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Wildlife Wednesday – Bird Education (continued from yesterday)

If you didn’t read yesterday’s post you’ll want to go back and start there.  Otherwise, this won’t make much sense.  

This next chapter is when things got really weird.  That evening when we checked, the nest with the two big baby birds had only one big baby bird.  We looked everywhere trying to see if it had fallen out and needed help.  We never found it.  BUT . . . .  when we looked up to the nest it had been in, the other big baby bird was almost completely out of the nest, sort of perching half in and half out.   AND . . . .  as one of the “warbler” birds flew in, three tiny heads popped up beside big baby bird, mouths wide open for a meal.

Let me summarize at this point because this only gets weirder from here. We have a nest of king birds on a branch hanging over the pond.  Mom and dad king bird are feeding.  The nest looks a bit damaged but all seems well despite that.  We have a second nest up higher.  A black and maroon bird and a couple of “warbler” birds are feeding the babies in this nest.  (That should NOT be happening.)  In this nest were two large baby birds (one is now gone) and three tiny baby birds.

 

King bird nest

 

 

Nest #2

 

My daughters and I discussed the parasite bird syndrome.  There are birds who lay their eggs in another bird’s nest leaving the other bird to raise their own young AND the “parasite” babies.  We thought the bigger baby birds could be parasite babies but that wouldn’t explain why two different kinds of birds were feeding this nest of young.

The next day Younger Daughter and I were checking the nests.  And that second big baby was out of the nest.  It was sitting in a clump of pond grass so close to the water that it was bound to fall in at any moment.   Younger had to wade out into the pond but she was able to shoo it towards the bank.  I eventually was able to pick it up and set it on a brand in the tree.  We hoped that its parent would continue to feed it until it was ready to fly away.

 

Big baby bird

 

 

That evening we checked and the baby big bird was higher in the tree, perched on a branch.  Wonderful!  Also that evening we discovered that there was yet a third nest even higher in the tree.  We watched and it seemed maybe one of the yellow-ish warbler birds might be feeding at that nest.  Wow, were we ever confused!

 

Nest #3

 

Nearly every one of us had tried looking up what kind of bird was the black and maroon one.  No luck.  We knew it wasn’t a parasite parent because it had hung around to keep feeding the babies.  But it SEEMED like the black and maroon bird had laid its eggs in the warbler nest and now the black and maroon bird and the warbler birds were feeding their babies IN THE SAME NEST.  And that just doesn’t happen!

So that night in bed, I got on my phone and decided I would try again to identify the black and maroon bird.  Lo and behold I found it!  It was an Orchard Oriole.  The male matched perfectly and the female made my mouth drop open.  Guess what the female looks like.  A yellow-ish warbler.  So now it started making sense.  The male and female Orchard Oriole were feeding their babies in nest #2.  The other yellow-ish “warbler” was feeding at the very high nest #3 (along with her partner – more in a minute).  The two BIG baby birds in the Orchard Oriole nest actually WERE parasite birds.  A brown headed cowbird had laid her eggs in the Orchard Oriole nest.   As I read more about Orchard Orioles, my mouth stayed open.  Orchard Orioles only come to southern Illinois to breed.  So it was rare that we’d been lucky enough to witness this.  But get this!  They build their nests near king bird nests because king birds are more aggressive and they keep the cowbirds away!  So the Orchard Orioles had done everything right.  They made their way from Mexico or Central America to breed here in the Midwest.  They built their nest in the same tree with a pair of king birds who were supposed to keep the parasite cowbirds away.  It didn’t work out exactly as planned and a cowbird DID lay her eggs in the Orchard Oriole nest and those two poor parents managed to feed the cowbirds and their own three.  And we watched every bit of this play out right here at our pond.  WHAT a mystery turned education!

 

Oh, and I said we discovered that third nest way up in the tree.  When I kept seeing TWO yellow-ish birds flying in and out of the tree – well, one was the female orchard oriole; the other was a female Baltimore oriole.  We got to see the male show up on one of the last evenings at the pond.  A pair of king birds, a pair of Orchard Orioles, and a pair of Baltimore Orioles all in the same tree.  How lovely!

 

Wildlife Wednesday (on Tuesday) – Bird Education

A Wildlife Wednesday has always meant that I am writing about Older Daughter’s wildlife rehab.  But today I’m telling a story about some wildlife, specifically birds, living in the wild but with a little help from me and my family.  The story starts simply enough, but every single day we seemed to add a new chapter.  And what an education it was!

