Goshawk, Barred Owl, Red-tails, Broadwing, Nighthawk, & Great-horned Galore

Although baby season has slowed down for this season the clinic is still overflowing with patients. Let's start with a batch of good news. We enjoyed fantastic weather these past couple of weeks which is great for RELEASES. Watching the babies grow up is one of my favorite parts of the summertime. After seeing songbirds come in featherless and pinky-sized and raptors come in looking like abominable snowmen, it's the best feeling in the world to be able to watch them fly freely into the sky in the unruly, teenager phase.

These past couple of weeks gave way to several releases of this summer's babies, and we still have several more to go! Here's some photos of the birds before and during release. The list of released birds included several barn swallows, several Eastern phoebes, cardinal, yellow-rumped warbler (also known as a
butter-butt"), goldfinch, chipping sparrows, bluebirds, a couple of broad-winged hawks, turkey vulture baby, and 10 merlins. The following are photos of some of the released.

 Yellow-rumped warbler before release. See why they get the nickname "butter-butt"?

 Cardinal just before release

 Rehabilitator Brennan opening a box full of songbirds, first out of the gates, a beautiful bluebird

One of several barn swallows released. They all immediately took to the air and began to catch bugs!

 Although she's not quite ready for release yet, this Great-horned owl spends several hours in our long flight hallway each day.

 These two photos were taken right after release. This young turkey vulture graced the blog several weeks back as a white fluff-ball with a black face. After several weeks under the care of a foster parent, this young turkey vulture is soaring high above REGI daily with his new wild family!

We love releases here at REGI. It's always a reason to celebrate. The time and effort put into each individual bird adds up to countless man hours. Even though these birds were ready for release, new patients are coming in daily just beginning their rehabilitation process. We've admitted raptors, wetland birds, and a BABY GOLDFINCH within this past week (I'm not sure what the goldfinch's parental units were thinking when they decided that NOW was a good time to lay eggs). The next several pictures are updates from the clinic and their stories.

This Northern goshawk was found under someone's deck. It most likely had a run in with a window while hunting it's favorite prey... other birds. Her wings are now un-taped from her injury, and she spent several hours in our flight hallway today. The prognosis at this point is great!

This red-tailed hawk came in very thin and a little spacey with what we believe to be West Nile Virus (WNV). The virus is spread through bites of infected mosquitoes. WNV has several effects on birds. Everything from their eyesight to their feathers can be damaged indefinitely. 

 Great-horned owl that entered the clinic after being found in someone's front yard mid-day. Strange behavior for a GHO.

This common nighthawk was also found mid-day. Strange for a bird that flies nearly exclusively in the dusk and night hours. Although they have "hawk" in their name don't let it fool you, they only prey on insects. As of right now he eats every half-hour and can handle nearly 15 waxworms at a time!

Barred owl that came in very thin. He's been on a liquid starvation diet since admittance, and will likely begin to eat solid foods again soon

 Another red-tailed hawk exhibiting signs of WNV.

Getting just as much attention as the raptors is this little sora that was found under someone's vehicle. A strange place since they are mostly found in thick vegetation wetlands. He's thin, but is fattening up as we speak.

Although the songbird babies have flown the proverbial nest, the clinic is still very busy. WNV seems to be hitting the raptor world hard this year in the Wisconsin northwoods, and each bird that enters the clinic comes in a very critical state. Several of these birds come in very weak, emaciated, and spooked. One minute you look into their eyes and everything is okay, the next minute they are looking at you as if you were a giant purple monster and exhibiting more aggression. Each bird is handled with extreme care.

Time to head out for the day! Remember... REGI TOURS HAVE BEEN EXTENDED THROUGH SEPTEMBER! Tours will be held on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10AM. Spots are limited, and pre-registration is required. Please call (715)623-2563 to reserve your spots!

- Katie Rymer, Assistant Avian Rehabilitator 

Busy Labor Day Weekend, Bald Eagle Ensnared Near Hayward, Hummingbirds, Nighthawk and Many More

Don and Marge Gibson examine the young bald eagle when she was admitted on Sunday.

