Sunday, August 9, 2009

Bits and Pieces

BUSY LITTLE HANDS:
A little video I forgot I shot -- oh these little digital snap cameras with their mini movie capability. When I zoom in it takes it's time to focus and makes a strange noise at times. But I get the shot -- there are countless numbers of antics going on every day that I don't catch. I can hardly post the ones I do, so filming quality gets pushed even further down the list...

That said, I still hope to brighten your day. I am finding lately that when I give a squirrel a hard nut, like an almond, 3/4 of the time they bury it. When I give them something soft like a pecan or a walnut, they stay close and chomp it, keeping their eye on me, hoping for another as soon as they can chew it up.

I did catch a little one hopping around to find a spot, digging, pushing the nut in with his mouth and doing a very hearty job of packing down the soil, with one last whiff to either be sure where it is, or maybe be sure no other squirrel could detect it and steal it away....





BIRD UPDATES:
Also -- a vulture update. I told the story of the baby black vulture HERE. Last week I learned he'd gotten so big he was transferred to a big boy cage. Another woman was taking a quick pic so I joined her and did the same. This is for the Grilzzled
Scribe in particular.

In other news, the Chimney Swifts I guess got big enough to be returned to the wild. I have not yet found out how that happens... but I am so glad I got the pictures I did. Don't know when I will come across those again.

IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN:
And I have gotten my sub-contracting license that allowed me to take home a very sick baby squirrel who came in to the Center Thursday near closing. I had just managed to get a cc of lactated ringer’s solution down him (the fluids that they give for dehydration) and asked who was going to take him home for the evening feedings. The answer was -- you are!

I drove home probably with more care than I have in years, as I had very precious cargo. I am happy to say that he has gotten stronger with each passing day, and watching his progress on an hourly basis, for several days has been an amazing and most rewarding experience. I got him at 55 grams and unable to eat and now he's 73 grams, and quite a joyful eater. I hope to raise him just until his eyes open. Then I feel I can turn him back over with confidence that he will live.
He completely cracks me up, as he conks out in the craziest positions. I will do a little photo post of some of them in the next little while. Until then, here's the little munchkin. I swear these little guys just KILL me! Click on it to see it bigger. Those feet! So CUTE!


We're coming into baby squirrel season so I will have a lot more to feed when I go in to the Center. I just hope nothing happens like last year, where we were struggling to feed over 1200 of these due to Hurricaine Ike. Are you a fan of squirrels?