Eaves and Leaves

I was walking my dog the other day and noticed a squirrel scamper into the eave of a home along the sidewalk. We get calls all year and nearly every day from people in our area who have questions or concerns regarding their wild neighbors and their ability to become uninvited guests. I wondered whether or not the person living in this house would be calling me the following day at the Center regarding this little fellow or if they knew all about him and out of the goodness of their hearts had decided to share, and so I decided to come up with the best answer to their likely questions.

Because is it the middle of February, believe it or not we are into the final countdown for baby season to begin. This means that now might be a good time for certain wild neighbors to suggest they look for other accommodations. If you were to find yourself in a situation such as this these are the steps I would recommend:

1. First identify if possible any and all entry and exit points. If there are more than one, try to repair the others, even if it’s only a temporary fix. To test your theory, wad up a piece of newspaper and place it in the entry space. Mr. (or Ms.) squirrel will have to remove it in order to get in and out like they have gotten used to. You can also try flouring the surface outside the opening or any other techniques that will allow you to monitor movement in that area without having to keep a vigil for 12 hours at a time.
2. Scout your property and your nearby neighbors. If there are any food sources, especially bird feeders, that can be cleaned-up, moved, or removed even if it’s only temporary, your efforts will be much more successful.
3. Purchase some ordinary household ammonia and for small openings soak a small bit of rag in it and place the rag into the opening being sure to keep it to one side so as not to block anyone in. For larger openings place a larger rag soaked in ammonia into an empty yogurt cup or tin can and place it just inside the area. For a squirrel you could do this during the day or night, even if they are awake your presence will further send the message that they should start packing. Continue to replace the newspaper into the hole each day that it gets removed so you can monitor your progress.
4. If more convincing is needed try finding a portable radio. See if you can get it near to that area, or if that’s not possible leave it on in the house in a window or directly below that area. For a squirrel you will want it on during the daytime anyhow as that is when they would be awake. Turn it to a talk radio station to give them the idea that there are people around even when you aren’t.
5. After a short time you should be able to ascertain that your uninvited guest has decreased or ceased their visits altogether to this area. Your next step is to repair that and all other areas where they previously had access. I recommend installing a 1-way door just to be sure that no-one gets trapped inside. Trapping an animal is not only in-humane, but almost certainly means more destruction, death by starvation and potentially more to repairs to deal with once the body decomposes.
   
   To install a 1-way door:
   
   a. Cut a piece of hardware mesh large enough to cover the opening.
   b. Cut a hole in the mesh large enough for our friend to get out.
   c. Cut out another piece of mesh slightly larger than the hole and attach it to the larger piece along the top half.
   d. The goal is to re-create a 1-way doggy-door style door out of inexpensive materials.
   
   Once your little friend has moved out and no longer has access to the area, permanent repairs can be implemented. These techniques should be used in many cases involving uninvited mammals however, if you are dealing with a wild neighbor during the spring and summer months, be sure to give them enough time during the ammonia and noise phase to relocate any offspring they may have nested in the area. If you have questions always check our website or contact a rehabilitator before taking any actions you may regret.

The Only Chimney Swift Spending the Winter in Wisconsin

As many of you know, we are over-wintering a Chimney Swift this year at WINC. He (or she, there’s no real way to tell) came in as an orphan on August 20th. This is considered very late in the season for Chimney Swifts. But just like other baby birds, we fed our little Chimney Swift every 30 minutes for the first couple months to keep him going.

Eventually, as his weight reached a plateau at a healthy 20 grams, we put him on hourly feedings. Typically, as birds grow older they begin to self-feed and you can feed them less and less frequently until they no longer need any hand-feeding. However, Chimney Swifts are different. In the wild, they catch insects in the air as they fly which is very difficult to replicate in captivity. Because they will not self-feed in captivity, we knew we would have to feed him. He was the first patient we cared for in the morning and the last one at night.

Once he developed sufficient flying skills, we decided it was time to start looking for flocks of other Chimney Swifts to release him into. We had heard of flock sightings in Madison so a staff member took him there in hopes that she would find the flock. Unfortunately, it was a cold day so the flock was nowhere to be found. After a few more weeks with no signs of the flock, we had to face the facts: the Chimney Swifts had already migrated to the only place they go in the winter months, Peru! So we knew our 70 degree indoor aviary and hourly hand- feedings were his only hope for survival. Of course we were willing to do whatever we needed to do for him to someday be released.

It’s now the end of January and we’re still feeding our Chimney Swift whenever he desires which is back to almost every half-hour, time permitting. Having to keep any animal over the entire winter is not ideal for us or for them, but one you have to care for so many times a day can start to drive a rehabber a little crazy. It got me thinking about how much of our time this little guy demands. We’ve fed him approximately 15 times per day for the last three months and an average of 25 times per day for the two months prior to that. After a little math, I came up with an approximation of roughly 2,850 feedings since August 20th! So that’s where all of our mealworms are going!

As the days slowly grow longer, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel for the Chimney Swift and hopefully he will be released into a flock once the summer months return. Until then, he has a safe and warm place to live where he will never have to worry about going hungry.

Guest Blogger, C.M.

Where's Waldo?

He’s celebrating his favorite holiday with folks from the Wildlife In Need Center and the Milwaukee Groundhog Club!

You too, can join us for a Groundhog Day Celebration and prognostication of spring’s arrival
On Tuesday, February 2nd 10AM
In the Upper Ballroom of the Elks Lodge at 2301 Springdale Road in Waukesha

Several area school groups and lovers of this most whimsical day of prognostication will join the Wildlife In Need Center (WINC) and the Milwaukee Groundhog Club as we celebrate Groundhog Day and we hope you will too.

10AM: Education Coordinator Leslie Kiehl will perform an educational program about the Center including the entire line up of educational animal ambassadors.
11AM: The moment we’ve been waiting for all winter will come as handlers and Groundhog Club President Richard Perschon, present Waldo the woodchuck to make his prediction
11:30AM: Stick around to meet-and-greet our educational animal ambassadors up close

Waldo was brought to WINC during the summer of 2008 after being rescued by a couple spending their vacation in an RV. The couple had tried to keep him as a pet and although our staff tried diligently throughout the remainder of the summer and fall to “wild” him up they were unsuccessful. The goal for each animal admitted to WINC is to rehabilitate it so that it can be released back to the wild, but if Waldo couldn’t protect himself from predators he couldn’t be released. When it isn’t possible to release an animal we evaluate their circumstances, injuries and temperament and if they meet certain requirements we look for opportunities for permanent housing. Oftentimes that is with a nature center or other educational facility, but if we have the space and staff time we will occasionally add an animal to our own educational team. In Waldo’s case, not only was he young and healthy with an agreeable personality, we had recently lost our first educational woodchuck to cancer so he couldn’t have come at a better time.

The celebration of Groundhog Day arose from a variety of traditions, including some religious, some seasonal and most importantly, some observational. It gradually became a time when both people as well as animals emerged from their winter slumber to welcome the strengthening sunshine, only to return in wait for the actual coming of spring. Groundhog Day is now held annually on February 2nd which also happens to be the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox. The most important thing is that the observance of this day gives those of us in cooler climates an excuse to celebrate, breaking up the monotony that leads to spring fever.

The Milwaukee Groundhog Club began in 1908 with a chance meeting of two men whose birthdays both happened to be February 2nd. They met at the Blatz Hotel along with several others who were discovered to be “groundhogs.” This year will mark their 102nd birthday as a group and they are proud to say that every shape, size and color of person (or groundhog) is invited to become a member, as long as their birthday is February 2nd!