This beautiful young Bald Eagle would have died this weekend, if it were not for a family of everyday heros from Iowa that stepped up to the plate to rescue and help transport her to REGI.   Our hats off to the Bill Obenauf family for their tenacity to get her help. It turns out, Bill is a well known radio personality on 97X in the Quad cities.  He gives a terrific description of the rescue and how they came to find the bird in the link provided.  http://www.2dorks.com/Eagle.html   I urge you to read  it as it is well done and has many photos of the rescue. Their response is testimony to what kindness and generosity can accomplish.  In the remote areas of our state we are blessed with plentiful and a huge diversity of wildlife and  few people.  That situation becomes challenging when wildlife becomes injured and needs help.  REGI is located over 3 hours from the site where this youngster was found on an ATV traill.  The snare, which had been there for weeks, had embedded into the eagles leg.  With her leg immobilized, the eagle was not able to capture fish or eat and therefore was slowly starving.

Weighing in at 4 lbs this young Bald Eagle was near death when she arrived at the REGI facility.  She should have weighed about 10 lbs.

Embedded into the leg of a young Bald Eagle, the string was beginning to cut off circulation to the eagles foot.

The snare was a homemade version made from string and a stick. We are not sure what the target was for this snare, but we are pretty sure it was not a Bald Eagle.  Sadly, this type of thing happens far to often. We urge folks to realize that wildlife may accidentally encounter such things and die when they are unable to extricate themselves.  In the great northwoods of WI, that animal may well be an threatened or endangered species.

Tired but warm, alive and happy to have food in her crop, this young eagle now has a future.

The good news is, while she is still in critical condition, the brave young eagle is doing well. She is still on heat and being tube fed liquid food several times a day.  Due to the level of starvation she suffered, she is unable to digest the fish/meat that would be her natural diet.  She has a long road to recovery ahead of her but we are cautiously optimistic for her future. 

Check for updates often as she progresses and regains her health.

The weekend was crazy busy with many new patients being admitted.  Holidays are always busy as that is when families are together and outdoors and encounter wildlife with injures just as the Obenauf family did.

Several Red-tailed hawks, like the one Marge is holding above and Broad-winged hawks were admitted over the weekend.  Broad-winged hawks are beginning their southward bound migration and we can expect many more to come in the next several weeks.  Broad-winged hawks fly all the was through Mexico, Central America, and can go as far as Argentina before they rest for the remainder of the winter. In spring they will head up north again to breed and raise their youngsters.

This beautiful female Nighthawk made contact with a car and broke her wing as she was swooping through the night air hunting insects. Nighthawks eat only insects and are hugely beneficial to humans.

We hope for a full recovery for the nighthawk, but she will miss migration. She will either stay with us for the winter or be transported to the far south to catch up with others of her species. Central America or the Caribbean will be her final destination for the winter.

This Belted Kingfisher is a handsome and spirited bird.  She broke her wing but is rapidly improving.

We raised 7 young Kingfishers this year at REGI. They were released  2 weeks ago. We are told they are happily fishing and squabbling with each other, as siblings of all species seem to do, near their private land release site.

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are delicate in stature but strong in character. These two were admitted with wing fractures and are doing well.

We love sharing our patients and their stories with you. We have lots more to tell you including several popular patients that have recently been released to the wild. 

As for now, our patients need attention so that will have to wait for another day.  Thank you everyone for caring about wildlife and supporting our efforts with native wildlife.   REGI receives no state or federal funds even though all of our patients are state and Federally protected species.  It is only through your help that non-profits such as Raptor Education Group, Inc  (REGI) can continue our important work.

Have a great evening,

Marge Gibson

Nighthawk Release Now and Then, Hawk Ridge Nighthawk Article

( Photo: Me at age 15 with a Common Nighthawk. )

Lets face it I have a lot of "favorite birds". My very favorite is usually the species I happen to be working with at the moment. Having said that, the Common Nighthawk is fascinating and really is one of my favorite birds even when I am not working with them.

I was fifteen years old when Bob Dana, of local Audubon fame, brought my first Common Nighthawk patient. I was young, but in part due to my late fathers job as a Deputy Conservation Warden with the State of Wisconsin, I was already taking care of orphaned or injured birds. The first Common Nighthawk I had ever seen close up was the one Mr Dana brought me on a June evening. She was not yet fledged and somehow had fallen from her nest site on top of the bank building in my town. She had a broken mandible and was not in good condition.

With my parents help I set about caring for her. Nighthawks eat only flying insects. They are not small birds so their calorie need, and therefore numbers of insects they need to eat daily is huge. My social life that summer was limited to catching moths,LOTS OF MOTHS, at the street light with my friends.



