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!