, if the salt water initially bothers their eyes, as they have been in fresh water up until then.

This guy swam back to shore and looked at us, just like little kids are wont to do, with that "Did ya see me?! Did ya see me swimmin'?!!!" air about him.

The time had come to say goodbye. I picked up some garbage off of that little beach and then hopped back into the boat with the others and we left them to continue exploring their wonderful new surroundings.

They otter be just fine! Sorry...I just couldn't resist!!! Til next time...

A Stroll Down Memory Lane 2004-2006

2009-10-20T19:46:00.000-07:00

I realized a bit ago that I passed my five year mark as a volunteer at Wolf Hollow! To celebrate, I thought I would do a photo posting of these past 5 wonderful years, breaking it down between two postings, as it would be just too unwieldy otherwise. Some of these you haven't seen, as I didn't start this blog until about 2 years in, and some you may have, depending on how long you have been following along with me on this always enlightening, mostly joyful, and yet sometimes sorrowful, journey. I have also met some amazing people along the way! Having said that, I want to thank ALL of the staff and volunteers of Wolf Hollow for making these past 5 years an absolute joy for me. You know who you are!!

2004

My first seal release and, frankly, the ONLY halfway decent pic I have for this year! I wasn't as rabid a photographer back then as I am now!

2005

Cobbles - At 12 lbs, is one of the smallest preemie seals we have ever had in. And no, he is not being patted. The hand is there for size comparison ONLY!

2006

Miss You, Serena!!

Til next time...

I'm Still Here! I'm Still Here! Part 2

2009-10-11T21:09:00.000-07:00

I'm not gonna bore you with excuses. Let's just get started...shall we?

When we last left off, I spoke about some "firsts" for Wolf Hollow. Well the first "first" I will tell you about is this wee one!

It's a baby mink! We know this because someone actually saw the mother crossing the road with it in her mouth when it was hit by a car. The mother died and this guy was sent to us. He came in pretty badly bruised and with two incisions in his neck where mom must have bitten him when she was hit. I know we have had an adult mink come in, but never a baby.

He was eating pretty well and, what with minks being the hearty animals that they are, we were hoping that he would make it. Unfortunately, it didn't.

The other "first" is this!!!!

Care to take a guess at what this is? Anyone?! It's a squirrel of the flying variety!! We got in 3 of them from off-island after the tree they were in was cut down. Again, as with any being this tiny, we always hold our breath, hoping they will do well but expecting the worse. And, since we have never had flying squirrel babies in, it made it extra touch-and-go there for awhile. But thrive they have!

Their eyes opened up and they started eating better. Their cuteness level, as they got older, went off the charts!

They are now at the stage where they are eating solid foods...

...and are very close to adult weight, which means we will be saying goodbye to them soon. What a trip, and a treat, it has been having them and watching them grow!

This has also been the summer of the Kingfishers.

I believe we have gotten more in this past summer than we have in all the years I have been volunteering combined. Isn't it just a gorgeous bird?!

This has definitely been a very odd eagle year for us. It's almost like word got out in the eagle community about the new Eagle Flight Cage being finished and therefore it was okay for them to start getting sick/hurt, as we could now properly accommodate them. We have just been slammed with eagles, including this beauty.

This juvi eagle was found on the ground and it was so weak that it couldn't stand up and was pretty skinny. After force feeding it for a week or so, it started eating on its own. Things just got better and better, soon it was moved outside....

...and it now resides in the Eagle Flight Cage! It should be released soon.

Alright, let's chitty-chat-chat about the seals. Seal season has been a relatively quiet one this year.

We've had some skinny ones come in this year. Almost all have needed some kind of fluid given when they first came in.

And all have needed to be tube-fed formula.

And then of course is the sucking. The sucking on anything and everything for comfort, the tub being the first thing that's tried out...

...and if nothing else, one can always make do with a flipper in a pinch.

And then there is bath time.....

...which, over time, becomes pool time!

It's at this stage that we start trying to convince them that fish are yummy and good for them!

All of this leads to fat and healthy seals...

...some of which are fat enough to release this upcoming Saturday!!! WOOHOO! For me, that's when it officially feels like "baby season" is coming to a close...when we start kicking their furry butts back out into the open ocean.

I told you about the Wood ducklings we had in and I tagged along with Jenn and Kailee for their release.

About half of the ducks looked like they might be trying to start having bumble foot, which can be caused by many things but the main reason is a bird standing on a surface for too long that it shouldn't. So, before they got released, this group got inspected...

...and had a bit o' the balm put on their feet before being released.

But really, just them being in deep water and off their feet like they are supposed to be most of the time, is the fastest cure.

