This is a 5 month old possum.
They start hissing around this age and are not so cute and cuddly.
They are ready for release when they reach 2.5 pounds. This
one is only about 1 pound right now so still has a way to go.
We fell in love with the possums and would love to help care for
rescue possums someday.
She also had a poor little squirrel
that had
Squirrel Pox. She's been treating her for 2 months but it
will take about 9 months to finish the treatment. Long way to
go. Poor thing. This is a pox mark.
This is what happens when the pox
mark is on their extremities. It causes swelling in the hands
and feet and the hair falls off and the skin is raw. Doesn't
she look miserable? Poor baby. She's blind in one eye, too,
because of it.
She also had boxes and boxes full of
baby birds that had to be fed every 2-3 hours.
Yesterday, while walking in the
neighborhood, the kids and I found what we thought was a dead
grackle. A flock of a few hundred grackles were in our
neighborhood that day and one of them must had gotten hurt somehow.
As we approached it, we discovered that it wasn't dead but couldn't
fly. It couldn't move its left wing so I picked it up and
brought it home. We called the local Wildlife Rescue and found
out about a woman who rescues bird in our area. We took her
the bird and had a TERRIFIC time learning from her all about her
birds. Her main love is vultures! We thought the sign
was funny and thought it'd be so cool if it were true and then lo
and behold....it was!
I think this one is sunning.
She has cages in her yard that house
all the birds that are well enough to soon be set free and all
around the cages and yard are wild vultures. They like to hang
out in hopes of getting the food that they can smell the
rehabilitated vultures eating.
The vulture below is named Lilly.
She was brought in as a baby and because it took the rehabilitator a
few days to find another vulture to put with the baby, the baby
vulture imprinted on the rehabilitator and so became very attached
to her human helper. Even after she grew up and was released,
she never really left the area. The woman calls her and she
flies in to visit.
She'll come right up and say hello.
She does this by sticking her beak into your hand. The kids
and I got to say hello to her this way as well. Very cool!
See her beak in her hand?
giving her a hug
She had 11 vultures in the cage.
These vultures will be released when it gets a little warmer.
They are fed road kill. She has an arrangement with the county
to bring her the dead deer that they find on the roads. What a
great deal!
yummy! - vultures legs are naturally
pink but they urinate on them and turn them white - this helps keep
their legs warm in the winter and cools them down in the summer -
who would have thought?
She also had seagulls - most had been
shot by BBs or blow darts. One had been shot down by kids and
then had a brock thrown at it. She had to amputate its wing
and its leg doesn't work right anymore. Poor bird. Glad
it was saved by someone and brought to her.
She had 4 barred owls. They
were awesome - so pretty! They are usually brought in with
injuries from cars.
She has a beautiful red tailed hawk.
It has a broken wing that couldn't be fixed enough to fly again.
She's been training it to be used to being touched so it can be an
educational bird.
Here's our grackle being checked out.
She says that his wing is not broken and that he probably ran into a
window and was hurt but would recover in time. She's keeping
him until he can be released.
Inside her home, she had lots of
recovering birds. Some will be able to be released later and
some won't due to being unable to fly again.
This crow has broken legs. One
could be fixed but the other can't.
This poor pigeon arrived with his
head facing backwards. She's had to treat him with
anti-inflammatory medicines and do some therapy work to get his head
back around. He still can't feed himself so that's what she's
working on now.
She also had a possum. He was
most unhappy to have his picture taken. In addition to birds,
she also rescues possums and squirrels. She didn't have any
squirrels right now.
While we were talking to her inside,
we heard a scratch at the door and it was Lilly. So we got to
say hello to her again. We love doing that! She's so
great!
Ethan was so moved by her rescue
mission that he went out to the car to get his wallet and donated
$15 to her from his own money. We are planning on adopting her
as our charity of choice and want to bring her items she needs and
any money we scrounge up. Our first mission will be collecting
newspaper. She says that newspaper is like gold to her.
She's can't get enough. We're going to ask our neighbors for
their newspapers as well and bring her a bunch in a couple of weeks.
We can't wait to see Lilly again and check out the new birds in
recovery!
Our related links:
Bird
Banding
Animal Intelligence
Rikki's Refuge
