News From Wolf Hollow:
Last updated on Sun, 14 Oct 2007
| It's Starting to Wind Down.... |
| San Juan blog Wolf Hollow, Thu, 11 Oct 2007 |
| Yes, things are finally starting to slow down, not that they were ever REALLY hectic to begin with, compared with past years that is. I have some long overdue updates and new residents to share with you all, so let's get to it! The fox kit, remember her? Well, after staving off many an escape attempt by her... ...notice the nice big hole and subsequent repair job....we decided it was time for her to take her leave of us, and preferably on our terms, not hers. So we decided on a nice, quiet location that would have a good food supply and went down to coral her into a crate. Boy, do I wish I could have gotten the next half hour on video. As it was, I was too absorbed, watching her bounce off the walls of her cage, literally, while Serena tried to catch her and Jen tried to block her from getting over the top of the carrier that we had wedged in the inner doorway. But get her in we did and off we went. One would think, after the ruckus she made while trying to catch her (Did I mention that she lunged at Serena and tried to bite her face when she finally grabbed her?) that she would have been out of the crate like a SHOT, but..... ..uhhh....hello? Anyone in there? I mean, it's been REALLY lovely having you, but now you gotsta go!! We finally walked towards the back part of the crate, which was enough incentive to get her out. I don't know if her fear of being in the great outdoors again, this time without her mother, was overwhelming or what, but after she came out, she just kinda stuck around the crate. It was only when she started walking back towards us and the crate.... ...that I finally walked quickly towards her to scare her off. She ran off and I am sure she is doing just fine. After the raccoons' escape from their own private Alcatraz, they were moved to the large, and their final, cage out in the woods. Even with that cage being so much bigger than the weaning cage, you go down there and it still seems like they... ...are.... ...EVERYWHERE! Actually, with over 15 of them in there, they really are everywhere! We got this Pelagic cormorant in about a month ago. It's only the second one we have had in while I have been at WH. It was found on a boat in Anacortes. It was very listless and thin. We gave it fluids and vitamins to get his hydration levels back to normal and to kick start his appetite. It worked VERY well. This was just after he had been moved to a wet tub. It was after he was moved to the chain-link Mammal cage that he became a real freak about food! Observe. Here we see the smelt-obsessed freak trying to cram his body through a small hole in the wood barrier to get at his bowl o' smelt. When that didn't work, he got a wee bit pissy and tried another route, this time trying to go through the chain-link itself... ...this time at EYE LEVEL! That's right, this guy is balancing on a 1/4" edge of plywood to try and get at his fish bowl through the fence!! I have NEVER seen an animal SO fixated on food before. What you don't see is what happens next. You gotta be smarter than what you're working with folks and I definitely wasn't in this case. For some stupid reason, I decided to open the door while he was still at eye level, where upon he launched himself at the bowl of food I was holding, causing water and fish bits to go EVERYWHERE, including all over me and my camera. The cormorant couldn't have been happier and before my very eyes turned into a smelt-o-vac, running around frantically inhaling all the fish pieces that were flung to the four corners of his enclosure. After that fiasco, we decided to toss the smelt into his pool from outside the cage. And while I would like to say this story has a happy ending, unfortunately it doesn't. He ended up dying last week and we don't know why. He obviously had something initially wrong with him and maybe a ready supply of food just prolonged the inevitable. We'll never know. It was a huge bummer as we all had gotten quite attached to him. Sigh. Last, but in no way least, we have an update on our downy Red-tailed hawk. He has grown a chest feather- hair- type thing! WOOHOO! Can you see it kinda sticking out there a bit? Hey, I know it's not much, but at least it's SOMETHING! We are still looking for someone to take him as an Educational bird...hopefully some place that's warm! Because it's gotten colder out, we have moved him back indoors. That's all for now. Til next time... |
| Disconnectedness...... |
| San Juan blog Wolf Hollow, Tue, 25 Sep 2007 |
| The disconnectedness I am referring to is not in regards to most things in my life right now, which I have been feeling and which has kept me from posting to this blog for a month (Sorry about that!), but it IS in reference to the seals we have this year. And I am not really sure why that is. I mean, look at 'em all. Cute...right? Yet I haven't bonded with a single one this year. In all the past years there have been one or two that I have felt a connection to...and a strong one at that. Not this year. Maybe it's because we weren't weighing them on Saturday this year. For the first time since I have been there....my 3 year anniversary with WH was last week...we didn't weigh the seals during my watch, hence me not really having to be able to identify who is who. So, with that and the end of summer having come and gone, I find myself releasing seals that I don't even know. It's kinda weird. Having said that, let's get to our first seal release of the season! Penny, our staff rehabber that started last year, got to partake of her first seal release. And that means, since she needed to