New Release Species

My tenth year of volunteering with the Toronto Wildlife Centre started off pretty good.  I had the opportunity to release a new bird species, that being a Wilson's Snipe.

A shout out was sent to the volunteer drivers about a need for someone to release some migratory songbirds.  I put my hand up and was the first to respond, so I got the gig.  As we were finishing up loading the car with the handful of birds that were in no wax paper bags and in a couple of boxes and I was about to leave, someone came out and asked if I could wait for one more bird.  I said "yes."  They said it will be a few minutes and mentioned the species being a Wilson's Snipe.  SAY WHAT?!?!  They gave me a release location which was very near where the spot where the song birds were going.

The traffic getting to the park was absolute hell.  It is just shy of 30 km to the location and it took me 55 minutes.  There was an accident on the 401 in the centre lane near Weston Rd so that caused a lot of interference with the flow.

I finally arrive at my destination and set all the song birds free.  There was a nice mix of juncos, white-throated sparrows, a fox sparrow and a couple of warblers including yellow-rump and one parula.  I did them all first because they could be released close to where I parked the car.  The snipe was going for a walk further in.

We get to the spot and I open up his "carrier".  I wait behind so he doesn't see me or any other people/threats.  Five minutes pass and he still isn't leaving.  Animals are like people, all with different personalities and reactions to things.  Some birds jet off quite quickly upon release while others are rather pokey and cautious.  Now with that traffic delay, I am pressed for time as it's about a 25 minute trek to work if that route is in good shape.  I decide to intervene and lift the back end of the carrier up, slowly, little by little, and either spook him out or gravity takes over.  It was gravity that assisted in this release and out came the snipe.

He took a few steps and then paused, looking around at where he was.  I remained still where I was other than grabbing my camera which was at my feet and took a few photos.  The tall grass along the marsh was mere feet away.  I was not going to leave this bird until he went in there, safe and out of sight.

I'm sure it didn't take too long but it did feel like it.  Work was screaming in the back of my head and I was hoping I could stop somewhere to get a coffee before going in.  The bird finally went into the grassy stuff and disappeared.  

Believe me, I was pretty excited about this release and while there was some stress with traffic and time, I did get lost in the moment of this release.  What a neat bird species.  I rarely see these unless we go up to the Carden Alvar in the spring.  So having this one right in front of me.  WOW!

I made it to work on time but unfortunately I couldn't get that much desired and needed coffee.  The snipe release kept me pumped and happy for the first little bit of the shift and I got myself a bigger coffee when break hit.

Here is the bird.  I should name it "Pokey".

Popping In

Thank you Eva for the reminder that I haven't blogged in some time.  It has been in the back of my mind to do one but the reasons are many.  It has been a brutally long hot humid summer.  So many days it was in the 40's with the humidex at my work.  Having to spend so much time in that building 5 days a week really kicked my ass.  It made me not want to do much of anything else when work was done besides relax and keep cool.  I regularly post to Facebook and Instagram so I sometimes think "why bother blogging?"

A family of raccoons living under our shed this summer has kept me happy and quite distracted.  That's a good thing I suppose.  Well for us anyway.  So many dislike these animals but I always try to promote that we can coexist with them.  They stay out of our garbage and off our roof.  That's all I really care about.  Plus with them living here, they aren't making a bathroom (latrine) of our backyard.  Hooray!  I'll have to do a blog about this family.  There is something very unique to this tale but you'll have to wait for another blog to read about it.

As you may recall, I am a volunteer with the Toronto Wildlife Centre.  I recently celebrated my 800th bird release.  And then a few weeks after that I celebrated my 10th anniversary as being an official volunteer.  Here is my 800th bird release, a ruby-throated hummingbird.  I was sitting quite a distance away waiting for it to go.

I can't help but wonder if I will ever see my 1,000th bird release.  It may be a few years before I hit that number.  Spring releases don't happen any more as the birds are usually released right in Rouge Park at the TWC east location.  Summer releases are few.  Same with winter.  So it is all about the fall, because the birds need to go west of Toronto and I am happy to take them if the opportunity presents itself.  Please note that I am not the only one to have this gig.

I'm now going on a countdown to 1,000 instead of continuing going up.  As of today, 199 to go.  I recently released a pigeon in a neighbourhood not far from home.  This bird was hesitant to leave the box and after many minutes of waiting, I had to give him a little help.  I tilted the box slowly and enough that finally gravity took over and out he came.  This photo was obtained by a screen shot of the video I was taking of his release.

Our girls Merry and Molly are doing great.  They're going to be 10 next year.  Wow!  Time flies.  Kinda freaks me out.  An older shot of them for Halloween.  I'm going to have to break out their costumes for another photo session soon.  Merry loves the attention.  Molly hates the hats and any clothes.

Our rescue budgie Frankie just had his second "got'cha day" anniversary with us.  He's a happy little boy who loves his castle of a home and has absolutely zero desire to leave it.  As long as he is happy, that is all that matters.  He's got 3 food sources, 2 water dishes, a cuttle bone, a mineral block, lots of toys and perches, plus a couple of mirrors which are his girlfriends.  Who knows where he came from?  I suspect maybe from the same place that our other backyard rescues came from, a bird breeder in the area.  There was 5 budgies flying around over a span of about 8 weeks, Frankie was the fifth, and I was able to catch him.  Here is a shot of the day and how I caught him, plus an insert of him from a couple of weeks ago.  We have no idea how old he is.

Angie and I are also doing well.  It's hard to believe that we've been together for twenty years now.  Angie has gotten back into blogging after quite a break, feel free to pop over and see what she's got to say about this or that; animals, foodie blogs, or just random life stuff.  Angieinto

Okay, see you all again soon.  Thanks for stopping in and not giving up on me and this blog.