Wildlife
Rehabilitation
Two
nestling hummingbirds.Notice that the container
that holds their nest is a lid from a small spice jar
!
For over
nine years now I have been rehabbing injured and orphaned
wild animals,both at home and at large rehab centers.Currently,
I specialize in birds.I started at a rehab center in
Oregon,where I volunteered for seven years helping to
rehab raptors. I then moved on to help out at several
other large rehab centers in Oregon and California.
Before
embarking on my curent travel adventures, I had worked
as the primary avian rehabber for Wildlife Care of Ventura
County, a non profit group of home based rehabbers that
work to rehab local wildlife in Ventura county California.
I was the
avian specialist for the group was kept busy all year
round with both orphans and critical care cases. The
following pictures represent a few of the hundreds that
have come through my doors in the last few years.
Most of
the animals, brought to me by kind hearted citizens
from all over L.A and Ventura county, were brought in
for reasons directly related to humans . Loss of habitat,
poisoning, gun shot, hit by car, attacked by cat/dog
are only a few of the more common causes.
My work
with animals, especially our wild brothers and sisters,
is a big part of me and I miss it a great deal. When
we do eventualy find a piece of land to settle on I
very much look forward to opening up another rehab clinic
and sanctuary.
Two newly
hatched House finchs take their first breath of life,after
emerging from the egg. The eggs were collected from
a nearby wild area that was being developed for a housing
complex.The workers took a two week break and returned
to find that several birds had created nests and laid
eggs in their tractors and backhoes ! The construction
workers were kindly concerned for the birds and called
a local fish and Game warden,who carefully collected
the eggs from each nest and delivered them to me. It
is extremely difficult to incubate eggs and raise a
bird from a hatchling. Even so,four of these birds did
survive and went on to be released back to the wild.
Basket
of nestling cliff swallows.
|
Nestling
Wren |
Nestling
pigeon (left) and nestling dove (right).
Please understand
that it is a very difficult,time consuming process to
rehabiliatate injured and orphaned wild animals.Wildlife
rehabiliators study independantly with other rehabbers,attend
confrences and apprentice with veterinarians for many
years in order to become skilled enough to help wildlife.
In addition it is illegal to rehabiliatate a wild animal
without a permit .
If you find
an injured or orphaned wild animal in need of help,please
contact your local wildlife rehabilitator at once.
To find
a rehabber in your area,visit the following links
http://wildliferehabber.com/contacts.htm
http://www.tc.umn.edu/~devo0028/contact.htm