I always find it funny how different each bird's reaction is to being released. Some take off like a shot while some are content to just paddle, albeit quickly, away.

And then there are the ones who obviously feel like they have been defiled and will bathe themselves for a minute or two before flying off.

It was, of course, right after we released the last of them that I heard Jenn gasp. "What?! What's wrong?!!" I asked. "Look across the pond!" she said. So I did.

What? Is? That? OH MY GOD, BETTY!

We COULD NOT believe it!! But more importantly, as Jenn quickly pointed out, was did it have one of our newly released ducks in its talons and therefore was it about to eat THE MOST expensive meal of its life?

Saying nice things to my new camera with its 80x combined zoom, I aimed, maxed out the zoom, and...

...NOTHING! Whew! We all expelled a breath we didn't even realize we had been holding! I mean, we all know that once they are released back into the wild they are fair game...literally...but still...yeesh!

Well, that's all for now. In my next post I will tell you all how we are trying to teach the otters not to be so "crabby." Til next time...

I'm Still Here! I'm Still Here! Part 1

2009-08-02T21:23:00.000-07:00

Hello one and all! I can't believe it's been over a month since my last posting. Sorry about that! I've just been in a very anti-social, deeply introspective place and there hasn't been much room for anything else. But now that things are leveling out, I am back in the blogging saddle, so to speak. WOOHOO! Please, be forewarned that I have been having MAJOR camera issues, meaning lens/focus issues, so if more than the normal number seen slightly out of focus, you now know why. My new camera arrives tomorrow!! Okay...enough with the disclaimers. Let's get this show started, as a LOT has happened since my last posting!!!

Let's start with the fox kit. When we last left her, she had just finished having surgery on her broken, deer-tromped leg. A month later, she was well enough to be placed out in the mammal cage for more exercise! After gathering her up in a pillow case for one last weigh-in, we carefully carried her down to the cage and let her out.

All animals have this initial fear when entering new areas, especially when going from inside, where it's fairly quiet, to the outdoors, where they seem almost assaulted by all the new noises. They get over it quickly enough though and then start exploring their new digs.

In the time I was gone, we got in another red fox kit. It's a bit bigger, and therefore I assume older, than the little girl and it is very pretty.

This fox was moved to another cage in order for us to let the little girl have a place to move around and finish recouping on her own. They eventually were placed together in the same cage and while the one is very skittish.....

...our little girl will stand her ground when you peek in on her.

As for the otter kits, we lost the little girl while I was gone to some NASTY intestinal bug. Then we got sent not one but two others, so our total stands at 4. The first time I went in to feed them after I got back, the remaining two of the litter were in the Indoor Mew and I was practically molested when I walked in.

It's so not good that they are this acclimated to people, but it couldn't be helped. A few weeks later, when all 4 were living peacefully together, I got to take them out for their daily swim in the pink tub.

They always know what's coming when they get crammed into the kennel and carried outside, but the tub fills pretty slowly, so sometimes it's a bit of a wait. And then, when you finally get them into the tub and open the kennel door...well....

...you always get "THE LOOK" from at least one of them. The look that screams "Sheesh! Took you long enough!!" Then the frolicking commences! And even though the kennel is loved and at the same time despised, especially when one is trying to get them back out of the tub, it always seems to be the center of pool time, with playing happening on top of it....

...and inside of it.

After all is said and done, it's back inside for a good drying off session on some towels and, if one so chooses, in the dirt box.

The otters have finally been moved to the Wet Pen, where there are a lot of activities to keep themselves busy with.....

...along with the removal, except for at feeding times, of human interaction.

We have had a few groups of water fowl pass through our doors this baby season. We got in a group of Wood ducklings that were comprised of a few duckling from various places.

I just love the black stripes extending back from their eyes. They have grown big enough now that they are outside with a pool of their own to swim in and are doing just great!

We also got in some Hooded Mergansers from two different locations. There is something about mergansers that I just love!

Unfortunately, the last group of photos I tried to take of these guys all came out beyond blurry....stoopid camera....and they have since been released.

The one thing that really stood out when I got back was how many young raptors, and their adult counterparts, we had in. We had in an adult Great-horned owl and...

...this youngster. These guys, and these guys alone, especially when they are younger with the extra large looking eyes, always seem to remind me of Muppets. Not sure why.

We also got something in that, upon its initial examination, people just labeled as "Hawklet." They knew it was gonna be one of the smaller raptors but the question was, which one?! By the time I saw it, it looked like this:

My first impression? I thought it was a Cooper's hawk, based on what its legs and feet looked like. I was gone for two weeks and upon my return this past Saturday, this is what I came back to:

I SO nailed this! It's ready to go and will hopefully be released soon!

