The bunnies are here, the bunnies are here!!! WTS has already had almost 20 baby bunnies!! They are almost a month earlier than last year! These adorable fluff balls are Eastern cottontails. Some of you may remember from last year that baby bunnies, especially ones only a few days old are the hardest animals to keep alive in rehabilitation. Their digestion entirely depends on getting nutrients from their mother which are impossible to replicate. The little scraggly one in the picture here should be chubby and fluffy, but she's scraggly because it is hard to get her enough fat and nutrients and she has formula caked on her face!). But so far she is doing well and hopefully she will eventually fluff out and get chubby once her digestion is better. I've lost a few, but some are doing really well, as seen in the bunny montage below.

This year I changed the formula that i use a little bit and I think that that may be helping...time will tell. Hopefully a few should be ready for release this coming week. yippee!!

I am totally back to the sleep deprived time of rehabilitation, but it is great to have a chance to help all these little ones. A lot have been victims of cats, which reminds me to remind you to keep your pets under your watchful eyes so that they don't harm native wildlife, especially all the babies during this time of year! See http://www.wildthingssanctuary.org/cats-amp-wildlife.html

If you do find babies the mother might well be close by, so don't "kidnap" them! Keep a watch on the nest and see if the mother returns. For more information call WTS: 607 200 4100 or see
http://www.wildthingssanctuary.org/what-to-do-if-you-find-an-injured-animal.html

This dear little girl Grey Squirrel didn't stand a chance. Though she appeared to have some sensitivity in her hind limbs, she just dragged them around and was very thin. An X-ray (see below) revealed that she had been shot (the pellet is the white spot next to her spinal cord). The bullet had severed part of her spinal cord and probably lodged in a kidney, as she had some blood in her urine. On careful examination we found a semi-healed bullet hole (see picture to right). She had probably been shot a week or so before and had been dragging herself around like this, in pain, for a week or so. We humanely euthanized her.

How could someone do this to a little innocent animal?

I feel like it's been a really tough week or so. So many people have been so supportive of my work at WTS, and it really keeps me going because sometimes I just feel emotionally spent. And it can be lonely work too; no matter how wonderful all the animals are, and how much I'm sometimes ashamed to admit it (because I feel like I should be stronger), emotional support from the human species has become more important to me than ever before, and I miss my friends who mostly live out-of-town. I think that I never really realised that until opening WTS. Some days are hard physically: building cages and enclosures and carrying around animals and food on little sleep. Other days are tough emotionally: animals dying in your hands after suffering pains we will hopefully never experience. Many of these animals leave mates and young behind, and that just adds to the sadness.

Spring is slowly coming to upstate NY, and with it the birds have started going bonkers, singing their hearts out for territories and mates! I even heard aBarred Owl yesterday in the WTS woods while the sun was still up!

March saw several different bird patients come to WTS. The first was this little female American Goldfinch. She flew right up to someone, who was perplexed at why this little bird didn't fly AWAY from them.... it was because she couldn't see! Finches are very prone to a very contagious type of conjunctivitis, and this little girl's eyes were almost completely swollen shut. But here she is after over a month of treatment on the day of her release bright eyed and ready to go! She shot out of her carrier in about a second and was so happy to be free once more!

Because of this disease and others out there, it is a good idea to regularly rinse your bird feeders 1part bleach:10 parts water, especially if you notice any birds that may seem unwell at your feeders.

The next bird patient was this male Northern Cardinal. He was found in the middle of the road and had just been hit by a car! A good Samaritan stopped and re-directed traffic so that he could pick him up and bring him to WTS. The little fellow was in shock and there was a fair bit of blood. I was worried. But amazingly enough all his injuries appeared to be more superficial than feared and he was able to be released 2 days later. Like the goldfinch, he flew out of his carrier and never looked back!

Unless there are certain special circumstances, all birds are released back where they were found. Birds form close bonds with each other and many birds form pair-bonds that last years. At this time of year especially, when mating and territory claiming are in full-swing, birds are desperate to get back outside. They will re-find their mates if released back in the same place.

I actually would have liked to have kept my eye on this cardinal for another few days, but he was so hell-bent on getting out again (even calling for his mate) that I was worried he could harm himself in his cage...as is what happened with the next patient...

