Our “gear” began with a collapsible pet carrier and some work gloves. At that point, we could still transport a few pieces of luggage and one niece or nephew in the backseat. Years later, in the same two-door Civic, we can barely get a turnip in the trunk.
Road Kill and Wildlife Crossings
It’s estimated that 400 million animals die each year on roads in the United States, struck by vehicles. It’s impossible to know precise numbers, particularly since mortally wounded animals will crawl away from road shoulders (where the dead can be counted). That 400 million figure is extrapolated from various local surveys and collision statistics. A…
Noah the Pigeon
When you work in any facet of animal rescue, you hear stories. Often, the worst stories — one-act plays with bad endings. You wonder why on earth this storyteller decided you were the person who needed to hear it. I’ve learned that if an anecdote opens with, “Have I got a raccoon story for you…
Videos: Changing Our Cultural Views of Pigeons
This video is about people who’ve cared enough for pigeons to effect positive, cultural change on their behalf. There are humane ways for humans to cohabit with urban pigeons.
How to Untangle a Pigeon
When you’re helping out a pigeon, the reaction from people passing by tends to be polarized: “how sweet” or “disgusting.” Pigeons have such a lousy rap, some people are aghast that anyone would think to rescue one of these birds, let alone touch it.
No Room at the Inn: A Quail’s Tale
Japanese Quail are known for shooting upward like missiles, and they can even kill themselves by hitting their noggins on hard surfaces. A Japanese Quail can shoot up and out through a space in the bag that’s narrower than my arm . . .
Ahimsa at the Tidepools
I swear, if I have to ask one more kid to stop throwing rocks at animals . . . It was an imperfect plan to begin with: super-low tide on a Sunday at the gorgeous but hardly-secret Fitzgerald Marine Reserve. I’ve been waiting for a daylight minus (-) tide for a few months. I’d even…
Baby Booties For Birds
Last night, Hugh and I put baby booties on sea birds. Actually, baby socks made into bird booties. There were grebes and murres in our section of the hospital. More than 400 ailing seabirds were driven by van and flown by a Coast Guard C-130 to IBRRC in Fairfield, California. The birds came from Washington…
Learning From a Racing Pigeon
I think the pigeon people are trying to tell me something. Late last year, I took a rambunctious fledgling pigeon to a nearby hospital. In April, I drove two [very] baby pigeons to the same hospital. I’m always snapping pigeon photos even when other photographers sweep their lenses right over the pigeon landscape. So, it…
Things to Know (and Love) About a Japanese Quail
He was misidentified but not forgotten — this lone Japanese Quail who fluttered his way into a wildlife hospital and then, into our hands and hearts. We gave him an appropriately Japanese name: “Mikiko” which, loosely translated, means “child of the tree.” A fellow volunteer pointed out that he is not, in fact, a child…
