10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

A recent thread on my Raptorcare listserv produced one wildlife rehabilitator’s nightmarish photo of a leghold trap firmly clutching the leg of a Great Horned Owl. No owl, just the leg. Birds Conservation Great Horned Owl leghold traps Red-tailed Hawk wildlife rehabilitators'

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Rhode Island New Jersey Wildlife 234

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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Collecting Wildlife Rehabilitation Solomon Islands Texas 240

10,000 Birds

JUNE 28, 2013

A wildlife rehabilitator friend, newly licensed, recently called to ask if he could feed a recovering Turkey Vulture anything besides defrosted rodents. Normally I feed vultures, as well as hawks and owls, defrosted mice and rats. He then ate a screech owl, a robin, two squirrels, a mourning dove, three chipmunks, and a rabbit.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Rodents Mice Chipmunks 199

10,000 Birds

MAY 31, 2013

Xena is a Eurasian Eagle Owl. She lives with her handler, wildlife rehabilitator Lisa Acton, in upstate New York. Lisa takes her to schools, fairs, and events, and together they show people why they should respect and admire the wildlife who live around them. Birds Eurasian Eagle Owl wildlife rehabilitator'

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Eagles Raised Owls 170

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 6, 2013

Wildlife rehabilitators are not known for our bling. People who work with wildlife wearing nice clothes? “I I had an evil-tempered Great Horned Owl - is there any other kind? Another Great Horned Owl snagged his talon under the wedding band of Vonda Lee Morton’s vet. As for nice clothing … right!

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Bald Eagle Wildlife Rehabilitation Vet Turkey 227

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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Wildlife Rehabilitation Protesting Protest Protesters 254

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 Abandonment 175

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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Wildlife Rehabilitation Bald Eagle Rescue Wildlife 189

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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Wildlife Rehabilitation Mice Rodents Rescue 279

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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Wildlife Rehabilitation Birds Wildlife Owls 106

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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Hamburgers Squirrels Wildlife Rehabilitation Chickens 250

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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Rescue Wildlife Rehabilitation Homelessness Wildlife 173

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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Owls Wildlife Rehabilitation Endangered Species Protection 206

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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Raised Mice Wildlife Rehabilitation Squirrels 236

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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Wildlife Rehabilitation Wounded Wildlife Opossums 171

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 234

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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New Mexico Wounded Owls Mexico 137

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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Pets Barn Owls Kentucky Bald Eagle 240

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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Ohio Adoptable Emotional 2019 144

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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Wildlife Wildlife Rehabilitation Pit Bulls Falcons 253