First Babies of 2012

We admitted our first baby birds of the 2012 season in the form of two little Great Horned Owlets. These two came from separate nests and are of different ages. Great Horned Owls are very early nesters (they begin nesting in January here in Wisconsin), and they are usually among the first babies to arrive at our clinic each year.

This Great Horned Owlet was found in Marathon Park in Wausau on the ground. Her parents were nowhere to be found so a trusted volunteer caught her up and brought her to REGI. She is approximately 6 weeks old. She is fairly thin and it is likely that her parents abandoned her.

This little Great Horned Owlet was found on the ground in the northwoods. He had fallen approximately 50 feet from his nest onto the ground. The kind people that found him noticed his sibling had been killed by some crows. To save him from the same fate he was brought to REGI. This owlet is younger than the first at only about 10 days old. His egg tooth can still be seen at the tip of his curved bill. This little white bump on his beak helped him to break out of his egg just a few days ago. It will soon fall off and he will be left with a perfectly normal-looking beak. (To see a video of this little owlet eating his supper visit our YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/raptoreducationgroup)

Aside from the babies we also admitted a few adult birds. One of those birds was this Mourning Dove with a broken wing. Mourning Doves are very common and frequently overlooked, but they are really lovely birds. The beautiful blue around the eye and their black spots make them quite stunning. Their mournful cooing call gives these birds their name, and they may coo back to you if you mimic them. The loud whistling sound they create when they fly is produced by the feathers of their wings and not the voice of the bird. These doves tend to hold tight and take off at the last moment which makes them fairly vulnerable to being hit by fast-moving vehicles.

This adult Mourning Dove came in with a broken right wing. The wings have been taped together to allow the bones to heal in the proper position. 

On Friday we were visited by Dr. Shelli Dubay's Techniques of Captive Wildlife Management class from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Dr. Dubay's students make a yearly trip up to REGI to learn more about avian rehabilitation and education. They get a rare look into the lives of avian rehabilitators and get to learn a little more about why we do what we do. They also get to meet a few of our education birds and learn what makes a raptor. We look forward to seeing them and Dr. Dubay each year! This year the class got an extra treat in the form of a mid-April snowstorm. After having 80 degree weeks in March we were greeted Friday morning with three inches of beautiful snow. It's hard to get bored with the weather in Wisconsin! It's always changing!

The captive wildlife management class from UWSP are photographed in the aftermath of Thursday's mid April snowstorm. 

In the spring some of our education birds begin to lay eggs. To prevent breeding we typically don't house males and females together, therefore the eggs aren't fertilized. Like chickens, a natural process in a wild bird's life is to lay eggs whether they're fertilized or not. One of our education Eastern Screech Owls surprised us the other day with two beautiful eggs. After she realized that they weren't going to hatch she easily gave them up.

These two perfect eggs were laid by one of our little Eastern Screech Owls. The size of these eggs is quite surprising since the little owl that laid them is hardly taller than 6 inches. 

This is the pretty little red-phased Eastern Screech Owl that is the "mother" of the unfertilized eggs in the photo above. Pretty shocking that this little lady laid eggs with a larger diameter than a quarter!

That's all for today. Thanks everyone!

Karissa Mohr
Wildlife Educator

"Housekeeping" at REGI

The Raptor Education Group, Inc. (REGI) is best known for our avian rehabilitation and education, but there is a lot of additional work that goes on here just to keep REGI in once piece. Having recently celebrated our 20th anniversary, some of our oldest buildings are showing severe ware and tear. When we aren't caring for our hundreds of bird patients or speaking to the public about the wonderful world of raptors, we are running around trying to fix up and maintain the REGI property.
 
Today we were lucky to have help from the University of Wisconsin- Stevens Point Professional Development in Environmental Education and Interpretation practicum class lead by Dr. Brenda Lackey. She brought her students up to REGI for a few hours to see how we do our public tours and to help us complete one of our big "housekeeping" projects.

Our Sandhill Crane enclosures are covered in privacy mesh which helps the cranes feel more comfortable, but years of wind, rain, and ice have done their damage. Hanging on by threads in some areas, the mesh was no longer acceptable. The students helped us with the big task of replacing the mesh.

The huge roll of mesh was rolled out and measurements were taken. 

The careful job of pulling the mesh over to the enclosure begins. At this point, the job seems like a big challenge, but many helpful hands help us to succeed.  

