Every morning Merry Maloney goes to the freezer and pulls out cold rats, mice and quail. Once the stiff bodies have thawed to about room temperature, Maloney feeds them to the assortment of birds of prey she houses in her backyard and attic.

Maloney is part of the Humboldt Wildlife Care Center, a local network of volunteers dedicated to aiding injured birds and mammals and returning them to the wild.

	Screech Owl Ch'hooly was hit by a truck and lost her right eye. Unable to hunt, she is now a permanent resident of the Humboldt Wildlife Care Center.

“Our whole policy, and our ideal, is getting the animal back out there [in its natural habitat],” Cindy Jassar, executive director of the center, said.

A veterinarian in Fortuna founded the Wildlife Center in 1979 because so many people were bringing him deer that had been hit by cars. The center has since expanded.

Jassar said last year the center took in about 830 animals. Birds made up the majority of the patients, but mammal species included raccoons, opossums, skunks, foxes, and even a porcupine, a beaver and a long-tailed weasel.

Eight to 12 rehabilitators work out of their homes to care for injured wildlife. It is illegal to possess a wild animal, so the center obtains permits for its rehabilitators. Some of the workers specialize in caring for certain animals, such as small mammals, seabirds and raccoons.

Maloney specializes in raptors, which include hawks, owls, falcons, vultures and eagles.

Maloney takes in about 50 injured raptors each year, a number she has already exceeded for 2004. The patients range from western screech owls, which comprise about 25 percent of the birds she cares for, to a flammulated owl, which Maloney said is the rarest raptor she’s had. Flammulated owls live inland, and a cat in the Ruth Lake area had caught Maloney’s owl. He was released back into the wild on Sept. 13.

Not all of the animals can be released. Many have to be euthanized because their injuries are so serious.

Maloney estimated the release rate for the raptors to be about 40 percent. Jassar said the rate of euthanasia for all the animals is “quite high.”

“It is not for the weak-hearted,” Jassar said about wildlife rehabilitation. “Some of the animals are in really poor condition.”

Al, a great horned owl, came to the center after the tree containing her nest was cut down. Her wing was broken in four places and healed poorly, so she lives with Maloney and takes part in educational programs.

She said a vast majority of the animals suffer from human-related injuries. Animals are hit by cars or boats, shot, or caught by pet cats. Birds fly into windows. Many animals are injured when the tree they are in is cut down. Jassar said she’s seen raccoons with their heads partially sawed off from sawmills. People have brought in seagulls that were run over and described how they saw the driver rev the truck and steer it toward the bird on purpose.

“It seems like any way we can harm an animal, it happens,” Jassar said. “We’re primarily there to aid the animals who are injured because [humans] are there.”

Some of the animals survive but suffer permanent damage and cannot successfully take care of themselves in the wild. They become educational animals.

Maloney is the education coordinator for the center. She and other volunteers make presentations in classrooms, at camps, for adult groups and at the Natural History Museum. They talk about the educational birds they bring along, and how people can help conserve wildlife.

“Our goal is pretty much to get people conscious of sharing the world with other creatures,” Maloney said.

She said people are very receptive to the presentations, especially children.

“They’re just amazed,” Maloney said about children’s reactions to the raptors. “There’s usually total silence when we bring them out.”

The fourth graders at the Cutten School in Humboldt County are once again going to adopt “Al,” the great horned owl, this year. The students raise money through fundraisers and donate $25 a month to pay for Al’s food.

This pine siskin was caught by a cat and sustained a broken furcula, or "wishbone." He recovered and was released after two weeks. A 6-week-old belding's ground squirrel's mother was killed by a dog. He was released near a colony of squirrels outside Redding. This baby Western gull was brought to the center and was returned to the wild last August. One of four baby striped skunks whose mother had been hit by a car was found trapped in a bucket of water in July. They were released after three months.

Al came to Maloney in 2000, after the tree her nest was in was cut down on West End Road in Arcata. She was 2 months old and her wing was broken in four places. Al’s wing healed poorly and she flies noisily, so she would be an unsuccessful hunter in the wild. Al lives in a cage in Maloney’s backyard in Blue Lake, as do several other permanent residents.

One of these is Ch’hooly, a one-eyed western screech owl named after glassblower Dale Chihuley. Ch’hooly has been with Maloney for two years. She was hit by a pickup truck near Bear River, between Ferndale and Petrolia. The owl was flying after insects attracted to the truck’s headlights when she was hit. The impact sent her flying over the hood and she landed in the bed of the truck, where the driver found her when she got home.

