Why do people lose all common sense upon the discovery of a wild baby? I can almost see the warped logic in attempting to feed baby mammals cow’s milk, but a BIRD??? Yep, the other night I had a call from someone who’d found a nest of just-hatched babies that had fallen from a tree, and all afternoon the babies were fed…HUMAN baby formula. Yeah, you know—the stuff you give human babies: Enfamil or whatever it’s called.  Someone PLEASE show me the bird with boobs that led to the assumption that baby birds need milk!

For the record, people—the early bird gets the WORM, okay??  Birds do NOT have mammary glands; they do NOT run to the store for a quart of milk or baby formula for their nestlings.  Spread the gospel, please!  Avian digestive systems aren’t equipped to handle milk; it will kill them. And that’s just what happened. The person who found these baby birds quite literally killed them with (misguided) kindness.  They didn’t even make it to me before they died.

Now that this update’s rant is out of the way, let’s talk babies!

The squirrels have been released; I did manage a couple of pix of them prior to release, despite their increasing camera shyness.

LWR also received a nest of four Carolina wrens that were found in a tractor engine.  Two were euthanized: One was a simple case of failure to thrive; the other had a deformed beak that made it impossible for him to preen properly as his feathers came in. One dropped from the flight pen perch during their nightly jostling for position and died, and one was released.

I also received three blue-gray gnatcatchers, tiny, chatty little birds who brought a smile to my face the entire time they were in the flight pen. They’ve been released, as well. Here’s a close-up of one of the little darlings; below is a shot of them and the wrens in the flight pen.

We’re up to 11 possums now, although you can only see six in this shot. The seven from the last update are doing quite well—a proper diet will work wonders! The whole lot are just hissy little rascals who would prefer it if I could put the food in their cage without ever coming near them!

I also had another nest of hatchling Carolina wrens come in, all DOA. When an animal dies within 24 hours of intake, it’s considered DOA, and these poor babies didn’t make it through the night. In this case the finder did everything right. Their nest was found on the ground, covered with ants. The only delay in contacting me was the time it took to remove the ants, so I had these babies less than two hours after they were found. They were ice cold when I got them, however, and the finder said that even though she didn’t run her car air conditioner and kept her hand over the babies to provide warmth on the way to meet me, she could never get them warmed up. There didn’t appear to be any ant bites, but the poor little ones had been too long without food and warmth by the time they were found.  Even warming them up and feeding them couldn’t pull them back from the brink of death.

LWR also recently received a downy hawk—we think red shoulder—from DNR. The bird had been through several hands before DNR took possession, and she had the beginnings of pneumonia when I got her. She was beak-breathing and clicking, and I could hear the crackling in her lungs. After consulting with vet Shelley Baumann of Smalley’s Animal Hospital to confirm that the mild antibiotic I keep on hand would be strong enough for this young lady, I started her on antibiotics, and the very next morning there was marked improvement—no beak-breathing or clicking! We don’t always get such quick results, but this little girl—we’re pretty sure she’s female, given her rather hefty weight for her young age—was lucky in that we caught her pneumonia early and it responded well to treatment.

I also had an unidentified egg come in; it was found on the ground after a tree was cut down, but no nest was located.  I suspect it’s sterile and was left in the nest after the babies who had hatched fledged, but since candling it has been inconclusive so far, I’m incubating it for a few more days to see what may or may not happen.  There are several species whose eggs resemble this one, so it would be neat if it hatched, if for no other reason than to see which species it is!

For April, LWR had 36 intakes, so baby season is officially in full gear now!