Are baby raccoons allowed to kayak?

April, the new intern, and I were taking down the kayaks today, when I heard a familiar sound nearby. It was a tiny baby raccoon! I knew the sound from previous rescued babies that have come to us, like this one we had last year. I looked beneath a hollowed-out tree, and the little one was there, just crying away. We think it was responding to the noise of us taking out the kayaks, and he wanted to join! We checked before launching the kayaks and the little guy was back in the tree. I decided to check on it before putting kayaks back on the racks after our tour, and the little guy was out again. As I'm looking at him, mama raccoon peeks out, takes one look at me, and grabs her baby back using her paw! I'm sure the follow-up discussion back in the tree involved NOT talking to strangers and not wandering off too far! Hope he learns his lesson!

P.T. Finally Phone Home

PeTe, a pigeon rescued from the storm (read Pete's earlier blog post), was released today. With a break in the storms, PeTe got the chance to fly home. As soon as PeTe was let out of the cage, he was headed southwest back to Gainsville, FL. Goodbye PeTe and have a nice life!

Lucy returns for a visit

All of us naturalists were standing by the pond behind the nature center today when who should come swimming up...none other than our Lucy! Lucy is a yellow-bellied slider that lived at the nature center for a year (see previous post from April). She seemed to be really happy and doing well - and appreciated the turtle food that Amanda Clark tossed her!

Zena - Forever Loved, Never Forgotten

Our last post was for Zena the Warrior Opossum who was almost of the brink of death when Clark found her. Zena received medicine and was improving but unfortunately, Zena had an illness, medicine could not cure. She fought as long as she could until Tuesday May, 26 she passed away in her sleep. She really was a fighter and this last week and half was the best of her life, I can guarantee it. We will miss Zena and she thanks all of you for your help.

Zena the Warrior Opossum

On Monday May 18, Clark gets a call as soon as she walks in the door about a baby opossum near Ocean Club who is in need of help. When she gets out there, she sees the baby opossum laying on its side in the cold, wet leaves. No one can be certain how long the baby had been there but she was ice cold and not moving but still breathing! Clark rushed her back to the nature center hoping against all odds, the baby is not TOO cold yet. She rubs the baby vigorously and makes some nice warm milk. After feeding the poor baby, Clark sticks her on top of a heating pad in a warm carrier. From then on all she could do was wait. After checking on her many times throughout the day, Clark took her home for the night. The baby was exhausted and didn't want to eat. On Tue, Clark took her to the vet and the diagnosis was the baby was lucky to be alive- from numerous fleas stealing her energy, water in the lungs leading to pneumonia and a small heart murmur, Vet said she's a fighter. So we named her Zena. After being on meds for 24 hours Clark can already see a fantastic improvment in Zena. Even though her appitite hasn't returned yet, Zena is up walking around her cage and exploring. Only time will tell if this little one will completely get over her near death experience.

Sea Turtle Survivors

On Saturday, Christina and I went to Main Beach in Fernandina to witness the release of 3 sea turtles who had been rehabilitated at the Georgia Sea Turtle Hospital on Jekyll Island, GA.

As you can see, we were not the only ones! There was an aisle formed all the way up the beach, made of people who all wanted to see the turtles.

Dr. Norton carried the first green turtle, the one that we rescued back in March! (see previous post for her story).
This little girl is another Green Sea Turtle.

This is a rare Kemp's Ridley sea turtle, not often seen on Florida beaches.

The Sea Turtle Center staff carried the three turtles out past the breakers, as far as they could go without swimming. The turtles started flapping around, clearly excited by the sight and smell of the ocean! After a minute, all three were set free and swam out into the sea. I was so proud of all three turtles, especially the one we found on our beach at Amelia Island Plantation, because she was presumed dead by several beach-goers (even me at first!) Truly a survivor!

If you are near Jekyll Island, stop by the Georgia Sea Turtle Center for educational displays and to visit recovering sea turtles and even watch as the vets check out the patients!