( Photo: The Common Nighthawk is a beautiful bird of the night. They are beneficial birds with flying insects make up their entire diet.)

I named the little female, "Snookie". She lived with my family for four years. We gave little Snookie opportunity to leave with her own kind. She flew with them for a few hours and always landed back at our house waiting to be brought inside. She was imprinted to humans. I know that now, but little research was done in the 1960's when this saga occurred and we didn't know it then. In fact very few nighthawks had been cared for in captivity by that time.



( Photo: REGI's Common Nighthawk patient was an adult female. She was admitted suffering starvation and a wing injury.)

That is enough ancient history for today. The nighthawk in the photo above was our recent patient. She was admitted with starvation and a wing injury. Nighthawks are members of the Nightjar family. An interesting name for an interesting family of birds. Night jars mode of hunting insects is to fly though the air with their huge mouth open. Insects are gulped down as they enter the mouth. Most nighthawks are not in captivity long enough to learn to eat on their own. That was the situation with our patient.

(Photo: Nighthawks have huge mouths. Insects are captured as they fly through the night with the mouth open. )

Every bit of food she ate was fed to her by REGI staff. The fact that this beautiful bird survived and was released back to the wild speaks volume about my dedicated staff.

Her release to the wild was a cause for celebration at REGI. She was a fascinating patient. The interns learned a great deal from her while she was with us but everyone was delighted to see the beautiful bird take her freedom once more.





( Photos: Intern Lance releases the Common Nighthawk. She disappeared into the night quickly.)

Our patient was lucky to have been found by a concerned citizen and brought to REGI for care. She will be migrating from our area around August 22-26. Central or South America will be her winter home. We hope she will be back in WI next May in time to have a family.

Sadly, nighthawks like many insect eating birds are decreasing in numbers. The article below was taken from the Hawk Ridge Observatory spring/summer 2009 Newsletter. It is a terrific article and offers some good information on the nighthawk.
Check out Hawk Ridge Observatory while you are at it. They do some fine work there particularly with migration.

Have a great tomorrow,
Marge Gibson 2009 ©


The article below was taken from Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory 2009 Spring/Summer Newsletter

Fall Migration:
Common Nighthawk
by Janet Green & Carly Lapin

The North Shore of Lake Superior has been well known as a corridor for the migration of Common Nighthawks. The migration is concentrated in a time window from mid to late August with a peak usually around August 20-27. Sporadically from 1983 to 1996 Duluth Audubon’s Hawk Ridge Committee sponsored Nighthawk counts at both Hawk Ridge and the Lakewood Pumping Station (Congdon Blvd.). Other incidental counts in the Duluth area from 1983 to 2003 turned up some impressive numbers of migrating Nighthawks. Peaks include: 43,690 (2.75 hours) on 8/26/90; 16,495 (2+ hours) on 8/16/86 and 15,173 (no hours given) on 8/23/ 00. In recent years the migration has not been as heavy and peak days reported range from 1,200 to 3,000 Nighthawks.

This lower migration is in keeping with concern about the decline of Nighthawks and other aerial feeding birds. For example, in Ontario the second atlas of breeding birds (2008) showed that the populations of the aerial foraging guild, including the Common Nighthawk, Whip-poor-will, Chimney Swift and six types of swallows, dropped 30 to 50 percent in the past two decades.
Because of that concern, HRBO initiated a count of migrating
Common Nighthawks in Duluth in August 2008.

Counts were completed daily from the rooftop garden of an apartment building located at 6030 E. Superior St., Duluth, Minn., from August 11- 31, 2008. Daily observation began at 4:30 p.m. and concluded at sundown. Common Nighthawks were observed on 8 of the 20 days of the count and a total of 2,514 Nighthawks were counted. The highest number was observed on August 24, 2008, when 1,470 Nighthawks were observed, and the second highest number was observed on August 16, 2008, when 668 Nighthawks were observed. Nighthawks were more consistently
observed on days with high temperatures. Nighthawks also
seemed to migrate irrespective of wind conditions, with observations being recorded on days with westerly, southwesterly, southerly, and northerly winds. This count will be continued in August 2009.

