May 3, 2011

As you all probably know, the birds lost a true friend with the passing of Bob Lindsay, our executive director. We are all still reeling from his sudden death. The board of directors has met and voted me the new Executive Director of Wild Bird Rescue. I’ll have some very big shoes to fill but I know Bob has trained me well these past 7 years. I look forward to a very successful future with Wild Bird Rescue. As was always the case with Bob, I’ll put the birds first in every decision I make. That being said, I thought an update on baby bird season was due.

From the 60 mph windstorm which hit on April 15th, Wild Bird Rescue took 2 nestling Red-tailed Hawks, 1 nestling Great Horned Owl, 1 adult Common Poorwill, 13 nestling White-winged Doves, 2 nestling Mourning Doves, 11 nestling Eurasian Collared Doves, 1 hatchling Mockingbird, 6 nestling House Sparrows, 1 fledgling House Finch, 1 nestling Eastern Bluebird, 1 fledgling Pigeon, and 1 hatchling Starling. The baby Red-tail Hawks and the baby Great Horned Owl have been transported to South Plains Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Lubbock. With all these newcomers, Wild Bird Rescue is up to bird number 112 for the year with a potential 68% release rate. How’s that for the start of baby bird season 2011! I’ll be back soon with more updates and success stories.

Lila Arnold
Executive Director

60mph Windstorm

The windstorm last week brought 2 nestling Red-tailed Hawks, a nestling Great Horned Owl, an adult Common Poorwill, which we released already, and a nestling Eastern Bluebird, among many other baby birds.

Here is a picture I took of the two nestling Red-tails.

birds and more birds

We received a donation of bird seed from Home Depot. It had been exposed to moisture so it could not be sold. We wanted to use all (12) twenty pound bags before it went bad so we have been dumping a bag every two days under the mulberry trees. This morning was quite a sight. There were Red-winged Blackbirds, Common Grackles, Great-tailed Grackles, European Starlings, House Sparrows, White Crowned Sparrows, a pair of Cardinals, Brown-headed Cowbirds, White-winged Dove, Eurasian Collared Dove, Mourning Doves, Juncos and Yellow-headed Blackbirds. This is my first sighting of the Yellow-headed Blackbird this year. And, what a sighting. There were over two dozen. What a feeding frenzy this morning!

Events

Our first annual Volksmarch and Festival is behind us. It took a lot of hard work from a lot of volunteers, but everything went off without a hitch. Well, everything we could control. We kept hoping it would not rain, but we forgot to ask not to have a norther blow through at 6am the day of the event. I think the cold wind kept many families away. However, those that came seem to have had a great time. I have received a lot of positive feedback from those who participated. We look forward to doing it again next year. In fact, you can mark your calendars. I do not know the date, but the day is the last Saturday of March, 2012! As I stated above, we had tremendous support from volunteers. Steve & Alicia Pruitt were our committee chairs and they went above and beyond with the number of hours and in-kind donations. The event committee also included; Elizabeth Hawley, Chris Peterson, Frank Iacovitti, Tony Zupkas, Lila Arnold, Marjorie Hardin, and Marty Maxwell. This group had a combined total of 875 hours. WBR volunteers gave us 162 additional hours. Our Volunteer Coordinator, Christina Peterson, spent the majority of her time seeking, scheduling and coordianting volunteers from outside sources. We had help from Sigma Lambda Alpha, Zundy Jr. High, Kirby Jr. High and the Rolling Plains Chapter of the Texas Master Naturalist. These groups assisted with clean up, assisting on the walk, selling food & beverages, working in our gift shop and more areas I know I haven't mentioned for a total of 195 hours. If you haven't added all that up yet, it comes to 1,232 hours! Sometimes it is difficult to express how much you appreciate the help you receive. Please accept thank you. We will see you next year!