Okay, that's gonna be it for Part 1 of my update. There is still so much to talk about that I am dividing it up into two separate postings. Next time, we will talk about some "firsts" for Wolf Hollow, along with the seals. Oh....the seals.....

What would "baby season" be without the seals?!

Til next time...

Flora and Fauna of the Galapagos

2009-06-21T21:11:00.000-07:00

Hello one and all! Yep, I am back from the Galapagos and I had an INCREDIBLE time while I was down there!! For those of you who don't know, I went down as a supporter of S.P.E.C.I.E.E.S., which takes stray cats and dogs out of places with fragile ecosystems and helps to find them new homes, and as a volunteer with Animal Balance, which is an organization that goes to places like Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, and Samoa to spay/neuter cats and dogs to reduce their impact on areas with unique and fragile ecosystems.

So, while I will have a full trip account eventually on my personal blog site (Don't get too excited...I only have 2 postings on it in the last 4 years and it will be a bit before I have the entire trip written up.)

In the meantime, I have taken some of my favorite photos out of the 1400+ I took and here they are, in somewhat chronological order. And because this is a wildlife blog....for the most part...I have tried to stick to just that....for the most part. Enjoy!

Til next time...

Boobies...of the Blue-footed Variety

2009-06-13T11:53:00.000-07:00

Til next time...

In the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time!

2009-05-27T00:25:00.000-07:00

I think that pretty much sums it up when it comes to how this little girl came to be at Wolf Hollow.

This Red fox kit was playing in someone's yard with her siblings when she made the unfortunate decision to run up to a deer. The deer decided she didn't appreciate this kit's curiosity, so it freaked out and tromped on her a few times. Having heard this story, we had no idea how bad off she might be, considering her size. So Penny came in last Saturday to take some much needed x-rays of her. We already knew, after getting her in and doing her initial exam, that she had at least one broken leg. We just didn't know how bad it was or if anything else was broken. So Penny sedated her.

This was interesting to watch, as this fox kit is VERY feisty..i.e. bitey! So she had to don our heavy leather "mammal gloves" to even just go in and get her out! After the sedative took effect, she did a quick reassessment to make sure she knew what, exactly, she was going to be x-raying.

Since she was sedated, I took a rare opportunity to get a somewhat close-up shot of her face.

She really is quite striking. Red foxes come in all sorts of color variations, but the main ones we see here on the island are that dark orange/red color and black ones. And then, every once in awhile, you see foxes like this, that seem to be almost crossover of the two colors.

Then into the x-ray room we went. First she was placed this way....

...and then picked up...

...and placed that way.

Even sedated she was a bit squirmy laying on her side, hence the light taping on her legs. We all held our breaths while waiting for the x-rays to develop, as we so wanted this to be something that was fixable. Then, they were done:

YEESH! Yep, she has a nasty break in her left femur. In fact, as you can see, it almost went through the skin! Luckily it is mid-shaft, so we thought it might be able to be pinned. And sure enough, that's exactly what a local vet did for us this past week! YEA!

So now she has a partially shaved backside and some stitches. She will be reassesed in 2 1/2 more weeks, at which time, if she is healing as well as youngsters tend to do, the pin may be removed. This may be the first time that we have had a fox kit this young come in that we have been able to help. All the others have been hit-by-car scenarios and not surprisingly, none of those made it.

In other areas, all the babies keep progressing towards adulthoood and have been moved to different areas to accomodate that progression. The Barn owlets are all fully feathered now and have been moved outside to the Slatted flight cage.

Aren't they just gorgeous?!

I heard, as of today, we have 6 fawns!! But the only other fawn I have a picture of is this handsome male we got in!

Isn't he striking?! In the time I have been with Wolf Hollow, we haven't had this dark of a fawn in before. I guess he is one of a set of twins that got left behind when Mom and his sibling ran across the road. He, like all good youngsters, stayed where he was expecting Mom to come back for him. She never did. To give you a comparison, here is a somewhat blurry photo of the two next to each other.

As for the little girl, yep, she had to go back into leg splints again for a few days but they came off and she looks to be doing well. So much so that in the last week they were taken out to the fawn barn and inner yard.

It's out here that we try to get them to start drinking their bottles from the bottle rack. Again, because they imprint so easily on people, we try to get them as far away from people as soon as feasibly possible to hopefully minimize that feeling of connectedness.

We got this cutie in last Saturday. He was found at the base of a tree, with no parent in sight, which is VERY odd for crows, as they are SUPER protective of their young.

There is just something about baby crows that I just LOVE! They are so gangly and adorable. There is also that intelligence that is so obvious with them. Even at this young age, I feel like I am being studied and measured...against what scale I am not sure.

