Yesterday was an exciting day at WRC.  The Great Blue Heron chicks rescued in the aftermath of the tornado that ripped through north Minneapolis on May 22 were moved to large outdoor flight pens, their final stage of rehabilitation.

About 30 songbirds raised in our Avian Nursery also made the journey with the herons to their new outdoor caging.

The “celebrity-status” of the herons alone makes the move newsworthy, but it also has larger implications for WRC.  To fully explain I have to go back a few years.

In July of 2008, WRC’s Board of Directors held a strategic planning session that resulted in a sweeping, far-ranging vision for WRC’s future.  We looked at it as an opportunity to dream a bit about our future, to “make no small plans,”

Our vision was to create the Wildlife Health System; a network of facilities that would better serve the needs of the people who bring us animals and the wild animals who need our care.  Our current Roseville facility would serve as the flagship medical facility, providing the best possible care for injured animals and training the next generation of veterinarians.

We also envisioned satellite facilities to respond to the increased demand for our services for healthy, orphaned animals.  Facilities would need ample outdoor caging, to reduce the stress of human contact and provide species with specific care.  An ideal location in the south metro was subsequently identified.

Several months later the economy collapsed and WRC, like the rest of the community, hunkered down in survival mode.  Fortunately, we survived and last year even retired the remaining debt on our Roseville clinic.  Relieved of that debt, during the last year we began planning to expand our physical capacity to respond to the increasing demand from the public and our patients.

This spring, we finished construction on several large outdoor flight cages at the southern facility in Inver Grove Heights. This will be the final stage rehabilitation site for the majority of our nursery patients. It’s vital that they acclimate to the outdoors, away from humans, prior to release.

So it is fitting that the first patients in our new outdoor facility are the herons.  Their plight struck a collective nerve in the community.  Watching them spread their wings in their new outdoor flight pens, is symbolic not only of survival, but of WRC’s ability to spread its wings to meet the needs of future generations.

It’s a small, first step in what we hope is a “big plan” and a soaring journey.

The first of more than a dozen Red Fox kits have been released!

A total of four kits, three from one litter and a single orphan, were released into prime habitat on Tuesday, June 14.

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.

The orphaned Great Blue Heron chicks are doing well. We’ve moved them to outdoor caging and are misting them with water on a regular basis to help them develop their waterproofing.

Here’s a narrated video of five of the larger chicks.  The four smaller chicks are in an adjoining section. You’ll hear the herons squawking on the video along with the juvenile crows from the Avian Nursery who are also in outdoor caging.