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I should post current pics of my collection sometime. I have all of the above, but couldn’t part with any of them. Best wishes!! Great to see prices are still good!!!
This makes me even more upset than the birds! I post a lot of links, but this one really hits you in the gut. Turtles stuck in boom and being burned alive! Please share this video with everyone you can! We CAN make a difference!
http://www.youtube.com/user/catherinec8#p/a/u/1/4kjw3_bMk8o
😡 😡 😡
No comments needed, really! Please watch and read these links!
I am still volunteering at Fort Jackson. We are getting 40 to 50 Pelicans and other birds a day. It is hot, messy, nasty work. Thank you to IBRRC and Tri-state bird rescue and the LSART volunteers. It is so depressing, I can not even express it! Follow me on Facebook. Please put Windstone in the message, my name is Kaya Eschete. I am keeping updates there.
I work a regular week for my real job and the spend 12 hours at Fort Jackson..ohh and please watch anderson cooper 360 on cnn.
Please pray for us and our wildlife!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RPrtxFa5R4
http://birding.typepad.com/gulf/2010…-colonies.html
LadyFirebird wrote:Cute little dragon and yes, I go with Draco as well! How big will this little guy get? I like lizards only I want to make sure I can still keep them once they get bigger! I used to want an iguana until I found out they could grow to 4 feet! Congrats on your new baby! 😀
The Bearded Dragons are 2 feet each. The Frilled Dragon will be between 20 and 30 inches long. The Beardie vivs are 48″ x 18″ each and 15″ tall. Baby Draco is in a 30 gallon aquarium, but by the end of the year I will need to order a larger viv. There is a company that makes custom acrylic cages. Glasscages.com and they have some 48″ long, by 18″ wide, by 49″ tall vivs. The Frilled Dragons need height, they are tree dwellers. So he will need at least 4 foot in height.
It is amazing that he weighs 11 grams right now and is only 7 3/4 inches long. 2 days ago he weighed 7 grams. 😉
That White Tailed Kite is something. Most people don’t realize that Raptors are as smart as parrots and if you keep them and they imprint on humans, then they can end up like a captive parrot. It is so sad, because of the imprinting, some raptors like the White Tailed Kite, might NEVER be releasable.
Hopefully, you can rehab him! If not he can be used as an educational bird, but sadly, there are far too many raptors that end up as educational birds. If you find a bird, do not touch it, call wildlife and fisheries or a rehab center immediately. They will give you instructions.
Someone brought me a baby dove a few days ago…..I told them to go and put it back where they found it!
Great reahb center photos and great work you are doing!!!!
darjeb wrote:Congratulations on your new baby he’s a cutie. I like the name Draco.
Me too, I think Draco suits him. Here are todays pics of my Bearded Dragons.
Ash decided to escape from his play pen. He was being “invisible” when I took this. His punishment was being sent back to his Viv.
And Diablo, getting use of the playpen due to Ash’s bad behavior…
Just for size comparison Ash and Diablo weigh between 500 and 550 grams and little Draco weighs 8 grams.
BTW, Ioved the pictures of your new pup as a show dog and I sent you an email! 8)
Well, I lost all self control over this adorabe baby Frilled Dragon at the local reptile show and the onsite Vet gave him a clean bill of health……so meet our newest family member. No name yet but Draco, Godzilla and Moloch are my top three so far.
Jennifer wrote:Thank you for the in-depth description! I wonder why they don’t allow photographs?
Also I have been curious- after the birds are cleaned, preened and ready for release, where do they get released? I’d be so worried about them getting oiled again; is that just a risk you have to take?
(least bitterns are AMAZING)They have 1 hour a day for media. BP is paying for the clean up and the site and birds are considered evidence. Especially dead birds. They keep the dead birds in a refrigerated truck.
WIth the legalities and already pending law suits, well you get the idea.
Many of the egrets and such get released inland and the Pelicans and Gannets are going to the East Coast of Florida. SO they should be out of harms way.
