More New Arrivals


The noise was not one I expected to hear in the room where we house owls and hawks.
It sounded like a steam pipe ready to burst, or like a machine that had run amok. But the meaning was clear: stand back.
In the back of a cage, three baby barn owls were huddled together, warning off intruders with their bone-chilling hiss.
The babies were found in a nest in a chimney that was being cleaned.
Barn owls are one of the most wide spread of land birds, usually nesting in abandoned barns and other outbuildings. The adults have a distinctive, heart-shaped face. Like other raptors, they subsist mostly on small rodents.
These three babies will be sent on to a center that deals exclusively with raptors.

Water Rescue Update

Nine of the ducklings rescued from Wendover Avenue last week have survived.
The mother duck was euthanized. Her leg was mangled and a wing broken. She would never have been able to fly again, and even in captivity, she would have been uncomfortable.
The only thing we can do for her now is see that her babies grow to be released to the wild.

Water Rescue

In wildlife rehabilitation, the people you meet often make as big of an impression as the animals you care for. That’s how it was today.
The rehab center called at 3:30 to ask if I could help round up an injured duck and its 10 ducklings. The gentleman who called the center said the duck had been hit by a car trying to cross Wendover Avenue in Greensboro, and was now in a retaining pond near Wal-mart with 10 of her ducklings. There had been 11 ducklings; a Canada goose protecting a nest at the other end of the pond had already killed one.
Waterfowl are difficult to capture, especially when they’re near water. So I wasn’t very optimistic as my boyfriend and I headed out Wendover Avenue.
Greg, the man who called in the report of the injury met me there, later to be joined by his fiancee, Ruth. Another volunteer from the rehab center who happened to be in Greensboro , also showed up to help, driving clear across town in rush-hour traffic, and standing up her husband who was waiting for her elsewhere.
When trying to catch waterfowl, the more people, the better.
Greg caught the injured mother first, and we placed her in a carrier. He and Ruth were determined that none of the ducklings would be left behind.
Easier said than done.
It took two hours to capture the ducklings. That was two hours of running along the bank of the pond, coaxing them, trying to frighten them away from the Canada goose pair, and many times coming dangerously close to falling into the murky water. I lost count of how many times we came oh, so, close to capturing them, only to have them swim away, calling for their mother.
A tourist who had stopped in the Wal-mart parking lot in his RV saw us at the pond and joined the effort. He brought two long-handled brooms from the RV, and using gauze bandages I carry in my car, we were able to tie them to the handles of the nets so we could reach further into the water.
By 6 p.m., Greg and the tourist had captured the last duckling. As we were ready to leave, another volunteer at the rehab center arrived. In all, we had seven people who interrupted their day to save the mother and her ducklings.
Tonight, the ducklings are safe at the rehab center. The mother has a broken leg and wing. The vets will examine her tomorrow.
If we hadn’t captured her, she certainly had no chance of survival. Nor did her babies.
I often read about business executives bemoaning the lack of teamwork among their employees. Here’s a suggestion: maybe they should send their workers out to rescue an injured duck.