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.

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.

Spring is slowly creeping into Minnesota. Even with intermittent snowfall, migrants are making their way north; baby animals are being born; and others are staking out their breeding territories. It’s a busy time out there for wild animals!

And, sometimes all that activity can be frustrating for us humans, or lead to the demise of animals (such as window strikes).

Here are some helpful hints and contacts for this busy time of year:

Window strikes are preventable and most occur for two reasons 1) they’re migrants passing through and they’re not familiar yet with your yard layout  2) the birds are flushed by a predator and panic.  You can purchase clear clingforms for your windows that interact with UV rays (which are what birds see). You can find them online, or locally All Seasons Wild Bird Store carries them.

If a window strike has occurred, here is information on what to do.

Woodpeckers are drumming to mark their territories and soon will be looking for nesting sources. Cardinals also are aggressively defending their territories (as are robins) and this can result in them continually attacking their reflections in your windows. We recommend you contact the Bell Museum ((612) 624-7083) or All Seasons Wild Bird Store (952-473-4283) for help with these issues.

If you have animals nesting in your eaves or have an animal somewhere in your house that needs humane removal, we recommend contacting Sean at Falls Creek Animal Control ((651) 235-0829). He practices humane removal and relocation.

And yes, rabbits are notorious for choosing poor nest sites. It’s probably why they have as many as 3-4 litters in a season. If you do find a rabbit’s nest in your yard, there is information in our FAQ section on what to do.

As always, if you’ve found an injured animal you do not need to call the Center first, just bring it in. We do prefer you call first if it’s a young animal that you suspect is orphaned and isn’t showing any injuries.

The 3 Red Fox kits that came in a few weeks ago (see March 27th post) are growing by leaps and bounds (no pun intended)! They’ve already tripled their weight, and their eyes and ears are open. Tiny, sharp teeth are growing in, and they’re starting to explore solid foods.  These babies are estimated to be approximately 3 weeks old now. They will be with us until they are completely weaned off formula, and have been eating solid foods for several weeks.

Sunday we got our first baby squirrel of the season in!  He’s a healthy 52 grams with a small puncture wound on his abdomen–otherwise he’s doing great!