Great Blue Herons

Does this look like a Great Blue Heron? Monday I was on the front deck and 8 or 9 Great Blue Herons flushed from the cove in front of the Rescue Center. GB Herons have a deep growlie-gargalie-harsh call (hard to describe). Two of the Herons circled the cove over and over again with continuous calls. I have never observed this behavior before so I was quite enthralled with their behavior. Each circle took them East and as they circled over the end of the cove I saw a bobcat walk up the boat ramp. Evidently, he had been hunting the shore line and startled the flock of Herons. The two I watched decided they would escort him out of sight. He crossed over the lot East of the Rescue center. As long as he stayed next to the fence, the Herons simply circled and voiced their opinion. If he made a move away from the fence the Herons would swoop down at him. I know during mating season Heron's will be very defensive of their nesting area. Until Monday, I never realized they would drive off predators like they did the bobcat. That's a good thing working with and/or observing wildlife, you will always learn something new!

Above is a picture of a bobcat I took in November of 2007 here at the Rescue Center.

Up and Coming

Penny Miller will be presenting "Winged Journey: Mysteries of Bird Migration" on March the 7th from 7pm - 9pm at River Bend Nature Center.

Wild Bird Rescue's Volksmarch & Festival is just around the corner on March 26th from 8am - 6pm. This event is replacing our Celebrity Roast. The Volksmarch will be for all ages. The Volksmarch & Festival is $10 or join us for just the Festival for $5. Parking is FREE. We will have German sausage, beer, hot dogs, sodas and water. Vendors will be featuring items from plants to wickless candles. We will have live music, the Comanche Nation will be down from Oklahoma with a Golden Eagle, Red-tailed Hawk, Peregrine Falcon and maybe a Swallow-tailed Kite. Wild Bird Rescue is sponsoring a children's activity area. Their $5 festival entry fee allows them into our activity area for free. They will have the opportunity to build pine-cone bird feeders, small bird houses, make an owl from paper plates, finger puppets and a whole lot more fun items.

We encourage early registration for the march. The latest news letter has the registration form. Or, you can go to our website, http://www.wildbirdrescueinc.org/ and print the form and mail it in. Early registration the day of the event will begin at 7am.

WE HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE.


On April 9th Wild Bird Rescue will be at River Bend Nature Center to participate in an Animal Rescue Garage Sale. WBR will be just one of many local animal rescue groups there to sell and collect donations to help raise funds. Local dog and cat rescue groups will have some of their animals there and will be collecting adoption information (no on-site adoptions). Come and join us.

THANK YOU.

Backyard Bird Count

The backyard bird count was this past weekend. A few of us met on the north shore of Lake Wichita in front of Wild Bird Rescue. The Rolling Plains Chapter of Texas Master Naturalist, The North Texas Bird and Wildlife Club and Wild Bird Rescue were well represented. And, for once, the weather started off nice. Seems every time we meet for a bird count/watch it is either cold, a cold wind or raining. Or, any combination of the three. We were there for two hours and saw the following birds;

White Pelican 42
Ring-billed Gull 7
Great Egret 1
Green Heron 1
Great Blue Heron 2
American Coot 9
Double-crested Cormorant 29
Cananda Goose 300+
Mallard 4
Ring-necked Duck 3
Gadwall 3
Pintail 10
Northern Shoveler 2
Duck species 35 (too far across the lake to makes positive ID)
Killdeer 2
Pied-billed Grebe 5
Bewick's Wren 1
Marsh Wren 1
Cardinal 1
Blue Jay 1
Mockingbird 1
Eurasian Collared Dove 3
White-winged Dove 4
Robin 75
Red-winged Blackbird 14
Great-tailed Grackle 3
European Starling 1
House Finch 2
American Goldfinch 1
House Sparrow 1

This is not an accumulative count, but a count of the most you see of a species at one time. After two hours the winds picked up and the birds sought shelter. So, we did too. Great day of birding with friends.

Spring Time?

Penny Miller reported in her blog, "A Charm of Finches" she was hearing Mockingbirds sing for the first time this year. There is a Robin in the Mulberry tree here at the Rescue Center singing his little heart out!

Hopefully, spring is here and we are finished with this cold weather.

Don't forget the Backyard Bird Count this Sunday, the 20th. Here at WBR at 7:30am.

Great Backyard Bird Count

It is time for the Great Backyard Bird Count, http://www.birdscource.org/gbbc/ , February 18 - 21. This is really a great outdoor activity for families. It could also be incorporated into science activities for home schools or public schools.