And, while you are on vacation on Amelia Island, call or stop by the nature center to sign up for one of our Moonrise Beach Walks. Explore the beach at night, see how a sea turtle nest is marked and possibly even spot a mama turtle while she's laying her eggs!

Pigeon phone home

We picked up this pigeon today from the Ocean club (our private condo association clubhouse). Seems he had been hanging around for awhile, even coming into the building at one point! The rainy and windy weather was too much for him to fly in. He was pretty tame and we noticed he had a green band on his leg. Turns out he is a homing pigeon. Homing pigeons have been selectively bred to be able to find their way home over long distances. They were used as carrier pigeons and white homing pigeons are used in ceremonies that want a dove release.
Now they are raced as a sport. We were able to use the codes on the band to locate the owner, who lives near Gainesville, FL. We are supposed to give him food and water for a couple of days, then release him a few miles away. The owner will give us a call when he finds his way home!

Mother's Day Happy Ending

It's a little late for this story to be posted for Mother's day but it is still a good story! On May 8th, a mother Mallard duck took her five ducklings for a swim in the Piper Dunes pool and the when mom decided to leave, two of the babies couldn't get out of the pool. Recreation brought to the Nature Center the two Mallard ducklings in hopes we could find momma duck again to rejoin the family. Momma Manda warmed the ducklings back up again and brought them home for the night. After much care taking unfortunately one duckling got too cold in the pool the day of and didn't make it through the night. Momma Manda took the last duckling back to work on Sat. May 9th in hopes to find the mother Mallard. The Amanda's went to look for the mother Mallard as soon as they got in. After checking the pool areas, they headed to a small lake behind Little Dunes and to their surprise, they found mother Mallard! As Clark took pictures, Hardy held the little duckling. As he started crying for mommy, mother Mallard heard him! She's swam around the corner of some trees quacking loudly with her three little ducklings swimming as fast as they could to keep up. After a few moments to allow mommy to get a little closer, Hardy let go of the duckling. He stumbled down the little hill into the lake and swam to his mommy. They touched and mommy took him under her wing and they both swam away happy to have each other again!

Humpback Whale update

My Nassau Sun, a local newspaper, featured a story about our whale! (see previous post). You can see the story at http://www.jacksonville.com/community/my_nassau_sun/2009-05-16/story/cause_of_death_undetermined_for_humpback_whale_found_on_ame

They also mentioned this blog under "blogs" on their homepage:

http://www.mynassausun.com/node/2217

Witness One Sea Turtle's Happy ending...

In the beginning of March, Neil and I got a call about a dead turtle on the beach. We went to check it out, and it was a juvenile Green sea turtle, and it looked pretty dead to me. Right as Neil asked, "how do we know it's dead?" it moved its head a little! It suddenly became a much more urgent situation! Nancy Hickman, an Amelia Island Sea Turtle Watch volunteer, came out and took measurements and observations and then had it rushed to a sea turtle hospital on Jekyll Island, GA. Here is her letter to me the next day:

Thanks again for all your assistance in rescuing the sea turtle. All
of
you did a great job.

KC, the Green sea turtle, was safely
delivered
to the Georgia Sea Turtle Center at Jekyll Island. When we
arrived we
learned that two more juvenile Greens were en route from
Cumberland
Island. Two more were rescued at St. Augustine beach last
Thursday.
The center is pretty full right now. Some patients
are ready for
release except the water is too cold.

Dr. Allen
Foley asked all of us here on Amelia Island to
keep a 'heads up' in case
there are more. In September of 2006, some
sort of event occurred along
the Georgia and NE Florida coast that killed
over a hundred sub-adult
loggerheads. A few were saved because they
were found live and gotten to a
rehab facility quickly enough to be
treated.

I've attached the four
photos that we took upon
arrival at GSTC. There for research purposes, but
I thought you might
like to have them. Especially the head shot.
He/she really is a
pretty little turtle. After they do a good clean-up to
get the
barnacles cleaned off, KC will be a real knock-out.

