Great Blue Herons raise their young in the top of large trees, usually in groups of 50+ nests called a rookery. A rookery containing approximately 100 nests (as surveyed by the MN DNR) was destroyed by the violent storms in the Metro area this weekend. The heron chicks shown above will be cared for by our Avian Nursery staff, and will hopefully be fledged and ready for release in a few weeks. Younger heron chicks will be with us longer.

As rescuers locate orphaned and injured birds, they bring them to WRC for medical care.  We’ve admitted nearly a dozen herons today, not to mention lots of orphaned songbirds.

The herons were rescued by TRAINED people–please stay away from this area as human traffic will cause more harm than good. The DNR and park officials are coordinating all wildlife rescue.

The birds have been admitted with a wide range of injuries: broken wings, broken legs and various other stress-related issues.

We’re very fortunate to have a med staff of five (includes two DVMs and three CVTs) as well as several vet interns and vet tech externs. In fact, one of our vets, Leslie, has gone through emergency preparedness training and is on a committee of Twin City area professionals trained specifically for this type of situation. We’re thankful to the DNR, USFWS and the park staff for so quickly organizing everything and transporting the birds to our Center (we can’t pick up injured wildlife).

We’ll keep you posted on how the herons are doing, but please keep in mind that there were lots of other animals affected by the storms all throughout the Twin Cities.

If you’re interested in helping us in what is developing as a very busy season, we need your help in our Avian Nursery. The commitment is seasonal – only through mid-September. You can read more about it here and even apply online.

If you’d like to help support the care of all these animals, you can sponsor an adult bird or an Avian Nursery patient on our secure donation page.

Last week we admitted a Tricolored Bat (aka Eastern Pipistrelle).   It is a species of special concern in Minnesota, and we haven’t admitted one to WRC for at least the last eight years!  In fact, there is no record of anyone finding any maternal colony or large number of this species in one place–just a few individual sightings of this bat every few years…

The Tricolored Bat is the smallest of all Minnesota bat species–the male we admitted (pictured) weighed only 4 grams–that’s the same as a teaspoon of sugar!

This little guy became stunned when he got caught up in a power-washer spray.  He recovered quickly and was released the next day.

Our thanks to photographer Stan Tekiela for taking this great photo of the bat.

You can read more about the Tricolored Bat at the Minnesota DNR  website.

Canada geese are very attentive parents and will even raise goslings that are not their own.  They will also form nursery groups of many goslings and adults as shown in this photo.  Yesterday we were able to successfully “foster” five goslings admitted to the center into a wild Canada goose family.  Fostering waterfowl is by no means an easy process, only works with certain species, and requires a knowledgeable trained person to be successful. 

First, a family must be located that has goslings relatively the same size as those needing to be fostered and that we are able to get close enough to in order to make an introduction.  We are always careful not to choose a family that already has a large number of goslings.  Once the perfect family is found, then we need to approach the family and allow the foster goslings to make noise and let the adults see them and hear their calls. 

For me this is the most amazing and rewarding experience.  As soon as the adults hear the goslings distress call, they are all business and came right up showing their displeasure that I was near their family.  Once the foster goslings saw the adult, they immediately ran to it for protection.  The adult then lead the goslings and united them with their own, still of course making sure I knew my presence was not welcome. 

The best place for an orphaned goose is to be raised by its own kind in the wild.  So a family of 4 became a family of 9 giving these foster goslings the best chance of survival.

Despite the cold weather, birds are migrating back to Minnesota in flocks!  Which means they are also hitting windows.

Many of our patients, such as the Nashville Warbler (above) and Yellow-Rumped Warbler (below) have hit windows and become stunned.  Usually, with some anti-inflammatory medications and cage rest, they are ready to go in a day or two!

If you have a bird hit your window and it appears stunned, place it in a box (with airholes punched in it) and keep it in a dark, quiet place for an hour or two.  If the bird flies away when you check on it-great!  If it still appears stunned, bring it on in to us! Note that this will save you an unnecessary trip to the Center while reducing stress for the bird. And, sometimes birds die very shortly after hitting a window. If the bird has died while in the box, there is nothing we could have done to help it, so again – you’ve saved a drive and still done everything possible to help the bird.

To prevent future birds from hitting your window, consider putting up some window clings or simply taping a piece of newspaper to the window–these will allow the birds to “see” the window and avoid it.