…and we’ve still got six months to go in this year!  Of course, after the height of baby season peaks, things will slack off slightly…maybe…we’ve still got a couple of months for feathered babies, and then we’ll have the late summer/fall litters of squirrel babies.

Nature has been kind to me so far this month, with considerably fewer intakes than last month—which is good, considering that at the end of May, I was reeling under the sheer volume of animals I was rehabbing!

The wrens, mockers , blue jays and brown thrasher from the last update were all released, as were the finches. Below are photos of some of them in the flight pen pre-release.

 

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And here are some shots of some of them post-release.  They’re all still mobbing me when I walk into the yard, but they don’t really need me. The blue jays are especially funny about this, as they’ll come screaming down for food from me with big, juicy worms or ripe berries already in their beaks. They then have to decide where to stash what they have to make room for what I’m offering. This results in either a quick gulp to down the berry or pinning the worm beneath a claw, followed by loud declarations that they’re starving to death. Ya gotta love blue jays—the loud, brash, greedy rascals!

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And here’s something I’ve never seen before—one of my released mockers developed a cowlick before his release—it’s too cute!

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Look closely at this series of photos—can you see the wrens in the first shot?

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They’re more obvious here.

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And here’s a good close-up of them. Wrens like places to hide, and this branch with dead leaves was an ideal camouflage for the night. Neat, huh?  I almost didn’t see them myself, but when I did, of course, I ran for the camera.

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The ground dove continues to progress nicely and is attempting to fly some now. She’s actually physically ready for the flight pen, but doves have to be totally self-feeding before they can be placed into a flight pen. We’re working on that now; she’s down to two hand-feedings a day.

In new intakes, I have a fourth deer. No photos of this one yet, as he’s slightly psychotic. Yeah, last year I had massively aggressive deer; this year I have two neurotics, one psychotic and one sweetheart.  I need a blasted wet-suit to go into the deer pen, too, since the two neurotics take great pleasure in licking every exposed portion of my skin. I come out drenched in formula and deer spit—what a lovely combination!

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I also have three adorable possums who came in with very little fur and eyes still closed.  They were also ice cold and starving, but I couldn’t feed them until I got them warmed up—feeding a cold baby of any species, even a bird, will kill it. Their eyes have recently opened, but I don’t have shots of them with open eyes—the flash isn’t good for eyes still adjusting to being open, so you’ll have to make do with these shots of the group when they came in and below, a close-up of one of the cuties. (Come on, you KNOW you think possums are cute…at least, when they’re babies!)

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We also received two barn swallows within two days of each other. One was a recent fledge who apparently had a nest injury and some other unidentified issues that didn’t show until she attempted to fledge and hit the ground like a brick. We gave her over a week, but she never developed the ability to fly, and she started losing feathers and weight, despite being fed every half hour. She was euthanized yesterday.

The other barn swallow came in as a tiny little thing, eyes barely opened (see above photo). It took a week of force-feedings before she decided she’d gape for me, and now she gapes like crazy and has grown like a weed. She’s a precious little girl who’s just started “flying in place” on the edge of her nest cup, so it won’t be long before she’s ready for the flight pen, too.

 

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As with the 6-1 update, this was written in spurts between feeding critters and I’m still operating on 4 hours’ sleep a night, so any mistakes or omissions are due to sleep deprivation and the more important distraction of feeding my young charges.

Please do note that on the “Contact Us” page of the website, there is now an e-mail address in addition to the submission form: laurenswildliferescue@progressivetel.com .

And now, if you'll excuse me, it's time to feed the birds before I feed the deer, then feed the birds before I feed the possums, then feed the birds...

 



 


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