wildlife rehab

[Catherine Keegan]

At 09:18 PM 3/12/02 +1000, Storm wrote:
>by the way - Cathrine in Calafornia what do you do in the way of wildlife 
>rehab?
>I've just started doing this with WIRES (www.wires.au.com). My avairy, 
>which has
>taken FOREVER, should be ready tomorrow and I already have three incompatable
>occupants lined up (Sulphar Crested Cockatoo tomorrow and then a Raven -
>wonderful! - and Magpie on Friday)
I worked with the Lindsay Wildlife Hospital for several years as a 
volunteer.  Loved it.  I especially enjoyed the raptors.  Birds are just 
great!  Except for when they're chicks and have to be fed every twenty 
minutes or so, they require little care (assuming they're not horribly 
ill).  Volunteers did everything from the endless laundry (don't try to 
think about what kinds of things went into the washing machine, you don't 
want to know) to cleaning cages, to assisting with the procedures (the 
best!).  The Lindsay offered a variety of training to the volunteers so you 
could learn to identify birds or do necropsies to determine the cause of 
death.  I took everything I could.

The hospital saw a wide variety of urban wildlife from one cougar, a few 
bobcats, a baby beaver (too cute to be believed), an adult beaver (huge!), 
a couple of the tiniest coyotes I've ever seen (they tend to be small in 
the Contra Costa area), and a staggering amount of raccoons, opossums, 
squirrels, gophers, snakes, lizards, western pond turtles, and birds - tons 
of birds.

I wasn't in a position to do home care at the time.  I didn't think the 
data center would enjoy  little squawking visitors and, between 
oncall,  maintenance day duties and trying to get a house built, I wasn't 
around enough to provide the kind of home care necessary for birds or 
mammals.  I've been trying to get into the rehabber network in Mendocino 
and have failed miserably.  There is no structure like the hospital here 
and only one licensed rehabber who doesn't want to take on much more work 
and you can't work here without a license.   You have to be a 501C right 
now to get one.

Good luck with your aviary.  Are you going to partition it for the odd crew 
you'll be taking care of?  Might make it a bit small but it's better than 
finding that your three birds has dwindled to one.  Ravens are 
great.  Smart and generally easy to feed.  The Lindsay had one that would 
do anything for a meal worm.  (Imprinted, of course)

I'll have to check out your site and see if they list what the requirements 
are for aviaries, etc...  IWRC rules are the standard here so everything 
seems to be based off a 4'x8' piece of plywood.

Good luck with your new birds!  May they fly healthy and free soon!  (I am 
so jealous.)

Catherine in California - birdless and missing it terribly.