This is a very sad story. The lovely Mourning Dove in the picture to the right was almost all ready to be released. He had also been hit by a car (which nearly hit his mate as well) and had lost almost all of his body feathers and had a few lacerations that needed to heal. Luckily his flight feathers had stayed in; they can take a long time to grow back and must be in place before a bird is released. He was doing great and was more and more impatient to get back outside. Just a day or two before he was set to go, I opened the cage to feed him and shooed him to the back. Just before I closed it he came flying full force towards the door and flew right past my face...and straight into a window... and died. This kind of thing happens in rehabilitation when one works with wild animals, but it is very disheartening and makes one (i.e., me!) feel very incompetent and stupid and badly!!

I wanted to include this story so everyone knows that there are plenty of down and frustrating parts about rehabilitation. That is why everyone's great support of WTS means so much to all of us here!

Winter can be a tough time for all the squirrels as there is a lot of snow in the ground and it can be hard to get and find all your nuts! Even harder if you were released late in the season and weren't able to store any nuts for the winter, like Bright Eyes, Tough Stuff & Little Girl. So here are a few updates to show you how well they are doing!

Here is ToughStuff! With a cashew. He is doing great!

Above is a picture of LittleGirl contemplating the snow. I don't see very much of her, and was very worried, but she appears to have turned up again. Female squirrels seem to disappear for a while and then reappear. Perhaps females are the sex that disperse, I don't know. Perhaps she found better squirrel feeders?! What is always amazing to me is how the little squirrels can be full of playtime one day and the next day they are wild and serious and being sqwerlz! Below is a picture of her playing with a stuffed toy before she was released- she is having so much fun!!

BrightEyes is also doing great (pictures on left). He & ToughStuff usually turn up together. They often fight over nuts, but there is plenty to go around!


And Lil'Mo is also doing fantastically! I see her usually at least once a day and she is very polite coming to say hello and ask for a nut. Below is a recent picture of her- hasn't she grown!! The person who found her wanted her to have a life as a wild squirrel, and she sure does ...with a few trips back for yummies!


Lil'Mo, ToughStuff & LittleGirl are easy to spot because of their dark reddish colouring, BrightEyes is easy to spot because he has such classic colouring, with a super white belly and a sweet, sweet face! Plus the little ones have had funny looking tails as they grow into their winter thickness!

By the way, you will all be pleased to hear that the Angry Young Man opossum, featured in the last blog, has gained almost ONE POUND in the last 2 weeks- that is about 30% of his original WTS body weight (i.e., he came in at 3.4 lbs and now about 4.5lb!)!! WOWEE. As soon as it gets warmer he is outta here!

And Ophelia, the little Screech Owl written up a few posts ago, has been sent to another rehabilitator with big flight cages (one day I hope WTS will have some!), where she will be tested with live prey (mice) to see if she can hunt on her own. I appears that she will never be able to see out of her left eye, but her right eye may have some vision- only time & testing will tell. If she shows us she can hunt, she is good to go, if not, I will try to find her a permanent home.

Not everyone is a happy patient at Wild Things. Despite being rescued as a starving and very small (probably born late in the season) Virginia Opossum and being given a second chance to survive and make it in the world, this little guy is definitely NOT a happy patient!

He will bite and thrash every time I have to pick him up, and his favourite defence mechanism is explosive very stinky diarrhea. He also sticks out his "bifurcated," or forked, penis at me. This is a special anatomical trait of opossums. It is interesting to see, but I'd be just as happy if he kept it to himself! ;)

Opossums also have their scrotum located in FRONT of their "forks," so it really is a unique set-up!

WTS has also seen lots of "snowbirds" or Dark Eyed Juncos visiting. I love these little birds as they are always the first out in the harshest of winter snows (see the one on the feeder below?!). There is one that has a strange marking- it looks like he has a white collar around his neck. This is the 3rd year I have seen him- he has been here ever since I moved in! The juncos stay around WTS in the summer as well, though many of their brethren have different winter and summer areas.

WTS also has quite a few White Tailed Deer visiting. The group below comes almost everyday and appears to be made up of one baby, two young does and an older doe- perhaps a mother and her 3 daughters. No sign of Andre Button this year so far.

And who have we here?? A little Eastern cottontail. It may actually be Silver Blaze, who if you remember was released here last year and stayed around for months enjoying the WTS woods. It is incredible to see this little bunny outside on the coldest nights of the year. How it manages to survive and find food I have no idea. I feel a mixture of pride for its success and fear for its vulnerability...but by all accounts it appears to be doing great!

