More Birds Arrive

Yesterday a kingfisher arrived.


It could be mistaken for a blue jay due to it's color, but is easily distinguishable because of its long pointed beak and mohawk-like hair. Radical.

This kingfisher looks to be in bad shape; it will probably have to be euthanized. We will take it to the vet tomorrow.

A robin with a gash below its left wing arrived over the weekend.

His prospects of recovery are good as long as his air sac isn't damaged.

Meanwhile, the ducklings seem to be getting along swimmingly, and growing up fast.

As you can see, the one on the left in the picture above has significant feather growth. These are both females, as you can recognize by their bland coloration. Male mallards (this particular kind of duck) have whiter feathers and a shiny green head.

Meanwhile, with some help, our photographer temporarily overcame his fears and was able to capture some better photos of our new skunk.

Eagle Release

Today is a special day; an eagle that arrived here in the fall looks healthy and it looks like he can be set free. When the eagle was found last year, it looked as if it might have been struck by a vehicle. Large portions of his primary feathers (flight feathers) were missing, although his bone structure appeared undamaged. Since eagles lose feathers and then grow them back each year, we only had to keep him safe until he finally grew new flight feathers.

The difficulty is catching him. This eagle is full grown with a pointed beak and talons so strong and sharp they could pierce right through a human hand. For this reason everybody except Barry and the photographer has to watch from the outside.

This aviary (or "airport" as Barry likes to call it) is divided into three sections, so it could hold three large birds of prey. The slits in the walls are meant to imitate the flickers of light a bird of prey would experience flying through a forest. All of the slits are as vertical as possible; this has two purposes: 1) it allows us to control where the birds perch, and 2) it ensures they don't hurt themselves slamming into the walls.

Barry uses a blanket to protect himself from the eagle's talons, and proceeds very carefully. The eagle takes a dive near him and nearly knocks him over, demonstrating the bird's sheer strength. Barry has done this hundreds of times, and he explains that usually they don't dive like that.

And it is all over very quickly. The bird is tagged and then put into a holding cage until he can be taken to the location where he was originally found to be released back into the wild.

Incredibly, one of the eagle's feathers that came out during the struggle is actually longer than my foot. Barry estimated this eagle's weight to be between 10 and 12 pounds. Female eagles tend to be larger than males however (this one was male); this is true for most birds of prey.

Bird Arrivals

You may remember we reported a single duckling arriving about a week ago. Frightened and alone, he was a shy photo subject.

Yesterday however, another duckling arrived, so they can keep each other company in the spacious enclosure.

They tend to stick close together, a healthy survival instinct.

As you can see, the incipient feathers have appeared and the ducklings have lost most of their soft down. This means they are probably around three weeks old.

We also received a starling with a broken leg.

These pictures make him look far worse off than he is actually. If it is one thing we have learned about starlings, it is that they are survivors.

Meanwhile, any approaches to photograph our young skunk during her waking hours were not received well, so I didn't push my luck.

Sally, our resident mature skunk, is very affectionate and good-natured. Earlier this year though, Sally accidentally partially sprayed one of our workers. Even though these animals are cute, it is important to remember at all times that the type of animals typically cared for at the AWI are wild animals, and can't be treated as pets.

Sally

Checking Up On Old Friends

Upon returning to the AWI, my first comment was reflexively "where did all the geese come from?"

The answer is that they were always here, but as goslings. In the three weeks I was away, they went from this:


To this:

Remarkable. Now Bob, Fred and Flip have some company.

Meanwhile our blind woodchuck was sent to the vet.


Upon closer analysis, it appears that he was not involved with any sort of human accident or run in with a predator, but was simply born without eyes. He was moved in with Softscrub, our resident woodchuck (with eyes), and they seem to get along well enough. According to Pam, who knows Softscrub better than anyone else, he sometimes gets annoyed at the blind woodchuck for tagging at his heels all the time.

Softscrub

their shared enclosure

Three of our bear cubs were moved into a larger enclosure.

Lucky is always braver than the other two.

Lucky took a seizure recently, but a checkup from the vet showed there was no harm done. All three bears seem to be growing and healthy.

In a little while, we will move all three at once into Baloo's enclosure, so the cubs can have experience with an older, wiser bear.

a group of raccoons curiously watch Barry cut some wood