learn all the down and dirty bits of seal releases, she had to don those oh-so-attractive seal poop pants, as she likes to calls them ! There's Penny on the right, with Shona, our Educational Coordinator extraordinaire, peeking out from behind Jen (Miss you Jen!), her assistant for the summer. We can be a pretty goofy bunch when we want to! Another change this year is that, due to the fact that the flipper tags can accidentally get caught on the nets during the weighing process, we are inserting them on the day of release. And I want to tell you folks, this process makes me cringe every time I see it. Now, the tags are sharp enough that you could just punch them through without having to make an initial hole. But, because we are participating in a DNA study of Harbor seals, we must be able to get a tissue sample. So, out comes the leather hole punch. Ugh! The sound this makes is REALLY gross and it is NOT, even though someone tried to convince me of this, like a human getting their ears pierced. I must say, that after watching Serena do this once, Penny jumped in and did a great job, getting this done as efficiently as possible. The little round of flipper that is punched out is what we send into the DNA study folks. At this point, ice and styptic powder is applied to the flipper to stop the bleeding. Now, years ago I worked in pet store and had to use styptic powder to stop the bleeding of a bird's toe that another bird had bitten off. It looked painful and the bird certainly made a huge fuss upon me applying this stuff, so I decided to try it out so I could see what it felt like. I used it on this cut I had gotten a bit earlier in the day and I tell you what folks, it burned like a....well, I think you get where I am going with this. This can NOT feel good to the seal, but it's the quickest way, along with ice and pressure, to get the bleeding stopped. I actually started channeling my Dad during this, as I found myself looking at the seal and thinking "The pain is peaking....it's peaking...", a mantra my Dad used on us kids every time we got hurt. And of course, if you say it long enough, it does become true. Then the tag is inserted into the hole. After this is done and any residual bleeding has been stopped, the seal goes through the rest of the pre-release process of measuring.... and then into a crate and transported to the release site. From left to right is Jen, our intern Melissa's dad (Thanks for letting me know Melissa!), Penny, and Shona. It was a gorgeous day for our first seal release and while the first two took off out of their crates.... ...the third one...well.... ...there's always at least one holdout among the bunch. Serena tried a new tactic this year to get the seal to come out. It's like a 0ne sided water fight, I know, but it's certainly better than being unceremoniously dumped out of one's carrier and hey, it worked! After the last one came out, they all swam off. Bye guys! Take 'er easy! Til next time... |
| Making a Break For It!! |
| San Juan blog Wolf Hollow, Fri, 24 Aug 2007 |
| Yes, for the first time in the 25 years that Wolf Hollow has been in existence, the coons made it out of the Weaning Cage....all nineteen of them. Seems there was an old hole that had been repaired a while ago and either the repair broke down or it was just the weight of all of those babies hanging from the roof, (I mean, we haven't had more than seven or eight in there at a time since I started a few years ago) but no matter what the reason, they all squeezed out....one by one. And while some of them had a blast and explored nearby trees and whatnot...... others....not so much. Yes, the world outside the cage is HUGE and can be a VERY SCARY place for a young raccoon, and all some of them seemed to want to do was to get back inside to their nice warm sleep box and food. Not to worry. By the next evening all of them were caught after the staff set up live traps baited with goodies! Big thanks to Jen and Sharon for loaning me their great pics for this post, as I was regaled with this story after the fact! Til next time... |
| See How They Grow! |
| San Juan blog Wolf Hollow, Sat, 18 Aug 2007 |
| One of the great things about volunteering at Wolf Hollow, especially during "baby season", is watching the baby...whatevers....develop into adult...whatevers. The mergies (mergansers) we got in are a perfect example. As a refresher, here is how they looked when they came in a few months ago. Here is the Hooded merganser baby with his mallard swim buddy along with the, up until recently, unidentifiable merganser baby. Much debate has ensued over the past few months regarding what type of merganser he is....Common or Red-breasted: Then they got big enough to go outside to one of the covered wet tubs. It seemed like their beaks doubled in length literally overnight! So, they stayed in this tub for awhile, practically living in their swim tub. See how much they have developed in just a week? After being in the tub for a few weeks, they finally graduated to the Wet Pen! Bigger bird size means bigger bird food! There is quite the initial rush to the food bowls to see who can inhale the most smelt! The mallard was released a week ago and the mergansers should be ready for release within the next week or so. UFO ALERT! This Unidentifiable Furless Object was found on someone's doorstep. While we knew it was a rodent of some kind, we just didn't know WHICH rodent species it was. And honestly, I don't think very many of us expected it to make it through the night, considering how young it obviously was. But make it, it did. And you know what? When it squeaked for food, the chipmunks FREAKED OUT! So, I immediately figured it was either a baby