Tom Sweets, executive director of the Key West Wildlife Center, joined Good Morning Keys on KeysTalk 96.9/102.5 FM this morning to talk about what’s happening at the center.
The Key West Wildlife Center has seen a number of rescues as of late.
Sweets said, “We had a great white heron that we first got reported down at Fort Zachary Taylor, and the bird had its crop, the area of its throat, it was torn open. It actually had swallowed a fishing hook, and must have got some tension and the hook actually lacerated the crop so his neck was just sort of hanging open, and we had someone go down and try to get him at Fort Zach, but he was in the brush, and he flew away before anybody could get close enough to him. But then he showed up over at a Sunset Key, and I went over there with our net gun, because in a lot of cases like this, especially for the herons and the Ibis, they’re very wary, very nervous birds, and they can take off almost vertically. So they are very high strung, nervous birds. They’re very hard to get with a traditional net. So I took the net gun. It’s a little CO2 powered gun that shoots a net that opens up and then closes over the bird. So it took about 45 minutes. I had to get him in a good position, but I was able to get a shot, and we were able to make that rescue. Then our animal care director was able to surgically staple the neck. So that was one of those rescues where, if we hadn’t have been able to get that bird soon, he would have been in really bad shape, probably wouldn’t have made it, because I even noticed when he was grabbing fish in the ocean, he would swallow it, and then the fish would just fall out of his throat. So he wasn’t going to last too long. So I was really happy to get that. That was a high degree of difficulty rescue, but we were able to get it done, and shouldn’t be too much longer we had our veterinarian of record for our permits, she came and looked at the wound, and we got the thumbs up. So it’s just a little bit longer for it to heal, and then that heron will be back out in Sunset Key, and out in that area. So that was pretty exciting.”
Doves are leaving the nest right now.
Sweets said, “We’re getting a lot of calls about doves right now. So a lot of them are leaving the nest. They are fledglings, so that when they leave the nest, they go down to the ground. Their job is to just sort of sit on the ground and stay camouflaged. They’re different than the song birds. The song birds will leave the nest and then they’re hopping around on the ground making noise, but the doves and the pigeons will come down from the nest, and then they will just be sitting on the ground. Their job is to sort of remain camouflaged, and the parents will still be bringing them food and watching over them until they are fully flighted, which usually takes about a week. So sometimes they do come down in bad areas, or people have pets that are out in the backyard that can cause them problems, but if they’re on the ground and they’re not moving, I think a lot of people see the birds not moving, and they think that there’s something wrong with them, but that’s just a stage that they go through once they leave the nest, and they will be sitting there. They’re not afraid of people, so they’re not going to fly or run away from you. You’ll eventually see them taking short hops and learning to fly. Then the other thing is, people think that the parents have abandoned them because they don’t see the parents with them all the time. But the doves and the pigeons, the parents will spend all day gathering up seeds, and then they will come and call and find the baby on the ground by calling to them, and then they will load up their crop with seeds. So you’ll see the mocking birds and the grackles. Those parents go out and they’re actively hunting bugs, and they keep bringing back bugs to the babies that are on the ground. So you’ll see those parents all day going back and forth. But the doves and the pigeons, they will leave their babies camouflaged in an area and then go out and spend some time until they have a full crop of seeds to feed them. So don’t be concerned. That’s our big message now, is just because a dove or a pigeon is on the ground and not moving, it’s probably going to be a youngster, still going to be under control of the parents, but it’s the stage that they go through, and it only lasts about a week. So that’s one big message we wanted to get out.”
Nesting season is coming up.
Sweets said, “We’ve got some baby Ospreys right now in care. It’s the same thing. They leave the nest. Once they get to a certain stage, they will leave the nest, and then they will be taking short flights around while they’re figuring things out. We had a couple of those, and you wouldn’t know just by looking at them that they’re a baby. They’re almost the size of a full grown Osprey. So they’re pretty big raptors. But we got one down on Trumbo Point, the US Navy base. We got one down on the road there. That’s sometimes what will happen is they will come down in areas of high traffic, or just areas where it could be a risk to them. So we got a call, and we were able to get over there on Trumbo Point and get this youngster and what we do is we just get them checked out, see how their general health is, get them evaluated, and then we try to get them back to the parents as soon as possible. So that’s another bird that is sort of the similar kind of thing as the doves and pigeons, except they will be moving around more. They’ll take short flights. They’ll land somewhere, and then the parents will follow them around and sort of teach them what they need to know, encourage them to fly more and more. A lot of them don’t really know. It takes them a while to realize that they can fly really all that well. So a lot of times, they’ll just sit on the ground, and then the parents will try to encourage them. Again, that process takes a week or two from the time they come down to the time that they’re actually making longer and longer flights. We’re getting into that baby bird season, no matter what species. With the song birds, the babies will be on the ground, hopping around, making noise, and then sometimes the parents will attack. If you get too close to them, the parents might dive on you, but that’s normal behavior. They’re not going to hurt you. They’re just trying to look out for their babies. So that’s another issue that we sometimes get calls about. So yes, we are making the full shift into the springtime nesting season. All of our raptors and birds that headed south for the winter, a lot of them have headed north, but we’ll still see some more of that going on. We’ve still got warblers, smaller birds coming through. So yes, it’s just about the high time for nesting season.”
The new center at the Wildlife Center is almost ready to be open to the public.
Sweets said, “The building is all done. We’re just waiting on some final permits having to do with our ADA elevator. But as soon as that is cleared up, which should be any time now, we are going to resume our regular schedule, and we will let everyone know. Now of course, we’re open 24 hours for rescues right now, as usual, but the center itself is not quite open for touring yet or visitation because we’ve got a couple final permits, an ADA elevator. We’re still trying to get that finished, and as soon as that’s done, we will be open to the public.”
Donations and volunteers are always welcome.
Sweets said, “Our rescue number is 305-292-1008. People can call that anytime, 24 hours. We will answer it. We’ll respond to the calls. Any type of other non rescue questions, they can be directed towards [email protected]. You can go to our website. There is a donation portal there, and we always accept that. Anybody looking to volunteer again, I would email us.”
For more information, click here: https://keywestwildlifecenter.org/