Busy summer's incoming animals

Foster mom with altricial babies	Some of the earliest birds to nest are also some of the most charismatic. Both bald and golden eagles begin nesting in January, and eagle babies arrive at the facility from February on. Eagle nests are usually built in the very top of a tree where they are often open and exposed. If there is a streak of heat early in the spring, the new babies are vulnerable to dehydration. Eagle babies end up on the ground in this way, requiring medical care. Others fall from the nests in storms,
or lose one or both parents. Eagles are also prone to lead poisoning. Liberty Wildlife has become well-known for our success in caring for eagles. Great horned owls are also early nesters. They don't actually build nests themselves, but move into nests built in previous years by red-tailed hawks or eagles. If nothing else is available, they use a scrape nest, settling on any kind of ledge or in a palm tree. When the fledgling great-horns begin branching, or moving about on the nest, they eventually flutter to the ground. There the parents will continue to care for them, bringing food and threatening any would-be intruders until the youngsters can fly and hunt on their own. This situation works fine in the wild, but when great horned owls live near people, there are many risks to the babies. Cats, dogs, traffic, and human interference all threaten the owl families. Great horned owl babies are first brought into Liberty Wildlife by rescue volunteers in late February or early March. They will continue to straggle in until mid-June, and won't all be released again until well into September. The facility treated and/or raised more than seventy GHOs last year.
New born gapers	Orphaned or injured red-tailed hawk babies are the next to arrive at Liberty Wildlife. This year the red-tails were sitting on nests in January, a particularly early breeding season. Liberty's rescue team was involved in two dramatic red-tail nest saves this spring. Both nests were chock-full of babies, with five nestlings in one and four in the other. All of the youngsters are doing great and will be released back to the wild.
Barn owls arrive next in the annual progression of baby raptors. As with the great horned owls, Liberty Wildlife has foster parents raise the baby barn owls. To avoid imprinting, it is critical that humans avoid feeding baby raptors. The fledgling owls live in groups fed only by adult owls, and caretakers wear camouflage, and avoid vocalizing around the impressionable young. Kestrel babies follow the barn owls, and then the Harris's hawks begin to show up. These chocolate-colored hawks often have more than one clutch in a season and can still be making babies in August. In addition to native resident species, springtime brings injured juvenile raptors that are in migration. Then we see more of the Cooper's hawks, the beautiful Swainson's hawks making their way up from Argentina, and the speedy merlins. We sometimes treat a few owls that are exotic in the Arizona desert, such as the saw-whet and flammulated owls. If you want to learn about the full range of Arizona's raptors in every stage of development, spring and summer are a fine time to be working in the rehabilitation daily care area.
Young gapers	Over in the Orphan Care center, the passerines also follow Mother Nature's orderly progression. First come the sparrows and the starlings, brought to the center by caring individuals who carry the injured or orphaned in shoeboxes, paper grocery sacks, cat carriers and even straw hats. The mourning doves are early (and frequent) breeders and when their fluffy grey babies blow out of trees or are captured by cats, the public brings them to us. Tiny finch babies
charm the orphan care volunteers, and then come the white-winged doves, the Inca doves, swallows and towhees. Shy phoebe babies gape for food, and less shy but equally hungry woodpeckers and the grackles push and shove to the front of the feeding line. These baby birds will be cared for by orphan care volunteers until they are fledged and eating on their own. Then they are put in aviaries with other members of their species to gain weight and strength for their return to the wild.
Precocial Kildeer	Each of these species is breeding shortly before the food they eat is at its peak. This depends of course on the warming of the days and the rate of precipitation. Every year the pieces fall into place in a wondrous order. Animal parents are programmed to ensure bounty for their young; however, successfully raising the family doesn't always go according to plan. Storms and unusual spikes or drops in temperature can be deadly to newborns. Fortunately, humans have a
strong response to injured and orphaned animals, and many call our hotline. This brings a lot of the babies and injured juveniles to Liberty Wildlife. We figure humans have a lot to do with many of the risks that endanger wild animals, so we hope to even the score. Even our skilled medical services teams can't save all of the animals, but we do have one of the best success records among rehabbers nationwide. The Liberty Wildlife hotline number is 480-998-5550.