If any among you have comments to share regarding the animated greeting I received from a Kestrel (American), I would be glad to read them. I was not expecting such behaviour and was pleasantly surprised to be received so well as a guest feeder!

+++ Is this copulation (or at least an attempt)?+++

I am trying to locate sanctuaries for African parrots. Particularly Poicephalus (senegalus, Senegal and rufiventurus, red bellied). Such sanctuary would house birds with a flock of their own kind in flight arrangements. Any information on possible places would be wonderful and most appreciated!!

Hello. My name is Zeno and I am a teenage volunteer at the Tri-State Birds Rescue in Newark Delaware. At the moment I'm clinic support, which basically mean I do all the menial tasks, but that's ok, because after October I will be able to work with the birds. I can't wait until I have a story to tell you guys!

Sporophila torqueola

22 December 2006 at the Project Wildlife Care Center

In case you are wondering how a Mexican bird who only enters a sliver of U.S. territory (in Texas) during summer months ended up in a San Diego refuge at Christmastime, there are a few words of explanation (but mostly more photos) here.

Bombycilla cedrorum

19 April 2007 at the Project Wildlife Care Center

(Coccyzus americanus)

25 May 2008 at the Rogers Wildlife Rehabilitation Center
[X-posted (with a few more words and just one more photo) here]

This...there just are no words.

http://www.dailyprogress.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=CDP/MGArticle/CDP_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1173354883728

Does anyone know a website where I can go to print the NYSDEC Annual Wildlife Rehabilitation Tally Sheet? I can't find one anywhere, and the closest DEC office is an hours drive away. Please tell me there is a website where I can print this. It's due VERY soon, and I need to fill it out.... 

Hello from Virginia!  My name is Marie and I am an intern at the Blue Ridge Wildlife Center in Virginia.  I am journaling my journey as an intern and everything that goes on with wildlife rehabilitation.  Take a peek, comments and ideas are great!  Especially when we come across something we have questions on.  Having people's feedback would be wonderful. --- marie

It may have been a couple of weeks ago when a stray baby dove landed in the balcony of my apartment. It did great for the most part, attracting older doves to feed itself. We also provided food and water so the other doves would feel tempted to help my little friend.
Today it got scared and glided 5 stories onto the parking lot, where I captured it so it wouldn't die under the wheel of a car. However, I'm not sure whether what I'm planning to do is correct: take it to a vet so it can check for injuries and broken wings (though I think they are perfect), so I can take it back to the balcony where it might grow and fly away where it cannot give me heart attacks. But is this correct, or should I put it back in the balcony asap?
Thanks in advance!

ETA:: the sun is down right now but there's a little light so I can see the shapes of things and some detail. I don't know if it's prudent to liberate it right now because of the lack of full light, but I'm prepared to do it if it's the right thing.

Met this guy earlier today at Bake Oven Knob on the Appalachian Trail. He lives at the Carbon County Environmental Education Center, and was brought there a few years ago in a box, brought by the UPS driver that unfortunately intercepted him.

This is his good side - his other eye doesn't work, and his left wing was shattered beyond the ability to save it. He did recover from severe head and other injuries, and now helps teach others about hawks.



I've got a few photos of another associate of his, Tecumsah, if you click through the pic.

Oh my goodness! Okay, first time posting to a community...hope this works.  What can I say, birds make more sense to me than computers ^_^

This is my second summer doing rehab and I work with a local rehabilitation group called AWARE. THIS SUMMER I've pretty much been assigned Nestling/hatchling/anything-too-small-to-be-on-its-own when it comes to passerines. (Don't get me wrong, I love the raptors, but they're a bit big to handle for a newbie like me).

Up until this point, I've only had the privilege of raising American Robins and House Sparrows, and I'm still pretty new at this baby business when it comes to ID-ing the littles. (Which I know when it comes to similar species, it is still very difficult to tell the nestlings apart many times).

ANYWAY, I'm posting because I just got a little guy in tonight, and I haven't been able show it to one of my higher-ups for ID. I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions as to what it might be. Here's what I know thus far:

Size: He just hatched today. All curled up in the palm of my hand, he is about the size of a nickel. 
Egg: I Didn't see the egg myself, but the woman who brought it said it was a light blue. She didn't recall any speckles or other marks.
Where she found him: Long story. Apparently yesterday she tilled a plot of land not too far from her house. She went out this morning to tend the plot and saw nothing. When she went out this evening to actually put seeds in, she found several small blue eggs scattered on the soil. A little bit of nesting material had been dragged across the lawn to the plot from where her porch was. The rest of the babies were dead (not torpor - they were pretty banged up and definitely far gone...). The final egg was a little seperate from the rest and the baby had apparently hatched. She put it in a little cup and brought it to me almost immediately.
Defining features: He's pretty much naked and fairly embyronic. I didn't notice any down. His gape is very yellow and a teensy bit wider than I've seen before.

