10,000 Birds

MAY 23, 2013

There were snakes everywhere, they must have eaten his family!”. I called my wildlife rehabilitator friend Maggie Ciarcia, who, yes, has rehabbed baby wild mice before. Once a week I hike into the woods and leave them for the multi-generational family of Common Crows I’ve raised and released over the years. Eyes closed.

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Mice Wildlife Rehabilitation Wildlife Family 172

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 180

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 136

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 200

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 171

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 162

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?

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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 254

10,000 Birds

MAY 25, 2011

Alex, who publishes the bird and wildlife blog Birdland West , wants to share sincere feelings about a species near and dear to the hearts of many of us… I’m new to birding, and I’ve lived in urban areas for many years where the bird population is mainly crows and pigeons. It was still alive.

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Seattle Wildlife Rehabilitation Rescue Dogs 214

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). Do you see how these wildlife rescue stories go? It takes a village.

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Rescue Transported Family Wildlife 113

10,000 Birds

MARCH 27, 2020

Faithful 10,000 Birds readers will remember Suzie as our wildlife rehabilitation beat writer. Trying to stop her is her furious husband and the authorities, and helping her is a smitten tech guy and an underground railroad of fellow wildlife rescuers. It’s a funny, suspenseful road trip with lots of wildlife. And birders!

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Wildlife Rehabilitation Bald Eagle Eagles Wildlife 258

10,000 Birds

MAY 18, 2012

This story comes from Lia Pignatelli, a rehabber with AKUSA Wildlife Rescue in Brewster, NY, who specializes in songbirds. 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?

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Rescue Family Wildlife Groups 189

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 142

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 210

10,000 Birds

OCTOBER 7, 2016

Years ago, I became a wildlife volunteer and advocate because of a cat who caught a bird. The wildlife center was an hour away if I was lucky. That was my first trip to California Wildlife Center. I’d rescued birds before, but this time I had to face the wildlife center with a personal connection to the carnage.

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Cats Stray Cat Stray Wildlife Rehabilitation 213

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 195

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 256

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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