A PLETHORA OF WATERFOWL Staff, volunteers, and interns worked tirelessly during this summer’s baby bird season, devoting many hours to our downy waterfowl babies. In May alone, the clinic admitted 163 hatch-year mallards, Canada geese, and wood ducks—a record high for one month. By the end of July, we had admitted more than 100 additional hatch-year waterfowl. In contrast, we admitted a total of 157 hatch-year waterfowl for the entire summer of 2014.

Waterfowl youngsters come to us for many reasons. Mallards tend to come in large batches because the mother was hit by a car or attacked by an animal or the babies had fallen down a drain. Geese tend to come in as orphaned singlets. Tri-State has an extremely successful wild fostering program for Canada geese. We place the orphaned young in a wild group of Canada geese with similar-sized babies. The foster parents generally scoop up the young bird and add it into their gaggle.

Hatch-year waterfowl present many challenges to clinic staff, primarily involving nutrition, imprinting, and housing.

As with most babies, young waterfowl need a good amount of protein. We monitor hatch-year waterfowl that are below a certain weight every two hours from dawn to dusk to ensure they consume the proper amount of nutrients. If they are not self-feeding well, or at all, they need to be tubed a specialized diet every two hours. Once they hit a certain age/weight, we decrease the amount of protein in their diet to prevent a crippling deformity to the wings.

Young waterfowl also easily imprint. We employ a variety of techniques to keep these young waterfowl wild. Inside, we use white noise and visual barriers and house them in rooms away from foot traffic. We move them outside as often as possible so they can hear the noises of nature.

The clinic staff also had to be flexible and resourceful to find proper housing for this season’s overabundance of waterfowl. With limited and outdated waterfowl rearing pens, we had to create new temporary space and housing.

We are extremely excited that a very generous donor supplied us with the funds to purchase new and improved rearing pens for next summer. In the meantime, these pens can also be used to house and swim small adult waterfowl over the winter. The facility team will redesign one of our rooms to house the rearing pens.

Although this has been an extraordinary and challenging year for young waterfowl coming into Tri-State, it brought large rewards as well. Releasing drones of waterfowl at the same time into the beauty of the wild is a gratifying and fulfilling experience.

GIANT YARD SALE JUST AROUND THE CORNER Our hard-working volunteers are busy organizing and pricing items for Tri-State’s Giant Yard Sale, which will be held on Saturday, October 3. As usual, the sale takes place at the Aetna Fire Hall in Newark from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. Once again, we are requesting that all shoppers consider making a small donation of $1 as they enter the sale.

Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research MONTHLY FLYER

A Volunteer Newsletter September 2015

Celebrating 39 years of excellence in wildlife rehabilitation and research

Photo by snyders/moonbeampublishing Editor: Loretta Carlson

Photo by Steve Howey-Newcomb

Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research 2

We are eager to receive your books, vinyl records, collectibles, DVDs, electronics, games, and housewares. We are not able to accept clothing, large furniture, TVs, or computer monitors. If you are unsure about an item, visit www.tristatebird.org or call (302) 737-9543. Yard Sale Committee members are on-site to receive your donations on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Fridays between 9 and 11 a.m. You also can call ahead to make arrangements to drop off your donations at other times if you are not able to come to the center on the days and times listed above. The final day we are able to accept donations is Saturday, September 26.

If you really want to snag the choice items, come to the fire hall by 7 a.m. on Saturday to buy a ticket for the Early Bird Raffle. Winners start shopping at 7:40 a.m. before the doors open to the public.

Another way to support our yard sale is by baking your favorite dessert to help us feed all those hungry shoppers. Call Julie Bartley at (302) 737-9543, extension 102; e-mail her at jbartley@tristatebird.org; or sign up on the sheets in the Volunteer Room.

Last year we raised nearly $10,000. If you join us and bring your family, friends, and neighbors, we can do even better this year. After all, it’s all for the birds!

EARLY BIRD OFFER: BENEFIT FOR THE BIRDS You can band together with us for a fun-filled evening at Tri-State’s Benefit for the Birds and save money with our “Early Bird” offer from now until September 15. To purchase tickets online, visit www.tristatebird.org/benefit. You may also purchase tickets by sending an e-mail to Duke Doblick at ddoblick@tristatebird.org or by calling him at (302) 737-9543, extension 108. Don’t miss this opportunity to help save birds’ lives while enjoying delicious food and desserts, raffles, the Silent Hawktion, and more.