Alright. That's all I've got! He peeped once or twice VERY LOUDLY, but still had some of his yolk sac, and on the advice of my old rehab teacher, I put him to "bed". (It was almost dusk when the woman found him, and already dark when the little got here.)

I hope somebody can help. It's not an emergency, but I'm kind of curious.

Thanks for taking the time to read my rambling...

~StrixVaria

I'll try to be brief. I work for (and was previously a long-time volunteer of) an organization in Ontario (WEEP) that cares for a group of non-releasable birds of prey. We take the birds to schools, camps, and other community groups to both educate the public about human impact on wildlife and expose children to the wonders of the natural world around them.

We are in trouble now. You can read the entire story, including our history, here. Due to funding cuts and other issues, we are currently in debt and trying desperately to maintain our birds and our ability to educate the public. This year is make or break; we will be shut down if we cannot prove that we can be self-sustaining, and that would be disastrous-- and possibly fatal-- to our birds.

If you would like to help, please visit the journal linked above and give it a read. You can also donate through PayPal:

These birds are extremely important to me on a personal level, and the organization is important to the community on an educational one. Any help-- be it through donations or simply spreading the word-- would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

I work at a place that houses unreleasables, including raptors, for education and for exhibit.

We just rebuilt all our raptor exhibits, from kestrel and screech up to red-tail and great-horned. The enclosures are on a forested hill, and have partial roofs. Would it be advisable to have shelters within the enclosures, as well as perches and stumps and such?

We had shelters before--basically three-walled doghouses mounted on the back walls, with perches inside, but they were heavy, hard to install and maintain, and made of wood so they needed constant maintenance.

I'm thinking of mounting plastic buckets upside-down on poles, cut away so there's a cylindrical shelter area with a perch inside. We would need a variety of different sized buckets (from 5 gallon for small birds up to big barrels for the big birds) and we would need to alter them to look "natural."

Does anyone have any experience with this kind of shelter? How can we alter the plastic to make it look more natural--what kind of paint, if we use paint, for example? Or is there another kind of shelter that is a better idea? Or are shelters superfluous in an enclosure that has a partial roof?

crossposted

Please Help Us!

As a volunteer at Sarvey Wildlife Center here in Washington state, where we shelter and care for many raptors, waterfowl and other birds, I just got this e-mail today. If anyone out there can please help I would greatly appreciate it!

"Hi Everyone,

This email is a little hard to do but here goes. Sarvey has had the biggest year ever and now we are out of money. If things don't improve within a week we will have to shut our doors and loose an irreplaceable director and staff. That means many will die for the lack of a few dollars. If you can help or know someone who can please pass the word. We have a long range plan that has been implemented but for now the wildlife center is in big trouble. If you can make a donation now please do.
You can donate using paypal on our website www.sarveywildlife.org or you can mail a check to:

Sarvey Wildlife Care Center
P.O.Box 3590
Arlington, Wa.98223

Many thanks to all of you for your continued support. We can't do this without you.

For the wild ones,

Sarvey Staff

Check out the new pictures of the bear cub, he is just beautiful !"









This is one of many animals not ready for release into the wild. He is healed from his injuries, but has to be rehabilitated to living in a forest, and distanced from humans. Sarvey provides the environment for that to happen, but it will be well over a year before he is ready. If Sarvey closes, he will be killed by the Department of Fish and Wildlife. They will call it euthanizing, but that isn't true. Euthanasia is mean to be a mercy killing. This bear and many other animals that are in good health will have nowhere to go. This is the last and only time I am going to post a request for help, but these little guys need it and soon. If you can and want to help, log on to Sarvey's website!








Sarvey is home to hundreds of animals big and small. Many of them are not capable of being released into the wild and will die if the center closes. If any of you out there are able, please go to the website and donate! Every little bit helps.

check out my Livejournal past entries for more pictures and information.
Thanks!

I just interest searched and found this place in hopes someone'd be able to help me. I just found an injured baby kittiwake. Old enough to be flying, young enough to have a black bar on its neck.

It stumbles and flaps but the right wing looks off a bit, the feathers near the lower wingbase look kind of disturbed, but I felt do.

I really don't want to leave the poor little guy to die, so is there anything I can do or would it be best to just let him go at the shore?

ETA: I'm in Newfoundland right next to a large seabird ecological reserve, but the birds are left to their own doings so there's no one here I can ask about it.

I've found a pinky baby sparrow- he's less than 3/4" long, eyes not open yet. I'm just trying to keep him alive until tomorrow when I can get him to the wildlife clinic, but I have a question. How hot should I make the heating pad under his box? Also, should I be worried that he's only relived himself twice in the past 5 hours? He's eating well. I have NO experience with babies this young.