There are a couple of ponds on the property here.  One is right beside the road that both Older and Younger Daughters take to leave the property and get on the blacktop county road.  This pond is directly across from Younger Daughter’s house.   One morning as Older Daughter was driving by this pond, she noticed what she thought was a bird nest on a low branch hanging out over the water.  That evening we went to check it out.  Sure enough, a couple of king birds had built their nest in what looked like a treacherous location.  We watched for a while as the mother and father king birds came and went, feeding their babies.  Older mentioned that once those babies were ready to leave the nest, if they did much bouncing around at all they would end up in the pond.  But the real fear was high wind.  For sure that little nest, or at least the babies, were going to topple into the water under the right (wrong) conditions.  There wasn't even another branch below the nest for them to grab if they went sailing out of the nest. 

We debated what to do, discussed trying to build something that could float under that branch.  It was Husband who said we could get the old jon boat from the other pond, float it out to the right spot, and stabilize it under the branch.   Husband and Son-In-Law went for the boat.  Husband grabbed some metal posts.  We floated the boat out and under that branch.  The king bird parents actually didn’t seem to mind the disruption in their evening.  SIL waded out into the pond and pushed the metal posts on each side of the boat and Husband drove a post in on the bank.  Then he tied the boat to that post and ta-da we had a safe place for baby birds to land if they did topple out.  The only additional thing we did was to fill the boat with straw.   Falling into straw meant NOT falling onto the hot metal boat floor and it would be easy to grab onto the straw and even to hop around.

 

 

So that was that.   We decided that we would all check the nest and boat any time one of us went by.   Things seemed fine until we noticed another nest.  This one was higher up but luckily still almost directly over the boat.  Well that was handy.  Now this second nest of babies would also have a safe place to land if they were tossed out during any high winds.  

It became sort of a family affair to all meet up at the “bird tree” in the evenings.  Husband and I and sometimes Older and her husband, sometimes Younger and her husband, would stand a good distance away and watch the mom and dad king birds fly back and forth to feed their young.  We started noticing a bird flying in and out of the tree to the area where the second nest was located.  I commented that I hadn’t ever seen a bird like this one.  Years ago, when my girls were little, I took a real interest in learning birds.  It wasn’t long before I could identify any bird that came to my feeders or that I saw on walks through the fields and woods here.  But this was a bird I couldn’t identify.  It was black, but with a maroon/russet underside.  I googled it but Google kept trying to tell me it was a red-winged black bird no matter how I described it.

Then an evening or two later, I noticed a couple of dull yellow birds flying in and out of the tree.  It definitely looked like they were flying to the same nest as the black and maroon bird.  THAT didn’t make sense.  Two different kinds of birds would not be feeding at the same nest.  That night I started looking up yellow-ish Southern Illinois birds.  I found a picture that sort of looked like these birds.  Apparently they were a type of warbler.  But I still couldn’t figure out why it appeared that this warbler bird and the black/maroon bird were feeding the same babies. 

The following day, Older had me come down to her house to help her with something and I told her I’d check the boat as I drove by the pond to make sure there were no tossed-out babies.  We’d had a quite windy night.  I parked and walked over and Oh dear! the king bird nest didn’t look good.  The far side had quite a bit of material hanging down.  I scanned the best I could inside the boat to see if any baby birds had fallen out.  No babies in the boat.  And I couldn’t really see what kind of damage the nest had sustained because the hanging-down nesting materials were on the far side of the nest.  About that time, in flew one of the king bird parents and three little bird heads popped straight up with mouths wide open.  OK, all was well with that nest.   I looked up high to the other nest and saw something odd.  I could see two baby birds - not their heads sticking up, but the whole baby birds.  It was very strange.  It was like these two babies had suddenly gotten too big for their nest.  I got to Older Daughter’s house and told her what I’d seen.  She, too, thought it odd for the babies to seem too big for their nest. 

This is a long story.  And it only gets weirder.  I’ll finish up tomorrow.  See you then.

 

Wildlife Wednesday

Hi Friends.  I’ve explained here at daily dose why I haven’t been blogging this winter/spring.  There were lots of family health issues that just kept coming.  One of those issues was a long roller coaster ride with my older daughter.  She is the one who has Wild Angels Wildlife Rehab.  She is taking this spring off.  She is nearing the end of a high-risk pregnancy and simply could not do her wildlife work this year.  Things are looking up at this point so we are now hopeful that this pregnancy will result in a healthy baby and a healthy Older Daughter.

