Spring is coming!

 Before we begin our updates, we have to say we are overwhelmed by the generosity of our supporters. Last week, we posted a link to our Amazon.com wishlist and we are so excited to see all the fantastic items our supporters and fans are purchasing for us. Thank you all!
The wishlist can be found at: http://amzn.com/w/2OO6IHGPJPABD

 

This Mute Swan found with a ruptured tumor in Bayville, was released at his origin last week.

We are officially gearing up for Spring at Volunteers for Wildlife! We can hardly believe March will be here so soon. With March comes the inevitable arrival of orphaned and injured baby Eastern Grey Squirrel and Eastern Cottontails! We placed a big order today for our baby season needs from one of our very favorite businesses, Chris's Squirrels and More! We have also offered classes for our volunteers on raising baby squirrels. During these classes, we teach the volunteers how to identify the age of a baby squirrel and give protocol on their general care from neonate to juvenile. This knowledge will be useful for the volunteers this spring when they must help us care for baby squirrels.

We have lots of interesting patients at our hospital that are doing very well. Last week, we posted about the admission of an emaciated Great Blue Heron. He is continuing to do very, very well at our hospital. He no longer needs to be forcefed an easily digestible diet, as he is now strong enough to eat fish and clams. He is finally eating on his own which is a big help to us! While we are going through a lot of local fish and clam by feeding him, we are so happy he is eating and doing well. We hope to release him in the next week or so.

 We also have Red-Throated Loon that we are hoping to release Friday morning in Bayville. He was hit by a car over two weeks ago. Last week, he was having significant respiratory problems, but a trip to the vet for some medications and lots of time with a nebulizer cleared that up quickly. He is gaining weight and doing well here. In fact, right now he is enjoying some quiet time swimming in our bathtub!

On Sunday, we received an unusual bird- an American Woodcock! Read more about this unusual looking bird here. Our woodcock was a building collision in Manhattan. Woodcocks are most active at night, so we assume he was migrating and hit a building on accident in the middle of the night. A very kind and compassionate couple picked him up and brought him all the way to our hospital, where he has been put on cage rest and given forcefeedings. Lauren Schulz, our Education Coordinator, and Huntington-Oyster Bay Audubon President, Stella Miller, are going to release him today in the perfect woodsy spot where he can do what he does best: forage for earthworms!

 

Thanks for reading, we hope you have an excellent weekend!

Winter Storm Nemo

It's been an eventful week since our last blog entry!

On Thursday, our day couldn't have been any more packed!  Thursday morning, Clinic Assistant, Addie, headed to William Rall Elementary in Lindenhurst to present two Living with Wildlife programs to an enthusiastic group of students.   Meanwhile, Clinic Supervisor Jess and volunteer Leslie, were driving back from upstate with a van full of food for our raptors.  When Jess and Leslie returned to the hospital, we had the daunting task of packing all of the food into our freezers! Luckily, we had plenty of help from our volunteers to make the job go quickly!
 
Right before leaving for the evening Thursday,we received a call about an emaciated Great Blue Heron in Locust Valley.  Volunteer, Eileen, and I took off for Oyster Bay in search of the Great Blue Heron.  In the woods of a picturesque house perched on the top of Moore's Hill Road, an emaciated Great Blue Heron had grounded itself with no energy to fly any further.  The homeowner, a bird-lover, had seen him the day prior and then again on Thursday.   Together, the three of us searched the wooded area until we found the Heron hunkered down sleeping next to some thorney bushes.  Unable to evade capture, the heron was swaddled up in a sheet and transported back to our hospital.  Back at the hospital, we administered him rehydration fluids and set him up in an enclosure for the evening.  This bird was a shadow of his former self, weighing in at only 1.5 kilograms: an entire kilogram less than an average Great Blue.   Friday morning, we would be able to begin feeding an easily digestible diet to start the long road of recovery. 

Right as the storm was starting on Friday morning, we received a call about a Mute Swan in Bayville.  The swan was bleeding substantially from the chest and was resting on a strip of beach on Mill Neck Bay.  We caught the swan easily with a net and brought him right over to Dr. Leonhardt.  It turns out the swan had a ruptured tumor and is now back at our hospital receiving treatment for the wound. 

