I find it harder to think that it could get any cuter than this! You have to remember that the "big" bunny is only about the size of a small-medium apple, so both of them together could fit into about half the palm of my hand! I was hesitant to put the newborn in with the older one, but as newborns are notoriously hard to keep alive, I thought I'd give it a go. Well, it looks as if they've adopted each other as big & little sister, and I hope this gives the little one a chance. She always finds her "big sister" to cuddle with and it must make her feel a lot more secure. Plus, there is a chance that she might pick up good bacteria from the older one that might help her digestion. They usually get this from mama's milk, but can also pick stuff up just from being around adults. If the little one makes it, by the time she is old enough for release, hopefully the bigger one will have recovered from her cat injuries, and I can release them together. Speaking of which, I believe that I have seen Mister Lopsided Bunny around WTS, and guess what? He's not so lopsided anymore! Amazing how sometimes being back in the wild can put the final touches on recovery!

Well this grand fellow is mighty pleased with himself that he has found a peanut! What you can't tell is that he's already loaded his crop with lots of other goodies. I know that there is an American crow nest nearby, and they love foraging in the WTS woods! But are very wary, and will take off at the first sign of anything. I did some work on feeding behaviour & tool use of New Caledonian crows, and plan to set up a similar test in the woods here to see if American crows are as capable at using tools!

Oh, and here's a better picture of the drumming male sexy Sapsucker. I am loving my new camera!

Almost forgot- look at this groovy lady who I was lucky enough to see in the WTS woods today: a Ruffed Grouse! I had never seen one before. It was about the size of a big chicken. I will have to look out for them more. Apparently the males do wonderful displays in leks, which would be super cool to see!

I'm a baby Cottontail! In fact I'm less than a week old! At first they thought I was only 4 days old, but my eyes opened last night, so I'm about a week. I was put in with the older bunny. She's very grown up and is letting me sit with her which is really warm. I'm still nursing, but she is helping me learn what is good to nibble on as well. I have to have special formula to help my delicate tummy.

Hello little Cottontail! This little girl, as mentioned previously, was caught by a cat and had some pretty bad injuries. Amazingly she survived. In fact, she is the only one of about 10 baby bunnies who have been brought to the nearby wildlife vets who has survived this past week. It's not that they are incompetent vets, it's just notoriously difficult to keep baby bunnies alive. Cottontails have a very complex GI tract that needs certain bacteria and nutrients from the mother's milk. Also, stress often kills these little ones. This little girl was losing weight at the vets, so they sent her here, and I am happy to report she has put on 15g already!

Baby bunnies have a white blaze on their foreheads which usually, but not always, goes away when they get older.

It's amazing to see something so small and so perfect! She only weighs about 1/8 pound, but is alert, scared of humans (a good thing) and jumping around and eats LOTS!! In the wild she would already be on her own, which is just incredible to me!

I got two  more baby patients today- a 3 week old chipmunk and a 4 day old bunny.  Stay tuned for photos on those, but I have to go feed them all now- last feeding of the day!

You looking at me?? The babies were transferred to a bigger climbing cage a few days ago. They were intimidated by it at first, but it is amazing how fast they have caught onto the whole climbing thing! They are also starting to get better about eating solid food. They especially like fruit- grapes, bananas, berried, oranges- banana chips and granola bars! It is really amazing watching how they are developing, and they are getting more and more confident about their world. We go outside everyday and they love hiding in my jacket, looking outside, jumping back in my jacket and running around in excitement, looking outside again, etc...etc...!

They are also finally getting to know what wood is. I put some sticks in their cage and they were very curious about these new things- see below. It is important to introduce them to all of these things so that they are ready for release in a little more than a month.

And little sister got upset with me today when I was checking on them (I had put their cage outside), which is a really good sign that their wild instincts are there and that they will be ready to go. You can't take these things personally after all!

In other good news, the head-tilt rabbit is now back in the wild! He was getting more and more skiddish and hard-to-handle, which is all good natural bunny behavior, and his head-tilt was getting less pronounced. Today I weighed him, discovered he had gained over 300g since he has been at WTS, about 30% of what he weighed when he arrived! I then let him have a hop and discovered that he was getting around really well. So I sent him on his way. Sometimes you release wild animals before they are 100% better, as the stress of keeping them in the cage to get the last 10% of healing is actually more detrimental to their well being. I am confident that he will do just great!

