A nest of three newly hatched Spotted Sandpipers was noticed in the path of harms way by an observant worker on a site where industrial equipment was about to drive through. The nest would almost certainly be destroyed. The little birds were brought to our wildlife center and admitted to the avian nursery. Once in a safe and warm incubator, these little birds were eating small brine shrimp and tiny mealworms on their own within hours! Sandpipers are semi-precocial birds, which means that they can run around and eat on their own shortly after hatching, but still need their parents to keep them warm for a week or so until they can regulate their own body temperature.

The sandpipers started off living in their warm incubator, then moved to a large tub with a heat lamp, and eventually to an outdoor enclosure with grasses and small wading dishes to replicate their natural habitat. One thing that we learned about Spotted Sandpipers while these little guys were in our care, is that they can really eat…no wonder they grew up so fast! Last week they began to fly in their enclosure and we knew that they were ready to return to the wild. Not only were the sandpipers released in the same location where they were found (the industrial equipment was long gone), but the two ladies that found them and brought them to us happened to be present to see the not-so-little birds fly free. See the release here: Sandpipers being released

The sandpipers shortly after being admitted.

A few days later: running around and eating.

Being a non-profit, we typically do not pursue expensive and invasive procedures due to the price relative to the prognosis.

For instance, we receive many, many animals who have spinal trauma.  Diagnosing the specifics of a spinal trauma would involve expensive imaging (myelogram, MRI or CT) and to treat could involve invasive, risky surgery (laminectomy, pins, etc).  The total cost of this is easily >$6000; the prognosis for return to the wild in the case of an animal who needed surgery would be poor.

Does it make  financial sense to spend $6,000 on one animal who likely won’t be released, when we could put that money toward rehabbing several hundred other animals who have better prognoses? And more importantly, does it make sense to put an animal with such a poor prognosis through a very painful and invasive procedure, when it will likely be euthanized?

These are questions we ask ourselves every day.

Luckily, some cases are a bit easier to manage, due in large part to specialists who volunteer their time.

Recently, we had a Red Fox kit with a broken leg (femur).  This fracture would not heal with a splint or cast, and needed surgery to be fixed.  I am not a trained orthopedic surgeon, so if I were to do the surgery, the prognosis wouldn’t be very good.

Luckily, two surgery residents from the University of Minnesota, College of Veterinary Medicine volunteered their time to come and do the surgery.  The fox recovered beautifully from the surgery and will be ready to be released soon. In the photo at the top of this post, the surgeons have completed their work and are fitting a crossbar to help stabilize the leg while it heals.

Thanks so much to Dr. Duane Robinson and Dr. Jeff Biskup for their time and expertise, and to the University of Minnesota Veterinary Medical Center for their support!

This morning after heading to the St. Paul Farmer’s Market, I stopped by Coastal Seafood to pick up three pounds of live crayfish. No, it’s not for a crayfish boil tonight, but for the herons.

From there I headed up to WRC where I met Deb W. who was kind enough to bring to us more than two dozen sunnies that she caught this morning. Again, all for the herons. (are you getting an idea of how much they eat? It’s amazing, really.)

I then headed south to the herons’ outdoor caging facility where I watched entranced as they preened, interacted, fished and yelled at me.

The herons have matured to the point that they choose sunfish (probably their most plentiful fish in the wild) over the other fish in their pools, and eschew the dead fish, preferring live ones.

Hope you enjoy the videos!

Heron fishing for minnows.

Heron gulping a sunfish (amazing how they instinctively know to rotate the fish, and keep it moist to help it slide down).

Herons interacting with each other (great look at how they flex their crowns)