The other great thing about them is they are GREAT eaters!
And while there are parts of them, like their feet and their mouths, which look so BIG, there is one part of them, at this stage in the growth process, that makes me go "Awww..."

Let's wrap this posting up with an OTTER UPDATE! While I know I just saw them last week, it seems like they triple in size in between the times that I do see them!

I had to take them out of their carrier to clean it and I stuck them in a shallow tub, knowing that they would try and get out.

Luckily though, once all three were in the tub, they got into wrastling...it's different from wrestling....mode.

Then I went in the next day for the "Trying to teach the otter kits to eat their formula from a bowl" session, part 5.0.

And this is how that went down.

Here is a short video clip that may explain the mayhem a bit better! You will see us trying to get the otters to associate the nipple, which they love, with the food bowl. The little girl actually will suck up the formula through the nipple while it's in the formula, but still hasn't grasped that the food is 1 inch away from her face.

And after everything and everyone has formula mash covering themselves from head to toe, the otter kits get thoroughly wiped down and dried off.

Sorry little one. No food there!

Well, that's it for me. For those of you who don't know, starting tomorrow I am taking 3 weeks off to head down to the Galapagos Islands to help out Animal Balance, a wonderful non-profit organization who spays and neuters cats and dogs down there, and in other countries, since these domesticated animals are wiping out a lot of the native species. It's going to be a lot of hard work but also a LOT of fun! Til next time...

They Just Keep Growing...and GROWING...

2009-05-07T20:27:00.000-07:00

Yes, the babies that we have gotten in this year are growing leaps and bounds. Because I only go in on the weekends, I think it's possibly more apparent than those folks who see them every day. Let's start with our Barn owlets. They came in looking like this:

And then by the next week or so, they were looking like this:

I so LOVE the "Mohawk" part of the feather developmental process!!

And then we got in another Barn owlet. It was found on the ground with no nest in sight, so in it came to us!

It's a big 'un! And it's a good eater! We kept it separate for about a week and then moved it in with the other two.

They are all getting along swimmingly! It won't be long before we move the oldest into an aviary/mew to get in some muscle building-flying exercises!

Onto the otter kits! They came in all teeny tiny....

...and they have been growing steadily.....

...ever since! Their eyes have opened and they now are in that "Hey...you really are an otter!" stage. They are developing personalities and they now, when getting fed, tend....

...to get sleepy.....

...and eventually end up....

..passing out. So much so that you can get pics that, when awake, would be nay on impossible. Like teensy-tiny feet pics.

We also have a new baby in residence....our first FAWN!!! Eee!

This black-tailed fawn was found on Orcas Island by someone who attempted to care for it themselves for a few days by feeding it baby formula! People...really?! Here is my second baby season rant. Repeat after me. If you find a baby animal, do NOT try and take care of it yourself!! It is illegal and more often than not you will do more harm than good! Fawns, especially, should be left where they are initially, as mom can go off and leave them for up to 10 hours in a "Sit! Stay!" position.

Turns out this little girl actually did have some issues. She couldn't stand!

Notice how her legs are kinda bowed and she is pointing her toes? It's because the tendons were too tight and therefore they wouldn't bend at the "ankles."

We had one of our local vets come in to look at her and she decided that some splint/wraps would help with this.

Yes, it looks a bit awkward, but hey, at least she can stand by herself!

This makes feeding her a heck of a lot easier as well, as Penny is demonstrating here, since they should be standing when eating and it's a lot to have to try and hold her up and feed her at the same time. Penny told me they took off the wraps today and her legs are GREAT! WOOHOO!!!

Last, but certainly not least, is this beauty.

It's a Violet-green swallow! We rarely....and I mean RARELY...get these precious beings in at Wolf Hollow. This one was found on the ground, thin and weak. There were no apparent injuries, so, after letting it rest overnight, I got to help take it out to an aviary to see what it's flight capabilities actually were. And it was only then that we got to see just how beautiful it was.

As you can see, unfortunately, it's on the ground, meaning that it had zilch for flight capabilities. We assumed, therefore, that it must have had some soft tissue damage. We brought it back inside and after 2 weeks it was flying well enough to be released!

I am going to end this post with two non-Wolf Hollow residents (they actually hang out in the woods behind my workplace). Why am I doing this?

Because they are extremely cute and because I can! Til next time...

We Have a WINNER!!!!

2009-04-22T20:45:00.000-07:00

And it wasn't this poor thing shown below. WARNING!! There are some GRAPHIC pics in this post!!! Consider yourself forewarned!

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We received this eagle in after a woman watched it get pummeled in a territorial battle.

