Summer is bird-nado season in raptor rehab!! We have received 92 birds in the last two weeks. That’s 15% of our annual volume and is typical for this time of year.
We are seeing mostly sick and injured Cooper’s Hawk and Red-tailed Hawk fledglings, but today we got this young Burrowing Owl, who got caught in a barbed wire fence.
Amazingly his wing is mostly intact, despite some bad wounds. Our fingers are crossed he can make a full recovery, but he’s got a lot of healing to do!
Poor baby is scared 💔
Yeah, they’re all confused what is going on, but they have to get handled and bothered a little to get better.
Hopefully its owwy will be better soon and it can go back to the burrow where it belongs!
We’re all crossing our fingers for a swift and full recovery for that little cutie!
Me too! Those barbed wire injuries can be nasty!
Long legs! I hope it will be able to recover.
It must be hard for the rehab center to deal with all that work, I hope they’re doing okay.
Our rehabber is a very strong and compassionate young lady. She really gives every job from the smallest to the largest animals we handle the best chance possible even if it seems a lost cause.
Sometimes we see real miracles and other times things can rapidly take a turn for the worst. There are so many patients most times it’s hard to fixate much on one.
Knowing we’ve always done all we could and passing that dedication on to the next patient helps me to accept the bad moments. We lost the cutest baby Screech Owl last month. It was the most precious thing, but its health quickly went bad and we had to say goodbye. I wasn’t there for it, but I was sad when I heard. But it motivates me to give that extra to the animals that remain with us.
It’s been very hot here, and I hate the heat and getting all gross feeling, but the raptors are all outside, and thinking of them getting better has me keep taking that job, even though it’s very uncomfortable for me and I get sprayed with bird poop water cleaning up after them and have to touch any gross food they’ve left behind. But it’s to help the ones that still have a chance.
I wish they’d all live, of course, but all we can do is give it our best every time. It’s important to remember that every animal we do save is one that would have had no chance if we weren’t here.
It’s not all pleasant and fun, but it’s truly helping the innocent, and it’s probably the most spiritually rewarding thing I’ve done. ❤️
Yes, it must be hard to see animals you cared for die, but I guess doing your best to save those that you can is rewarding enough.
There’s a wildlife center not too far from my university that’s always looking for volunteer help, and I’ve wanted to join for a long time (despite knowing that as a non-qualified volunteer I’d probably spend more time cleaning poop than looking at cute animals), but it’s simply not possible with my workload and schedule. Recently I read on their website that they’ve been brought more animals than ever this past month and are really having a hard time keeping up. :‑(
From what I understand, it’s been a nation-wide problem, because of the heat wave in June-July (it’s better now). The centers have been especially flooded with young swifts who fell when trying to get relief from the very high temperatures under the roofs.
There is definitely poop to deal with, and the image of doing nothing but poop cleanup was one thing that kept me from doing this for a while.
The reality is that while you are indeed cleaning everyone’s poop, it’s pretty much always part of a bigger fun job. I probably give myself the quest poop job by dealing with the raptors since they shoot it onto things, so it’s on walls and fake trees and other irregular shaped things. The plus side is since it isn’t actual poop, it washes off fairly easily (usually) and I don’t have to pick it up. I do believe more gets on me through splashing, but it isn’t visible.
Mammal poop will be more what you’re probably thinking of. Most of our bigger (and stinkier) poopers are the rabies vector animals, and we are banned from working with them unless we get vaccinated. The rest are typically tiny and primarily eat veggies, so they have small, solid, not stinky poop.
Most of the time is feeding everyone or prepping food. Bigger animals eat twice a day and get bigger meals, and babies get fed multiple times a day, so there’s always someone to feed, and non-medical things with baby animals is the bulk of volunteer work, and the rest is general housekeeping like dishes, laundry, sweeping, trash, and food prep.
You will see many amazing animals that are the responsibility of people higher up, so you get the fun of seeing them without the responsibility.
Other than the heat of outdoor work, none of the things that generally ick me out have bothered me, and that’s usually a lot of things. I’m there in service of others, and that takes over when I’m there. It’s not like a job where you feel half the stuff is a waste of time, you see immediately every job is crucial to the health of the animals, so I ignore my hang ups and just do it. I think that is where the rewarding part really comes from, is I go beyond what I’d normally agree to do to help these animals while they are in need.
