Some updates from Wildwoods Rehabilitation:

There are three window-strike bird victims in residence — a northern flicker, a juvenile cedar waxwing, and a flycatcher. The flicker came in with a spinal bruise, and was unable to use his legs for several days. Fortunately, he’s made a full recovery after rest and anti-swelling meds, and is ready for release. In the meantime, he’s been pigging out on the mealworms, and has plumped out, just in time for migration, when he’ll need the energy!

It’s amazing how docile and bold waxwings are. We’ll be waving a mealworm in front of the flycatcher, trying to get him interested, and the waxwing will hop over and steal it. He is chowing down on mountain ash berries, chokecherries, chopped up apple, and lots of mealworms.

The flycatcher is a bit more stressed out by his new situation, and we haven’t seen him eating on his own yet. For now, we are gently stuffing a mealworm pupae down his beak every so often. We hope he starts eating on his own soon; force-feeding him isn’t fun for anyone.

We got in a nestling mourning dove this afternoon (pics soon!). We love mourning doves! The only problem with them is that, in the absence of other doves (and he’s our only dove at present), they can become used to people very quickly, which is really bad. So we’re calling other rehab places to see if we can track down another young dove he can buddy up with.

Almost all of the young mice have been released, and the little brown bat has also flown off to his old haunts. Releases are the best, and we’ve had some good ones lately.

Of course, it’s never all happy news in wildlife rehabilitation. We got a call about a half-grown fawn stuck in a fence. He was super-shocky, and despite our best efforts, he died. Deer can handle short bursts of stress (outrunning a predator), but don’t do well with prolonged, intense stress. Thanks so much to Rochelle for calling us. We are so sorry that we couldn’t save him.

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