You can take part for as little as 15 minutes and you don't have to be an expert on birds to take part in this event. This is a count that allows you to indicate you were not able to identify all the birds you see, and it is perfectly OK to do so.

For those of you who prefer to see what it is all about by taking part in a group activity, the Rolling Plains Chapter of Texas Master Naturalists will be hosting a count on Sunday, February 20th, at 7:30a.m. behind Wild Bird Rescue, 4611 Lake Shore Dr. Remember, the wind will be blowing off the lake so it can be chilly. Dress in layers and be comfortable.

Another Success Story

This Red-tailed Hawk came to us on Sunday, January the 16th. Lila was working and she received a phone call from a State Trooper. Evidently, a couple driving on the highway noticed a large bird laying on her side, in the highway, with one wing up in the air. The couple stopped (in the middle of the highway) and found the bird to be a live. The State Trooper stopped to see why someone had stopped in middle of the road and he was the one who picked up the hawk and called Wild Bird Rescue. Lila met him on Hwy 281 and brought the Hawk to the Rescue Center. Her initial exam did not leave a good prognosis. She was totally

non-responsive. Lila started our head trauma protocol and hoped she would still be a live in the morning.

When I came in on Monday, I found a very alert Red-tailed Hawk standing in her carrier. However, she had NO sight response. We continued our head trauma treatment and force fed her twice a day. We determined her sex by her size and weight. Raptor females are noticeably larger and heavier than the males. By Tuesday all sight had returned and she was self-feeding. What a turn-around in condition in just a matter of days. By Friday she was too much too handle in the infirmary so we moved her to the outside aviary to ensure she was strong enough to fly. On Friday, the 28th, one of our board members came by to take her to property in Archer County where she was released! YES, we do like to brag about our successes!

2010 Statistics

2010 has come and gone. I have finished the annual report I must send to Texas Parks & Wildlife and I am now working on the annual report required by U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services. We had a busy year in 2010. I might add we had a very successful year in 2010. We missed our goal of a 70% release rate, but we get closer and closer every year. In 2009 our release rate was 66.5%. Last year we released 67.89%!

2010 Birds received = 1025
Transferred to other facilities = 1.08%
DOA = 9.46%
Died in our care = 16.38%
Euthanized = 14.66%
RELEASED = 67.89%

Our release rate continues to climb every year. This is due to our continued education in the rehabilitation field, dedicated rehabbers and volunteers and our financial supporters.

Thank You

Yesterday afternoon, volunteer Marjorie and I were on the front deck and we heard Sandhill Cranes flying overhead. I had already spotted two flocks earlier in the day. As we were searching the skies for the cranes, I noticed a large bird circling over Lake Wichita Park east of the Rescue Center. As he banked and turned the sun caught the distinguished white head and tail. I ran inside my office, grabbed my binoculars and positively ID a Bald Eagle! I gave the binoculars to Marjorie and she too had a good view of our visitor. He circled and circled, each loop carrying him further east until he was out of sight.

Both the Bald and Golden Eagle winter in the Wichita Mountains 45 minutes north of Wichita Falls. I have received numerous reports of Bald Eagles northeast in Nocona, TX. As far as I am aware, this is the first Eagle spotted over Lake Wichita in the 5 years I have been here.

Photo is from Cornell's Lab of Ornithology, "All About Birds".

Whooping Crane

One of our Game Wardens came by the Rescue Center last week. He wanted to let us know of a flock of Sandhill Cranes with a Whooping Crane amoung them. There is a plowed field of maize north of Electra where the cranes come in every day to feed and he saw the Whooper there. I put the word out to our rehabbers, board members and volunteers and the quest to see the most endangered spieces of bird in North America began. Terry and her mom, June, saw him; Elizabeth, Penny and Lila saw him. The day we went my wife saw him, but he walked down the other side of the ridge before I could get my binonculars up.

My quest for the Whooper is not over. I will go back and try again!

Even though I did not get to see the Whooper, watching approximately 20,000 Sandhill Cranes in one place is a sight well worth the drive. WOW!