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.
Pelican season is coming to an end.
Sweets said, “Yesterday, we had a brown pelican down. Weak and dehydrated, underweight. He was running around right at the corner of Eaton and Grinnell. So thankfully, some good folks were able to corner him and we were able to get him rescued, but that was a very busy intersection yesterday, and that’s what we’re seeing a lot of right now. Our late season brown pelicans, mostly the first years, the ones with the brown heads, as opposed to the adults, where they have the white or the yellow heads. These guys have come down here on their first migration after they left the nest up in the Carolinas last spring, and not all of them have the skills to really thrive. If they miss too many meals, they can end up getting dehydrated and worn out, and that’s what we’re sort of seeing at the end of the season, are the ones that have not had so successful of a first year and a first migration, they end up down, weak, dehydrated, underweight. So thankfully, we not seeing a lot of injuries. It’s just they need fluids, and they need to be carefully, slowly, sort of brought back into solid food, so that’s good that they’re not injured, and most of them do respond to treatment, if they’re not too far gone by the time that we get to them.”
It must be pretty disorienting to end up in traffic for a pelican.
Sweets said, “It is a good sign that something is not right with a pelican when they end up in places like that, a parking lot, or we will see them on US 1. They do end up, once they get dehydrated, they sort of lose their bearings and once you get to that point of dehydration, sometimes you don’t even know where you are and I think that sort of is the case, they will end up in places where you normally wouldn’t see them. So if you see a pelican somewhere, not by a dock or not by the water’s edge or on a piling, but if you see him in the road, or you see them in the street or in a neighborhood where you wouldn’t usually see him, that’s usually a pretty good sign that they need help. So feel free to call our 24 hour hotline at 305-292-1008, a person will answer, 24 hours for any type of wildlife needs. Now we’re also starting to see some of the early spring migration north, we’re already starting to see some hawks coming back. This is when we do get the early birds heading north. We had a broad Wing Hawk rescued down yesterday at the Ambrosia tropical lodging house and that hawk, the staff called and just said there was a hawk sitting on a bicycle, and that he had been there all morning, and I got there and made the rescue. It was the same situation as with the pelicans. It’s these young, first year hawks and he probably just flew back north from Cuba, heading back up into the continental United States along the eastern seaboard, and he was worn out, probably missed some meals and was dehydrated as well. So we’ve got that hawk in our clinic. So it’s really the end of one season and sort of the beginning of another, with the migration and the Pelican season sort of closing soon.”
The Keys are kind of the logical stopping place for the migration of some of the birds.
Sweets said, “The eastern seaboard, all the birds, sort of west to the Mississippi and even north into the eastern part of Canada when they migrate south during the winter, Florida sort of becomes a natural funnel or choke point where they all end up and then the Keys are another that choke it down even to a smaller area. So it is a highly traveled, to get from Florida to Cuba, they need to come down the Keys, and then they have that stretch of 90 nautical miles. Some of them do go over to the Yucatan as well, but it is the hardest part of the journey and it really is a choke point, because all of Eastern Seaboard migrators are coming down through Florida and then into the Keys. If it’s west of the Mississippi, they generally migrate through Mexico or through Baja on the west coast, but through the eastern seaboard, Florida, and especially the Florida Keys, are a big migratory, it’s like super highway for all of these birds, and that’s why we see so many of, we’ll start off with the hawks, and then we’ll start seeing some of the smaller warblers, those kind of the tiny little guys, they will start coming through, and they’re trying to get up north, and then they’ll start nesting. It’s a little early. It’s probably still some cooler weather up north, but some of them do start heading north this early. Then, of course, we’ve got the Ospreys. The Ospreys are sort of our earliest nesting. We already have Ospreys that are starting to do nesting. So we’re just starting out on that spring. Baby bird season is not far along, I’ll tell you that.”
The wildlife center also rescues bats, including the velvety, free tail bat.
