January Thaw

This past Saturday, we woke up to snow blanketing the ground! On Sunday, we had a busy day with a new volunteer orientation and a visit from a local reporter writing a story on our new home. We filled many open volunteer shifts through this orientation and we will be working to get our new volunteers well trained prior to spring's baby season!

Now, the weather appears to have done a total 180! The snow has all melted and we are enjoying 50 degree temperatures and sunny skies! With the nice weather this week so far, our permanent resident animals have had lots of enrichment time outside of their enclosures. Below is Wyatt, our resident Eastern Grey Squirrel, on a morning romp in the yard:

Also enjoying some time outside her enclosure was Millie, our Virginia Opossum. Millie is pictured here sitting atop our brand new fence.

Here's another picture of the fence. It fits in so well with the feel of our new home!

On the rehabilitation side of things, we continue to provide care to three Eastern Grey Squirrels, a Herring Gull and a Mourning Dove at our hospital. The squirrels are progressing along nicely and two moved to outdoor cages in preparation for their release soon. The third squirrel won't be too far behind them!

New Year, New Home!

Happy 2012!

We're back on our blog after a long hiatus for our construction and move to Bailey Arboretum!

We open up this brand new year in a brand new home with beautiful surroundings. Thus far, January has been fairly quiet with animal patients, likely due to the warm temperatures we've been experiencing. We have taken full advantage of this "off-season" by completing some very important projects before the fast approaching spring baby season! These projects include shelf installation, building indoor aviaries, an outdoor turtle garden and enclosures for ducklings and juvenile squirrels.

Now that the holidays are behind us, many schools and organizations are scheduling education visits with our engaging resident wildlife. Last week, we headed out to the Daly School in Port Washington to teach some very enthusiastic students about our resident owls. During the program, the students had the great treat of hearing our male Great Horned Owl (a Port Washington native himself) hooting in both of our hour long programs!

Today, we conducted two "Living with Wildlife on Long Island" programs at PS-33 in Queens Village. About 190 third graders learned about the fascinating tree climbing abilities of squirrels and unique pouches of North America's only marsupial, the Virginia Opossum, from our Education Volunteer Alice.

To add to the excitement of our week, installation just started on our new split rail fence surrounding the aviaries of our resident birds of prey. This fence is the first step in building an interpretive nature trail through our permanent raptor aviaries. The fence should be fully installed by the weekend. Come spring time, the area will have plantings and interesting signs to adorn the trail as well!



We look forward to keeping you posted on the latest happenings in our hospital!
Best wishes for a happy and healthy new year!