Grebe goes home

This time of year babies of various species are brought to DVWR for care.   Two Great Horned Owls recently arrived and received excellent prognosis. Once they achieve a certain level of growth and demonstrate hunting abilities they will be returned to the wild.

In case you wanted to know, a group of rabbits are called a “fluffle.” Individual baby bunnies are called “kits.”There are lots of kits here.  

A Red-tailed Hawk will be released in early 2014.  Injured on Highway 395 in Douglas County, NV., the Red-tailed Hawk successfully recovered at Dayton Valley Wildlife Reststop. For information on Red-tailed Hawks click on the Nevada Department of Wildlife link below. http://www.ndow.org/Species/Birds/Red-tailed_Hawk/

A cat raided a rabbit’s nest.  Hopefully this 9 day old cottontail, with eyes still closed, will grow strong & then when old enough be returned to the wild.  

This 10 day old Great Horned Owl baby has just opened his eyes and his first look is of himself.  Young owls bond quickly with the caregiver.  This is not helpful because they must learn to be a wild owl & hunt for themselves. To prevent bonding with humans, we sometimes place a mirror in front of them so they can…

This orphaned 8-day-old baby sparrow is one of many birds that are receiving care especially during this time of year. At this stage the chicks are extremely fragile, must have an external heat source and are fed very frequently. They are kept in incubators with make shift nests sometimes created by just using the toe of a sock.