She has been quite disturbed having to turn people away who have called with wildlife issues.  She has a long list of rehabbers she is referring people to.  There have been two baby animals that she ended up taking anyway because they simply had nowhere else to go. 

She took in a baby squirrel who was dehydrated and starving.  That baby was successfully brought to health and has been released.

 

 

 

And currently she has a baby starling which was SO young she did not expect it to live.  But so far it seems to be gaining some strength (and some tiny feathers).  So fingers crossed for this little baby.

 

 

 

Hopefully Older Daughter can direct any future calls to other rehabbers. 

 

I will mention one precious thing.  I have written about Ms Wobbly Raccoon.  The story is here if you are unfamiliar.  This little gal comes back year after year to Older Daughter’s yard.  In years past, she’s brought her offspring with her.  She presented herself just the other day – no sign of a little family yet, but the babies might still be in the den.  It’s just so nice that she returns and Older Daughter gets to see that she is doing just fine.

 

 

I'm sure by next spring Older Daughter will be back to her wildlife (although I hope at a reduced scale).   :)

 

June

As I said in my last blog post, I’m not going to miss a chance to thank a Winnie’s Wish supporter even though I’m not blogging much right now.   The number one supporter of Winnie’s Wish is someone you all know and love – Andrea of Celestial Kitties.  Andrea knows that we’ve had a rough winter/spring here.  Andrea hasn’t had the best winter and spring either.   Still – I received a super duper gift for the Wishers from Andrea (and husband Greg).

 

Andrea – THANK YOU.

 

Note – I’m going to do a short Wildlife Wednesday tomorrow to let folks know what’s going on at Wild Angels – my daughter’s wildlife rehab.

 

The Month of May

I keep thinking things will slow down a bit around here and I’ll have time to write about some of the kitties here at Winnie’s Wish.  Surely that will eventually happen.  Until then, I certainly won’t miss a chance to give a big thank you to someone who supports Winnie’s Wish every May and has done so again this year.

I’ve written about this in the past.    Like me, Maria has a birthday in May.  AND May is the month of Mother’s Day.  For several years, Maria has unselfishly given up her Mother’s Day and birthday gifts to support Winnie’s Wish.  Each May, Maria asks her two adult children to send a paypal gift to Winnie’s Wish in lieu of receiving gifts for herself.  I appreciate Maria (and her children) so much!

Maria – THANK YOU. 

 

For my birthday this month, I’m hoping for good health for my family members.  And always for good health and happiness for the kitties of Winnie’s Wish.

 

Winnie's Wish - taken about six weeks ago, just as Spring was “springing”

 

See you soon.

 

We’re Still Here

Hi Friends!  Not sure how many of you will even see this.  I’m sure you’ve stopped checking the daily dose blog because I haven’t posted since the beginning of January.  There have been a series of family health issues that have come nearly back-to-back.  Blogging had to go by the wayside.  But things are looking up some now.  I’m not sure how much blogging I will do, but maybe at least an update occasionally.

WE’RE STILL HERE!

The 32 cats of Winnie’s Wish are still here.  They still have all the same needs.  And that’s why it was absolutely wonderful when mr and her husband sent a gift to Winnie’s Wish in honor of their two cats’ TENTH Gotcha Day!

Felicity and Hershey were Wishers once upon a time.  They were adopted by this wonderful couple and have been living The Good Life ever since.

 

 

Hershey

 

 

Felicity

 

 

 mr  and husband  - THANK YOU.

 

Hope all is well in your world.  Thanks for stopping by.

 

 

Wonderful Ending/Beginning

Hello Friends!  I hope you all had wonderful holidays.  And now here we are as another year begins. 

 

 

I’m going to announce the results of Andrea’s Auction in this post today.  But first I want to thank some other friends of Winnie’s Wish.  The year ended with Christmas gifts and the New Year began with hearing from Andrea about her auction results.  Does it get any better than this?!

 

Sue and Ernie (Island Cats) – THANK YOU.

 

 

This gift comes from the mom and dad of two kitties who used to be Wishers – Felicity (Frosting) and Hershey.

 

 

Hershey and Felicity

mr and husband and Felicity and Hershey – THANK YOU.

 

And June – THANK YOU.

