an aracari and an adventure... finally!

We have the internet again! I felt so very lost without it. I might have a problem...

Friday morning arrived with the cutest patient ever... a fledgling Collared Aracari Toucan! She was found on the ground Thursday morning. She has weird miscellaneous wounds and an old leg fracture which has healed correctly. Thankfully she's eating on her own so she doesn't have to be force fed. Soon we'll introduce her to Elmo, the resident Aracari, so she won't forget that she's a toucan. Photo credits to the lovely Alison Kocek (feel free to follow her blog and harass her for not updating in YEARS).

We released the Great-tailed Grackle on Saturday. He's really friendly and is still receiving supplemental feedings. His current condition is a bit disconcerting but I guess all we can do is give him time to figure out how to live in the wild. Monday brought us two Golden-fronted Woodpecker nestlings. Well, three actually, but the other had died in transit. The other two look great though and are eating a ton... as it usually is with the Woodpeckers.

Alison got conned into staying two more weeks! But sadly, she leaves on Wednesday.. unless she can be dissuaded otherwise. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do when she leaves.

I think I forgot to mention that a couple of weeks ago we saw a Jaguarundi! We were leaving the office one evening and we spotted one about 15 feet from us. We had seen adult and kit tracks on the trail about a month ago. Pretty crazy. The day before yesterday there was a young Fer-de-lance snake on Alison's porch. Go ahead and google it. Uhhh... yeah, just a little scary.

Tomorrow we finally have an adventure! Blue Hole National Park on the gorgeous Hummingbird Highway. We both need to get away from the facility since it's been a month and a half of almost straight working... I am so very excited to get away from it all. I love doing this, but no real day off since Mid-May has gotten to me just a little.

doves and vireos

Well, we had hoped to get a day or two off to do some exploring but the babies keep on coming. Saturday we got in a White-tipped dove fledgling. No real injuries; it was just found on the ground with some ants attempting to attack it. Monday was an exciting day - we released the 3 Yellow-green Vireos. They were slightly confused but flew into a tree. The two White-fronted and two Pionus parrots were transferred to Belize Bird Rescue in order to get some pre-release flight training. They'll likely be released on-site in a couple of months. Tuesday morning brought us another Yellow-green Vireo. He had fluid in his lungs and was gasping for air, but he somehow pulled through and is doing fine now.

The internet is out again until who knows when so I'm currently updating from Greedy's in town. I would have put together a better entry, but the baby needs feeding back at CASA. One day I'll have another interesting entry... one day.

some birds, some interns, no exciting adventures

I finally had a day off on Tuesday! Well... sort of. I went to the Cahal Pech pool and then we got two birds in so I helped out with those. Now I am slightly burned and semi-well rested. I was able to sleep in for the first time since May and give some attention to my poor neglected hammock. Thanks Alison!

Two more birds on Tuesday. One was a Rock Pigeon, a non-native species. They're the species of pigeon you can see all over the world. He had an older humerus/shoulder fracture which was already beginning to heal and I suspect there was some infection in the bone. Needless to say, he wasn't with us the next day. The second patient was a Golden-fronted Woodpecker fledgling. He's more or less blind. He's been put on antibiotics in the hopes that it is caused by an infection. He kind of hurts my heart... and that's all I'll say.

The Yellow-green Vireo kids are taking their time with being independent. It's become frustrating! Our little botfly larvae guy (lovingly nicknamed Bitey Botfly and/or Bot 2) is doing great! It's amazing how he was inundated by larvae and had minor surgery but is now doing great. They're pretty cute, just extremely frustrating with their inability to feed themselves.

The grackle who arrived about six weeks ago with the shoulder fracture is flying all around his aviary. A bit more flight practice and he'll be ready to go. He's sharing his aviary with the Chachalaca and once her feathers are hard-pinned (no feathers growing in), she'll be released. Four of the parrots will be transfered for pre-release conditioning very soon. Hopefully they will be leaving on Saturday. They've been here since last year and it's definitely time for those guys to go. The Roadside Hawk with the torn eyelid is doing fantastic. He still has a small hole in that eyelid, but he can catch live prey and fly pretty well. It's amazing to think of how he looked when he first came in and how he looks now. He'll be released tomorrow.

