10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 6, 2013

Wildlife rehabilitators are not known for our bling. People who work with wildlife wearing nice clothes? People who work with wildlife wearing nice clothes? asked Marge Gibson, when I asked a group of bird rehabbers about their bling experiences. As for nice clothing … right! Oh my, where do I start?”

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Bald Eagle Wildlife Rehabilitation Vet Birds 213

10,000 Birds

NOVEMBER 7, 2014

Look in the middle, just over the trees: there’s a big flock of birds up there. They rocketed past us, letting out that clamoring alarm call which made me pray they hadn’t found a young, hapless Red-tailed Hawk or a sleeping Barred Owl. Birds crows wildlife rehabilitators' Same thing with the photo below.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Birds Wounded Abandon 168

10,000 Birds

JUNE 5, 2015

Wildlife rehabilitators are a multi-tasking lot. Not only do we take care of zillions of injured and orphaned birds/mammals/reptiles/whatever, we also have to deal with and educate the public. I mean, how could he know it was a merlin, but not know it didn’t eat bird seed?”. The baffling, mind-boggling public.

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Squirrels Hamburgers Chickens Wildlife Rehabilitation 250

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 20, 2013

I’d released birds there. I knew the wildlife. A recent thread on my Raptorcare listserv produced one wildlife rehabilitator’s nightmarish photo of a leghold trap firmly clutching the leg of a Great Horned Owl. No owl, just the leg. The name and town of the owner were engraved on a metal tag.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Rhode Island New Jersey Wildlife 221

10,000 Birds

MARCH 14, 2014

“Here’s an idea for a blog,” wrote Donna Osburn, a wildlife rehabilitator from Kentucky. What’s your best misidentification of a bird?”. Rehabbers are constantly receiving birds misidentified by their finders; and on occasion some of us even receive birds we misidentify ourselves. This is a great topic.

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Wildlife Wildlife Rehabilitation Falcons Pit Bulls 243

10,000 Birds

MAY 31, 2013

Xena is a Eurasian Eagle Owl. She lives with her handler, wildlife rehabilitator Lisa Acton, in upstate New York. Lisa takes her to schools, fairs, and events, and together they show people why they should respect and admire the wildlife who live around them. “The At 14 pounds, Xena is a huge bird and makes a huge mess.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Raised Eagles Owls 162

10,000 Birds

JUNE 17, 2016

This is about two birds flapping, not one, but I needed a title. So the other day I was sitting at my outdoor table, minding my own business, when two birds came sailing around the house and nearly took my head off. What are you doing, you bad birds?”. I reacted that way because I’m a wildlife rehabilitator.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Birds Wildlife Owls 104

10,000 Birds

JUNE 28, 2013

A wildlife rehabilitator friend, newly licensed, recently called to ask if he could feed a recovering Turkey Vulture anything besides defrosted rodents. Normally I feed vultures, as well as hawks and owls, defrosted mice and rats. He then ate a screech owl, a robin, two squirrels, a mourning dove, three chipmunks, and a rabbit.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Rodents Mice Rats 186

10,000 Birds

SEPTEMBER 26, 2014

That particular summer I had what seemed like 40 or 50,000 patients, and I was whining about how difficult it was to deal with large, stress-prone birds when they were starting to feel better. When birds are down and out, this is not a problem. When birds are down and out, this is not a problem. Others, not so much.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Colorado Protest Protesting 245

10,000 Birds

AUGUST 15, 2014

But be it a mouse, bird, bat, gecko, kitten … it’s a very bad way to go, and no creature should have to suffer death by torture. “My My very first rescue was a House Sparrow caught in a glue trap,” says Donna Osburn, a wildlife rehabilitator in Kentucky. Freeing birds from glue traps is not easy. “I

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Mice Rodents Rescue 279

10,000 Birds

DECEMBER 4, 2015

My work as a wildlife rehabilitator over the past forty-five years has allowed me a unique perspective on a disturbing trend. But the fact is nature has little to do with most problems facing native birds. To that person, the bird in trouble is real and not an anonymous blob of feathers. The difference seems obvious.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Bald Eagle Rescue Wildlife 189

10,000 Birds

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

When the wolf is at the door, a wildlife rehabilitator will let him in. Jodi Swenson is a bird rehabber in Gloucester, MA. When my bird rehabbing memoir came out in 2009, HarperCollins sent me on a New England book tour. Jodi, who I’d never met, didn’t have any education birds, but showed up anyway. And feed him.

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Rescue Wildlife Rehabilitation Homelessness Wildlife 164

10,000 Birds

APRIL 8, 2016

Injured wildlife are not the most cooperative of patients. Wildlife rehabilitators have an arsenal of equipment and techniques we use to protect ourselves. I went into a cage of young Great Horned Owls one night carrying thawed rats,” said Linda Hufford. “I Most of them think we’re trying to eat them, not help them.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Wounded Wildlife Opossums 158

10,000 Birds

MARCH 11, 2016

This guest blog was written by Mikal Deese, Wildlife Educator, Rehabilitator, and founder of On A Wing And A Prayer in Corrales, New Mexico. He visited her every night, sitting on top of her enclosure so they could sing owl-ey duets. With the help of a trusted owl-holding friend (essential!)

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New Mexico Wounded Owls Mexico 126

10,000 Birds

MARCH 25, 2016

If you see a flyer such as this and you’re unfamiliar with wildlife, you can 1) believe the hundreds of people who write things like “I know for a fact a Barn Owl can carry off a 3-pound Chihuahua!” All birds of prey are protected by state and federal law,” says Eileen Wicker. “If If you have a cat, keep it inside.

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Pets Barn Owls Kentucky Bald Eagle 240

10,000 Birds

JULY 20, 2019

— but there is apparently an entire literature about women who adopt wild birds and devote substantial portions of their lives and psyches to those birds thereafter, often for years and, necessarily, to the point of obsession. To readers and to baby birds, its author, Julie Zickefoose, is a treasure.

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Ohio Adoptable Emotional 2019 135

10,000 Birds

JANUARY 2, 2015

The sharp strings are a menace to passing birds – especially kites and other raptors – who cannot see them and sometimes suffer grievous, if not fatal, wounds. The first injured bird Nadeem and Mohammad ever found was a Black Kite.

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Wildlife Rehabilitation India Rescue Wounded 260

10,000 Birds

JULY 31, 2015

This post is from Lisa Beth Acton, a wildlife rehabilitator in Accord, NY. She has a captive-bred education bird named Xena, a Eurasian Eagle Owl. Lisa brings her to all kinds of gatherings to spread the word of wildlife (see Xena’s Facebook page ). This summer Lisa raised three orphaned Common Ravens.

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Raised Mice Wildlife Rehabilitation Squirrels 224

10,000 Birds

MARCH 22, 2013

Dimmy, whose name has been changed to protect the guilty, was driving down the Saw Mill Parkway, north of New York City, when she hit a large bird. She stopped the car, got out, looked at the front of her Hyundai SUV, and found a live Barred Owl stuck in the grill. Leaving the injured owl in her car’s grill. I kid you not.

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New York City Owls Rescue Wildlife 220