The remainder of Friday was devoted to preparing the hospital for the storm.  To be sure we were able to care for the animals through the storm and on Saturday, Jess and I stayed overnight at the hospital.  Through the night, we watched the snow accumulate, provided our critical patients with extra feedings and went out several times to check on our birds outside.  All were tucked away in the eves of their aviaries well protected from the snow.  We awoke early Saturday morning to 18 inches of snow coating the arboretum.   We quickly went to work on our patients knowing we would have a busy day of caring for our animals AND shoveling.  Luckily, our local (Bayville, Locust Valley and Oyster Bay) volunteers came in to help us clear the snow from the paths and aviaries and to help us take care of our patients and resident animals. 

This week has been a week of progress and many releases!  The Great Blue Heron picked up in Oyster Bay is slowly but surely putting on weight with thrice daily feedings.  The Mute Swan from Oyster Bay has a hearty appetite and is finishing up antibiotics today.  We expect to release him in the next two days.  The first Red-throated Loon is gaining weight as well, but has an appointment tomorrow at our veterinarian for further assessments on his condition.

Yesterday, we released three patients that have been with us for some time: a Mourning Dove, Opossum and a Mute Swan!  Perhaps our most exciting release of the week was that of the second admitted Red-throated Loon on Monday.  We brought him to Ransom Beach in Bayville and released him from the shore.  Despite the rain that was coming down, We watched with big smiles and he preened, splashed around and dove through the water.  He will be in good company in Bayville as we sighted several Red-throated Loons and Red-breasted Mergansers right nearby!

This week, we are in need of a couple very important items for our current patients. 
Large Bath-Tub Mats (the rubber kind that go in the tub)-
Exercise Mats- (yoga mats etc)
and Fish Filets of any kind.

The tub mats are for lining our aviaries so we don't have to do as much laundry.  We have so many towels to wash it is impossible to keep up with all the laundry.  And the fish will help us feed our Loon, Great Blue Heron and a multitude of Great Black-backed Gulls that are currently in our hospital. 

If you would like to help us by donating any of these items, please shoot us an email at wildlifeadvisory@gmail.com.   Donations can also be mailed to Volunteers for Wildlife, Inc at 194 Bayville Road Unit A, Locust Valley NY 11560. 

Have a great week, everyone!

Winter at the Hospital

Winter is a tough season for many.   In a frigid Long Island winter, wildlife can have an equally hard time.  Our bays and ponds are now frozen over with ice, which thins and thickens with the daily temperature changes.   Open water is scant and food is tougher to find for many birds that rely on this water. 

Keeping with the trend of the last few seasons, this winter has not been a slow one.   Injured ducks, hit-by-car gulls and emaciated loons now keep us very busy, in addition to the occasional dove, squirrel and owl among other patients.    In contrast to many of our spring and summer patients that are healthier young animals that have been orphaned, all of these patients have critical injuries and for the ones that survive their injuries, their rehabilitation is often difficult and lengthy. 

The two Red-throated Loons that are now residing in our hospital's tub and isolation room are our most intensive of patients currently in the hospital.   The first loon admitted from the middle of Park Avenue in Huntington, likely came down towards a pond near the road in search of open water, in the middle of our bitterly cold spell a week and a half ago.  While loons on Long Island generally prefer the more open Long Island Sound and neighboring harbors, this emaciated loon was likely very hungry and looking for open water anywhere he could find.  Unfortunately, his travels on Park Avenue also led him to the danger of vehicles.  Hit by a car and suffering from head trauma, this loon was brought to our hospital for rehabilitation early last week.  Now, with his neurological symptoms resolved, we are focusing on allowing the loon to gain weight slowly through hand feedings of Spearing three times daily.  In addition to his low body weight, we have the added complication of helping this animal to restore his necessary feather waterproofing prior to release.  The preen gland located at the base of the bird's tail allows the bird to spread oils all over the feathers which prevent him from getting cold and "water-logged" in the water.  Many compromised animals will stop preening when ill or injured and these birds will often get hypothermic in the water.   Twice daily baths encourage this loon to preen and we hope soon that his weight and his waterproofing may be suitable for release. 

A second Red-throated Loon of a heftier size (although still thin) was admitted this morning to our hospital from a veterinarian in Massapequa.   This loon was also found in the road, however, seems to be in better overall condition than our first loon.  His feathers are still waterproof and we hope that some hearty fish meals will get this male ready for release in a couple of days.