And as you can see, "pummeled" is an understatement. She is missing feathers and skin off the top of her head, her right eye is badly mangled, as is her beak. She also had some puncture wounds on her chest. Me? I always thought territorial battles were a "guy thang." But nope, if you are where you shouldn't be, be prepared to fight the fight of your life....literally. Here's a better picture of the gruesomeness.

We had to tube feed her when she initially came in, as the inside of her mouth was very swollen and her beak was too cracked and painful to use!

Things started healing up and scabbing over. It was the next week, when I was holding her, that I noticed her right foot was swollen. Not sure why, as nothing was broken. But Michelle Loftus, our vet extraordinaire, came by and recommended laser therapy on the foot....

and the face.

This helps increase blood flow to the site which in turn helps with healing process.

As you can see, she is slowly getting better. Now we need to find out if anyone has successfully released a one-eyed eagle before. Penny has been calling around about it. The one plus is that they are scavengers for the most part. We will see what Penny's contacts have to say about it before making any more decisions about her.

We got in this Cooper's hawk from Mt. Vernon.

It was found in someones back yard. There were no palpable breaks in the lower structures of the wings and he obviously can move them. So we let it chill for a bit in a carrier. Man, they are one SPAZZY bird! I got jumpy just trying to grab it, because it was hopping around and freaking out so much! Penny was there and she mocked and japed me horribly over it!

After a few spazz-ridden days, we decided to plop his butt in an Aviary to see how he did.

Turns out it must have just been a muscle sprain or something, as it was just fine.

In case you haven't guessed, we are just ending our "adult" season before heading into "baby" season and we mainly tend to get birds in. Having said that, here is a gorgeous Great Horned owl we got in!

*Pic by Penny Harner

No, it isn't cocking its head because it's quizzical. The head is tilted that much because of neurological damage due to, we think, it going head-to-head...literally....with a car, as it was found on the side of a road. It had bruising on the head, its right eye had a slower pupillary response than the left eye, and along with the head tilt came horizontal nystagmus. Nystagmus is this rhythmic head and eye movement where it is slow in one direction and then fast in the other. This guy was moving his head horizontally and looked like he was nodding off and then his head would snap to the side, like he was jerking awake. And he did it constantly. It was very sad to watch.

So, we gave him some non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication along with some B complex and hand fed him for awhile.

And slowly, the nystagmus stopped.....

..and the head became more upright. He eventually started eating on his own and then, after a few weeks, was well enough to move to a small outdoor mew.

Look! He's even getting all attitudey (it's a word!) with me! Isn't it GREAT?! He was eventually moved to a larger flight cage to build up his flight muscles and has since been released! WOOHOO!

CUTE ALERT! Yes, if you haven't heard already, some of the first babies of the season have arrived! The first to arrive were one of my favorites, and yes, they are more birds, and that is three Barn owlets!! The tree in which they were nesting was cut down and they were sent on to us. I got to pick them up from the folks who brought them over from off-island and it sounded like I had a tea kettle going off in my car the entire way back to The Hollow. I just chuckled the whole way there. Here's the first of the cuties!

The wee ones always seem, to me, to look like wizened old men. That, or an extra out of the movie The Dark Crystal....take your pick. He did have a bit of crusting around the eye, so we added some drops to it.

Here's the mid-sized guy.

Gods! They are just SO CUTE! Unfortunately for this guy, he didn't come out of the "losing his home" scenario unscathed. Turns out we found a fracture in one of his wings so we took an x-ray and.....

....YEESH! It just looks SO painful. I empathize way too much when an animal is hurting. And when I see things like this it's worse, so much so that I don't even want to touch the poor thing as I don't want to be an instrument of even more pain. And then we weren't even sure if he had an actual joint where that blank spot was. We decided to hold off on making any final decision on him until we consulted with our local avian vet, Michelle.

And last, but certainly not least, is big bro.

There is just something about this pic that makes me giggle....not sure why. He was all in one piece and looked healthy, which was good news!

So after weighing and banding them all, we placed them in a carrier to let them calm down for a bit. Then we decided to get some food in them.

It always amazes me that even under extremely stressful circumstances, a lot of these little guys will inhale food when you offer it to them! As for the one with the broken wing, well, we couldn't put a splint or anything on it as they were getting their feathers in.

The feathers, in this early growth stage, are called blood feathers, as they are filled with blood and are connected to a free flowing blood supply. Trying to wrap the wing could cause one of these to break and birds have bled to death when one of these broke. Then, a few days later the staff noticed that one of its legs was at an odd angle, was swollen, and had possibly broken during the night. We have had a few baby birds that seem to have this "brittle bone" condition, which could be from being fed tainted food (like a poisoned mouse) or it could be a physiological condition. Whatever the cause, it is VERY difficult to treat and the animal suffers greatly during that process. So it was at this time that the decision was made to euthanize it and put it out of its misery.