The
website
at the GA Sea Turtle Center is http://www.georgiaseaturtlecenter.org/. I'll
keep you posted
if I learn more from KC in the next few
days.

Thanks again.
Your work yesterday made a huge
difference for one small sea
turtle.

Nancy Hickman
Amelia
Island Sea Turtle Watch

Nancy went to visit KC the day after Easter, and she was doing great! The culprit of the turtles' sickness was an unknown toxin...veterinarians at the University of Florida and Fish and Wildlife are conducting studies to gain more information.


During the Wild Amelia Fest this weekend (May 15-17), Dr. Terry Norton, director of the Jekyll Island Sea Turtle Center, plans on releasing rehabilitated sea turtles, possibly even our KC! They plan to release three turtles - 2 green turtles and 1 Kemp's ridley at 11am at Main Beach in Fernandina. Both species are on the endangered list. Hope you're able to attend! Come early to get a parking place and find a spot to watch. Once the turtles are ready to be released they don't stay on the beach very long!

Crisis @ The Ritz Carlton

It was the 25th of April, a fine Saturday afternoon I might add when The Nature Center recieved a distress call from the head of security at The Ritz Carlton! A loon was injured on the shore just in front of their hotel (he was afraid his staff would get hurt, so he rang us!) Neil and I immediately hopped in the Green Machine (our van) and headed out! After a lengthy phone call, a couple of wrong turns and some dodgy directions we eventually arrived at the staff car park. We were greeted by the man on the phone, we leapt into his golf cart and headed to the beach. Just before the beach we changed carts to an all terrain cart and headed to the last known location of the injured loon. We whizzed down the beach, passing several bemused guests and Neil hitting his back several times, after a short time we spotted a crowd of people staring out to sea, there she was, the injured loon.
We jumped out and schemed a plan to rescue the poor girl, I would wade out in one direction while Neil swam around behind guiding it in my direction. In full work attire, we bravely jumped in, we didnt care, we wanted to save the loon. The plan was going swimmingly when the loon decided it didnt want to be saved and started heading out to sea, Neil cunningly swam faster and cut her off, guiding her in my direction. When she was close enough, I grabbed the loon with my hands and pulled her in close, she was safe! At the same time this commotion was going on, a crowd of onlookers began to amass, wondering what these two strangers were up to.
As the exhausted Neil and I waded back toward shore complete with loon, the curious onlookers realized what had just happened and began applauding, we graciously accepted the applause, hopped back on the golf cart and rode off into the afternoon sun, the loon safe in a carrier and on the way to being healed!

Owl release

A local bird rescue that helps us out with our injured birds asked us to return the favor last week. They brought us six young screech owls who needed a good place to live.

We opened the carrier for them, and they immediately flew off into nearby trees, except for the grey one in this photo, who took a couple of minutes.

They each flew to a branch and spent some time just taking in their surroundings. It was wonderful to see them set free. We hope to see them again on our "Amelia at Night" tours!

Baby hawk video

Here is a video of the baby hawk (see last post) after he started eating. He is at a local bird rescue and doing great, he will be released when he's ready!

How to perk up a baby hawk...

This baby red-shouldered hawk fell out of his (or her) nest a couple of days ago...and mom and dad hawk didn't notice, despite his cries. Luckily the Park family in Callahan, FL kept an eye on him. They were unable to get him back up in the nest, so I picked him up. Fortunately we have a few dead mice on hand for the snakes...unfortunately they have to be cut up before feeding to the baby...a very gross task. At first baby was much more interested in sleeping than eating and I was really worried that he was too weak to make it....until I pried open his beak and put a piece of the mouse inside. Talk about taking a 180! He perked right up and gobbled up the other pieces of the mouse, and a few mealworms.

Once he started lookin

g at me like a hungry dinosaur...I decided that mealtime was over! I never

thought I'd be so happy to see something eat mouse guts! I have a feeling this guy will be just fine!