Spring (and a Ruffed Grouse) Is In the Air
When a ruffed grouse comes into VINS Wildlife Services for rehabilitation, there’s usually an audible sigh of dismay from staff members. It’s not that we don’t love grouses, it’s just that their high stress level makes keeping them comfortable — and quite frankly keeping them alive — a challenge. We keep their handling down to…
Welcome to Vermont, Baby Owl!
VINS Wildlife Services welcomed its first baby bird of the season last week – a baby great horned owl. The owl, believed to be about 4 weeks old now, is a wobbly mass of downy fluff, topped off with a knobby black beak and bright eyes that expertly dart about and focus in on each…
Into the Wild
April 11 was a big day for the red-tailed hawk that VINS Wildlife Services had in rehabilitation since November 2008. This hawk made a triumphant recovery over the span of nearly 5 months at VINS, and he was released back into the woods of Vermont this past Saturday. The hawk, which was featured in an…
A ‘Small’ Procedure
Every bird that comes into VINS Wildlife Services for treatment receives a patient number. It’s great for keeping track of multiple birds of the same species, not to mention it’s the best way to maintain clear records of each bird’s examination and treatment papers. The first two numbers represent the current year, and the last…
Oh, Baby!
They’re oh-so-tiny. Maybe not even fully feathered. They can’t even fly yet. They are out of the nest and on the ground. They’re baby birds. They’re helpless. They need my help! Wait! Not so fast! Just because a baby bird is a baby does not mean the bird needs your help. The desire to help…
Why Mess with Nature?
People often ask me why we rehabilitate wild birds. Some believe rehabilitators interfere with nature, and that it’s natural for a bird to sustain an injury or become ill. I agree that illness, injuries and death are all a part of nature. But I don’t feel there is anything natural about a wild bird being…
The Hard Part of Rehab
There are days when the patients who come into VINS Wildlife Services are in bad shape – very bad shape. The wince-and-grimace-upon-seeing-the-bird kind of bad shape. One of the hardest parts of rehabilitation for me is that when we do get in a particularly sad looking bird, I have no way of communicating to the…
Silent Spring: Salmonella in Songbirds
I finally heard red-winged blackbirds trilling away earlier this week. Patches of brown grass are surfacing through melted snow. And my dirt road is a slippery mud pit, cratered with brutal potholes and riveted with tire marks deep enough to sway the intended direction of your car. There’s no doubt about it: Spring is here…
Red-Tail Recovery
When this red-tailed hawk first came in Nov. 28, 2008, he was bleeding from the mouth and suffering from both soft tissue damage and dehydration. His right wing was drooping, and while we initially suspected a broken bone, we soon found trauma beneath his wing. The skin around his “armpit” was torn open. We began…
So, Who Cooks For You?
Imagine a Vermont spring night, the sky a velvety black save for the sparkle of a thousand stars. The wood frogs bark to their loves from the marsh while an opossum casually rambles through the thicket. The lull of the evening is broken by the low, resounding call of someone with a question. “Who cooks…
