Before I give suggestions about what one should do with wildlife, I should discuss if and when intervention is even necessary. 

It is an old wive's tale that mothers in the wild will abandon their young if humans touch them. The vast majority of the time, if mothers actually have abandoned their babies, there's a valid reason for it, such as illness or injury that they know they can't fix. Nature is ruthless in many ways, and this is one. Mothers can sense when their babies aren't healthy, and because there is no pharmacy or ER to rush them to, will just cut their losses and move on, leaving the littles to their fate.  

Many times, people think the babies have been abandoned when they haven't. Mother bunnies only visit their nests twice a day, early morning and late evening, so most folks will never see her. People often call us in a panic, hollering that the mother hasn't been to the nest all day. With bunnies, this is normal. Constant hovering by people, checking on the babies and messing with the nest, will, however, result in abandonment because the mother now knows a predator has discovered it. And that's what humans are to them, just another form of predator. Even if a human doesn't constantly fuss with the nest, just the fact that human scent is around the nest could attract another predator, such as a dog or cat, curious to know what people find so interesting. Once a cat or dog discovers a nest, it will return until all the babies are dead.

When fledgling birds are first learning to fly, they usually spent two to three days on the ground. Many juvie birds are kidnapped by well-meaning people at this time, when the birds are still naive and vulnerable. If you see a fledgling on the ground, watch it closely for approx two hours straight. I do mean closely. Parents should be flying down to it, feeding it, and encouraging it to fly. If there is activity around the baby, leave it alone. This is a necessary step for the fledglings and they need to go through it on their own, like butterflies emerging from their cocoons. Human intervention at this stage will set the babies back considerably and rob them of their initiation into their world. 

On the other hand, if the baby has been in the same spot for more than two hours and there are no parents tending to it, it is a good idea to approach it. If it does not attempt to escape, it is perfectly okay to pick it up and examine it. Look for obvious wounds or injury, such as punctures, legs at unnatural angles or wings drooping limply. Sometimes the babies have been overwhelmed by avian mites, causing severe anemia. Any of those things, coupled with a lack of parental attention, require immediate intervention. So do babies that have no feathers at all or are covered only with down.

Advice is often given to try to put babies back in the nest, but frankly, we haven't seen a whole lot of success with that. Usually, if babies have come down once, they'll come down again, with possible injury either time. If something has happened to the mother, the father will rarely continue to care for the baby. It does happen, but in our personal experience, he will abandon the kid(s) after only a few hours. And then there are storms. Storms often bring down whole nests. The mother has no way to rescue them if that happens. Once the babies are on the ground and helpless, they're easy prey. 

So, there is a time and a place to intervene, and a time to leave them alone, and it's vitally important to know the difference. Wild babies suffer in captivity, miss out on a lot of essential socializing, and don't learn all the things they should know in order to live full, successful lives. Picking them up simply because they might be in danger is not a good enough reason to rip them from their habitat. We do the best we can, but humans are poor substitutes. Ultimately, Mother Nature knows best.

We're up to approx 50 animals now, mostly baby squirrels, although there are a few surprises sprinkled amongst them, such as four hatchling Kildeer (did you know that the Latin name for Kildeer is Charadrius Vociferus?. I now know why!) We also briefly had six baby groundhogs that we babysat overnight until moving them on to another rehabber who had a singleton and agreed to take them all. She's better with them and has a better facility for their needs than we do. Whew.  That leaves three mallard ducklings, three flying squirrels, eight baby possums, four teeny bunnies, and a sparrow. And all those squirrels, of course.

The weather is lovely right now and everything is in bloom: purple and white lilacs, forget-me-nots, tulips, little purple violets, grape hyacinths. The cherry blossoms have come and gone, but the lillies-of-the-valley are about six inches high and will soon be gracing us with their fragrance. This has to be my favorite time of year, with fall a close second. We're grateful that the little weeping willow tree that we planted last year made it through the drought and is greening up nicely. We hauled so many buckets of water last year, nursing that baby along. 

I guess my big news, for those that read this far, is that I now have an agent. The revisions she requested are in her hands and the hard copy was mailed yesterday. I can finally breathe again. It's been a bumpy ride. My second finished WIP is making the rounds of critique as we speak.

That's about it :) Wishing everyone a most glorious weekend!

An enormous dead oak tree crashed down late yesterday afternoon, laying itself directly across the path to the stream behind our house and all the squirrel pens. The torrential waves of rain that we received the day before, combined with the high winds yesterday, uprooted it. We were saddened and deeply relieved that it fell so precisely where it did, positioning itself perfectly to be cut and split. We couldn't have asked for better placement. Nobody was hurt, nothing damaged. In fact, it fell right on top of a second huge dead oak in exactly the same spot that spouse has been harvesting for weeks now. He definitely has his work cut out for him and is hard at it even as we speak. The wood was cured on the hoof, is burnable now and is more than enough to get us through all next winter and maybe then some. We honor the passing of the tree and are grateful for the gift.