If you use owl pellets for educational programs, what kind of sterilizer do you use, if any?

Hey everyone!
I just recently joined this community even before I found out I'd be accepted for a volunteering job. I just love reading about raptor birds. Erm... not good with introductions :o I'm a 17 year old student living in Vienna, austria. I actually came back from the rehab centre a few hours ago after a little metting/conversation/tour with one of the owners, who I swear is the loveliest person ever. She told me everything about each bird and the station itself and said I was welcome to join the group at the end of august, when everyone would be back from holidays and whatnot. This group is probably the biggest raptor rehab centre in the whole of austria and only around 30 minutes away from my house, which is cool. They take in pretty much every bird, as well as rodents and wild turtles. I was shown the owls, falcons and eagles only, because it was boiling hot outside.

I'm really excited about starting this :) I've loved birds ever since I was small, especialy parrots and now lately corvids and raptors (especially owls), and have already tried to volunteer at the nationalpark near my house, but they said they were full. But this organisation is supported by a LOT of great places but it still manages to be very simple about everything and is lead by around 5 people, which is great because it means you know everyone pretty much personally. I'm hopefully going to base my school community service projects around these guys and give them as much support as I can. Looking forward to working with the raptors most, even if what I'll be doing more than anything is scraping poop off the floor. But hey, poop is better than nothing, I suppose!

Also, I was wondering if you guys might share some experiences? Maybe your favourite moments while volunteering, or a story about your favourite birds? I'd love to hear anything since I'm pretty much new to actually working with/for raptor rather than just seeing them in pictures or zoos. Would be great to read about some things you guys have encountered :D

Hello my name is Abigail.
I have recently acquired a baby bird [Robin, I believe however after reading more material I trust my judgement less.] He's perfectly happy, I've been feeding him wet cat food and water with a eye dropper. He'll flap his wings, he tweets and is very very sweet. Always wants food and is rather easy to clean up after. His stool, is like that of most birds around, I've checked to make sure there are no noticeable differences.

The only problem is he has these HUGE growths around his neck and I'm wondering what in the world they are. If they are safe, and what should I do! I have some pictures of him here. And if you know anything or have any reccomendations please I emplore you, share!!

Good bird flu news (Taken from the NY Times for your convenience)



May 11, 2006
Migrating Birds Didn't Carry Flu
By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL
ROME, May 10 — Defying the dire predictions of health officials, the flocks of migratory birds that flew south to Africa last fall, then back over Europe in recent weeks did not carry the deadly bird flu virus or spread it during their annual journey, scientists have concluded.

International health officials had feared that the disease was likely to spread to Africa during the southward migration and return to Europe with a vengeance during the reverse migration this spring. That has not happened — a significant finding for Europe, because it is far easier to monitor a virus that exists domestically on farms but not in the wild. "It is quiet now in terms of cases, which is contrary to what many people had expected," said Ward Hagemeijer, a bird flu specialist with Wetlands International, an environmental group based in the Netherlands that studies migratory birds.

In thousands of samples collected in Africa this winter, the bird flu virus, A(H5N1), was not detected in a single wild bird, health officials and scientists said. In Europe, only a few cases have been detected in wild birds since April 1, at the height of the migration north.

The number of cases in Europe has fallen off so steeply compared with February, when dozens of new cases were found daily, that specialists contend that the northward spring migration played no role. The flu was found in one grebe in Denmark on April 28 — the last case discovered — and a falcon in Germany and a few swans in France, said the World Organization for Animal Health, based in Paris.

In response to the good news, agriculture officials in many European countries are lifting restrictions intended to protect valuable poultry from infected wild birds.

Last week, the Netherlands and Switzerland rescinded mandates that poultry be kept indoors. Austria has loosened similar regulations, and France is considering doing so. The cases in Europe in February were attributed to infected wild birds that traveled west to avoid severe cold in Russia and Central Asia but apparently never carried the virus to Africa. The international scientists who had issued the earlier warnings are perplexed, unsure if their precautions — like intensive surveillance and eliminating contact between poultry and wild birds — helped defuse a time bomb or if nature simply granted a reprieve.

"Is it like Y2K, where also nothing happened?" asked Juan Lubroth, a senior veterinary official at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome, referring to the expected computer failures that did not materialize as 1999 turned to 2000. "Perhaps it is because it was not as bad as we feared, or perhaps it is because people took the right measures."

Still, he and others say, the lack of wild bird cases in Europe only underscores how little is understood about the virus. And scientists warn that it could return to Europe.

"Maybe we will be lucky and this virus will just die out in the wild," Mr. Lubroth said. "But maybe it will come back strong next year. We just don't have the answers."