Licensed rehabilitator, Alberta Halfmann, perches atop the crane enclosure along with one of the student volunteers. Carefully securing the mesh while keeping the sides taut is tricky, but they're doing well! 

A view from inside the crane enclosure- rehabilitation assistant, Brennan Rausch waits to help secure the mesh from the inside. 

Nearly finished, some of the student volunteers and Alberta apply the finishing touches to secure the mesh on the top of the enclosure. 

Dr. Brenda Lackey (far left); the student volunteers; Director of Education, Molly McKay; licensed rehabilitator, Alberta Halfmann; and (peeking out from inside the mesh) rehabilitation assistant, Brennan Rausch, stand in front of the finished enclosure. It looks so much better! 

Thank you UW-SP students! We are so thankful for your help with this project. Having so many helpful hands made this project go quickly and smoothly. With our small staff, projects like this are hard to complete on our own (especially when our clinic is full of patients), but volunteer groups save the day.

If you would like to volunteer your time by helping us here at REGI, please call our education office at (715) 623-2563. We would love your help!

That's all for today. Have a great weekend!

Karissa Mohr

Wildlife Educator

Barred Owl, A Special Volunteer, Visitors from UWSP, and Patient Updates

Things are still going well here at REGI. We have some new patients and a few visitors!

We admitted a Barred Owl that has been hit by a vehicle near Aniwa, WI. His left eye has been injured, but we won’t know the extent of the injury until he opens his eye. He also has a broken wing which has been taped to allow it to heal. The blood you see around his beak in the photo is from his internal injuries. Vehicle strikes produce multiple injuries, which each on their own would be a challenge to overcome. Combining them all at once can be more than some birds can handle. The good news is that he has been standing the past three mornings and appears to be alert. We are very hopeful for this handsome guy. He has a very calm and gentle demeanor and he would make a wonderful father. It is likely that he has a mate in the wild, but luckily Barred Owls have not begun laying eggs quite yet. It would be very difficult for a single parent to raise a nest-full of owlets on their own. We are trying to be optimistic and hope he can return to his mate soon. He will miss out on this breeding season, but he hopefully has many more breeding seasons in his future.

Photo above: This Barred Owl was admitted with a broken wing, internal injuries, and an injured eye due to a vehicle collision.

We had a wonderful donation of venison earlier this week. We are extremely thankful to receive donations such as this road-killed deer, but people may not realize the amount of work that goes into preparing a whole deer for feeding to multiple raptors. The work of a rehabilitator is not just about healing injured birds and releasing them. Most of the time is spent preparing food and cleaning up after hundreds of birds. Meat usually doesn’t arrive at REGI prepackaged and on a tray like it does at the grocery store. Whole animals arrive with fur and guts; most of which needs to be removed. It isn’t a glamorous job, but it is an incredibly important part of being a rehabilitator. We are thankful every single day for these donations and for the hard work of our rehabilitation team.

Photo above: Assistant Rehabilitator, Stacy Wild, and Licensed Rehabilitator, Alberta Halfmann, show off the results of their hard work; deer legs ready for feeding to Bald Eagles.

We want to shine a little spotlight on one of our very dedicated volunteers. Ted Bengtson, a retired dentist from the area, has been volunteering at REGI twice a week since the end of summer. He keeps REGI looking beautiful and keeps us safe by helping with snow and ice removal. Before the snow fell, he groomed the gravel paths leading to each enclosure. On days when there is no snow to shovel, he cleans the floors to perfection. These necessary tasks are sometimes challenging to complete ourselves when we have critical patients in the clinic, paperwork to do, and education programs to present. Thank you, Ted, for all of your help!

Photo above: Volunteer, Ted Bengtson, hard at work.

We had a small group visit us from UW-Stevens Point on Thursday. Two are veterinary students from Japan, Yusaku Watanabe and Tomoka Tsuji. We had a wonderful time getting to know them and showing them around REGI. I really enjoyed learning about the amazing birds of Japan. We share a number of the same species with Japan such as Peregrine Falcons, Long-eared Owls, Short-eared Owls, and Golden Eagles, just to name a few. It was fun watching Yusaku recognize many of the birds we have here in Wisconsin. We showed them proper handling techniques and they were both able to work with a bird on their glove for a short time. An experience they will probably not soon forget!

