Barn owl box raising X 2

Today we installed two barn owl boxes on private residences in Morgan Hill and Gilroy! Barn owls are an excellent means of controlling rodent populations - from gophers to moles to mice and voles, they will keep them in check! See our barn owl box page for more on having one placed on your property.

  

Our boxes are designed after the Carolina Raptor Center's. Plenty of room for a large brood and the hole is high, ensuring owlets are old enough - close to flying, before they can reach the exit.

Below, Duane and Deanna dig the last little bit that the auger couldn't get.

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Highlights from the week...

We received a call earlier in the week from a woman who had found an opossum sleeping in her storage shed, curled up in on a blanket in a whicker basket.

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Since that's really not too unusual, seeing that she stores the cat food there and the door is left open... We gave her some ideas on using natural, nontoxic repellant oils to try and get the creature to vacate.

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A couple days went by and the opossum was still there. What was curious - it was in the basket at 5:00 a.m., 9:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. when it maybe should have been out foraging.

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We purposefully scheduled the call later in the day - close to evening so if the animal appeared well, it would have at least gotten a good day's sleep before we set it on its way.

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When we arrived, sure enough, the opossum, a female, was curled up in the basket. We expected a little more of a fight when she was collected and brought out to be examined. She had the sniffles and something going with her left eye... enough that we felt she should be admitted for a thorough exam. She was transported to Native Animal Rescue, Santa Cruz, CA.

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Our next adventure was the release of a skunk that had been inadvertently trapped. We released it right where it was - at home. Thankfully, relocation of wildlife is prohibited in California. Not only is relocation extremely cruel - certainly not the answer to resolving conflicts with wildlife, but it can spread disease among wild populations.

Here's the video of the release.

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Join us Saturday, April 23...

wherever, whenever...

Pick a spot!

1. Email us your name and the location.

EMAIL NOW

If you want company, we'll try to hook you up with others in the area.

2. Email pictures of what you collected.

View Earth Day Fishing Line Cleanup in a larger map




Make a difference...

...carelessly discarded fishing line kills!

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Location, location, location...

Who knew roadrunners construct such beautiful nests? ...but the location!


This is a newly built roadrunner nest with the first of likely 3 or 4 eggs. Unfortunately, it's in a milk crate on a loading dock at a desert establishment that's expecting an increase in human activity in the coming days. So, they were referred to WildRescue for advice.


All migratory birds (pretty much every wild bird you'll encounter) are protected by federally law. It is illegal for anyone to pursue, capture, posses, disturb, or harm wild birds or their nests without permission from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

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THERE IS NO SAFE RODENT POISON IN THE U.S!

After hearing the news (a few nights ago) about 5 cats showing up dead, within a week, in Spreckels, CA - bleeding from the mouth... I knew there was WAY more to this story than this quote from a local humane society:

"It's very possible someone is trying to get rid of a pest in their area," "They aren't following the proper rules and regulations in California when they are puting poison on their property."

Hold on a minute! 


The bigger story is this: that people ARE applying the rodent poison as instructed and it's getting into the food chain and killing wild animals and people's pets!


Rat and mouse bait - squirrel bait - they are ALL anticoagulants - they are designed to cause the animal to bleed out - hemorrhage. These NEW (1970s) rodenticides - 'rodent poisons' - are intended to kill the rodents quickly.


BUT THEY DON'T!


Research has shown that poisoned rodents fall ill and stagger out of their burrows and into open fields where they are more easily found and eaten by predators - hawks, owls, eagles, herons, fox, bobcat, coyote, cougar... and domestic cats and dogs.


Eating a single poison-laden mouse might not be enough to kill an owl or a cat right away, but these poisons last for weeks in an animal's body, accumulating. Because of this, predators reach lethal levels of anticoagulants after repeated doses - two, three, four mice.


Even if the poisons in their systems remain at what they call sublethal levels, the chemicals make them ill over time - compromising their immune system, making them vulnerable to disease and infection.


Bobcats and coyotes regularly present with horrible mange that researchers have linked to their exposure to rodenticides.


Recent studies that have shown 80-84% of the wild animals sampled, tested positive for sublethal levels of rodent poison - to which the EPA was quoted saying: 

"The EPA suspects that the results are representative of nontarget wildlife exposures nationwide."

WHAT!!!!! It's still legal and no one's really talking about it.


We did - today - we took a news crew to look at the application of rodenticide in and around the Central Valley.


It's not just the agricultural fields though. These poison bait stations can be found all over - around restaurants, hotels, schools, community centers, and in homes.


The United Kingdom found a solution that kills the rodents but doesn't hurt any other animal - cellulose.


EradiBait has been around fro quite some time. Why don't we have this in the U.S.?


The cost of registering a  P E S T I C I D E  in the US is apparently high and VERY time consuming. I spoke with the fellow who was, at least a few years ago, trying to make this happen... 


WE NEED THIS NOW - NO MORE WAITING  - It's plant fiber, for Dog's sake!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More here - URBAN CARNIVORES

Article on Black Boxes

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Snakes are out!

We JUST received a page from a young man in Santa Cruz who thought he might have had a rattlesnake sunning on his front porch earlier in the day. We had him send the pictures he took. 


Check it out - a beautiful little gopher snake! See the shape of the head - like a sausage? And, the round pupils? And, the tail - it comes to a point?
















Baby rattlesnakes have a button that, i think, resembles a translucent kernel of corn.

Time for the Badger Song!!!!

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And you thought your garbage smelled....

Yesterday we received a call from an Aptos resident. He had a skunk trapped in his trash can! Yikes!... Volunteer, Deanna, to the rescue!


Thankfully, the big plastic trash can was on the shaded side of the house, otherwise the poor skunk would have surely overheated - it had been stuck in the can since at least 8 hours. 


Deanna arrived soon after we received the call. With a large towel in reach, she gently tipped the can, propped open the lid and stepped back - waiting quietly for the animal to appear............Nothing. 


Deanna thought to roll the can across the quiet drive to the edge of the forest, away from the home. She again tipped the can gently, this time spilling its contents. There, underneath a pile of kitchen waste was the glistening black and white coat of a striped skunk. It was breathing, but didn't move. Using a wooden stick, Deanna uncovered it to find that its head was stuck in a Yoplait yogurt container! 


It is NOT UNCOMMON to find a wild animal with its head stuck in vessel like this - especially a container with a tapered opening.




Deanna immediately grabbed a pair of heavy leather gloves and a big blanket. She draped the blanket over the skunk's entire body, leaving only its head exposed. In one quick move she held it down, yanked off the plastic cup and swiftly stepped back. Phew!

There was a moment of direct eye contact, a breath of relief from both sides, and then the lovely animal scampered into the woods of its sea cliff home. Deanna was left the job of picking up the waste. Not so bad when it meant she'd saved the life of a wonderful, and very beneficial wild creature.


Skunks eat mice, rats, moles, slugs, grubs and other garden 'pests', in addition to their affinity for low-fat strawberry banana yogurt.


Skunk photo from HERE.

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