Exciting Upcoming Events!

Another warm winter week has quickly gone by here at the hospital. We've had an exciting week with several education programs and the release of an adult Mourning Dove that suffered a fractured wing after having been hit by a car. We released the dove on the South Shore near where he was found and he flew beautifully!

We've taken time in the last few weeks before our spring baby season begins to plan some exciting events open to the public. We hope you'll be able to join us for a few this spring!

Sunday, March 18th: 1:00-2:00 pm
Raptors of Long Island!

Come visit us at Bailey Arboretum and meet our resident Birds of Prey up close! Admission is free! Nature hike to follow with Bailey Arboretum's Dan Kriesberg.

Sunday, March 25th 1:00-2:30 pm
Photography Day with Volunteers for Wildlife!

Calling all Photographers! Join us for the incredible opportunity to photograph our resident animals as you learn about their natural history and role on Long Island. Program fee of $20/ photographer. Please send an email to wildlifeadvisory@gmail.com if you are interested in attending.

Sunday, April 22nd 12:30-2:00 pm

WILDLIFE BABY SHOWER!

Join us to welcome spring and learn all about young wild animals. We will have crafts for kids, games, live animals and more! Admission is free. "Baby shower gifts" from the following list are greatly appreciated.

Produce:

Strawberries, Blueberries, Raspberries, Romaine, Kale, Chicory, Frozen Vegetables (especially corn), Bell Peppers, Mushrooms, Grape Tomatoes

Other Food Items:

Natural Peanut Butter, Fresh/Frozen Mussels/Clams, Unflavored Oats

Items to Keep the Babies Warm:

Fleece Baby Blankets, Sunbeam Non-Auto Shutoff Heating Pads

Cleaning Supplies:

Sponges, Dish Soap, Bleach, Baking Soda, Bleach, Unscented Laundry Detergent

Happy Weekend Everybody!

We’ve had a busy last couple of days at our hospital. After a thorough check-up with a veterinarian that specializes in avian medicine, our Lesser Scaup was deemed healthy and ready for release. Although he had a steel pellet lodged in his side from this past duck-hunting season, our vet ensured us that the pellet would not interfere with his flight, and that many birds live with pellets in their bodies for their whole lives. We decided not to wait another day to release our Scaup, who has been in the custody of various animal hospitals since mid-January.

When we release any animal, we make sure that there are other animals of the same species in the area. This is especially important with birds which need to join a flock. We took a short trip to a pond in Oyster Bay where we discovered many male and female Lesser Scaup, as well as Buffleheads, Canada Geese, Mallards, and Mute Swans. This was the perfect spot for our Scaup! We went straight back to our hospital and released our little guy right away. He was very excited to go and quickly integrated himself with some other Scaup buddies.

We also released an Eastern Grey Squirrel that had been with us since September. We admit many orphaned baby squirrels every year, which we must raise on our own and then release once they are old enough. In order for our squirrels to properly acclimate to the wild, we release squirrels in places where we can provide food and shelter for them for as long as they need it. This is called “soft releasing” and is a common technique used by wildlife rehabilitators. Since I released the squirrel in my yard, I had a squirrel nestbox set up in a tree and a plethora of food ready for her for the next couple of weeks. Many squirrels move on to another home after only a couple of days, and some take much longer than that. When they decide to leave really depends on the squirrel!

Other events of note include a program we did on Sunday, February 5th about the winter adaptations of mammals. Our program featured our permanent Virginia Opossum siblings Martin and Millie, as well as Wyatt, our permanent Eastern Grey Squirrel. The program was followed by a fun and educational hike through Bailey Arboretum with Dan Kreisberg.

Here comes February!

Happy February and Groundhog Day!

As many of you may have seen, our resident Great horned Owl, Marcus, was featured on the cover of Explore LI in Tuesday's Newsday. Many people have seen the story and come by the arboretum to meet our resident wildlife. The photos for this shoot were taken several weeks ago by LI photographer Heather Walsh . As always, our resident animals were captivating and photogenic.


Things have started to pick up a bit in the hospital and we know spring is not far around the corner! In the last few days we admitted another Mourning Dove and a Lesser Scaup. The Mourning Dove was another unfortunate victim of a car collision. He was in rough shape on arrival but is improving slowly. The Scaup came to us from a local veterinarian on the South Shore. This little duck was shot with a pellet. We have a follow up appointment with our veterinarian tomorrow but so far he is eating and swimming well. In addition to the lodged pellet, he also is missing some of the webbing from his feet. For many diving ducks, they rely on their webbed feet to help them catch live fish. Luckily for this scaup, his species consumes slower moving food like clams, crustaceans and insects in addition to aquatic plants and seeds. As long as he can overcome the injuries from the pellet shot, we think he'll have a good chance back in the wild. Here he is in the tub:


Yesterday, we visited one of our favorite elementary schools on the South Shore with our owls, hawk and falcon. We love going to this school as the teachers and students are so enthusiastic and excited to see the birds! We will be returning tomorrow for the final two of the five programs. Here is Addie, our Clinic Assistant, handling Solomon (Barred Owl) for one of our programs!

Lastly,on Sunday at 1pm, we'll be participating in our first Nature Adventure at the Arboretum! Come on down to meet our Virginia Opossums and Eastern Grey Squirrels and learn about the wonderful adaptations of our local mammals! Following our program, a nature hike with Bailey Arboretum's naturalist will take place at 2 pm. We hope to see you there!

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!

New Aviaries are on their way!!

As you saw in our previous post, templates were laid for aviary foundations to be poured. I am happy to report that work has finally begun!

One of the fifteen foot foundations being detailed.

These will be our two 20 foot aviaries.

A wider view of several aviaries in progress.

The foundations are just about done and the next step is constructing the framework of our brand new aviaries. Keep us bookmarked for more updates and photos of our exciting move!

New Photos on our Move

The big question on everybody's minds these days is "Are you over at the new place yet?"

While we wish that answer was yes, we aren't over there yet. Building discoveries, permit applications, etc., always take much longer than one can anticipate, but we're happy to report that things are moving along there. I was over there on Wednesday and took some photos of the progress that has been made on the building.
Here we go!:

Above is our new door to the Admissions area :)

This will be the Admissions area, with the back room being our Exam Room


This will be our Recovery area; several aviaries will be built in this room,
allowing young birds to practice flying before heading to outdoor aviaries. It also serves as aviaries for adult birds as they progress through their recuperation.

This is where we will have some office space set up, and a small area for storage.

This is the outside aviary where our permanent education raptor enclosures will be.

Keep checking back for new pictures and developments as we continue building our new home!