Over the last few weeks, we’ve received our first swan patients of the season! During the summer we typically admit a few cygnets, but adult swans don’t seem to come in until migration starts. Over the winter we’ll see anywhere from a few to as many as 20 adult Trumpeter Swans come into WRC.

The adult (white, left) has a fractured wing due to a gunshot and low-level lead poisoning.  The juvenile (grey, right) is thought to have accidentally flown into a building and has bilateral shoulder fractures.  Read all about the adult swan’s story in our new Case Studies web page!

Remember the post from a week ago about the leucistic nighthawks we admitted? (scroll down for post) Turns out that they were actually Sennett’s nighthawks: a subspecies of the Common Nighthawk uncommonly found in this region. Many thanks to Bob Russell of USFWS for the heads-up in identifying the birds.

In fact, when I took the one specimen we had over to the UMN’s ecology building for their scientific collection, I learned that it’s most likely the only Sennett’s specimen that the UMN has; and their collection is from around the world dating back to the early 1870s!

Here’s Jennifer Menken of the UMN’s Bell Museum with the nighthawk specimen drawer:

The bird will be tagged showing when and where it was found (Springfield, Minn.), its sex, contents of its stomach and all sorts of other fascinating info:

As an organization we’re fortunate to be a part of the “big picture” and to help scientists record species and conduct studies on the specimens we salvage. Although this bird died, the wealth of information it will provide to scientists will live on for generations. NOTE: this Sennett’s died from seizures, the other needed to be euthanized due to severe fractures. We do not ever euthanize an animal purely for specimen purposes.

And, for those of you who have never seen a nighthawk fly, here’s a video of a release from a couple weeks ago by our Avian Nursery Coordinator Jessika Madison-Kennedy.

We see quite a few leucistic birds at WRC. These are birds that have either a paler overall coloring than typical of the species, or that have what is oftentimes mistakenly called “partial-albinism.” So, a robin with a white head, or a mallard with white wings.

Leucism is a genetic condition, much like albinism, the difference being that a true albino will have absolutely no pigments, whereas leucistic animals have some coloration somewhere on their bodies, in the case of all white birds it’s usually their legs, beak and eyes.

We had not one, but two leucistic Common Nighthawks come through WRC this fall. Amazing. The overall pale coloration gives us a chance to see the incredible detailing in their feathers:

The back view shows that the bird still retains normal coloration on its tail:

Many thanks to vet Leslie Reed for taking such detailed photos!

Fall migration continues at WRC. Nighthawks have moved on, and now warblers and hummingbirds are moving through. The first of the northern migratory sparrows are starting to move through the Metro as well.

For those who haven’t seen the nighthawk exam video yet, it’s a great look at these fascinating birds.

Many of the hummingbirds and warblers have hit windows and are either stunned or have wing fractures like this little hummingbird:

Working with these tiny birds is challenging!  If you have a stunned bird, here’s info on what to do.

And, as we move into cooler weather, hummingbirds will be moving slower in the early morning hours until they warm up and have boosted their energy by sipping nectar. If you find a grounded hummingbird early in the morning and have hummingbird feeders, set the bird on a feeder and see if it’ll drink before bringing it in to us. Oftentimes they just need to get their metabolism going (do not hand-feed the bird). Of course,  if it has an obvious injury, please bring it in immediately.

Keep your hummingbird feeders full until mid-October: the birds from Canada are just moving southward and your full feeders won’t keep the birds from migrating.

A juvenile loon that was found sitting on Big Lake Road in Cloquet, returned home today.

Loons easily become grounded on pavement that resembles water, either due to it being wet or the shimmer of heat. Once on the ground, loons cannot walk nor can they lift back up to fly away. Oftentimes, loons that have been grounded have abrasions on their keels, legs and feet.

This loon was perfectly healthy so after our vets examined it yesterday, we started planning its return to Cloquet. We try to release loon as soon as possible because they’re very difficult to keep alive in captivity, being highly susceptible to aspergillosis (asper).

I released the loon at the north end of Big Lake, at the Fond du Lac Recreation Area. A perfectly quiet bay for it to re-adjust to being home. It immediately tried to dive in the shallow water, then swam away peering into the water searching for fish.

The loon will stay on the lake for several more weeks before moving to Lake Superior where it’ll join hundreds of other first-year loons in huge “rafts.” The rafts of loons will eventually migrate to the Gulf Coast, most likely via Lake Michigan according to new research from a USGS loon tracking study.

It’ll spend a full year in Florida (not migrating back next spring), acquiring its black and white colors with which we’re familiar, before returning to Minnesota. Here’s a view of its current markings:

(for those interested, here’s clinical info on asper (pdf))

Yesterday someone called the Center with an odd situation: He had just seen two juvenile hummingbirds fledge out of the nest, however, they couldn’t fly because they were attached.

The mother hummingbird was flying around frantically while we had the man try to describe to us over the phone how they were attached.  Conjoined twins don’t happen in the bird world as both chicks would have to develop in the same egg. When it wasn’t clear how they were attached, we had the caller bring them in.

When the birds arrived, we immediately anesthetized with gas anesthesia and began trying to separate the birds, which appeared to be attached around their legs.  (See the pictures of before and after separation.)

It turns out, their legs were tangled in some nest materials that had knotted.  After they both woke up, we were able to send them back  to be reunited with their mother!

Note the fine material joining their legs:

All set to fly!

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)

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.