chipmunk or a predator of some kind. But it was just a waiting game to see if it would live long enough for us to unravel the mystery. I mean, feeding it was nigh on impossible! Any guesses? Come on...what rodent is tough as nails? Yep.....TADA!! I just love rats and had one as a pet when I was younger. And this one is a cutie! Speaking of the chipmunks, they, too, grew up and have been released. Here's a few photos, some of which have been posted before, of that process: It was a week after I took this last picture that I observed an Oedipal-type act occurring in the tank, at which point, after being observed by Serena, they were declared old enough for release. She then left the room, muttering the whole while under her breath that until such time that they were released she hoped the more delicate sensibilities of some of the younger interns wouldn't be offended! Look at THIS beauty! This fox kit was captured by our local airport people after they saw it running around on the tarmac. After they captured it, they found the skeleton of a larger fox nearby that looked like it had been dead for at least a week. We are assuming that was his mother. Upon examination, and I'm sure this comes as no surprise, he was very thin. This also was evident by how he ate his food. Foxes are hoarders and even the blonde fox would take half of her meat pieces and bury them in the dirt or hide them in her house she slept in. Not this guy! He ate EVERYTHING and in record time as well! On a sad note, at the same time I was feeding him, I gave the blonde fox her food as well. It was at this time that I noticed that her head was turned, permanently, to the right...sharply to the right. At first I thought she was blind, but she could definitely see me. Unfortunately, I guess head traumas can clear up and then BAM! the animal can go right back to square one, which is exactly what happened with her. So after having her for two months and with NO improvement a week after her relapse, they euthanized her. Can you really call a bird a fledgling if it can't fly? This Cliff swallow youngster was found on Orcas. And boy are his feathers a MESS! Plus, if you look closely, you will notice that he has a bald lower back! He's definitely one of those cases that comes in and we scratch our heads and say "What the hey?!" Our long term "head scratcher" case study is still doing fine and has been moved to an outdoor mew. I, along with others I think, am hoping the sunshine and fresh air will do him some good, feather growing-wise that is! We have in 19 seals.... and TWENTY baby raccoons!!!! But I have saved THE COOLEST animal for last. Meet our Hoary bat! Now, my love of bats has been well documented throughout this blog, but I must say this is the most amazing bat we have ever had in while I have been volunteering there! He is at least twice the size of the Little Brown bats we have had in and he just seems to have more character. We initially tried feeding him mealworms, like we did with the other bats, but he was not having ANY of THAT! So then we defrosted some bloodworms and VOILA ! Yep, he LOVED them! So much so in fact that he got all pissey when we stopped feeding him and went to put him back! That's it for now. We have such a variety of animals in that it is almost overwhelming trying to decide on which ones to write about. So I will write about the ones that didn't make the cut for this posting next time, including a big move for our fawns! Til next time... |
| WCB: Happy Birthday Riley!!! |
| San Juan blog Wolf Hollow, Fri, 10 Aug 2007 |
| Yes, I know I tout this as a Wolf Hollow blog and haven't done a WH post in awhile, but I did want to send out birthday greetings to my not-so-baby-anymore boy Riley. I can't believe it was a year ago that I had given up hope of a friend's cat having an orange and white boy kitten only to have her tell me that night that the last kitten born was an orange and white male and was mine if I wanted him. YEAH I WANTED HIM! And then they sent me this: Here he is, not even a day old. Who knew this sweet, helpless exterior held the soul of a rabble-rouser? I know I didn't! And now for a quick photo montage of his past year: Riley at 6 weeks Riley at 9 weeks Riley at 6 months-One can see the mischievous glint in his eye. Riley at 8 months-He likes to help me pic out photos for my blog! Riley as he is today. He's a big, sweet boy who brings a lot of life to this house and I can't imagine my life without him. Thanks, Susan, for giving me such a precious gift. I just adore him! For those of you who like cat blogging, check out the Weekend Cat Blogging folks at Sher's website . Til next time... |
| Wait for It....... |
| San Juan blog Wolf Hollow, Mon, 30 Jul 2007 |
| It's coming....I PROMISE! Til next time... |
| Hahahahahaha..... |
| San Juan blog Wolf Hollow, Wed, 11 Jul 2007 |
| This little, or not so little, guy is actually a Red-tailed hawk nestling. The problem? He should be a FLEDGLING! The down he is covered with is not baby bird down, but the down you would find under feathers. While he has these little grey feather-like things that have come in all higgeldy-piggeldy like on his head and shoulders, he has no MAJOR feathers, or what are technically called blood feathers, coming in. And we have no idea why. Outside of that, he appears to be healthy and he has a voracious appetite! He has got to be one of the oddest, and in my book cutest, young birds we have gotten in. Wouldn't you agree? I promise to do a more complete post later in the week, but it's late, it's still really warm in my place, and I still have to wash my dog. Til next time... |
| A Week in Review |
| San Juan blog Wolf Hollow, Sat, 30 Jun 2007 |
