Wild at Heart

I'm getting more used to being around wild things, I guess. Still a thrill to be doing something so different and to have the privilege to serve Mother Nature, though and there is always something different going on at the center.

Fawning behavior
Man, baby anythings are cute, but it just squeezes your heart to walk into a pen with 6 warm bottles of deer formula clutched to your chest and have 6 tiny fawns come rushing out of the tall grass to be fed. The littlest was under 12" at the shoulders, but just as eager as the rest of them lifting up its tiny head, grasping the bottle's nipple and happily feeding, its black nose gleaming in the sun.

As a relative newbie, it is sooooo hard for me not to want to coo and bill but it is important to keep them as wild as possible so when they are released they will be (as) naturally (as possible) afraid of humans.

Starling inspector! (from Fawlty Towers)
There are lots of baby birds and more coming in every day - there are starlings, grouse, grackles, I saw a hummer, wrens, and others. I just mixed formula and watched but learned a lot about baby birds today. First, if a bird, baby or otherwise, is not native to the area, the bird will be rehabilitated, but the rehabbers won't necessarily be as upset if the animals doesn't make it. This holds especially true for nuisance species, such as the European Starling, that kill other birds, peck their eggs open, and take over the original bird's nest.

I also listened in to the assistant rehab director instructing an intern on what to tell a caller who found an unhurt baby bird on the ground but could not find the nest. The mother bird was apparently flying around in a panic and the caller did not know what to do. The assistant director said to find a cool whip container and line it with paper towels or Kleenex and securely duct tape it as high as she could on a tree she could see from her window. She was to place the baby bird in the "nest" and walk inside her house immediately and observe if the mother bird came to care for the baby. Sometimes this works and the mother bird will use the fake nest as a real nest. But of course sometimes it doesn't.

Whooooo's sticking those tweezers in my throat?
The barred owl chick is getting bigger and bolder and irritated with people sticking bloody mouse legs down his gullet. Although I did not have to cut up a mouse today, I did have to feed him and he kept hopping to the back of the cage and I had to keep gently grabbing him and putting him in a position where I could easily feed him. Other than the constant hopping away, he was relatively easy to feed. Next week by the time I get there he will probably be eating on his own.

The littlest duckling
Seven tiny ducklings, a mix of hooded Maragansers and Mallards, were a new addition to the pond room this week. Six were happily swimming around diving for minnows, and when I went in to check their food, they hurried out of the water and looked at me suspiciously. The seventh, a Mallard, was by the heat lamp in the corner with the food and, sadly, did not look like he would make it. I'm hoping it was just because he was quite a bit younger than the "pack". Just as I was leaving someone brought in four Mallards about his size, so maybe he'll survive after all.

Ratmunk
I was learning what charts to pull each hour and one chart had "Ratmunk?" on it. It was a minute, hairless mammal of some kind and no one knew what it was, so we are just feeding it until it takes on attributes of what it will be. Maybe by next week?

Wildlife vocabulary word of the week:
Altricial: Born featherless/hairless; eyes closed or blind; unable to self-feed.