10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

There are few sights more wrenching to a wildlife rehabilitator than a convulsing, lead-poisoned bird. In what some might see as an unlikely alliance, wildlife rehabilitators, veterinarians, and – yes – hunters have banded together to convince those who hunt to use copper bullets instead of lead.

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Hunters Wildlife Rehabilitation Hunting Legislation 175

10,000 Birds

JULY 15, 2016

Chimney Swifts are remarkable birds who are having a harder and harder time finding brick chimneys in which to nest and raise their families. They are among the most difficult birds for wildlife rehabilitators to raise, so if any fall down your chimney their best chance of survival is to put them back up there again.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Sanctuary Birds Connecticut 129

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 28, 2015

Part of a wildlife rehabilitator’s job description should be a willingness to have your heart smashed to bits over and over again. But he also left a family surrounded by people who shared their grief, who asked if they could help, and who were willing to talk about the ones they’d lost themselves.

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Wildlife Wildlife Rehabilitation New York City Dogs 215

10,000 Birds

MARCH 8, 2013

She made the 10 or 14 calls it usually takes to find a wildlife rehabilitator, finally finding me. As I carried him to the car I looked into a towering pine tree across the street, and at least 30 of his friends and family looked back at me. “He This gorgeous guy was hit by a car, I’m guessing, in a town south of me.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Soreing Turkey Suffering 191

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

When the wolf is at the door, a wildlife rehabilitator will let him in. You go down to the beaches and there they are, just waiting for the nice families to take their little kids down to the water. And feed him. That’s why we’re always broke. Jodi Swenson is a bird rehabber in Gloucester, MA. “They’re such jerks!

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Rescue Wildlife Rehabilitation Homelessness Wildlife 164

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 18, 2012

Of all the billions of things that keep wildlife rehabilitators from sleeping at night, public releases are one of the big ones. That night Ty and his family looked through the photos. Ideally, we like to release birds where they came from (as long as it’s not a dangerous area), and with as little fanfare as possible.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Rescue Killing 2012 157

10,000 Birds

MAY 20, 2014

The mission of wildlife rehabilitators is to return injured birds to the sky, or the sea, or wherever it is they came from. From June 1 to September 26, Hog Island offers week-long residential birding and nature programs for adults, teens, and families. How could you not? And now, four years later, I’m finally going to get them.

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Puffins Eggs Wildlife Rehabilitation Bald Eagle 274

10,000 Birds

MARCH 30, 2012

As a birder I like to believe that I have amassed a significant quantity of information about birds but Julie, in her labor of love as a wildlife rehabilitator, puts my puny store of bird lore in the shade. The birds in her art are alive and the birds in her writing are larger than life.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Emotional Woodpeckers Hunting 248

10,000 Birds

MAY 25, 2011

Four several years, I’ve been a volunteer at a Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. And that he brought his friends and family back to my feeders. It took me a moment to realize it was a bird, and when I first saw it, I was sure it was dead. Just to make sure, however, I shooed the dogs away and checked it out.

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Seattle Wildlife Rehabilitation Rescue Dogs 205

10,000 Birds

JUNE 3, 2016

This beautiful Northern Flicker hit the window of a Family Dollar store in Beacon, NY. Daniel called his brother, Dylan, who called his friend Skye Horgan, whose mother is a wild bird rehabilitator (me). Lia and Skye met in the parking lot of the Family Dollar store to release her. That awful sound of a bird hitting a window.

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Rescue Transported Family Wildlife 110

10,000 Birds

MARCH 27, 2020

Faithful 10,000 Birds readers will remember Suzie as our wildlife rehabilitation beat writer. Your posts for 10,000 Birds took us into the unique world of wildlife rehabilitation. Can you share your most memorable experience as a wildlife rehabber? I can run but I can’t hide. The book is darkly funny.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Bald Eagle Eagles Wildlife 246

10,000 Birds

MAY 18, 2012

During the next few days a family of four appeared during the day, helped themselves to the mealworms, and eventually absorbed Lia’s little orphan into their group. Was this his real family? But en route she spotted the adult jay in a nearby oak tree, and behind her, two fledglings. There was no way of knowing.

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Rescue Family Wildlife Groups 183

10,000 Birds

JULY 20, 2019

She drops a hint or two early on, but you wouldn’t really know it until the second half of the book: Zickefoose and her family were undergoing a fair amount of emotional, life-change trauma themselves, of several kinds, during Jemima’s residency.

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Ohio Adoptable Emotional 2019 136

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 21, 2012

while Dorothy’s family rushed into the basement. “What should we do?” asked Nance, into the phone. There’s a tornado coming!” Suddenly I heard the farm hand’s voice shout, “It’s a twister, it’s a twister!” And there was this poor little hawk, in the path of an oncoming tornado, but with no Toto to keep him company. Kurt says he can catch him!”

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Mice Squirrels Hunters New York 201

10,000 Birds

MAY 4, 2012

This story comes from Emily Johnson, who is a sub-permittee for a licensed wildlife rehabilitator in Helena, Montana. A short time later Russell rolled away, safe – if not sound – in the family’s station wagon. Unfortunately, his wing healed in a crooked arc, grounding him for life.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Montana Compassion Rescue 188

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 7, 2016

Cat and dog rescuers share with wildlife rehabilitators the unfortunate burden of healing the hurt caused by other humans. There’s an imperative to get this message across to cat people who, like me, can be educated to value wild lives as much as we value the lives of our four-legged family members. It’s tribal and familial.

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Cats Stray Cat Stray Wildlife Rehabilitation 205

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 16, 2015

Each year Hog Island offers programs, taught by a stellar staff of naturalists and artists, to groups of all kinds (teenagers, adults, families). As a wildlife rehabilitator, I am used to dealing with the (sometimes) well-meaning but uninformed public, who ask questions like “Do birds have bones?”

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Puffins Birds Groups West Virginia 247

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 23, 2012

Crows are so social, and like us, have close family units. She taught them that they are intelligent, feeling, personable, curious individuals. I will miss most the times she let me enjoy her world with her, and be part of her flock. In return, I would tug her beak gently.

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illegal Rescue Raised Animal 173