Ch’hooly lost her eye in that accident, and Maloney thinks she may also have lost hearing on that side of her head. Maloney said most screech owls can still hunt even with one eye. In September, she rehabilitated another one-eyed screech owl that was released when he proved he could hunt successfully. But Ch’hooly can’t hunt, so she will stay with Maloney as an educational bird.

Another resident of Maloney’s backyard is Louie the kestrel, who has been there since last year. Louie came from Eugene, Ore., where he was found in a parking lot with a broken wing. A local veterinarian fixed his wing, but the kestrel still couldn’t fly, probably because of nerve damage, Maloney said. The raptor center in Eugene already had two resident kestrels, so Louie ended up coming to Humboldt County to be an educational bird. He had to be trained to get used to being around people and to perch on the glove that handlers wear to protect themselves from raptors’ sharp talons. Maloney said Louie learned quickly and takes part in every educational program.

“He’s really pretty unflappable when it comes to being around kids,” she said.

Another raptor that regularly participates in educational programs is Miranda, a red-tailed hawk who lives in Arcata with her rehabilitator. Miranda has been with the center for about 12 years, since she was found with a broken wing in the middle of the road in the town Miranda in southern Humboldt.

Not every bird that comes into the center is euthanized or unreleasable, though.

Another aspect of rehabilitation is “baby season.” Maloney said raising baby birds is difficult because of imprinting—baby birds accept whoever raises and feeds them as their own kind. Birds raised by humans will often try to eat and act like humans, and even try to mate with them.

“There’s nothing scarier than a great horned owl coming out of the sky saying, ‘Hey baby!’” Maloney said.

Maloney said the center tries to find a substitute parent for baby birds—for example, Ch’hooly has fostered babies.

Over the summer, the center received 14 baby barn owls, all found in loads of hay shipped from Klamath Falls, Ore. In order to keep them from imprinting on humans, the owls were kept in a barn in Bayside. Food was put there every day and the window left open, so eventually the owls were able to fly outside and gradually teach themselves to hunt before they flew away for good.

Maloney said many birds that have hit a window or been caught by a cat are in shock, and need a safe place to recover.

What to do if you find an injured animal
Baby birds: If you can find the nest and it's reachable, put the baby bird back. The parents will generally return to care for their child, despite the myth that human scent drives them away. Even placing the baby in a fake nest, such as a lined strawberry basket, up high can result in the parents' return. Fawns: Does frequently leave their fawns hidden while they forage. If you find a lone fawn tucked away in the grass or bushes, leave it there. The mother will come back. Injured animals: Call the center as soon as possible when you find an injured animal. Chances are it has been suffering for a long time before you found it. Note: It is illegal to possess a wild animal. If you find an injured animal or would like to volunteer, call the center at (707) 822-8839.
http://www.humboldtwildlifecarecenter.org

“Sometimes these animals that we get will just need time,” she said, “and they heal themselves.”

To give animals a peaceful place to recuperate, Maloney has several cages in a dark, quiet corner in her attic.

A turkey vulture found on the highway near Orleans with two broken wings was mending in one of the cages.

The attic is equipped with an examining table, a microscope, medical supplies and a hematocrit, a device used to analyze blood.

For treatment the rehabilitators cannot administer, the center relies on local veterinarians, who treat animals for free or at a discount. Donations and grants pay for veterinary fees and food for the animals.

The center is trying to raise enough money to get a central facility up and running. Right now, all of the rehabilitation takes place in private homes across the county, which Jassar said causes space issues and difficulty in organizing volunteers.

The center is looking to rent a barn from the Jacoby Creek Land Trust. Jassar said they hope to have the lease and permits settled by October or November. Then, it will take a lot of work to get the barn ready to house animals. Jassar said the inside of the barn and the floor need fixing up, and the roof needs to be replaced. She hopes enough skilled community members will volunteer to help, so the barn can be functional by next spring.

Jassar said the center is also working on obtaining permits that would allow for banding released animals, to track their success in the wild.

The post-release release period is problematic because it is “kind of questionable as to whether they survive out there or not,” Jassar said.

She said it can be hard not to get attached to the animals, but it is most difficult to see all the injuries caused by humans and often having to put animals down because they are hurt so badly.

However, Jassar said it is very gratifying when a badly injured animal is able to heal and return to the wild.

“When the (rehabilitated) bird flies out of the box, flies over the ocean, that’s the most rewarding experience,” Jassar said. “It happens enough to make it worthwhile.”