| Til next time... |
| Let Me Start Out by Saying.... |
| San Juan blog Wolf Hollow, Fri, 15 Jun 2007 |
| that no, the wee one didn't make it. That teeny thing was less than a day old when we got it in and we just haven't learned how to do as good a job as "mom" can in these early stages. Let's go check out some newer residents of good ol' Wolf Hollow! Now, I went off-island last Saturday but did come back that afternoon and dropped by to see what I had missed. The first thing Serena asked me when I walked in the door was if I had brought my camera, to which I replied that I hadn't. To that she said, "Too bad, because the baby Townsend's chipmunks are being fed." The baby WHATS?!! Uh...yeah. Can it be ANY cuter? Can it?! And we have FOUR of them! And how does one feed such a tiny thing? Veeeery carefully.... These are THE SMALLEST mammals we have had in since I have been there. Okay, there was one exception, and that was this tiny thing. It's a baby vole that we had in the first month I was there at Wolf Hollow. Unfortunately it didn't make it, but the chipmunks seem to be doing well, so I am keeping my fingers crossed! We have in not one but two fox kits, one of which was hit by a car and one that was the victim of a dog attack. We have Red Foxes here on the island, but they have different color phases, namely red and black. So lets start with the black kit. If you think he looks miserable, that's because he is. He was found on the side of a road here on SJI after a dog had attacked him. His mom and litter mates were nearby. It appears that the dog had picked him up by the shoulders and shook him, breaking his right front leg at the humeral head. At the time this picture was taken, he had no deep pain response in the lower part of his leg, but they are hoping that he will regain that after the surgery he had this past Tuesday. Guess I will find out on Saturday. The other little fox kit is one of the red/pseudo red phase. Now, I have seen a fox near South Beach that wasn't red or black, but a very interesting shade of brown. I have only seen it twice but this little girl could be related. As you can see, she is leaning heavily against Serena's legs. This is because she is having major issues standing upright. The fact that she is even alive to try to stand upright is somewhat of a miracle. Our wonderful Educational Coordinator Shona, and her wonderful husband Ross, were out driving and saw her lying by the side of the road. They assumed she was dead but decided to stop and make sure. She was cold, but sure enough she moved a tiny bit when they touched her. So in she came to WH. Shona told me that she honestly thought they were just making her comfortable before she died. So BOY was she surprised the next morning when she came in and was told that she was awake and sitting up! That's a really good lesson folks. Unless the animal is OBVIOUSLY dead, and I don't think I need to go into any type of graphic detail when I use that term, you should try and check the animal, as it may just be in shock or unconscious, like this beauty was. She had obviously been hit by a car and while she has no fractures, she does have neurological damage and as such is being given a steroid to help reduce whatever neurological inflammation she may have. To this end, she has to be supported and her water and food need to be placed right under her nose before she tries it. Now, they seemed to also think that she might not be seeing too well out of either eye, so she is still in a precarious situation and I honestly don't know if she will still be there on Saturday. I hope she is! We got in a Merganser baby. I just LOVE these guys, as they look like cartoon baby ducks. This one was found at our local sewer plant all by its lonesome. It gets to swim a bit every day in the sink and we try and put in one of the mallard ducklings with it, as one should always swim with a buddy! The fawn with the weird bony jaw protuberance is back inside. It developed diarrhea and while that is getting somewhat better, it has now developed a hole at the end of the bony projection. Yeah, it's not the best picture, as he was all over the place. But you get the idea. They are taking a culture of it to see if there might be some fungal or bacterial thing going on there, and therefore figure out the best way to treat it. And as you can see, by the way he is gnawing on Serena's gloved finger, he definitely has a good appetite. In fact, for the second time EVER, here is a video clip of this bottomless pit draining his bottle in under 15 seconds. We also got this fawn in and it's just a mess. I call it the "snotty" fawn, and here's why. See? I told you it was a mess. It was found wandering along a road. It has multiple wounds/tears around the face, its left eye is swollen shut with pus, its nose is swollen, and to top it all off, it has an upper respiratory infection. Needless to say it's on antibiotics and an anti-bacterial eye ointment. It's so bad that anyone touching the poor miserable thing must don a gown and gloves. Yeegs! Let's wrap up this posting on a good note. The five fawns we have outside, including the piebald one, are all doing great. Going out and feeding them is funny, as they are all just frantic to get at the bottles, sometimes the same one! See, there's our little girl shoving her way in there. She's no pushover! After they are done they meander off into the trees, or towards the photographer, if one happens to be present. Til next time... |
| I'm Speechless... |
| San Juan blog Wolf Hollow, Sun, 3 Jun 2007 |
| Fawns Galore! |
| San Juan blog Wolf Hollow, Sat, 2 Jun 2007 |
