babies!

Well, this week pretty much exploded patient-wise. Monday, I received a call about two baby woodpeckers who had been rescued from a fallen tree in a family's backyard in Roaring Creek. They arrived Tuesday morning and I've been running non-stop since then. They're nestlings so they have to be fed every half hour. Tuesday evening, I received a juvenile Roadside Hawk from Belize City. He was being attacked by black birds, but it appears completely fine... just slightly keely with an old, healed fracture to the leg. Is it possible? An actual patient that's releasable? The veterinarian that is with the Peregrine Fund is going to take a look at him tomorrow and give his thoughts. On Wednesday morning, I received the third of the Woodpecker trio. He was a quite dehydrated and smaller than the other two. He's doing great though.. all three of them are piggies. I haven't had much one-on-one experience with Woodpecker babies; they've always just been in the feeding assembly line that occurs during baby season. These guys are hilarious though; they've each got their own personality and they're very grumpy when awoken for a feeding. It's definitely a learning experience to determine what schedules suites them best. I started out with 14 hours worth of feedings on Wednesday but I had to end earlier tonight because I had to fight with them in order to feed them during the second to last feeding. I just decided to let them sleep instead. 13 hours worth of feedings should be sufficient, I think... and so does the awesome purple Hand-Rearing Birds book. It's pretty much the best book ever for hand-rearing the littles.

So yes, baby season as officially begun! I've only got about 20 minutes between feedings so I've been running around like a crazy person trying to get everything done. Wildlife rehabilitation centers can have hundreds of baby and adult patients during the busy season. It seems crazy that 12 patients and 2 education birds would be so exhausting! Hopefully I can get some people here trained on feeding the kids. We shall see..

No other news. Field work will be put on hold for a bit until I can get somebody trained to feed the chiledren. Off to bed so I can rest before doing it all again tomorrow!