The feared A(H5N1) bird flu virus does not now spread among humans, although scientists are worried it may acquire that ability through natural processes, setting off a worldwide pandemic. The less bird flu is present in nature and domestically on farms, the less likely it is for such an evolution to occur, they say.

Worldwide, bird flu has killed about 200 humans, almost all of whom were in extremely close contact with sick birds.

Specialists from Wetlands International, who were deputized by the Food and Agriculture Organization, sampled 7,500 African wild birds last winter in a search for the disease. They found no A(H5N1), Mr. Hagemeijer said, so it is not surprising that it did not return to Europe with the spring migration.

While bird flu has become a huge problem in poultry on farms in a few African countries, including Egypt, Nigeria and Sudan, specialists increasingly suspect that it was introduced in those countries through imported infected poultry and poultry products. Mr. Hagemeijer said the strength of the virus among wild birds possibly weakened as the southward migration season progressed, a trait he said was common in less dangerous bird flu viruses. That probably limited its spread in Africa, he said.

A(H5N1) is the most deadly of a large family of bird flu viruses, most of which produce only minor illness in birds.

Many bird flu viruses are picked up by migratory birds in their nesting places in northern lakes during the summer and fall breeding season. As the months pass, the viruses show a decreasing pattern of spread and contamination.

"So it tends to be mostly a north-to-south spread, and then it wanes," Mr. Hagemeijer said.

Still, this means that the cycle could start again this summer, if the virus — which can live for long periods in water — has persisted in those breeding areas. Many bird specialists contend that a small number of wetland lakes in Central Asia and Russia may harbor the virus all the time, serving as the origin of European and Central Asian infections.

Scientists still do not know which birds carry the virus silently and which die from it quickly, or how it typically spreads from wild bird to wild bird, or between wild birds and poultry.

Farm-based outbreaks of bird flu still occur constantly in a number of countries, although not in Europe. Ivory Coast had its first outbreak of bird flu, on a farm, last week.

But other countries, like Turkey, have made substantial progress in containing the disease among poultry, Mr. Lubroth said. He added that he hoped that quick measures to limit outbreaks had reduced the virus's spread in Africa.

After the virus was found on farms in Nigeria in January, many specialists expected it to spread rapidly among farms and into wild birds in the region. Apparently, it did not.

"Why didn't it sweep up the coast from Niger, to Benin and Senegal and back up through Europe? Why didn't it hit Africa's big lakes?" Mr. Lubroth asked.

"All we have are a few snapshots of the virus. What we need is a movie of its life cycle."


Cross-posted to birdlovers and birdvolunteers

I volunteered at a wildlife rehab center from 1994-2000 (while in high school and early college years). My primary interest from a very young age has been birds and I hope to make a life for myself working in wildlife rehab. I am looking for places that are willing to provide shelter and food (or at least have somewhere affordable to stay nearby) in exchange for a hard working very able and interested volunteer. It is my goal to compile as much knowledge as I can from people who are actually in the field, because I figure who better to learn from. Anyway, please contact me if you have any information. I won't be actually attempting this endeavor for another year, after I finish my B.S., so I have a little time :) Thanks! Keep up the good work!

Here are some photos of the WBC folks (and birds) at last month's university openhouse, College Royal. They were all taken by torrent and her ubercamera. Fair warning: there are a few somewhat large photos behind this cut tag. Beware!






First of all, I would like to state for the record that my vulture can drink from a water bottle and yours can't, so mine wins.

Actually, this was Soc reminding me just how intelligent he really is:



Moving onwards, we have Jenny and Kaila:



And Kaila floofing like the old granny that she is (not... that grannies are well known for their floofing, but...):



And Kai stepping up, which is not really granny-like in any way, shape, or form:



Here we have Sarah with Whistler, the latter of whom I am still trying to schedule time with to finish my sessions. Since Whistler is so passive she could probably perch on a baby and not leave marks, this is not really a big deal.



And here is our ex-Aviary Supervisor Lee, talking to some folks about Einstein:



Here she is looking disconcerted for some reason. TK and Sozz were probably scaring her.





Alright, on to the stuff you've probably not been waiting for at all! Me and my boy. For the record, I'd like to state that this is my absolute favourite photo anyone has ever taken of Socrates ever, so hooray! Look at my old man's fuzzyhead. Go on, look. I know you want to touch it. It's like a warm, wrinkly peach.



Some fatty and a bird. Note how pretty Soc's plumage is in the right lighting.



He's stretching. I'm only posting this because the sign in the background is kind of funny. X)






And that is all she wrote. Einstein was pretty good today when I went in to get her, but she bated off the scale in the prep room and clipped me in the face with her wing. I swear, it's like getting punched in the face...