 AN URGENT REQUEST FOR HELP FEEDING BABIES!
American kestrels
- 12 jumping on crickets and learning to catch mice... one adult male
came in injured, and one adult female whose nest tree was hit by
lightening! Her wing was pinned under part of the tree and broken, and
only one of her youngsters survived, but they are doing well. One
fledgling came in blind in one eye and she was placed for education.
Coopers hawks -
5. Three from one nest that came down, but our intrepid tree
climber, Scott Altenhoff, managed to renest them in a wicker basket, to
the delight of the entire neighborhood!
Western screech owls -
5 -This is actually a low number for us. They are waiting their
turn on live mice but practicing their fierceness on crickets and
mealworms.
Great horned owls - 4
babies that we were unable to renest. They’ve been on live prey
for three weeks and will be released in state parks this weekend.
Plus two injured adults.
Red-shouldered hawks -
3 - One was the sole survivor of a nest blown out of a tree (in that
same severe thunder storm that brought the mama and nestling kestrel
in), two came in very thin.
Red-tailed hawks - 3 -
two youngsters and an adult, after renesting one, thanks again to
Scott. One brancher came down at the Country Club, where those
beautiful trees, perfect for nesting, are unfortunately not great for
young birds ... Birds leave the nest before they can fly and if they
end up on the ground, they just can’t make their way back up when the
trees are limbed up so high (to spare the golf balls!). One young
bird came in quite thin with a fractured femur ... his pin should be
about ready to come out... then he, too, will get to go through mouse
school!
Of course, we’ve also had the typical parade of injured adults - to the tune of over 125 birds
at the mid-way point of the year. Only once in our 19 years have
we had so many birds by this time of the year and in the years we
surpassed this milestone before September we ended up with over 200 for
the entire year. Rarely have we had so many birds in care at one
time - to have over 50 birds on the hospital side in addition to our 60
residents keeps us all hopping!
If there is any way you can help send a bird to ‘Mouse University,’
we’d be extremely grateful! We have some grant applications out there,
but they take weeks, if not months, for a response and there is no
guarantee of approval, of course, as many non-profits are stretched
thin at the moment. And our need is right now, as our other
expenses have not stopped, of course, to make room for our food bills!
Our volunteers and staff are amazing and have truly risen to the
occasion of this extra demand. I am so grateful for every one of
them. Everyone has been pressed into service to do rescues, renesting,
and transport all over the county and sometimes further. We all
fall in love with each little face as it arrives and cheer its
progression or grieve its loss. Your help is so appreciated - and
so needed right now.
If you can possibly help, please go to our website www.eRaptors.org
and click on the Donate Now button for an online donation... or send a
check. We can even do credit card transactions over the
phone. I know this is a difficult time for everyone - but the
birds have no government bailout plan! We are needed and YOU are
needed - for without you, we cannot save the lives we do. Thank
you!
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