Sweets said, “That’s our native bat to Key West. The first recording of one of them was in the 1920s in a police phone box, interestingly enough, so they know that they’ve been in this area, the first recording that they had was back in the 1920s. They’re tiny little bats. Everybody thinks they’re baby bats, but they’re actually just a tiny species. They don’t get much bigger than the palm of your hand and we do see them from time to time. We have some colonies here, and they actually do us a huge favor at night. Sometimes you will see them at night flying overhead. They’re very fast flyers and swift but they eat a lot of insects and mosquitoes, so they actually do us a big favor. But occasionally one will get separated from the colony. I think what will happen sometimes is if the sun comes up and they don’t get back, sometimes they will just decide to take cover on the ground somewhere, or somewhere on a wall, somewhere where people would see them. We had one down at Poinciana School, and then we had one down in Old Town. So interesting, though, when we work with the Florida Keys SPCA, they will actually go and do the rescues, and then they bring the bats to us. Generally, we don’t handle mammals, but since it is a flying mammal, it is something that we can do. The good thing is, they’re usually not injured. It’s usually just a case of that they ended up maybe not making it back to the colony, and they are down in a yard or in a school, and the SPCA will go and rescue them and then transfer them to our care. Thankfully, all the ones we’ve had recently, we’ve been able to just turn them around and release them once it gets to be dusk, and they will go off and find their colony again. So an interesting species, for sure. There’s been attempts all through the years to create housing for the four bats, because they are so beneficial in eating so many insects. It’s a pretty impressive amount that they can eat, even an individual bat can eat in one night. So yes, they definitely help us with our control of the No-See-Ums and mosquitoes.”
The For the Birds annual fundraiser is coming up on February 23 from 3 to 6 p.m. at West Martello Tower.
Sweets said, “It’s our big fundraiser for the year. And boy, we’ve had a lot going on this year. We’re just about done with the new building. We’re in the process of moving in. So then our big fundraiser coming up, it’s going to be our big one for the year to help support our wildlife rescue and rehabilitation programs and we’re going to have a silent auction, a live auction. There’s going to be food, drinks, raffle, live music, so it’ll be a good time. Tickets are available through the website. You can go there and really get everything you need for this fundraiser. I also have to say a thank you for all the support of the community for our new building, which we’re almost done with. It won’t be much longer. We’re not really able to be open to the public for tours during this final phase, when we’re just about to demolish and take down the old clinic and get permanently into the new clinic, but we are open on Sundays right now, during the artisan market, from 10am until 2. The indigenous park is open on Sundays and as soon as we get all of this new building set up and the old one down, then we will be open again, as we used to be, and we look forward to being again.”
The new building will increase the number of species rescued throughout the year.
Sweets said, “It will also help with the treatment. We’ve got a whole new treatment suite. We’re going to have digital X-ray machines. We’re going to have a lot of equipment that’s really going to raise our ability to treat sick and injured wildlife from the Key West area. So we’re really looking forward to getting all that done. We’ve got some hydrotherapy tubs, and it’s going to be really state of the art for a lot of the treatment. So we’re really looking forward to it and we have to say thank you, because without the community helping us get to this point, we never could have done it. We will have an open house that the public will be invited to at some point, probably it looks like in March. It all sort of depends on how this all finishes up. We’re just about done. So I really appreciate everyone’s patience in letting us get this new building up and running and then as soon as that’s done, we will be open again.”
The wildlife center also helps the Key West chickens.
Sweets said, “We perform rescues for sick and injured Key West feral chickens, ones that are out there. We get a lot of car strikes, and we do see some sickness from time to time. Thankfully, we have not had any cases of bird flu in Key West or the Lower Keys. We’re very appreciative of that, but going forward if that did occur, we’ve got our USDA permits, we’ve got everything in place to keep, we already keep the chickens that we treat separate from the wild birds. So we really hope that we continue to be free of this very problematic disease. But if something does happen, we’ll follow the protocols, and we’ll just have to go from there. But yeah, everybody’s been asking about that and we do get other things that will take chickens down. We get botulism from time to time and now I think that every time somebody sees a sick chicken, they do get a little nervous or worried about bird flu, but we haven’t had any yet. If we would have to do some testing on birds that were questionable and if the proper authorities find that we actually have a case, then we do have protocols in place that we would follow. So we are prepared if the worst was to happen, and we’re really hoping that that does not in the Key West area.”
Please be careful as you drive and watch the chickens.
Sweets said, “Slow down on the island, obey the posted speed limits. There’s no reason to be tearing around speeding, because that’s where a lot of them do get hit. Sometimes maybe people don’t see them. It’s a lot of accidents. I don’t think people are really directly trying to run them over, but just be aware, obey your speed limits and give wildlife a break to get out of your way whenever you can.”
For more information, click here: https://keywestwildlifecenter.org/