Nothing else too exciting has been going on. We went to the Cahal Pech ruins on Saturday for a couple of hours but the random kid who followed us around and said about 20 words the entire time made it a little awkward. We saw some Blue-crowned Motmots and a few others species though so it's alright.

I'm hoping something miraculous happens before Tuesday so that Alison and I can at least go to the zoo or to Blue Hole National Park. Fingers crossed? Off to feed some babies!

distractions

Distractions and general ridiculousness led to no update last night. My apologies, friends.

While on a walk down Bullet Tree Road to see some birds on Wednesday, a car drove by us, then reversed and made us weary. Turns out, the family who found the Vireo (Yellow-green?) and brought it to CASA last Wednesday, found two more. We're fairly certain that they're the siblings to the initial Vireo. The woman has dogs and was wary of renesting. One is in good health and the other... had four Botfly larvae. Yum! And also sick / creepy. They were located in his head, chin, and in his left nare. Those were easily extracted by squeezing and pulling with tweezers. The fourth was located on the abdomen but it had been closed off so it couldn't be easily removed. Yesterday, I gave him some pain medications and proceeded to use a scalpel to remove the dead larvae. It was a little crazy; luckily it was only subcutaneous so it was fairly easy to remove and not too horribly painful. The kid took it like a champ and is doing well so far.

On Sunday, we released the Roadside Hawk that had been raised by somebody in Orange Walk in the morning. We had a picnic on the lawn in honor of the fourth with veggie burgers, baked beans, and watermelon, as well as various Belizeans fruits. It was too bad we didn't have any fireworks.

We've acquired a wandering intern. He arrived on Monday. He's pretty young but eager and enthusiastic and from England. I've met so many different nationalities since I've been here.

Alison's mom left on Monday. Time goes by way too fast here. A few more days and I'll have been here for 6 months. An offer was made to stay for another year but it's not realistic to stay as a volunteer... life and bills and my health call.

Hopefully these Vireos will start eating on their own very soon so that Alison and I can actually go out during the day and do some fun things. And now, it's time for breakfast.

minus eight, plus two

Many of you have probably heard about Tropical Storm Alex paying us a visit. It arrived Saturday evening and had cleared off by Sunday afternoon... we mostly just got a lot of rain and some wind / "squalls". Monday's weather was perfect so it turned into release day! The 2 Golden-fronted Woodpeckers and 4 Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers were released on-site in the morning. The Woodpeckers (above) were completely finished with us and didn't hang around for very long. The Flycatchers were a bit more confused and hung out for a while trying to figure out what was going on. We drove to Bullet Tree a bit later and released the remaining 2 Euphonia (I lost another on Friday morning) into a delicious berry tree. Good luck little guys!

A House Wren arrived on Monday evening. She had hit a ceiling fan in San Ignacio. Her wing was pretty trashed and, unfortunately, she didn't make it past Tuesday. Those guys are really stress prone, plus she probably had some head trauma and who knows what else. Another baby came in on Wednesday. It was found on the ground the road the El Pilar. It's a passerine and... that's all I know. Time will tell, I suppose. He's mostly uninjured. It's always not ideal to raise a kid by itself since they can get confused. We'll see how it goes...

The Chachalaca has been moved to an "outside" aviary ("outside" because she has no exposure to the elements). She's flighted now but she's still got awkward teenage plumage. The parakeet is still a parakeet and the grackle is still sort of a grackle. She is flying a bit though which is promising and she's FINALLY eating all on her own. That took way too long. The Roadside Hawk had surgery on her eyelid last week. So far so good. She's opening her eye all the way but she'll be examined this week to see if the lid has healed together.

I was able to get off the property on Tuesday to "get browse". We did get browse... we just threw a little hiking and jungle machete-ing and birding in there as well. It was nice to get off the property for a bit. We've been invited to lunch in Santa Familia tomorrow. It's going to happen, even if I have to take the baby along with us.

Five and a half months down... how is it July already??