Paws 'N Claws
News from All Things Wild Rehabilitation, Inc.
November 2018 Volume 4, Issue 6
Upcoming Events
-Tuesday, November 27: Giving Tuesday
-December 15-16: ATW Wildlife Rehabilitation Center Open House
-March 5-9: NWRA Symposium in St. Louis
Rehab Recap &
What You Missed
FedEx Delivers a Fawn Enclosure
Grackle Love
Rehab Recap
The number of intakes of wild babies decrease during the fall and winter, but rehabilitators are kept busy with sick and injured adult wildlife. They are also hard at work getting the new rehabilitation center ready for the next baby season. Read more about the new center below!
Brooke W. is continuing to rehabilitate 7 fawns.
Budgie T. took in a juvenile raccoon and 3 baby raccoons.
Janet P. is rehabilitating 3 hawks.
Karen O. is caring for a tortoise with a broken shell. The shell is repaired and the tortoise is now on pain medication and antibiotics.
Helen L. took in an opossum, a raccoon, 6 squirrels, 7 songbirds, and 13 cottontails.
Natalie H. released 2 great horned owls and is caring for 2 injured adult great horned owls. She is preparing one of the adults for release this weekend.
Kim F. took in a baby opossum and took a blue jay and a duckling to another rehabilitator.
Leanne D. released a cardinal, a squirrel, and 3 deer. She is rehabilitating an adult cottontail with an eye injury, 2 opossums, and 3 baby squirrels.
Emily A. took in a baby raccoon.
What You Missed!
September 21: LM S. attended an SECC (State Employee Charitable Campaign) event with Sami the skunk at the Comptroller of Public Accounts.
October 13: Roger R. and LM S. talked about skunks and wildlife rehabilitation at the 2nd Annual Refuge Roundup at the Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge.
October 17: LM S. attended an SECC event at the Department of State and Health Services.
Save the Date
December 15-16
All Things Wild is planning a Holiday Open House on Saturday, December 15, and Sunday, December 16, to show off our new wildlife rehabilitation center. The center won't be totally finished and there won't be any animals, but we want everyone to see what we have accomplished so far. Invitations will be emailed sometime in November.
ATW Lunch & Learn Programs
ATW has been holding a minimum of nine Lunch & Learn programs a year for 6 years. By our count, that's over 54 programs and speakers. We have had the opportunity to hear a wonderful collection of nature specialists talk about their topics and have met at a variety of places starting at Café Blue in Lakeway, to Reale's Italian Cafe in Austin, and finally at Unity Church of the Hills in Austin. We have appreciated all the goodwill and hospitality we have received at each location.
With the building of the new Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, we are finding it difficult to find the time to continue Lunch & Learn programs. The program scheduled for November 10 has been canceled because of the unavailability of the speaker. Further, we are postponing the December program on parasites with Bonnie Gulas-Wroblewski until a later time so that we can hold an open house to show off our new center. Hopefully, we will resume the Lunch & Learn Programs at our new center at a future date.
FedEx Delivers a Fawn Enclosure
(Above: ATW treasurer, Sharon Buford (l), and FedEx employee, Eby Grace (r), install cedar pickets for the fawn enclosure.)
Federal Express employees helped ATW build a fawn enclosure for orphaned and injured fawns at the new rehabilitation center north of Georgetown. Additionally, FedEx gave ATW a generous grant for $2,500 to pay for the construction materials.
On November 3, about 50 ATW volunteers and FedEx employees gathered at the new center to work on a myriad of projects including the new fawn enclosure as well as projects in the main building such as painting, hanging dry wall, constructing ceilings for the rooms, and installing electrical outlets and switches. The building is scheduled for completion by the end of the year, and plans are to start taking in animals in early March 2019. Training classes for new volunteers will be held in February.
The next outdoor enclosure to beconstructed will be the raptor flight cage. In accordance with Texas regulations, the flight cage has to be 50-feet long so large raptors, such as great-horned owls and red-tailed hawks, have sufficient space to exercise their wings prior to release. ATW volunteer and raptor rehabilitator, Roger Rucker, has designed the enclosure so all we need are donations to finance the construction materials and volunteers to build the enclosure.
In addition to the fawn enclosure and raptor flight cage, ATW will be building enclosures for songbirds, raccoons, squirrels, opossums, water birds, skunks, and foxes. If you are interested in donating funds for an enclosure, please email us at allthingswildrehab@gmail.com, donate at allthingswildrehab.org/donate, or click the button below.
These raucous birds have entertained me for years. The males have an elaborate display for each other while the females are busy hunting for food and ignoring the males. Later in the spring the fledglings follow their mother while demanding food. They are not quiet birds.
I was thrilled to be able to rehab some young birds. The curiosity they have of the world is amazing. Within days the youngsters would start demanding food as soon as they heard my voice. I gave them bits of grass, sticks and a bell to keep them entertained. Once released, they were in no hurry to go far and spent time in my garden bathing, exploring, and calling for more food. One female would follow me in the yard and pull on my shoestrings or land on my shoulder and call loudly in my ear. I have watched the young adults chase each other for a small stick. If you have noticed some of your small garden objects moved, a grackle was probably behind the prank.
Grackles are social and intelligent birds. They have tried to get in our doggie door and will find a spot on our porch to watch the humans. After being rehabilitated, when they finally leave, I miss them and, if any young grackle needs a surrogate, I will be happy to welcome them to our home again.
First Drop-off at Our New Rehabilitation Center
Recently, the new ATW Wildlife Rehabilitation Center received our first drop-off, a young female squirrel with head trauma and an injured front right leg, probably from being hit by a car. Although the center isn't ready to take animals, it was heartening to see the rescuers drive into our unfinished parking lot with the injured squirrel. The squirrel is currently at an ATW rehabilitator's home and is recovering. She should be ready for release soon.
2019 NWRA Symposium
Scheduled for March 5-9
Each year, ATW rehabilitators and volunteers attend an annual education symposium presented by the National Wildlife Rehabilitation Association. The 2019 symposium will be held from March 5-9, 2019, in St. Louis at the Marriott St. Louis Airport Hotel. Registration opens November 16.
Attending the symposium is an opportunity for beginning rehabilitators to acquire basic skills and for experienced rehabilitators to learn state-of-the-art information and procedures. Additionally, there will be field trips to local wildlife rehabilitations centers where we can learn new ideas for operating the ATW center. The 2019 symposium will offer field trips including transportation to the St. Louis Wildlife Rescue Center, the St. Louis Zoo, World Bird Sanctuary and Endangered Wolf Center.
All Things Wild Rehabilitation, Inc., is a nonprofit tax-exempt public charity under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Tax ID number is 46-1309620. Donations to All Things Wild Rehabilitation are tax-deductible as allowed by the Internal Revenue Code.
the prank.