In other news, I went in for my first sitting for new braces this past Tuesday. They took embarrassing mug-shot "before" pictures for their files, a ton of x-rays, and several molds in different flavors and textures of goo. I came home with a sore mouth and a brand new appreciation for what all goes into making the various trays. Next comes the orthodontic consult between my dentist and the doctor at the other end. It will be some days yet before we actually get to the braces. Complicating the process is the fact that there is a fair amount of dental work to be done at the same time (two crowns and a large filling) that need to be incorporated. Three of my ancient fillings have exceeded their life expectancy and are breaking down. Since I am a white-knuckle patient extraordinaire, that part isn't as appealing, but my dentist is a kind man who never hurts me and endures my stress with amazing calm. 

As for writing, I am continuing on WIP two and three and making good progress. 

That's it for me. Wishing everyone a great weekend.

The majority of the raptors we receive during cold weather have been hit by car. It happens so often that we have a separate category for it on our intake sheet. We suspect that it's because rodent activity decreases (more of them hole up during that time,) and because snow becomes a problem. Many raptors have learned that if they hang around highways, road kill will provide easy pickings, especially if they can get there while the body's still warm and before the vultures descend.

Owls of all kinds have a tendency to hit head first. Because most of their brain capacity is devoted to the function of eyesight, the impact can render them blind. Often the loss is only temporary, but it can be permanent if treatment is not received in time, a subject we constantly harp on. Head injuries are usually accompanied by pain, dizziness, nausea and weakness. As any human who has ever suffered a concussion can tell you, the last thing one feels like doing right then, or for any length of time immediately thereafter, is eating. The same holds with animals. They don't want to bend over to pick up food and cannot eat much at any one time. Water is a hazard because they can lose their balance and drown in it. 

If a person picks up a raptor beside the road, these are all things to keep in mind. Once we receive them, medication can be given for pain and to reduce swelling on the optic nerves. We place them in a cool, dark room to help minimize swelling and stress. Depending on their level of dehydration (and there is always at least some,) we administer a small amount of fluids. And within a short period of time, we begin hand-feeding until they feel up to taking over that task on their own. This can be as little as a day or up to a couple of months if there has also been internal damage. Every animal is handled differently, depending on degree of injury and presenting symptoms. Those who do not survive usually fall into two groups: those who did not receive treatment in time, and those too badly injured to make it no matter what. 

One sad case recently highlights this. A man found an adult barred owl and held onto her for three days because she was pretty and he was so enthralled with the idea of having an owl. He was also afraid we would automatically euthanize her, a gravely erroneous assumption. She was badly injured, but we might have been able to help her except that she became so dehydrated while with him that her internal organs shut down. By the time he finally decided to seek help, she was already failing. Despite our best efforts, she didn't make it. A sad waste of a beautiful bird. 

With proper initial handling and treatment, most raptors will survive. Those are the success stories. If you as citizens do your part, we'll do ours and maybe we'll have a lot more of them. And wouldn't that be cool? :)

I've had a miserable cold for over a week now. This is majorly disconcerting, since I don't normally get colds. I don't like it. It's been literally years since my last foray into the stuffy/headachy/sinus congestion arena. Not only am I out of practice, it appears that times have a-changed since then. 

Most adult cold medicines are too strong for me. It didn't bother me at all when the PTB took pseudo-ephedrine off the market, because I couldn't handle it anyway. A friend of mine once told me that the chemical formula of pseudo-ephedrine is only one molecule away from speed (or something like that. Forgive me, my chemistry knowledge is woeful) and in sensitive people, it can react the same way. Lucky me, I seem to be sensitive. One swig of that stuff has me climbing the walls. Heart racing, skin crawling, muscles jumping - horrible! I can't imagine why anyone would want to feel like that. 

Now the PTB have decided that no one under the age of two should be given OTC cold medicine at all, and are considering extending the ban to age eleven. Okay, now it's getting closer to personal. My husband went out to buy something for me and had to go to four different stores to find anything at all. Bare shelves. Medication famine. He finally found one store that still had some, but it was located directly in front of the pharmacist, who grilled him as to why exactly he wanted it. My husband explained that his wife is of small stature and cannot tolerate adult brands. He was at last allowed to buy two bottles under the pharmacist's evil eye. 

The whole experience leaves me with mixed feelings. When I was a child, we had nothing with which to fight a cold except Vicks rubbed on our chests (which I utterly loathed!) chicken soup, tea, and watchful waiting. We did eventually recover, but spent far longer in distress than we do now. I've discovered that I've grown a little spoiled by easy access to quick relief and am resentful at having it cut off. Apparently, the PTB no longer trust people to use OTC medications responsibly, so they have to treat us like children and take it away from us. 

It just seems odd that in the 21st century, with so many advances in so many areas, we're back to folk remedies and good old tincture of time. 

Oh, well. Bring on the chicken soup!

Shoot. I have to go make it first.

gypsyrobin

Now I'm supposed to explain what powerful writing is to me. In my opinion, it comes from the heart with sincerity and honesty, something that enriches my life and catapults me to action, even it's simply a change in behavior. And if it makes me think or takes me to another level of awareness, so much the better :)

To keep it going, I'm supposed to pass it on to five more who also have that effect on me:

selimsa803

susanwrites

aprilhenry

jennifer_d_g

bluemalibu

There were so many more, but I had to stop somewhere.  Pass it on :)