Did I say I was looking forward to retirement????

When I retired from Natural Resources, I had visions of coffees on the deck, lounging, lots of fishing, swimming, boating, visiting, photography, art….you know, fun stuff.

Instead this was one of my most busiest years, not only personally but in the rehab world as well. Thank heavens for my foster custodians, who have taken on the extra workload that I have had to turn down. And in particular, Erika, who has been run ragged with rescues that I couldn’t do.

There has been a influx of young broadwing and sharp-shinned hawks with a mysterious ailment. We have sent one in for testing when it passed away. Some were able to recover and get released, and two are still in care. They seem stunned and disoriented, and seem to have issues with their vision. I couldn’t release them until I was certain they could see to hunt and pounce again. It seemed after a few weeks, they were back to normal. Strange…and I believe similar cases were seen in Manitoba rehab centers as well.

Speaking of strange, yes, that is a piglet…a friend who works for MTO found ‘Bouncer’ along side the Trans Canada Highway near town. We assume that the poor little guy fell out of a hog transport traveling the highway. He had terrible road rash and bites on his ears and sides. Bouncer is now happily living out his life at the 10 Acres Woods in Anola, Manitoba.

On average, I have 10-20 calls a day on my answering machine…many of which I am unable to respond to for various reasons. And so many folks who call assume that I have call display and will say call (or text) me back…but do not leave a number for me to do so. Or calls come in and the person in on a cell phone walking and talking and I may get every second or third word of what they are saying…or will leave a very quickly rattled off number at the end of their call that gets cut off. To these folks, I do apologize that I did not get back to you, but these may be the reasons…

gotta run….critters need care….

A busy summer…

Lots of critters brought in this year, some were successfully rehabbed or raised and released, some not so.

I was able to release a young groundhog last week that had been picked up by school kids at Evergreen school. It likely got separated from its mom and fell victim to curious hands. But it was not in a safe place, so a friend rescued it and brought it to me.

An amazing team of caring people arranged the capture and flight out of Sandy Lake for an adult bald eagle. It had been on the ground at the landfill and was obviously in distress. The airlines was able to fly it out, and Jen Derouin was able to drive it to me from Sioux Lookout. It had been severely injured with fishing line that had tangled in the wing and leg. The lacerations were deep and very badly infected and maggot infested. Antibiotics and deep cleaning did little to stop the infection, and despite everyone’s amazing help to try to save it, it was not to be.

A young sharp-tail hawk was brought to me by Stacey Skene from the OMNRF. It had been found in the yard of another OMNRF employee, unable to fly. It appeared to have a head injury as the eyes showed different dilation in the light. But today it flew up on a perch and was able to see the food I put out, and readily flew down to eat it. Already much stronger so I have high hopes for this one.

I have had more help this year from my foster helpers and that has been amazing! Thank you, Erika, Erin, Michelle and the rest of you angels out there!

Cause my hands are full now with this guy…