 

And now here goes.   Andrea emailed me with the results of her Holiday Auction to benefit Winnie’s Wish.  Before I unveil the gift, let me take a moment to say, again, how much I appreciate what Andrea has done here.   Putting together this auction is extremely time-consuming.  And it’s not just the actual “doing” of the auction.  Andrea also makes SO many of the items in the auction.  Then, once the auction is over, she has to get all of these items mailed out to all of the bid winners.  It is a LABOR of love, and I do mean LABOR. 

Next, let me say THANK YOU to every single person who participated in the auction.  Obviously, all of Andrea’s hard work would be for naught if wonderful people didn’t bid on the items.  Andrea and I deeply appreciate each and every one of you.  There can be no auction without bidders. 

And now . . .      ARE YOU READY????

 . . .    drumroll   . . .

The gift that Winnie’s Wish received was –

$2500 !!!!

After postage and paypal fees, Andrea had an amount.  Then she did the crocheted cat blanket raffle which added to the total.  And then, (as they always do!), Andrea and husband Greg decided to “round up” and the final total was $2500!!!

To everyone who participated - THANK YOU.

To Andrea’s husband Greg – THANK YOU.

To my dear friend Andrea – THANK YOU FROM THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART.  YOU ARE THE BEST!!

 

Wildlife Wednesday - Desperately Cold Christmas

Hello Friends!  I’m not normally posting Wildlife Wednesdays to my blog in December.  Older Daughter’s Wild Angels Wildlife Rehab is at its busiest in the Spring and Summer with lingering issues into the Fall.  But today I’m going to write about a desperate situation with an old opossum and a Christmas weekend straight from the Arctic.  Our temperatures here in southern Illinois have been in the 30s for highs and the 20s for lows for many days now.  But tomorrow night an even deeper cold front is supposed to descend on us bringing the possibility of some snow.  That’s not the problem, however.  This is the problem – our temperatures are supposed to plunge into the single digits with wind chills that are predicted to take us to 15 to 25 degrees below zero.  This is the kind of weather that makes me so sad for all of the cats and dogs who live outside.  For the most part, however, I don’t worry as much about the wildlife.  I know they are equipped to handle Winter.  I also know that (unfortunately) this kind of cold is one of Nature’s ways of culling the weak and the old.  I know it’s natural.  But I don’t have to like it.

This past Saturday, Husband and I decided to brave the cold and go to a place on the property where a tree had fallen.  Some of you might remember (from years ago) my stories of “Fairyland” when my daughters were little.  It’s a place on the bluff above the river where wild daffodils bloom each Spring.  Well this tree had fallen directly onto the area where those thick daffodils will try to come up.  Broken branches and sticks littered the area.  Husband and I planned to remove the tree – Husband would chainsaw it into small pieces and we would pile the pieces AWAY from Fairyland.

We took the side-by-side (which was VERY chilly on that 30-something degree afternoon).  It’s a couple of miles from our house to this spot.  As you approach the bluff, there is a tree line that separates our family’s land from the neighbor’s.  As we topped a small hill and were approaching the bluff, I was glancing into the tree line.  Suddenly I realized that I’d seen an animal.  I hollered above the roar of the engine for Husband to stop.  I jumped off the vehicle and started walking back down the tree line.  I was sure I’d seen an opossum.  The sighting had been quick, but the image in my mind informed me that this was not a young healthy opossum. 

Husband and I walked the tree line and even into a thicket for at least 20 minutes and did not find the opossum.  As we were working on the fallen tree, I was telling Husband that I’d only gotten a glimpse of the creature, but that it definitely did not seem right.  My mental picture was one of an opossum with fur that was way too sparse and body condition way too thin.  Our nights were in the 20s but I knew by the following weekend (Christmas weekend), we’d be below zero.  If my glimpse provided me correct information, this opossum wouldn’t make it through Christmas weekend.

We finished our work and decided to ride down the bluff and along the river in spite of the cold.  As we started back home (a different way from how we’d come), I told Husband to go back the other direction and let me check one more time for opossum.  And lo and behold, there it was!  This time I had Husband stop the side-by-side way back, and I slipped out and started towards the opossum.  I was quite a distance away (its back to me) but I could begin to see that this opossum did not, for sure, have enough fur for the weather that was coming.  My guess was that this must be an old one – skinny, and with thinning fur.  It was snooting through the leaves trying to find something to eat.  But before I could get close enough, it turned and saw me and started walking into the tree line.  We lost it again.  This time I was determined.  I told Husband to hurry me all the way back home and let me get my cat trap.  When we got there, I grabbed my trap and some canned cat food and we headed back.  No opossum.  So I set the trap and we left. 