Meet José, an Eastern Grey Squirrel. I've mentioned him before. He was hit by a car back in November and was in very bad shape with a badly broken nose. Amazingly he survived but couldn't see. His eyes were fine, but the part of his brain in charge of vision had been injured. It can happen that once the swelling of the brain subsides the brain will function properly again. However, after 2 months José is still "brain-blind" and there is little hope that he will regain his vision.

Can you find him in this picture? He loves sleeping in a shoebox with blankets outside my bedroom all day (construction of the animal room is still going on, so my whole house has transformed a bit into the animal house!). I have just filled out an application to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to officially adopt him. He is very sweet but cannot be released into the wild. It is my hope that he can be a foster dad to the all the baby squirrels that come to WTS, especially when I get "singletons," lile Lil'Mo, who need to learn squirrelness!

And look who has come back to WTS this winter: the WTS female Yellow Bellied Sapsucker! Sapsuckers are a kind of woodpecker and are not supposed to be here in the winter, but this is her second winter here. Last spring a male joined her, but all winter long she was here all by herself. She loves the suet feeder and will park there for ages.

And there seems like a lot more to report about what has been going on at WTS, but its been super busy with the construction, which is slowly finishing up: exciting! I am so happy that I will now have a real animal treatment area that is clean and doesn't leak (!) (see below picture) for all the wild things (about 100 so far) that come through these doors. And it should be up and running for the spring baby season. I've spend my whole nest egg on this construction, and that kind of a leap-of-faith is a bit scary (don't forget all of WTS work is out-of-pocket, helped a long with some generous donations) but it is definitely something I believe in!

Things have been busy at WTS over the holidays!

Meet Ophelia, a young Eastern Screech Owl. Ophelia was hit by a truck shortly before Christmas and if it wasn't for the quick action of her rescuers who took her off the road and kept her safe & warm & called WTS, she might not have survived . Amazingly no bones were broken, but she sustained injuries to both eyes. This is a common injury in Screech Owls when they collide with objects. She has been on various anti-inflammatory medication and eye-drops with the hope that they will recover. Many species of owls, such as Screech owls, rely so much on their hearing when they hunt that even with the loss of an eye they are still able to be released and hunt successfully.

She was clearly doing well on her own and was nice and plump and very strong. She arrived here still with evidence of a recently eaten meal- so she was probably hit mid-hunt.

But as you can see in this picture to the left, when she arrived, her eyes were very sore and she was keeping them closed. But they are doing so much better as you can see in the above picture, but she does NOT like her eye drops (below)!

And this is a young male Virginia Opossum. He was  brought to another rehabilitator but came to me so the vets could take a look at him at Cornell. He too had been hit by a car and sustained injuries to one eye (a corneal ulcer) which will probably leave him blind in that eye. He also had some intestinal issues similar to hemorrhoids, but is now well on his way to recovery. He is very gentle and loves to sleep all day in his blanket...but at night he is super active.

And when I get a good picture of Jose teh blind squirrel, another car victim who came to WTS at the end of 2008, I will post that too.

Biut for now we are all sending you a big Happy New Year and many great wishes for 2009!!

Ever been on a wild goose chase?? Well this fellow certainly sent me on one yesterday! I got a call from some concerned people that there was a Canada goose in their yard who appeared to have a broken wing. When ever they tried to get near it though it would waddle into the stream and be beyond reach. So, I packed up the car and went off to take a look.

There was indeed a goose in their yard. The way the wing was drooping it appeared to be a break between the (equivalent to a mammal's) wrist and elbow.

This can be a bad injury and will make flying impossible. However, it can often be repaired either with a wrap or surgery, so it was important to catch this fellow before he damaged it anymore.

So, I confidently walked out to their yard with net and blanket and determination...

But after 30 minutes of running waist deep in water and ice in 25F degree weather and watching him become airborne several times I was able to see that the injury was not as bad as it looked- it appeared to be on the "fingers." Hopefully this should heal good-enough on its own, but it certainly wasn't going to be helped by me scaring the goose frantic; so I let it be. It flew off down stream and I crawled out of the water with no feeling at all in my legs and gratefully accepted a cup of tea!

(NB: I got these lovely photos on Google Images)

I was just looking on The Squirrel Board (http://thesquirrelboard.com/forums/index.php) to see if I can find a place for my blind squirrel if he does not recover his sight (though he is doing pretty well and making progress), and I found that some of the rehabilitators from the wildlife conference back in October posted a picture of the tiny little girl runt squirrel and the picture won first place in a photo contest! She is SO cute and is still smaller than her brothers. She is not loving being out in the sold weather, but I let her in for a little while each day to play!