| Yes, we officially have the most fawns in since I have been volunteering. The count was at 6 as of last Monday. We get fawns in for numerous reasons. Like this little one: Cute, no?! But if you look closely at him, you can see a bump on top of his head. Here's a blurry pic (he would NOT hold still) of it. They have removed it and are doing a histopathology report on it. This little guy also has what appears to be a bony protuberance on his lower left jaw. They have no idea what this is. They took an x-ray of it and here is what they saw. You can clearly see the bony bit and some teeth on that side are out of alignment. Luckily this isn't keeping him from eating. In fact, all the fawns were put outside in a small portion of our outdoor fawn pen last weekend. They all were initially color-coded to make sure we didn't feed a fawn more than once. But now that they are outside, we are feeding them from the bottle-rack, as the sooner they disassociate themselves from humans the better! The three opossum babies we got in are doing well. They were found abandoned in a garage in Mt. Vernon. One was large enough to go outside into our Opossum cage. He's pretty much staying entirely in the hammock we have setup in there. So much so that we took him out to make sure he knew where his food was, as he wasn't eating much at all initially. The other two were in a box in their carrier and I didn't want to bother them. Maybe I can get pics of them tomorrow. The raccoon baby we have in is SO CUTE! This little girl was found in Anacortes, alone, cold, and lethargic on someone's driveway. Obviously she was being moved and mom got scared off, dropping her in the process. She wasn't eating initially and had to be tube fed. Now she's eating like a champ! The Mallard ducklings we got in were actually overflow from another rehab place on the mainland. Thankfully all but one were big enough to go into the outdoor wetpen. We got in a young bird, a Goldfinch I believe, from off island that had an unknown leg issue. And when we examined it, we discovered that it had broken it's tibiotarsus, the feathered upper leg bone. So we had to put a splint on it and immobilize the joint nearest the break. Needless to say, it was NOT a happy camper after all was said and done. Unfortunately, this was not the only issue this wee one had, as every time we tried to give him food, and believe me he was HUNGRY, he would spit it back up before it even got down his throat, like he had a major gag reflex or something. I found out that it didn't make it through the night. While we are now deep in baby season and I could go on and on about the other birds and whatnot, let's end this post with the latest and one of the most unique residents ever admitted while I have been volunteering there. I went in on Sunday to get notes on the patients I had taken pictures of and heard we were getting a fawn in from Orcas Island and went along with Serena to pick it up. It had been found not even 6 inches off the highway on someone's property who was NOT a deer fan. So much so they threatened to shoot it if it stayed there. Mom was nowhere in sight and there was no safe place to leave it so over to Wolf Hollow it came. Now, Orcas Island is known for having a deer population that has beige/white patches on them. We even had one at Wolf Hollow when I first started volunteering. It had a circular beige patch right on it's side. They are called goat fawns as they tend to have stockier bodies and faces. We were told that's what was coming over. When one of our weekend volunteers showed up with it, she had it in a blanket and all we initially saw was its head, which looked like this: Pretty, brown with a few white patches. And then, when placing her in the carrier, we saw the rest of her!! Isn't she amazing?! Yet she doesn't have the stocky face like we were expecting, especially considering how white she is. And yes, she will stay this color even as an adult. She was very young, with her ear tips still curved from being in the womb and her teeny tiny hoofs still had white tips on them! She looks like she went in and got a French tip manicure! I have offered to be the Volunteer Coordinator at Wolf Hollow and will find out what all that entails tomorrow, along with meeting any new residents. Just to give you an idea of how slow we still are, to date we have admitted 193 animals, most of which we got in but some of which our off-site volunteers have cared for. The last 2 years for the same period, Jan. 1 - May 28, we had admitted anywhere from 248-270 animals. Most noticeably missing, at least to me and Serena, are the Barn owlets! We haven't had any in and I do love them so. I also like seeing the summer interns freak out when first having to go in and get them, what with their screaming fits and all! That's it on my end. Til next time... |
| Birds, Birds, and a Squirrel |
| San Juan blog Wolf Hollow, Sat, 26 May 2007 |
| Okay, this is going to be a short, but cute, post! Needless to say, baby season has kicked into high gear so I am going to concentrate on the animals we had in 2 weeks ago, which is the last time I was there on Saturday. Here is a Euro Starling nestling we got in and yes, I know it's a blurry pic. I was in a rush since he was in an incubator. His head was tilted to the side like that, possibly from trauma from falling out of the nest. So while he ate well, it was a bit nerve-wracking feeding him, as he couldn't tilt his head back and I was constantly worried about getting food down his glottis (airway). When I popped in last Sunday after being off island Saturday, I was told his head tilt was straightening and that he was doing great! Here is a Euro Starling fledgling and he is NOT happy! See him all hunkered down like that. He's probably more than a little scared as