Yesterday I installed and tested our new medical database on a laptop, sent out a WRC Update to more than 400 volunteers, and spent six hours in a car transporting our first Avian Nursery patients back to their Duluth home.

Of the many hats I wear at WRC, my favorite by far is as a participant in the absolute joy of releasing animals back into the wild; animals that would have died without our care.

The two Hairy Woodpeckers I returned to Duluth were our first Avian Nursery patients to be released this season.  They were orphaned in early May as a result of tree trimming.

They arrived at WRC as tiny, naked nestlings in the actual tree limb that had housed their nest cavity. After weeks of care, the birds were flying well and foraging for their food, and most importantly, were feisty toward humans: a good sign that they were ready to be released.

The Hairy Woodpeckers, a male and a female, are now flying free on several acres of wooded land just north of Duluth.

Here’s a video of Avian Nursery Coordinator Jessika preparing the birds for their journey back home.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 11th, 2011 at 10:06 am and is filed under Nursery News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.