Lucky Goose!

First just let me say what a tease last week was! Beautiful, perfect, warm, sunny weather! Now it's below freezing, with an even colder wind chill....and it SUCKS!!! OK...sorry, just had to get that rant out and over with! :)

On Sunday Jules from work called to see if I could help with an injured Canada goose. It had flown up into some power lines, then fell stunned to the ground. But he seemed OK, as the caller watched he started to fly off again....unfortunately right into a truck! Talk about having a bad day! The officer had no trouble gathering him up and transporting him to the station (thanks guys!) where I picked him up and brought him to Tuft's. On initial evaluation, he was a little out of it and had an injured toe.

I called and spoke to Robin today and I'm pleased to say he is doing well! He's on pain meds, has a splinted, dislocated toe, and is more bright and alert and eating well. Things are looking good for the big guy and hopefully I'll be able to return him home at some point.

I am guessing one of my bat houses is not being utilized by bats!

I really can not see up into any of them to even check if bats are using them, but it's a pretty good bet this nesting material does not belong to them! I have yet to see the true invader, and honestly wouldn't have even known there was one if not for this. My guess is a red or some type of bird, or maybe even flyers since I have seen no daytime activity around it. It's on a metal pole but not unlikely for a red to climb up there, although a flyer soaring over there during the nights would explain a lot! Wish the trail cameras were working so I could put one on it and see for sure!

Ahhhhhh....Spring!

Spring is here and we are expecting calls for new babies any time now. A call Saturday from Andrea at McGrath's brought me this guy though! He was quite the character!

My intention was to bring him to Tuft's Sunday morning, however after Laurie came over to help check him out, it was discovered his wound was quite severe and not fixable. Not the way I wanted to start the spring, but he had to be euthanized. Bummer.

On a much better note....Hissy and the Missus are back! Back to our usual daily visit when they see me down there and come rushing over! I love it. I don't know where they go for the winters, but it's obviously a safe place thank god! I still want to try to figure out why they suddenly showed up last year banded. I always know, regardless of the actual date, it's officially spring when these 2 show up!

Everyone is feeling it! The reds are definitely enjoying it! Especially since they spent the winter in the big pen, instead of the little black one next to it, the one they would have been in!

All 7 are doing great and loving the sunny warm weather! All of them are out chattering at me when i go in to feed them instead of huddling in a warm nest box. As soon as the leaves re-appear on the trees the release door will be opened and wait till they see the trees they can climb then!

I've got the outside water on and I'm getting the rehab gear out and ready. Even the coons are enjoying the spring weather....actually venturing out when I go in to clean the pens. Some even feeling frisky enough to play a little! I'll have those pics for you soon!

ARL Boston to the rescue!

I work in Waltham and a lot of people call the police when they see an animal in need of rescue. Luckily for us we have the Animal Rescue League to help out with things we are just not equipped to handle!

At the end of March we were getting A LOT of calls about this Canada goose with a 6 pack ring around it's neck. (Another good reason to take care of your trash properly!!!!! But that's another soap box for another time......) Some of our officers attempted to get him with no luck, and on my trip out there he wasn't around. The ARL got these pics during several trips out there to attempt to get him. He was not making it easy!

Finally.....an update on April 6 on their Twitter page.....Yayyyyy, rescue accomplished!! Persistence pays. They also dealt with another goose issue in Waltham. This pair picked a hell of a place to nest!

But they checked them out and got these pics of Mom and Dad goose doing just fine tending to their nest. It's actually perfectly situated to protect it from predators, but not going to be easy for the babies when they hatch to get down and head toward the water!

We'll cross that bridge when we get to it I guess!