well. But he was being difficult enough to feed that we fed him with a syringe, so that we could get enough food in him without having to spend too much time on it, considering how busy we were. We also have in some young Towhee fledglings. These two are a HOOT and very cunning. They act all cute and come up to the front of the cage screaming to be fed and then zip out before you know what's happened! The pillowcase that covers the front of their cage has a written warning stating that they are escape artists. I got to clean their cage and needless to say, that was interesting, as I had to catch them, put them in a box while I was cleaning, and then get them back out of the box and into the cage, all without letting one of them accidentally practice their flying skills! Here is a BEAUTIFUL Barn Swallow we had in that had gotten caught by a cat, so of course it had to be on antibiotics for a week. He was found inside a house and couldn't fly. He also was eating sporadically, sometimes eating on his own and sometimes we had to force feed him. The Killdeer is doing GREAT and is now completely feathered! Look! Isn't it beautiful?! Okay, let's get to the one mammal we had in on that Saturday, and that was this Grey Squirrel baby we got in. Isn't it ADORABLE?! And, they are SO easy to feed at this stage, as they are eager eaters and require little to no work whatsoever, unlike the baby bunnies we get in. Now, being off island last Saturday, I of course offered to bring back over any animals that might need a lift to WH and sure enough two Black-capped Chickadee youngsters were put into my expert care. Man, were these two VOCAL about wanting to be fed! And not wanting to leave them in the cold car while on the ferry, I bundled them up, along with their food, and hauled their cute butts up into the ferry with me. Thankfully I didn't attract much attention, but after they started screaming for food for the millionth time, the guy in the booth next to me finally turned around and looked at me with this questioning expression. I apologized profusely for interrupting his peaceful ferry ride, explained what, exactly, the noisemakers were, and where I was taking them. He just smiled and went back to reading. And that's it. I can hear some of you sputtering "But, but...you posted a picture of some fawns. WHAT ABOUT THE FAWNS?!!! Well, we actually got in last Friday, and after hearing this list I was feeling more than a bit guilty about not coming in the next day, 16 baby ducks, 3 baby opossums, 1 baby raccoon, and 1 fawn! And to top it all off, when I showed up on Sunday with my peeping cargo, I learned that we had gotten in FOUR MORE FAWNS in on Saturday! Again...SORRY SERENA!!! So here are a few more teaser photos: and.... Oh, alright, here's a picture of an entire fawn, color coded and all! Tomorrow promises to be interesting and HECTIC!!! Til next time... |
| A Sneak Peek.... |
| San Juan blog Wolf Hollow, Mon, 21 May 2007 |
| of forthcoming postings! Til next time... |
| Hmmm...... |
| San Juan blog Wolf Hollow, Tue, 8 May 2007 |
| Well, it is still REALLY slow at Wolf Hollow. So slow in fact that I didn't go in on Saturday, as there were only six animals in residence. We have also begun "summer intern season", with our first intern starting last Wednesday, so with so few animals, she really needed to get as much hands-on experience as she could. But I can give you some updates on animals that I have already told you about and show you some new ones. First, the updates. Unfortunately, they aren't "happy ending" type updates. The baby bird, after doing so well, died last week and we don't know why. Youngsters can be like that sometimes. Also, we ended up euthanizing the raven. After weeks of rehabbing and antibiotics, he still couldn't fly, but more importantly, he never got over his breathing issues. They did a brief necropsy and found nodules in his chest cavity and he had this weird round depression on one of his lungs. So either it was an infection or possibly Aspergillus. Now, onto something more positive and REALLY cute! It's a Killdeer chick! I don't believe we have ever had one in, at least not that I can recall. Isn't it just precious?! It was about 5 days old when it was found alone at Oak Harbor. We placed it in an incubator with "mom" the feather duster, some food, including meal worms, and a mirror. And every time I peeked in on him, he just stood there, chirping at the mirror. It was kind of sad. The rehabbers read a report that stated that they can get so fixated by mirrors that they won't eat, so we were taking out the mirror at intervals to make sure that wasn't the case with this wee one. I did talk with Serena on Saturday and she said he was getting bigger and doing just fine, which was good to hear, as I guess they can be difficult to raise, as they are very "stressy" birds. This Merlin was found on the road in Bellingham. The initial reports were that it couldn't stand. But, by the time it came to us, it could stand and fly. The problem? You can't see it in this picture, but it has no tail feathers! They were all pulled out from the follicle, which is good, as broken feathers don't re-grow and we would have had to pull them out ourselves to allow them to grow back. This Canada goose was found on the ground on Orcas Island, unable to stand or fly. Upon admission it was given a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory in case it had a spinal injury. Unfortunately, when I came in on Saturday, it still had no DPR (Deep Pain Response) and they ended up euthanizing it later in the week. Lastly is this beautiful House finch. This beautiful boy, and you can tell it's a male because of his beautiful color, was found on Lopez unable to fly and using his left wing sporadically. His body was curled in a clockwise fashion and he had major balance issues. He was given a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory as well and by the time I came in his head was at least lined up with his body. His tail, however, was still curved off to the left. He is still there and improving. That's it. I heard we got in 2 more baby birds and a young squirrel. Guess we'll see what's there next week. I did hear that a rehab center on the mainland got in 2 preemie seals a week or so ago from the coast. The seals on the coast almost always "pup" before the inland seals, so that gives us a good idea about how long we have before we may be seeing them come in. Til' next time... |