Other programs for monitoring Nighthawks have been started elsewhere in the U. S. The Northeast Partners in Flight created a Nightjar Working Group in 2004 and produced this report: ”Northeast Nightjar Survey – 2006 Summary.” Also the Center for Conservation Biology at the College of William & Mary has inaugurated a program called the Nightjar Survey Network; volunteer participants are welcome. This network essentially uses the USGS Breeding Bird Survey routes; it can be accessed at: http://www.ccb-wm.org/nightjars.htm.

Weekend of New Admits, Nighthawks. Great Blue Heron and Growing Youngsters

(Photos: The Common Nighthawk is an elegant bird in the air. Its huge mouth catches insects as it flies through the night.)

The weather continues to be very cold. Patients coming in reflect the cold temperatures and the problems created for wildlife that depend on insects for instance for survival.
The Common Nighthawk is a member of the Night jar family. There have not been studied well and therefore many questions remain about their life history. They eat only insects and accomplish this while flying with their huge mouth open. Dependent on insects this species will have a hard time surviving when cold weather limits the insects available to them. We have had several admitted suffering "migration exhaustion". Migration exhaustion is the term used either during migration or immediately following. Nighthawks winter in South America according to most references. At the end of that long trip to North Central Wisconsin they are expecting a bounty of mosquitoes and other flying insects to greet them. That has not happened this year. Birds that eat flying insects such at Purple Martins, Barn and Tree Swallows and Nighthawks unfortunatley are beginning to suffer from starvation.

In wildlife rehabiliation we are the first to see problems that occur with wildlife.
Nighthawks can be a challenge to feed in captivity. The female Nighthawk in the photos was first fed baby food meat when she was in critical condition and is now being force-fed pieces of beef heart with supplements as well as insects.


(Photo: Just admitted Great Blue Heron Chick is cold, tired and hungry.

(Photo #2 below: This photo of the Great Blue Heron chick was taken 12 hours later. It shows a more alert chick, wolfing down a piece of beef heart. The white material on the beef heart is Calcium supplement to assure his bones develop well.)

(Photo #3 below: This photo was taken Sunday night about 11P.M.. You can see the heron chick has already grown in the 24 hours since he arrived. With a full belly and a warm box he was ready for a good nights sleep.)





On Saturday evening we admitted a very young Great Blue Heron chick. Weighing in at just a pound this little one fell from the Cathedral Pines Rookery. This area is old growth pine and hemlock from historic Wisconsin. It goes without saying that the trees are very tall and thus the fall to the ground long and very hard. Our thanks to our friend Leslie Stewart for finding him and transporting him to REGI. The chick has recovered well as evidenced in the photos. He is now eating well, making up for lost time during the falling incident. He eats minnows, beef heart and mice. The adult herons "predigest" the food for the little ones and then regurgitate it back at the nest. It tired to get my interns to at least chew the food items first, but they balked at the suggestion. :) We do try to provide food that is as normal as possible for our patients, but for this one we will stick to pounding the mouse parts and beef heart until it is tenderized. He is eating a huge amount of food, which is normal for the species. We have messages out to other rehabilitation centers in the state in an attempt to find at least one more heron chick to raise this one with. Putting him back into a rookery nest is not possible since it could result in other chicks bolting and falling to their death. We do not want to rear him as a single baby as he could well be imprinted to humans as a result. It is great to network with other facilities and we do often. Doing what is best for our patients in always our prime concern.



( Photo: The adult female Mallard was hit by a car in Stevens Point as she led her youngsters across a busy road. She served as foster mom to our growing Mallard ducklings until they were feathered and nearly ready for release to the wild.)

Our Mallard ducklings have grown to nearly full size now. We have admitted several more young mallards since the photo was taken. The female Mallard in the photo was patient that was hit by a car several weeks before and had a leg fracture. She had been hit by a car while leading her youngsters to safety. She served as a foster mom for our ducklings while in care at REGI. Foster parents are worth their weight in gold to us and the little ones they help. It also give the adult some a normal activity while recovering and before they are released.



(Photos: Adult female Mallard foster parent from the photo with duckling above was released by our delightful Interns and staff last week. She swam away so quickly we almost were not able to capture the moment with photos. Minutes later she took to the air and we suspect is home by now.)



We had another weekend filled with programs. We do not yet have photos to share of the event, but will soon. We are admitting many patients per day now and unfortunately can share only a few of them on this blog.

But stay tuned, there will be much more to come.

Have a great day everyone.
Marge Gibson 2009