When Younger Daughter got home from work, we took our walk and this time we walked the road to Fairyland.  It was a long walk but I was SO SO hoping that we would top that last little hill and see the opossum in the trap . . .

But no.  I was really disappointed.  I had explained to Younger Daughter on our walk that this opossum was not in a condition to survive the upcoming holiday weather.   We walked back home and I started feeling quite concerned because I figured that since this opossum had encountered people two times in a row in this spot, it might not return.  That means it wouldn’t end up in the trap.  It would probably move on.

Husband drove back to the area just before dusk.  No opossum.  I knew I’d missed my opportunity and that I wouldn’t get another chance at this guy.  I sent dry dog food with Husband when he went to pick up the trap.  I could only hope it would come back one more time, discover the food, and maybe the next day I could set the trap again.

So on Sunday, just before lunch, Husband and I jumped on the side-by-side and made the very cold trip to Fairyland.  As we topped that last little hill, my heart stopped.  There it was.  I could see it way up ahead, in the very spot where the dog food had been left.  I’d brought the trap but I was afraid if we scared this guy off a third time, I’d lose him forever.  So we shut off the side-by-side and started walking.  Husband would cut through and get on the other side of the tree line.  I would walk towards the opossum and try to grab it before it disappeared.  If it got into the tree line before I could get it, Husband would be on the other side and try to run it back in my direction.  I started towards it, and it headed for the trees.  Husband raced to the other side.  He stepped towards it and it stopped and I reached down and grabbed that tail.  I HAD IT!! 

I pulled it out of the trees and placed it carefully into the trap.  I pulled out my cell phone and called Older Daughter, hoping I would have enough signal to get through.  She picked up and I told her we were headed her way.  I had told her the story the day before so she was thrilled that the opossum was in our custody.  We made our way along the river and turned north to Older Daughter’s home.  She met us at the door.  We got it out of the trap and Older assessed its condition.  It’s a female.  Old (teeth are very worn down).  Too thin.  Fur WAY too thin.  And a couple of sores on her tail.  Older put her in a carrier and said she’d get her all set up in a large crate with soft bed, food, and water.

 

 

The first night that this gal was cozy in a crate in Older Daughter’s house, she ate everything in her bowl AND drank every drop of water in the water bowl.  Older put an empty kitty litter container in the crate with two soft towels inside.  She feels safe in there and can now begin to recover from her dehydration and near starvation.  And the best thing of all is that she won’t be outside in the EXTREME weather headed our way starting tomorrow night.

 

 

 

I couldn’t be happier.  Merry Christmas little opossum!

 

 

Merry Christmas!

It’s Christmas!  I hope that you are enjoying your holiday season whatever you celebrate!  My holiday always includes animals (of course)!   This year I had zero cats trying to climb the Christmas tree.  They DID chew on the branches and knock a few ornaments off, but nobody actually climbed the tree which was quite nice.  Here are some pictures of a few of my sweethearts enjoying the holiday and bringing me great joy.

 

Peep under the tree

 

 

Butterscotch asleep under the tree

 

 

Pipes under the tree

 

 

Mango

 

The Wishers don’t have a Christmas tree.  So there aren’t any good holiday-ish pictures to share with you of the Wishers.  But Winnie’s Wish DID receive a Christmas gift.  That ALWAYS puts a smile on my face!

 

those 4 cases of canned food are two of the specialty foods I need for some of the Wishers

 

Beth and Mike – THANK YOU.

 

I’m going to be back tomorrow with a rare December Wildlife Wednesday.  We have 15 to 25 degrees below zero temps predicted for the upcoming Christmas weekend.  And there is an old opossum who sure doesn't need to be out in weather like that.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

 

Yep! It’s Andrea Again!

You are all very much aware that Andrea had her holiday auction to benefit Winnie’s Wish.  It just finished up on the 10^th.  Well now guess what?  She’s doing a raffle!  Andrea’s sister crocheted a gorgeous cat blanket and Andrea is doing a raffle which will benefit Winnie’s Wish!  I cannot be grateful enough.  Look at this beautiful piece!

 

 

 

Click here to go to Andrea’s page that explains how to enter.

 

And now let me mention a Giving Tuesday gift that just arrived.

 

Maria – THANK YOU.

 

Also, Christmas cards arrived here with gifts inside:

Annie – THANK YOU.

Heather – THANK YOU.

 

And Andrea, thank you yet again!