| Requiescat in Pace, Virga |
| San Juan blog Wolf Hollow, Thu, 26 Apr 2007 |
| It is my sad duty to let you all know that we lost Virga sometime last night. The staff came in this morning to find her floating in the pool, dead. Needless to say everyone is quite upset and quite shocked, as she had been doing so well we were making tentative plans to release her. The wildlife vet that initially brought her to us came over today to do a necropsy to see if he can determine just what happened. I will update you if they find anything out. However, if it comes down to the histopathology and ancillary tests, those results could take a few weeks. Requiescat in pace, Virga, requiescat in pace... |
| Let the Insanity Known as "Baby Season" Commence! |
| San Juan blog Wolf Hollow, Tue, 24 Apr 2007 |
| Alright, I guess you can't call getting in one teensy tiny baby bird insanity, but I do consider it a portent of things to come! Cute, isn't it? The dried stuff on it's beak and wings is food, as it's so tiny and moves around so much when trying to feed it, it ends up being a pretty messy process. Observe.... Open wide....okay, I'll settle for you just opening a little bit ...OPEN PLEASE! At last, it has its fill and falls back to sleep! Yes, I know it's out of focus, but this also gives you a good idea of just how tiny it really is! Now, I know some of you are saying to yourselves "But, you haven't said what KIND of bird it is!" That's because, uh....well....you see....we don't know!! We do know what it ISN'T, just not what it IS. In fact, under "Species" on the intake sheet, it read LBB. After mulling that over for a minute or so, I turned to Serena and asked what species that was, as I had never heard of it. She just laughed and said "It stands for Little Baby Bird. We use that when we have no clue what it is!" I can tell you that a cat had it and our wonderful volunteer in Anacortes was surprised it survived the night, as cat bites are hard enough to treat in larger birds and mammals, let alone something this small. So it is getting lots of antibiotics to prevent it from coming down with Pasteurella from the cat bite. We immediately placed it in an incubator and it is being fed, from 7am until 7:30pm, every 15 minutes until it gets a bit bigger. You know, maybe, as my sister Shannon said in a recent posting, it's because the weather has been messing with our heads, being warm one day and then cold the next, but it just doesn't FEEL like baby season...or even Spring for that matter. Serena told me this is one of THE slowest Aprils on record for Wolf Hollow. We checked the animal database for this same time last year and sure enough we had in TWENTY SIX animals, which included over twelve baby bunnies and a fawn. We had in THREE animals as of last Saturday; Virga, the LBB, and this incredible being.... Isn't it AMAZING?! It actually was one of 3 animals that came in two Saturdays ago and is the first Raven that I have ever gotten to work with while I have been volunteering there. One of the rehabbers made a comment to the effect that we had gotten Ravens in over the last 2 years. "None that have been alive when I came in on Saturday!" was my swift retort. They then conceded that VERY few make it, as was demonstrated later that day when we got in ANOTHER Raven that had a wing/body injury so bad you could see into it's body cavity! We euthanized it immediately. This fella was found on Orcas Island unable to fly. When he came in his right wing was drooping a bit, but with no palpable fractures, we came to the conclusion that there must be damage in the metacarpals. So he received a lovely green Figure 8 wing wrap to immobilize the area. And because he couldn't fly, he was underweight and laden with parasites. So he's also getting antiparasitic medication. At first, he wouldn't come anywhere near the front of the carrier. I mean, to be honest, I wouldn't have either, as who wants their picture taken when they aren't looking their best? But, when he spied the plate of juicy herring pieces I had placed in a tray, all bets were off and it was all about the food, of which he devoured every single piece in under a minute. As of this past Saturday, they had taken off the wing wrap and placed him in the Indoor Mew to see how he fared. He hid most of the time. He also was found to have a subcutaneous emphysema, which is air trapped between the skin and muscle, on his lower chest/abdomen area. This is usually caused by an injury of some kind and the injury causes the air sac(s) to leak. This was discovered after he started making "wheezing" noises while breathing, so he is getting antibiotics to help him cope with that. The last time I checked on him before leaving Saturday, he was sitting in the corner breathing pretty heavily, so I am keeping my fingers crossed for both him and the LBB, as they both seem to be in tenuous situations. Let's see....what else has happened? Oh, since I did mention