Photo above: Vet students, Yusaku Watanabe and Tomoka Tsuji, pose with a Harris's Hawk and a Barn Owl.

A bit of sad news... the lovely Spruce Grouse lost her battle with her dog bite injuries. It is a shame that she has to be an example of why it is to important for people to keep their pets under control. The dogs are not at fault, they are only doing what dogs do; people need to step up and take responsibility for their pets. Dogs and cats are not "natural" predators; they were brought here by people. People breed them in excess and let them run wild. For that reason, people are responsible when a pet kills or injures an animal. On top of that, many pets are lost every year to the road; don't let your pet become road-kill. For the sake of wild animals everywhere and for the safety of your own pet, please be a responsible pet owner and keep your pets under control.

I know many of you out there are keeping tabs on Eagles #007 and #008, and beautiful Red-tailed Hawk, Juliet. I am very pleased to tell you that all three are doing well! Thank you for all of your kind words and thoughts. It truly does help.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone! I hope you can dig out from under all of this beautiful fresh snow!

Karissa Mohr
Wildlife Educator

A Fun Filled Week of Education!

This week has been full of fun education! Earlier this week I made a run down to Baraboo for the state quarterly meeting for the Wisconsin Bird Conservation Initiative's education committee. The meeting was held at the beautiful Aldo Leopold Legacy Center. It was a great time to discuss progress made and set new goals for bird conservation education on a state level. I also had the opportunity after the meeting to take a quick stop at the famous Aldo Leopold Shack (pictured to the left) where he was inspired to write, what many people call the Bible of conservation, "A Sand County Almanac."

Yesterday morning Trees For Tomorrow stopped by with their interns to take a tour of REGI. Every year Trees For Tomorrow takes their interns to different educational facilities around the state for tours to show off the many different types of environmental education facilities that excises. It was great to have them stop by again this year full of questions and energy.

After the morning tour I had to get ready to head down to the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point. I was asked by one of my old proffers Dr. Lackey to come and be the guest lecturer in her environmental education and interpretation class. Many of these wonderful future naturalist may end up working in a nature center or organization where they will be asked to present programs with live animals. I gave a lecture on "Animals as Partners in Education." As many of you reading this know our bird are truly our partners in education at REGI. I really believe it is important to remember this and pass this message along to others that animals used for educational purposes deserve a lot of respect and their comfort level should always be considered first. An educational animal is NOT a prop, they are your partner in education.

The lecture went very well and of course I had to bring one of my favorite partners in education our oldest Red-Tailed Hawk. She lit up the room with her charismatic character and powerful beauty.

It was a funny and exciting feeling being up in front on my old lecture room, actually giving the lecture to a new group of students in Dr. Lackey's class. After all it was only a few years ago that I had been sitting in that class myself.

UWSP Events!

Over the years REGI has formed a strong friendship with the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point because of their strong natural resources and captive wildlife programs. Every summer REGI accepts interns and often many if not all of them are current Point students. As a former Pointer, it is always exciting for me to travel to campus events. In the last month REGI has joined UWSP for their Open House and just recently for Eco Fair in celebration of Earth Day. At these events REGI is able to reach out to the public and students in a fun educational setting.

After a stormy morning the clouds cleared out and temperatures soared into the 80’s for Eco Fair! This year REGI was really promoting the Get the Lead Out campaign. We offered a free lead sinker exchange program. If you brought us your lead sinkers we would give you lead free sinkers in exchange! We spoke to many students about the problems birds face when they swallow lead linkers or ammunition. We brought photographs of actual x-rays taken of swans and eagles emitted to REGI for lead poisoning. The only way to solve this problem in the future is through educating the public on lead free alternatives such as tin, bismuth, steel, tungsten or ceramic. People are always surprised by the number of alternatives.

Are you interested in learning about more alternatives to lead for your tackle box? Follow this link http://www.pca.state.mn.us/oea/reduce/sinkers.cfm

Of course we were also on campus trying to win a few votes for the Office Technology Makeover! Thank you to the Wildlife Society, Fisheries Society, Environmental Educators and Naturalist Association, Vet Club, and the many other student organizations that helped REGI spread the word across campus to vote for REGI. No matter the outcome your support and encouragement is greatly appreciated! If you haven’t had a chance to vote yet click here.