In the news

We have been in the news a lot lately.   It seems to come in bunches.   Last year (2011) we had no actual news articles, the year before we had several.  2010 we had articles about our possible location in Apex, and some news articles about  some of our rescues.  In 2009 we had very few if any articles.  2008 we had several articles about rescues and our organization in general.

This year  has started a new bunch of articles.  People seem to forget we are here  until they rediscover us every 2nd year.  This year, we have been mostly in the news this month.   We have been in a blog called " the Raleigh Raptors"  It is a photo book background blog for  a family of Raptors in downtown Raleigh NC ( http://opienc.wordpress.com/ )  We had an article and photos in the Wilson NC paper from our show at the Wilson county library.  Over 250 people attended that show. (WIlson times  "Who's in the library" last week)  We were also interviewed and had photos taken of our show at the Eva Perry Library in Apex NC by a Cary magazine.  The magazine says we will be in  a feature on animal education groups in the area.   We will be featured with 2 other groups.

Once again, we have garnered attention.   It is a good thing since we do not advertise.   Stories like this help get us  shows, and more shows mean more money to help the birds.

WTCC Class coming up - Begins July 12th

Just a reminder to anyone out there thinking of being part of AWR,  Our raptor rehab class starts July 12th .  This is a once a week  (thursday nights) class, with 3 optional live bird labs on Sunday afternoons.  If you want to be a volunteer for AWR, and want to work with the birds, this class is mandatory.

The class has a huge amount of information.  We have had licensed rehabbers and vets join it and say they learned a lot.  The class also applies towards your getting your federal license.  The NC Veterinary board gives  credit towards veterinary CEs for this class as well.  This is the 4th year this class has been taught at WTCC.  The class was taught at our location previous years (since 2003)

If you want to register  visit: http://conted.waketech.edu/ , click register online, and in the search , use keyword " raptor ".

Another Day, Another baby

Another Day, Another Baby

Yes, we have been busy.  Babies  have been coming in  pretty much every day.  Some are hurt, others are just lost and starved.  Oddly enough , the hurt ones we can do more for.

 Last week we got in several new youngsters.  of them, all but 3 were damaged badly.  We have one with eye trauma, 5 with broken wings, and 1 with severe wounds, probably from a cat.

And of course we also have some hurt adult birds.  All in all we have been on the road a lot getting hurt birds.  None of them seem to be nearby..  Most are at the edge of Wake County or just inside an adjacent county.  We are averaging $800 a month on gas for rescues.

We have sent about 16 birds to the large Carolina Raptor  center.  Those birds are ready for outside cages and CRC has more cages and LARGER cages than we have

Still, as a rule we do our best to care for birds we get in  until such tim as we are sure that they are beyond us,  Then we find others who have the facilities.  That does not mean we send out all birds. most birds are released (60%+-) or die (30%+-).

For a while, we will have babies.   Soon, those babies will be on their own, hopefully healthy and hopefully never to need us.

Baby it's hot out there..

Baby it is hot out there..

 Sent 7 birds to  CRC today.  6 red shoulder hawks and a screech owl.  We have a barred owl and 2 red shoulder hawks I did not send down for health  reasons.  Each day I get a call about a baby animal.  Normally the  birds are out of the nest by now, but this odd winter has messed up the birds timetable.  Instead of February thru May, the baby season started in late March, and is still going.

The calls coming to the refuge average 4-7 a day.  of those calls only about  2 a day are actually for us. We are averaging $800 per month in gas to go on rescues (since January)  We are definitely busy.

What is harder than a late baby season is a bad insect season.   Mosquitoes, gnats, ticks  ground bees.  All of them are bad this year since it did not get cold enough to kill off the bulk of them.  It needs to be below 20 degrees F for at least 2 weeks for it to be a regular summer.  We had less than 5 days that cold, and they were not consecutive.

So, as we rebuild things (as we do each yea,) we are dealing with a very rough season of insects.  Everything takes longer since we have to stop and clean up no only bird stuff, but insect damage.  All the while we have to dodge ground bees, and make sure nothing out there will affect the birds.  Anyone want to help?  just think, a beekeepers outfit in 95 degree weather.. fun.

New Webpage and Web Hosting

If you are reading this you have noticed that we have a blog on our website now.  Yay!  we finally got into the 21st century!  only 12 years after the changeover!

Our new webpage features a lot of things that we have been trying to accomplish.  The most significant is that we once again have a donation button on the website.  For the past few years we have not been able get it to work.  Now finally we have it working.  People can donate to us through paypal online.  We are hoping to get google wallet and possibly a regular credit card service set up here as well, so there will be more ways to help the refuge.

The second big feature is the blog.  Hopefully it will work right and you will all have this nice literate commentary  every week from the refuge  with updates and information.  If it all works correctly, you will be able to post comments and questions as well.   Be warned, this is a g rated  site, so not foul language etc, even if a subject we talk about is something truly bad for nature and animals.

We also hope to have more videos and bird sounds and even some educator downloads  in the near future.   So stay with us and keep watching as we get better and better!

Wild Child

This year baby season has come late.   Normally around February and March we are inundated with calls of babies out of the nest.   This year, we had a very light  february and march, but  the past few weeks have been  amazingly busy.

We only do the beginning parts of the baby  care.  since we have small flight cages and limited resources, we get teh babies stable and healthy and send them to the Carolina Raptor Center.  They are a huge organization, and can easily care for the babies.  They even have live prey cages.  that means the cages have live prey in them for the babies to learn to hunt.

This year we have already sent 1 bald eagle, 1 great horned owl and 3 barred owls and 1 red shoulder hawk to CRC.  We will soon be sending them another 5 or 6 Red shoulder hawks. the reason I am unsure, is I got a call just as I sat down to write this blog about a possible  baby.  The caller is going out to see if the baby is still there, and if it is I will go out and get the bird.

It is still a light season, but  then , it may be just getting started.  It would seem the odd weather is even confusing the birds...