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

Starlings and a Raccoon Arrive

Although we already had 14 raccoon kits, we got a call yesterday that we couldn't turn down. Pictured below is our latest raccoon arrival. Pam remarked that this raccoon is particularly beautiful due to its aesthetically pleasing black pattern and head shape.

Could you say no to this face? We couldn't. Three more baby starlings arrived as well.

not unlike human children, really

When we walk into the room, often the starlings are squawking at a nearby caged grackle for food, presumably mistaking it for their mother. The grackle just squawks back of course, which makes for a noisy confusion.

Which brings us to five starlings, although two have been moved to an outdoor enclosure and will be released this week. With any luck, we will also be releasing several chipmunks this week.

Unfortunately the principal author of this blog will be out of town for a few weeks, so there won't be any updates until July 23. Embedded below is a slide show of arrivals in the month of June posted on YouTube using many of the photos posted in this blog.

How to Tell the Difference Between a Starling and a Grackle

Yesterday a grackle arrived, and since we already have some starlings, I thought this might be a good time to show the difference between the two, which are often mistakenly identified as one another when they are young.

Notice that the inside of the grackle's mouth is distinctly red/pink.

By contrast, the starlings pictured below have bright yellow coloring on the inside of the mouth and grayer feathers.

Those pictures were taken eight days ago. As a side note, if we compare those with pictures taken today, we can see just how quickly these little guys develop.

Soon we will be able to release those starlings. A young robin is of course easier to identify; the orange coloring on the breast is a giveaway.

More Starlings Arrive

Yesterday, a couple of days after a successful starling release, we received two more baby starlings.


Meanwhile, raccoons that have spent some time here are growing and developing their motor skills. When they first arrived they were totally helpless, staggering about uneasily. It is remarkable to watch their progress. Now they are coordinated and strong enough to climb all over Max.

Starling Release

Remember this little fella?


Just a week after that photo was taken he was ready to be released.


So earlier today...


A happy ending.

We also received a larger gosling over the weekend, as well as a couple of smaller animals that didn't make it.

Over the weekend we took in a few orphaned animals.

a small gosling

the younger gosling is able to socialize with the older ones

two young crows

two baby raccoons

a grackle

and last but not least, a baby starling

ugly little beast isn't he?