Again we would like to thank everyone for the wonderful donations for the yard sale. We sold alot and had alot left over; too much for the tiny amount of storage we have available here. We had very good items and we donated alot of it to Ellicott Helping Hands, a nonprofit here in Ellicott that partners with Care and Share in helping provide food, clothing, children’s items, and other resources to folks who find themselves victims of financial situations and disasters (fire, tornado) and parter with a women’s shelter as well. They were very grateful for the good donations of children’s items, clothing, household items, linens, books, etc. So again your donations are most appreciated and went to where they will do the most good. The reading glasses were donated to the Lion’s club at Farmers State Bank where they will be put to good use as well. Oh, and we still have enough stuff for a July yard sale!
Imagine the surprise of waking up at 5 a.m. and finding yourself face-to-face with a barn owl in your bedroom! That’s what happened to a family in Colorado Springs yesterday. Apparently a screen had fallen out of an upstairs bedroom window that was left open overnight, and a boy awoke to the sounds of a barn owl trying to get back out, hitting against the glass part of the window! John, the neighbor, came over and caught the bird, then placed it in a kennel to take to the vet. The vets at Animal Emergency Care Center North x-rayed the owl and found no fractures or other injuries, so other than a few scrapes, the owl seemed ready to go. Transport volunteer Su picked the owl up from the vet, brought to Phil at work, noting that the owl was very restless in the kennel. Phil immediately released the bird back where it had come from, with John and his wife. It was about 10 p.m. and the owl took off like a rocket, and didn’t need to come to rehab after all!
We’d like to thank everyone who helped make the yard sale today a success. Thank you to Holly. Thank you to everyone who donated items for the sale; it was really great “stuff” and went pretty quick! Thank you to Diana and Rose for setting up and running the sale today. This was so much fun we think we’ll do it again in July!!
“Winkers” Great Horned Owl was released in Calhan last evening. Happy to say he did so well, as he looked so bad on intake. We all watched as he flew back to the tree where the homeowners believe he originated from, as there is a nest and other GHOs there as well.
Thank you to everyone who called yesterday and last night to see if we’re all okay! We’re beginning to think we’re in the severe weather center of Colorado, what with the spring and summer funnels, and winter white-outs! A brand new item on our wish list, added yesterday during the storm, is a cinderblock building with a storm cellar; some place safe and secure for the volunteers and critters during these storms! We lost a large tree branch (don’t have many to spare.) The front gate was bent literally in half and flung down on the driveway. The pet carriers are probably in another state by now. Our yard is full of trash and debris (but we gave up trying to look “pretty” years ago.) The cages held up just fine-again-and everyone in them is just fine. We’re happy to hear that other than some structure damage, our neighbors here in Ellicott seem to be okay, too, according to the news last night. Stressed, but okay. So begins our summer weather pattern of nice mornings, scary afternoons, and calm evenings.
If you or anyone you know has a large working chest freezer to donate, PLEASE have them call us! This time of year is good for meat and fish donations, which we need and are happy to receive, but we need some place to keep it!
Nancy called today, and said those tiny babies are doing well and growing. Again, we’d like to thank George for hatching the eggs, and Nancy for raising the babies; we know those birds are getting the best care with her! We’re hoping for some pix soon as well.
Turkey vulture was released yesterday, and looked great. That bird seemed to need only a few days of R&R, and was quite anxious to go. Thank you to Diana for the advice-again!
This is pretty exciting, and I think George, the man who is hatching them in his incubator, is just as surprised as anyone! One egg hatched yesterday and the rest are likely due to follow. The vireo baby is very tiny; less than the size of a penny. The really difficult part begins now-successfully raising that baby and the others. I can think of only 1 rehabber in the area for the job of raising the babies, and that is Nancy in Pueblo, and we’d like to thank her for taking on the challenge of trying to raise babies that tiny! This will be very difficult, so let’s keep our fingers crossed!
They’re growing and thriving along with the other kits that came to rehab.
Also, we would like to thank Jeff H. for safely monitoring from a distance another fox den with 6 kits after the mother and apparent father were hit by cars. Due to Jeff’s frequent, regular, and unobtrusive observations and Scott C.’s information and insight, we were able to ensure the kits were doing okay without any direct intervention from people.
Rojo, Cooper’s hawk was released today, and so was Blue, the blue grouse. Both have recovered from minor wing injuries and are flying very well, with Rojo flying loops in his enclosure! He was gone so far and so fast there was no time to get a picture of his release. Blue was released in the foothills, and was gone pretty far and pretty fast, too. These are the days that make it all worthwhile.
Thank you to Whole Foods Market and everyone who was there yesterday helping us and making the day a successs by participating in the Community Day. Thank you Tracy, Su, and Gail, as well as Kendra and the Whole Foods team. Handsome and Hootie came to visit, and we made a LOT of suet feeders, too! Thank you to Frank and The Wild Bird Center for your generosity!
We’re going to miss her but today Jo-Jo was released. She’s recovered from her injuries sustained when she got caught in a truck engine a few months ago. Looks like Ozzie Bullock’s oriole is ready to go, too, as they’re back at Fountain Creek.
We were especially happy this morning when Matt showed up with his Eagle Scout project-8 beautiful, perfect barn owl boxes! Just in the nick of time, as fox kits are still coming in, and the other mammals and large birds are close behind. Thank you, Matt! We appreciate you and so do the critters!
And a special thank you to George and Mike for helping with the thrush nest relocation and egg-incubation mission yesterday!
Well, here we are, beginning of May, and the phone is ringing off the hook with misplaced and (not really) orphaned babies. Please visit http://www.ellicottwildlife.com/ to make sure those babies REALLY need intervention; usually they don’t. Because of our work schedules, we are unable to take baby birds now. Anyway, in addition to babies, these last several days have brought us Rojo, a beautiful Cooper’s hawk from the Gleneagle area, and Blue, a blue grouse from the Colorado Springs area. Rojo is recovering from nerve damage in his wing and Blue has some soft tissue damage in her wing. We’re happy to say that Rojo is flying loops in his enclosure, and we’re moving him to the large but unfinished water bird enclosure, just to see what he can do in a much larger structure. We’re hoping for a release soon; he looks great so far. Blue is in there today and um, well, not exactly a stellar performance! Jo-Jo bun is getting released on Saturday if the weather cooperates, just in time for more critterss to come…