And another little tiny rabbit arrived at WTS today.She is about 4 weeks old, old enough to be on her own, but she was caught and hurt by a cat. See WTS webpage on "Cats & Wildlife". It's amazing that she survived and even more amazing that the vets were able to sew up her wounds. Bunny skin is so delicate that often the skin will not support stitches.

She was losing weight in the hospital, so has come to WTS to recover. She is still on various medications and needs fluid therapy to keep her hydrated, but fingers crossed she will be good to go in a few weeks! Stay tuned for pictures!

Meet Wild Things' newest patient- a male Cottontail rabbit. This darling little fellow is suspected to have been hit by a car. He has head trauma, and it is uncertain to what extent he will recover. After doing poorly for a few days at the hospital, he started eating well, and in fact I am just off now to buy a scale to monitor his daily weight progress. There are several signs of brain injury. First is that he is very calm, second is that he has a pronounced head-tilt to the left side. Head-tilt is often a symptom of head injury as damaged neural tissue can injure eye/muscle reflexes that keep the body aligned. Finally, though his eyes appear to be undamaged, it appears that he may have some degree of brain-blindness. In other words, the part of his brain that encodes vision is injured, so his eyes may be seeing things, but his brain isn't registering it. His pupils also aren't responding as well as they should to light, which means that the pupilary reflex, controlled by central cranial nerves, is impaired. You see this same injury in humans. He will stay at WTS for a month or so and during that time his progress will be monitored. If he does not show signs of improvement a long-term home will be found for him. Until then, I have just put his cage outside in a safe place so that he can enjoy the sounds & smells, if not the sights, of outdoors!

A big thank you to Heather Sanford, my awesome petsitter, who donated the awesome rabbit hutch. I bet you didn't think it would be used so soon. It was was donated in memory of her very loved little bunny Buttercup!

What about this little Dark-eyed junco?? He had a hard window collision and quite a fall to the ground! You can see that he is "mouth breathing," which is a sign of stress in birds. However, as discussed on the WTS webpage, "What to do if you've found an injured animal," lots of birds who collide with windows fly off and are OK. This junco was down for a while- about an hour. I called the vet and was discussing his symptoms, looked out the window and he had flown away! A good ending!

All the turkeys seem to have disappeared into the woods. I haven't seen but one since I returned. This is a picture of hte little one who I have seen a few times. It looks like a young (<1year) male. Probably too old to be in a group with females, and perhaps not yet old enough to join a male group....though it is a bit strange that he is on his own. To the let is a picture of King Turkey, as discussed a few weeks ago. Little turkey has a long way to go. I would think that he will probably get to be King's size in 5 or so years.

WTS first daffodil. It's about time! Wild Things is on a hill and is very shaded, so I think that the spring is a couple of weeks behind up here. It's been great fun having the windows open and hearing all the bird song, and munching/opening seeds at the bird feeders. The other night I woke up and heard Bandit eating- I know it was her and she has a distinctive chew noise!

Saw the first Chipping Sparrow a today! Actually 2 came to my feeders. Welcome home little ones! These little red-heads can easily be distinguished from other small sparrow-y birds because of their lovely red-cap!

Also, I am happy to report that I'm almsot positive that I saw a Yellow Bellied Sapsucker in the Wild Things woods yesterday. I wonder if it was the female that was at the feeders all winter- I haven't seen her for about a month- or perhaps it was her mate?! I couldn't make out the head very well, but I saw a lovely yellow tummy!

Nursing Mama picture for Suzanne as requested! OK, not the greatest picture, stay tuned for another, but hope this will satisfy until then. In person, it was pretty darned obvious anyway!

At present the female pileated woodpecker is hanging from this suet feeder. Why she seems to prefer this one over the lovely expensive large one I bought for her is anyone's guess!!

Hello! Who's this??? It's the little flying squirrel in the sunchine! I've moved his cage outdoors so he can get acclimatized to the outdoor temperature, before his big release, probably this weekend or next week depending on the weather!