RECENT RELEASES A female orchard oriole had a longer-than-expected stay at Tri-State simply because her tail feathers took their own sweet time growing back. Admitted to our clinic on May 15 after she was hit by a vehicle in Chester County, the oriole was in respiratory distress and suffering from a swollen left ear and a lower back injury in addition to the feather damage. With pain medications to ease her way, she was soon eating and perching, and by May 20, the oriole was ready for an outside cage. For the next two months, her flight skills steadily improved, and she remained in good overall condition—except for those stubborn tail feathers. By early August, however, the recalcitrant feathers finally grew in, and we were able to release the orchard oriole at Tri-State on August 3.

On June 8, a Maryland DNR agent brought in a bald eagle that had become trapped inside the fenced-in enclosure surrounding a Perryville, Maryland, cell tower. Likely the victim of an impact, the fledgling was thin and debilitated, and radiographs confirmed that he had a keel fracture. Although his left wing also felt loose, it was not fractured. Soon after admission, the eagle began self-feeding, and over the next weeks, it became a challenge for us to keep up with this young raptor’s steadily increasing appetite. By June 21, the eagle was flying to low perches, and by June 28, with the keel fracture stabilized, he was able to reach high perches, although his flight was noisy. His flight skills steadily improved once we moved the eagle to a flight cage in mid-July. Once he was better able to control his landings, we banded the eagle and volunteer Bobbie Breske released him on August 2 at the Perryville Community Park Center.

In 2014, the Tri-State clinic admitted three great-crested flycatchers. In 2015 so far, we have admitted seven. Two young flycatchers came to Tri-State in late June after Rehoboth Beach homeowners removed them from their nest in a mailbox. The nestlings were dehydrated but otherwise uninjured, and they began hand-feeding soon after admission. With a hide box to soothe them, the flycatchers spent time in the nursery until they were ready for an outside cage at the end of July. With excellent flight skills rendering them “uncatchable,” the great-crested flycatchers were released on Tri-State grounds on August 4.

Another of our great-crested flycatcher patients. Staff Photo

Staff Photo

Monthly Flyer, September 2015 3

A juvenile wood thrush came to Tri-State from West Grove, Pennsylvania, on July 27, after it was attacked by another bird. We cleaned wounds and abrasions on its wing, administered pain medication and antibiotics, and prescribed cage rest to allow time for neurologic symptoms to resolve. By the next day, the thrush was self-feeding mealworms and fruit, and its wounds were beginning to heal. We moved it to an outside cage on August 3, and the young bird immediately flew up to a high perch, although it was slightly off balance when it landed. By August 9, the bird was flying and landing well, and its neurologic symptoms had resolved, allowing us to release this wood thrush on-site.

Homeowners from Elkton, Maryland, brought in an uninjured eastern kingbird on July 8. We could not convince them that the fledgling would thrive best under its parents’ care and so admitted him. The young flycatcher was handfeeding well and in overall good condition. We treated him for parasites and observed him carefully as he progressed from Window Room to an outside enclosure. With the young kingbird flying well and maintaining a stable weight, we released him on-site on August 21. Learn more about the eastern kingbird in this month’s Featured Bird article.

OTHER RELEASES IN AUGUST In August, we released or renested American kestrels, ospreys, a red-tailed hawk, a great blue heron, a green heron, Canada geese, mallards, a wood duck, laughing gulls, a turkey vulture, an American crow, ruby-throated hummingbirds, purple martins, barn swallows, chimney swifts, red-eyed vireos, a northern flicker, a downy woodpecker, eastern bluebirds, chipping sparrows, song sparrows, American goldfinches, house finches, Carolina wrens, house wrens, gray catbirds, northern mockingbirds, blue jays, American robins, a common grackle, mourning doves, and a brown-headed cowbird.

TRI-STATE TO MARK 40TH ANNIVERSARY It hardly seems possible, but 2016 will mark Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research’s 40th anniversary. In anticipation of this event, the anniversary committee has selected a logo and theme: 40 Years and Flying Strong: Soaring to New Heights Together. Since the traditional anniversary color is ruby red, the ruby-throated hummingbird was selected as Tri-State’s 40th anniversary species. The committee chose a logo designed by Duke Doblick and featuring a photograph taken by Hank Davis. Look for more information about 40th anniversary events in future issues of The Flyer.