it in my previous post, I guess I should tell you about the Great Blue Heron we also got in on the previous Saturday, it being the third animal we did an intake on that day. It was found sitting on the ground at the water line with one of its legs sticking out in front of it. Our new rehabber Penny picked it up at the ferry in a box that had the top folded over. We brought it into the exam room and while Penny and Nikki donned safety goggles, I stood back to watch as they went to get it out of the box. They loosened the folded top just a smidge and this bird's head flew out of the top and it lunged and snapped its beak in the direction it happened to be facing at the moment. All three of us jumped back and made comments to the effect of "OH MY GOD!" and agreed it was a PRIME example of why we wear safety goggles! I have NEVER seen a Great Blue Heron do that and it was pretty frightening, especially for Penny who, up until then, had only dealt with the small Green Heron in rehabbing. Here's a pic of the not-so-little rabble-rouser. The photo is at an angle because I just stuck my camera inside the door and was taking the picture using the rotating LCD screen. I wasn't about to go in there if I didn't have to! It ended up being just fine and was released a few days later. As for updates, the raccoons were finally released and Virga is still doing just GREAT! I tried to get more pics when I went out to feed her, but she justs moves WAY too fast. All my pics either ended up being blurry... ...or I just didn't get her at all. I just ended up with a picture of this brown, unidentifiable mass in some water. So, for the first time since I have been blogging about my Wolf Hollow adventures, I present a VIDEO CLIP....of Virga ! I took it on the fly with my old camera, so excuse the quality. Til next time... |
| Virga, by definition, are...... |
| San Juan blog Wolf Hollow, Tue, 17 Apr 2007 |
| ...wisps of precipitation that evaporate before reaching the ground. But when I speak of Virga, I am speaking of this GORGEOUS creature we got in a week and a half ago!!! It's a California sea lion! We believe she is about 2-3 years old and she weighs ~150lbs. She was found on nearby Shaw Island, walking down the road about 1/2 mile from the ferry dock and upon approaching her, it was discovered she was blind! She was taken in by a local marine mammal expert/wildlife vet, given lots of fluids, and then transferred to Wolf Hollow. The next day her eyesight was returning and by Saturday she could see just fine. But why she had lost her eyesight was still a mystery. She was given a full examination and invasive injury, like a gunshot wound, was ruled out. And because she had regained her eyesight, congenital blindness was also ruled out. One of the scarier possibilities, as the outcome of animals with this is not good, is Domoic acid poisoning. Domoic acid is produced by harmful algal blooms in the ocean. These are the same algal blooms that cause "red tide" in shellfish. This occurs when algae bloom in significant numbers and produce a nasty biotoxin. Fish and shellfish can eat these without any harm. But the toxins accumulate and become concentrated so that when any other animal, be it pinnepeds, birds, or man, eats the fish or shellfish, they become poisoned. This can quickly become a deadly situation. The toxin goes into the brain and can mess with nerve signal transmission, causing permanent brain damage along the way. And, I am sure this comes as no surprise to you, man plays an intricate role in how these harmful algal blooms come to be, as warmth along with the right nutrients are needed for these to grow. So with global warming heating things up and runoff into the ocean from the likes of ship ballast water, untreated sewage, and farming practices providing the much needed nutrients, the conditions are just right. We are seeing more and more of these harmful algal blooms every year. So, what other symptoms are we keeping an eye out for when it comes to monitoring Virga? We are looking for seizures, whisker twitching, and vomiting among other things. So far, after her being monitored every half hour for over a week and now every hour, she has shown no signs of anything else amiss, so we are keeping our fingers crossed and remain hopeful. If she has it and starts having seizures, she most likely would have to be euthanized, as she wouldn't be able to survive out in the wild. Because she was doing better on her first Saturday with us, we let her into the main section of the wet pen, which she ran around exploring and eating the herring we were tossing everywhere. We also filled the pond with a foot of water, which she immediately dove into. Because we were still monitoring her extra closely for seizures and whatnot, we dared not fill it up more than that, much to her dismay when she tried to swim in it, TRIED being the operative word here. Now, she is completely different from Sedna, the Steller sea lion we got in last year around this time. She is sleeker, more aerodynamic looking, and MAN, can she MOVE! She is not aggressive at all, but her speed alone is a bit intimidating. The other difference is her intellect. She is VERY intelligent. So much so that we had to do this: Yep, we had to jimmy-rig the doors so she couldn't get out, as she had figured out how to open the bottom latch to the inside door! But hey, I'll take that and speed over Steller aggression any day! We do have in a few other animals besides Virga, including my first raven and a Great Blue Heron, but I will write a different post regarding them, as I thought Virga was special enough for her own posting. Keep your fingers and other bits crossed for her! Til next time... |