Now, what you have all been waiting for.....Let's talk OTTER KITS!! Eee!

We got a call from a guy who was hired as a Pest Control person to board up the underside of a house. Unfortunately, there was a mother otter and her 3 kits under there. Mom ran off, they called us, and we advised him to put the otter kits in a box with a towel or something to keep them warm and see if mom comes back to get them. I know...I seem to rant about this every year....but people, if you are going to do maintenance on your house, burn brush piles, or board up the underside to keep out animals...PLEASE DO IT DURING THE WINTER MONTHS! Like in FEBRUARY!! Don't wait until the beginning of baby season to do this. Sigh.

Needless to say mom didn't come back that night so in they came to Wolf Hollow. And man, are they ever CUTE!!!

We got in two males and a female. Upon arrival into Wolf Hollow, they all get examined.

This is the little girl, the tiniest of the three by far, and she obviously was so NOT enjoying this. We did find that she had a scrape under one arm that was healing.

After their examination, they got markings put on their heads so we can know which is which.

This is especially important with the males, as they were close in size and weight. See, we keep a detailed chart for each baby, marking down how much they ate, their weight, and if they are having regular bowel movements.

Then we made some formula, poured it into tiny bottles.....

...and got down to feeding. Luckily, once you get the nipple in and they taste the formula, they are pretty good to go.

I always take the feeding times, and therefore quiet/still times, of babies to try and get closeups of various body parts.

Isn't it just precious?! And teeny tiny?!

After all the fun of feeding is over comes the not so fun, but extremely necessary task, of stimulating them so they empty their bowels.

We will have to do this for a bit yet, as in the wild mom ingests all their waste to try and hide the smells of the vulnerable babies. And I will tell you something, can these little guys ever store a LOT of urine! One little guy I fed last week I thought had surely peed his body weight by the time he was done! No bladders the size of peanuts on these wee ones!

Some of the biggest challenges we have had in the past with otters this young have been serious digestive issues. In fact, the last time we got in a group this small, none of them made it. But I went over to Penny's the other night to help with 8pm feeds (they get fed every 4 hours starting at 8am and ending at midnight) and they all, the little boys especially, are getting big...and fat! I heard that one of them had a slight issue, but it was given meds and is fine now. So...keeping everything crossed...it looks like, for the first time since I have been at Wolf Hollow....that we may actually get to watch the entire growth process with these guys! It should be fun!

Til next time...

Come one..COME ALL!!!!

2009-04-17T06:52:00.001-07:00

Hi Everyone! Yes, I know this is extremely last minute notice, but anyone in the vicinity is most welcome to come out to our Eagle Flight Cage House Warming tomorrow, Saturday, at Wolf Hollow from 11am-2pm!

Don't know the saga we have been going through for the past 2+ years? Well it started out after a heavy snowstorm in the winter of 2006. It dumped a LOT of wet and heavy snow in a very short amount of time and our wonderful Eagle Flight cage couldn't take the weight. The result?

Yes, it was truly devastating to observe this. We also had an eagle in the cage at the time and we were all thankful he made it out of there on his own without getting hurt.

So, starting last year, after much planning and fund raising during the previous years, the Eagle Flight Cage rebuild commenced. It started as this....

...and then progressed to this....

...and finally this.....

Isn't it beeyoutifool?! It now has weighted roof panels that will fall inwards when a certain weight limit has been reached so as to not collapse the entire structure the next time we get an odd snowstorm like that. Observe.....

So, if you are in the neighborhood, feel free to drop on by, have some munchies, and chat with some of the many people who helped to make this happen. And, since this is occurring during my regular volunteer shift, I'll be skulking around somewhere as well, hopefully finally getting to do this:

Til next time...

Got Milk?

2009-04-12T14:07:00.001-07:00

Til next time.....

Road Trip!!!

2009-03-20T19:46:00.000-07:00

I took a trip off-island last Saturday with a very unique passenger....

Yep, Miss Thang and I took a ride up North. She has been with us for almost 4 months now and we have done everything for her that we possibly can at this point. That left us with very few options, so we decided to release her in a body of water where she can get the weight off of her legs, build up her flight muscles, and hopefully integrate herself into another swan flock.

The day started out with Shona and I getting up VERY early, in the rain, cold, and dark, to wrangle her, put wing bumpers on her, and get her crated up for the long drive. Thanks Shona!