Here is a video that shows the facility and what is going on…
IBRRC released this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQSubToXKDo&playnext_from=TL&videos=c2zEtaae2JA
Jennifer wrote:keschete,
I am working on getting some money together to donate (though I know that BP is supposed to be taking care of all this, I still support the rescue groups). Can you recommend which group to donate to? Right now I can only afford to donate once. 🙁
I’m really devastated that the spill is doomed to leak until August at the earliest when they get the relief well drilled. How terrible. There aren’t enough words to show how sad this makes me.
If you would like to donate, here are my suggestions.
For the people affected…. Catholic Charities. They have been better at helping the people here through all sorts of disasters than any other group. http://www.ccano.org/
For the animals, then there are two main organizations working on the spill. They are equally involved.
IBRRC http://www.ibrrc.org/gulf-oil-spill-birds-treated-numbers-2010.html
Tri-State Bird Rescue http://www.tristatebird.org/The Audubon Society has also been very instrumental in getting the initial plans organized and they are the first ones to call me. http://www.audubon.org/
All of the above organizations, I have personally either worked with or seen in action and they are all charities that will use the money in the best way and not waste it. The Tri-State and IBRRC people are the ones that I am working with now at Fort Jackson and here is a little description of how my first day went:
Here is how my first day went.
I got up at 5 am Saturday and drove to Venice, Fort Jackson. I had to get an ID badge made and go through a bunch of security. Show proof of my ID and BP oil training. Then I had an orientation and safety meeting. There are hot and cold zones in the building. Hot zones are oil contaminated areas, kind of like a surgery area in a hospital. You have to wear all the safety equipment. Cold zones are non oiled areas.
So certain people deal with oiled birds and washing, ICU and critical birds and then the rest of us deal with the non oiled and recovering birds. You can not take pictures and security is tight, most volunteers and employees live at the site. They have a large trailer as a bunk house. We work 12 hour shifts. The paid workers work 14 days on and 24 hours off. Yes, that is right! The Tri-State and IBRRC people are working more than full time!
So after a bird is clean (non oiled) they go to a drying room with cages and dog hair dryers…the room is about 100 degrees and you have to crawl in the cages and catch and hold the birds so your partner can take their temps every 15 minutes. So for a big Gannet or Pelican it takes two people to get a rectal temp. The birds are not happy, and the Gannets are smart and have sharp beaks. So we have to wear protective gloves and eye wear.
It is hot in the drying room and stepping back out into 80 degrees feels like it is cool. This drying room is a small walled off room in a large warehouse with no AC. So it is about 80 degrees with almost 100% humidity in the coolest parts of the building.
Once a bird gets up to temperature (103 to 108 degrees) and is dry then they go in an indoor pen for a period of time to preen and waterproof their feathers, from there they go outside. They are all monitored closely, because if their feathers are not water proofed then they will get water logged in the outdoor pools. Some birds have to come back in for more warming and tube feedings. I learned very quickly how to spot a distressed gannet.
It is really interesting and there were only about 40 birds while I was there, but for the team of 8 of us, we never stopped for 12 hours. It is gruelling, exhausting, hot work. But, I really enjoyed it and I felt like I had experience enough that I could be of use. By the end of my first day, I felt like a professional Northern Gannet wrangler.
I didn’t fool with any Pelicans, they are twice as large as the Gannets. I fell in love with the Gannets. They were all immature birds, mottled black and white with striking blue eyes and blue eyelids. They are wicked with their beaks! Many others like the Pelicans better. But the Gannets are so striking.
I also helped in the aviary for gulls and other wader birds, feeding, weighing, tubing, cleaning dead fish out of the muddy floor and pools. The cutest little bird that I have every seen is a Least Bittern. He was about a foot tall and looked like a rust colored cattle egret. In fact he got in a squabble with a cattle egret while I was in the cage. He won. He was really cute and if you watch CNN tonight Anderson Cooper 360 you can see the Least Bittern when he was brought in. He really has a big boy attitude for such a little bird!
I go back this Friday for another 12 hour shift. No pictures due to security, but many of the birds can be see on the news shows. I will do an update next weekend.
Thank You Everyone for reading and for all the positive response! Kaya
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