10,000 Birds

APRIL 18, 2021

Occasionally I host wildlife rehabilitator vent-fests, where I post a question on Facebook and duly note the rehabber responses. Today’s topic comes from Tracy Anderson in Hawaii: what was the strangest container (or method of transport) in which you have received wildlife? However… Tracy starts us off. “A

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10,000 Birds

MAY 16, 2021

The Philadelphia Metro Wildlife Center in Norristown covers four Pennsylvania counties (including Philadelphia) and takes in over 3000 animals a year. Licensed wildlife rehabilitator and Assistant Director Michele Wellard relayed this story: In the spring a few years back, a man cut down a tree on his property outside Philadelphia.

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10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

When using a regular hospital cage, the wildlife rehabilitator reaches in, picks up the bird, transfers him to another cage, cleans the original one, then returns the bird. Birds wild bird caging wild bird hospital wildlife rehabilitators' Thanks, Dad! I hope others can benefit, too.

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10,000 Birds

AUGUST 15, 2014

My very first rescue was a House Sparrow caught in a glue trap,” says Donna Osburn, a wildlife rehabilitator in Kentucky. It’s not limited to small birds, either. “We once took in a Barred Owl stuck to an 11″ x 14″ sheet,” she adds. They’d baited the trap with seed and a bit of cake!

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10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 7, 2014

They rocketed past us, letting out that clamoring alarm call which made me pray they hadn’t found a young, hapless Red-tailed Hawk or a sleeping Barred Owl. Birds crows wildlife rehabilitators' Maybe one of them is hurt!” I said, abandoning my bike and bushwhacking toward them.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Wounded Birds Abandoning 214

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 23, 2015

This week’s guest blog was written by Linda Hufford, who has been a wildlife rehabilitator specializing in raptors for over twenty years. She runs Birds of Texas Rehabilitation Center in Austin County, Texas. As a wildlife rehabilitator, I’ve used many of their gathered facts to improve my bird care.

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10,000 Birds

MAY 6, 2016

I asked a group of wildlife rehabilitators: “What are some of the Worst Bird Myths? An injured or orphaned bird must be taken to a wildlife rehabilitator as soon as humanly possible, or they will have little chance of surviving. If you see an owl,” wrote Mikal Deese, “someone in your family is going to die.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Porcupines Raccoons Ethiopia 189

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

When the wolf is at the door, a wildlife rehabilitator will let him in. Her fine china repair business pays her bills, but her budget is often strained past the breaking point by the 250-300 birds she takes in per year – such as this Eastern Screech Owl , who is recovering after being hit by a car. And feed him.

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10,000 Birds

JUNE 5, 2015

Wildlife rehabilitators are a multi-tasking lot. We had a Barred Owl they were feeding Doritos.”. “We We have a resident Eastern Screech Owl who was fed dry oats for ten days BY A VETERINARIAN!” A nestling Eastern Screech Owl they fed nothing but fish,” wrote Eileen Hagerman. The baffling, mind-boggling public.

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10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 4, 2015

My work as a wildlife rehabilitator over the past forty-five years has allowed me a unique perspective on a disturbing trend. If you see a wild bird in danger, call a wildlife rehabilitator. My father, a lifelong conservationist, spoke those words with reverence when describing the natural world.

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10,000 Birds

JULY 31, 2015

This post is from Lisa Beth Acton, a wildlife rehabilitator in Accord, NY. She has a captive-bred education bird named Xena, a Eurasian Eagle Owl. Lisa brings her to all kinds of gatherings to spread the word of wildlife (see Xena’s Facebook page ). This summer Lisa raised three orphaned Common Ravens.

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10,000 Birds

MARCH 22, 2013

She stopped the car, got out, looked at the front of her Hyundai SUV, and found a live Barred Owl stuck in the grill. She left the stunned but struggling owl where it was, got back on the highway, and drove 40 minutes home. She left the stunned but struggling owl where it was, got back on the highway, and drove 40 minutes home.

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New York City Owls Rescue Wildlife 255

10,000 Birds

JUNE 17, 2016

I reacted that way because I’m a wildlife rehabilitator. I’m used to entering a songbird flight filled with young Blue Jays and having one of them bang into the side of my head by mistake, or entering a raptor flight and having a Great Horned Owl deliberately try to scalp me. “What are you doing, you bad birds?”.

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10,000 Birds

MARCH 25, 2016

If you see a flyer such as this and you’re unfamiliar with wildlife, you can 1) believe the hundreds of people who write things like “I know for a fact a Barn Owl can carry off a 3-pound Chihuahua!”

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10,000 Birds

MARCH 11, 2016

This guest blog was written by Mikal Deese, Wildlife Educator, Rehabilitator, and founder of On A Wing And A Prayer in Corrales, New Mexico. He visited her every night, sitting on top of her enclosure so they could sing owl-ey duets. With the help of a trusted owl-holding friend (essential!)

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10,000 Birds

JULY 20, 2019

H is for Hawk was a hit for Helen Macdonald a few years back; and Wesley the Owl by Stacey O’Brien, The Parrot Who Owns Me by Joanna Burger; and Alex & Me by Irene Pepperberg are, each of them, delightful books as well. And there may be, probably are, men affected with this sort of thing, too, not just women.

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10,000 Birds

APRIL 8, 2016

Injured wildlife are not the most cooperative of patients. Wildlife rehabilitators have an arsenal of equipment and techniques we use to protect ourselves. I went into a cage of young Great Horned Owls one night carrying thawed rats,” said Linda Hufford. “I Most of them think we’re trying to eat them, not help them.

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10,000 Birds

JULY 9, 2024

Award-winning free-lance science journalist Nicola Jones , most noted for her work on climate change and environmental issues, ventured into the book world with a picture book on the wildlife rehabilitation efforts for one of North America’s most endangered bird species, the Northern Spotted Owl.

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10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2014

“Here’s an idea for a blog,” wrote Donna Osburn, a wildlife rehabilitator from Kentucky. Erin Smithies-Baker wrote, “I once had someone call and say they were bringing me a baby hawk … or maybe an owl… no wait, a heron … I couldn’t wait to see what the heck this baby hawkowlheron was. This is a great topic.

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10,000 Birds

MAY 23, 2021

But there are ways to prevent this situation, and to prevent the constant springtime problem of wildlife being orphaned… like these Barred Owls , above left, and Red-Shouldered Hawks , all of whom were delivered as eggs to Christine’s Critters in Weston, CT, thanks to two different private homeowners’ felling of trees.

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