The trip up to the Wildlife Area where she was to be released was uneventful. I was worried that she was going to be a back-seat driver, but once we got moving, she stayed pretty calm. And the release site, well, I was told the lake was big, but had no idea that it was...

....THIS BIG!!

I want to stop for a moment and state that I couldn't have done this without the help of Brad Otto and his son Brady. Brad is a wildlife biologist with the Dept. of Fish and Wildlife and he graciously came out on his day off, in the cold and rain, to band, collar and sex her (Yep, it's a GIRL!). THANKS BRAD AND BRADY!

And Brad started out by saying something that was music to my ears, that being "Let's take her over to the barn and get her ready in a covered area." Did I mention it was COLD....and RAINY?! So we did just that.

Getting her out of the carrier was something I left up to Brad, since he deals with Trumpeter swans on a regular basis. At one point, during this mysterious process, I kept hearing banging noises followed by "Ow!", then more banging noises and "OUCH!" I asked if he was okay, to which he replied "Yeah. It's just a big guy, trying to get a big bird, out of a crate!" But get her out he did, all the while promising me that once we got her on her back she would calm down, and you know what? She DID!

He then got all the gear he needed laid out....

and began by placing the plastic collar on her.

Yes, it looks big and bulky, but it wasn't heavy and was very loose on her, so she won't outgrow it. It has to be big enough that they can read it from a distance and to be honest, while I know some folks might object to the collar, I did want them to be able to monitor her to see how she was doing, so I was glad they had an easy way to do that.

After he got done with that, she decided she wasn't happy looking at the world upside down, so she looped her neck over and placed her head right-side-up on the table.

It was very contortionistic move that looked weird and a bit freaky! Okay, maybe you had to be there, but still...yeesh!

Then came the leg banding. Brad likes to band the left legs of birds and this gave me a good opportunity to take a look at the callous that had formed on the bottom of that foot due to all the weight resting on it for so long.

This is one thing that should right itself, what with her swimming a lot more, thereby taking the weight off of both legs for extended periods of time.

Once that was completed, he sexed her, which was a very invasive process (one which all women can relate to), so the swan and I commiserated with each other until it was over. Then it was time to release her!

The lake was a bit of a ways from the barn, so I asked Brad what the best way to get her down there was, to which he said we could either put her back in the crate or walk her down. I laughed and said "Well, maybe YOU can walk her down, but I sure can't!" "But...don't you want to be the one to release her?" he wondered, to which I said no, that I would be throttled if I didn't get the release on camera, so I would just stand back and document the process.

So began the trek to the lake.

Brady hung back while Brad and I made a bee-line for the lake. The swan was funny, as the whole way down there she just kind of layed limply in his arms, whereas I thought for sure she would be struggling and thrashing about.

Then, we were there, and then, there she went.....

She took off like a shot and never looked back. She immediately started running hell-bent-for-leather to the middle of the pond.

Boy, was she ever running fast! All the while I am taking pictures, not really seeing too clearly what I am shooting, as she was moving very quickly and getting further and further away, when all of the sudden I hear Brad yell "She's flying! She's actually FLYING!!" "WHAT?!" I exclaimed and prayed that I got it on film. Know what?

I DID!!!! No, she didn't soar above the trees, but Brad was amazed that, after being on the ground for 4 months, that she could even do this!

It's a testament to how well the staff and volunteers took care of her, that she was still in such great shape upon release. Congrats everyone!!

On the way back out I stopped and took a picture of some of the swan's new lake mates, as upon my arrival, there were hundreds of birds swimming around.

By the time I left, it was pretty much just these guys hanging out in the rain.

I emailed Brad after I got home to thank him again and he assured me that he keeps an eye on the lake 5 days a week and was going to actually be boating the lake once a week for the next few weeks, so he would keep an eye out for her. He predicted that she might be flight worthy, and by that I mean keeping up with other swans, within a week seeing as how she had so much strength upon release.

He called on Thursday to say he didn't spot her on the lake when he went out. I hope she has a long and happy life! And who knows.....Brad just might spot her next fall, on her way back through!

Til next time...

A Pox on Your Raven!

2009-02-24T19:23:00.000-08:00

Yes, we have gotten in a couple of Ravens that have Avian Pox, the first of which we had to euthanize upon arrival due to a mangled wing. This one was found on the ground and has pox lesions on his feet, hocks, and under his chin.

Avian Pox is caused by a virus and can only be contracted by a bird if there is an open wound or skin abrasion that is exposed to another bird carrying the disease or if the skin is pierced by a carrier. Insects, especially mosquitoes, are well known carriers of this disease and young birds, due to there immature immune systems, are particularly vulnerable. While there are a couple of different strains, it takes on two different forms, and the one we tend to see is the cutaneous pox variety, which causes wart-like growths on skin, like around the eyes and beak, and other unfeathered areas. So the one under his chin is uncommon and might have been the original entry site of the virus.