VOLUNTEER ANNIVERSARIES 20 years: Maryanne Yingst 19 years: Bobbie Breske 14 years: Thomas Jones III and Cindy Naylor 9 years: Elizabeth Eldridge 4 years: Kim Cook, Jim Howey, and Lucy Robbins 3 years: Sierra Hanson, Cassie Kane, David and Erica Pearson, Rebecca Radisic, Jaclyn Solomon, and Joyce Witte 2 years: Mary Behal, Barbara and Dennis Davis, Susannah Halligan, and Melissa Volpone 1 year: Janice Friedman

FEATURED BIRD: EASTERN KINGBIRD The eastern kingbird is the only kingbird that nests on the East Coast of the United States, but its range spans most of North America and up to the southern Yukon. A relatively large flycatcher at 8.5 inches long, the kingbird

has a 14- to 15-inch wingspan. Its striking black cap, gray back, white underparts, and square, white-tipped tail make this an easy bird to spot and identify. It also has a concealed crown of yellow, orange, or red feathers on its head that it reveals during courtship and when the bird encounters a predator or intruder.

Kingbirds sit upright on exposed perches from which they spot their insect prey and then sally forth to catch in midair. They eat small insects in midflight. They kill larger prey by beating them against the perch and then swallowing them whole. During spring migration and breeding season, they favor bees, wasps, ants, beetles, crickets, grasshoppers, and flies. During the summer, they also eat a variety of berries. Kingbirds subsist primarily on fruit on their wintering grounds.

Photo by Derek Stoner

Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research 4

They form monogamous pairs that may last more than one season, and the eastern kingbird male performs a courtship flight, hovering, circling, and tumbling with his tail spread and crown patch exposed. The female spends a week or more building a sturdy nest that she places on tree branches or in shrubs about 7 to 60 feet above ground and usually near water. She also has primary responsibility for incubating the eggs, although the male remains close by. True to the translation of its Latin name (Tyrannus tyrannus) as “king of the tyrants,” the eastern kingbird aggressively defends its nests, and it has even been observed attacking hawks, crows, and other predators that venture too close to its young. Both parents feed the nestlings and both parents care for their young for about seven weeks after they leave the nest. For this reason, and because they tend to migrate back to their Amazon wintering grounds by the end of July or early August, eastern kingbirds raise only one brood each season.

Kingbirds and other flycatchers are classified in a different subgroup from true songbirds because their songs are not as complex. Their young, rather than learn the species song through imitation, apparently know the songs innately, giving adult calls by the time they are about two weeks old.

Look for kingbirds perched on wires in open areas and listen for their buzzy, high-pitched call that some have likened to the sound of electric sparks. Learn more about the eastern kingbird at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s All About Birds Web site, www.allaboutbirds.org, as well as in Birds of North America, published by the Smithsonian Institution, or your own favorite birding book.

UPCOMING EVENTS Giant Yard Sale. Saturday, October 3, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. It’s hard to believe, but the time for our annual yard sale is upon us. See the article above for more details.

Adult Bird Care Upgrades. We have scheduled bird care upgrade workshops for volunteers trained in April and May who so far have worked primarily with baby birds. If you would like to continue to volunteer with us through the fall and winter (and we hope you do!), you will need to attend one of the two-hour Adult Bird Care Upgrade sessions to learn about adult bird care, which is very different from baby bird care. Sign-up sheets will be posted in the Volunteer Room. Experienced volunteers who would like to refresh their adult bird care skills are welcome to attend.

Information Sessions and Adult Bird Care Workshop. All those interested in volunteering at Tri-State must attend an information session before they can register for a bird care workshop. These one-hour information sessions give prospective volunteers a good overview of our operations and expectations.

September information sessions: Thursday, September 3, 6 p.m.; Saturday, September 5, 11 a.m.

Adult Bird Care Training: Saturday, September 12, 9 a.m.–1 p.m.

Benefit for the Birds. Friday, November 6. See article above and announcement on the right for details on the Early Bird Special. Contact Duke Doblick in the Development office at (302) 737-9543, extension 108, or via e-mail at ddoblick@tristatebird.org if you would like to help with this important annual fund-raiser.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6 CHASE CENTER Ͳ WILMINGTON

Featuring: SILENT ‘HAWK’TION DESSERT AUCTION

BIG CARD DRAW *NEW* WINE BOTTLE RING TOSS

*EARLY BIRD SPECIAL*

TICKETS GENERAL BENEFACTOR 10 % OFF $150 $135 $225 $200 UNTIL SEPT 15

BANDING TOGETHER

Dinner Cocktails Hors d’oeuvres Caricature Drawings Purchase Ɵckets online at www.tristatebird.org/benefit

QuesƟons? ddoblick@tristatebird.org (302) 737Ͳ9543 x108

TICKETS INCLUDE: