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WILD TAILS

Winter 2018


Welcome to the latest issue of the MLWC newsletter.
Did you know we have Northern Flying Squirrels around here?  They are nocturnal, so you might find them at your bird feeder at night.  Unlike other squirrels, they live in colonies. They're  much smaller than Western Gray Squirrels; the center photo shows one on a 2 X 2.  

A tree trimmer in Twain Harte called us on October 6th.  He'd cut down a tree, and a flying squirrel had come out of a hole in it.  He gave us the squirrel, wrapped in his shirt, and offered the 4' section of tree trunk which had the nest.  To be safe, we stuffed a t-shirt in the hole and took it.  The next day we saw a nose in the hole, so a cage with food and nesting material was attached to the trunk, and the squirrel finally emerged. The first one had been terrified and didn't want to eat.  The second one was quiet, calm, and curious, ate right away, and calmed her sister down.  Now the two are together in an outdoor cage, waiting for Spring to be released.  They could go earlier if we get some warmer weather, but it's supposed to be quite cold for a while.  Meanwhile, they have each other for body warmth at night.
Western Screech Owls  Each year we have more of these creatures than any other.  There are three in residence now; all were hit by cars and suffered head trauma and eye damage.  One was a youngster who was hit hard right after leaving the nest, so he has no experience hunting.  At first he couldn't even find his food, but now he does. There's also an adult who, when hit by the car, had two bones in the left wing fractured and the right eyelid torn. The fractured wing was wrapped and healed nicely, and the eyelid was sewn back into place and functions well now. We hope this adult  will teach the youngster to hunt. The third Screech Owl had a broken femur, which was pinned by Dr. Tanya Jackson of Twain Harte Veterinary.  All three continue to show improvement. 
Another Screech Owl was found on Greenley in Sonora and turned in to the Forest Service office there, and they called us.  The owl needed a few days to get his wits back and a few more to get back to the top of his game.  He proved he could fly, proved he could hunt, and demonstrated attitude and avoidance toward people.  After two weeks in care he was ready for release, which happened back on Greenley Rd. December 6th.  He sat in an open hand briefly before flying swiftly away.
THE GAMES RAVENS PLAY: Update...The three covered in the Autumn newsletter are still with us.  We normally don't name animals, as that makes them pet-like.  It also tends to create bonds in our minds, which are best avoided as much as possible.  With three ravens in one cage, it became necessary to name them to refer to them.  The one from Bishop is Bishop, the one from Napa is Natty (Nappy wasn't appealing,) and our original one is Archie, due to leg and foot issues.  That's Bishop to the right, who for some reason has bark chips and a dirt clump in his mouth.
Archie was moved into the 20' cage with the other two in early December.  Natty, in the third raven photo, has too few feathers to get lift and be able to fly.  He had been turned into Napa Valley Wildlife with almost all his feathers broken, and no information about what happened to him.  Bishop needs more socialization with ravens, as he's too tame.  We people are ignoring him and discouraging his bonding with us.  The two newer birds didn't get along together at first, but are now doing well, and sometimes sit side by side on a perch, a great improvement.  They and Archie seem to do all right together, after Archie held off Bishop, who can be a bit of a bully. 
Ravens are known for their intelligence, antics, and constant activity.  These three play with everything in their environment, destroying some things in the process.  Each has a doorless kennel to use as a private, protected-feeling space, and their games include pulling the covers off the kennels, pulling the towels out of them and dragging the towels around the cage, and throwing the kennels off the shelves they're on.  They also enjoy picking apart their perches; Natty particularly likes unwinding the jute that covers some of them. Archie has a thing against foam insulation on perches and works constantly at destroying it.  They like stashing food everywhere, especially Bishop, who tucks bits of mice in the frame of the cage's door.  Don't try that at home!     
Common Poorwill  When people see these, they're often mistaken for owls.  We get them infrequently.  We got one in with many broken bones, which had been hit by a car, and didn't make it through the night.  Then a week later,  we got this one October 18.  It had been found on the ground at Blue Mountain Minerals' quarry on the far side of Columbia.  It may have been in torpor then, conserving energy, but when we opened the box, it flew right out.   It was released after three days.  We would have kept it longer to fatten it up more, but Poorwills are one of the few birds that won't self-feed in captivity, and it wasn't tolerating force feeding well. 
Now, this is a mouth!
This amazing photo was taken by Brian Zwiebel and shows how truly uncommon Poorwills' mouths are.  This is a cropped version of the photo.  You can see the full version here and more about Brian  at www.sabrewingtours.com

Poorwills have gigantic mouths, which they open wide to catch moths, when they fly at dawn and dusk. 
They're the only bird that truly hibernates.  They hiss at you when they're mad, and make a wonderful sound, rocking back and forth, when calling at night.
A beautiful Steller's Jay, which we raised from a nestling with its siblings, had feathers which never developed correctly.  That may be because it was unable to absorb some nutrients.  Its siblings were  released, but it's still with us, in an outdoor cage. Since its feathers were bad, we pulled its tail feathers to see if it could regrow good feathers, which it did.   We'd like to find it a buddy and put it in a volunteer’s 16’ cage to evaluate its flight capability with its current wing feathers.  We may have to wait for it to molt all flight feathers before release.  
This Western Scrub Jay was  raised by a member of the public, fed an improper diet, and kept in a wire cage.  Wild birds in cages without protection from the wire damage their feathers.  This is what can happen when an untrained person, with the best of intentions, cares for wildlife.  Please contact a wildlife organization when you have an animal in need; we're trained and permitted for this.  A wild bird should not go in a domestic bird's cage but in a box or a paper bag for transport. 
This Scrub Jay  still can’t fly.  His entire tail has regrown, but he still needs to molt all his wing feathers before he can fly.


You'd think these Jays could be housed together, but they're in cages separated by screen.  If together, they’d start acting like each other, adopting each other's foraging techniques, for example.  Then they wouldn't be accepted by their own species.  They'd also bond and not want to separate when released.
A new cage with a tiny footprint.  This one was designed to accommodate little birds like hummingbirds, bushtits, titmice, and the wren we currently have in care.

Cavalcade of Cages  Winter is a wonderful time to go into cage production, and we have.  The panels for three songbird cages are ready to be put together in volunteers' yards around the county.  There should be a metal cage soon, for woodpeckers, lest they drill into wooden cage frames.  For that one, our director and volunteers are looking forward to learning a new skill, welding.  All cages are designed to be portable, so the panels can be disassembled, moved in a pickup, and reassembled at a new place.  Even the 50' cage at our main location could be moved to a new location and rebuilt if necessary.  Peoples' lives change, and creatures' needs change, so we must be able to be flexible about cages and everything else we provide for wildlife.
We hope to provide interesting articles and fun features, a look into the world of the creatures around us and the efforts required to help them when needed.  Your comments regarding what you like and what you might like to see in the future are welcome.  This is for your interest and enjoyment.
Alicia Encoyand came to know us by bringing three different birds to us for care.  The third one was a barn owl, and at that point she asked about volunteering, and, lucky us, she started volunteer work then.  She continues to bring in birds for care, and comes to the main facility once a week to work through the morning.  The most recent bird she's brought to us is a mallard hen from Greeley Hill, which was released back there the weekend before Christmas.
One Barn Owl Alicia brought to us was found by her husband, Alex, on his foot!  (See story in our Autumn newsletter)

Alicia is a full time student at Columbia College, majoring in biology and physics, and has three young children.  She has always been interested in animals, and saw many of them, among other things, in Alaska, and all over the country, as she traveled frequently with her parents, commercial fishermen.

Her absolute favorite animals to work with are owls, especially Western Screech Owls.  She says they're, "really, really neat, easy to work with, and very good patients.  They're very vocal about letting you know when they're ready to be released."

We don't know where she finds the time to do all that she does, and we're so glad to have her with us!

Director’s Docket:  We opened our doors in 2014, specializing in birds and squirrels, and since then, we've handled around 230 animals each year.  We wanted to do what we said we would do, to the best of our ability, before taking on additional species.  We have added in a few; bats, rabbits, and pond turtles, but always on a resource available condition.  Handling baby songbirds has been and still is our challenge.  Home care for baby songbirds is a huge commitment not many volunteers can make, as nestlings need to be fed every half hour, from dawn until dusk.  In 2018, in addition to home care, we will try something different, a new songbird hospital at our main facility in Tuolumne where volunteers can come for 4 hour shifts, 1 day each week and feed baby birds.  This is an easier commitment and one that I hope some of you and/or your friends will consider making.  May through September is baby songbird season with the peak need in June, July, and August.  Please call 677-7249 if you want to join the team!                                                                                 -Laura Murphy

UPCOMING EVENTS
 
It's Spring, and here comes the Home & Garden Show to the fairgrounds in Sonora again, so come have some fun and see us there.

It's April 14th and 15th, and the hours are: Saturday 10:00-5:00 and Sunday 10:00-4:00.  

You can meet us, have questions answered, pick up a printed newsletter for a friend, and sign up for a free raffle of a goodie basket.  See next newsletter for contents.  What a great weekend activity!
 
If you haven't received an email version of this newsletter and would like to, please go to our website, www.mlwild.org and click on the Newsletter link, enter your name and email address, and click Subscribe!   
Credits
Most of this newsletter was written by Helen Engledow and edited by her and Laura Murphy.   Laura Murphy provided most of the photos, except for Brian Zwiebel's wonderful Poorwill mouth photo, and the Artwork by Jennifer Rain Crosby accompanying "Honesty". 
HONESTY

Black Bear came to a meeting late and said, "I'm feeling frazzled after dealing with my cubs.  What if I don't feel compassionate?"

Raven said, "Fake it."

"That doesn't seem honest," said Black Bear.

"It doesn't begin with honesty," said Raven.



Robert Aitken, Zen Master Raven, Wisdom Publications, 2017, page 113.  Used with permission.
Art work by Jennifer Rain Crosby in Zen Master Raven, page 112.  Used with permission.

 
Wish List
 
Reliable Volunteers - in particular,
         Baby Songbird feeders
      -  4 hour shifts May - September

Astroturf - long or short leaf
Heavy Duty Rubbermaid shelf liner
Gift cards - Lowe's, OSH, Amazon
                 - Gas Cards
old ice chests (we use these to transport donated frozen mice)

 
Mealworm Wranglers!  We raise mealworms to feed some of the animals.  We will train any Wrangler how to care for them.  We will provide the plastic trays, the bran medium and carrots for food/moisture.  Wranglers would maintain the colonies, sort when necessary, and keep the volunteers supplied with different sized mealworms.  Interested?  
Call 677-7249 for more information.
Currently in Care

(3) Western Screech Owls
(3) Common Ravens
Western Scrub Jay
Steller's Jay
(2) N. Flying Squirrels
Bewick's Wren 


 
Copyright © 2018 Mother Lode Wildlife Care, All rights reserved.


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