The ones on his legs and feet are the most visible. To help fight this, we are giving it vitamins, to help boost its immune system, and the pox lesions themselves are cleaned up, any infectious material (i.e. pus) is drained/removed, and then we put Primrose oil on them. The virus can live for up to two years and is shed through the skin, feathers, and fecal matter. So if they can survive through the worst of it, they can recover. This one will be a wait-and-see scenario as far as its outcome goes. Right now we are providing supportive care. The rest is up to the raven.

Okay, let's chat about this picture:

This was found in the Aviary of this wee one.

You remember this Saw-whet. It's the one that was left on a doorstep for a few days and it took so long to completely recover that at one point we thought it might become and educational bird. When it was moved to the bigger Aviary, it did really well. Every time we fed it, it wouldn't even wait for us to leave before swooping down to the log and grabbing its mouse.

Usually, if an owl isn't hungry, they just leave the mouse where it is. But with this one, we started finding mice in places other than on the log, like here...

...and of course here.....

...and with this one, well.....

... it just bit the head off and used the open neck wound to plaster it to the branch! Now, of course there was more than a bit of discussion about this, as this was the first time we had seen this. Penny surmised that maybe this was a reaction to it being on that doorstep for 3 days without food, so it felt the need to stash extra mice around the area.

And I was willing to accept this as a reasonable explanation, until I saw this:

This is the cached mouse of THIS Saw-whet owl!

After we realized that we had not one, but two, Saw-whet owls that cached food, new theories started to emerge. Maybe they did this in the wild, but it had never been documented before, as the cached food was eaten by other animals. Perhaps in the wild, when they weren't hungry, they just didn't hunt and therefore didn't have extra food to cache, but being in captivity and being presented with food, whether they were hungry or not, induced this behavior. Guess we will never know. Both of these Saw-whet owls have since been released!!!

Got to experience a first this week, and it's a "first" I am in no hurry to experience again anytime soon. And that was the washing of a juvenile Glaucous-winged gull that had been covered for at least a week in fryer oil! Ugh! We had received an initial call about it but when someone went out to find it, it was gone. A week later another call came in about it and this time we were able to find it and get it in to Wolf Hollow.

Now, while this isn't as bad as the washing of the owl that fell into the pit toilet, it did reek. And because there was just Shona and I there, I couldn't volunteer to "stand back and document the process with my camera." So, Shona and I donned the prerequisite garbage bag haute couture and we began.

We weren't 30 seconds into the first of three washes when it got its wings loose and sloshed water EVERYWHERE, including down the front of Shona and me.

This one is also quite the biter, so Shona had the beak firmly gripped while I washed the bitey bugger! It was NOT a happy camper! Then again, neither were we.

Look at the water! Yech!

The tub on the right is from his second washing and the tub on the left had been emptied from the initial washing and was used for his 3rd and final wash that day. It's amazing how much oil and grease it had on its feathers!

Having said that.....

*Thanks for the use of the photo, Penny!

..it looked a LOT better when we were done. Definitely more the proper gull grey than the all-over pasty brown color it was before the wash. Unfortunately, it will need to be washed again, as I happened to peek into the Indoor aviary, where it is now staying, on Sunday morning and happened to have caught it just after it had gotten done bathing in the tub. It was completely and utterly soaking wet! It has no, and I mean zilch, for waterproofing on its feathers right now. Look at this picture of it.

This was taken a few hours after its bath and it still looks damp! Yep, another washing is definitely in order. I am hoping beyond all hope that Penny and Shona took care of this oh-so-wonderful task sometime this week. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Yes, there are a few other animals in care, but because it is so slow, I want to make sure I have something to write about this upcoming weekend.

Til next time...

It's coming....I PROMISE!

2009-02-23T06:51:00.002-08:00

It's been an interesting week that has left me unreasonably tired at night, so I have been working on the next posting in a somewhat piecemeal fashion.

It's getting to be that time of year again where animals, especially the eagles, are staking out their territories. That, along with us taking in dead deer that have been hit by cars, taking what meat we can for future rehab needs, and leaving the rest out for anything that wants a free meal, has made the skies above Wolf Hollow overflow with eagles of all ages, including the youngster above......

...and this handsome adult that was perched, a day earlier, in the same tree as the youngster. It always gives me a thrill to hear the call of an eagle, enough to make me stop and peer around to try and spot it.

I guess the gist of what I am trying to say is....

..that the next post is moving along and will hopefully be up by tonight. Thanks for your patience! Til next time...